Campaign Journal: Dad is the DM

[johnbragg]

Players: Eldest, 10 yo girl, elven Druid Evelynda. Sister, 7 yo girl, elven druid Amy. Brother, 7 yo boy dwarven fighter Johann.
Evelynda has a companion bobcat (homebrewed, mostly based on wolf stats with leopard attack routine, scaled down a size category.)
Amy has a wolf companion named Spot.
Johann has a pet Eagle named Hawk. Feats: Two-weapon fighting and cleave. (He has an animal companion because it's just not wise for 2 siblings to have something the 3rd doesn't have.)
Johann fights with light mace and light hammer.

I gave them elite array stats, none of them arranged them super-well, beyond putting their best stat in their Prime Requisite. (Is that even still a thing in 3X?)

(I just realized I forgot to have the girls pick feats. Ehh, they get to cast spells, they can deal.)

The PCs all hear of problems in the nearby human town of Sylvandale, monster problems preying on local livestock and wildlife (druids). Monster problems mean rewards for bold warriors, so to Sylvandale they go. In the tavern of Sylvandale, they meet Cormac, who is recruiting for an expedition to explore and ransack the old lair of the wizard (I didn't write down a name, and I know the kids don't remember. Googling and searching, the wizard's name was now Menkoth. Thank you Sean K REynolds, even if I didn't copy Menoth correctly.) Their patron feeds them and puts them up in the tavern for the night (he's getting a double share of the treasure, so...) and after a dawn breakfast they set off.

On the trail, they encounter a bunch of spiders. 7 or 8 Tiny, 1 Small. With pets, the spiders don't even have a numerical advantage, and the party has a fairly easy time. The eagle gets caught in a web, the dwarf loses a hit point and makes a Fort save vs strength-sapping poison, but the spiders are massacred without incident and the pets feast upon the spider meat. Amy uses a Shillelagh spell.

This was an "Easy" encounter, so half experience. 50 XP for everyone.

(Houserules/cheats: the druids get 3 spells per day, out of 4 spells known. Summon NAture's Ally is limited to two options. I don't want the girls to feel like they're playing the same druid.
Oh, and light off hand weapons get full strength bonus instead of one-half, and light hammers do d6 damage just because.)

They come to the cave complex where Menkoth made his lair, decades ago. (Map is the solo adventure from the REd Box set, available as a PDF from DriveThruRPG). The first room is a 50' square with a statue of Menkoth and three corridors running north, east and west. One player listens at each corridor, hearing the squeaking of rats, guttural voices, and soft but somehow very large snoring. A spot check by Evylinda reveals the word "Monster" in chalk at the west corridor. They decide to fight the rats, as that seems easiest. They go down the corridor to the east, and find a 20 x 30 room full of a dozen or so rats--and five skeletons, who turn and start slowly moving towards the party. They run away, and the skeletons do not follow.

But when they return to the statue room, they find--a black bear! Combat begins, and the bear does bad things to the faster pets--dropping the bobcat to 0 hp, dropping the eagle to -6, dropping the wolf to 2 hp.

Evelynda casts Burning Hands (fire domain spell, what the heck. I might try to convince Eldest to swap it out for Produce Flame, but whatever.) Amy casts Shillelagh, planning to whomp on the bear next round. ("No, this round you cast the spell. You can attack next round.")

The wolf takes a 5' step back (today, children, we learn the concept of "Five Foot STep"!) The dwarf manages to close with the bear, and gets dropped to 1 hp.

Evelynda hits the eagle with a Cure Light Wounds for...3 hp, bringing it to -3. Sigh. Cormac the DMPC closes to pour a healing potion over the eagle, and takes an attack of opportunity from the bear--who rolls a nat 20. I rule that Cormac loses his action.

Amy casts Summon NAture's Ally to summon another wolf.

The bear decides that being surrounded and wounded several times is not a great plan, and takes a five foot step back, partially retreating into the corridor. With its attacks, he shreds the summoned wolf. ("Do you know what a MEATSHIELD is, kids? Well, you do now.") Evylinda uses her last spell to cast Cure Light Wounds on the eagle, bringing it to positive hit points.

The dwarf Johann full attacks with mace and hammer, finishing the bear.

That, kids, was an average encounter. 100 xp each.

"I don't want to fight any hard encounters!" Yes, that's why they're hard.

(I know the black bear is a CR 2 encounter, but given that the party all have pets plus a DMPC with a bow, I'd say CR 2 encounters are pretty fair.)

Will the party figure out a way to get 1,200 pounds of bear back to town for skinnnin' and feastin'? Or will the goblins to the north be the ones to gorge themselves on bear meat?

[Graypairofsocks]

Johann has a pet Eagle named Hawk.
Is there a story behind this?

(He has an animal companion because it's just not wise for 2 siblings to have something the 3rd doesn't have.)
This reminds me: there is actually one feat which allows anyone to get an animal cohort.
However it is a bit weaker than the one the druid class gives.
It is called Wild Cohort (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a).

[Aletheides]

("Do you know what a MEATSHIELD is, kids? Well, you do now.")

I just wanted to take a moment to express my appreciation, sir.
...For contributing to the next generation of quirky gamers. As long as we have parents, mentors and visionaries like yourself, our craft will truly live forever. :thog:

[PrismCat21]

Keep it up dad. :)
Reading the OOC commentary should be pretty fun lol

[johnbragg]

Is there a story behind this?

In game, no. Out of character, we all know the game balance issues between Tier 1 Druids and Tier 5 Fighters. Within the family, having 2 kids get something the 3rd doesn't get would cause problems.


This reminds me: there is actually one feat which allows anyone to get an animal cohort.
However it is a bit weaker than the one the druid class gives.
It is called Wild Cohort (http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/re/20031118a).

I'm handwaving a lot of rules. I could count Brother's pet as a 3rd feat on top of TWF and Cleave (skipped Power Attack because Cleave is more impressive sounding to a 7 year old) or I could just keep calling Rule 0.

(The druids are spontaneous-casting 3/day from a list of 4 spells, just because I didn't want decision paralysis or copycat characters, and, er, didn't take any feats. We'll deal with that when they hit 2nd level.)

[Graypairofsocks]

In game, no. Out of character, we all know the game balance issues between Tier 1 Druids and Tier 5 Fighters. Within the family, having 2 kids get something the 3rd doesn't get would cause problems.

I meant is there a story behind why the eagle is named Hawk?

[johnbragg]

I meant is there a story behind why the hawk is named eagle?

No. He originally wanted a chickadee who gave him good advice, I convinced him that a hawk or an eagle would be more helpful in combat (like the wolf and the bobcat the druids have) and after being indecisive on whether he wanted a hawk or an eagle, decided to split the difference by naming his hawk "eagle", possibly confusing opponents in some vague way.

[Graypairofsocks]

No. He originally wanted a chickadee who gave him good advice, I convinced him that a hawk or an eagle would be more helpful in combat (like the wolf and the bobcat the druids have) and after being indecisive on whether he wanted a hawk or an eagle, decided to split the difference by naming his hawk "eagle", possibly confusing opponents in some vague way.
Well the confusion tactic seems to be working already:

Johann has a pet Eagle named Hawk.

[johnbragg]

Session 2, in which the players Split the Party.

Last session ended with the players triumphant over a bear in the dungeon, but at great cost--the dwarf and the pets are all pretty well beaten up, and the druids are out of spells. (Even the DMPC is at 11/20 hp.)

Addendum: (Eldest): Daddy, you called my character the wrong name the whole game. It's not Evylinda, its Elvelyn.
Noted.

The corpse of the bear is heavy, about 1200 lbs. With everyone rolling a Strength check, 3 15s are good enough to pull the bear out of the hallway it had backed into, into the main chamber. The party decides that the thing to do is go back to town, hire up a wagon and some horses, and return.

The party decides to leave the wounded animals, with one of the druids (Elvelyn, played by Eldest) guarding them.

Monsters don't sit around waiting for the party to come around and kill them. They move around, they do things when they're offstage. So Elvelyn has an encounter with a goblin sentry. She makes a Spot check and sees him trying to hide in the corridor while spying on her.

Elvelyn decides to draw her sickle, keeping an eye on the sentry, while acting like she's worried about a threat from the dungeon entrance. Rolling a natural 20 on that Bluff check, the goblin sentry flees in panic.

("Remember last time, Amy listened at that corridor and heard *voices*. Where do you think he went?"
"To get his friends."
"Very likely. Let's say that 4 or 6 or 8 goblins show up. What would happen, given that you're out of spells and the animals are all beat up?"
"We would die."
"So what would be a good move right now?"
"We leave, and go outside the dungeon, and keep watch on the entrance.")
Elvelyn has defeated an Easy encounter for 50 xp. 200 xp total

I don't want the party to have different XP totals, so the rest of the party (Johann the dwarven fighter, Amy the elven druid, and Cormac the DMPC) runs across a goblin hunting party on the trail. AMy, Johann, Cormac and the 3 goblins (who I quickly dub Bud, Weis and Ur) roll spot checks, and Amy makes hers, so the party gets a surprise round. Cormac and Johann miss with arrows. Initiative. Bud and Ur take to the woods, leaving the slower-witted Weis alone on the road.

Bud rolls a pretty good HIde check, and shoots Amy with an arrow for 2 hp. Weis stays in the middle of the road and ends up fighting Amy hand to hand, while Ur doesn't hide particularly well in the woods, firing arrows and missing. Cormac and Johann also miss with some arrows.

Amy hits Weis with her club, rolling well enough to drop him with one shot. (d6+2 vs 5 hp). Amy charges at the woods where Bud shot her from, giving Bud an attack of opportunity, which he misses anyway, but giving away his position. Ur runs off into the woods. Johann and Cormac fire a few arrows at him, to no effect. Johann charges up to Bud's position, and they trade misses. As Cormac closes to surround Bud, Johann connects with his hammer (missing with the mace), and d6+2 is enough to drop the goblin.

AMy, Johann and Cormac have defeated an Easy encounter for 200 xp.

Our heroes collect 6 dead rabbits from the goblins' packs.

Elvelyn misses a Spot check. (Ur makes his Spot check and sees her before she sees him. What the players don't know is that he took the long way around, to the secret entrance to the dungeon.)

Our heroes rent a wagon and 2 horses from a local farmer, to be paid in bear meat, and arrange for the skinning and butchering of the bear. They can practically taste that 25 gp for the pelt, split 5 ways (2 shares for the party leader/financier) is enough to live on for a month! The wagon pulls up in front of the dungeon, the party is reunited, and--end session because baths and pajamas have to happen.

[denthor]

Thank you for the story please continue I enjoyed reading this no problems to solve just fun no complicated builds and most of all you are teaching critical thinking and cause & effect

[Nibbens]

Thank you for the story please continue I enjoyed reading this no problems to solve just fun no complicated builds and most of all you are teaching critical thinking and cause & effect

I agree with this. It's a breath of fresh air, honestly.

[ksbsnowowl]

Evelynda has a companion bobcat (homebrewed, mostly based on wolf stats with leopard attack routine, scaled down a size category.)


Just an FYI, Bobcats are just one species of Lynx (there are 4), and there are stats for Lynx in the back of Races of Faerun. I'm sure what you came up with is fine; I just thought I'd point you toward some official stats.

If you took the Core leopard stats, reduced its size to Small, reduced its HD to 1, and let it keep Weapon Finesse as a bonus feat, you'd be pretty close to the stats in Races of Faerun.

[johnbragg]

Just an FYI, Bobcats are just one species of Lynx (there are 4), and there are stats for Lynx in the back of Races of Faerun. I'm sure what you came up with is fine; I just thought I'd point you toward some official stats.

If you took the Core leopard stats, reduced its size to Small, reduced its HD to 1, and let it keep Weapon Finesse as a bonus feat, you'd be pretty close to the stats in Races of Faerun.

Actually, using the wolf as the measuring stick, I reduced it to Small and gave it 2 HD. I just checked, and Eldest is going to be sad when I tell her that she's going to have to get to 4th level before it grows into a full-size Leopard. Weapon Finesse: Bite is a nice feat to have when your DEX is 19, adjusted to 21.

[johnbragg]

Playing tag at the bus stop this morning.

Hey Brother, remember when we were talking about D&D stats?
Yeah, dad.
What stat would it be when you're chasing me, and I get away because I turn really fast?
What were the stats again?
Well, would it be STrength, Dexterity or Constitution?
What was constitution again?
How tough you are. For tag, that would probably be how long you can run before you get tired.
Which one would be dodging and changing direction?
Well, it's not STrength.
That would probably be who could run faster.
What's the other one?
Dexterity. That's how quick you are, how agile, how well you can turn and get away.

[denthor]

Very good for seven

[tadkins]

Enjoyable reading. I wish I had other D&Ders in my family. xD

[johnbragg]

At the end of last session, the party re-united just outside the entrance to the dungeon, with a wagon to carry the dead bear back to town for skinning and for a big old feast.

The party, low on magic, low on fighter HP and animal HP, retreats to town to heal and rest for a day. The next morning, AMy uses 1 of her 3 spells and Elvylin uses 2 of her 3 spells on CLW's to get the party up to almost-full health. Healed up, they set off again.

Eldest is the only PC to make a Spot check to notice that the goblin is asleep. Eldest announces that the goblin is asleep, which gives the Goblin a Listen check to wake up, which he makes.

I let her retcon that one to a whisper. The party discusses whether to sneak past the goblin or to just kill him, and....let's kill him. DMPC walks up and coup-de-grace's the sleeping goblin guard with no trouble. What does give him trouble is a blown Spot check to see the second goblin further into the room, who hits him with a javelin for 2 hp and ducks behind a statue.

(I had the goblins plan out a system of runners who would relay an alarm, and call up their reserve to set up a chokepoint. The goblins failed twice to move forward fast enough to make an effective chokepoint. AC 15 and 5 hp limits your ability to execute a plan)

At a run, Elvelyn and Amy reach the retreating goblin and attack, cutting him down. (This does not go unnoticed by the goblin watching from the bend in the corridor, who alerts the 2 goblins in the guard room. One of those goblins goes to alert the main band of goblins, who will reach the guard room at a rate of one per round.)

Elvylin asks "Cormac, what are you anyway? (Class, level etc)." "I'm the one paying the bills and getting a double share of the treasure." (Combat is not the time for this sort of discussion)

The two goblins in the guard room position at either side of the entrance with attacks readied. (I'm using the map from the REd Book players' handbook PDF with 10 x 10 corridors, so they can't gang up very well.) The bobcat attacks one goblin, wounding him, and takes damage from his readied attack. Elvelyin uses her turn to rescue her pet and pull her back into the corridor.) Amy and her wolf charge forward at the other goblin, the wolf takes the readied attack, and Amy bashes the goblin who goes down. Johann advances into the room, sees the third goblin at the other end of the room, and fires an arrow at him, missing by a lot. Hawk the Eagle harries the goblin still by the door, flanking him.

The flanked goblin takes a 5 foot step back, aiming to use the corner as a defensive stand. The starts fighting defensively, boosting his AC to 19. That still isn't enough to save him from the eagle, who rolls an 18+3=21, and a d4 for 4 drops the goblin.

(I'm missing some blow-by-blow, but it's nothing terribly earthshaking. Johann hits a goblin with an arrow for 2 points. One of the goblins hits Spot the wolf for 7 points. Hawk the EAgle gets dropped by a goblin with a longspear. Cormac the DMPC tends to his wounds.)

Cormac checks on the third corridor. Kids, you always want to check on a corridor where something could be coming at you. (This lesson will be better remembered when they don't check it, and I DO send something at them.

Three newly arrived goblins are at the north entrance. The two in front try to form a shield wall, fighting defensively, while the one behind uses a two-handed spear (d8 damage). (The plan is that the goblins will form a primitive phalanx.) Amy casts summon nature's ally for another wolf, who will appear next turn.

EDIT: I point out to Eldest that the remaining goblins are grouped together, which means she can get all of them with her burning hands spell.

Evlylin uses a burning hands spell on the three grouped goblins. They roll pretty well on their saving throws, and only the wounded one falls.

Johann attacks the shield goblin with hammer-and-mace, dropping him in one hit. That lets him cleave into the spear-goblin, who also drops with one hit.

When the second shield-wall goblin gets cut down, the last two spearmen are exposed, and quickly dispatched. The goblin's strategy is effective, in that the party cannot concentrate their attacks, but the attrition is still too much for the goblins.

The party searches the goblin's lair, finding a chest with 3000 silver. They do not open the door at the back of the goblin's lair, instead going back to town with the money and the bear.

Elvylin explores how much money the party could make if by selling the bear meat. This runs up against the lack of refrigeration and lack of freely circulating cash in a fantasy-medieval town like Sylvandale. 1000 pounds of bear meat, valued at 1 cp each, comes to about 10 gold.

Cormac the DMPC raises the question "Would we rather have 10 gold, or the goodwill of this town? Yesterday when we were healing up, we could have asked the temple to heal us. But, for outsiders like us, they'd have likely asked for a donation of 25 gold each. I'm not paying those kinds of bills. We donate the bear meat for a town feast, pretty soon we're getting extra healing for free."

So the bear is skinned, the townspeople feast on roast bear, and the party is the toast of the town.

(1 average encounter, 100 xp each. PArty members are at 300 xp each.)

[tadkins]

Three newly arrived goblins are at the north entrance. The two in front try to form a shield wall, fighting defensively, while the one behind uses a two-handed spear (d8 damage). (The plan is that the goblins will form a primitive phalanx.) Amy casts summon nature's ally for another wolf, who will appear next turn. Evlylin uses a burning hands spell on the three grouped goblins.

Your kids already play better than some people I know. xD

[johnbragg]

Your kids already play better than some people I know. xD

Actually I practically told her that this was a good spot to use the burning hands spell, as they were in a tight group. (I forgot that burning hands had a save, and for a moment she had a real Moment of Awesome--until I rolled the goblin's REflex saves).

[tadkins]

Actually I practically told her that this was a good spot to use the burning hands spell, as they were in a tight group. (I forgot that burning hands had a save, and for a moment she had a real Moment of Awesome--until I rolled the goblin's REflex saves).

It's been a while but I always thought Reflex was one of the few things a goblin really has going for it.

[Albions_Angel]

Goblins are actually fairly good low level enemies if you know what to do with them. Recently ran and my party of (very experienced) players got surprised when they didnt spot the forestkith goblin hunters, consisting of 2 level 1 barbs, 2 level 1 rangers and 2 level 1 warriors. Nets took out 2 party members, rage dealt a hefty blow to 3 more and arrows kept them pinned down.

Also, your kids are learning fast. Again, my experienced group forgot things like speaking quietly and taking their time when they entered their goblin cave, rushing straight for the throne room, triggering 10 goblins and a goblin king (level 3 barb) AND setting off the 3 shriekers... which attracted the 2 violet mushrooms... and the phantom fungus. I tried everything I could to save them without Deus Ex Machina, but there is only so much you can do when a violet fungus is within 5 feet, has split the party beguiler from the heavy hitters, is sat on the rogue, and has poisoned the fighter...

[WeaselGuy]

First of all, this has been the first Campaign Log that I've actually enjoyed reading. By all means, please keep it up!
Secondly, I'm expecting my first son in June, and can't wait to start playing D&D with him in a few years. Thanks for the inspiration!
And lastly, major kudos to you and your kids for playing some nerdy game that involves paper, pencils, books, actual human interaction, and above all else a healthy dose of imagination, all in a world practically dominated by big screen TV's and ultra-resolution game consoles.

(Not to imply I don't enjoy playing my XB1 or PS4, because I do, but I look forward to D&D night way more than I do playing D3 with my army buddies.)

[johnbragg]

So, the party is the toast of the village of Sylvandale. The priest of the local temple promises them free healing when they're in town and recovering from adventures.

The party discusses what their next adventure shall be. DMPC Cormac suggests finishing cleaning out the Dungeon of Melkoth, or following up on the townspeople's complaints about wolfpack attacks on their sheep, or just patrolling the woods and see what the Druid pets smell.

Eldest interrupts, and asks the mysterious Cormac flat out what his talents are, a warrior or a wizard or what. He admits to being a Rogue from the city of Hallanville. The mysterious DMPC is now a little bit less mysterious.

Eldest's druid Elvylin suggests investigating the wolf attacks. Cormac points out that there's not much gold there. Elvylin responds that there's probably not much gold left in the dungeon of Melkoth. Cormac responds that the wolf pelts probably are worth some gold each.

(I break the game to let the Druid players know that they should object to this.) Elyvlin bristles and says that they are going to talk to the wolves and not kill them if they don't have to.

They talk to Young Steven the shepherd boy, who tells the tale of a wolfpack attack that morning. Two wolves drove off Young Steven, while two wolves picked off a sheep. The next morning, Young Steven leads the part out to the scene of the attack, where they find about 1/3 of a sheep remaining after the wolves ate their fill. Sister's pet Spot the Wolf rolls a 19 on her Survival roll, for a 24 to Track. They follow the wolves back to a lair in the woods.

The party sees 4 wolves. "Should we roll initiative?" (I thought the plan was to talk, not fight, but sure.) Eldest (Elvylin) casts Speak With Animals. Amy (Sister) casts Shillelagh. Johann (Brother) fires an arrow at a wolf.

Eldest says "Well, I thought we were going to talk to the wolves." I said I thought so too, but apparently Sister and Brother disagree, and you guys asked to roll initiative, which means combat.

Today, kids we learn that initiative means combat. It is agreed that we misunderstood each other. The party wanted to talk to the wolves and persuade them to not eat so many sheep. So Amy's Shillelagh spell and Johann's arrow are cancelled. Amy casts Speak with animals. Johann has his bow ready. Hawk the Eagle takes a position up in the trees nearby.

The wolves are saying "alarm outsiders outsiders. Leader, outsiders."

Eldest talks to one of the wolves, explaining that if the wolves eat too many sheep, the humans will be hungry, giving a sort of Lion King circle of life argument.
Wolf is very unpersuaded, and responds "Pack bellies full. Sheep tasty." The party says they don't want to fight, and the wolf boasts that "leader will show YOU." Sister (AMy) asks to speak to your leader.

One of the wolves transforms, into a man-sized, upright creature covered in fur, with the claws and teeth of a wolf. The players correctly guess that this is a werewolf.

Now we roll initiative. The werewolf howls a cause fear spell. Everyone saves (DC 11) except for Hawk the Eagle, who flies out of combat.

Elvlyin hits a wolf with her sickle. Amy casts Shillelagh, while Spot runs up to attack a wolf. Bad-guy wolf lands an attack of opportunity on Spot for 7, who misses her attack.

Johann plugs the werewolf with an arrow from his shortbow, rolls 6 damage. The werewolf pulls out the arrow, reacting as if he were barely hurt. (I dropped the werewolf DR from 10/silver to 5/silver, and swapped the warrior level for a level of Sorcerer with cause fear and enlarge person.) Cormac misses with an arrow, badly.

To Johann and Cormac, the werewolf is just growling and howling. Amy and Elvylin hear him tell the pack "Run!" Two wolves disappear into the forest. The third wolf turns to run, and Spot misses his attack of opportunity. Elvylin and Leonya (the bobcat's new name) close to within 10 (but not 5!) feet of the werewolf. Johann and Cormac miss the werewolf with arrows, and the werewolf runs into the woods. Johann fires a final arrow, which hits the fleeing werewolf. Damage roll is 6, but he is too far away for the PCs to know if he was hurt or not.

Encountering a werewolf and surviving rates this as an Easy encounter, 50 xp each.

(The werewolf sees 2 spellcasters, 2 archers/warriors and 3 pets. His cause fear spell had no effect (that he knows of) He doesn't have surprise, and could very well lose a pack member here. The pack will regroup, and we'll see next session if the party makes it back to town unscathed.)

[Albions_Angel]

Very nice, and nicely handled on the initiative thing. Its important for a party to know what each person intends.

How long are your sessions? About an hour?

[johnbragg]

Very nice, and nicely handled on the initiative thing. Its important for a party to know what each person intends.

How long are your sessions? About an hour?

This was a short-ish session, about an hour and a half. Weekend session are usually 2, 2.5 hours. When we can play on Wednesdays, it's a short session. ( <2 hours.)

[johnbragg]

Last session, the werewolf growled "RUN!" and his pack obeyed.

Cormac the DMPC clues the party in on some of the details of werewolves. Damage reduction, silver weapons. The cause fear spell he cast was definitely not standard werewolf, although everyone in the party made their save except for Hawk the Eagle. Silver weapons are not going to be available in the village of Sylvandale, which is limited to a tavern-inn, a temple and a general store plus houses; so the party is heading for Hallanville.

But that plan does not take into account that the werewolf can plan as well.

The party spots wolves to the left, to the right, and behind the party. They don't spot the werewolf in the woods ahead of the party. Johann (Brother's fighter) and Cormac (ineffective DMPC) prepare arrows, Elvylin (Eldest's elven druid) casts Entangle on the wolf to the left and Amy (Sister's elven druid) casts Shillelagh. Roll initiative.

(I guided Eldest to cast the Entangle spell, because this is the ideal terrain and situation for it. Would have been better if it were on the werewolf/pack leader, but they didn't see him yet.)

Elvylin and Johann hold actions, prepared to attack wolves who emerge from the undergrowth on to the path. The werewolf runs out in front of the party (in hybrid form), and roars his Cause Fear spell. This combat, the saving throws don't go as well for the PCs. Johann, Cormac and Hawk all roll below 10, and must flee for d4--> 3 rounds. Silver, the entangled wolf to the left fails his Reflex save to move and his morale check. Johann, Cormac and Hawk all flee their full movement before Brownie closes from the left and Smurfette closes from behind. (I had named Brownie and Silver, and asked Eldest to quickly name a wolf. She said "Wolfette", but we kept slipping and saying Smurfette. IT stuck. ) Brownie eats attacks of opportunity from Amy and Spot, and bites Spot, dropping Spot to 2 hp. (I should have had Brownie try to trip Spot.)

The werewolf roars "Fear the wrath of Fenris", partially because I kept referring to him by name, and I hadn't told the party his name. He closes and attacks Amy and Elvylin, who are now flanked. Silver makes a reflex save and moves halfway out of the Entangled area, trying to run away. Elvylin and Smurfette trade misses, Leonya takes a bite out of Brownie, who fails a morale check and is looking for a way out. AMy drops Brownie with her Shillelagh. Silver makes a reflex save, escapes the Entangled area, and starts running. Smurfette fails a morale check, and takes a 5 foot step back in preparation for a withdrawal. Fenris takes two claw swipes at Elvylin, missing once but dropping her with the other (max damage on d4+4).

Amy attacks the werewolf and misses, Sister wants to have Spot make a trip attack. I explain that the wolf has to bite first, and if she hits with the bite then she rolls for a trip attempt. Spot hits Fenris for less than 5 damage, but that lets him make a trip attack. Spot rolls a natural 17, + 2 BAB + 2 Str (using the Pathfinder rules for CMB because I can remember them) = 21, Fenris rolls 11 + 2 BAB + 2 str + 2 Dex = 17. The werewolf is prone, dropping his AC by 4.

Johann and Cormac are free of the fear spell by now, and are making their way back to the battle. Cormac plugs Smurfette with an arrow, Johann shoots at the werewolf and misses. (No Precise Shot , so -4 to avoid hitting friends) Amy whacks the downed Fenris with the Shillelagh for damage, Spot takes a bite for damage, Leonya takes a bite for no damage (d4+1 vs DR 5 is a bad matchup). Fenris gets up, too angry to be sensible and run away. Smurfette runs away. Johann closes with Fenris, who is now flanked, misses with the hammer but rolls a 20 with the mace. 20 means max damage, d6+1 - 5 is enough to finish off the werewolf.

This was a Hard encounter, worth double xp. PCs are now at 550 xp, more than halfway to second level!

Brownie is down but not dead. I prompt the girls to remember what druids are all about. I clue them in that they should probably help the dying animal in front of them. Amy heals Elevylin, and makes an Animal Handling roll on Brownie, and Elvelyn heals Brownie.

Brownie is intrigued by the offer of help from the Twolegs pack, but says he must consult his pack. After waiting for him to return for 5-10 minutes, the party heads back to the lair where they found the wolfpack earlier today. The party promises to bring the pack food from time to time, and the pack accepts. The pack also tells the party why Fenris didn't use his bite attack--he did not want to create a threat to his pack leadership. The party notices a backpack mostly concealed in the roots of a tree, and ask the pack about it.

"Pack not touch master's backpack. Master punish." "But no master." "Pack not touch master's backpack." The wolves argue amongst themselves, clearly torn and confused, until Elvylin asks directly if *she* can touch the backpack. "PAck not touch. You not pack."

The backpack contains Fenris' collection of potions, 4 cure light wounds, 1 bulls' strength, 1 expeditious retreat and 1 barkskin. (Yes, I really should have rolled this before the encounter. But Fenris thought he had a really good plan to surround the party and use the wolves' superior speed to pick them off one by one.)

[johnbragg]

Eldest suggests using one of the healing potions on the still-wounded wolves. I let her know that potions are to be saved for emergencies, and the party can easily come back the next day and finish healing up the wolfpack.

The party now has another local ally, and the DM has an easy way to introduce plot points! Anything that I want the party to go after, the wolves can smell in the woods and tell the party about. (At least as far as wolves will understand it.)

[A_S]

I am super-duper enjoying this journal. Just sayin'.

[Aetis]

Awesome read.

[Hiro Quester]

Indeed. This is inspiring me to try to run an adventure for my son and his friends.

[johnbragg]

Future plot question: Fenris the werewolf was the alpha of the pack. A few months down the road, should the party face the challenge of what to do with a litter of half-lycanthropes? (Cannot take human shape, 1 less HD, maybe use Pathfinder Young template)

[denthor]

No they are your children but that maybe to great of a brain teaser due to age

[johnbragg]

A farmer comes up to our heroes in the tavern, blurting out "In the woods! There were Goblins!"
Eldest says, with great reassurance, "We'll take care of it." I prompt them to try to get some more details from the farmer, like exactly where it happened. They get that information fairly easily, but they're not doing much in the way of asking him useful questions. I pause to let them know that they should try to find out what weapons the goblins had. My players let me know that apparently I (as the farmer) had already told them that the goblins were using bows.

Brother, Johann, asks "Why didn't you fight them?" "I'm just a farmer, I was out hunting this morning and I saw the 3 goblins down by the creek.! I don't know if they saw me but I sure ran!" I break the game. Consider one farmer vs 3 goblins. Is the farmer going to win that fight? (No way.) Let's think for a second about a farmer with a bow against ONE goblin. Is the farmer going to win that fight? (Maybe). OK. Now, is the farmer going to bet his life on a "maybe"? Not if he doesn't have to. That's why they're so happy you're in town. Back to game.

Farmer Bob takes them to the site where he saw the goblins down by the creek. He gets back out of the woods as fast as he can "I have to get back to my planting. I'm not going any hunting for a whlie, I'll tell you that. Good luck and gods be with you fellows!" From there, Spot the Wolf picks up the trail and follows (high teens on the Track/Survival roll). Hawk the Eagle scouts ahead, scores a 27 on his Spot check.

(I modelled the goblin campsite on the local Boy SCout camp, which we've all been to. Which makes it very easy on me to describe the terrain setup. EAch campsite is a clearing, surrounded by trees and tall grass and general overgrowth on most sides. Even Eldest isn't yet old and wise enough to realize that this situation is largely maintained by the use of large riding mowers.)

Speak with animals to find out the results of Hawks' reconnaissance. (I realized later that I completely forgot to roleplay Hawk.) There are some goblins sleeping around a fire, some awake. There are 4 paths into the campsite, plus the undergrowth. Most of the party wants some or all to sneak through the undergrowth.

"How tough are goblins? How many hit points do Goblins have?" AT this point, I talk about what players know and what characters know, I talk about monsters with PC class levels, and I talk about the DM tweaking monsters to fit an adventure and make the game better. Most goblins have about 5 hit points. But some goblins have more than one level in PC classes, so they could be a lot tougher, and you can't always tell by looking. Sure, the shaman is pretty obvious, but the goblin mook in leather armor with 5 hit points looks pretty much like the goblin 3rd level ranger standing next to him.

"Remember the werewolf you guys fought?"
(Yeah.)
"Remember when he cast that fear spell?"
(What?)
"Remember, he cast a spell, and Johann and Cormac had to run away?
(Yes).
OK, most werewolves can't do that. I made that werewolf a first-level sorcerer. Did that fear spell make him harder to beat?
(I don't know)
Well, remember how any time you hit him, the first five points of damage didn't count? Who was the best in the party at doing damage to him?"
(Johann.)
"Right, and that spell took out Johann for half the fight. By the book, do you know how much Damage Reduction werewolves are supposed to have?"
(Five?)
"Ten."
(TEN? But we can't even do ten damage!")
"Right. You either need to be able to do more damage, or you need a silver weapon to hit the werewolf.
Was it a better game because I swapped some of the werewolves' Damage Reduction for the fear spell?"
(Yeah.)
OK, well, soon, I might throw some goblins at you that might be Fighters or Rangers or Barbarians or spellcasters. Not tonight, but soon. "

Out of character, the players take their pieces and sketch out a plan of attack. In character, they do the same with rocks in the dirt. There are four paths into the goblin campsite, north south east and west. The first plan to be accepted has Spot the Wolf paired up with Cormac to sneak in to the south. One blown Handle Animal check later, Spot refuses to go with Cormac and sticks with AMy. The plan that is accepted sees Cormac sneaking in around the underbrush to the south, Elvylin and Leonya the wildcat sneaking in through the bush to the south-east, followed by Johann, Amy and Spot charging in through the east.

There are 5 goblins on watch with maces and shields, and 10 goblins asleep around the campfire. Cormac blows his Move Silently roll, and the goblin nearest to him raises a ruckus. The party is able to take down 2 of the 5 sentries pretty easily, but the sleepers awake and pick up their bows.

(3 PCs, 1 DMPC, 3 pets and 15 mooks are probably too much for me to handle in combat. I'm just going to say that right here. I'm pretty sure I missed Cormac's turn 2 or 3 times. I simplified goblin damage for this fight--if a goblin was hit but not one-shotted, he was injured. If an injured goblin was hit, he was down. But since I'm a creature of habits, I still wrote down 15 "5"s on the Gm's note page, putting one slash through the wounded goblins and an X through the dead ones. I was not going to worry about whether a goblin with 3 hp was hit for 2 or 3 hit points of damage. Not that I did a great job of keeping track of which goblins were injured--I know at one point I had 4 live goblins according to my note page, and 3 live goblins according to the battle map.)

The druids in the fight seemed to have forgotten that they could cast spells. At one point, with the roused goblin archers doing serious damage to the party members who were closing for melee, Elvylin called out "Run! Get away from the fire!" No one ran, and I thought she was warning the party about the goblin archers who were, well, pumping arrows into them. More on that later.

It was a grind. The goblins dropped Amy, Leoyna the wildcat and Hawk the eagle were both down to 1 hit point. Hawk, and Elvylin--down to 3 hit points and Leonya withdrew from combat. But the carnage in the goblin ranks sapped morale, and a couple of goblins ran. Johann stopped shooting arrows and closed for melee, swinging his mace and hammer, and taking advantage of his Cleave feat. The last few goblins tried to run, some successfully, some panicked and tried to run past armed, hostiles who took Attacks of Opportunity. One last wounded, fleeing goblin took an arrow through the back of the neck, and combat was ended.

This was an Average difficulty encounter, for 100 XP each.
EDIT: ACtually, outnumbered 2:1 by same HD opponents with no terrain advantage either way might be a Hard encounter. 200 XP each, 750 total.

"That fight was a lot tougher for you guys than I planned. You guys didn't cast any spells."
(Sister: I was going to cast Cure Light Wounds on myself, but I got knocked out though.)
(Eldest: Well, I wanted to cast Entangle, and I told everybody to run away, but nobody listened.)
"Ohhhh. I thought you were just warning them away from the goblin archers, and really the only way to win the fight was to go up to them and kill them"
(Brother: Yeah, I thought you just were saying to run away.)
(Sister: Well, I did want to run away, but it was too late.)
"Cormac: Maybe we should come up with some sort of code. If you just say 'run', well that doesn't work."
(Eldest: What about 'fern'? If I want to cast Entangle and I need you guys to get out of the way, I'll say 'fern')
"That works"
(Sister: MOVE STICK!!)
(Several: What?)
(Sister: because the entangle spell makes plants grow and the sticks come up and get you, so y'know, Move STick)
"I think fern works better. IT just has to be something where we know what it means and they don't."


By the way, dear readers, there is a plot reason for the complete lack of preparation and tactics by the goblins--not even a defensive palisade, nothing.

[johnbragg]

Oh, by the way, the "battlemap" for this encounter was 2 8 x 11 pieces of printer paper. I have a template for 1 inch graph paper, and I trace that and cut it down to half-inch squares.

Someday I'll find a printable blank hexmap grid.

[Albions_Angel]

Another great session.

Something I find helpful when it comes to battle order are little flash cards. These also let you, as DM, keep track of skills and saves your players dont roll (when they are surprised by a mind affecting trap, for example, you roll the dice and maybe they dont notice anything. Then the player doesnt know if their char failed and didnt notice, or passed and didnt notice, for example).

So here, you would have 5 cards.
Card 1 is the Eldest and her animal companion (I assume their companions are going on their turn?)
Card 2 is the Sister
Card 3 is the Brother
Card 4 is the DMCP
Card 5 is the Enemy

Then when you roll initiative, you write it all at the top of each card, put the cards in order, and simply rotate the cards one behind the other.

Really helped me and I was able to update my players cards as they leveled. In addition to player name, I usually ask them to give me their spot and listen bonus, their track bonus, their open lock and disable device, their saves, languages and their most characteristic feature. The idea with those skills is you can fail to spot something because you get distracted, or because you are really careful but its really well hidden, and you will never know the difference. Same for listen. Search you tend to know if you screwed up, but track you can get distracted with. And then open lock and disable device. That lock could be really tough, or it could be that you have been picking a spot of rust for 5 minutes. Disable device, well you stuck some cloth in the hole the poison dart comes out, but what happens if it comes out faster than you expect?

Hope that helps.

[johnbragg]

Another great session.

Something I find helpful when it comes to battle order are little flash cards. These also let you, as DM, keep track of skills and saves your players dont roll (when they are surprised by a mind affecting trap, for example, you roll the dice and maybe they dont notice anything. Then the player doesnt know if their char failed and didnt notice, or passed and didnt notice, for example).

So here, you would have 5 cards.
Card 1 is the Eldest and her animal companion (I assume their companions are going on their turn?)
Card 2 is the Sister
Card 3 is the Brother
Card 4 is the DMCP
Card 5 is the Enemy

Then when you roll initiative, you write it all at the top of each card, put the cards in order, and simply rotate the cards one behind the other.

Really helped me and I was able to update my players cards as they leveled. In addition to player name, I usually ask them to give me their spot and listen bonus, their track bonus, their open lock and disable device, their saves, languages and their most characteristic feature. The idea with those skills is you can fail to spot something because you get distracted, or because you are really careful but its really well hidden, and you will never know the difference. Same for listen. Search you tend to know if you screwed up, but track you can get distracted with. And then open lock and disable device. That lock could be really tough, or it could be that you have been picking a spot of rust for 5 minutes. Disable device, well you stuck some cloth in the hole the poison dart comes out, but what happens if it comes out faster than you expect?

Hope that helps.

The pets go on the players' turns. For this combat, I sprinkled the goblins through the 1-20 order. The problem was that I had 10 goblin archers with identical markers on the table and no way to tell one from another. The guards "named" South, East, WEst, Northeast and Northwest weren't a problem. I started moving the archers in initiative order from left to right. But in battle, they moved around. If I had them all going on the same turn, I still would have had problems keeping track of which ones had moved this turn and which ones are the wounded ones.

As for "the players don't roll", I'm still training them how to play the game. When I spring something like that on them, that's going to be one of those times where we break the game and talk about how this thing works, and that Brother knows that it's a trap, but Johann doesn't.

[johnbragg]

Finally got another short session in.

The PCs return to town after patrolling in the woods. The wolves had nothing of note to say (players asked :) ). As soon as they get back to the village, they are told that there was a goblin in the tavern beating everyone up, and now he's in the temple. The players immediately go to the temple.

I tell them that their animals are not allowed in the temple, and ask what they want to do about that. They say that they'll ask when they get there. I accept that non-answer as their operative plan. (I'm realizing now that I had a firm idea of the temple being empty except for the town cleric, and that the kids had no such firm idea. That's on me.)

They position their figures at the door to the temple map, and Elyvlin sees a goblin in the middle of the temple, and the priest lying on the floor unconscious. The goblin says "My town now!" and charges Elvylin, throwing a gauntleted punch which (rolls) misses. That puts the goblin in the doorway, so attacks of opportunity happen. However, the goblin has Dex 15 (+2), a shield (+1), studded leather armor (+3) and is Small (+1), so his AC of 17 makes him pretty hard to hit. Amy casts a Shillelagh spell.

Eventually, Evlylin rolls a natural 20 with her sickle, for max damage and a free attack. Free attack misses, and now "G'Nash mad!". He takes a 5 foot step back (which allows the party to get into the temple, pulls out a club from his backpack and says something in goblinish. The club looks bigger than it was, and the players recognize the Shillelagh spell. At the same time, the goblin starts Raging.

Game break to explain to the players what a Barbarian is. Big tough fighter who can rage, getting stronger and tougher, but a little easier to hit.

The party takes advantage of the opening to start surrounding G'Nash. Spot the wolf runs up to him, attacks and misses. Elvylin throws a dagger, which bounces off the goblin's shield and skitters across the floor. The now-raging, Shillelagh-wielding barbarian mashes the nearest target, Spot the wolf, bringing his club down square in the middle of his back, dropping Spot from 14 hp to 2.

Game break. What did G'Nash want? What did he say? "My town now." Can you take over a town by killing everyone in it? Not really. Before the party came back to town, was there anyone in the village that G'Nash couldn't punch the daylights out of to get what he wanted? Not really.

Until Elvylin critted with the sickle, G'Nash didn't see the party as a threat. Now, new strategy. Smash everyone with rage and shillelagh. Back to the game.

Johann decides to flank the goblin. I give him the choice--if he goes all the way around the goblin (12 to 6 o'clock), he takes an AoO. If he stops at 9 o'clock, he can attack, but not flank. Johann accepts the AoO, which misses, and attacks from a flanking position. With the goblin barbarian's AC down to 13, his attacks both hit (hammer and mace.) (And yeah, I just realized that Johann took a full move and then a full attack. Well, to hell with the rules that screw two-weapon fighters.) He rolls well, dropping the goblin to 2 hit points. Spot withdraws from combat (--which should have been an AoO for G'Nash, but oh well. wolf should have taken a 5' step this round, then withdrawn next round.) Amy steps up with HER shillelagh, and smashes G'Nash's head in, ending the combat.

(Not a great combat, in my opinion. A lot of swinging-and-missing in the beginning, then a quick dogpile made the result inevitable.)

(This encounter was originally designed to get the players some magic loot. I lost the original notes for the goblin barbarian, so I forgot about the Amulet of Natural Armor +2, and forgot to use the bonuses from the Gauntlets of Ogre Power. So I guess I'll retcon G'Nash's stats, his Strength was 11 not 13 and his Dex was 11 not 15, so the math all stays the same. The Club +1 of Shillelagh obviously made its appearance.)

Game break for me to go check my notes on the pantheon I'd written up. I tell the players to decide if their parents are alive or dead, and name their dead parents or grandparents. BAck to game.

The party revives the town priest, who thanks them, but is downcast that the temple is now profaned by violence and violent death, and must be re-consecrated.

Game break. WE talk about how we would feel if someone died horribly in our church. IF ghosts were real, we would want to do something to get rid of the ghost. A temple is sort of a house for the gods, and they're not going to want to hang around a house where somebody died that way. Right now the temple isn't a temple, it's just a building with some statues of gods in it. Back to game.

Elvylin and Amy help the town priest (who I really should give a name to) with purifying the temple, preparing for the ceremony. Johann goes around to the farmhouses to let them know that A) the priest is safe and the goblin is dead) and B) that the ceremony to re-consecrate the temple is at sundown the next day.

The temple has statues to the Father, the Mother and Child; the Old Man (ancestor gods), the Farmer, the Hunter and the Herdsman; the Smith, the Warrior, the Beauty, the Scribe, the Weaver and the Joybringer. The identities of the gods are amorphous and debatable--the Hunter/Huntress will take worship in the name of Artemis or Mielikki etc indifferently. Theological correctness is not that important, compared to the imperative of making sure all the gods are happy with the town. (Or at least not vengefully unhappy). The priest asks Johann if he, as a dwarf, would like to do the dedication to the Smith. Johann decides on the Warrior instead. Elvylin selects the Huntress, and Amy takes the Joybringer.

I ask each of the players to write a 3-4 line dedication to the god they chose. As an example,
"To the Farmer, who watches over our crops, who keeps us fed and our soil rich and fertile, we honor you and beseech your aid."
Eldest takes to the task like a fish to water, Brother and Sister struggle a bit. I tell Brother to think what people would ask the Hulk for aid with, and tell Sister to think of the Joybringer as Pinkie Pie. (Dionysus is not age-appropriate, PErcy Jackson aside.)

The priest places a 4 foot tall candle in front of each of the statues of the gods, to burn all night for the ceremony. In front of the statue of the Old Man, he draws a big circle around the candle, marking the spot where each family will place a candle to honor and invoke the protection of their ancestors.

Brother gets stuck on his dedicatoin, and has a bit of writers' block. I help him out with something like
"To the Warrior, who protects us all, who gives us strength to defend what is ours, we honor you and beseech your aid."

Elvyvin recites:
To thy huntress
who feeds us with thy food,
who hunts in the shadows,
thank thy for thy blessings.

Amy recites:
To the Joybringer
Who brings us joy when we are sad
Who gives us joy when we feel sad and bad.

There was less success writing dedications to the PC's departed ancestors, but I helped them out with it.

At dawn, the PCs feel a sense of contentment and peace. And they level up. (750 + 100 (average encounter: G'Nash) + 100 (ceremony, roleplaying experience) = 950, close enough)

[johnbragg]

Last week, our heroes achieved the lofty rank of Level 2.

At this point, I'm also retconning their stats. I was in a hurry when we started, and gave them the Elite Array. I don't remember the last time I played a campaign where I didn't have an 18 in my main stat, so I boosted them to the "Heroic Array", 18 16 14 12 10 8.

Last session, I neglected the essential post-climax of any adventure--the Distributing of the Loot. G'Nash the barbarian goblin had absconded from his band with Gauntlets of Ogre Power (+2), an Amulet of Natural Armor (+2) and a Club +1 (cast Shillelagh 3/day), plus 7000 silver pieces.

Eldest levels up from Druid 1 to Druid 1/Rogue 1. (She wants to be sneaky like Haley.) She claims the Amulet of Natural Armor, and plans to sell her Hide Armor and Wooden Shield for a suit of Leather Armor. She also takes the Wild Cohort feat, so that her pet leopard Leonya can continue to progress. (The feat is retroactive--1st level Druids don't really need a feat, so I left the slot blank.)

Sister levels up from Druid 1 to Druid 2. She claims the Club of Shillelagh-ing, and adds spells to her Spells Known. (I'm using a mechanic where casters have N spells per day, chosen from N*2 spells known that they can cast spontaneously. On the other hand, Summon NAture's Ally counts as a different spell for every different thing you want to summon.) She adds the Ride-by Attack feat, which seems pretty cool with the new Shillelagh club. Which means she wants to buy a horse.

Brother levels up from Fighter 1 to Fighter 2. He claims the Gauntlets of OGre Power. He doesn't get a new feat, because I gave him an extra feat at 1st level because Tier 5. (His feats are Wild Cohort, Two-Weapon Fighting and Cleave.) WE also retcon his name from Johann to Thomas.

Their new stats give them a big power boost, and the PCs now have more hit points than their pets.

Eldest also remembered the potions that they got from the werewolf's cache, and distributed one potion of cure light wounds to everyone in the party, the potion of bull's strength to Thomas (Brother), and after much sibling discussion, pouting and cries of unfairness, the potion of barkskin to Sister and the potion of expeditious retreat to Eldest.

Session notes to follow.

[johnbragg]

Session notes PArt I

Our heroes set off from their base in the village of Sylvandale, on a journey to the larger town of Stronghold, where they should be able to sell some old armor and buy some horses.

It’s a two-day walk, so they camp at nightfall. Players quickly grasp the concept that someone should stand watch. I introduce the idea that spellcasters need 8 hours of solid sleep to recover spells, so they will take first-and-last watch.

DMPC Cormac also strongly advises that the pets should sleep during their owners’ watches. Out of character, I tell them that if Something Happens on someone else’s watch, I don’t want a player sitting there doing nothing because he can’t pass a Listen check to wake up.

I also explain the 3X fatigue rule, -2 to STR and DEX. Brother is very upset, wants to know why I didn’t tell him this sooner. I show him the PAthfinder Core Rulebook, and tell them that if I explain every rule in the book, we will never get to play the game. I’m explaining rules as they come up, which is how pretty much EVERYONE learns to play D&D. I never explained the fatigue rules before because they never came up. But I go ahead and retcon back to the discussion of who takes what watch.

Elvylin takes first watch, AMy takes last watch. Cormac takes second watch, Thomas (Brother) takes third. During Thomas’ watch, Something Happens.

Thomas is patrolling around the campsite, and misses a Listen check. Something sneaks up behind him and attacks! As Thomas instinctively dodges away from the first claw swipe, he gets caught by the second for four points of damage. Thomas turns around and sees the creature--
Initiative! Thomas wins initiative, and deploys his mace and hammer, now reinforced with a +2 BAB, base 18 strength and Gauntlets of Ogre Power. He is fatigued, though, so he’s rolling at a +4 instead of a +5. Both attacks hit, and he rolls a 6 and a 4 for damage. The mace crashes into the creature’s ribs, and Thomas hears faint cracking sounds. With the other hand, Thomas nearly takes the creature’s head off with the hammer.

The creature falls down. IIt is clearly some kind of undead, but not a zombie or a skeleton. The hands are shriveled and sharpened into claws, and the leathery skin looks like someone cooked a zombie in an oven until the outer skin hardened. (This is a homebrewed undead, The-(Minor)-Nightwalker-WIP-PEACH (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?478685-New-Template-(Monster)-The-(Minor)-Nightwalker-WIP-PEACH).)

The thing had 7 hit points to start. The first hit dropped it to -3, the second (simultaneous) hit dropped it to -11. Fast healing or not, this thing is not getting up.

I had hopes for the Nightwalker, and I still do. It would have been a good encounter for the party at first level, with its Fast HEaling ability letting it get up again after the party puts it down. IT might even have drained some Con off of someone. But after they rebuilt and after I gave them the Heroic stat array, and when I fudged the dice to let Thomas try out his new attack and damage bonuses, it was a complete mismatch.

Thomas suggests waking the rest of the party.
DM: Hold on, remember they have to rest for their spells. Do you think you have this problem handled?
Brother: Yes, but what if it gets up again?
DM: Do you think you could do anything to stop that?
Brother: I smash its face in!
DM: Okay then.

At the end of Thomas’ watch, he wakes Amy.

Time passes, everyone is awake, and the party goes to investigate the thing that appeared in the night. It no longer has claws or leathery skin, it simply looks like a corpse that has been used as a target dummy by a mace and a hammer. Amy and Thomas know that the creature transformed, presumably at daybreak. Checks are rolled, but nobody has Knowledge: Religion, so the best anybody can do is, it’s not a skeleton or a zombie.

The party discusses bringing the thing to town, but Cormac reminds them that it’s a pretty hefty load to carry. So they tie the corpse to a tree, hands tied together behind it and feet tied together. Either it is truly dead, in which case it’s not going anywhere, or it will be undead again tonight, and probably still isn’t going anywhere.

So the party pushes on to Stronghold.

[johnbragg]

The party goes in through the open town gate. Cormac advises the party that in the town, carrying weapons is seriously frowned upon. And casting magic without good reason is illegal.

“How do you know if it’s a good reason?”
“When the town guard either arrest you or they don’t.”

And this isn’t Sylvandale, where the party are local heroes. We can’t bring a wolf and an eagle and a young leopard inside the town.

Handle Animal checks are rolled. Elvylin and Thomas succeed easily, Amy does not. Amy casts charm animal, which convinces Spot to leave her side and spend the day in the forest.

Eldest: Did the guards see that? We’re not supposed to cast spells in town.
DM: Not as far as you can tell. They seem to be just talking to each other.
Can we make listen checks?
DM: Sure.
Thomas is the only one who rolls above a 10.
“They’ve got an eagle and a wolf and a tiger. You wanna say something, go ahead.”

In the area between the open outer gate and the guarded inner gate, there is a guardhouse and a tavern. The party goes to the tavern, which has a sign saying “Baron of Beef”

There are some farmer types sitting at the bar, an NPC party sitting in one corner--2 halflings, and elf and a human--and some guards sitting at another table.

Elvylin goes up to the elf in the NPC party and asks where she can buy and sell some armor. Thomas goes and talks to the guards, and Amy goes up to the bar, to find out where they can get some horses.

Thomas asks the guards what they’re talking about. “We’re deciding who’s gonna ask the pretty elf to dance.” Brother asks which elf they’re talking about, and I ask “do you ask them?” And Brother decides not to. He asks about horses, and one guard says “He needs to see a man about a horse” and the other guards all laugh hysterically. (I tell the kids that “see a man about a horse” means go to the bathroom.) “Whatever you’re trying to buy in this town, Sammy the bartender is the man who can make it happen.” (Yes, I’m a child of the 80s and the bartender’s name is Sammy.)

Thomas goes to the bar, and the guards get up. One walks over and asks the elf to dance. She says “I don’t want to dance” He puts his hand on her shoulder “Come on, dance with me.” The other guards are moving towards the NPC party’s table. Starleaf the elven witch casts sleep, 2 of the 4 guards fail their will saves, and we have a tavern brawl!

Everyone rolls initiative, and Starleaf pops a glitterdust spell at the remaining two guardsmen, blinding one, then starts running for the door. Elvlyin is the next to go, and she heads for the exit. Next up is Johann, who moves towards the battle and gets ready to fight. Brick the human fighter gets up, says “Let’s get out of here” and swings at the last guardsman, doing a few points of damage. Heathward the halfling cleric scampers up on the table and casts elation. (My players didn’t have the spellcraft to recognize the spell. I should have told them what it was anyway.) The farmers at the bar head directly for the exit.

The guard punches Brick square in the chest, doing one point of damage. Amy moves up towards the fighting and punches Starleaf. Fingers the halfling thief hops up on the table, tumbles past Amy and Thomas, attacking Amy from behind for 5 points of damage (including Sneak Attack). Starleaf swings at Amy and misses, followed by Thomas unloading both fists on STarleaf, knocking her down and out. Elvylin hops up on a table near Brick, pulls out her sickle (“You can do that. And you get a bonus for being higher up.” “Yay! I get a ….1.”) Brick swats the sickle away, then punches out the last guard.

Hearthsward the halfling cleric jumps down off the table, planning to cast Cure Light Wounds on Starleaf. But Thomas’s attack of opportunity has other plans, rolling a natural 20 on a grapple check. Thomas has the halfling in a bear hug, (doing 4 points of Strength bonus damage) and the halfling isn’t casting any spells for a while. (YEah I know, grapple doesn’t stop you from casting spells. Except that that’s dumb, and I’m ignoring it.)

Amy casts summon nature’s ally--owl, to appear and attack Brick. Fingers picks up a chair to use as an improvised weapon, but swings wildly and misses. Stardust is still out. Elvylin swings at Brick and misses. Brick says “What is it going to cost us for you to get out of the way?” Amy says “Stop fighting us”. Hearthward the cleric says “I can agree to that” Thomas lets Hearthward go, saying “What about money?” Brick pulls a bag of silver pieces out of his backpack and throws it on the table, Hearthward heals Starleaf and the NPC party leaves at full speed.

Cormac says “I suggest you stash that money put away before the Justice gets here. And get that sickle put away.” The players notice that Cormac didn’t take part in the fight.

“I’m not sure why you got involved in the fight. But it paid off, I have to say that. You (Amy) cast a spell, and you (Elvylin) pulled a weapon, but nobody saw any of that except Sammy.”

Sammy says “For half that bag of money, I didn’t see anything.”

Shortly, the door opens with a shout of “Stop in the name of the law” and everyone rolls a Will save. Elvylin and Amy succeed, Thomas is overcome by a feeling of tranquility and calmness. (OOC, Thomas now can’t attack. This spell is called calm emotions.) Justice is wearing chainmail and the castle logo of STronghold, and a holy symbol that the druids recognize as being one of the FAther, associated with law, justice, protection, rulership.
Justice asks a few questions, Sammy covers for the party, Justice heals up the guards.
“Six counts of assault on a guard each, two counts of unlawful magic use each for the cleric and wizard, one count each of fleeing from justice. That’s 10,000 silver, if they ever come back to Stronghold again.”

The party tells about the strange undead that attacked them in the night. The Justice rolls a Knowledge: Religion check, and scores a 29. He tells them that this sounds like a Nightwalker, an undead that, in sunlight, turns into an ordinary corpse. Nightwalkers have fast healing, at least until you do enough damage.

The Justice lends them four horses, and they lead him to their camp from the night before. The corpse is still tied to the tree, and is still a corpse. They dig a grave while waiting for nightfall, and then bury the body with the blessings of the Pantheon.

Back to town, to rest for the night.

The next day, the party buys horses, Elvylin trades her (used) Hide Armor and Wooden Shield for new Leather Armor. Our heroes are now mounted! Riding their newly purchased steeds, they set off for home.

[Tajerio]

Great read. Any particular suggestions for playing D&D with young 'uns? Someday in the not-too-distant future I think my niece and nephew are gonna be interested.

[johnbragg]

Great read. Any particular suggestions for playing D&D with young 'uns? Someday in the not-too-distant future I think my niece and nephew are gonna be interested.

My youngest twins were 7 when campaign started, 8 now. A little older and some of this changes. With 3 siblings, sibling envy was something I had to watch out for big time. So, when the girls both picked Druids, I made sure to get my son an Animal Companion as well.

Some of this would be applicable to any group of noobs you want to convert. Some only to below-the-age-band players. Some just to my household.

1. MAke sure you don't kill them. A DMPC with potions of cure light wounds is a good thing.
2. Schrodinger is your friend. Anything they haven't seen can change based on what they want to do, and/or on what's working
3. Try to introduce 3X rules and features gradually. I'm still doing a good chunk of their tactics, which means I have a lot more to keep track of.
4. I gave mine a DMPC who is both party leader and also somehow a background character. He was originally a Shrodinger's thief, but I really like Jormengand's The Adventurer (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?471934-The-Adventurer-3-5-class-PEACH). Main class feature is a bag of useful items, which can be whatever you need, including potions of Cure Light Wounds. Allows you to give the PCs tools to solve any number of problems requiring equipment or low-level potions and scrolls, while not hogging any spotlight time in combat.
5. HAve plenty of killing things and taking their stuff, but have a little bit of context for it.

[commander panda]

damn this is charming. kinda reminds me of the article i read a while back, about a super streamlined roleplay system this dad used to play with his four year old. might be a good resource (http://gygaxmagazine.com/selected-content/dming-for-your-toddler/) for the other people here, actually.

[johnbragg]

damn this is charming. kinda reminds me of the article i read a while back, about a super streamlined roleplay system this dad used to play with his four year old. might be a good resource (http://gygaxmagazine.com/selected-content/dming-for-your-toddler/) for the other people here, actually.

We also used http://kidsdungeonadventure.com/ when they were younger.

[commander panda]

We also used http://kidsdungeonadventure.com/ when they were younger.

lol, so thats why they're so good at this. you eased them into it. i would have expected this to be like herding cats, otherwise :smalltongue:.

[johnbragg]

lol, so thats why they're so good at this. you eased them into it. i would have expected this to be like herding cats, otherwise :smalltongue:.

It still is, more or less. Combat-free session tonight. That's what I get for building a slightly immersive world around them including NPCs that exist outside of combat.

Eldest has also read a lot of Order of the Stick, and they've all played a lot of Minecraft.

[johnbragg]

When last we left our heroes, they were in the town (or really fortified trading post) of STronghold, with newly acquired horses. They set off for home, and their animal companions rejoin them. The horses are quite skeptical of the wild eagle, juvenile leopard and wolf, but some Handle Animal checks are rolled, a charm animal spell is cast, and the horses are reassured.

The party reaches Sylvandale around noon, and rides out to check with their wolfpack allies. The wolves are off hunting, and so the party decides to make camp in the wilderness. So I roll for random encounters during the night. Nothing during Amy’s (Sister’s) shift, encounter on Cormac’s shift. Oh, let’s say goblins. And an encounter when only the PCs pets are awake is a terrible game. So, fistful of stealth checks--high numbers. Spot check, meh. So the goblins sneak away to return in greater numbers. During Thomas’ shift.

Spot checks are rolled. The leopard aces hers, and runs around the camp to alarm Thomas and Spot. So Thomas is not entirely surprised when there is a surprise round and 3 arrows--miss. Initiative! Leoyna charges and bites a goblin to death. Thomas “I shoot him in the FACE!” Plugs one with an arrow through the eye and brain. Spot the wolf goes to wake Amy.

Eldest: But then you won’t have spells tomorrow!
DM: That’s true. On the other hand, if it turns out there are 20 goblins and you get killed, you don’t get any spells either.
Sister: (wailing) No! I forgot! Aaaaaah

Sister, do you want to retcon that?
Sister: Sob. Yes.
OK, what does Spot do.

And Spot the wolf chases one down and kills it with a bite attack. (I wanted to have the actual PCs awake for the encounter, but oh well. This combat is boring. Time to deploy--Chaos potions!) The three remaining goblins each drink a potion. They are surrounded in shimmering, multicolored light. The first one (roll)--regrets drinking his. The second (roll) seems fine. The third, (roll) throws down his bow and takes out a battleaxe that he needs two hands to use and starts snarling.

Leonya is a double move away from the first goblin. She can charge and attack, but he will have time to shoot her with his bow. She charges, he does not shoot her with his bow, and she hits for 2 points of damage, giving him a nasty bite on the leg. He didn’t seem to dodge, almost as if he didn’t see her coming.

Thomas shoots an arrow at the snarling axe-goblin, plinking him in the shoulder for 2 points as the goblin roars and charges.

The goblin whose potion gave him blindness turns to run away from Leonya, who gets an attack of opportunity, biting him in the other leg and leaving him with one hit point. Dex check, 6 and he stumbles over something and falls down.

The goblin whose potion gave him expeditious retreat, retreated most expeditiously. The players even remembered the name of the spell!

The goblin whose potion caused him to rage attacks Thomas with his battleaxe--rolling a 10. He swings his axe to take off Thomas’ head, Thomas ducks and blocks the axe with his mace. (Oops, Thomas just got a free move action to change weaponry. Oh well.)

I almost skipped Spot’s turn. Spot wakes up Cormac. (I’m not exactly sure why, but dogs wake you up, so sure.)

Leonya finishes off her goblin.

Thomas “I put my MACE in his FACE! No, his stomach!” Ok, roll. 19, roll d6+5, 7 hit points (the goblins had 5 to start). “And I hammer his head!” Ok, roll. (Why not?) Only an 8. No, that doesn’t hit. On the other hand, you pounded his stomach so hard with your mace that you hear bones breaking in his back. He’s down.

You collect 12 potions from the 5 dead goblins. In the light of the campfire, you can’t tell what color they are--sometimes they look purple, sometimes blue, sometimes green.

In the morning, in the light of the sun, it is clear that the potions are changing colors. No one has knowledge: arcana, so roll a straight Intelligence check. Eldest got a 20 (19 + 1).

Ok, you’ve heard of these. Some less advanced societies can’t make magic items as reliably as humans and dwarves and elves. This goblin tribe must have a cauldron of chaos. It makes potions that have a random effect when you drink them. Usually it’s something useful.

Chaos potions (all durations 1 minute)
1. Expeditious retreat
2. Enlarge person
3. Reduce person
4. Fire breath (produce flame at 30’ or burning hands)
5. Daze (will save each round or lose action. Little colored flash bulbs surround you.)
6. Sleep
7. Invisibility
8. Rage
9. Silence
10. Blindness.

Enlarge person, your damage bonus and damage dice go up (I forgot to explain about reach). REduce person, you can hide better, you have a better chance with missile attacks.
Daze is the first 0-level spell we’ve talked about. To make it fit here, I extended it to 1 minute, with a will save each round--which is actually a neat 1st level spell. Papparazzi!
Silence has the advantage of silencing an enemy spellcaster, especially if you grapple them so they can’t just leave your silence area.

The wolves return to their den, and one speak with animals spell later, the wolves are giving out adventure hooks. “BAck towards town, there is a group of two-legs, one taller than you (elves and dwarves), one your size with magic and two smaller. (The kids recognize the NPC party from last session, one human, one elf wizard and two halflings.)”
“Away from town, there are big nasty wolves with goblins riding them.”

Knowledge: Nature checks, Eldest pops a natural 20. So she gets to see the Monster MAnual entry on Worgs. She describes the picture to the party, and the party doesn’t want to fight worgs. (Crud, that was the fight I had prepped. The worg-riders were supposed to introduce the chaos potions.) Further questioning the wolves tells that there are 3 worgs.

The party will go after the NPCs.
Cormac the DMPC: “So we’re going to go get the party from the tavern. And then?”
“There’s probably a reward for them!”
Cormac: “OK, let’s think this through. Do you want them talking to the Justice”
“What?”
Cormac: “You took a bribe to help them escape”
“We didn’t say we wouldn’t come after them later.”
Cormac: “You guys know that taking a bribe is illegal?”
Eldest: “Oh. Well, don’t they (pointing at character sheets) know that? We didn’t say that then.”

Some inconclusive chatter, party comes back around to the idea of going to the NPC party, and decides that they will inform them not to cause any trouble in their town.

The NPCs make a spot check, and when the heroes approach their camp, they are hiding in the bushes. The PCs make spot checks, and they know the NPCs are in the bushes.
Brick the fighter says “that’s far enough” and then recognizes the PCs.
“Hide armor, a wolf and a little leopard, so y’all are druids. Well, not you (gestures at Thomas, who is wearing scale mail.) What in the world were you thinking pulling out that sickle? If the justice had seen that, that might have been a hanging.”
Eldest got cut off before she could answer by Sister. “We want to make sure you don’t cause any trouble in our town.” It is agreed, and the two parties head to the tavern.

(I need to get rid of the NPC party--it’s bad enough with 3 PCs, 3 pets and a DMPC I forget about half the time in combat) In the morning, they are headed south to the dwarven kingdom.
Brother “My kingdom?” Yes. (It is now)
Brother “Well, you tell them that you have my permission to go. I said it’s okay.”
NPCs: “Well, if it’s like that” and they show Thomas the treasure they’re bringing. It’s a bullet-shaped helmet, with dwarven runes carved on the bottom inch, and on the rest, carved scenes of dwarves fighting. They’re bringing it back to the dwarves, hoping for a reward.
Eldest: “Oh, like Diggy Diggy Hole” and starts describing the Diggy Diggy Hole video. (It’s a fairly good match.) Diggy Diggy Hole (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytWz0qVvBZ0)
Brother: “You didn’t steal that, did you?”
Brick: “Well, do you think a band of orcs in a ruined castle were supposed to have it?”

It was getting late, so I had the party decide before breaking whether they were going after the worgs. They are not.

[johnbragg]

Well, this session was brutal. Near TPK. Things go poorly when the players roll lots of 1s, and when they inexplicably stop using their animal companions in combat.

[danzibr]

First of all, this has been the first Campaign Log that I've actually enjoyed reading. By all means, please keep it up!
Secondly, I'm expecting my first son in June, and can't wait to start playing D&D with him in a few years. Thanks for the inspiration!
And lastly, major kudos to you and your kids for playing some nerdy game that involves paper, pencils, books, actual human interaction, and above all else a healthy dose of imagination, all in a world practically dominated by big screen TV's and ultra-resolution game consoles.

(Not to imply I don't enjoy playing my XB1 or PS4, because I do, but I look forward to D&D night way more than I do playing D3 with my army buddies.)
I have 2 kids, ages 5 and 3. I tell my wife we need at least 1 more for a balanced party. Looking forward to DMing for them :)

[Hiro Quester]

Just commenting in to let you know that a bunch of us (esp parents considering DMing for kids) are avidly following this journal. Please keep it up.

[johnbragg]

Just commenting in to let you know that a bunch of us (esp parents considering DMing for kids) are avidly following this journal. Please keep it up.

Thanks. I probably wouldn't have finished writing up the last session without this comment. But if I have an audience, I figure we show the what happens when things don't go so well.

[johnbragg]

Setup: Goblin refugees declare an ogre they find to be their chieftain. Three goblins set off to steal a sheep for their new leader. They try to lure a sheep away from its flock, they nearly kill a sheepdog and a shepherd. When the shepherd comes to, the sheep are all gone, having followed the goblins.

The shepherd(Clem)’s wife, Justine has gotten Brother Ivan to help heal Clem and the dog, Ralph.

It is no trouble at all for 2 druids, a wolf and a bobcat to track 16 sheep across countryside. The party comes to a clearing near a hill with a small cave entrance. The sheep are milling about, 3 goblins are spaced out trying to keep the sheep from wandering off, and one ogre is laying across the cave entrance by a fire. The goblins are quite distracted (trying to make Profession: Sheperd checks untrained) and do not notice the party at a distance, so I tell the players to put themselves on the map.

Elvylyn (Eldest) and her bobcat position on top of the cave entrance above the ogre (rolls an excellent hide check), Thomas (brother) picks a spot in the woods, Amy (sister) announces that she is going to try to lead one of the sheep away, and the others will follow and maybe the goblins and ogre won’t notice. (This plan sounded better out loud than it does on paper.)

DMPC Cormac says that if Amy is trying to lure the sheep, the others should be ready with distance attacks to cover Amy if the goblins or ogre do notice.

(It was not necessary to name the goblins at the table, I could point and say “that one.” For you, dear readers, they shall be known as North, West and South Goblin)

Thomas Brother rolls a lousy hide check, the nearest goblin (south) rolls an okay Spot check. I have Thomas roll a spot check, which passes. “The goblin keeps looking at where you are.”

Amy starts luring a sheep away (casting charm animal, and a nearby sheep starts to follow. The goblin who noticed Brother also notices the sheep wandering off led by a druid and says “HEY!” which leads to a round of spot checks and ultimately initiates combat.

Thomas plinks South goblin with an arrow for a point or two of damage, and switches to his hammer-and-mace. Amy keeps leading sheep astray.

South goblin charges at Thomas, rolling an 18 and hitting for 5 points of damage. Thomas rolls his attacks of opportunity, one misses and--one fumbles. The goblin parries Thomas’ hammer so effectively with his staff that THomas loses his grip. (Brother rolls a 1. Frustrated at his lack of success, Brother starts crying and goes up to his room to get Bear. I give him a minute to calm down, continuing the fight.)

Cormac fires an arrow that misses West goblin, and West goblin doesn’t know exactly where it came from.

Elvylin and North goblin don’t do anything but stay alert and be ready. Ogre awakens from his nap and stands up. He picks up his weapon, a wicked-looking log with three swords driven through it as spikes.

Hawk the Eagle and Spot the Wolf position outside the battle.

Amy continues luring sheep.

Elvylin makes her move, leaping from the hillside above the cave entrance and plunging her sickle into the ogre’s back, adding Sneak Attack damage to her regular sickle damage! Ogre is hit for 9 points of damage.

The problem is, now the druid-rogue is in melee with the ogre, alone. (Which is a good cliffhanger point to go try to reason with Brother. Brother calms down somewhat, and resumes the game.)

Thomas, now with a single attack, dispatches the south goblin with a mighty blow, and uses his move action to pick up his hammer. Cormac drops West goblin with an arrow.

The ogre turns, raises the massive swordspiked club above his head, and (rolls pretty high) brings it down on Elvylin, slashing her down the side and dropping her into negatives. (2d6 + 8 is nothing to mess with.)

(There are now tears in Eldest’s eyes, as she bears up and tries to set a good-sportsmanship example for Brother.) I rule that yes, Leonya (the juvenile leopard) can jump down and try to defend Elyvlin.

(I tell Sister that she needs to stop with the sheep and start helping in combat, or Eldests’ PC is going to die.). Amy casts Shilellagh (or more exactly activates her club +1 of shillelagh and moves towards the combat. The ogre takes his AoO, and just misses. (He has reach, which I tell the kids about but don’t emphasize. Things are going poorly enough that a discussion of tactical positioining is ill-advised right now.) “You get your shield up just in time to block the sword-spikes, but you feel the power of the blow.”

On Elvylin’s turn, Leonya pulls Evlylin back (5 foot step), not quite out of the ogre’s reach, but working on it.

Thomas enters combat with the ogre, and with his mighty mace and hammer backed by gauntlets of ogre power--rolls terribly, missing one attack and barely hitting with the other. The ogre takes his attack, missing, as Thomas ducks just below decapitation range of the triple sword.

Amy raises her Shillelagh to whack the ogre--and fumbles with a natural 1. The shillelagh clangs off of the ogre’s swordspike club, and flies out of Amy’s hand.

Cormac does something brave for once, and does a full run into melee combat range so he can pour a healing potion into Elvylin. Elvylin is up, barely.

The ogre’s turn comes again, and this time he does not miss Thomas. The blades slash Thomas across the scalp and the club part clangs against Thomas’ skull. Thomas is down to 1 hit point. (And Brother is again near hysterics. But Thomas is still standing, and I remind him that the party needs’ Thomas damage output against the ogre, or the whole party is probably going to die. Brother gets it together, more or less.)

But now that the party is actually able to bring its numbers to bear against the ogre, the situation recovers. Elvyvin with her sickle, Amy with her shillelagh (after a round spent recovering it), Cormac with bow and Thomas with hammer and mace deliver a series of blows that bring down the ogre.

Epilogue: Next session I think will be a non-combat session, in which Cormac the DMPC discusses tactics with the party and how this could have gone better.

[ComaVision]

Thanks. I probably wouldn't have finished writing up the last session without this comment. But if I have an audience, I figure we show the what happens when things don't go so well.

I've been reading since the beginning as well. No kids but I often bring in new players, and it's just interesting to see how kids approach it.

[denthor]

After reading your last post. During your session or before it might be a good time to remind your children this is still just a game. Even more than that the randomness of the dice can can frustrate even adults.

[johnbragg]

After reading your last post. During your session or before it might be a good time to remind your children this is still just a game. Even more than that the randomness of the dice can can frustrate even adults.

Well, similar emotional outbursts happen when they get gakked in video games.

[A_S]

Well, similar emotional outbursts happen when they get gakked in video games.
Sometimes that makes me want to go to my room and cry a bit, too, not gonna lie.

Still loving this journal.

[ff7hero]

I want to lead by saying that I adore this thread for a number of reasons. It takes me back to the good ol' days when my dad would DM for my sister and I. It's also fascinating to me as a teacher, although the kiddos I work with would be too young for this (12-18 months).
After reading your last update, I do have one recommendation. By the base rules for 3.5 (which seems to be your starting point), a natural 1 on an attack roll is simply a miss. Any extra fumble rules like this tend to have (to my mind) two unintended, undesirable impacts on the game. First, they are heavily biased against players. Players make more attack rolls with weapons than monsters will and a character dropping their weapon has more impact on its players options than a monster dropping its weapon.
Second, fumble rules drive the wedge further between the mundanes(who must typically make attack rolls using weapons to be effective) and the casters (who don't). With the ladies playing casters and your young man playing a Fighter (and a two weapon fighter for maximum number of fumble chances in a round at that), this might cause some problems down the road with the aforementioned sibling rivalry.
Sorry, had to break out my soapbox for a second. It's a berserk button of mine, but I want to reiterate what I said at the beginning of this post. I love what you're doing and am quite happy that you've decided to share it with us all.

ETA: Oops, said I had a recommendation then I kinda rambled on about why fumbles are bad before apologizing and gushing about how much I enjoy reading this. If this had been written coherently, it would have included a line toward the end that went something like "I would recommend discontinuing the use of Nat 1 as a Fumble." That would have made sense...:smallsigh: but I bet you figured it out...:smallwink:

[johnbragg]

Mom is back in the country! And she is taking over former DMPC Cormac, who now becomes a mostly-real PC. I don’t want Mom to totally overshadow the kids, so Cormac is still 5th level but also doesn’t have the Heroic Array (18 16 14 12 10 8) stats that the other PCs do. II’ve badgered her into accepting the Nick Fury role from in The Avengers’ movies, using Jormengand’s The Adventurer homebrew class.

Mommy is somewhat confused by what I’ve adapted from Pathfinder and what I haven’t, since I didn’t explain it to her very well, causing her to give me The Look a few times. (I’m using the Pathfinder skill system in that there are no cross-class skills, just the +3 Class bonus, but the regular 3.5 skills.)

Last session, our heroes narrowly defeated an ogre and his three goblin lackeys, and rescued a flock of sheep, minus the one who had already been cooked.

So this session (fully healed and rested through the power of plot, and it having been I think six weeks since we gamed), the party must get the sheep back to the safety of town. But of course it’s not that easy. The kids see my new battlemap, a hex grid PDF I’ve printed out, pasted onto cardstock and laminated, and ask “what are those” about the various T’s scattered around the hexes, circled with circles and ovals of various sizes. Someone notices the key that says “T = Trees”.


“Roll Spot checks” PArty rolls poorly, even Hawk the EAgle with the +16 Spot. But Eldest’s druid-rogue Elvelyn gets a 20 and spots the unusually large amount of cobwebbing in the area, including the massive web between two of the trees, indicating Monstrous Spiders.

Leader Cormac asks “OK, what can we do to protect the sheep from monsters, and protect ourselves from monsters?”
Thomas: “We can use long range weapons” DM “So you have out your bow?” “Yeah.”
Elvyvlin “I have my sling”

Players position their tokens near the battlemap, around the flock of sheep (little orange wooden cylinders from who-knows-what game from who-knows-what yard sale many years ago).

The party surrounds the sheep, so as to guide them safely through the trees and away from whatever may be there. Amy gets within 20-30 feet of where the spider is, high up in the trees and--narrowly dodges a web the spider slings down at her. Initiative!

Elvylin pegs the spider with a sling stone for 2 points of damage. (Spider’s AC is 14, +4 for cover in the trees, so it’s a tough target). Amy’s wolf spot sniffs at the web. “Does he get stuck in it?”
DM reminds Sister that last session, the party didn’t use their animals or spells at all, and they were nearly wiped out. Even though Spot can’t help in combat right now, don’t waste him doing something silly. Sister nearly starts crying “But you said he can’t do anything?!”
Mom: Remember we were talking about how to protect the sheep? How do the sheep feel about Spot? (Scared.) Is there anything Spot can do to protect the sheep?
(He can herd them away from the battle.)

Amy casts Summon NAture’s Ally to summon an owl, who will appear next turn.

Thomas misses the spider with an arrow, but Hawk the Eagle is in a much better position--in the air, negating the spider’s cover advantage. 2 talons and a bite later, the spider is down another half-dozen hit points. But the eagle is now dangerously close to the spider, who jumps and BITES Hawk for...5 points of damage, against a 1 HD eagle.

Hawk is down, but the spider’s jump takes him out of the trees. Cormac plugs the spider with an arrow for 6 points, Elvylin’s sling does 4 points, and the spider is not happy (6 hp out of 22).

Amy’s owl appears up in the trees where the spider was, but it can still dive at the spider, hitting for-- d3-4 damage. (Gee, owls kind of suck as a summon.) Sister is sad that the owl doesn’t do much, but every hit point counts.

Brother, if you were the spider, what do you think you would do. How does the spider eat?
With its mouth
Okay, but how does it catch its food
With the webs
So if you’re the spider, what do you think you should do right now?
Do you think you’d web the birds, so you can eat them later?
Probably

Spider jumps up into a different tree, and tries to web the birds. The owl is webbed, but Hawk manages to dodge.

Evilyn decides to use her Burning Hands spell on the spider in the tree. Moves up to the tree, and shoots a sheet of flame out of her fingertips. 4 points of damage nearly kills the spider, but it keeps moving.

Amy wants to cast speak with animals.
Mom: Something your characters would know is that that spell works on animals, not monsters.
DM: That’s true, although I probably wouldn’t have remembered that.
DM: What do you want to speak with, and what do you want to find out?
Sister: Why is the spider fighting?
Oh. You pretty much know from your Knowledge: Nature that spiders are hungry, and this one is wounded. IF you cast the spell and I had it work, the spider would tell you that it’s hungry.
I roll knowledge nature. 11+8, 19!
OK.
DM: Let’s look at your spells, see what might help.
charm animal, speak with animals, cure light wounds, summon natures’ ally owl, octopus, wolf
I could cure Hawk! Rolls, and Hawk the Eagle is at full health! Hooray!

Elyvlin fires off her second Burning Hands spell, finishing off the spider. The sheet of flame tears through the carapace--which splits open, revealing a bajillion regular-sized spiders who pour out of the tree, covering the ground below with a spider swarm!

[johnbragg]

With the giant spider apparently destroyed, only to reveal a swarm of spiders, we now break the game for leader Cormac to educate the party about how swarms work. Weapons don’t do much damage, but area effects--like fire--do. (There is some quick reading of the SRD entry by the DM. The swarm type as a whole is not immune to weapon damage, but most swarms are. Rat swarms are vulnerable to bludgeoning damage).

The swarm descends upon Elvylin and the summoned owl. (The spiders don’t know it’s a summoned owl and not actually food). Elvylin takes a bit of damage, makes the fort save against the spider poison (first Fort saves of the campaign). Natural 20! I rule that Elvylin is immune to spider poison for the rest of the combat, and maybe in the future if I remember.
I stop Eldest from writing this on her character sheet--a nat 20 only covers the currrent situation. If a nat 20 made you permanently immune from spider poison, should a nat 1 mean you drop your weapon and can never pick it up?

Thomas moves up next to Cormac to get a torch. Cormac pulls out three torches from his backpack (using Adventurer talents I frankly hadn’t read yet, but I asked Mom if she had some ability that did that, and she does. A move action and a standard action and a class feature to pull 3 torches out of a backpack is fine.) Two torches are for Thomas and one for Cormac.

Elvylin steps out of the spider swarm and fires off her third and final Burning HAnds spell, as Cormac and Thomas use the flames to light their torches (“Smores!”). Amy pulls out a torch, lights it with a cantrip--and misses. Thomas swings his two torches at the swarm and--misses both. (AC 17? Really?) Thomas’ d20 goes into the Box of Shame and I give Thomas a couple more d20s.

Break the game. It doesn’t make sense that there are a bajillion spiders in the swarm, but that you can’t hit them pretty easily. Quick patch: when you swing and miss their AC, it’s because the swarm moved out of the hex. They can’t dodge your fire, and stay in the hex at the same time.

Cormac pulls out a flask of alchemists’ fire and hands his torch to Elvylin. Elvylin misses her attack, driving the spiders away from her hex. Thomas and Amy hit for a couple of points of damage each.

Cormac throws the oil flask at the hex the spiders are in, rolls a 21. The blast and the splash damage set the entire spider swarm on fire.

The sheep are saved!

Average encounter, 200 xp each.
That wasn’t hard?
Are any of the PCs down? Was there a good chance that the PCs might lose? Average.

[Honest Tiefling]

Well, similar emotional outbursts happen when they get gakked in video games.

Not going to lie, I have shed tears for Dogmeat.


Evelynda casts Burning Hands (fire domain spell, what the heck. I might try to convince Eldest to swap it out for Produce Flame, but whatever.)

She seems to have cast it in later sessions. I take it you let her have it? I wouldn't be surprised, I think a kid would enjoy it more then produce flame, but I could be wrong.

[johnbragg]

She seems to have cast it in later sessions. I take it you let her have it? I wouldn't be surprised, I think a kid would enjoy it more then produce flame, but I could be wrong.

Little less damage lot less range, more targets. But still a very druid-y spell, I think.

I don't think I bothered to try to convince her to switch to Produce Flame.

[Honest Tiefling]

Sounds more like a spell a 10 year old girl would want, and she does seem to enjoy it.

I wonder if they'll want to dress as their characters for Halloween?

[johnbragg]

Sounds more like a spell a 10 year old girl would want, and she does seem to enjoy it.

I wonder if they'll want to dress as their characters for Halloween?

Eldest is already booked in as Rey.

[Theobod]

Avidly keeping up to date with this thread. One day when the missus and I are in your position I will look back over this log for tips ;)
Keep up the good work prepping the next generation of basement dwellers ;)

[Feint's End]

One of the most enjoyable campaign journals I've read in a while. Brings my focus back down to the basics again and helps me remind them while planning for my own campaign.

As one of the previous posters has already mentioned fumble rules are horrendous. They should be burned and their ashes thrown back to the deep holes of hell where they came from. On top of what has already been said they make fighters actually worse the more attacks they get.
An extremely experienced fighter fighting with two weapons will practically fumble every 3rd round or so. Now you might say that at this point you don't use fumble rules anymore. Fair enough.
However do consider that even a 3rd level fighter is a well experienced person (in most low level settings anyways) and he could literally wack a dummy for 1 or 2 minutes and lose his weapon or worse. With a 5% chance every hit to do something bad to yourself, combat becomes almost comical in nature as in bigger battles a significant amount of people die from losing their weapons, cutting their arms, etc.

To reiterate.: burn fumble rules.

Sorry for the harshness but fumble is just triggering me like almost nothing else.

[denthor]

Hit the wrong button and am no longer getting updates. So this post became necessary still really like reading this

[Sian]

Hit the wrong button and am no longer getting updates. So this post became necessary still really like reading this

top right corner just under the links to the other pages in the thread, there's a scroll bar called thread tools, under that there is an "subscribe to this thread" :)