Preparing for my first session as GM

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Mars
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Re: Preparing for my first session as GM

Post by Mars »

MinkyBoodle wrote: Sun Feb 05, 2023 5:34 am
Solomoriah wrote: Sun Feb 05, 2023 1:21 am People in chainmail and plate armor are more agile than you'd think. Only jousting and tournament armors are that limiting.
Funny you should mention that. A close friend shared this video with me recently and we were both blown away by how agile one can be.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzTwBQniLSc
I watched the video and stumbled down a rabbit hole on youtube with a few other similar videos, including one of an international competition with people from 26 countries competing in full armor and blunted weapons, beating the tar out of each other!

This has all been very eye opening. :shock:
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deadPan c
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Re: Preparing for my first session as GM

Post by deadPan c »

I think the reason why newer games limit your Dexterity modifier on heavy armour is likely down to game balance and thematics.

Mechanically, I think it would be odd for heavy armour to be objectively better than light armour, as I'd expect that one would end up with players always trying to find heavy armour proficiency.

Thematically, I also think it would be strange. Yes, it's unrealistic, but newer games tend to sacrifice realism for recognisable tropes. In media, you tend to see heavily-armoured characters tank blows, instead of avoiding them. It's kinda like how greatswords are so often depicted being worn on the wielder's back, when in reality that would be immensely inconvenient.

That being said, I'm not awfully familiar with BFRPG's mechanics and game balance, so it's probably fine.
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Re: Preparing for my first session as GM

Post by RamsHornStudios »

Solomoriah wrote: Sun Feb 05, 2023 5:56 pm Of course, if you did that on a daily or even weekly basis, you'd get tougher.
Absolutely. There were guys out there that didn't sit down the entire time.
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Mars
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Re: Preparing for my first session as GM

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I'm getting ready for the second session this Wednesday, and I went back to look over the last session and try to figure out how much XP might have been generated by the players' activities.

The first thing I looked at is the monster they slayed. I rolled on the random encounter for one giant caecilia, and I noticed that in the module it says each caecilia is worth 555XP, which is in keeping with how they're set up in the monsters section of the core rule book. But the caecilia in the rulebook are adults with 6 hit dice and the special ability of being able to swallow a character whole (hence the 555 total). The ones in the Olde Island Fortress are young specimens with 3 hit dice, and they can't yet swallow a character (so no special ability). Would that make them worth 145 XP?

I was also wondering about the pit traps. I didn't see any specific info relating to rewarding XP for overcoming traps in the core rules, though it does mention giving XP for "other challenges as the GM sees fit." My inclination was to give them some sort of reward, because I thought they did approach it intelligently and they managed to find a way to get past it without anybody dying. Weighing it against the threat/challenge of the first monster encounter, I was thinking of giving 50 XP for getting past the trap. Adding that to the 145 XP of the monster encounter brings them to a total of 195, which works out to 39 XP each when it's divided between the five of them.

Of course, 39 XP doesn't seem like much, especially considering that the first chance anyone has to advance a level is the thief with 1250 XP (almost 33 times more than what the thief has currently earned). Am I going about this all wrong? Or is it just too early to see how the XP will build?

I'd be interested in hearing how more experienced GMs approach the idea of level advancement, especially with low levels in the beginning of a campagin. Is one adventure enough for one level?
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Boggo
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Re: Preparing for my first session as GM

Post by Boggo »

Mars wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 2:28 am
--snip--

I'd be interested in hearing how more experienced GMs approach the idea of level advancement, especially with low levels in the beginning of a campagin. Is one adventure enough for one level?
I agree with everything you've decided I think you're spot on (I personally would only give XP for the kill but I'm very old and very old-school :D ) but yeah the juveniles without special ability are just normal 3hd monsters from the XP table, and a reward of 50xp for outsmarting the trap is fair and reasonable.

Now personally I do not divide the XP among the players, I give them all the full amount, based on my thinking that you are going to learn as much from succeeding if there are 2, 4, or just one of you!
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Re: Preparing for my first session as GM

Post by Solomoriah »

The Caecilia XP are a known errata, to be fixed in the next release.

Otherwise, your logic looks good to me.
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Re: Preparing for my first session as GM

Post by Solomoriah »

And I think about it and realize I have more to say...

There are two alternate approaches to advancing your characters. First, what I've done in the past is to add up the XP and then divide it up by a smaller number than the number of PCs, if I want faster advancement.

Second is to forget about specific challenge XP and just use milestone advancement. I have a supplement here:
https://www.basicfantasy.org/showcase.cgi?sid=200
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Mars
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Re: Preparing for my first session as GM

Post by Mars »

Thank you Boggo and Solomoriah. Interesting food for thought.

I read over the milestone advancement PDF and like the idea. I'll see how much the players get done in the next session, and take that into consideration.

Which raises another question: is there any general since of how long an adventure like The Olde Island Fortress normally takes an average, beginning group?

With my group we usually play for 2 hours, once a week. Our first session was probably a bit slower than our usual pace--which isn't surprising because it was our first session with this system. I'm assuming we'll pick up the pace some, but not too much because I want to keep them scared and therefore cautious. Still, I imagine their attentions might waiver if I make them crawl through it over the course of a dozen sessions.

I guess around five sessions to get through seems like a good pace, and with the milestone approach it might work out to get most of them to second level before the final boss encounter--I'm thinking I'll run the second alternate version, where they fight the chieftain in the sarcophagus. I'm assuming they'll need to return to town to rest and recover at least once before they get to that final encounter.

Anyway, I'm sort of thinking out loud, but if anyone else has any thoughts to add I'd appreciate the perspective.
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Boggo
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Re: Preparing for my first session as GM

Post by Boggo »

While my Relief of Sudbury dungeon isn't Morgansfort it IS a first level dungeoncrawl and my players are averaging 3-5 rooms in a two hour session (though they are also heading back to town to rest, recuperate and get as much magical healing as they can convince the towns two clerics to give them, which takes about 15 minutes of the session
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Mars
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Re: Preparing for my first session as GM

Post by Mars »

Just finished the second session! Made it through rooms 2, 3, and 4a. Room 2 was empty of wolves, though they did find the hidden bag of silver. Room 3 had a great fight with the sturges--fun descriptions of massive strikes (5 on a d6 = "you swat it right out of the air. It smacks against the wall and slides down, leaving a red trail behind it"; 8 on a d8 = "it explodes like a water balloon filled with blood!"). The halfling thief got bit twice and nearly died. But then, after recovering with his healing potion, he crawled into the cleric's arms for "comforting" and promptly picked her pocket of her share of the treasure.

Random encounter with 8 kobolds in the passageway after that. "Eight figures, about halfling size, are standing farther down in the passageway, just at the edge of the light, silently watching you." Their reaction roll was favorable, so I had them just stand and watch until the halfling threw one of the sturge corpses at them, whereupon they fled. I'd like to develop them as a potential neutral force, possibly hoping for the adventurers help in clearing out the goblins and orcs.

The party managed to read the cues regarding the yellow mold in 4a--possibly they recognized it from previous games. The dwarf and cleric were afraid it would explode (rather like the threat in room 13, which they haven't encountered yet). The halfling thief grabbed the torch and threw it while they stood there pondering. They're definitely proceeding cautiously, which I approve of.

There was some debate as to whether they should head back to town at this point, or press onward. They've decided on pressing onward for now.
Boggo wrote: Wed Feb 08, 2023 2:16 am While my Relief of Sudbury dungeon isn't Morgansfort it IS a first level dungeoncrawl and my players are averaging 3-5 rooms in a two hour session (though they are also heading back to town to rest, recuperate and get as much magical healing as they can convince the towns two clerics to give them, which takes about 15 minutes of the session
Still not sure how the pacing will work out later, but I'm guessing it'll probably be similar to Boggo's party--i.e. 3-5 rooms in a two hour session, which could be 6-8 sessions to get through it all. I think it seems like an appropriate pace.
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