Everyone had fun. The characters were great. Their RP with each other was on point and occasionally hilarious. I think I did a decent job at distinguishing my NPCs from one another vocally, or at least physically. One of the characters is super high pitched and excitable, so I’ve asked for warning before she squeals right next to my bad ear. All in all, they were glorious, and no one died in the fight.
Lessons learned:
Combat encounters: I had been playing with the idea of adding a third monster to the fight, and when I mentioned this before game to the early arrivals, they said I absolutely should. That CR (even adjusted upward) is never a good gauge for our group (7 experienced players). So, I started with my initial two, and then had the third come running when the first one fell. It was a pretty quick fight, but they’re level one, so it can’t go on terribly long. They don’t have enough hit points for a protracted fight. I’ll have to adjust the other fights upward, too. I forgot to give them healing potions, but they ended up not needing them, so that’s alright.
NPCs: One never creates enough NPCs. I forgot that I had a stable and a stable needs someone to take care of the mounts. So, now there’s a kobold stableboy named Gul Mudbelt. Also, one creates too many NPCs. The players took a contract to go kill some Core Spawn Crawlers on behalf of a merchant who was attacked. Concerned about their timeframe, though, they didn’t even consider going to talk to him about what happened.
DCs and Dice: You never can tell how a roll is going to go. The sage of the group nailed every knowledge check with a 25 or more. The ranger nailed every harvesting check in pretty much the same vein. I like my players to succeed, it was just they rolled So High. 😀 And then, of course, are the couple of rolls that went in the opposite direction. One turned into a good RP moment, and one that is yet to come, but did give the player some new information.
This week was a pretty straight-forward introduction to the game world. Next week is a bit more free-form. They have monster parts to sell, money to spend, and a broader choice in missions. So, I’ll be back to let you know how it goes.