Alright, I haven’t been active here for a while because, well, life, but I FINALLY managed to DM my first game. I made a simple homebrew quest which I thought would last about 2-3 hours and would be a good introduction for the world to be.
##HERE WE GO
**Characters:**I had a group of 3 players, only one had her character ready. None of them had played OL nor did they have much experience with tabletop RPGs. One of them wanted to be a pseudo dragonborn-ish character with a wide variety of skills. It took a while, but we managed to make one. The last one wanted a one-punch type monk. It took 5 minutes and it was done. So in the end, the party was composed of:
A) A teleporting gunslinger who gets periodically possessed by a fae entity;
B) A morphing pseudo dragon with skills in shadow teleporting, and a somewhat high presence;
C) A ridiculously efficient monk;
Story: It was supposed to be simple. A mine about a week of travel North from the town of Almedi hadn’t given any sign of life for more than a month. The newly formed group was to investigate. As it wasn’t the first time this situation happened - the messengers from the mine had a tendency to get lost - the group was sent without supervision. Licinia Fortunata, Almedi’s mayor, hadn’t given these mercenaries much detail, as she didn’t deem it necessary, but promised a good enough pay. The Mount Valiesa mine was used to dig up some strange gems previously unknown to the world.
Unbeknownst to the PCs, the mine was now controlled by a cult to some sort of demon. The month prior to these events, the miners dug up an old tome and a small blackish orb with a putrid smell. Before long, some miners became crazy and dug a small tunnel leading to an ancient ritual room. There, a monster was being built by one of the now corrupted miners, but it would take time to be completed.
So off they went! The journey went almost without a hitch. But the last night before getting to the mine, their camp was attacked by 3 porcuwolves. I hadn’t intended to put any battle before the mine, but I thought it would be a good way to learn skill rolls and such. The battle was messy. Everyone rolled bad, even my porcupine-wolves. Eventually, the surviving porcuwolves ran off and the monk cooked the dead one. In the end, I’m glad they could use this battle to learn on the fly. And the best part? I improvised it all. As dawn approached, the pseudo dragon decided to go take a walk. She noticed some mushrooms and took a bite… Well I rolled and decided it was hallucinogenic and inflicted fear. She saw huge nets and spiders falling from the sky clearly hellbent on eating her face for dinner. As the fear was intense, she barely snapped out of it and returned to the camp, with a handful of 'shrooms.
Finally making it to the mine, they encountered what they thought was a miner just before the door. Being attractive and all, the gunslinger managed to convinced him to show them around. (But really, the miner/really cultist, he intended to ambush them and use them as slaves) Cutting things short, the pseudo dragon and the monk are now psychopaths. They crushed skulls, showed no compassion whatsoever to the imprisoned miners and even beat up some who they just released. The poor guys… They still got out, but the group sure will have to answer for this.
We took a break and I offered the pseudo dragon player to change some stats, as she didn’t feel she was doing much in combat. We switched numbers here and there, modified a perk and she seemed rather satisfied.
After some time, some explosions and whatnots, they found the orb they needed (and filled their pockets with gems) to open the very last door. They found the boss (and the book), which was the constructed creature. We had been playing for 5+ hours at this point so I was really tired. So I pretty much fudged the boss fight rules but It was still fun. At some points, when players missed it hit the wall or the ceiling, stalagmites began falling. After a while, it became pretty clear the mine would fall apart.
So they run for their lives out of the mine, grabbing the book, some valuable gems, an enemy they had forgotten about. What do they do when they’re out? Fight for the loot of course! Both the dragon and the gunslinger are greedy, and the monk just loves to mess with people… Of course, the book is possessed by the demon and it is now in their possession.
By the end, it lasted a surprising 7 hours of unpredictable shenanigans (including character creation)! I was exhausted. But now we have some great plot hooks:
- What will happen with the possessed book?
- How will the town react when they learn a) they mistreated the hell out of the surviving miners; b) they destroyed the mine? Will they get paid?
- How will they decide to share the loot? Will their greed be the end of them?
- What happened to the cultist they didn’t kill? Did he die off in the collapsing mine? Did he escape?
I asked my players for feedback and they all had a blast. I might try fighting with a grid next time but everyone said it was fine with just my description (but lets be honest, we’re all bound to lose track at some point).
I think the only player who had less of a positive experience was the pseudo dragon as she regularly rolled poorly. In every case, we’ll revise her character to make sure it really reflects what she wants. Even then, she had a lot of fun.
##So here it is!
It was exciting all the way through, I improvised most of what would happen and it came out great. I’m pretty sure I forgot rules at some point, but eh, it was fun anyway and anyone though my calls were fair.
In the end, it was a great game and the players want to see where this will go. But yeah… they’re all psychos now.