It’s been a few weeks since we last posted our D&D Encounters recaps. There were many contributing factors to the disruption including absent DMs, personal vacation, and real life conflicts with blog posting. However, we’re back on track now and plan to keep up the weekly posts as we have in the past. I realize that our adventures may be falling behind the pace of many other FLGS, but we hope you still find these reports entertaining, valuable, and helpful.
In order to get things back on track with our adventure recaps we’ll be posting three articles this week. Today is episode 2.1, Tuesday will be episode 2.2, and Wednesday will be episode 3.1. That will bring us back to even with our ongoing weekly adventures.
A group of well-intentioned adventurers travelled to a forgotten graveyard searching for evidence of a young girl’s imaginary friend whom they believe was actually a Ghost. When they found the spirit it merely asked them not to descend into his master’s crypt. When they did not comply the Ghost forced them to retreat. It was then they were set upon by grave robbers. In the end the PCs defeated the opportunistic thieves and decided to rest before facing the Ghost a second time.
At Face to Face Games in Toronto we ran two tables this week. Our numbers were down and we only had 11 players this week. The other DM had six while my group was down to only five. The perfect number in my opinion.
The party consisted of the following characters: Human Sorcerer (Wild Magic), Elf Bard, Goliath Bard, Half-Orc Barbarian/Druid, Dwarf Fighter. This was the week when the Wild Mage finally rolled a 1 and suffered the consequences of the mishap table. Read on to find out how that altered the encounter in unexpected and awesome ways.
We ended our last session with the heroes defeating the bandits. There were 12 bandits in total, but the party of seven still made short work of them. Now it’s back to Red Larch to see what other trouble they can get into.
We ran two tables at Face to Face Games in Toronto, both full with seven players in each group. We’re still struggling to find a DM or convince any of the current players to take a chance as the DM.
My group had many familiar faces, but a few people were running different characters this week. Two wanted to try something different and one just forgot his real character so he used a pre-gen. We ended up with the following composition in our party: Human Sorcerer (Wild Magic), Elf Bard, Goliath Bard, Half-Orc Barbarian/Druid, Dwarf Fighter, Human Monk, and Halfling Rogue.
While on the way to Red Larch the characters were beset upon by an Earth Elemental that was chasing Orcs and a Paladin of Torm. The PCs did a remarkable job of taking down the Elemental without suffering any loses. From there it was a relatively uneventful trip the rest of the way to Red Larch.
Our first session at Face to Face Games in Toronto didn’t really get beyond the initial random encounter, but this week the PCs had an opportunity to explore Red Larch and get to know some of the local NPCs. We were again busting at the seems with 14 players split between two tables. My group consisted of the following PCs: Goliath Bard, Elf Bard, Human Sorcerer (Wild Magic), Human Wizard, Human Warlock/Bard, Human Monk, and Half-Elf Sorcerer (Dragon Magic).
We’re back! After a long absence D&D Encounters begins anew as do our weekly recaps. The new adventure path is called Elemental Evil and in the Princes of the Apocalypse the adventurers find themselves in the town of Red Larch where strange things are afoot.
I’d like to give a huge shout out to our FLGS, Face to Face Games in Toronto. They’re a relatively new game shop and this is the first season they’ve hosted D&D Encounters. For our first official session we ran two full tables with six players in each party. My group consisted of the following PCs: Goliath Bard, Elf Bard, Human Sorcerer (Wild Magic), Human Fighter, Human Monk, and Half-Elf Sorcerer (Dragon Magic).
Last week some of the players got together at our FLGS to make characters together. Afterwards we ran a session of The Lost Mines of Phandelver so they could get a feel for their new PCs. They earned just enough XP from that one session to reach level 2. So our two Bards began this week at level 2.
On March 18, we begin D&D Encounters season 20. The adventure is called Princes of the Apocalypse and is part of the larger Elemental Evil story arc.
In order to entice new players to come out and try D&D 5e public play, Wizards of the Coast has kindly offered up free rewards for DMs and players. We’ve taken a look inside the box of goodies and today we’ll show you everything.
Thursday has been the day we post our D&D Encounter adventure recap for years. But when 5e D&D was officially released the D&D Encounters schedule was tweaked giving your FLGS a lot more time to complete the adventure; more time that most needed. At my FLGS it only took us about 10 weeks to complete Hoard of the Dragon Queen, episodes 1-3. With the official D&D Encounters part of the adventure was done, we stopped the recaps. But that doesn’t mean we’ve been sitting around doing nothing.
Each week Marc, Craig and I have continued recording new episodes of our podcast, Recounting Encounters. We don’t focus on weekly recaps any more, but we still have a lot to talk about. Sometimes we talk about problems we’ve experienced at our gaming table and how we’ve resolved them, other times we explore various interpretations of the new 5e rules. The point is that you can still catch our podcast every week until the new season of D&D Encounters begin in mid-March. Until then we’ll be sure to talk about things that will help your D&D game whether you’re a player or a DM.
This was the new beginning for D&D. It may have been season 19 of D&D Encounters, but this was the first adventure that used the official new 5e rules so in a way it was like season 1 again. We had high expectation for 5e, especially after participating in the D&D Next playtest for so long, and we had high hopes for the first adventure that used the new rules. It was a lot of fun and there were plenty of memorable encounters at the tables I ran.
Today I’m going to take a long, hard look at Hoard of the Dragon Queen. I’m going to identify the good and the bad and then judge it on its merits. Was it a good adventure? Did it work as a season of D&D Encounters? Read on and find out.
The party defeated the half-Dragon and his five fanatical Barbarian underlings in the Dragon Shrine during the last session. Most of the PCs were pretty banged up so they took another short rest before advancing to the Dragon Hatchery this week. Fortunately none of the creatures still inside the caverns stumbled upon the PCs while they rested so after an hour it was down the stairs into the bowels of the cave.
We ran four table this week at Hairy Tarantula North in Toronto. Three groups are nearing the end of Episode 3 while the fourth table has already moved on to Episode 4. Our usual fifth which has also already moved onto Episode 4 decided to play on a different night beginning this week. It’s good for us because it frees up some space and it’s good for them because they’re now on a night where there’s nothing else going on at our FLGS giving them free run of the place.
This week I had seven players at my table, six of my regulars and one brand new player. The new players had a lot of experience with D&D 2e and 3e, but none with 5e. The table rounded out as follows: Elf Rogue / Arcane Trickster (4), Dragonborn Fighter (4), Halfling Rogue / Assassin (3), Tiefling Bard (3), Tiefling Warlock (3), Elf Ranger (3), Human Fighter (1).
We’re back! After a two week absence our weekly D&D Encounters adventure is back on track. During the last session the PCs faced off against a lot of Kobolds, a few Flying Kobolds, and some really nasty Guard Drakes. The combat was so loud and took so long that more Kobolds from the next room heard the sounds of combat and joined the fight.
Eventually the PCs defeated the all the monsters, but it was a close call. The heroes took refuge in the Kobolds Barracks, now empty since all the monsters left the room to join the fighting. After completing a short rest they were ready to descend the rocky, staircase into the darkness in pursuit of Dragon Eggs and treasure.
Over the past two weeks at Hairy Tarantula North in Toronto we’ve deviated from our typical D&D night path. Two tables finished Episode 3 and decided to play some D&D Expeditions for a couple of weeks. The other tables took a break from D&D Encounters for Canadian Thanksgiving, but many players still showed up at the FLGS and joined in their own D&D Expeditions. This week three tables began the night in the Kobold Barracks (area #8) while the other two tables began Episode 4. But we’ll talk more about that later.
My table had our usual seven players. Everyone had played one or more D&D Expeditions adventure since I last ran the group, so there had been some levelling and character swapping. The party now consisted of the following PCs: Elf Rogue / Arcane Trickster (4), Dragonborn Fighter (4), Halfling Rogue / Assassin (3), Tiefling Bard (3), Tiefling Warlock (3), Elf Ranger (3), Elf Cleric (2). The player running the new Cleric has a level 4 PC but didn’t want to level out of tier 1 yet so she switched to a new PC she’d already run at D&D Expeditions.
It’s been a few weeks since we last posted our D&D Encounters recaps. There were many contributing factors to the disruption including absent DMs, personal vacation, and real life conflicts with blog posting. However, we’re back on track now and plan to keep up the weekly posts as we have in the past. I realize that our adventures may be falling behind the pace of many other FLGS, but we hope you still find these reports entertaining, valuable, and helpful.
