Public Game Notes, August 23, 2001

[ralphmelton.livejournal.com]

The game began with the characters talking in a tavern in a small hamlet. (The tavern is named 'the tavern', or at least that's what it's called by anyone who wants to refer to it. The town is called Shepford, a corruption of 'sheep-ford'.)

Prolix the gnome had just been giving some peasants a lesson in applied probability when he joined the group. There was some spirited discussion of the merits of the local beer with the foreign fop (named Torak).

The priest was the only one who heard the ominous creaking of the floorboards and the high-pitched squeaking. A moment later, the floor collapsed, dumping the whole group and an old cripple at another table into a large roughly circular room, with a wide passage leading north.

In a moment, four dire rats (one of them bleeding badly from a spear embedded in its left flank) were upon them. As the heroes grabbed broken table legs to use as makeshift weapons, the dire rats charged through the group, discovered that the corridor ended, and turned to fight.

In another moment, six bipedal rats, carrying short spears and wearing ragged leather armor, entered in pursuit of the rats. They were overconfident of their ability against the unarmored heroes, and entered combat against them too.

There were some severe losses before the course of battle turned, but no one fell. The heroes managed to kill the rats and drive off the rat-men. Even the old cripple (named Colm) was kept safe from harm. (He turned out to be a merchant, and was most grateful for their help; he promised them discounts on his wares if they were to discover what lay beneath the earth.)

The tavernkeeper was shocked at what had happened, for he had not had any cellar before. (Free drinks for everyone!)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ OOC Notes
I'd intended it to be a more asskicking episode than it was; y'all drove off the rats and the rat-men instead of having to retreat upstairs while they were after you. But that's just fine; good job, y'all.

Part of the problem, of course, was that I rolled a whole bunch of 1's on my attack rolls.

It's also the case that I was pretty darn generous about the attack capability of table legs (to the point that there was no real point in preferring a spear to a table leg). If I were to run it again, I might say that a table leg does 1d4 subdual damage (which makes it only slightly better than a fist in terms of damage; the big benefit is that you don't get attacks of opportunity.)

Thanks to Mike for running the rats. I think that did make things go more smoothly.

I think that we did a good job of keeping the game flowing quickly without having to check the rulebooks too much. I liked that.

I hope this was fun and exciting for y'all.

Comments

It worked

[mrpeck.livejournal.com]

I'm not exactly sure of the tactics of frightened dire rats but they seemed to survive long enough to stay interesting. ...and they almost took someone out. Sorry Lori!

Yeah, a table leg probably does 1d4 or less.

this was fun

[cellio]

I had fun with this. (Technical note: Ralph, your private notes are showing.) Dropping us into a fight without gear had one amusing (to me) effect: I (a sorceress) was as effective as I'll ever be in a fight, while the fighters were rather handicapped. I even considered punching a rat-man at one point, but decided that it would be out of character.

I need to read about targets of opportunity. I have the feat "improved unarmed combat" or some such, which means I'm never considered to be unarmed. I'm not sure how this affects targets of opportunity, or for that matter alertness. If I'm not (technically) unarmed but I am busy working on a spell, it seems unlikely that I'm really ready to defend myself.

I was playing the sorceress (temporarily named Flora due to the figure that was easily to hand). When I was picking spells, I considered Sleep but opted instead for Magic Missile (actual damage and no saving throw) and Magic Armor (defensive). I might (or might not) have done things differently if I hadn't known there was a wizard in the party (who can have Sleep on a day's notice, after all). I did take Daze (a cantrip), which is a single-target mini-Sleep. My goal is to have fun and not be too stupid, as opposed to playing the optimal game. I'm open to input from the other players on this.

The spell that looks like the most fun is Magic Hand, which ironically I did not use in this combat. I'm deliberately staying away from the illusion-type spells, because we have an illusionist in the party. Flora's probably going to grow up to be some sort of telekinetic, anyway.

I'm finding it hard to jump-start role-playing, and it's been long enough since I played in one of these that I don't remember how long it takes to get into that groove. This is a result of my own introversion, not a game property. (Playing a high-charisma character will be an interesting challenge, as I'm not that way myself.)

I think the only one of us who really got off to a running start in terms of role-playing is the foreign beer snob. With luck the rest of us will get comfortable soon.

rats and rat-men

[cellio]

It seemed fairly obvious to me that the rat-men were chasing the rats, and that they might not be after us. I didn't take any hostile actions until they attacked us, and I don't think anyone else did either. I wonder if we all came to the same conclusion, or if that was just chance.

Re: this was fun

[ralphmelton.livejournal.com]

Private Notes: One 'private notes' was me exposing my private notes since the situation to which they referred was past.

You can't see all 6 of the posts there, can you?

I've now edited that 'Private Notes' field to express that I've made that public.

Attacks of Opportunity: Preparing a spell will expose you to attacks of opportunity (unless you convince me otherwise). My interpretation of the Improved Unarmed Strike feat is that your fist counts as a weapon. But casting a spell invites attacks of opportunity even if you have a weapon in hand. (You can cast a spell on the defensive, which means you take no attacks of opportunity, but you have to make a Concentration check to get it off.)

You might want to choose a name other than Flora. (Though I don't mind if you keep it.)

Charisma: One interpretation of Charisma that D&D provides is that of strength of will and personality. (Though it doesn't contribute to Will saves. Another little quirk of the rules.) You might interpret her high Charisma as a tremendous strength of will that imposes itself on others, without being immensely extroverted.

Roleplaying: The players seem a lot more dedicated to roleplaying than I was. That's exciting for me--I certainly want to be supportive of roleplaying (especially roleplaying that's fun for everyone) but I don't intend to get fascist about it.

Re: rats and rat-men

[ralphmelton.livejournal.com]

My plan had been that if the PCs were losing badly, the rat-men could be purely after the rats, and if they were winning, the rat-men could add extra challenge.

I think that Prolix's Color Spray did happen before the rat-men threw any spears.

Re: this was fun

[cellio]

Private notes: Yes, it's doing what you want.

Attacks of opportunity: I expected spell-casting to expose one to attacks; after all, you've got other things on your mind.

Thanks for the other comments. I think role-playing will be fun; I don't claim to be any good at it. But it'll be a fun challenge (within the limit that we should still be a cooperative party, not a bickering one).

Re: rats and rat-men

[cellio]

I think you're right about the color spray, now that you mention it. So it's all Prolix's fault. :-)

Re: It worked

[indigodove.livejournal.com]

Oh, no problem -- that's what monsters are for.

And, had my character died, her big sister would've appeared to avenge her...

Re: this was fun

[indigodove.livejournal.com]

I agree -- the foreign beer snob made it easier to jump in!

I think it'll take us a couple sessions to find our characters. My druid is kinda right on the line between introverted and extroverted, so that will be interesting...

I think this will be a good group to play with :-)