dimanche 26 octobre 2014

[5e Actual Play] The Hornberg

So as I got back from Laos yesterday we kicked off our new 5e campaign today.

We have 2 brand new players, replacing one who moved back to the US. The new players are new to RPGs as well as D&D so had to go a little slow.



I had sent links to the 4 micro settings I posted here and they selected The Hornberg.



We spent a while making characters. I would guess maybe 2 hours all in as we needed to explain the basics of rpgs as well as 5e and there are a lot of choices to make which I think is daunting to new players. Reinforced my opinion that the starter set was wise to go with pregens.



The PCs



Sir Jurgens - Human Paladin - Justicar background

Justice - Sidhe (triefling) rogue - Urchin background

Feramol - Sidhe (high elf) Sorcerer - Sidhe Court background

Arvin - Human Fighter - Folk Hero background

Ander - Human Warlock - Fey-touched background



So this means 3 of the PCs chose backgrounds from the RPGsite over book ones, I was pleased with that as I think it shows we have a knack for creating interesting stuff. Of the players 3 have no concept of min/maxing and only 1 really thinks about optimization at all so its the appeal of the backgrounds that grab them.



Bringing the party together.

I was heavy handed here as I wanted to get into the meat of the scenario.

The trieling rogue was already tied to the paladin as an agreed background. That meant it was easy for me to have the rouge pose as the paladin's servant. the paladin was there at the behest of the Order of Stone to investigate local goblin raids. This means that the folk hero slotted right in as the town's "champion". The elf came in as a local representative of the Sidhe court. I added the Warlock with the weakest of links and I will revisit that to give him and the elf more motivation for the next session.



The Game

The scenario is a basic seven samurai set up. Goblins raiding a village the PCs need to defend the village and eliminate the threat.

The party meet with the village elders in the tavern and it's obvious the villagers are a hopeless apart from Arvin the PC warrior.

That night a random encounter (using a set of magic cards) turns up Pilgrims who arrive with a story of attacks from a group of goblins 10 miles off. This allows me to build some character give a few hints about goblin tactics the PCs might encounter in the future, let's the paladin try out some paladin powers, lets me feed in a bit of religious background about the setting and let's me set up a Healer in the village in the person of a cleric. As I am using a HP/wound system I figure this might be a Useful Thing as the PCs only have a paladin for healing.

The paladin persuades the pilgrims to stay for 3 days whilst their injured guard can heal.



Next day with a local guide the PCs track the goblins back from a raid they made 3 days ago (I expected them to head off to where the pilgrims were attacked the night before but ... players what you going to do eh?) They head into the woods a mile or so from the village. They draw an encounter with a snake and we see that surprise can be a real bitch as the snake gets the drop on the rogue and the scout and bites he rogue who easily kills it next round but .... the poison is a bitch and the rogue fails a couple of con checks and is down. The paladin just makes it to him before he dies of the poison (2 death saves failed 1 made) and uses laying on hands to neutralize the bite. The party are now scared shitless of snakes and give up on scouting ahead. A short rest later the Rogue is on 3hp and no wounds (as the poison doesn't actually cause a wound) and the party decide to head back to the village so they can get there before nightfall.

Another random encounter, this time with a spiked Fluke - which I played like a Giant leech with a bloodsucking special attack (2d6 per round after it engages, strength save to stay attacked after a successful hit) - nearly kills the paladin's horse but the party survive the sorcerer's critical fumble with a cantrip (I chucked in a random wild magic serge as a result) and there we left it.



Overall.

Worked well need to provide a bit more meat to a couple of PCs next time round. PCs all feel like novices which is great but as they get used to their skills and stuff I think they will be fine. They need to get to second level before they get into a big fight with those goblins as I have given a big chunk of foreshadowing that the goblins are much better organized than you might expect so if they try to toe to toe with them they are likely to loose folk pretty fast.





[5e Actual Play] The Hornberg

Aucun commentaire:

Enregistrer un commentaire