X
Xaosseed
Guest
I tested simply dropping a location into my hexcrawl sandbox as a one-shot, with the intention that the journey through the hex-map would be most of the session and the location fairly simple at the end. Written up to follow Jenx first best practice: "Record your hobby experience" while continuing the DM commentary addition to the session notes.
Setup - where the adventure came from
This was an open-table on an off-week to my hexcrawl campaign; using the same map and prep. This session was the first open table which was not a formal adventure, this was just a location
Our heroes were
lthmar - Elf Rogue (woodland ranger)
Hilas - Halfling Fighter (local hero discus thrower)
Thorgrimm Embershield - Dwarf Barbarian (WHFRP trollslayer)
Erin - Elf Paladin (oath of ancients ex-soldier)
Martha - Human Barbarian (buff old lady)
Happy - Tiefling Rogue (sneaky)
An interesting bit cropped up at the start - one person was very mechanics focused - wanted specific classes, etc from everyone - another - the tiefling player, told me stuff about tieflings in my campaign world (closer to old archetype of shunned stranger vs fairly well mixed in for menagerie world).
Session was run under an adventurers league style ruleset so everyone would get a level up if they survived and treasure and gold rewards were capped as this was a Tier One (level 1-4) adventure.
Session Report: Derelict Mines
Starting from the town of Ashley (green highlighted hex), following tales of strange riches being found by other adventurers, our heroes are commissioned by Elena the arcanist to investigate a rumoured lost dwarven mine, hoping it is recoverable after one of the largest mines in the region was recently destroyed. A night of carousing is held with the villagers before our heroes set off in the morning.
[DM Commentary - I did not push people very hard on to the road; this was a pure explore-and-report-back with no ticking clock so I left them to it. Three of the party decided to stay up carousing - the dwarf, the halfling and the tiefling. I used a previously created carousing table - it more served to introduce the concept to some new players than have any mechanical impact. This all took ~ 45 mins.]
Hiking out past the disorienting graveyard, over the (temporarily quiet) ancient battlefield and up the escarpment to overnight at the goliath village above.
[DM Commentary - opportunity to intro some new people to hexcrawling (red highlighted hex) - this start run was relatively linear - from the green to the red hex has one obvious route up the big notch in the escarpment unless you want to scale the cliffs. I use the overloaded encounter die on entry to a hex:
1. Setback
2. Fatigue/delay
3. Expiration
4. Locality
5. Percept
6. Advantage
Traversing the hexes they rolled "delay" and became yet another party to fall foul of the disorienting effect of the shrine hidden in the graveyard. It cost them time and they were aware something off was going on. Next hex was "locality" as they traversed the ancient battlefield so they noted signs of risen dead and recent fighting. Hiking up the staircase they got 'expiry' which I ran as flavour - an exhausting hike in the blazing sun. Lastly entering the hex of the village they got 'delay' and found themselves traversing newly built or restored fortifications and barricades along the road; speaking to recent local conflict.]
At the goliath village they found friendly welcome when they approached openly and peacefully. After discussing stories of local mines and what might have happened to the destroyed mine, they get some local stories, trade their own and leave with an invite to return.
[DM Commentary - there was quite a bit of prying for information from the goliaths, some of which they knew a bit about which turned into perhaps an accidental red herring. These goliaths were pretty aware of how their main rivals mine had recently burned to the ground and had plenty of gossip and speculation about that. The mine the party had been asked to investigate was a completely different one about which the goliaths knew little.]
Hiking out through the forest, the paladin holds them from hunting while they seek a beast to commune with - not until they are deep in a dripping cloud forest do they find a flying frog that can tell them news of the workers escaping from the now-burned dead mine.
[DM Commentary - setting off again - from green hex toward yellow hex - they first rolled "delay" that I ran as pathbreaking - as the goliaths said, noone goes to where they were going. The great shrine in that hex did not make an appearance. The next hex was another 'delay' in a cloud forest. Here it became a rough terrain slog, trying to find their way around unexpectedly deep pools and soggy terrain.
Continuing, they find some displaced goliath and goblin miners, who are deeply suspicious of help just turning up and offering to assist for free. Guided onwards by one of the goblin, they head towards the mine before stumbling upon a group of skin-wearing insectfolk. Garbed in their person-pelts and wielding sharp daggers, there is a brutal close quarters fight that leaves many of the party badly cut-up.
[DM Commentary - Next hex they got 'percept' - spotting the displaced miners with plenty of warning to make their own favoured approach. These were a pretty surly bunch who took a little convincing that this was help and not some trick. Next came the first 'encounter' roll on the overloaded encounter dice and they had just spent a chunk of time interacting with the miners about how they got run off by mean insectfolk - so I figured they ran slap bang into the insectfolk at the mine entrance. This was a point blank, both sides stumble in encounter that quickly turned into a close in knife fight. The party were mostly level one and I set 12 CR 1/4 insects on them. The barbarians tanked a lot of the damage by rushing in, the elf rogue got stabbed up badly and everyone else took some hits. The fight had the low-level thing of a round could be a swing-and-miss for folk but it was also a simple enough brawl so it moved fairly quickly. A bunch of the players were new but as most were rogues, fighters or barbarians they were relatively simple classes to drive. We were four hours in at this point.]
Choosing to press on, they are brought through the upper works of what is revealed to be an old dwarven mine by the goblin before they venture alone below grounds.
[DM Commentary - I had the Abandoned Quarry from A Home Reforged which has this top layer as a spooky intro; there is just a ghost stuck in a loop to interact with - since we were running up on time, when the players asked the goblin to lead them on, I just had them led through to the passage down and had the dwarf recognise a standard dwarf mine upperworks.]
Following tracks they find veins of crystal grown all over the walls and delving deeper find piles of crystals and dead insectfolk encrusted with crystals. The party identify this as crystalline fungus - dangerous to harverst and liable to cause those who die to it to rise once more as puppets of the fungus. Most of the party decide they know enough to report back that the mine is unrecoverable and head out while the dwarf decides to venture deeper and find the source of the crystal. The elf rogue decides not to let their companion die alone in the dark.
[DM Commentary - at this point we called time, one of the players needed to go. This was the four hour forty five mark. The dwarf decided they were going to press on and die down here, the elf rogue decided to go with so I ran them through the last room and when they decided to fight, it was a foregone conclusion.]
Deeper, they find more insectfolk carving a crystalline giant out of a wall and after a brief rest the engage the insectfolk in their works. A brutal fight through the tunnels wakes more of the crystalline husks. The elf flees to carry word of the dwarfs last stand, hearing the sounds of battle fading behind them as they go.
Most of the party heads directly back to Ashley, reporting to Elena and getting paid. The elf stops first at the goliath village, carrying the tale there and overnighting before the next day returning to Ashley, surprising everyone that reports of their death were exaggerated.
[DM Commentary - five hour mark, I ran the 'journey home & report back' as epilogue.]
Session report ends
Sum up - most of the session was the journey to find out the mine was not worth it - this information got people paid but because it felt to me like some players got impatient because 2/3 of the session was spent on the journey. I am not sure I wanted to telegraph 'the journey is the quest' to confirm that there was not necessarily anything to find at the mine.
Overall I think the concept of dropping a relatively light site/situation in as the quest objective and letting the session be the journey worked well. Throwing down the hex-map and asking them to find their way seemed to go well.
One player had seemed more disengaged than others but after prior bad experiences I had taken to running my open tables to keep the majority as highly engaged as I can and stopped trying to keep everyone equally engaged. Five of six players were having fun so we carried on as we were.
Amusingly went to the pub afterwards with the dwarf barbarian and the main campaigns firbolg artificer where they gleefully compared notes and recognised bits and pieces the other had run into - why were things certain ways in certain places, etc. As of the end of the night, I figured it had been a pretty good session.
Continue reading...
Setup - where the adventure came from
This was an open-table on an off-week to my hexcrawl campaign; using the same map and prep. This session was the first open table which was not a formal adventure, this was just a location
Our heroes were
lthmar - Elf Rogue (woodland ranger)
Hilas - Halfling Fighter (local hero discus thrower)
Thorgrimm Embershield - Dwarf Barbarian (WHFRP trollslayer)
Erin - Elf Paladin (oath of ancients ex-soldier)
Martha - Human Barbarian (buff old lady)
Happy - Tiefling Rogue (sneaky)
An interesting bit cropped up at the start - one person was very mechanics focused - wanted specific classes, etc from everyone - another - the tiefling player, told me stuff about tieflings in my campaign world (closer to old archetype of shunned stranger vs fairly well mixed in for menagerie world).
Session was run under an adventurers league style ruleset so everyone would get a level up if they survived and treasure and gold rewards were capped as this was a Tier One (level 1-4) adventure.
Session Report: Derelict Mines
Starting from the town of Ashley (green highlighted hex), following tales of strange riches being found by other adventurers, our heroes are commissioned by Elena the arcanist to investigate a rumoured lost dwarven mine, hoping it is recoverable after one of the largest mines in the region was recently destroyed. A night of carousing is held with the villagers before our heroes set off in the morning.
[DM Commentary - I did not push people very hard on to the road; this was a pure explore-and-report-back with no ticking clock so I left them to it. Three of the party decided to stay up carousing - the dwarf, the halfling and the tiefling. I used a previously created carousing table - it more served to introduce the concept to some new players than have any mechanical impact. This all took ~ 45 mins.]
Hiking out past the disorienting graveyard, over the (temporarily quiet) ancient battlefield and up the escarpment to overnight at the goliath village above.
[DM Commentary - opportunity to intro some new people to hexcrawling (red highlighted hex) - this start run was relatively linear - from the green to the red hex has one obvious route up the big notch in the escarpment unless you want to scale the cliffs. I use the overloaded encounter die on entry to a hex:
1. Setback
2. Fatigue/delay
3. Expiration
4. Locality
5. Percept
6. Advantage
Traversing the hexes they rolled "delay" and became yet another party to fall foul of the disorienting effect of the shrine hidden in the graveyard. It cost them time and they were aware something off was going on. Next hex was "locality" as they traversed the ancient battlefield so they noted signs of risen dead and recent fighting. Hiking up the staircase they got 'expiry' which I ran as flavour - an exhausting hike in the blazing sun. Lastly entering the hex of the village they got 'delay' and found themselves traversing newly built or restored fortifications and barricades along the road; speaking to recent local conflict.]
At the goliath village they found friendly welcome when they approached openly and peacefully. After discussing stories of local mines and what might have happened to the destroyed mine, they get some local stories, trade their own and leave with an invite to return.
[DM Commentary - there was quite a bit of prying for information from the goliaths, some of which they knew a bit about which turned into perhaps an accidental red herring. These goliaths were pretty aware of how their main rivals mine had recently burned to the ground and had plenty of gossip and speculation about that. The mine the party had been asked to investigate was a completely different one about which the goliaths knew little.]
Hiking out through the forest, the paladin holds them from hunting while they seek a beast to commune with - not until they are deep in a dripping cloud forest do they find a flying frog that can tell them news of the workers escaping from the now-burned dead mine.
[DM Commentary - setting off again - from green hex toward yellow hex - they first rolled "delay" that I ran as pathbreaking - as the goliaths said, noone goes to where they were going. The great shrine in that hex did not make an appearance. The next hex was another 'delay' in a cloud forest. Here it became a rough terrain slog, trying to find their way around unexpectedly deep pools and soggy terrain.
Continuing, they find some displaced goliath and goblin miners, who are deeply suspicious of help just turning up and offering to assist for free. Guided onwards by one of the goblin, they head towards the mine before stumbling upon a group of skin-wearing insectfolk. Garbed in their person-pelts and wielding sharp daggers, there is a brutal close quarters fight that leaves many of the party badly cut-up.
[DM Commentary - Next hex they got 'percept' - spotting the displaced miners with plenty of warning to make their own favoured approach. These were a pretty surly bunch who took a little convincing that this was help and not some trick. Next came the first 'encounter' roll on the overloaded encounter dice and they had just spent a chunk of time interacting with the miners about how they got run off by mean insectfolk - so I figured they ran slap bang into the insectfolk at the mine entrance. This was a point blank, both sides stumble in encounter that quickly turned into a close in knife fight. The party were mostly level one and I set 12 CR 1/4 insects on them. The barbarians tanked a lot of the damage by rushing in, the elf rogue got stabbed up badly and everyone else took some hits. The fight had the low-level thing of a round could be a swing-and-miss for folk but it was also a simple enough brawl so it moved fairly quickly. A bunch of the players were new but as most were rogues, fighters or barbarians they were relatively simple classes to drive. We were four hours in at this point.]
Choosing to press on, they are brought through the upper works of what is revealed to be an old dwarven mine by the goblin before they venture alone below grounds.
[DM Commentary - I had the Abandoned Quarry from A Home Reforged which has this top layer as a spooky intro; there is just a ghost stuck in a loop to interact with - since we were running up on time, when the players asked the goblin to lead them on, I just had them led through to the passage down and had the dwarf recognise a standard dwarf mine upperworks.]
Following tracks they find veins of crystal grown all over the walls and delving deeper find piles of crystals and dead insectfolk encrusted with crystals. The party identify this as crystalline fungus - dangerous to harverst and liable to cause those who die to it to rise once more as puppets of the fungus. Most of the party decide they know enough to report back that the mine is unrecoverable and head out while the dwarf decides to venture deeper and find the source of the crystal. The elf rogue decides not to let their companion die alone in the dark.
[DM Commentary - at this point we called time, one of the players needed to go. This was the four hour forty five mark. The dwarf decided they were going to press on and die down here, the elf rogue decided to go with so I ran them through the last room and when they decided to fight, it was a foregone conclusion.]
Deeper, they find more insectfolk carving a crystalline giant out of a wall and after a brief rest the engage the insectfolk in their works. A brutal fight through the tunnels wakes more of the crystalline husks. The elf flees to carry word of the dwarfs last stand, hearing the sounds of battle fading behind them as they go.
Most of the party heads directly back to Ashley, reporting to Elena and getting paid. The elf stops first at the goliath village, carrying the tale there and overnighting before the next day returning to Ashley, surprising everyone that reports of their death were exaggerated.
[DM Commentary - five hour mark, I ran the 'journey home & report back' as epilogue.]
Session report ends
Sum up - most of the session was the journey to find out the mine was not worth it - this information got people paid but because it felt to me like some players got impatient because 2/3 of the session was spent on the journey. I am not sure I wanted to telegraph 'the journey is the quest' to confirm that there was not necessarily anything to find at the mine.
Overall I think the concept of dropping a relatively light site/situation in as the quest objective and letting the session be the journey worked well. Throwing down the hex-map and asking them to find their way seemed to go well.
One player had seemed more disengaged than others but after prior bad experiences I had taken to running my open tables to keep the majority as highly engaged as I can and stopped trying to keep everyone equally engaged. Five of six players were having fun so we carried on as we were.
Amusingly went to the pub afterwards with the dwarf barbarian and the main campaigns firbolg artificer where they gleefully compared notes and recognised bits and pieces the other had run into - why were things certain ways in certain places, etc. As of the end of the night, I figured it had been a pretty good session.
Continue reading...