Attention: Spoilers included! If you haven’t played your last session of Encounters yet, you may want to come back later!

In-Character Recap

Brief summation for those who haven’t been playing along at home. Our merry band of adventurers were hired by Fein to open the magical entrance recently unearthed in the Underdark; before we were hired, we had to rescue her from thugs. We made our way to the entrance, we disabled the magical protections and escaped down the revealed stairs before the ceiling collapsed on us. We found ourselves trapped in Halaster’s apprentice’s quarters. We fought our way past all kinds of evils before continuing on our way. Eventually, we met up with Fein again, who came through a portal; shortly after her arrival, Xeres, the Big Bad showed up, and the portal was no longer active. Xeres brought some friends to keep us occupied while he kidnapped Fein. He managed to avoid all kinds of obstacles, and we managed to fight our way through to find him.

We survived the skeletons intent on killing us. Knowing Xeres was just a little further ahead, we gathered our courage and our remaining resolve, and we chased the wicked Xeres until he turned to challenge us. We needed to defeat him to retrieve the key to open the portal and escape from the Underdark.

Xeres stood, cooly posed on the bridge, standing over Fein’s apparently unconscious body. Our fighter-y types advanced to engage him, I started peppering him with radiant damage, and our gnome psion inadvertently found some other enemies hanging out, waiting to be invited to the party. It wasn’t easy, but early into battle, things seemed to be going pretty well for us (see picture). Xeres took a lot of focused fire for while (see picture).

But as we all know, battle can turn very quickly. Xeres teleported away to a less-threatened vantage, forcing the fighters to chase him (see picture). Our resources were running out, our resolve was close to failing, but we managed to pull ourselves together, and in the end, we won, though not without a few surprises.

Out-of-Character Thoughts

I had a great time with Encounters! It was a challenge, that first night, to walk into a room full of complete strangers, but I’m glad I did. I made new friends, and I’m looking forward to exploring Dark Sun, not with strangers but with friends.

The concept of one battle per session worked really well. We walked in every week knowing what was expected of us; there were enough surprises that we never knew exactly what to expect, but we knew there would be combat. There was never a moment of indecision because we knew where to go next.

One of biggest problems was with difficult gamer personalities. We had two teenagers that played most every session, and they talked more often than they planned. Combat moved slowly with them, and it was very frustrating for the rest of us. We also had a super-gamer who showed up for a couple of sessions. He wanted to role-play his way through the encounters, which didn’t work well for the group as a whole as he a) took a lot of time every round talking through options he wanted to try, and b) he wasn’t fighting effectively.

My second issue was the slow pace at which we gained experience. As I mentioned before, I understand that short encounters mean less experience, but after eight weeks at level one, I was thrilled to be level two for the last couple of sessions.

Overall, the positive experiences definitely out-weighed the minor issues. I will be starting the Dark Sun season next week, and I hope to have more good experiences in this new set of Encounters!

This year’s Open Game Table anthology is under way, but Jonathan from The Core Mechanic is looking for sponsors to help with some of the associated costs. You can read more about the sponsorship opportunities here.

I was privileged to be an editor for last year’s anthology, and Dante and I are thrilled to have articles included in this year’s edition. Please consider sponsoring this year’s publication, and pass this along to anyone who might also be interested.

This is a mostly spoiler-free recap of last week’s D&D Encounters session.

On the eve of my next Encounters session, I realized that I neglected to share my experiences from last week! So while it’s a little late, here’s how it went.

Last week was my first week playing my Hybrid as a level 2 character. After rolling up and swapping out a feat, I felt much more productive as a party member. Granted, I’m not doing crazy-lots of damage, but I’m hitting more frequently and for more damage.

We had a pretty good session over all. One new-to-4E player joined us and played the paladin pre-gen. Unfortunately for him, he didn’t survive the session, but he is planning to come back this week with a new character.  [Picture here.]

This last session brings us into the final chapter of the season, and I really enjoyed the set-up and tension-building last week. It really felt like we were working up to something big, but that something is still lurking in the shadows, so there is still some mystery to our adventure. I’m definitely looking forward to this week’s session!

Yesterday our group embarked on a gaming session that led to the tail end of the heroic tier and the start of the paragon tier.  Strangely, the group began just outside of The Dark Lake Ziggurat, a locale presented by the Underdark expansion.  The two-page spread illustrated some interesting details about the location, some of which I interpreted literally and as the players traversed the strange alien interior they found that the planes collided in some interesting ways.

I had thought briefly about creating specific plane-based encounters, but because I have been having some difficulty with battle encounters eating up entire gaming sessions I opted instead for the locale itself as the platform for the gaming session.  The players quickly realized that all was not normal when they were whisked away to several different planar settings, including the Elemental Plane of Chaos, the Astral Sea, and Shadowfell.

Now I had some ideas for what the setting would entail, and I retained the relative lack of cardinality of the Ziggurat.  I gave the players some options for exploration, treasure, and combat (however the combat was essentially optional).  Instead, the group seemed more interested in exploring their surroundings… if you click the link for the Astral Sea above, you will see an image of a floating castle.  They immediately wanted to go there, so I had to come up with some interesting roleplay on the spot.  I decided that this would be the Throne of Ao, just to see how they would react to that.  I won’t go into the details of how this played out, but suffice it to say that it was entertaining and the players got some important guidance for the rest of the campaign.

I enjoyed the random nature of the Ziggurat.  Perhaps my interpretation of it was quite incorrect, but my players had fun while having absolutely no battle.  Instead, they had some skill challenges and some roleplay experience awards.  When coupled with some treasure and some information to advance the plot, this all added up to a satisfying experience for both the players and myself.

For D&D Encounters, I opted to try out the PHB3 Hybrid character class, mostly for the renown points, but also for a change of pace.  I’ve been playing my Hybrid for 7 weeks now, and I wanted to take a few moments to share my thoughts.

Creating my Avengevoker

I did a little bit of research on the Hybrid class before I made a decision on what to play.  I opted for an Avenger/Invoker Hybrid; the divine nature of the two halves and the similar stat-requirements seemed like a good start.  I also wanted to combine the controller and striker roles; I like my Wizard controller, but I wanted a striker option too.  The pieces all fell into place.

In addition to selecting a PHB3 class for the renown points, I also opted to use Character Builder & a PHB3 feat.  I don’t usually use Character Builder; I roll up characters with pencil & paper.  But hey, for renown points, I’d give it a go, and I’m very glad I did.  I found the rules and options for rolling up a hybrid a bit complicated, mostly when sorting out which, and how many, options were available.

For my feat, I opted for Battle Caster Defense (PHB3, p.177) to give me a bonus to defense against attacks of opportunity; with the spell-casting Invoker features and melée Avenger attacks, the possibility of provoking opportunity attacks seemed pretty high and a little extra protection seemed like a good idea.

In keeping with the nature of the Hybrid, I selected a mix of Avenger & Invoker powers.  One each of At-Will powers: a melée power for the Avenger part of me, a ranged power for the Invoker part.  Then I selected a melée Avenger power for my Encounter power and a ranged Invoker power for my Daily.

If I Had It to Do Again…

There are a few things I would have done differently.  Having selected my Encounter power as a melée power, I would have selected a different feat; I would have selected the Hybrid Talent Feat to take the Avenger’s Armor of Faith feature for the bonus to my AC.  As it is, I’m a little too squishy to really use my Encounter power without tempting death.

So why would I make these changes?  In the D&D Encounters environment, where there is little chance for an extended rest, the Encounter power becomes very, very important.  Being too squishy to stay in melée combat, I either need to have a better AC or stay out of combat.

Final Thoughts on the Hybrid

I really like the idea of combining two different classes.  The min-max-er in me sees the fun in trying out new combinations.  But I truly feel as if the Hybrid is a class that really needs to be a few levels older before it becomes effective.  From the vantage point of Level 1, my Hybrid is pretty ineffective, but I know she’s got great potential for the future!

This is my mostly spoiler-free account of my D&D Encounters – Session 7 experience.

We’re still exploring Undermountain.  It seems like it’s been days since we’ve seen the sun, let alone someone (other than our little party) who wasn’t trying to kill us.  It’s a monster-extravaganza down here!

As we continued our exploration, we encountered a tortured soul who had no control over her actions, most of which involved attacking us.  And that’s when I got in trouble.  I was attempting to move to a more secure location in the room when I was attacked and knocked prone.  Our Runepriest was only able to heal one of us involved in the battle, and I told him to help the Fighter, who seemed to be more effective in combat.  Then, before I could even stand up, I was unconscious.

Fortunately, the Runepriest was able to heal me shortly thereafter, and I returned to the fray.  Unfortunately, I was so rattled by the experience, I wasn’t able to do much of anything productive after that.  The rest of the group managed to end the poor soul’s suffering.  But this pace has been difficult for us all; we could all use a nice, long rest, and I hope we manage one soon.

A surprising amount!

World Building and Player Feedback

I’ve been spending more time than usual doing world-building in my campaign, including fleshing out various aspects of the political structure of my world.  Part of this is just the process that most DM’s embark upon when a campaign reaches a certain point: for me, it’s nearing the beginning of the paragon levels and we’ve all but wrapped Act I of the campaign.  Major aspects of the campaign have begun to tie up and now it’s time to unravel new campaign threads for the group to explore.

I normally enter into Act II of a campaign by taking notes from my players.  I was reviewing some game notes that I had been keeping, and came across a gem.  As I mentioned in my previous post, I was using a random name generator for a few of my NPCs in town including one of the town council-members.  Unfortunately the name that came out of the random name generator made me laugh enough to evoke questions from the group so I had to tell it and of course, that name stuck.

So now I’ve got a town council-member named Horhand.  To quote one of our players: “You really have to make him a bigger character.  I really want to call out ‘You’ve met your match now, Horhand!'”

You certainly can’t beat feedback like that.  Now the trick is going to make organically getting to a place where that scenario can happen.  By taking minor cues from your players, you can really craft the storyline in a satisfying way that they can really interact with.  Do I know what I’m going to do with Act II yet?  No.  Do I know that Horhand is going to play a part, small or large?  Yes.  The trick now is just figuring out the how, when, and why of it all.

This is a mostly spoiler-free review of my fourth D&D Encounters session.

Last week, we finished our first chapter in our D&D Encounters game.  It was a fun time, as always.  We had a couple of different players in this game than we’ve had in past sessions, and with one extra player at the table, the session went really fast.

This time, Atora managed a pretty descent accounting of her abilities.  She used her Brilliant Beacon power to cause some damage and hamper the enemies a bit.  It helped a bit, especially when the on-going radiant damage killed one of the bad guys!  We still ended up a bit battered, but we survived to continue exploring Undermountain.

My Impression of D&D Encounters

So, I’m four weeks into this experience.  Being a generally shy person, it was a big jump for me to join a group where I didn’t know anyone.  But it’s been a good experience.  There’s a camaraderie around the table that’s universal, and this is the first time that I’ve really experienced that on my own.

However, I will admit to being a little frustrated at the pacing.  I realize the goal is to have an encounter each session, but I want to see a little more progress.  I want to move beyond level 1.  I want more!  It’s still fun, but I’m ready, after four weeks, to be a little older and more experienced.

As part of my next D&D Encounters review, I’ll share some of my thoughts on playing a Hybrid Invoker/Avenger.

Friday night D&D.  We’re venturing through the Howling Warrens of the Underdark.  Our first two skirmishes of the evening were brief and painless, but the two Oni we faced took a bit more out of us.  We all survived, but we definitely needed some healing.  And that’s when the crazy set in.

(Only character names are referenced to protect innocent — or not — players.)

Tali – Have you ever thought about what a healing surge looks like?  I always think of it like this. Then she demonstrated her healing surge; it involved tense muscles and grunting, and some at the table commented that she might be giving birth instead of healing.

Atka – I always think of it like the video games.  You just glow a little and feel better.

Eaerenel (me) – I imagine little stars dancing around me until I feel better.

The guys in the group neglected to comment on their image of healing surges.

In the end, even though it was a funny sort of conversation, it did get me to think.  4E has a lot of flavor text to make the technical aspects blend with the roleplaying aspect.  It’s pretty easy to imagine — and describe — how your spells looks when it hits its target or how your sword slashes through the air to harm your enemy.  Self-healing?  That’s a little harder.

If you’re looking to add a little flavor to your roleplaying, consider one of your most basic character features.  What does your healing surge look like?  Try bringing that imagery to life with your character, whether it’s with a second wind during combat or during your five-minute rest.  It’s a great little challenge that can add a extra flavor to your game.

APRIL 1, 2010 – Baltimore, MD – In a shocking turnaround from his victory at the 2010 PAX DM Challenge, Dave “The Game” Chalker of the Ennie-nominated blog Critical Hits has announced his retirement from RPG blogging amid allegations that he has a girlfriend. Reports keep flooding in, but one thing is clear: not only has he spoken to a girl, but has probably touched one as well. Waves of panic shot through the community yesterday evening as rumors flooded throughout the RPG Bloggers Network. “Disgusting.” remarked one reader, who has asked to remain anonymous. “His age is not divisible by 7, so he can’t even use Pon Farr as an excuse for his behavior.”

The drama continued through the evening as Critical Hits’ advertising sponsors began to leave. Evony was first, their legal department sending a curt email that said simply “We cannot be associated with real women. Only ones from stock photographs. This news not make us feel like King.” This morning, Mr. Chalker made a public statement to the press:

Good morning, and thank you for joining me. Many of you in this room are my friends. Many of you in this room know me. Many of you have cheered for me, have worked with me, always supported me. Now, it is obvious that I have failed my INT check, and my only recourse at this point is to shoot for Diplomacy (and perhaps Bluff).

My behaviour has caused considerable worry to my business partners, to everyone involved with my blog, including my staff, board of directors, sponsors — and most importantly, the young nerds we’ve reached. Our work is more important than ever. I have long been a champion of Cooties Awareness, and despite this lapse of willpower I will continue to fight Cooties wherever it rears its vanilla-scented head.

I owe it to my readers to become a better nerd with fewer social skills. That’s where my focus will be. I have a lot of work to do, and I intend to dedicate myself to doing it. Part of following this path for me is worshipping Pelor, who is fictional. People probably don’t realize it, but I was raised to worship Pelor since high school and I actively practised my faith from adolescence until I drifted away from it in recent years. Nothing repels chicks like telling her you can’t visit her parents because it’s a fake deity’s holy day.

Today, I want to ask for your help. I ask you to find room in your heart to one day believe in me again. I want all you to look into this neuralizer for a moment, and forget all of this ever happened.
Thank you.

The latest rumors are that Mr. Chalker’s mystery woman may have stolen some of his powers somehow and may even be able to speak our language. More news as it happens.