Posts Tagged Outsiders

So this week the party finished the ground floor of the old moat house. The finished out in the southeast corner and I stumbled across a unique situation – at least in my experience as a player or as a DM.

The party’s gnome thief/illusionist decided to reconnoiter down the southern hallway and see what he could find. He felt that he was successfully being quiet and sticking so the shadows, so he proceeded with caution. He made his way into the last room and proceeded to scout the last room. He was using is infravision to scout for enemies in the darkness – and found none.

What occurred next was a unique situation, fueled by my fleeting memories of 9th grade Biology. The gnome was searching without torch or lantern, and using his infravision to search out enemies. Unfortunately he didn’t see the giant snake – a cold-blooded creature – hidden in the rubble of the southeast corner, in the rubble of room 12. Fortunately (for the snake) it senses prey purely by heat, and readily “saw” the morsel sneaking into it’s layer.

The gnome was duly surprised by the snake, but was able to call in reinforcements. What transpired was a rather quick and uneventful fight. However, it was a good learning experience for the gnome that even a successful Move Silently and Hide in Shadows aren’t assurances of being undetected.

Now, I have no intent of this blog being any sort of diatribe against 4e, but I think the following situation would never have occurred with 4e…

The party left from Hommlet and proceeded toward the town of Nulb and the Temple of Elemental Evil. Along the way they came across the ruins of the old moat house, which had been the forward post for Nulb and the Temple. Their approach and entry into the moat house saw them defeat a set of giant frogs (luckily the halfling didn’t get swallowed), and a poisonous giant spider (luckily the tank saved versus poison AND remembered to lead the spider into the open so the whole party could engage).

Between these two encounters the party ended up low on hit points and low on magic. They ended up resting to heal in the main entry room (#5). They were summarily ambushed by the brigands which had been holed up in the northeast corner of the boat house. Though the fight was arduous, they triumphed due to good tactics and quick thinking. The party ended up loosing the healing they had gained, and were still without any offensive or healing magic.

At the end of the day (literally), they were left with one party member down, two near unconsciousness and their sole healer out of healing magic. With a large pool of hit points to recover, and only one healer, the party ended up spending three complete eight hour cycles of “cast – rest – pray” in healing the party. Full resting only allows for 2hp to be recovered each day per character (3hp if someone has Healing and Herbalism), thus the healing load is carried by the loan (gypsy) priest.

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So our group has started a new campaign and gone back to playing AD&D; somewhere about 1.75e (as Richard calls it).  We’re using the 2e rules, but allow for character classes from the 1e Player’s Handbook, Unearthed Arcana and Dragon Magazines.  So, why go back to AD&D?

Last summer we started playing a 4e campaign, beginning with H1: Keep on the Shadowfell.  Having a pre-made module is essential to our campaign, as I don’t have the time to create my own adventures.  We made our way through the module, and it was rather enjoyable.  However, by the time we were finishing, we were by and large disillusioned with 4th Edition:

• Combat seems to be the sole focus of 4e. Game mechanics such as non-weapon proficiencies (2e) or crafting skills (3e) are basically non-existent in 4e Core Rules.  These aspects of D&D have always been a large part of my games.  Additionally, the module had very little in the way of traps, puzzles or uses for the party’s skills.
• Combat was extremely slow. This has been a major point of discussion in the #dnd Twitter world, and is a generally accepted fact.  A single encounter would take an hour or two, with much of the time spent picking which power to use (for both players and DM).
• Combat is an exercise in micro-management. There are simply too many conditions to keep track of – Marked, Bloodied, Eye-bitten, etc. (more…)

One key aspect of being a DM is adjusting to what the party throws your way, and boy did they throw a curve ball my way…

My gaming group has recently started a “1.75e” campaign, embarking on the classic AD&D adventure “The Temple of Elemental Evil”.  In preparation for the first sessions I read and reread the 20 pages of the module that outline the who, what and why of Hommlet.  I felt I was comfortable to play out the conversations and scenarios the party would generate upon arriving in Hommlet.  Little did I know that I wouldn’t need 90% of what I had prepared…

This first session had the players developing their back-stories in a communal fashion, developing their motivation for adventure, and setting out for Hommlet.  Playing true to the module’s origins, the campaign is set in Greyhawk, and the party is based in Verbobonc – which is to the northwest of Hommlet.

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