Friday, September 10, 2010

Dungeon Master's Desktop + First (second but reseted) gaming session

So, here is basically what DM needs. I don't have combat grid and minis, so they don't count.

  1. Rulebooks. As you can see, my D&D books are for third edition. I also own Forgotten Realms Campaign setting, but thought that as we play we develope our own sandbox world (too lazy to read yet another book as I gotta finish reading Player's Handbook and DM's Guide).
  2. Some dice. I got D3, several of D4, D6, D8, D10, D12 and D20. I got also lots of D10s for World of Darkness games, but they are separated. Watching my dice cup I realized that I most definately need more dice!
  3. Paper, pens, ruler for notes.
  4. Laptop. Can find pictures with google to show player who is a bit D&D and fantasy noob (she is a vampire afterall) and we play via msn to record every. single. word. to describe the situation, mood or character conversations.
  5. Cola drink.
About session

Everything started when LuvMina (yes, that's the way how her sorceress' name is spelled) walked towards the great city of Lankhemaar. Walking towards it she noticed a farmer in trouble. His cartwheel was busted by a rock and all his pumpkins all over. And his ass (animal, not butt) was eating grass smirking. LuvMina decided to help him (non-combat encounter + quest).
LuvMina got to city, but found it big and confusing. Luckily halfling* decided to help her find the way to carpenter... for 2 sp. I rolled opposite (or competive or something) check for halflings thieving and LuvMina's spot.

- This is the part I am not sure how rules work, but I figured it out that if:
 -LuvMina successes but halfling fails LuvMina detects that attempt of thievery
 -Halfling successes but LuvMina fails halfling can snatch her purse/money pouch
 -Both success, then highest number wins (no tie in this situation that halfling can get her pouch but  - - - LuvMina spots it. That would be if LuvMina won the contest)
- Both fail and nothing happens, but halfling could try later again. 

Halfling (now named Francis Fanfingers) succeeded to snatch her purse (with result 20). So halfling got 2sp for taking LuvMina to carpenter and also got her purse. Nice deal! When they got to carpenter, LuvMina asked Francis to wait for her outside, but Francis insisted that he has something to do quickly, but he will be back. Detect motive roll for LuvMina wich she succeeded so LuvMina found that really, really, extremely suspicious. Still, she left Francis and went inside to do some cartwheel buying.
When paying, she noticed that her purse is lost! Damn you halfling! She asked from carpenter, does he know that halfling named Francis Fanfingers and I rolled D20 to determine, has carpenter heard rumours or knows him. 20! Yep, he is not allowed in carpenter's shop because he is a thief. Carpenter also knew two possible places Francis could be hanging out. So there LuvMina goes.
Tavern called Two Cocks Tavern (Kahden Kukon Kievari in finnish) was the place she first checked out and she could hear the noises of laughter and fun-having behind the door already. There halfling was ordering rounds for everyone with LuvMina's money.
LuvMina takes halfling to address him and even present town guard asks what's that all about. Halfling doesn't want to deal with guards (well, he is a thief) so she whispers to LuvMina that if they could sort it out somehow. LuvMina agrees.

That was our first session. No combat, little quest helping farmer with his broken cart (totally optional, he was there with his pumpkins and trouble just for mood. Idea was that everyone was ignoring that poor sod. But character's, they are opportunists and try to do everything you describe). Few dice rolling and LOTS of fun.

As much as I have hated D&D/D20 (previous rants here) I have to admit I loved it! It was fun. No vampires with plans and angst, no spacetravel from trouble to trouble. A bit more computer gamish adventuring what is not so serious still being genre realistic.

And big inspiration for D&D is now blog Playing D&D with Porn Stars. Great read, and Zak has so many good ideas. Very creative DM he is.

Also I am going to try out his city creation idea with writing down numbers as streets and areas and stuff. That sounds fun.

So, today second session of D&D! What kind of deal halfling has for LuvMina to pay his dept of lost money he spent in tavern? Does farmer get his cartwheel before he dies in old age waiting? What happens next?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It sounds like the first session was great! Here are some ideas you might consider:

- Since you only have one player, you could have Francis work off his debt by adventuring with LuvMina as a second character for battles. You could run him as an NPC who helps her... most of the time. Or, she could run him as a second character for herself (probably not the best option for now).
- Francis can try to recruit LuvMina to a life of crime - if she helps him steal something bigger, she gets to keep half of the money, thus making her money back (a darker campaign, maybe).
- Francis is persuaded to change his ways, and tells LuvMina about a reward available for capturing another thief. Francis can lead LuvMina to the other thief's hideout.
- Francis has a cousin who is a cartwright who will give LuvMina a free cart wheel to help make up for what Francis stole.

Unknown said...

@onlinedm: Great ideas! I thought that this could lead for a mini adventure and am concidering those options. Obvioulsy LuvMina cannot get all stolen money back as it's spent on ale at the tavern, so halfling is going to propose something to get even profit. (+ reason for quest).

I also thought that this could be thief NPC to accompany character, but it depends does LuvMina like the character or not when that desicion comes. If player doesn't like this halfling, then they both go their own way. No point forcing player to accompany with NPC he doesn't find interesting/fun.

And yes, it was fun! For World of Darkness dudes as we are :P