and so the campaign begins… (Part III)

Last weekend, I started a 4E campaign for my son Nolan and his friends. The plan is to take them through the entire Keep on the Shadowfell module, and then probably into Thunderspire Labyrinth, with possible detours into various level-appropriate Delves, or something from Monte Cook's awesome new project, Dungeon-a-Day, if it makes sense to incorporate it into the campaign. This is continued from Part II.

Well,
okay, it wasn't a dragon, exactly. It was a White Dragon Wyrmling … but the mini I
had for it was the young green dragon from the D&D minis starter set, and when I put it on the map, the excitement
and apprehension that rippled through the three of them was just
awesome. It made me excited for the day that they're near 20th level, and they're ready to fight the Black Dragon that I have a strong feeling is going to attack and destroy large parts of Fallcrest.

I reached back behind my DM screen, and grabbed my Sonos controller. I'd been playing some soft Celtic music since we began, but I'd queued up something special for this final encounter: the soundtrack from the Two Towers began to play, originality be damned.

"This isn't as scary as this mini looks," I said, "but it's
still pretty scary to your characters. You hear the cracking of ancient tile and the
scraping of giant claws. The room gets colder as you see a white dragon
wyrmling come around this corner. Do any of you speak Draconic?"

They all looked at their character sheets. None of them did.

"Can
we make, um…" Nolan's friend looked at his sheet, "…some kind of
check to see if maybe we catch the basics of the language? I mean, what
if Draconic shares some language roots with Eladrin?"

Normally, I
wouldn't allow something like that in combat except as a standard
action with a substantial penalty for the circumstances, but this was
one of those instances where the opportunity to give a player something
cool and fun – and reward his clever thinking – was too good to pass
up. They all made Nature checks, but none of them rolled better than 11.

"Sorry,
all you know is that this dragon is pretty pissed that you're in her
lair, and the Kobolds down here," I pointed to the end of the corridor,
"are coming toward you, now."

"Oh! It's a she!" Nolan's other friend said. "That's so cool!"

"The
dragon moves her head back and forth on her long, slender neck. She
cocks her head to one side and then to the other. Her lips curl back,
as she slowly opens her mouth."

I glanced up at them. Their eyes were all wide.

"She rears back, and a blast of freezing cold dragon breath surrounds you!"

As I rolled for each of them, Nolan noticed the change in the music. "Did you do that on purpose?" He said. I told him that I had.

"That's really cool," he said.

"Okay, the wyrmling's freezing breath fills the chamber, but Immeral and Koka flinch away in time to avoid any real damage. Kika, you weren't as fast, and take," I rolled damage, "17 cold damage, so you're slowed and weakened." In a happy coincidence, the music swelled.

"Wow we totally lucked out," his friend said.

"Totally," the other agreed.

"Speak for yourselves," Nolan said. "I'm bloodied."

The fight continued, the wyrmling getting a few good hits on them, but missing more often than not.

"Can I flank her?" Nolan's friend, who was playing the halfling, said.

"If you can figure out a way to get behind her," I said, "sure."

The
encounter as written in the book takes place in a simple 12×4 room with
nothing but a magical bearskin run on the floor, but I have this cool
dungeon tile that has these little statues down the long sides of the room.
I decided that it would create a better throne room than a plain, empty rectangle,
and it would give the PCs and monsters a few places to grab cover, so I
used that when I put the encounter together. At the moment, the PCs
were in a line, facing the wyrmling. On either side of her, there were
statues that blocked movement through the chamber.

"But you can't move through these statues," I said.

"Can I try to make an acrobatics check to swing around them?" He said.

I
thought for a second. "Um, I think that would be athletics," I said, "but yeah, of course you can try. If you miff the roll, though, he
consequences will be … dire. Either way, you'll provoke an attack of
opportunity."

He looked up at Nolan and their other friend. "If
I get behind her, I can get out of reach of her claws, and I do all
kinds of cool stuff when I'm flanking someone."

Yeah, this kid is really into being a rogue.

They agreed that he could go for it. I decided that this was incredibly difficult: DC 20.

"Make an athletics check," I said. Then, "are you sure you want to do this?"

But the die was out of his hand. It rolled across the table in front of him and landed at the edge of the map: 19.

"What's your athletics bonus?" I said.

"Plus 1," he said.

"Well, I can't believe you pulled it off, but you did it."

"YES!" He said, with a major fist pump.

"Let's see if the Dragon hits you, as you leap away," I said. She rolled a four.

"As
you crouch down to leap away, she looks down at you and snorts contemptuously. She
slashes at you with her left claw, but when it snaps closed, you've
already lept through her grasp! You lock your hands around the neck of
this statue, and spin around it, tucking your feet in and avoiding the
wyrmling's bite. You let go of the statue, somersault in the air, and
land on your feet behind her."

"That was so cool," Nolan said.

His friend and I both nodded. I realized that I was having a lot of fun visualizing the action in my head, and describing it to them all as evocatively as possible.

They
ended up killing the dragon shortly after that, thanks to Nolan's
successful use of his Daily Power, a Brute Strike that hit for 23.

"Drawing
on all your strength, focus and training, you pull your maul back and
let out a mighty Dwarven battle cry as you swing it around your head.
The wyrmling's eyes narrow, then widen in surprise as you land a mighty
blow right on her skull. She howls in rage as the force of your attack slams her head against the wall. She lets out a short, sharp, yelp of pain, and then collapses to
the ground," I tipped the mini over on its side and after a brief but dramatic pause I added, "you have
killed the dragon."

The three of them cheered.

"Yeah, baby! That's what happens when you mess with the Dwarves!" Nolan said. We all laughed.

Concluded in Part IV…

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34 thoughts on “and so the campaign begins… (Part III)”

  3. Detailed descriptions of the action is something I’ve struggled with as a (admittedly inexperienced) DM. I often wonder, though, at what point the responsibility for filling in the blanks passes from the DM to the PC.

  4. Enjoyed this series a lot. Mostly. Not so much when I think about all the fun Ive missed out on. Oh well.
    Yet, the most prominent thought in mind…what Celtic was on before Two Towers? ‘Blood of Cu Chulainn’ (also know as Boondock Saints intro theme) got stuck on repeat for a good bit of yesterday, along with some similar themed music.

  5. Ha ha! This is great. You did a really good job with the DMing, especially on the fly as it were. I remember DMing a campaign for some friends of mine back in 1990 or so with music on and everything and it turned out really well, but I had prepared everything ahead of time. A little improvisation on the existing template makes things seem a lot more interesting than if you are reading off the page the whole time, but at the same time you have to make the players feel like they have a choice at what they are doing even while you are funneling them through the places you want them to go.

  6. I also use my Sonos while gaming, and now I don’t know how I ever got along without it. Appropriate music cues and mood music really add so much to the atmosphere of the game, I think. (If I may, I’d also recommend the Gladiator and 300 soundtracks… actually, I have dozens of recommendations if you want them.)
    Sounds like everyone’s having a great time in your game, Wil.

  8. Wil – thanks for this, sincerely. Between this and the excellent podcast with the Penny Arcade/PVP folks, I went back out and bought the new Player’s Handbook and DM Guide, my first D&D purchase in about 17 years, and am now slowly working with a friend to bring the “Over 35, Married With Kids” Clan back into the mix! We will be feared in between bouts of grocery shopping, department meetings, and trips to the in-laws!

  9. Nice job!
    And now that I have finished with this, it’s off to the gym with my iPod to listen to the latest Penny-Arcade podcast that just came out today. 🙂
    1:08:48! Much better than 25 minutes. 😉 I can’t wait!

  10. Wow, what a fantastic group you have — there’s just NOTHING better, as a GM, than an enthusiastic party. Well, I suppose a enthusiastic party that actually manages to get together more than once per month would be nice… *grumble*
    Stupid real life interfering with my fantasy world.

  11. Wil: Thanks for these stories. It’s a pleasure to read about you experiencing this with your kid, and it’s making me look forward to when I can do the same with mine once they are old enough.
    And it’s making me long for some time to do this with a group of friends again. We usually ran our own home-brewed campaigns, but running these modules would probably make the process much easier to squeeze into our now more hectic lives. I haven’t played since 2nd Ed AD&D. Maybe I’ll use a recently acquired gift cert to pick up 4e stuff.
    Looking forward to reading more.
    Barry

  12. Wil, its truly been a pleasure reading these posts about your game with Nolan and his friends. It really encourages me in my own ideas and pursuits, I think I may need to break out a short story I started to write few years ago and fine tune it. 🙂
    Thank you so much!
    Matt

  13. Wil, you got me to go out and get the new PHB and get my game group (mostly boardgamers) to start planning an occasional D&D game – the Delves book seems perfect for us, since I don’t think we’ll get to establish a regular game – and I LOVE the podcast of your game! Thanks!

  14. I think the back and forth starts right at the character’s inception. Have your players draw up character backgrounds and find subtle ways to work those backgrounds into your campaigns. Your characters will start to get involved as they become more comfortable in the campaign. However, you will always have players to tend to be more hack and slash or puzzle orientated than role player.
    The hack and slashers can add a tactical depth to the combat and be rewarded for creativity in that way.
    As for the detailed descriptions. When I started out DM’ing myself back in the 80s I would write themes down on flash cards. For example, smells, descriptions, NPC personalities and of course actions in combat.
    You would be surprised but with a few pre-constructed flash cards of combat action dialogue you can add a whole new level to the game even as an “inexperienced DM”.
    For example one of the successful flank attack flash cards might read:
    “Your XXXX comes crashing/slashing/slicing down on the XXXX’s exposed flank. The XXXXX collapses to the ground with a sickening thud, twitching for a few more seconds in the final throes of life”
    With just a few of these for various combat attacks etc you will sound as fresh and exciting as any bard in no time!

  15. Wil,
    Do you know what you’re doing? You are writing a near perfect primer for people who have never played D&D before…or even just 4th ed before.
    By writing this as a narrative of the narrative of the game it’s really showing ‘what’ D&D is. I eagerly look forward to pointing some friends of my fiance toward these posts in the hopes that they’d humor me in starting a short campaign.
    All you need is a bit about their character creation…and maybe a follow up on your DM planning…either way KUDOS!

  16. This has been a hoot to read. I am sure it was fun to play no matter what side of the screen you were on.
    My first parents in law told my then wife that I would grow out of these kind of things. Reading your work in all its forms reminds me I am thankful I never did. Growing up does not have to mean giving up the things that bring true joy to our lives.
    I am thankful to see people like you find a place for it and one better share it with the next generation.
    Keep up the life well lived Wil,
    – Michael T.

  18. Thanks for sharing this with us, Wil. My fervent hope is that my daughter (now age 5) grows up to enjoy role playing as much as Nolan is.
    A bit selfishly, I also hope I get to DM her campaigns… 😉
    For now, we’re just beginning to play Shadows ( http://www.harlekin-maus.com/games/shadows/shadows.html ), and I’m learning how to craft scenarios to her level. I think I have the most fun when she decides on a totally unexpected course of action, and I have to rewrite on the fly. I don’t always succeed, but she’s a very forgiving PC. 🙂
    –Brett

  19. Wow. You’ve really got me excited for our next 4e session! I’m just getting back into tabletop RP and reading this has inspired me to flesh out my character and immerse myself in the game world. You make the RolePlaying > RollPlaying distinction very clear.
    Keep up the awesome!

  20. Wil,
    My friends and I are creating characters for a new campaign we’re going to have over Skype (we’re all over the place), and reading these recent posts (as well as Geek in Review) have really gotten me in the gaming mood.
    It’s been a few years since I last played D&D, but cracking open the Handbook and rolling the dice for stats feels just as exciting as it did 25 years ago. Glad to know I’m in good company.

  22. From your descriptions Wil, you are an awesome DM to game with. I can envision everyone sitting around the table, the anticipation and agony as each combat round happens. If your storytelling here is exactly the way you do it in person, its no wonder everyone seems to be having a great time. Luckily I’m headed to a DnD session this Sunday, so hopefully it will be just as enjoyable.

  24. Wil:
    I’m quite enjoying the color commentary. However, I can see your eagerness to be part of the action showing through. I know you’re encouraging the group to contribute more to the roleplaying aspect, so you might want to give the players the opportunity to provide their own descriptions of the actions they take.
    Of course, that can backfire on you.
    *** SPOILER ALERT – DO NOT READ IF YOU’RE PLAYING KEEP ON THE SHADOWFELL ***
    In the crypt where the altars of Bahamut reside, I gave the Draconian Paladin in the group (Yeah, he’s a Draconian, DEAL WITH IT, MONEKY BOY!) the opportunity to really role-play the situation in order to save the party from wave after wave of undead skeleton combat:
    “Can I pray at the altar?”
    “You have some time before the skeletons get there, so you can do that before they arrive.”
    “OK, I do that.”
    “Do what? Describe it to me.”
    “That thing you said.”
    “Make me *believe* it.”
    “I do that thing at the altar.”
    “I’ll just take a nap here. Let me know when you’re done ‘doing that thing’.”
    This is usually the point where I start making rooms out of Lurkers Above, Trappers, and Mimics for ceiling, floors and walls.

  25. I’m really enjoying this series of blog posts. Makes me miss the D&D I played in highschool. Perhaps it’s time to dust off the dice once again.

  27. Pretty cool. Eagerly awaiting the rest.
    As an aside –
    [Good Natured Ribbing] Just listened to part 5 of the Pod cast. Dude, who are you channeling after your character drops something. I thought some crazy psyco stepped into the room. [/GNR]
    Can’t wait for the rest of the podcasts too. Hey, if your ever in Maine, there’s always room for one more at my game table.

  30. Congratulations on another fine installment of your campaign story.
    You, sir, are doing a masterful job of helping me not only to see in my mind’s eye the encounter itself, but what’s going on in the room where you all are playing. I even feel a phantom twinge of pride when reading about how your players accomplish something cool.
    It makes me yearn for the days when I used to sit around in my buddy’s room on the floor rolling dice, dodging traps, and trying to be the coolest character I could think up.
    Thank you for taking me back there. 🙂

  31. Love, love, love these series of posts! Great gaming and very well written; I feel right next to the game. I can’t wait until my son is old enough to start with RPGs. Thanks so much for sharing this good time with all of us.

  32. Will you come to my house and run a campaign? Please? I’ll, uh, I’ll give you… um…
    I got nothing, but OMG. You run an awesome game.

  34. I’m loving these D&D posts. I even went down to the hobby shop to look at some books. I haven’t played in 25+ years, but am planning on DM’ing when my boys are a little older. Thanks for the inspiration!

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