A Fantastic Adventure

Well, it finally happened. Dungeons and Dragons, live, in my home. It was a short game, only three hours, and most of the first hour was taken up with creating characters. Thank God it was old-school rules, because we'd probably still be creating the characters under modern-day rules. But these were basically complete neophytes, learning how to create characters and learning the rules as we went.

There were four players, all roughly Tanner's age, and all friends of his. I added a character of my own just to give them a bit more strength to get through the first adventure. Tanner played an elf fighter/magic-user; his friends played a cleric, a magic-user, and a dwarf fighter. I rolled up a human fighter to give them some backup.

After we got through the basics and they had characters, we were off. I pulled out an old Basic adventure, King's Festival, and gave them a quick overview of Meterra. For some reason, I couldn't find my printed map, but I didn't let it slow me down. We just ran through the first half of the module; it was a rescue mission, going through an orc cave to find a kidnapped priest. I modified the adventure's setting just enough to put it into Meterra; it's generic enough and the adventure takes place entirely underground, so it was easy enough to do.

So, after the setup was explained, the four of them went into the cave. The dwarf took the lead and snuck into the cave enough to see the guards in the first chamber. Two of them were sleeping orcs, and the third one was gulping down orc beer, so they weren't exactly on their game. The fight was short and brutal, with the orcs quickly falling to the superior numbers of the party. The magic-user was a bit disappointed, since he only has the one spell (everyone's favorite, sleep), and he didn't want to waste it on a few guards in the first room. So, he contented himself with throwing daggers for a while.

After dispatching the guards, the five adventurers came to a four-way passage. Taking the straight path, they encountered a pair of doors on the wall to their right. Inside the first door were more orcs, who were shortly joined by the occupants of the second door, another orc who had a pet weasel that he had been training. That fight went well enough, and soon they were happily looting the bodies.

Another encounter with an orc and a hobgoblin from a nearby tribe went well, but they still hadn't found the priest they were hunting for. As they started to go back to check the other passages, the elf noticed a secret door in the wall. Going through, they soon found themselves facing several tough orcs, including the chieftain and a spellcaster.

The magic-user got his chance to shine, and dropped his sleep spell on the orcs. All of them except the chieftain and the shaman fell victim to the spell. That is such a great spell. Meanwhile, the elf interrupted the shaman's casting with a light spell, blinding him and taking him out of the fight. Unfortunately, my fighter didn't survive the encounter with the chieftain, who took him down with two mighty blows of his magical sword. As tough as the chieftain was, though, the rest of the party took him down, with the elf getting in the killing blow.

After that, it was time to loot the bodies, as well as the chieftain's treasure room. They then found the priest and brought him back to town.

It wasn't an overly long adventure, and I admit that I fudged a few things. Not the dice rolling; I was fair with that. But I decided that since we didn't have a whole lot of time to play, that regardless of what passage they took at the beginning, it would end up leading to the final encounter. They skipped over a few encounters, but they accomplished the mission.

When they were done, the dwarf and the cleric had leveled up; the magic-user is close, and the elf...well, multi-class characters have their advantages, but they pay for it with very slow advancement. Still, everyone got a magic item out of the deal, so they were happy with that. The division was based on who would actually be able to use the item; the elf got the orc chief's magic sword, the magic-user got the magic dagger. The dwarf got a ring of protection, and the cleric took the potion of healing. The elf and magic-user also split the orc shaman's spellbook between them, adding more spells to their own books.

One of the things they said that got my attention was when the magic-user admitted that he had forgotten that they were there to rescue the priest; he was mostly interested in the looting. The other players agreed, so I went with it.

All four of them had a great time, and after we had finished the adventure I added a few more things to their character sheets. There's still more to do, but we will get there. And next time, they will give their characters names. Yes, they are nameless for the moment. But that will change.

And so will their adventure locale next time; since they just want to go in and do what all old-school gamers did (kill monsters and take their stuff), that's exactly what they will be doing next time. We'll get together in a couple of weeks, and they will be entering...the Devil's Playground. Tanner is already terrified.

Yeah, this was a lot of fun, and even though they are kids and keeping them on track was like herding cats, it went well. They all loved it and can't wait to play again. I'm going to call this a great success.

To get a taste of what they will be experiencing in their second adventure, check out the book based on the adventure, available at an Amazon website near you.