Preparing for my first session as GM

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Boggo
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Re: Preparing for my first session as GM

Post by Boggo »

OSR games are much more brutal with a lot more player fatalities than modern D&D, honestly my current game is 4 sessions in without a player death yet and I'm VERY surprised, OSR emulates the way RPG's were back in the 70's and early 80's when dying was part of the game, this is before "threat balancing" or CR's or any of that stuff (First game I played a bunch of third level characters encountered a red dragon (we killed it but that was by cunning alone, we were SERIOUSLY outmatched) Goofing around and having fun playstyle is probably going to require pretty much every encounter in Morgansfort being less than half the size it is in the module, it's a pretty tough ask for a low level party (which is in genre)
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Mars
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Re: Preparing for my first session as GM

Post by Mars »

Boggo wrote: Sun Jan 29, 2023 1:15 am OSR games are much more brutal with a lot more player fatalities than modern D&D, honestly my current game is 4 sessions in without a player death yet and I'm VERY surprised, OSR emulates the way RPG's were back in the 70's and early 80's when dying was part of the game, this is before "threat balancing" or CR's or any of that stuff (First game I played a bunch of third level characters encountered a red dragon (we killed it but that was by cunning alone, we were SERIOUSLY outmatched) Goofing around and having fun playstyle is probably going to require pretty much every encounter in Morgansfort being less than half the size it is in the module, it's a pretty tough ask for a low level party (which is in genre)
Yeah, that's in keeping with my understanding of OSR and also with my personal preferences. The folks I'm playing with, though, (despite being a bunch of older folks with gaming experience going back several decades), tend to be a bit more lackadaisical in their strategizing--which is maybe just because we're all worn-out by life and some of the folks can't manage to muster much brainpower by the late evening when we get around to playing.

We went through several months of a Dungeon Crawl Classics campaign which, of course, starts with the 'player character funnel' in which each player is running 4 or so characters and they all end up dead, except for one, at the end. But after that initial funnel we had the Judge bending over backward to save our sorry butts on more than one occassion.

I'll keep the 'less than half the size' figure in mind, but I doubt I'll be willing to kid-glove it to that extent.

I'm also probably going to run it so that 0 HP means unconscious, and there's still a chance to be saved. Maybe that'll help a little.
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Mars
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Re: Preparing for my first session as GM

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We had our first session on Wednesday! It was fun, and nobody died! In the end we didn't cover much ground in the actual dungeon--I think I scared them with my "OSR Death Rates" warnings, so they proceeded very cautiously.

Before they even went into the dungeon, they wanted to explore the island and gather intel. I told them that the island was very dense with vegetation, meaning they'd have to bushwhack to get anywhere beyond the shore (which would be time-consuming) but with a few turns they could explore the shoreline itself. They did that, and I gave them an old, leaky boat (I'd gone with the "low-tide exposed sandbar to get to the island" idea, and they were worried about being trapped when the tide came in, so the boat was a way to appease that fear), and a few footprints in the sand--"like a dog's, but bigger."

After that, they finally started down the stairs to the dungeon. Even this brief descent was approached cautiously, with lots of questions trying to suss out potential dangers--any signs of recent passage? any footprints or debris that could inform them of what sorts of creatures might be in the dungeon itself? They debated over marching order and how to respond to potential threats.

The map shows three flights of stairs leading down to room one, each flight ending in a right angle turn to the right, and that's how I described it to them. Stepping down into darkness--each blind corner another confrontation with the unknown--a visceral dread seemed to be taking hold of them. By the time they finally got to the last flight, with the torchlight illuminating the opening into room 1 but only darkness beyond, they seemed reluctant to continue. They paused on the steps, peering down into the black.

I rolled three ones in a row for the random encounter check, meaning a Giant Caecilia was down there waiting for them. I didn't have my core rulebook on hand--I'd been rushing to get to my computer for the zoom chat after putting my older daughter to bed, and I only had the adventure module itself nearby--and I didn't know exactly what a Giant Caecilia was. The description in the module only says that these particular specimens are young and therefore incapable of swallowing characters whole. I'm too simpleminded, and I was too focused on the players, to try to multi-task by looking the creature up online. I ended up imagining it as a giant centipede, six feet long, with a head nearly as large as a human skull, and that's what I went with. One of the players asked me, later, if it had been a carrion crawler.

But the players hadn't even made it into the room yet. They stood on the landing at the top of the last flight of stairs, peering into the darkness, listening for sounds. I gave them a description of soft, clacking taps, and I tapped the desktop with my fingernails for effect.

The thief decided to climb the wall and make his way into the room, staying up near the ceiling. He rolled a 01 (the first 4 dice rolls in the game were all ones! who'd believe it?), which I interpreted as a critical success. He climbed along the wall and into the darkness, then paused to listen. His listening roll was a failure, though, so I didn't give him any new information.

One of the players decided to throw his torch down into the room. I described something dark and chitinous rushing forward to pounce on the light, snuffing it out in a flare of sparks. Another character--the dwarven fighter who'd taken the front spot in the marching order--rapped his ax against his shield. When he did that, I had them roll initiative.

The party held their ground on the stairs, and the monster attacked them where they stood. The thief managed a brutal sneak attack, leaping down from the wall and dealing six points of damage. The fighter and cleric attacked with melee weapons from the front rank, and the magic user threw daggers from behind. Battle lasted three turns, and just before the end of it the monster landed a 5-hp blow on the dwarf, which nearly killed him in one stroke (he had two hit points left). But the dwarf got his revenge with the next blow--the killing stroke that finished the monster off.

The dwarf used his healing potion, and then the party spent a bit of time searching room 1 (nothing but copper coins scattered in the muck) and looking into the corridors beyond it. My description of the mud-covered floor abruptly becoming bare stone--an idea I mentioned in a previous post on this thread--had them perplexed. They thought it was some sort of magic force field at first, and spent some time throwing things onto the bare stones, and poking around with a ten foot pole, before the thief managed a successful 'detect traps' roll. After that they made their way across with a rope tying them all together. The halfling and the dwarf went first with no problems, but the cleric tripped the trap. I forgot to have the player roll a Death Ray saving throw, but since they were all tied together I didn't play it like there was real risk. Still, it gave me the opportunity to describe the cleric dangling from a rope over the pit, light shining down onto a wet floor twenty feet below, with an eerie sound "like a boot pulled from sticky mud" coming closer and closer. Once the cleric made it across they decided to throw the Caecilia/Centipede's body down, and they waited a turn until some gooey, grey mass threw itself on the corpse like a lead blanket.

And that's as far as we made it. Yep, two hours of roleplaying and we only cleared the first room!

Anyway, it was my first time as a GM and I had a lot of fun. I definitely need to keep studying the rules, because the rules make sense to me and I'd like to stick to them, but in the midst of the game I end up just making up whatever I can't remember.

With that said, I've got more questions about the rules and will probably be posting them soon. I'm not sure if it's better to do that as separate topics, or to just keep putting them in this thread?
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Solomoriah
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Re: Preparing for my first session as GM

Post by Solomoriah »

They threw a corpse into the pit.

WOW. Nobody has ever thought to do that in any of my playtests! NICE.

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Mars
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Re: Preparing for my first session as GM

Post by Mars »

Solomoriah wrote: Sat Feb 04, 2023 1:19 am They threw a corpse into the pit.

WOW. Nobody has ever thought to do that in any of my playtests! NICE.

Give them my kudos.
I will! Thanks, Solomoriah. :D
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Boggo
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Re: Preparing for my first session as GM

Post by Boggo »

Your warnings worked perfectly! they behaved exactly like noob adventurers in their first dungeon, sounds amazing, and clearing one room when they are roleplaying like that is really good, it's atmospheric and THATS good game!
I forgot to have the player roll a Death Ray saving throw, but since they were all tied together I didn't play it like there was real risk.
This is just exactly the right way to handle it, they took precautions so I would have not bothered with the Save and handled it just as you did deliberately to add suspense and an air of danger (even when there is none)
Last edited by Boggo on Sat Feb 04, 2023 3:20 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Preparing for my first session as GM

Post by Fourleif »

This sounds fantastic, I was on the edge of my seat reading it!
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Re: Preparing for my first session as GM

Post by toddlyons »

Mars wrote: Sat Feb 04, 2023 1:06 am Anyway, it was my first time as a GM and
...you nailed it. A missing book is just one of a thousand unexpected twists that running a game can take. So, you improvise!

This sounds like it was a lot of fun, and I would have enjoyed playing there myself.
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Mars
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Re: Preparing for my first session as GM

Post by Mars »

Thank you Boggo, Fourleif, and toddlyons, for the encouragement. :)

My group is playing again this Wednesday, and I'm definitely looking forward to it.

Currently they're paused in the corridor, trying to decide between entering rooms 2 and 3. They know, by the halfling's sensitive nose, that one room smells like dog and the other like guano. They can hear high-pitched mewling from the room with the guano stink, but the other room is silent (I've already rolled and determined that the wolves aren't currently in their lair).

I'm thinking of adding a lever in the wall of the Wolf Lair that will disable the pit traps in the corridors around room 1, mainly because the party spent quite a bit of time deciding how to handle the pit trap challenge the first time around. I thought they did a good job of avoiding the danger of the trap and I might just take it out of consideration going forward. There is the potential drama of having to deal with the traps if they're fleeing toward the exit, though. Still not sure which approach I'll take.

One rules question that's come up for me is whether the Dexterity modifier is added to the Armor Class regardless of the type of armor being worn. As far as I can tell from the rule book, that's how it is, but I seem to remember (maybe from a different game) the Dexterity modifier only being applied to leather armor, and not being added to chainmail or plate. Currently it isn't really an issue--the only character with a dexterity modifier is the thief, who can only wear leather--but it might be something I have to consider if somebody's character dies in the next session, and a new character has to be created.
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Boggo
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Re: Preparing for my first session as GM

Post by Boggo »

It is, no matter what armour is worn the Dex mod applies, even NO armour, UNLESS they are surprised, and then the dex bonus does not apply during the round they are surprised.

ps. I've never played or even heard of a game that only applies dex bonus' to Leather armour and not metal armour, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist, but it's an odd rule.

Drama from dealing with floor traps if you need to flee, is actually kinda fun, unless the players are panicking (the players not the characters) it can be a great example of thinking outside the box (either that or calamity ;) )
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