City of the Dead, Session 2
Friday night was Session Two of my "City of the Dead" D&D game. Yes, we played two weeks in a row. In fact next Friday it will be three weeks in a row. We compared our calendars in advance (during Session Zero) to find 5 Friday nights that worked for everybody. It just so happened the first three were consecutive weeks.
After an overnight "random" monster encounter and tracking it to its lair in the morning consumed the entirety of the first session I was eager to get the party into the main plot line this week. As I've written before, there's an art to balancing "random" monster encounters so they enrich the story without subtracting from it.
Storytelling Improv- A Swing and a Miss
The group screwed around enough that they deserved two more incidental encounters. Rather than just say "Nothing happens!" to speed through it I decided to mix it up by engaging the group in an improv storytelling exercise. My aim was this would be (a) relatively fast and (b) fun. Alas it was neither as the players struggled to understand the simple instructions I offered for the storytelling improv. I cut the improv exercise short and then declared that the next encounter was rained out. Literally.
"It rains all night. You're cold and miserable. So is everyone and everything that would otherwise attack you, so nothing happens." 😅
This got the group on to the outskirts of Graymount, the titular City of the Dead.
Passing Notes FTW
One thing I hated back in the day was the GM and one or more of the players passing secret notes. I hated it as a GM because an incoming secret note generally meant one of the players wanted to do something hostile toward others in the group and expected to be allowed to waste their time at the table acting solo to do it. I hated it as a player because, well, the same reasons. That said, I do pass notes in this game- from GM to player, not vice-versa- and it's a good thing.
The purpose of the notes I send players now is to give them a tidbit of information their character knows that the rest of the group doesn't. Usually this is something connected to unique knowledge their character has, like "Trolls regenerate wounds except for acid and fire," and, "The lost cleric you're looking for almost certainly would have visited this cemetery first because it's in line with his faith to do so; you might find a clue to his whereabouts there."
I could just announce these bits of insight at the table when one player asks what his/her character knows about the topic. In the past that's what I've done because it's simplest. This game I've pre-written notes addressing questions the players are likely to ask (or should ask) and hand them over at the right time. This allows the players to share character knowledge in their own voices, which is really cool.
Clues Work, Clues Fail
The group found the cemetery outside of Graymount, the first stop on the main plot line. They immediately decided to try going somewhere else totally off script first. 🤣 With the help of one of those pre-written character knowledge notes they thought better of it. It was awesome that the note helped them make this decision organically.
In the cemetery the group fought through a small group of low-powered undead. They were heading to a walled garden in the middle, the place they figured would have whatever they were looking for. But when they encountered an evil spell protecting it they decided to go explore everything else first.
Silly me, I though that when the group signed up for a mission loosely described as, "Find the evil stuff, figure out what it is, and defeat it," they would interpret signs of evil as proof they're on the right path. Instead they took it as a "Wrong way" sign, turned back, and tried every other direction first. 🤣
More Improv- This Time it Works!
There was a section of the cemetery I forgot I detailed when I created a huge map I shared with the party. On the far side of the cemetery was a small monument on a stone platform. They decided they wanted to explore that.
As the players passed a statue on the platform they demanded to know what it was. Just "a statue" wasn't good enough. They bailed on all the evil stuff which was their mission but now they're sculpture critics. 🙄
I turned the question back to them. "You tell me." I paused as they looked confused. "Someone tell me what the statue is."
"It's a man who's a warrior, with a sword!" Hawk volunteered.
"That's awesome," I said with a smile. "That just changed the nature of the monster that's about to attack you. You're going to like this!" 🤣
With the sound of stone scraping against stone the lid slid off the sarcophagus beyond the statue. Out of the coffin climbed... a 4-armed skeleton! With a curved short sword in each of its bony hands!
Oh, the group had fun fighting that monster. A half dozen ghouls joined in from the sides to keep everyone busy. The cleric nuked the ghouls in a single shot (yay, Turn Undead!) to astonished faces around the table, then a cheer went up as the wizard finished off the mutant skeleton just before it finished off the party's scout.
After an overnight "random" monster encounter and tracking it to its lair in the morning consumed the entirety of the first session I was eager to get the party into the main plot line this week. As I've written before, there's an art to balancing "random" monster encounters so they enrich the story without subtracting from it.
Storytelling Improv- A Swing and a Miss
The group screwed around enough that they deserved two more incidental encounters. Rather than just say "Nothing happens!" to speed through it I decided to mix it up by engaging the group in an improv storytelling exercise. My aim was this would be (a) relatively fast and (b) fun. Alas it was neither as the players struggled to understand the simple instructions I offered for the storytelling improv. I cut the improv exercise short and then declared that the next encounter was rained out. Literally.
"It rains all night. You're cold and miserable. So is everyone and everything that would otherwise attack you, so nothing happens." 😅
This got the group on to the outskirts of Graymount, the titular City of the Dead.
Passing Notes FTW
One thing I hated back in the day was the GM and one or more of the players passing secret notes. I hated it as a GM because an incoming secret note generally meant one of the players wanted to do something hostile toward others in the group and expected to be allowed to waste their time at the table acting solo to do it. I hated it as a player because, well, the same reasons. That said, I do pass notes in this game- from GM to player, not vice-versa- and it's a good thing.
The purpose of the notes I send players now is to give them a tidbit of information their character knows that the rest of the group doesn't. Usually this is something connected to unique knowledge their character has, like "Trolls regenerate wounds except for acid and fire," and, "The lost cleric you're looking for almost certainly would have visited this cemetery first because it's in line with his faith to do so; you might find a clue to his whereabouts there."
I could just announce these bits of insight at the table when one player asks what his/her character knows about the topic. In the past that's what I've done because it's simplest. This game I've pre-written notes addressing questions the players are likely to ask (or should ask) and hand them over at the right time. This allows the players to share character knowledge in their own voices, which is really cool.
Clues Work, Clues Fail
The group found the cemetery outside of Graymount, the first stop on the main plot line. They immediately decided to try going somewhere else totally off script first. 🤣 With the help of one of those pre-written character knowledge notes they thought better of it. It was awesome that the note helped them make this decision organically.
In the cemetery the group fought through a small group of low-powered undead. They were heading to a walled garden in the middle, the place they figured would have whatever they were looking for. But when they encountered an evil spell protecting it they decided to go explore everything else first.
Silly me, I though that when the group signed up for a mission loosely described as, "Find the evil stuff, figure out what it is, and defeat it," they would interpret signs of evil as proof they're on the right path. Instead they took it as a "Wrong way" sign, turned back, and tried every other direction first. 🤣
More Improv- This Time it Works!
There was a section of the cemetery I forgot I detailed when I created a huge map I shared with the party. On the far side of the cemetery was a small monument on a stone platform. They decided they wanted to explore that.
As the players passed a statue on the platform they demanded to know what it was. Just "a statue" wasn't good enough. They bailed on all the evil stuff which was their mission but now they're sculpture critics. 🙄
I turned the question back to them. "You tell me." I paused as they looked confused. "Someone tell me what the statue is."
"It's a man who's a warrior, with a sword!" Hawk volunteered.
"That's awesome," I said with a smile. "That just changed the nature of the monster that's about to attack you. You're going to like this!" 🤣
With the sound of stone scraping against stone the lid slid off the sarcophagus beyond the statue. Out of the coffin climbed... a 4-armed skeleton! With a curved short sword in each of its bony hands!
Oh, the group had fun fighting that monster. A half dozen ghouls joined in from the sides to keep everyone busy. The cleric nuked the ghouls in a single shot (yay, Turn Undead!) to astonished faces around the table, then a cheer went up as the wizard finished off the mutant skeleton just before it finished off the party's scout.