I had a lot of fun this session! To be honest, the session before didn't come off as well as I had wanted. I had a vision in my head of how things would go and the session just didn't match that.
That was my problem, not the players. It was also a good reminder to me- when you build a game, have options in mind. If you think things are certain to go one way, make sure it's something the players and their characters would go for.
To me, that's already pretty hard! Knowing that your players and characters will definitely go in a certain direction is almost impossible. Forcing them to solve the problem in a particular way can only lead to disappointment.
So this session, I prepped differently. A lot of this was due to being on a road trip. I focused on the setting and the characters and left the fighting to be addressed as it would. I knew I wouldn't have a lot of space. I also knew that I wouldn't have a lot of time to build terrain or prep the scene. I embraced those details. I made the fight map really small, constrained by the physical bounds. It was a stone wharf bounded by a stone breakwall. All around was water.
The battle was very heated, started by an immediate drop to 0 HP by 2 players in round 1. That created a lot of scramble and really got things going. It stayed really fun and intense and even had an interesting twist at the end, when the cleric decided to Turn Undead on the cursed ship in the harbor. That sunk the ship - the ship the party is supposed to use to travel north - and led to the monk throwing a Mending Needle at the ship, repairing it. Underwater.
The gnome gunslinger had to rig a hoist to get the ship back above water so that it could be emptied out.
This was a fun session that revolved around getting the players involved, having them work their way around a problem and get down to combat. They worked to complete their goals and ended things with a rousing success that made good use of all their abilities.
That felt like a great session to me! As a bonus, 2 of our players leveled up to level 7, with the other 2 close behind. I realized post-session that there were some incongruities with how I've handled absent players, so I plan to offer the two that are behind a chance to 'blue book' some of their adventures to get more in line with the party XP totals.
UPDATE: talked to the 2 players who were behind on XP about 'blue book'-ing. They were on board with the idea. Additionally, one of them made the comment 'What about a good attendance award'?
I said Yes. This group has played 32 sessions in 9 months.
That's amazing! By far my best attendance rate for any game I've ever run. And online? Just crazy. In the end, the additional 5000 XP is just a couple of sessions at level 7, but this is about rewarding players for playing and making the game happen. Worth it.
Plus, as DM, it just means I get to throw more mean things their way!
That was my problem, not the players. It was also a good reminder to me- when you build a game, have options in mind. If you think things are certain to go one way, make sure it's something the players and their characters would go for.
To me, that's already pretty hard! Knowing that your players and characters will definitely go in a certain direction is almost impossible. Forcing them to solve the problem in a particular way can only lead to disappointment.
So this session, I prepped differently. A lot of this was due to being on a road trip. I focused on the setting and the characters and left the fighting to be addressed as it would. I knew I wouldn't have a lot of space. I also knew that I wouldn't have a lot of time to build terrain or prep the scene. I embraced those details. I made the fight map really small, constrained by the physical bounds. It was a stone wharf bounded by a stone breakwall. All around was water.
The battle was very heated, started by an immediate drop to 0 HP by 2 players in round 1. That created a lot of scramble and really got things going. It stayed really fun and intense and even had an interesting twist at the end, when the cleric decided to Turn Undead on the cursed ship in the harbor. That sunk the ship - the ship the party is supposed to use to travel north - and led to the monk throwing a Mending Needle at the ship, repairing it. Underwater.
The gnome gunslinger had to rig a hoist to get the ship back above water so that it could be emptied out.
This was a fun session that revolved around getting the players involved, having them work their way around a problem and get down to combat. They worked to complete their goals and ended things with a rousing success that made good use of all their abilities.
That felt like a great session to me! As a bonus, 2 of our players leveled up to level 7, with the other 2 close behind. I realized post-session that there were some incongruities with how I've handled absent players, so I plan to offer the two that are behind a chance to 'blue book' some of their adventures to get more in line with the party XP totals.
UPDATE: talked to the 2 players who were behind on XP about 'blue book'-ing. They were on board with the idea. Additionally, one of them made the comment 'What about a good attendance award'?
I said Yes. This group has played 32 sessions in 9 months.
That's amazing! By far my best attendance rate for any game I've ever run. And online? Just crazy. In the end, the additional 5000 XP is just a couple of sessions at level 7, but this is about rewarding players for playing and making the game happen. Worth it.
Plus, as DM, it just means I get to throw more mean things their way!
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ReplyDeleteGreat thoughts as always! Some really original problem solving opportunities with the undead ship sinking and mending. That sort of crazy fun can't happen without flexibility and an open mind towards rolling with the players' punches.
ReplyDeleteWhat are your thoughts on the Milestone approach for leveling up, instead of XP? That's how I've gone with my current game, and it's definitely simplified some things for us. But on the other hand, encouraging attendance is important too! With Mordavia, any time a player has had to cancel, I've postponed the whole game to keep things consistent ... but at that's meant about 4 years for a little over 100 sessions, which is a tad slow. Have you found that using XP/loot is necessary for games where sessions happen even if players cancel?
Thanks for the kind words!
ReplyDeleteMilestone leveling makes a lot of sense. I think the reason I continue to use XP instead is that players seem to like the reward of getting something at the end of a session. This week really encouraged me to look at my numbers, however, and adjust them upwards. I want to keep XP awards scaled according to level so that we can keep things moving towards Level 20.
I don't typically award XP or loot to sessions that players miss, nor do the payers expect it, but I had a weird session where I played a PC (as DM), something I don't typically do. That made me rethink the whole thing. Now, I'm thinking I would let players 'blue book' or record their time away for XP, ESPECIALLY because I got some great stuff out of that this week!