(no subject)
Last weekend we did char gen stuff for Fadey's new game. I tried some sketches of the prospective character, really didn't like any of them. Hm. I should try working from a reference.
I ran my game on saturday. It was basically one big combat sequence, after some RP to give the PC's a feel for the villiage and some clues about what's going on. Now, I should ding myself right there, but, but! The sequence had a script and things that were set to happen, so it wasn't just a matter of chewing through a huge line of baddies.
Unfortunately I overdid it. Party wipe city. The sorcerer and thief got away but that was it. The basic problem is that I was chaining two encounters together, and the PC's decided to play veeery conservatively. IF they had put a dent in the initial wave, they could have dealt better with the second wave. (there's also no way for them to have known, but the powerful leader in the second wave would leave if 2/3 of his troops were downed)
The dracolich also got a REAL nice roll when he used his breath weapon on the bunched-up party, that helped a lot!
Fades suggests that perhaps I should be more explicit when I do these multi-wave things, and basically explain to the PC's that is what is happening. He may have a point. Ideally one would like to be able to figure these things out and not have it handed to them, but I think if I could have gone back in time and just told them, 'The second wave is on the way. You should really think about what you want to do next,' I would have. Or maybe snuck in another turn before the dracolich showed. Eh. It's easy to second guess.
I ran my game on saturday. It was basically one big combat sequence, after some RP to give the PC's a feel for the villiage and some clues about what's going on. Now, I should ding myself right there, but, but! The sequence had a script and things that were set to happen, so it wasn't just a matter of chewing through a huge line of baddies.
Unfortunately I overdid it. Party wipe city. The sorcerer and thief got away but that was it. The basic problem is that I was chaining two encounters together, and the PC's decided to play veeery conservatively. IF they had put a dent in the initial wave, they could have dealt better with the second wave. (there's also no way for them to have known, but the powerful leader in the second wave would leave if 2/3 of his troops were downed)
The dracolich also got a REAL nice roll when he used his breath weapon on the bunched-up party, that helped a lot!
Fades suggests that perhaps I should be more explicit when I do these multi-wave things, and basically explain to the PC's that is what is happening. He may have a point. Ideally one would like to be able to figure these things out and not have it handed to them, but I think if I could have gone back in time and just told them, 'The second wave is on the way. You should really think about what you want to do next,' I would have. Or maybe snuck in another turn before the dracolich showed. Eh. It's easy to second guess.