GriffintheBored
2018-10-22, 04:01 AM
So this is my first time posting here, but I love reading the journals and stuff that get put here. This one, however, might be a bit different, because just last week, I hosted the first of hopefully many sessions of D&D 5e with my Discord group. Out of the six players and me (the GM), only me and one of the players has played before...so alot of learning and mistakes were made in just the first 3 hour session alone. XD
This thread is going to be used to keep a journal of things, and maybe get some suggestions for future things I could do, as I am by no means a perfect GM. But yes, let me start with the first session of "Godfall."
Godfall: Session 1
So before we begin the tale of how this went downhill at 100 mph, let me tell you of the party my players put together (I should note I'm a pretty loose GM when it comes to homebrew stuff so long as it isn't game breaking, so be prepared for that.)
Firstly, we have the group's Rogue, who is a female Tiefling named Lane (this character is the experienced player). Lane specializes in stealth and social skills and has a wolf companion because of her background as a hunter. She prefers dealing with things quickly and efficiently, and is quite handy with long range weapons.
Secondly, we have the Druid; a female Changeling named Vi. Vi has a split personality, and as such has a few different talents, but among her best is her ability to invent things thanks to her background as an engineer (this will be explained in the campaign background~). She's always looking for ways to merge science and magic together to make new and impressive weapons and helpful items. She is also a very adept thief...
Next, our first homebrew race user of the campaign. His name is CCU-155, and he is a Ceph Ranger. Ceph's are the enemies from the game Crysis from what the player has explained. He too specializes in stealth and espionage and has a background of Futureborn. He comes from a distant future for a mission he cannot fully remember. He comes with a race ability of Energy Shield which grants him half his max HP's value as temp health until the end of the round. It has a two round cooldown.
Then we have the female Demigod Bright Lord (our first homebrew class of the campaign). This player loves Paul Bunyan from the Fate games, so their character is pretty much Paul right down to the name and appearance (interesting since it's a she, but hey, that's how it is). She specializes almost exclusively in brute force as she is physically the strongest of the party. She is the daughter of the Sun God Escanor with a background of Herald of the Gods. Her race gives her the additional ability to always know when someone is lying to her (Divine Awareness). Her quest on Earth is to find her blue ox, Babe, and return to the realm of the gods to take her father's throne.
Next up, a Geitlan named Stronghorn. His class is the Berzerker, and he really loves spears. He's the second physically strongest of the party, and is not bright whatsoever. He has negative values in his social skills...and his exploratory skills. However, even without much intelligence, he still has the heart of someone who wants to be a hero thanks to stories he'd heard in his childhood. He wants to find a childhood friend who left his village mysteriously one night.
Finally, we have the female Human Witch Doctor named Lily. Unfortunately, this player rolled terribly during creation. She pretty strong physically, but she's a magic user, yet her wisdom and intelligence are pretty low. Her charisma is negative modifier and her deception and social skills are also below zero. I asked this player if they wanted to respec or reroll, but kudos to them because they said no, and that they'd stick with what they got. Lily is very anti-social, and devotes most of her time to trying to learn new magics and techniques. She was more or less disowned by her family, and so is used to being alone.
Now, the campaign is intended to focus on a world in transition; a world moving away from mysticism and gods to science and technology. It is a world on the edge of war and many people, races and even governments are taking advantage of this uncertain time to acquire power. I won't be saying too much more than that in case my players read this somehow.~ Now, on to the journal!
Our story starts in an Elven town called Yolarem in the Republic of Alfheim. The sky has been overly cloudy, rain has not stopped falling for weeks, and thunder constantly rolls across the sky. We begin by focusing on Lily who is looking through the town's strangely empty library. She is searching for books on conjuration, and eventually asks the librarian where she might find them. This librarian is not exactly fond of other races as he is a High Elf, so he sort of treats her like an idiot right off the bat. She deals with it for the moment, and he leads her to the books she seeks. As she's looking through them the Geitlan, Stronghorn, comes busting into the library. Rather clumsily, I might add, as he tears the door off it's hinges. This obviously pisses off the librarian quite badly.
Before he can say anything, Stronghorn heads straight to the children's section of the library looking for a map of the area. He finds a child's drawing of it, and attempts to copy it down (this ends up in Lily trying to help him find some paper and ink to do so, but neither can do it because of some really terrible perception checks XD). During this search, Stronghorn knocks over a bookshelf and several books fall on him dealing a small amount of damage.
Finally, the librarian, who's seen quite enough, manages to keep his composure and ask them if they need assistance if only to stop them form causing more damage. Eventually, Lily and Stronghorn both sit down and begin their work with Lily studying, and Stronghorn copying the child's crudely drawn map. (if you thought this was ridiculous, just wait XD).
On the other side of the river that cuts through the center of Yolarem, Lane, her wolf Mark, and Paul are asking around the Red Light District (pretty much where the elves of mixed descent get sent by the High Elves on the other side of the river). They ask in both the tavern and the inn about any strange animal sightings (alluding to Babe, which Paul doesn't seem to understand would be confusing to directly ask about). All they can gather is that animals tend to not wander around this area due to it's high level of pollution and sickness, and suggest they look on the other side of the river.
On the High Elves side of the town, a disturbance in the marketplace is happening; CCU-155 isn't exactly conspicuous, and his strange appearance is causing some panic. Nearby, Vi has her eyes transfixed on him as well, but for more interested reasons than fear. She closes in on him and starts studying him, which he allows, but reluctantly. Before she can really introduce herself, a couple of guards show up and attempt to arrest CCU. He rolls a strength check and breaks the shackles effortlessly. This scares the guards who run off to grab reinforcements. (Now, most players would probably clear out, but they instead stuck around and talked. They're newbies so have mercy on em here).
Those guards came back with alot more reinforcements; in total, seven guards. They once more attempt to arrest CCU, but he acts hostile and a battle ensues just as Lane and Paul are entering the marketplace. Instantly the two guards with the highest initiative spear the crap out of CCU, bringing him down to negative health value (I use a bleed out mechanic in my games instead of saving throws for death, because I feel it adds more tension to situations). A short brawl continues in which Vi uses her bowstaff to break a guards nose, and Mark the wolf rips into another's ankle. Paul, surprisingly, drops her greataxe and surrenders, prompting the others to do the same. End combat.
Everyone is about to be arrested, and rightfully so to be honest, until CCU decides "Yknow what would be a great idea? Self destructing!"
After some discussion of if he could even do that, we decided he could by rerouting power from his armor to the armor core. This resulted in him exploding and disintegrating six of the seven guards and wrecking the marketplace. Also, he died. Naturally.
However, I start everyone out with 1 Inspiration, and I told him he could spend it to somehow survive the explosion. I made it so instead of dying, he was reduced to 1 HP and lost his legs and all of his inventory. Surprisingly, he was ok with it.
This explosion drew the attention of Lily and Stronghorn in the nearby library as well as alot of townsfolk. TL;DR a huge misunderstanding happens, and the group has to flee town before more enemies come for them. They run into the nearby forest for a couple hours before stopping. Because of the rain, I let the players know they should find shelter or they might catch some sickness. Paul and Stronghorn start taking down trees to build a shelter (rather than go find a big tree or a cave or something). Also, Stronghorn broke his hand punching a tree. He also threw a log so hard into the sky it never came down while they were getting the walls built.
After that fiasco, and tending to CCU's open wounds, the group starts to eat and a Brown Bear comes wandering by. The group immediately goes into attack mode.
Lane jumps on the bear's back, digging her daggers into it's neck. Good start. Lily comes out and whacks it over the head with her medicine stick. It doesn't do much other than make it angry. Then Vi for some reason decides to throw her shield Captain America style at the bear. She misses, hits Lane and knocks her off the bear, and the shield goes flying off away from anyone's immediate reach. Oof. Stronghorn comes out, and attmepts to shove his spear up the bear's backside. He misses and gets it stuck in a tree trunk due to rolling a nat 1. At this point I'm doing my best not to laugh at them, but the player controlling Lane is getting slightly irritated. We take a quick break to cool off and make sure everyone knows they can think before acting. Ok we're good.
Paul goes up to the bear and tries to hit it with her greataxe. Nat 1s. Drops the axe into the mud behind her. Oh boy. The bear turns around and claws Lane, bringing her down to 2 HP in one attack (I should mention the party is all level 1 to start, so not very strong). CCU hand walks his way over and launches himself leapfrog style at the bear but misses and rolls away. Everyone regains their bearings and actually starts hitting their attacks and covering for Lane and CCU. Paul ends the confrontation by grappling the bear with her godly strength and lopping it's head off with her axe. Bright side, they got experience, and due to Lane's hunting perks, they get a pelt cloak, tons of meat, and bone as well. Also Lily learns how to conjure loafs of bread from her book. Yay?
The characters all acknowledge that this has been the strangest way they've ever met others, and begin introducing themselves (finally XD). They go to sleep inside their shelter and the session ends.
Suffice to say it was chaotic XD. But everyone said they had fun, even though they threw off every contingency plan I had for them. Hopefully, the next week's session goes more smoothly. I'll update as we go. If you have suggestions for what I could do with these guys I'd love to hear it! Thanks for reading!
This thread is going to be used to keep a journal of things, and maybe get some suggestions for future things I could do, as I am by no means a perfect GM. But yes, let me start with the first session of "Godfall."
Godfall: Session 1
So before we begin the tale of how this went downhill at 100 mph, let me tell you of the party my players put together (I should note I'm a pretty loose GM when it comes to homebrew stuff so long as it isn't game breaking, so be prepared for that.)
Firstly, we have the group's Rogue, who is a female Tiefling named Lane (this character is the experienced player). Lane specializes in stealth and social skills and has a wolf companion because of her background as a hunter. She prefers dealing with things quickly and efficiently, and is quite handy with long range weapons.
Secondly, we have the Druid; a female Changeling named Vi. Vi has a split personality, and as such has a few different talents, but among her best is her ability to invent things thanks to her background as an engineer (this will be explained in the campaign background~). She's always looking for ways to merge science and magic together to make new and impressive weapons and helpful items. She is also a very adept thief...
Next, our first homebrew race user of the campaign. His name is CCU-155, and he is a Ceph Ranger. Ceph's are the enemies from the game Crysis from what the player has explained. He too specializes in stealth and espionage and has a background of Futureborn. He comes from a distant future for a mission he cannot fully remember. He comes with a race ability of Energy Shield which grants him half his max HP's value as temp health until the end of the round. It has a two round cooldown.
Then we have the female Demigod Bright Lord (our first homebrew class of the campaign). This player loves Paul Bunyan from the Fate games, so their character is pretty much Paul right down to the name and appearance (interesting since it's a she, but hey, that's how it is). She specializes almost exclusively in brute force as she is physically the strongest of the party. She is the daughter of the Sun God Escanor with a background of Herald of the Gods. Her race gives her the additional ability to always know when someone is lying to her (Divine Awareness). Her quest on Earth is to find her blue ox, Babe, and return to the realm of the gods to take her father's throne.
Next up, a Geitlan named Stronghorn. His class is the Berzerker, and he really loves spears. He's the second physically strongest of the party, and is not bright whatsoever. He has negative values in his social skills...and his exploratory skills. However, even without much intelligence, he still has the heart of someone who wants to be a hero thanks to stories he'd heard in his childhood. He wants to find a childhood friend who left his village mysteriously one night.
Finally, we have the female Human Witch Doctor named Lily. Unfortunately, this player rolled terribly during creation. She pretty strong physically, but she's a magic user, yet her wisdom and intelligence are pretty low. Her charisma is negative modifier and her deception and social skills are also below zero. I asked this player if they wanted to respec or reroll, but kudos to them because they said no, and that they'd stick with what they got. Lily is very anti-social, and devotes most of her time to trying to learn new magics and techniques. She was more or less disowned by her family, and so is used to being alone.
Now, the campaign is intended to focus on a world in transition; a world moving away from mysticism and gods to science and technology. It is a world on the edge of war and many people, races and even governments are taking advantage of this uncertain time to acquire power. I won't be saying too much more than that in case my players read this somehow.~ Now, on to the journal!
Our story starts in an Elven town called Yolarem in the Republic of Alfheim. The sky has been overly cloudy, rain has not stopped falling for weeks, and thunder constantly rolls across the sky. We begin by focusing on Lily who is looking through the town's strangely empty library. She is searching for books on conjuration, and eventually asks the librarian where she might find them. This librarian is not exactly fond of other races as he is a High Elf, so he sort of treats her like an idiot right off the bat. She deals with it for the moment, and he leads her to the books she seeks. As she's looking through them the Geitlan, Stronghorn, comes busting into the library. Rather clumsily, I might add, as he tears the door off it's hinges. This obviously pisses off the librarian quite badly.
Before he can say anything, Stronghorn heads straight to the children's section of the library looking for a map of the area. He finds a child's drawing of it, and attempts to copy it down (this ends up in Lily trying to help him find some paper and ink to do so, but neither can do it because of some really terrible perception checks XD). During this search, Stronghorn knocks over a bookshelf and several books fall on him dealing a small amount of damage.
Finally, the librarian, who's seen quite enough, manages to keep his composure and ask them if they need assistance if only to stop them form causing more damage. Eventually, Lily and Stronghorn both sit down and begin their work with Lily studying, and Stronghorn copying the child's crudely drawn map. (if you thought this was ridiculous, just wait XD).
On the other side of the river that cuts through the center of Yolarem, Lane, her wolf Mark, and Paul are asking around the Red Light District (pretty much where the elves of mixed descent get sent by the High Elves on the other side of the river). They ask in both the tavern and the inn about any strange animal sightings (alluding to Babe, which Paul doesn't seem to understand would be confusing to directly ask about). All they can gather is that animals tend to not wander around this area due to it's high level of pollution and sickness, and suggest they look on the other side of the river.
On the High Elves side of the town, a disturbance in the marketplace is happening; CCU-155 isn't exactly conspicuous, and his strange appearance is causing some panic. Nearby, Vi has her eyes transfixed on him as well, but for more interested reasons than fear. She closes in on him and starts studying him, which he allows, but reluctantly. Before she can really introduce herself, a couple of guards show up and attempt to arrest CCU. He rolls a strength check and breaks the shackles effortlessly. This scares the guards who run off to grab reinforcements. (Now, most players would probably clear out, but they instead stuck around and talked. They're newbies so have mercy on em here).
Those guards came back with alot more reinforcements; in total, seven guards. They once more attempt to arrest CCU, but he acts hostile and a battle ensues just as Lane and Paul are entering the marketplace. Instantly the two guards with the highest initiative spear the crap out of CCU, bringing him down to negative health value (I use a bleed out mechanic in my games instead of saving throws for death, because I feel it adds more tension to situations). A short brawl continues in which Vi uses her bowstaff to break a guards nose, and Mark the wolf rips into another's ankle. Paul, surprisingly, drops her greataxe and surrenders, prompting the others to do the same. End combat.
Everyone is about to be arrested, and rightfully so to be honest, until CCU decides "Yknow what would be a great idea? Self destructing!"
After some discussion of if he could even do that, we decided he could by rerouting power from his armor to the armor core. This resulted in him exploding and disintegrating six of the seven guards and wrecking the marketplace. Also, he died. Naturally.
However, I start everyone out with 1 Inspiration, and I told him he could spend it to somehow survive the explosion. I made it so instead of dying, he was reduced to 1 HP and lost his legs and all of his inventory. Surprisingly, he was ok with it.
This explosion drew the attention of Lily and Stronghorn in the nearby library as well as alot of townsfolk. TL;DR a huge misunderstanding happens, and the group has to flee town before more enemies come for them. They run into the nearby forest for a couple hours before stopping. Because of the rain, I let the players know they should find shelter or they might catch some sickness. Paul and Stronghorn start taking down trees to build a shelter (rather than go find a big tree or a cave or something). Also, Stronghorn broke his hand punching a tree. He also threw a log so hard into the sky it never came down while they were getting the walls built.
After that fiasco, and tending to CCU's open wounds, the group starts to eat and a Brown Bear comes wandering by. The group immediately goes into attack mode.
Lane jumps on the bear's back, digging her daggers into it's neck. Good start. Lily comes out and whacks it over the head with her medicine stick. It doesn't do much other than make it angry. Then Vi for some reason decides to throw her shield Captain America style at the bear. She misses, hits Lane and knocks her off the bear, and the shield goes flying off away from anyone's immediate reach. Oof. Stronghorn comes out, and attmepts to shove his spear up the bear's backside. He misses and gets it stuck in a tree trunk due to rolling a nat 1. At this point I'm doing my best not to laugh at them, but the player controlling Lane is getting slightly irritated. We take a quick break to cool off and make sure everyone knows they can think before acting. Ok we're good.
Paul goes up to the bear and tries to hit it with her greataxe. Nat 1s. Drops the axe into the mud behind her. Oh boy. The bear turns around and claws Lane, bringing her down to 2 HP in one attack (I should mention the party is all level 1 to start, so not very strong). CCU hand walks his way over and launches himself leapfrog style at the bear but misses and rolls away. Everyone regains their bearings and actually starts hitting their attacks and covering for Lane and CCU. Paul ends the confrontation by grappling the bear with her godly strength and lopping it's head off with her axe. Bright side, they got experience, and due to Lane's hunting perks, they get a pelt cloak, tons of meat, and bone as well. Also Lily learns how to conjure loafs of bread from her book. Yay?
The characters all acknowledge that this has been the strangest way they've ever met others, and begin introducing themselves (finally XD). They go to sleep inside their shelter and the session ends.
Suffice to say it was chaotic XD. But everyone said they had fun, even though they threw off every contingency plan I had for them. Hopefully, the next week's session goes more smoothly. I'll update as we go. If you have suggestions for what I could do with these guys I'd love to hear it! Thanks for reading!