HotDQ: Ep. 2: The Raider’s Camp (part 2)

Our four adventurers continued on through the night, following the trail of the Greenest invaders. The bee encounter had taken some time, giving the raiders opportunity to arrange a rearguard.

The party happened upon such a gathering while sneaking closer to a small cooking fire. Some kobolds and guards had taken up camp and now tried to make supper. It was obvious that the two factions did not get along well. While Kerr hid from plain view, the rest of the party closed in and tried to fit in as cultists. The guards fell for the lie and welcomed the PC:s for supper. After some subtle questioning that didn’t lead to any new clues (the cultists were recently drafted) the party decided to kill their newfound “friends” while on guard duty. Successful ability checks were made and the kobolds scattered as soon as their humanoid masters were no more.

HotDQ: Ep. 2: The Raider’s Camp (part 1)

We started this adventure with describing and playing out Thryggvaels introduction, mentionedin his own post. When “Tryggve” joined the other characters in the Greenest keep, he found them to be quite a loose outfit, only tied together by a common enemy, the Cult of the Dragon, who had ransacked the town, humiliated Victor’s noble pride and now threatened all of the Greenfields.

HotDQ: Ep. 1: Greenest in Flames (part 2)

Last time, we left our player characters (the PC:s) in the  middle of the first episode. They had arrived in a beleagured Greenest, vowed to help the townsfolk, found an old tunnel under the keep and saved some villagers from being burned alive inside the temple of Chauntea. The night had more in store for them, though, as this action-packed episode continued.

The Dragon Attack

While the rain kept falling, the PC:s  stealthily arrived at the keep and returned the saved villagers to the courtyard. Governor Nighthill was suitably pleased, but regretted that he couldn't offer any rewards until the night was over and the damages could be calculated. The PC:s managed to trick an unwilling Escobert into providing his own healing potions, however.

Suddenly, explosion-like loud noises erupted from the parapet. The party headed up the ladder to find several guards under attack by the large blue dragon himself! Groups of guards fell to a single lightning blast as the azure reptile swooped by. They soon realised that they couldn't do much about the situation, although Kerr had to be talked into not jumping onto the dragon mid-flight.

Back in the safety of Nighthills headquarters, the PC:s learned that the local mill was under attack by invaders in dark cloaks. Through a spying glass, they also spotted the invader leaders on the town square; a large half-dragon and an armored woman seemed to be in charge of the looting operations. Governor Nighthill was also very interested in securing a prisoner to be interrogated once the PC:s made it back.

Milestones

The Dungeon Master's Guide suggests two systems when it comes to gaining levels and developing characters. There are experience points and there are milestones.

A problem

The old XP model is a classic and I think it comes naturally to most players. Defeat a monster, save the prince or disable a trap and gain an amount of XP that corresponds to the difficulty of the task. Gain enough and you will eventually get over the next level threshold. However, I think that 5^th edition’s worst rule is the encounter building and XP budget system. In it, the character’s levels define a set number of XP to gain each day. It scales according to monster challenge rating and number of individuals in an encounter. Trying to figure out a well-balanced fight is a chore which involves cross-referencing two or more tables.

Furthermore, the XP system in a table RPG poses several questions. For example, what exactly happens when you gain a level and how can you reach such insights that you are suddenly twice as powerful and equipped with a new set of abilities in the middle of a fight? What about that last, killing hit taught you all of that? Where/when do players gain levels, how does experience work on a psychological level and why are players rewarded when going on killing sprees?

HotDQ: Ep. 1: Greenest in Flames (part 1)

So it’s time to recap our first session of our first campaign in 5^th edition DnD. After discussing table rules, creating characters and explaining the basic rules as well as the inspiration system, we were finally off to Faerûn for some action. At this time I had been waiting for this moment for the better part of the last six months, so I was rightfully excited.

As you will notice, I decided on combining the missions available to the characters and let a central quest giver hand them out. I figured it would be a familiar scenario structure so that we could instead focus on the characters and explore the new system.

Let's talk table rules

Before kicking off our new campaign, Hoard of the dragon queen, I gathered everyone around the table in a conversation about table rules. I've played a lot of RPG:s with Ola and loads of tabletop and board games with David, but I haven't played that much with Björn, despite knowing him for a couple of years now. I guess I was inspired by office meetings since I wanted my players to know what I expected from them and what they expected from me.

These answers are probably not the solution for your group, but I thought it would benefit the community to share the topics we discussed.

Hoard of the Dragon Queen: Meet our adventurers!

So, we finally got together in my home town for a full day of nothing but DnD and the occasional pizza. It almost felt like christmas.

I decided a while ago that I wanted to run Hoard of the Dragon Queen as our first campaign. First of all because the campaign was last season's DnD Encounters scenario. I presume that it meant the first forage into 5^th edition for many players (beyond the starter set) so it would probably suit us as well. Secondly, I really liked following the adventures of other blogs through the first three or so scenarios. I couldn't wait to see what my own friends would come up with once we had our own run. Thirdly, I had all of the maps and other periferals at the ready, as well as having read the whole campaign for a second time recently.

Later on I hope to share some of the tricks that worked well for me as a DM in our first session, which saw us running through the entire first episode, Greenest in Flames. But today's update is devoted to our heroes.