Session 9 was fun. After Session 8, there was a lot of great positive energy. The previous sessions had been a drag on character resources and their relationships with the outside world. Things were getting a little negative. There was also no clear resolution of the adventure goal. What had been billed as an A -> B mission ended up being a total detour, so the quest-givers were never satisfied.
While this was part of the original design of the story arc, I still wanted the players to have fun. Session 8 had been set up to start a recharge of PC resources and player enthusiasm. I wanted to temper (as in harden and strengthen, not diminish) that with a difficult battle.
The fight at the beginning of this session was just what I hoped for. It had the appearance of an impossible fight that made the players creative and scared. It showed the PCs that they were able to handle a difficult fight without help, even with their resources (no long rest, few abilities left) stretched. To me, it felt like a real win. For the monster, I did try hard to impact their ability to fight and put them down. It just didn't happen.
Then there was treasure. The previous sessions had drained the party resources. They never had any big payoffs to begin with, and their coin just wasn't stretching far enough. This session they explored an area I had previously designed to be a treasure trove, so they got a chance to feel a boost. We also got into some more traditional dungeon exploration that begins the next phase of our story.
Everyone got to use their abilities and feel useful. I would have liked to see some more things happen for certain characters, but I think that the next session will bring them into the spotlight. Looking forward to session 10 of Infinity Tower (on Wednesday, March 15 at 6:30pm PST)!
While this was part of the original design of the story arc, I still wanted the players to have fun. Session 8 had been set up to start a recharge of PC resources and player enthusiasm. I wanted to temper (as in harden and strengthen, not diminish) that with a difficult battle.
The fight at the beginning of this session was just what I hoped for. It had the appearance of an impossible fight that made the players creative and scared. It showed the PCs that they were able to handle a difficult fight without help, even with their resources (no long rest, few abilities left) stretched. To me, it felt like a real win. For the monster, I did try hard to impact their ability to fight and put them down. It just didn't happen.
Then there was treasure. The previous sessions had drained the party resources. They never had any big payoffs to begin with, and their coin just wasn't stretching far enough. This session they explored an area I had previously designed to be a treasure trove, so they got a chance to feel a boost. We also got into some more traditional dungeon exploration that begins the next phase of our story.
Everyone got to use their abilities and feel useful. I would have liked to see some more things happen for certain characters, but I think that the next session will bring them into the spotlight. Looking forward to session 10 of Infinity Tower (on Wednesday, March 15 at 6:30pm PST)!
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