Last night I ran the first session of The Lost Mines Of Phandelver, which is the adventure that comes with the 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set. TLDR; It was a huge amount of fun and the rules were fluid and natural.
We played at HATE VI, my gaming groups club nights, at The Blacksmith And The Toffeemaker pub in Angel, London, UK. It was a boardgames night rather than a full-on wargaming and boardgaming event. Playing in a pub, even in the back room comes with advantages and disadvantages : beer vs noise. I think overall the beer won out, but at times I had to raise my voice, and it was clear once or twice that the party was struggling to communicate. However the venue is central, does good provisions and had a big table.
Anyway, the players blind drew the characters, with only one swap. One player really wanted to play a cleric and the player with the Cleric was happy to change to the Noble Fighter. Naming took no time at all and we ended up with Tor Wightbane, a Folkhero Fighter, Imowen the Halfling Rogue, Zarrfron The Elven Wizard, Brookn The Tall who is the Dwarven Cleric and Lord Strakken the Noble Fighter. The party found their bond very rapidly too, Imowen had used to Tor to help smuggle when he was a dock hand. Brookn had sought to arrest the pair, but had had to join forces with the pair to fight off underdwellers in the cellar he’d cornered them in, and became friends since. Zarrfron had seen Imowen in a strange and cursed vision, so sought the halfling out, and finally Lord Strakken had need of specialists to help regain his wealth.
Gundred, the NPC who acts as the PC’s hook was 2nd cousin to Brookn, so they party were only too glad to help and gain coin. On the road they efficiently dispatched the goblin raiders, although a wounded goblin did escape up the trail only to forgot his own snare trap, where the party found it hanging half-dead. After securing the oxen and cart, the group then set off up the trail and found the cave mouth that led to the lair of the Craig Maw goblins. I embellished here with a bit of purple prose as I found the initial description of the cave mouth a little dry. The party defeated the goblin guards, but took several wounds in the process and decided to take a short rest to heal a little more. Then the fun started.
They explored the cave mouth and had the dwarf use his darkvision to spot the wolves without drawing attention to themselves. The wizard, who’d had bad luck up to now cast a powerful sleep spell and sent two of the wolves to asleep, but a third in hiding ran out and attacked. After an epic battle in which two wolves were killed in single blows the group pushed on deeper into the wolf lair to find the chute that crawled up into the dark.
The dwarven cleric decide to use his climbing tools to ascend the chute, but then changed his mind, realising that hammering pitons into the cave wall would be very noisey. He fell slightly once, then reached the top and was able to see into the cave beyond, where two goblins, a wolf pet and something huge and furry sat upon a crude throne. Descending to tell the rest of the party, he slipped badly (rolling a 1) and fell. Taking enough damage to put him on 0 hp, the party realized he was dying so they desperately set about trying stabilize him. Thankfully they succeeded, but without his healing skills they carried him out of the cave and headed back to cart to rest overnight and revive him.
Overall I thought the new rules are pretty effortless and fluid. I love the advantage/disadvantage system but hate that long rests completely heal characters as it removes any kind of attrition, especially in overland settings IMHO. Of course it’s D&D and an RPG so I can change what I don’t like, and so far there isn’t a lot of that at all.
We played at HATE VI, my gaming groups club nights, at The Blacksmith And The Toffeemaker pub in Angel, London, UK. It was a boardgames night rather than a full-on wargaming and boardgaming event. Playing in a pub, even in the back room comes with advantages and disadvantages : beer vs noise. I think overall the beer won out, but at times I had to raise my voice, and it was clear once or twice that the party was struggling to communicate. However the venue is central, does good provisions and had a big table.
Anyway, the players blind drew the characters, with only one swap. One player really wanted to play a cleric and the player with the Cleric was happy to change to the Noble Fighter. Naming took no time at all and we ended up with Tor Wightbane, a Folkhero Fighter, Imowen the Halfling Rogue, Zarrfron The Elven Wizard, Brookn The Tall who is the Dwarven Cleric and Lord Strakken the Noble Fighter. The party found their bond very rapidly too, Imowen had used to Tor to help smuggle when he was a dock hand. Brookn had sought to arrest the pair, but had had to join forces with the pair to fight off underdwellers in the cellar he’d cornered them in, and became friends since. Zarrfron had seen Imowen in a strange and cursed vision, so sought the halfling out, and finally Lord Strakken had need of specialists to help regain his wealth.
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| The adventurers assemble |
Gundred, the NPC who acts as the PC’s hook was 2nd cousin to Brookn, so they party were only too glad to help and gain coin. On the road they efficiently dispatched the goblin raiders, although a wounded goblin did escape up the trail only to forgot his own snare trap, where the party found it hanging half-dead. After securing the oxen and cart, the group then set off up the trail and found the cave mouth that led to the lair of the Craig Maw goblins. I embellished here with a bit of purple prose as I found the initial description of the cave mouth a little dry. The party defeated the goblin guards, but took several wounds in the process and decided to take a short rest to heal a little more. Then the fun started.
They explored the cave mouth and had the dwarf use his darkvision to spot the wolves without drawing attention to themselves. The wizard, who’d had bad luck up to now cast a powerful sleep spell and sent two of the wolves to asleep, but a third in hiding ran out and attacked. After an epic battle in which two wolves were killed in single blows the group pushed on deeper into the wolf lair to find the chute that crawled up into the dark.
The dwarven cleric decide to use his climbing tools to ascend the chute, but then changed his mind, realising that hammering pitons into the cave wall would be very noisey. He fell slightly once, then reached the top and was able to see into the cave beyond, where two goblins, a wolf pet and something huge and furry sat upon a crude throne. Descending to tell the rest of the party, he slipped badly (rolling a 1) and fell. Taking enough damage to put him on 0 hp, the party realized he was dying so they desperately set about trying stabilize him. Thankfully they succeeded, but without his healing skills they carried him out of the cave and headed back to cart to rest overnight and revive him.
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| Failing from a great height! |
Overall I thought the new rules are pretty effortless and fluid. I love the advantage/disadvantage system but hate that long rests completely heal characters as it removes any kind of attrition, especially in overland settings IMHO. Of course it’s D&D and an RPG so I can change what I don’t like, and so far there isn’t a lot of that at all.
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