Turkey Day Gaming Goodness

Ancalagon · Post October 30th, 2019, 7:31 pm

During the forthcoming Thanksgiving holiday week, for the first time since I started playing D&D with the B/X set, my parents (late 60s) are going to sit down at a table and try their hands at the game. My Better Half (always 29) is also going to jump in and give it a shot. Max from here on the 3Ps, my friend of 32+ years, will join us for the gaming goodness.

My 13 year old nephew will be joining all of us for the holiday. He has never gamed. I don't know if he's ever heard of D&D based on his upbringing. I do know that he loves the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films and digs dinosaurs. So I'm hoping that he'll want to join his grandparents and his favorite aunt in trying his hand at a short adventure I will run. I asked him during casual chatting what his favorite colors are: gray and maroon. So I picked up a set of gray dice with a maroon bag that I will give him whether he plays or not. Hopefully he decides to give the experience a try and it sparks his imagination.

For this occasion I will run a short B/X scenario. Since B/X has 7 classes (cleric, fighter, magic-user, thief, dwarf, elf, and Hobbit (I prefer that term over halfling)), I will create a pre-gen for each and let everyone choose what they want to play. Any extra pre-gens will be reserves in case the dice are unkind to the players. To help the players with no experience, I'll use a battlemat with minis to help them visualize and keep their bearings in a dungeon type environment.

I'm hoping for some good times for a few hours around the table in a few weeks!

Necron 99 · Post October 31st, 2019, 6:44 am

Gobble, gobble, "Roll for initiative"!

Sounds like fun, should be a good time.

rredmond · Post October 31st, 2019, 10:18 am

Sounds like great fun!!
And Hobbit > halfling!

Captain_Blood · Post October 31st, 2019, 6:22 pm

I'm just jealous. Regardless have a damn good time!

Ancalagon · Post October 31st, 2019, 11:13 pm

Thanks, folks!
I admit I'm quite curious as to which characters these first time players will select.

Ancalagon · Post November 7th, 2019, 9:01 pm

Pre-gens are finished! The players may choose from

Arnbjorn o' the North (cleric)
Dwalin "the Foe Splitter" (dwarf)
Andoril "the Greenwarden" (elf)
Eddard Lancaster (fighter)
Malaric Underhill (hobbit)
Llewellyn Bane (magic-user)
Jean-Pierre du Fleur (thief)

I made each pre-gen 2nd level so that a single hit won't spell certain death and, hopefully, enhance the excitement of watching those hit points carefully while trying to finish the mission.

Ancalagon · Post December 3rd, 2019, 1:45 am

I ran the session on the afternoon of the day after Thanksgiving. Everyone had a great time! My dad and nephew are especially eager to play again at some point. I'll post a write up in the coming days...

rredmond · Post December 3rd, 2019, 8:09 am

Happily awaiting the write up!
I'd love to get my dad to play. I really enjoy D&D with my daughters though, it's mucho fun. Played 1E a couple weeks ago, Slave Pits of the Undercity, restarted after a virtual TPK

My oldest, 17yo, DMed 5E at my buddy's house, he and his three kids play. His youngest and my youngest (both 9) didn't last too long, but the game was good fun! Glad a great time was had by all!!

Ancalagon · Post December 3rd, 2019, 5:08 pm

I ran Moldvay Basic for everyone (5 players) present. Since only 1 player had ever played D&D, The Haunted Keep in the rulebook sufficed quite nicely as an introductory adventure to the game. The pre-gens I created were reviewed and chosen by the players as follows:

Arnbjorn o' the North (cleric of Thor) chosen and played by Buddy, a 39+/- yr veteran of tabletop rpgs
Dwalin "the Foe Splitter" (dwarf) chosen and played by my dad, late 60s and total rpg noob
Andoril "the Greenwarden" (elf) chosen and played by Ethan, my 12 yr old nephew and total rpg noob
Eddard Lancaster (fighter) chosen and played by my mom, a total rpg noob
Malaric Underhill (hobbit) was not initially chosen so was kept in reserve... just in case.
Llewellyn Bane (magic-user) chosen and played by my Better Half, perpetually 29 yr old and also a rpg noob. Llewellyn was the only character with a hireling, a 1st level man-at-arms named Denwulf.
Jean-Pierre du Fleur (thief) was not initially chosen so was kept in reserve... just in case.

Ancalagon · Post December 3rd, 2019, 5:24 pm

I took a few minutes explaining to everyone some of the terms used in the game and showing them where on the character sheets said info was located. Next I passed out dice I brought for people to use.

I made sure to give special attention to my 12-yr old nephew by telling him I knew his favorite colors are gray and maroon then presented him with a maroon dice bag with gray dice w/black numbers as his to keep. I also told him that I've been waiting years for him to reach the point where I think he's ready to give the game a try. He had already asked 3 times when we were going to play so he was definitely interested.

Things kicked off with me telling everyone that King Elessar, the first of his name, had expanded the northern portion his kingdom which includes a ruined keep that the locals claim to be haunted due to strange lights, noises, and disappearances, etc. The king assembled the group to ride north and investigate the keep, handle any issues they encounter, then report back with whatever info they find. So off they went and we started at the double doors of the east tower of the keep.