Private Game Notes for Campaign Start

[ralphmelton.livejournal.com]

Here's what I had written for the first session:

In this opening scene, the PCs are gathered in a tavern in a sleepy small town (without their gear handy), when the floor collapses beneath them, dropping them into a combat with dire rats and the rat-men that are hunting the rats...

My intent is that the PCs should be badly outclassed, such that their goal is to hold off the attackers long enough to escape to safety. But I suspect that with the number of players and their tactical skill, they might be able to win out over the opposition. But that's okay; I can construct an argument that they should go back into the dungeon either way. Either "You've fought those nasty critters and won--clearly it is your duty to go back" or "You've seen how nasty those critters are. You 'win' the job because of your experience."

When I ran through the combat solo to make sure I knew what the issues were, the sorceror's use of the Sleep spell was the major deciding factor; with it, the PCs were rattled, but not hurt too badly. The PCs that I've seen so far includes a sorceror, but she didn't take the Sleep spell. I'm thinking to let this go without comment until after the first combat.

--- this post was made public on August 24, 2001.