July 30th, Aug 6, and Aug 13th are days where my FLGS normally hosts their Encounters sessions.  However, with the release of 5e, these three weeks are sort of on hiatus due to no official Encounters event going on.  So what they've done is used these days as "Introduction to D&D" nights.  A few DMs and myself would host a session of D&D for new players.  Every table ran Lost Mine of Phandelver from the Starter box but me.  I was actually granted permission to run my custom homebrew Felk Mor campaign, as long as I was using rules from the Basic Set and Starter set--no playtest material.  And pregens had to be used (I used the starter set pregens, along with Basic pregens I created to give extra variation)

The Players:
Dave: Some previous experience with AD&D a long time ago, but not very much.  Played a dwarven fighter with a greataxe
Trisha: never played TTRPGs before. Played a high elf wizard
Travis: played a couple sessions of AD&D back in the early 80s.  played the halfling rogue
Taylor: never played TTRPGs before. Played a wood elf rogue
Austin: said he was a huge fan of 3.5 and talked about all of his great PCs, but something didn't jive, because when we were playing, I had to show him what dice to use to attack and how to figure out damage.  Played a human great axe fighter

My DM approach:
When teaching new players the game, I tell them just the basics of how it works, and advice that I won't go over all the rules for combat or skill resolution until we get to that point.  IMO, too many rules up front is hard to retain and can be intimidating.  It's also easier to remember when you're actually doing.

Adventure Beginning:
Due to limited time, I advised them I would be speeding up certain things, like not spending a lot of time on character backgrounds.  We assumed they already all knew each other and were at the keep.  I did hand out two background plot hooks to each player to give them a jump start.  These plot hooks included (but are not limited to, as each player had minor incentives and plot hooks as well):

*rumors of giant ants that had been attacking caravans and travellers on the road east
* rumors of on old cult reemerging in the area
* the well, which provided the purest water around, has run dry
* rumors of ghosts in the forests near the woodcutter's camp

I dumped them right in the keep and let them have free reign.  New player lesson 1:  You're the players.  Do whatever you want to do as if you were the character.

Right off the bat Trisha said she wanted to visit the temple to find out some information (one of her individual plot hooks was to find and research honeydew ant nectar and its healing properties, so the priest was her best bet).  Austin headed to the Castellan's estate, and the rest headed toward the inn.

At the inn, I rolled on the rumor table and they heard some more rumors (not all of them true).  Taylor had an individual plot hook that somewhere there was a cache of large gems in caves nearby.  He said he asked around the inn if anyone knew of them.  I said, "No one you speak to knows about a cache of gems, but you do notice that you've got the attention of about a half dozen other people who seem to have taken an interest..."

At first, Austin was turned away from the Castellan's clerk, but being of noble birth, he convinced the clerk to have audience.  After speaking with the Castellan about some of the rumors, the Castellan also told him a story about the previous king and his tragedy of the murder of his wife and disappearance of his son, and rumors that the king still haunted the keep.

Trisha was able to glean a lot of info from the priest, who referenced her to the keep's wizard for more information.  She arrived with the rest of the party.  The wizard wanted nothing to do with "mundane" people, and agreed to talk to her if she passed a test.  He asked her what the properties of Aloe were.  Every player answered.

New player lesson 2: Discussion about out of character knowledge vs. in character knowledge.  I had her make an intelligence check to see how much information she may recall.  She rolled a natural 20.  Her reaction: "Not only does it have X Y and Z healing properties, but it's from genus xxxx found in the regions of ...."  The wizard agreed to talk  And further clues were given, including that the wizard was really interested in this weird fungus that was growing on the ants

The next morning the party agreed to check out the well first since it was close to the keep.  They peered down and it was bone dry.  they could only see darkness.  Some of the players thought of tying a rope to the halfling and lowering him down with a torch.  While the halfling was trying to avoid this, Trisha said, "I just cast my light spell on a rock and drop it."  It fell hundreds of feet before disappearing in the darkness.  Travis was glad he wasn't tied to a rope

So then they decided to head out to investigate the road.  A few miles out, they came upon an overturned cart with the goods spilled to one side.  They heard a group was attacked by ants and figured this might be it.  Travis used his stealth to make it up to the cart, but didn't see anything.  After the party arrived, the noticed that there were no bodies or blood, and none of the goods seemed to have been rummaged through.  Travis searched the area and made a perception check to notice that off the road, some of the tall grass was disturbed, even though there were no tracks.

So they followed the trail into the grassland for a few miles before they ran into their first random encounter: a group of 6 stirges.  Describing a monster to players who have no idea what it is?  Incredibly rewarding as a DM.  I love new players  A brief combat ensued, the party killing half of them before they even got close.  Then the wizard cast sleep and caught 3 of them in the spell.  Trisha said, "We'll kill two of them, but tie up the third because I want it alive to study."  God damn I love it when players really think outside of the box and get into their characters!  Most experienced players just think, "They're stirges.  Super common.  I already know all about them" even if their level 1 PC doesn't.

Later, near evening, they saw a wicked storm approaching from the north.  Driving rain, lightning, the whole deal.  They saw an old abandon farmhouse to the south.  They made their way to it.  When they got close, I advised that they had an overwhelming sense of dread from the place, best described as having an ooze seep into your pores.  Fearing the storm, they continued on.

The dwarf knocked on the door which opened easily.  I described a large room with a table, bookshelf, and desk with an open book on it.  Stairs led up.  The party investigated and the book was full of woodcarving pictures of people being operated on, dissected, and experimented on.  It radiated great evil.  At this point an old man came down the stairs and welcomed them.  "It's been so long since I had company, won't you sit down and fill an old man in on what's been going on?"

The players began to ask him about the rumors when Dave's dwarf made a passive perception check.  In 5e, passive perception is something where you don't actually make a roll for.  It's basically 10 + your WIS modifier.  For DMs, it's used to see if PCs notice anything they aren't specifically searching for without cluing the player in with a die roll that something's up.  The dwarf noticed that a small dark spot was growing on the ceiling above him.  A dark red spot...

Just as he grabbed his axe, the old man sprang into a surprise attack.  I rolled like absolute shit and missed the human noble completely.  The party fared better, and wounded this ghoul hybrid badly, but he was still up after one round.  The next round, Travis's halfling fired his bow at the ghoul--who was surrounded by three of the players.  And rolled a 1.  I assigned each person in the area a number and Travis rolled to see who the arrow hit.  It was the wizard.  I then asked him to roll an attack roll to see if it bypassed her mage armor.  It did.  8 points.  Wizard dropped.  By her own ally  

The human noble was then attacked, but made his save vs. being paralyzed and they killed the ghoul.  The wizard thought about keeping this book, but the dwarf had an acolyte background and knew such a thing was great evil and needed to be destroyed.  They rested up that night in the house to heal and let the storm pass.

The next day they continued to travel eastward and found five giant any mounds in a valley, but no sign of ants.  They investigated them and found that each had a tunnel leading down about 20 feet very steeply.  After much debate, they agreed to use a rope to lower everyone down, the dwarf being last.  He would climb down.  Naturally as he was climbing, he rolled a 5 on his dex check and slipped and fell 20 feet, suffering 6 points of damage.  From that point on, the halfling kept making jokes about the dangers of raining dwarves.

The group organized themselves in a marching order, the wood elf scouting the tunnels ahead.  The first chamber they came across was empty.  The second chamber smelled sweet, sickly, and musky.  Peering in, there were piles of decomposing vegetable matter and random animal parts.  They decided not to search the piles.  Good for them, because in the piles were rot grubs.  Ah, my most fearsome monster

They then came across a chamber with six giant ants tending dozens of grubs.  They stayed in the tunnel, letting the two fighters form a wall up front while the rest used ranged attacks.  The battle was over pretty quickly.  Again I rolled shitty, and they rolled well.  AT this point, our session was over.

Summary
All of the players had a great time.  Much laughing, and everyone got into character really well.  The brand new players especially had some really great ideas.  With 5e's universal system for everything from combat to skill checks (d20+modifier against a DC), it was super easy to learn, and they picked it up very quickly.  The most inexperienced player (Trisha) had the most complex PC (the wizard) but she handled it like a charm.  Sleep is one of her favorite spells now  Most of the checks they made were more of determining level of success or failure, rather than flat out success or failure.  I.e., if they rolled well on an investigative check, I gave them a lot of information.  If they barely beat the DC, I gave them only a little.  So the DC value was more of a sliding value rather than an all or nothing deal.

Next Wednesday is another session.  I'm prepared to have all new players again, but all of these players said they will be back because they want to continue.

Great to see new players having a blast!

The ease of play is definitely there in 5e.

To add some context, the time allotment was 2 hours.  So in 2 hours, we introduced PCs, they did their research around the keep, traveled quite a bit, and had 3 combat encounters.  They didn't leave the keep until over an hour in, so 3 encounters and their exploration in less than an hour.

Sounds like great fun. It's been a few years since I've DMd an "all-newbie" or "nearly newbie" D&D game and I miss that.

Quote from: Sacrosanct;774017To add some context, the time allotment was 2 hours.  So in 2 hours, we introduced PCs, they did their research around the keep, traveled quite a bit, and had 3 combat encounters.  They didn't leave the keep until over an hour in, so 3 encounters and their exploration in less than an hour.

I like it!

Quote from: Saplatt;774023Sounds like great fun. It's been a few years since I've DMd an "all-newbie" or "nearly newbie" D&D game and I miss that.

Oh it was so awesome.  I mean, a stirge man.  Normally, as soon as you start with the "bat-like winged creature the size of a small dog..." everyone knows exactly what you're talking about.

"Oh, stirges.  They're easy, kill them and let's move on."

Compared to how it went last night:

"When they get closer, their shrieks and squeals piercing the air, you see that their heads are best compared to that of a hummingbird.  A long probiscus like member ends in a sharp point, almost like a mosquito."

"Holy...Get the guys with long bows up front to take some out before they get close.  When they're within 30 feet or so, the two fighters will step forward with throwing axes.  Put the wizard in the middle to protect her!"

...

Wizard: "Don't kill all of them.  Let me use sleep.  These are strange creatures and I want to study them!"

... (after sleep spell worked)

Fighter: "How do you plan on keeping it?  I suppose we could tie it up, but who's carrying it?"



How many groups would take the time an effort to capture and study a stirge lol?

Yeah, I am seriously feeling envy right now.

I need new players.

In my experience, new players always go about collecting the oddest things.

I think the trinkets table might a source of more fun than I realized.

Quote from: Saplatt;774066In my experience, new players always go about collecting the oddest things.

I think the trinkets table might a source of more fun than I realized.

I think its a winner.

I am a veteran jaded gamer, and the trinket table was awesome when I joined a 5e game last Monday.

My character had a random trait that said something like "Someone I loved died because of me. I won't let that happen again"

Then the random trinket I got was "an empty glass vial that smells of perfume"

Great character hooks from those two random rolls.