For the first gathering of this group of family and friends (after character creation and other goofing around), I used B3 Palace of the Silver Princess as the introductory adventure. I know B2: The Keep on the Borderlands is the standard beginning for folks my age. However, the set up of in B3 Palace of the Silver Princess is a straight forward dungeon. I felt it was a great for inexperienced first time players.
(Which I now know is a requirement for running good sessions.)
Short
version of the introduction, which in hindsight, I should have provided to
them:
The palace had been taken over by evil forces, the delvers had to fight and find their way through, stop the cultists, and destroy the magic ruby.
The palace had been taken over by evil forces, the delvers had to fight and find their way through, stop the cultists, and destroy the magic ruby.
Game over,
initials on the screen.
The
module had pre-written “boxed text” to read to players as an introduction where
they would dream the entire backstory of the “My Lady’s Heart” ruby being
appropriated, evil forces attacking, and a Dragon riding Knight trying to come to
the rescue, but vanishing.
Many
modules had pre-written “boxed text” (text obviously set aside in a box) with descriptions for reading to the players. As I had become more experienced running a campaign,
I relied on them much less than my own descriptions, complete with exaggerated hand motions and silly voices. It should be abundantly clear why theater majors dive head first into these types of games.
I now understand this is interactive storytelling and had a group with little
role-play experience. Therefore, I needed to get the gang together quickly, in a logical
way, and give them practice inhabiting their characters.
To accomplish this,
I dumped the dream idea, and portioned out the information out, hoping the players
could share it with each other - in character. The Elves (the two oldest boys)
Freynarfir the Grey Elf Mage, and Metzen, the Wild Elf “Hunter” were sent by
their respective groups to a large Council of Elves meeting to address the fall
of this Kingdom. A mysterious (and for unknown reasons, very sad) Winged Elf
brought them information about the nefarious goings on at the Palace of the Silver
Princess.
The
two religious orders sent Cuzquena the Cleric of Tumi and Murcielaga Raffaela,
Paladin of the Order of the Bat (my Wife and Sister) to face the evil in the north
they saw portents of brewing. Additionally, the lawful good organizations hoped
their devout (and therefore theoretically mature) representatives could help keep
some control over the unruly adventurer types usually drawn to these types of
quests. (As did I.) Messages from their deities passed through the leaders of
their southern sects led to the holy warriors meeting up with the Elves shortly
following the conclusion of their Council Meeting.
Aside-
Two “our lives are fantastic sources of comedy material” moments came from Rosa
being pregnant with Anabelle when we played.
A) Rosa was scarfing down Pringles as we gamed. I said, “I thought you didn’t like those.” Rosa angrily shouted back, “Well, somebody does!”
She went back to hating them after Anabelle (who enjoys them as much as I, and the rest of the gamers did) was born. Actually, she hated them the whole time, yet still felt the need to eat them. Hence the angry shouting.
B) Anabelle refuses to play any version of Dungeons and Dragons, but impressed the Villanova Board Game Club when she told them she played, “in the womb.”
In
order to find their way to the Palace, these four needed to hire local guides. (The
two younger boys.) The unlikely duo of El Chicho the Gnome Guide (Thief) and Smokey the
Barbarian from the forest dwelling Raven Clan were coincidentally available.
Smokey had to be from the Raven clan as Barbarians refused to
associate with Magic Users at low level. (This is from First Edition, before the
current loosey-goosey “any character race and class can do anything they want”
school took over the game. Rotten kids.) Therefore, he believed Freynarfir was a simple, dagger wielding loon acting as a servant for the Great Raven spirit. (Phenix, his crow familiar)
The
other groups met up with the guides in the town of Ellivned, which I would flesh
out more later. Yes, it is Denville (the town I grew up in, and they lived in)
spelled backwards. A lot of this opening was very seat of the pants as I made
the choices of customization kinda last minute. Remember what I said about having
enough planning beforehand to allow for changes to help the game progress smoothly?
I
gave each group a piece of the back story based on information passed on respectively
by the mysterious and sad Winged Elf, portents from the gods, and local
knowledge. Then I told them to share that information to allow the group as a
whole to figure out where to go and what to do to save the kingdom.
As
this was the opening moments of the opening session, role playing was less than
stellar.
Players
were mostly talking at the same time and over each other-
“We gotta go find…
Um…
The thing…
That, uh...
A) Rosa was scarfing down Pringles as we gamed. I said, “I thought you didn’t like those.” Rosa angrily shouted back, “Well, somebody does!”
She went back to hating them after Anabelle (who enjoys them as much as I, and the rest of the gamers did) was born. Actually, she hated them the whole time, yet still felt the need to eat them. Hence the angry shouting.
B) Anabelle refuses to play any version of Dungeons and Dragons, but impressed the Villanova Board Game Club when she told them she played, “in the womb.”
“We gotta go find…
Um…
The thing…
That, uh...
this guy has…
I think in a cave…”
Voice from the heavens which may or may not have sounded somewhat like me-
I think in a cave…”
Voice from the heavens which may or may not have sounded somewhat like me-
“THERE IS NO CAVE.”
Player- “Um..I mean a castle… I think.”
The gang pretty
quickly picked up the hang of the game and interacted much better with each
other and me the more we played to keep the story flowing.
However, since it
was my first time as Dungeon Master in over a decade, and most of their first
times participating in a role-playing game EVER, it was still a bit of a zoo.
Therefore, instead of a full story of their passage through the palace to the completion
of the quest, I can only present some highlights of their adventures through B3:
Palace of the Silver Princess:
I do have to say,
for first timers, their hand drawn map making skills based only on my descriptions
were impressive. Kim drew them, with a bit of input from the rest. Though she'd played before she counted as a first timer, as I doubt she'd drawn a map in a game before. I know my groups never did. Therefore, it was probably inevitable how bored she and they got with that portion
of the Dungeons and Dragons process, giving up part way through the first level
they entered. Their and my groups were much more fond of relying on the notion of “We’ll worry about how to leave when
the time comes.”
Dan joined in
after the first session, therefore Johny Bigfeet - the aspiring Halfling Acrobat- didn’t get part of the back story to link up with everyone else. I think he was
trying to find his distant cousin Gonzo’s Stronghold, (Which would be their second adventure) and accidentally blundered into
the Palace of the Silver Princess to meet up with the rest of the gang thinking
it was the other abandoned - and now infested by monsters - castle in the area.
This is one hundred percent in character for Johny Bigfeet.
Before the Halfling's arrival, there was a battle where the six of them took on a Giant Crab Spider.
Note, while “giant” compared to actual spiders, and capable of an initial sneak
attack from a hidden location, it was roughly half the size of a normal man,
not giant in the “swallow an enemy whole” variety. The combat dice rolls for the
party were dismal enough (initiating a trend) that before slaying the beast,
all of the furniture in the room was destroyed.
In looting
various chambers, they found a scroll with the second Level spell “Web” on it.
That was part of the original module and a huge deal. For you non Dungeons and Dragons
folk, spell level doesn’t (or at least didn't) align with character level. Second level spells normally
weren’t accessible until the Magic User’s third level. Acquiring one
on their first adventure was a huge boon. They also found a magical throwing
dagger. The low level Magic User continued to gain usefulness.
Their spoils included two items that were custom additions for my own entertainment.
The first was a
ring. El Chicho put it on his little Gnomey finger, and found it granted invisibility.
(This was done during the years of the Lord of the Rings theatrical
releases.) However, it worked like the Universal Invisible Man films, meaning
he needed to shuck his clothes to be truly unseen. He kept it in his pocket,
Bilbo like, to be used later.
The second item
was a smoke filled, glass bottle, shaped kind of like one you’d expect to rub and
get wishes out of. They tried this and nothing happened. No one was brave
enough to break it, as it was fully sealed with no cork. Figuring it was magic,
Freynafir the Grey Elfin Magic User carried it with him as well.
Because, as
stated, it was a Palace not a standard dungeon, the layout was less of a
linear passage from one encounter to another, and more wandering through a
series of interconnected rooms.
The gang split
up searching through some fancy bed chambers. Cuzquena the Cleric was with the two Demi-human Thieves in the huge walk-in closet. They discovered some Zombies
stashed in there. (That happens when cults with evil magical gems take over a
castle.) Wielding her holy symbol of Tumi, Cuzquena turned the undead forcing them
to flee…
Player- “Um..I mean a castle… I think.”
Their spoils included two items that were custom additions for my own entertainment.
And were now facing the Gnome and Halfling who had been sneaking up behind them to get extra damage from a patented Thief back stabbing attack.
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