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djs224's Dungeons and Dragons, 3.5 edition (Other)
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| [February 5, 2013 01:28:10 AM]
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Dungeons and Dragons 3.5e: Thursday, January 17 (Session 1), and Monday, February 4 (Session 2)
Dungeons and Dragons is a tabletop role-playing game for 2 or more players (commonly 6 or fewer). In this fantasy game, players partake in adventures laid out for them by one of their group in a game that is equal parts freeform adventure and more rigid scenarios.
-Players
Players can be divided into two categories: adventurers and the Dungeon Master (DM). Adventurers are players who have characters within the game, who interact with the game world through their characters. Before starting an adventure, these players must create their characters, first picking a race and a class from various fantasy archetypes. Example races include human, elf, dwarf, and half-orc; while example classes include fighter, ranger, sorcerer, and paladin. A player then must determine their character's attributes, such as strength, constitution, intelligence, and charisma. This can be done through random dice rolls or by distributing an allotment of points given by the DM. Other traits, such as appearance or alignment, are determined by the players with no harsh constraints.
The DM creates the scenario for the adventurers to undertake, but does not interact directly with the characters themselves. The DM controls all non-player characters (NPCs) in the game and their interactions with the player characters, as well as designs the game world, places the locations of objectives and monsters, and handles other miscellaneous interactions the players have no control over.
-Game World
The playing field is decided on by the DM. Maps must be drawn to show the players where they are and what is around them, though not all of the map can necessarily be seen at once. For example, a party might not know what lies beyond a bend in the road because they cannot see past it; by moving into the right position, they can reveal more of the map. The layout of the world is determined solely by the DM, and the adventurers merely interact with it.
-Gameplay
Gameplay takes place in two parts. Interacting with the open world is mostly freeform. The DM will tell players about their surroundings, revealing only the minimum amount of information. If players wish to learn more, they must possess the right skills to uncover more. Otherwise, players are free to do whatever they wish within reason. For example, they can wander about the game world of their own free will, but they cannot decide to start flying miles away (unless they happened to possess a skill or item to let them do that).
Whenever a player uses a skill or attacks, they must roll a "check." They roll a 20-sided die in an attempt to roll higher than a particular number for their check, dependent on the skill being used. If they roll slightly higher, they can cause a slightly beneficial result; rolling significantly higher can increase the magnitude of the benefit. The same is true for rolling lower than the check number; a slightly lower number can have a slightly detrimental result, and the result can get worse as the number gets lower. For example, a severely low number on an attack check can mean the character injures themselves, while a very high number can take out an enemy in one hit.
Encounters with NPCs are determined by their position as placed by the DM. Some may be friendly, while others may be hostile. Encounters with hostile enemies can be handled multiple ways. Multiple players can fight the same enemy, each can fight their own, or an encounter can be resolved without fighting, depending on the opponents and what the party possesses in skills or items.
Gameplay usually proceeds with the players following the DM's storyline loosely. They are free to explore and roleplay in a freeform fashion, though the DM's scenario will provide structure that the party can build on, which can enhance the roleplaying aspect of the game.
-Session 1
Our first session consisted of four players and a DM. None of the players had any experience with DnD. As such, the DM created character sheets for the players to choose from. I picked a gnome sorcerer, and the rest of the party consisted of a half-orc paladin, an elf ranger, and a human cleric.
The scenario created for the group to play involved traveling to an archaeologist's house and retrieving an artifact he had found, returning it to the Finder's Guild, an organization dedicated to collecting magical artifacts. The game started with the party on a road which would lead to the archaeologist's house.
The players progressed down the road, with the elf scouting ahead. The elf found a lone goblin who did not notice him, and decided to attempt to stealthily attack. The attempt failed, and he attracted the attention of multiple goblins in the woods. This illustrates one of the key concepts of DnD: the DM does not reveal everything to the players at once. Information must be revealed through interactions of the players with the game world.
After a lengthy battle, the party emerged victorious, though one of the players was knocked unconscious during the fight. After he was revived, the party continued down the road, investigating a cart which had been besieged by another pack of goblins that had since left. Finding nothing of value except barrels of pickled fish, the party continued down a side path which led to the archaeologist's house, where the session ended. This shows another aspect of gameplay in DnD: a session can end whenever the players decide to end it. As long as the players and the DM have been keeping track of their statistics and placement within the game world, gameplay can be paused to resume at any later date. An adventure can thus be completed over multiple sessions.
-Session 2
Our second session consisted of three players and a DM, with myself and the DM being the only recurring players from the first session. One of the other two had had some prior experience with DnD, while the other had had none. I continued playing my gnome sorcerer, while the others played copies of the half-orc paladin and the elf ranger.
The scenario for this session involved the party traveling to a dwarven mining settlement and retrieving a message for the Finder's Guild about their status. That, at least, was the intention, but the game did not go the intended way.
At the start of the scenario, the party was in town, and thus decided to go to the tavern before they left (never mind that it was midday). They drank some beer before leaving town in the general direction of their objective.
The DM told the party of a fork in the road. One path led to the mining camp, the other led to a location known as the Temple of All Dooms. The intention was for the player characters to notice the clear danger of a place with "All Dooms" in its name, and thus proceed to the mining camp. However, the party, still a bit drunk, decided to go to the more interesting-sounding location. This shows that even if a DM thinks that he has everything planned out, players can still do something that he doesn't expect.
The entrance to the temple was located on the opposite side of a ravine with a strange river running through it, and a narrow path led down both sides of the ravine to the river bed. To reach the other side, the party would have to walk down the ledge on the near side, cross the river, and climb up the ledge on the far side.
The elf, being a ranger, decided to go ahead first. He made it about a quarter of the way before slipping and falling down the ravine. He tried to pass a grab check but failed, landing on another ledge which he failed to grab onto. This proceeded until he landed on the riverbank, unconscious and bleeding out. He eventually managed to stabilize.
The half-orc decided that the only way to reach him fast enough to heal him was to jump and aim for the river. He jumped, but fell short and landed on the near bank, killing himself in the fall.
The gnome, still a bit drunk, decided to also jump for the river, instead landing on the far side of the river and knocking himself unconscious, but not terribly hurt. Both the elf and the gnome woke up a while later, and drank from the river, which turned out to heal them. The DM allowed them to dip the half-orc in the pool and bring him back to life as well, illustrating how the rules of the game can be bent to provide a more fun gameplay experience. Thus, the half-orc's player could continue having something to do.
After camping overnight, the party made their way up the other side of the ravine to the temple's door. With no real mishaps, the party made it to the door unscathed. When the half-orc attempted to push open the door, he was filled with an urge to jump off but resisted. The elf attempted to determine if the door required a password, was filled with the same urge, and succumbed to it. The half-orc tried to grab him and pull him back up, but instead fell with him to the opposite side of the river, landing on top of him and killing him instantly, though the elf did cushion the half-orc's fall and kept him alive. The half-orc then dipped the elf's remains in the river to bring him back to life, and succeeded, though the state the elf's body was in made him deformed when he was revived.
The gnome, seeing no alternative, decided to jump for the river to rejoin his party, thinking the water was safe. However, overnight the river had changed from healing to chaotic, meaning that any interaction with the water would cast a random spell. Landing in the water gave the gnome an intelligence boost, but swimming to shore turned him into a dire wolf. The elf intimidated him but could not befriend him, thus the wolf remained wary of the others.
The elf decided to go back to the water to try and fix himself, but his first attempt created multiple magic missiles which fired at him. His second attempt produced a sleet storm above his head, and every sleet pellet that hit the water created a rabbit, which let the wolf gorge himself on an abundance of rabbits. Another attempt produced a mysterious effect, and so the elf decided to quit tempting fate and leave the canyon.
The half-orc, meanwhile, thought to go back to the temple door, and thus forded the river again. Doing so gave the party a constitution boost. The wolf changed back into a gnome while the half-orc was on his way up, and followed the elf up out of the ravine. About halfway up, the gnome slipped and fell all the way back to the bottom, though his fall was broken by several of the rabbits. He then proceeded up and out again, escaping the ravine.
The half-orc made it to the temple door again and tried to determine the language written on it; doing so made him jump back into the water. This time, everything he possessed that was metal (his armor, axe head, arrowheads) melted away, and the impact knocked him unconscious. As his body floated downstream, another spell activated and killed him.
The elf, seeing the party in shambles and no other course of action, punted the gnome back into the ravine, though the gnome managed to pull the elf with him. The elf would have landed on the riverbank and died, except for the spell that activated when the gnome hit the water. This spell teleported the characters to the astral plane, which was no place for a level 2 sorcerer and a level 1 ranger. Both were stabbed in the back by a githyanki upon entering the plane. The session ended here, as nothing could be done with all characters deceased.
-Overall
DnD is not a game that can merely be picked up and played anytime. It takes considerable effort from both the DM and the adventurers. Nevertheless, its freeform nature allows for unlimited gameplay possibilities, and can easily be stopped to resume another time. If players are willing to learn its rules, much fun can be had by all.
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djs224's Dungeons and Dragons, 3.5 edition (Other)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Thursday 17 January, 2013
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