Game Masters’ Roundtable of Doom #4 – To be or not to be . . . a Killer GM

Today I am venturing to The Game Masters' Roundtable of Doom.  This is my first foray (though the fourth offering of the Roundtable), so, we shall see how it all goes.  There may be some adjustments made to this post as I get a handle on getting things just right for the Roundtable.

The Game Masters’ Roundtable of Doom is a meeting of the minds of tabletop RPG bloggers and GMs. We endeavor to transcend a particular system or game and discuss topics that are relevant to GMs and players of all roleplaying games.

If you’d like to submit a topic for our future discussions, or if you’re a blogger who’d like to participate in the Game Master’s Roundtable of Doom, send an email to Lex Starwalker at gamemastersjourney@gmail.com.

This month's topic comes to us courtesy of Lex Starwalker.

There is a wide spectrum of lethality in RPGs, and there are GMs who fall on every possible point within it.  These range from GMs who run campaigns where PCs can never die to the other extreme –GMs who delight in killing PCs.  Where do you fall on this spectrum?  How lethal are your games and why?  How do you handle PC death if and when it happens?

This is a great question, and one that I think has an answer that is not just dependent on the Game Master, but also on the players and the game being played.  Know your audience and know your game.  If you run Call of Cthulhu, Dungeons & Dragons, and Star Wars, Edge of the Empire all exactly the “same,” I think you come out with some anomalies.  Of course, if that meets your players expectations, that might be fine.  There is never just one way to be a GM.  I do believe that the rule of fun should prevail.

Here is how I have done things in my present style of being a GM (because, as the poser of this month’s question, Lex Starwalker knows, being a Game Master is a journey of learning and change).  I think the most important thing is to know your players’ expectations (or if you don’t know them, you need to set them).  Fundamentally, I see role playing games as a way to have fun, and as the GM, you are in a leadership role to help create the fun.  If what you do violates the players’ expectations, or you go against the expectations that you set for the players, that conflict is going to reduce the fun. 

Some of the first GM advice I ever got, was from a few pages towards the back of the 1981 game, Stormbringer (from Chaosium).  In the “Hints for the Game Master” section in the first edition of Stormbringer, Ken St. Andre (with Steve Perrin) wrote a subsection entitled “The Deadly Game Master.”

The literary genre of swords & sorcery fiction is a particularly gory branch of heroic fantasy, and that is what this game simulates.  Inevitably, this means that some players are going to get into situations that they can’t get out of, and their characters will have to die.  It is important that they realize this before the game ever starts, and that they know that you bear them no personal animosity.  Then, when the character’s number comes up, kill him without regret.  As a GM it is poor form to become so fond of some character that you let him cheat death when his luck finally runs out.

Today, I agree, up to a point with Ken’s advice.  As you can see, the advice already assumes that you are in a particular genre of game.  It is not general advice for all RPGs, just ones in the “particularly gory branch of heroic fantasy.”  Also, it advises that you at least admonish the table and set expectations.  I think now, the Game Master and the players, at least in any long term game, need to agree on expectations.  Back in the day, I did kill a fair number of Stormbringer characters.  However, even with an agreeable audience and a lethal game, I do today tend to lean towards mercy at a cost, rather than outright kill a character, if that keeps the story and the fun going.

For the way I run things now, I have internalized the lessons of 13^th Age (by Pelgrane Press and Fire Opal Media) and Dungeon World (by Sage Kobold Productions).  In 13^th Age Rob Heinsoo and Jonathan Tweet suggest that player characters should not just die fighting some nameless monster, and instead offer their own (optional) Meaningful Death Rule.  I think I have generally internalized this approach for many games (with some exceptions, see below).  I think the advice in Dungeon World, that you as GM need to be “fan” of the characters is a complementary one this.  As a GM, on the one hand, you have to put up obstacles and provide threats to the safety and wellbeing of the PCs.  On the other hand, you don’t generally want death to be some random occurrence that does nothing to propel your story or motivate the other characters.  If you are a fan of the characters, such random and meaningless events are discouraging.  If a character that you like dies, you want it to be a great and glorious death, within the meaning of the game.

Fundamentally, though, my rule is know your audience, know your game (and be a fan of the characters).

So, if I am running Marvel Heroic Role Playing for a bunch of tweens, their expectation is that there is not going to be any player character death, AT ALL.  Sure, Spiderman or Black Widow might get knocked around, there certainly are going to be some narrow escapes and heroic rescues, but none of the player characters is going to get shot through the heart and die, game over.  This is reinforced not only by the audience, but of course by the game play.

On the other hand, if I am playing Call of Cthulhu with college friends, death and madness are expected.  The players know going in that a Call of Cthulhu investigator likely has a short shelf life, and those that manage not to die, slip increasingly into madness and disability.  Still, I have run some long Call of Cthulhu campaigns, and I have followed the advice from the early editions of the game.  If you have a choice of killing a PC or taking out an NPC to establish the danger and the threat, take the NPC every time.  It helps if you have established ties to the NPC and that the character is not just another faceless “redshirt.”  However, to get things started with something that causes likely instant death, you kill the guy next to the PCs, and not one of them.  Once the threat is established, you follow the play of the PCs.  Are they reckless and foolhardy, then they do deserve death “without regret” should it come to them.  On the other hand, if they play their characters and show smart play, as a fan, I am going to hold back on any instant death options, unless it really builds the story and is part of the fun of the game (because sometimes messy, or pathetic or horrific death is the fun of a horror game).  If danger is enough, then, we work with danger; maiming, near death, madness, that’s all on the table, but I don’t tend to allow random death that would inhibit the story.

So, what about something in the middle of the spectrum of Superheroes where no one ever dies (at least permanently) and horror, where everyone dies or goes crazy eventually?  This is where most adventure based RPGs reside: Dungeons & Dragons, RuneQuest, HeroQuest, 13^th Age, Numenera, Dungeon World, Dresden Files, The One Ring, and et al and etc.  I have to admit to mostly not killing characters.

Over time, I have certainly seen many player characters in these games die.  However, for the most part, I prefer to see the PCs flee, or get captured, or suffer some kind of loss other than death.  This is, I think, largely because I like to run campaigns.  Campaigns need continuity, and killing characters, and particularly the dreaded Total Party Kill, tends to disrupt what is happening with the story that I have been enjoying building with the players over time.  Where death does occur, the story of overcoming death becomes the next logical plot point (e.g. becoming indebted to the healing temple to return the dead companion to life, etc.).  So, usually, the holodeck safeties are, broadly speaking, on when you step into my campaign.  The optional Meaningful Death Rule is going to be in effect.  Characters face other losses, but death is reserved.  In part, that meets the expectations of my players.  They put time into crafting characters, their histories and motivations, and they grow them at the table.  If some wandering damage is likely to kill them, for little to no reason, that is neither fun nor motivating for the kind of gamer who usually sits at my table.

On the other hand, there is a completely separate and apart kind of play, and that is the one-shot.  This does not mean that I turn into the lethal “save or die” GM just because I am running a single evening game.  After all, it should be fun, and getting to play is what is fun.  If we have four hours of play set up and you die in the first ten minutes, how much fun was that?  If dying means no longer being involved, that rather cuts down on the fun.  You can set expectations that characters are disposable and can be replaced, much like clones in Paranoia, but then you are playing a genre of game that is not going to necessarily have wide appeal. 

You do, however, play a one shot to have a different experience and tell a different kind of story.  Lethality can be very much part of that story, and can really be part of the fun with the right group.  I do not, in general, go in for Deathtrap Dungeons.  I don’t think I run them particularly well, so why do something that does not serve the players?  Still, if you know you are going into a deathtrap, you know that death is part of the fun of the game.  It is exciting to escape the trap, but you know your number is likely to come up eventually, and spectacular death is one of the possible rewards of play.  I will give it to you without regret. 

I don’t mind playing a high character death game as a change of pace, but for me, RPG play and the stories it generates is really about having a significant chronical of events for the player characters.  That might, at times, be punctuated by a death, but that is going to be rare and meaningful.

Individuals and their Blogs Participating in this Discussion (to be updated as necessary; posts will be made for the Roundtable between April 5 and April 11)

+Marc Plourde at http://inspstrikes.blogspot.co.uk/

+James August Walls at http://ilive4crits.blogspot.com/

+Scott Robinson at http://strangeenc.blogspot.com/

+Lex Starwalker at http://www.starwalkerstudios.com/blog/2015/4/6/game-masters-roundtable-of-doom-4-how-lethal-are-your-campaigns

+John Marvin at http://dreadunicorngames.com/

+John Clayton at http://blog.filesandrecords.com/

+Peter Smits at http://planeataryexpress.blogspot.com/2015/04/pcs-and-killing-there-of.html

+Arnold K.

Heroes of the 13th Age: Part 6-Dungeon Ecology 101--Everything IS trying to kill you

Our last 13th Age play session happened last month, and we found a few hours this last weekend to get in a play session for May.  With one combat after another, I thought we might settle down into more exploration and role playing for this session.  I even mentioned this to my son.  He laughed.  He was right.  Read on to find out what else they decided to fight in this session.

The adventuring party still consists of

Cerise, the Spirit-Touched Cleric

Indigo the Gnome Cleric
Zazz (and once again the name changes), the Half-Elf Rogue
Legolis, the High Elf Ranger
Hey Watchit, the Half-Orc Fighter
Lief, the Human Bard
Delthen Eversoar, the Human Paladin
Rolen Stillwind, the Wood Elf Sorcerer, and
Yoshi Antien, the Samurai flavored Half-Elf Fighter

All players were present and accounted for, and we had a fun, if shorter, session.

Initially, there was a firm conviction on the part of the party as a whole to continue down the main passage forthwith, and to find the way down to the crypt level, where they hoped to find the Elf-slaying spear Alkarg and keep it out of the hands of suspected Man-Orc Seth. 

Ominously, they heard the cry of the Owlbear echo down the main passage.  Again, they went over the fact that, though the Owlbear was in the courtyard cistern (upon which they had placed the old partially broken stone cover, it was possible that there was some access to the cistern from this lower level, as that would be a convenience that would fit the design of an early Imperial fortress (according to researcher Monk Crommard, one of the two essentially helpless civilians that they were having to drag along since the party had rescued them).  Listening carefully and creeping forward, they determined that the Owlbear had not yet broken its way into this level, but, it seemed possible that it could.  They noted that the main 20' wide passage continued after taking a sharp left turn off into the darkness (towards the sounds of the hungry Owlbear).  They noted several side passages, and, after the turn, several old tapestries covering possible openings on both sides of the main passage.

Then they go distracted by the side passages.  Retreating back up the main passage, they first proceeded twenty feet down a side passage where they found a door, which had been jammed by the settling over the years of the stone lintel.  However, they also noted that some animal or animals had, over the years, chewed open a significantly large opening at the base of the door.  After some examination and discussion, they concluded that probably giant rats were the culprits.  They also decided that someone needed to check the room.

There was a lot of joking about how it was a low entry and that the Gnome, Indigo, ought to fit right in.  Indigo was having none of it.  Every dutiful to the party, Samurai Yoshi set aside his pack and larger weapons, drew his wakizashi and crawled through the hole.  Unfortunately, despite years of training, Yoshi's characteristics are no great shakes for alertness, and he was easily surprised by the giant spider dropping onto his back as it crossed the threshold.

Unfortunately for the spider, it totally failed to make an effective attack. 

Round 1

Everyone rolled initiative.  Yoshi (with Improved Initiative and a high DEX) scored a 27, to easily win ahead of the spider and everyone else.  That was the good news.  He planed to stand and fight the spider in the room.  However, the superior initiative allowed him to wisely scan this "battlefield" before standing, and he spotted the five additional spiders rushing down the webs that lined the ceiling and walls of the room.

New plan.

He quickly backed out, shaking off the Spider and grabbing his larger weapons while shouting "burn them!!"

Now, among the party is one spider expert, Indigo.  He was very interested in the spiders and was ready to use his background (+5 Raised Spiders) to assist in the battle.

The rest of the partly simply let loose, initially on the spider they could see at the base of the door.

Legolis the Ranger, however, missed his bowshot.  1 point miss damage.

Leif the Bard shouted thunder with his Battle Chant.  This was, unfortunately, a fumble.  Borrowing from Dungeon World, I asked "What happens?"  The players quickly decided that the blast of thunder blew the door open, so that their plan to pour flammable liquid under the door and ignite it was spoiled, and also permitting the six spiders all to boil out of the doorway more easily to attack the party.  Oops.

Hey Watchit, the Hal-Orc Fighter swinging his mighty tree. . . missed, doing miss damage.

Zazz the Rogue dashed forward, still hoping to used lamp oil to some effect.  However, her attempt to parkour her way forward and throw the oil flask forward in a cool action-movie like slo-mo coating spiders and then igniting was interrupted by her fumbling her roll.  In order not to land among the spiders coated in oil herself, she invoked a maneuver using a combination of DEX and her Raised in a Tavern background (which is perhaps the most broadly useful background ever perpetrated in the game; it is also highly amusing, and thus the player gets to push it a lot).  I let her roll.  She rolled a 20.

Okay, we had a fumble followed by a critical.  Both had to be honored.  So, the oil flask skittered harlessly into the web strewn room without breaking.  The Rogue remained uninjured.  However, she was now front a center and made the main target for the spiders, and slightly tangled up in the doorjamb such that she could not easily retreat.

Dark Paladin and Inquisitor Delthen Eversoar then charged forward shield first to hold the door.  Normally, he could have placed himself alone between the monsters and the rest of his companions, but Zazz was all tangled up beside him, so that put both him and the Half-Elf Rogue at the top of the target list for the spiders.

I ruled that three spiders could make their attacks that round.

I rolled three attacks (1 for Delthen and 2 for Zazz).  I rolled 3 consecutive 3s.  Stupid d20!

Shimmering with holy light, Cerise, the Spirit-Touched Cleric loosed her Javelin of Faith.  Miss.

Finally the spider expert Indigo had his turn.  He rolled a phenomenally good roll using his background to find out what odor would attract the spiders away back into the room (a helpless fear drenched halfling was the suggestion of one of the players).  Using his Illusion Domain, Indigo created the smell in the room, forcing all six spiders to make standard saving throws (11+).  All of the spiders except the first one failed the save (yes, that's five failures in a row--stupid d20) and turned to charge back into the room to retrieve the mysteriously appearing yummy snack.

The last spider continued to hang at the top of the door frame, attempting to bite Delthen's head.

Rolen the Wood Elf Sorcerer focused his Scorching Ray at the last remaining spider.  Fizzle.  Nothing.

Round 2

Yoshi, with the initiative, lunged forward over Delthen's shoulder with his katana, and he missed . . . no wait, hit!  Thank you Escalation Die!  Max damage!

Legolis also rolled a miss, and invoked his Archery feat to reroll, which was unfortunately a miss.

Lief determined to try to charm the spider, using his Linguist feat and enormous CHA.  The spider was not impressed.

Zazz then pulled herself away from the door and made a quick crossbow shot at the spider, making a hit!

Delthen then swung his mace, powered by his Smite Evil, and landed a 14 point damage blow.  However, he then went on to try to flick the spider off the doorjamb with a maneuver, but failed.

Cerise sent blazing forth another Javelin of Faith, this time landing a critical hit.

Indigo also fired off his Javelin, but missed.

Rolen then cast his Scorching Ray to minor effect. 

The spider was mostly done for, but not yet dead.

Round 3

Before the spider could make a move to retreat, the swift moving Samurai Yoshi thrust into it again with his katana, slaying the arachnid.

With the immediate combat ended and the other spiders still looking for a helpless hafling that they could smell, but could not find, the party backed into the main corridor to regrroup and continue to explore.

A couple of things became apparent.  First, as Lief looked down to the left turn in the main corridor, off of which was another side passage, he began to feel a distinct foreboding.  Second, Rolen, the Sorcerer, realized that the cursed mark on his left hand reacted with what seemed like hungry interest every time it could "see" Legolis (whom Rolen nearly incinerated last time with a critical fumble).  If the curse were a being, it would be saying something like the Wild Things in Maurice Sendak's book "I'll burn you up I love you so."

Both revelations got the appropriate "well, that's not good" reactions.

Moving down the corridor, they noticed that the next side passage was filled with bones.  Indigo suddenly sensed a powerful emanation of undeath from the passage.  Lief suddenly realized what was bothering him, as he had the same feeling he had experienced when he was ensorcelled by the Tribe of Necromancers (his One Unique Thing).  From the dark, some THING started to call his name and to call him to the service of the Lich King.  The voice told Lief that they could glorify the Lich King and leave his living companions behind (by killing them).

That was enough for the party, who all prepared for a fight.

Round 1

Zazz was first, tied with the suddenly rampaging giant rat skeletons (mooks).  The Rogue easily slipped into the shadows with a Shadow Walk.  There were ten skeleton rat attacks, with more coming out of the piles of bones.  Most missed, one fumbled on Rolen, preventing another's attack, but Cerise, Indigo and Lief were hit, with Lief being hit critically.  The hit on Cerise caused her Halo power to do down, much to her chagrin.  However, the little rat skeletons did not pack much of a punch otherwise.

Delthen and Hey then counterattacked, quickly destroying three skeletons.  These, however, were just as quickly replaced from a total pool of 20.  Yoshi had a swing and a miss.  Cerise's Javelin of Faith missed.  Lief began his Song of Spilt Blood and then hit with his Battle Chant and Rolen made a successful Elven Grace roll, allowing him to make an empowered Scorching Ray attack.  Legolis also scored an arrow hit.

At this point, out of the bones sprang a rag clad, tattooed Ghoul Necromancer.

Gnome Cleric Indigo then called on the gods of his people and blasted out with his Turn Undead spell.  This had an immediate effect on the rat skeletons, two more of which disintegrated, and the rest became dazed (-4 to hit, as if they were not rolling badly enough already).

Round 2

Zazz stepped out of the shadows behind the Ghoul Necromancer, but only nicked him with her dagger, rolling a miss.

All the rat skeletons attacking missed.

The Necromancer turned on Zazz.  Madness burned in his dead eyes.  Dark power shimmered across the foul tattoos etched on his corpse body.  The temperature dropped around Zazz, as the cold of the grave seeped into the space between her and the Necromancer.  Her breath frosted in front of her.  With a cackle of glee, the unclean spellcaster unleashed his blast of necromantic energy.

Zazz carefully stepped aside as he missed, leaving his lethal attack nothing more than a cold spot on the wall (stupid d20!)

Delthen, Paladin of Darkness, charged forward swinging his mace at the Ghoul's head.  The Ghoul neatly side stepped and it was Delthen's turn to miss. 

Hey mashed some rats with his tree.

Lief unleashed the thunder of his voice, smashing more rat skeletons.  The magic of his voice also allowed Zazz to freely disengage from the Ghoul.

Yoshi drew a bead on the Ghoul, and his fumble almost put the arrow into Delthen's back.  Fortunately, the arrow pinged harmlessly off his armored shoulder.

Cerise, suffused again with holy light, cast forth the Spirits of the Righteous, dealing a serious, but far from lethal blow to the Necromancer.

Rolen's Elven Grace failed him in this round, yet his Scorching Ray was effective, not only frying another skeleton, but also setting the rat mooks alight for ongoing damage.

Legolis fired his bow at the rat skeletons, rolling a critical hit.  The table suggested that he had made a double shot, loading two arrows onto his string and hitting two separate rat skeletons, destroying both!

Indigo hurled his Javelin of Faith and did damage AND befuddled the Ghoul.

Round 3

Zazz, having taken a few steps back, let loose with her Flying Blade attack, arcing her throwing glaive at the Ghoul.  Once again, the capering spell caster stepped aside, only getting nicked by the miss. 

The Ghoul again called upon the cold of the grave to attack Delthen and Zazz.

And . . . nothing.  Swish.  He did save and end the effects of being Befuddled.

The few remaining burning rat skeletons tried to attack, but failed.  One fell apart. 

Hey missed his main swing, but the slight impact of his tree on a miss was enough to shatter the last charred rat skeleton.

Delthen had a swing and a miss.

Cerise called upon the powers of light and cast forth her Javelin of Faith once again, this time landing a solid hit on the foul undead Necromancer.

Yoshi's arrow missed its mark.

Lief's Battle Chant only rattled some old bones.

Rolen's Elven Grace once again failed him, but his Scorching Ray sizzled the tattooed skin of the Ghoul.

Legoli's arrow found its mark.

Indigo's holy Javelin of Faith also struck.

Suddenly, the fearsom Ghoul Necromancer was down to very few hit points (13).

Round 4

Zazz loosed another Flying Blade attack, with another glaive and hit . . . for 12 points.

The Ghoul, now with one hit point, sought to disengage with Delthen and dive back into its river of bones.  However, that (stupid!) d20 roll failed.  So it instead launched itself in a frustrated physical attack against Delthen.  It bit and slashed and battered the Paladin, finding every chink and weakness in his defenses, doing 21 points of damage after scoring a special attack with its rolll.

The Paladin, battered and bleeding swung his mace . . . miss.

However, the one point of miss damage, the slight glancing blow, easily shaken off usually, felled the dread Ghoul.

End of combat.

Once again the, the adventurer's triumphed!  Everyone celebrated by digging through piles of bones and trash in the Ghoul's lair to find coins, gems, jewelry and other sundries!

Treasure!

Delthen sucked down a healing potion, because he was about, literally, dead on his feet.

In the distance, they heard again the wild cry of the Owlbear seeking some way to enter the level.

They decided they needed to find a place to rest, and indeed, after suffering so much punishment, with their recoveries nearly all exhausted, they had earned a full rest.

But where . . . ?

Find out next time as we continue Heroes of the 13th Age!!!

Thoughts on 13th Age: Running My First Session

This is my second post regarding Pelgrane Press and FIre Opal Media's 13th Age based on the first sit down session my RPG group, and I played together.  The first session summary is here.

So this blog post is more about the impressions and ideas I had while running my first d20 session in a very, very long time.

Out of the gate, I have to say that the game ran really smoothly.  I had one moment of being at a loss when I could not remember the target number for my Wyvern to try to disengage, but my players forgave me looking one thing up.  Aside from that, it was really easy to run.  It did help that I had done a lot of prep with cheat sheets, etc. for everyone ahead of time.

We had previously spent a session creating characters and back story (you can read about it here), and between the time of that first session and the first session of play, I did try to do a lot of preparation.  13th Age does definitely lend itself to some very easy improvisational play, but I wanted to have some things at my fingertips and not have to have any pause or interruption of play while I looked things up.  I had options which allowed me to flow seemlessly into different possible scenarios (so, for example, I had created a number of options for encounters, at a couple of different levels of difficulty, just so I would have them in my back pocket). 

I also prepared some goodies for myself and the players in the form of visual aids and manipulables.  The game was starting out with the characters being given a mission based on their ties to the Priestess and the Elf Queen.  I came up with a thumbnail of information for the representatives of each Icon and illustrated each NPC with some cool art from the web.  I also prepared a batch of magic items in a format modeled on the sheet that is up at the 13th Age resources page that was made to go with their 2-hour demo.  I found the format to be easy to adapt.  Then I took it further!

On top of just the flavor text and description of each item, I also added some art in the background (and learned a new skill with Microsoft Word 2010).  I also added an Icon relationship for the items (which made sense for me, since I knew already what Icons were in play).  On top of that, I cut out each little card and laminated the whole bunch (thanks to the foresight of my beautiful and talented wife owning a laminator).  After reading about and listening to a number of actual play sessions with 13th Age, it was clear to me that a pretty common way to build ties between characters and their Icons, as well as to use positive Icon rolls was to award some magic item goodies to aid in quests and missions.  So, I was ready with fun items which doubled as little props when we did Icon rolls.

So, the first thing we did was to make Icon roles, and then I had to interpret them.  We had some feast and famen issues.  A couple people got a number of positive rolls, and others had none.  Still, everyone was cool with it.  Some characters got special items (and in some case complicating secret orders) in accordance with their rolls.  Others will have to wait.

There are still a number of unused Icon rolls waiting for the right moment later in the adventure.

Also, I rolled an additional Icon influence as a wild card (I did this with a d12 and a Fudge d6 (+, blank, and -) and I subtracted or added from the d12 roll thus getting pontential range of 0 to 13.  I decided 0 and 13 would both mean the Prince of Shadows, and otherwise assigned numbers to each of the other Icons.  I have no idea how that may have skewed the math, but in any case, I rolled the High Druid.  This gave me some pointers that I will be keeping in mind throughout the adventure.

One of the first things it did for me was to help me decide on what "random" encounter on the way to the adventure we would have to test drive the combat system.  Looking over my monsters, I decided the most primal and wild one that I had, that would potentailly be relatable to the High Druid was the Wyvern I had prepared.  This was at the outer limit of the kind of monster a first level party could take on.  On the other hand, there was only going to be one of them, and in fairly favorable terrain from the players point of view (since they could all attack with melee or missile weapons or spells without getting in each other's way).

I held Mr. Wyvern aside for an opportune moment, and have also been thinking about other ways to show the interest of the High Druid in the outcome of the adventure.

I should say again, I am running an old AD&D module from Dragon Magazine #78.  It provided a sturdy framework for me to reskin it as a 13th Age adventure.  So far it has been working very well because of how easy 13th Age is to put together monsters, traps and challenges that are both fun and challeging without going off the deep end on the player characters.

In preparing to start off on their adventure, the player characters definitely capitalized on their backgrounds tro gather information.  In fact, several characters just had outstanding moments in getting things to prepare for their trip and things that they might find.  If they can critical that much in combat, they may make short work of the opposition in this adventure.

Once they finally set forth, I moved things along until I brought out the Wyvern to attack.  The sentries did an exceptionally good job in alerting to the Wyvern, so I did not get any kind of real benefit for the poor beast trying to glide in silently.

The combat was fun and went well.  It concluded in round 4, so we got to see the escalation die climb and add in effect, and most everyone got a moment to shine in the fight.  I had a phenomenal evening as far as roilling monster initiative (I rolled a 20 for the Wyvern, and addint its bonus, it was at 28).  I had a terrible night for doing anything else with my monsters.  The Wyvern hit once, would have hit again, but got zaped with an illusion die from the Gnome Cleric, and once it was clear that the meal was fighting back too much, the Wyvern could not save to disengage, well, to save its life.  Although it would have been fun to put a little more fear into the players, all in all, the test of how combat ran went very well, very smoothly, and I think we pretty much had everyone at the table thinking about what different options they had and what their powers and talents could do.

Except the Bard.  Granted, his player is about 10, and although he picked a super complex class with lots of powers, he didn't use any of them, and instead just hit the Wyvern with his sword (scoring at least one critical hit).  I'll work with him next session to get him more used to the awesome stuff his character can do with songs, spells and war cries.  For this session, he was having fun, and that worked.

We had good roll playing moments and good tactical thoughts as the adventure unfolded, and I won't go blow by blow on that, since I already wrote up the session.  One thing that I did in managing the "failing forward" was that we had a missed roll when trying to come up with some important information.  There are a number of ways to handle this, but my "on the fly" was "I'll gladly give you this information now, in return for something bad cropping up later."  Now, I did not make this explicit, and I think we are still finding our table play style.  It would probably help buy in if I did make things more explicit, but we are still finding our way on that. 

As far as party actions, the great thing was that the group was totally able to avoid the linear appporach to problem solving, especially when they reached the "dungeon" site (a old ruined fortress with dungeons beneath).  Yes, there was a passageway in and an Ogre guarding the front, but they managed to get a map to the layout and they scaled the wall at a different point.  The only thing that tripped them up there was that I had the "bad thing" hit them as they were exploring the wall.  I did not hose them completely arbitrarily, but I gave their scout, Zara the Rogue, some very hard saves to make, and she did not make all of them, thus alerting the occupant of the room whose roof them were going to go over, as to what was happening.  On the whole, I am okay with the outcome because while it puts the party in danger, it also keeps the pace of the game and ramps up the tension and excitement without arbitrarily harming or killing any party members.  We'll see how it plays out.

So, now we are really going to have a run through with the combat system.  While the party can only see one Orc right now, they are about to find out just how many monsters there are waiting for them.

We closed the session just before the clash really got cooking because we were running up against our late limit because parents and kids gotta sleep.

As far as after action, I had a chance to think about how I had structured the encounters in the fortress, pretty much following the pattern of the original AD&D module.  Having played a first session allowed me to go back and fine tune things a bit to make things work in a way that I think will flow more smoothly and be more fun.  We'll see when we play in a little over a week.  The game, however, gives me a lot of confidence in how I am preparing things.

I have also prepared a few more fun handouts and developed some more fun things for the dungeon levels below.

I think one of the things I have leared with the flexibility of 13th Age is that keeping things static is neither necessary nor, often, desireable.  Tell a good story, let everyone have fun, challenge the player characters, but play (as they say in Dungeon World, which has also been influencing me)) to find out what happens.  Fine tuning along the way and on the fly feels very natural now.  And having the tools like the Icons, Backgrounds and One Unique Things are really helping me fit the individual adventure events into a much larger, and I think much cooler, framework for the future.

I am really loving the game, and I can't wait to see where it takes all of us in the future.