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.
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.
The heroes were asked to follow the Dragon Cultists who’d attacked Greenest and then made off with ill-gotten gains and captives from the town. During the last session the PCs caught up to a band of Human and Kobold stragglers and tricked them into fighting each other. When the combat ended the PCs captured the Humans and convinced one of them to lead the party back to the camp. On the way the Rogue spotted two sentries hiding atop a rocky outcropping.
We were back down to five tables this week at Hairy Tarantula North in Toronto as one of our DMs was out with illness. However, we still had 28 players bringing most groups to capacity. My table had the following PCs: Halfling Rogue (1), Tiefling Bard (2), Drow Sorcerer (2), Tiefling Warlock (2), Elf Rogue (3), Dragonborn Fighter (3). We’ve been running some D&D Expeditions on the weekend so two of the PCs are now level 3 adding versatility, firepower and hit points to the party.
Before we got started this week, the owner of our FLGS asked us if we’d be willing to poll the players and see if some of them would be willing to play on a different night. He felt that D&D Encounters had grown too large to accommodate the all the D&D players and the Magic players. He was concerned that we’d have to turn away players looking to play with either group. If we could move a table or two to another night it would serve to better accommodate new players. We’ll see if anyone wants to play on another night and go from there. We certainly don’t want to turn anyone away!
In episode 1 the Cult of the Dragon attacked the town of Greenest in search of gold, silver, and other valuables. The Human Cultists were accompanied by Kobolds, Drakes and even a Blue Dragon. Thanks to a daring band of adventurers, the town and many of the locals were saved. The evildoers eventually retreated; carry what loot they could as they fled south. The PCs took a much needed, and well deserved rest before following the cultists to retrieve what possessions they could and discover more about what motivated these attacks.
Note: I’ve decided to adjust the way I denote the title of these posts. Since the adventure is divided into episodes (chapters) I felt it made a lot more sense to indicate what episode my post covered. With different groups completing episodes at different speeds this should make it easier for DMs to find notes on the exact session they want.
As we continue to attract new players at Hairy T North in Toronto we’ve had to open another table – that brings us up to six. The numbers broke down like this: table 1 (DM Craig) six players, table 2 (DM Hillel) had five players, table 3 (DM Tim) had six players, table 4 (DM Derek) has six players, table 5 (DM Chris) has six players, and table 6 (DM Wayne) had four players. That’s six DMs and 33 players. We had to move into the space where folks play Magic and ask the Magic players to cram into the space where we used to run D&D Encounters.
My table had the following PCs, all returning from previous weeks: Tiefling Bard, Drow Sorcerer, Tiefling Warlock (formerly Tiefling Bard), Halfling Rogue, Elf Rogue, Dragonborn Fighter. The Halfling Rogue was still level 1, but the rest of the PCs were all level 2.
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.
