That sounds nifty.

I'm really tempted to start up an Encounters at my store.  They need non-wargame organized events, badly.

Quote from: Abyssal Maw;389499Last years season was Forgotten Realms, the adventure was called Halasters Lost Apprentice (or something like that..)


What happens is, the PCs are hired by an NPC named Fayne who takes them into the Underdark in search of this lost apprentice. I actually missed this part, because most of it happened before my time.

So, when I started, the players had cleared out a dungeon level and were searching for some kind of hidden passage to a lower level. The first thing I ran had no combat, it was a skill challenge. So basically they were exploring in relative safety -- parts of the cleared dungeon but they found some goblins, and through negotiation, they made their way to one ond of the map, and there was some kind of magical ward they had to open up. So by the end of the session they had found the secret level.

The next time I ran it, they had gotten to the new area, which involved some summoned monsters, including an imp. They fought most of the monsters and then after the imp was bloodied they intimidated it into surrender and sort of captured it. So they spent the latter half of that session talking to the imp and gathering clues on the new level.

At some point they explored the new level- I think one session was devoted to poking around the alchemy lab, and one session the bedroom. It's more than just combat- part of it has to do with trying to figure out what the lost apprentice's name was, so there's clues to gather, and ghosts that appear and reenact some part of a mystery.

The last couple I ran had the PCs going to an upstairs room where there was a sort of magical energy-dome entrapment chamber thingy, and that was one where they had to fight the ghost as a solo, and then use some of the clues to make their way back down to the entry chamber where a bunch of vicious shadow monsters are.

Eventually they run back across Fayne but she gets kidnapped by her evil half-brother (Xeres?) and there's another battle, as Xeres escapes. I passed the DMing torch onto someone else around that time.

So what did I get out of it? I dunno, it's D&D, it's fun. My kids played through part of it.

That's a good enough motivator.
I like the ghosts reennacting the mystery.

Quote from: James McMurray;389445Yeah, I'm thinking the time it takes is directly proportional to the skill of the GM and the players. It's meant to bring new people in, and if you have even one new person at the table there can be a lot of explaining to do. If it's just a bunch of veterans an hour sounds feasible. If it's veterans that already game together it could even be less than that.

But if it's veterans that already game together, that kind of undermines the point of Encounters, right?  

Quote from: StormBringer;389512But if it's veterans that already game together, that kind of undermines the point of Encounters, right?  

Each table can handle up to 6 players and a DM, and even the DM can be the new guy. So, undermined or not, it seems to be doing pretty well.

Quote from: Abyssal Maw;389515Each table can handle up to 6 players and a DM, and even the DM can be the new guy. So, undermined or not, it seems to be doing pretty well.

Please stop stalking my threads.

Quote from: StormBringer;389542Please stop stalking my threads.

Did you feel attacked by my answer? It's completely on topic, and it answers your concern.

Quote from: Peregrin;389509That sounds nifty.

I'm really tempted to start up an Encounters at my store.  They need non-wargame organized events, badly.

If you want to alternate that with some Vintage Gaming stuff, I will be happy to whip up some short scenarios for Labyrinth Lord, OSRIC, or whatever else strikes your fancy.

Quote from: StormBringer;389692If you want to alternate that with some Vintage Gaming stuff, I will be happy to whip up some short scenarios for Labyrinth Lord, OSRIC, or whatever else strikes your fancy.

I've got some AD&D books, the RC, and most of the clones + random supplements.  Running an older edition is definitely on the table.

Mostly it's a matter of finding people who are willing to give it a shot, and then picking a game out of the various clones and variations on rules -- that part is the most overwhelming.  I'm leaning towards RC/LL for simplicity's sake, even though the little tactical bits in AD&D are tempting.

My group of friends would most definitely play, but I know there are at least a half-dozen or so 4e players from my university who hang around the LGS, and they'd probably give it a shot as well.

Alternating 4e with a TSR edition with the same group would make for an interesting experiment.  :hmm:

I only managed to go to one of these, since my job decided to change my Wednesday shift(our local D&D Encounters happens at 6pm on Wednesdays). We had a mix of old and new players, and the session took us 2hrs, though about 45min of that was just getting things off the ground with new people and people who didn't bring characters and such, as it was the first session. I really didn't mind having to drop out, since the game included somebody from the local RPGA scene whom I despise to the point of violence.

Quote from: Peregrin;389695I've got some AD&D books, the RC, and most of the clones + random supplements.  Running an older edition is definitely on the table.

Mostly it's a matter of finding people who are willing to give it a shot, and then picking a game out of the various clones and variations on rules -- that part is the most overwhelming.  I'm leaning towards RC/LL for simplicity's sake, even though the little tactical bits in AD&D are tempting.

My group of friends would most definitely play, but I know there are at least a half-dozen or so 4e players from my university who hang around the LGS, and they'd probably give it a shot as well.

Alternating 4e with a TSR edition with the same group would make for an interesting experiment.  :hmm:

I agree.  I will save you some time, then, and get a few one page dungeons together and see about setting up a webpage for downloading them.  Plus, you know, it gets my name and the Citadel out there.  Win-win.  

As long as it's not a bother, I'd appreciate it.

Quote from: Peregrin;389710As long as it's not a bother, I'd appreciate it.

Not a bother at all.  I was looking for a good reason to play around with a more or less standard install of Drupal.  

Quote from: Peregrin;389695Alternating 4e with a TSR edition with the same group would make for an interesting experiment.  :hmm:

Certainly! An experiment worth discussing on the forums, actually!