The Big Finish

Moritz took some photgraphs!

DT Goes Fourth

So, our campaign has come to an end.

The players were either killed or else died of old age in the years that separate this campaign from our next.

As a group we have also decided to move forward.
Members have left (Bye Moritz!) and others have joined (Hello Christoph!).

And so for the new campaign we will be playing 4th Edition, starting from 1st level, remove computers and projectors from the group play sessions (but keep them for character creation), and also be playing in a more cosy conference room.

The campaign itself will be set in darker times after the war between the Blue Dragon and the Pit-Fiend.

If you would like to follow our activities see our new blog Dragon Tales at dtgoesfourth.blogspot.com

Collective learning? Effective teaching? Not in my adventuring group!

In his last comment under the post "No holds bard", Kirk made a good point about how
we, as a party, are meant to collectively learn from our experiences and take the
appropriate measures to ensure we don't repeat the same lessons too often. I agree
that the apes throwing rocks was an excellent way to teach us about how to deal with
being ambushed and surrounded by a team of fairly weak creatures; the point was made
clearly and effectively, as many of us felt embarrassed by our performance while at
the same time we understood the point being made. The fact that our characters were
none the worse for wear ensured that all of us should have been able to act in a more
appropriate way when the opportunity presented itself.

The thing is, it's very difficult for a group of people to collectively learn
anything, and we all know this. I'm not saying that it never happens; indeed, the
fact that companies learn how to adapt to changing market influences, athletic teams
learn how to beat other teams, and armies learn how to outsmart / outmaneuver / kill
other armies every day shows that groups of people can clearly learn from their
collective mistakes. However, all of these entities have two elements in common:
structured leadership and the ability to remove or retrain unfit members to
improve the group's net performance. As an adventuring group, while we can't force
our own members to leave if they're not performing well enough (and we shouldn't!),
we can retweak our characters to work better within our specific group. Additionally,
we've occasionally debated about our lack of centralized leadership, let alone a
command structure of any sort, and I think we should give it a shot in 4e. Otherwise,
it's going to be very difficult for us, as a group of individually-minded adventurers
who can be resurrected after dying, to collectively learn anything.

Having said all that, I imagine that if I were in Kirk's DM shoes, I probably would
have done a similar thing to our party -- after I gave them fair warning that I'd be
testing them to see how much they learned from the adventure! It can be very
frustrating to try and teach something to an entity who cannot or will not learn, and
if I had one last shot to see whether such an entity had learned anything, I'd
probably also make it a painful test. However, to not tell an entity that you're
trying to teach them something; to not tell this entity that you'll then test them on
everything you've been trying to "teach" them; and to then berate them for not
"learning" anything from your "lessons" is just silly! It's also cruelly fun, but
that's besides the point. ;)

In short, I think that we, the players, should try using some sort of simple command
structure to better coordinate our fights if we ever want to collectively learn and
grow from our adventures. Otherwise, our post-battle reports will always have lots of
comments that read like this: "gosh, that was a clusterfuck! why didn't X do Y?"
Similarly, if DMs are going to test how well we learned the lessons of an adventure,
they should let us know. Otherwise, we're going to operate under the presumption that
they're going to try out some cool new monster / combat feat that they've discovered.

An Arrow too far?

‘Challenge Ratings’ are pretty lame. Would 17th level Estaban have lasted more than 12 seconds if he stood against the Party alone?
The way I see it is that a 'Challenge rating' equal to the Party is only a quarter as powerful.
Just out of curiosity though, would one of you ‘Techies’ work out what the ‘Challenge Rating’ was for the final battle?

The Party:

1) Eolar: 17th level Cleric/Ranger
2) Thesis: 17th level Fighter/Barbarian
3) Bodush: 16th level Sorcerer
4) Durin: 14th level Barbarian
5) Mara'ch: 13th level Rogue/Sorcerer thingy

Party assets:

1) Ragnar: 13th level Fighter/werebear (Don’t say he doesn’t count just because he’s a sidekick)
2) Roly: 5th level Cleric (Would have healed ‘certain’ Party members)
3) Lizard-folk slaves. x 2 (CR:2)

Neutrals:

1) Meldo
2) Children x 7
3) Siren children x 3
4) Sailors x 3
5) Hamster-men x 2

Opposition:

1) Estaban: 17th level Bard (With only one offensive spell that he could only use once)
2) Dorgon: 12th level Fighter. (Meant to have targeted Mara'ch)
3) Valdis: 13th level Fighter/Barbarian (Silver-sheened Halfling of death!)
4) Mendoza: 12th level Fighter (Hit and run specialist)
5) Hawkmoon: 14th level Fighter/Wizard (Traitorous turncoat)
6) Mendez: 17th level Fighter/Barbarian/Ranger (Geased to attack any that attacked family)
7) Benidict: 7th level Rogue (Law hating backstaber)
8) Eris: 3rd level Wizard (Sweet 18 year old little sister)
9) Brothers x 11: 4th level Fighters (Completely safe on their 10' wall...)
10) Thugs x 12: 1st level Fighters (Completely worthless)
11) Servants x 4 1st level commoners (Even more completely worthless)

As for the encounter setting...
Estaban had planned against you but the courtyard itself was only a minor obstacle and the tactics were pretty straight forward.

Final Banner: The End

Oh my. Utter carnage.

Should we review what happened? OK, Lets:

Bodush and Eolar were under a gaes, and were compelled to return with the diamonds.
We all duely did the same (why?) and strolled into the killing-field courtyard.
Hawkmoon revealed himself as the spy and shot at Bodush, who survived thanks to stone-skin.
Bodush then took out Hawkmoon with a power-word stun.

Two more attacks took place, one from the halfling with his silversheen dagger against Ragnar and the other by the sailor-spy on Eolar.

All fine up to that point. We could even be said to be winning and Mendez was holding back on shooting anyone.

But then, it was up to us and frankly our decisions were poor in terms of who to attack.

The obvious candidates would have been the spy and the halfling.

Thesis and Durin chose neither. We did what we always say we shouldn't do but do anyway - split up.

Eolar's decision was possibly worse: let off an indiscriminate killing spell.

From there on in it was probably over, but, yet there were one or two more chances.

* Had Thesis acknowledged that Mendoza and the big guy had broken off and dropped back to aid the dying Eolar, that would have helped.
* Had Durin run across the wall he so incredibly lept upon earlier and engaged Mendez, that would certainly have helped.
* And, had someone (any of us) decided to stand with Bodush things would have been a lot different.

Clearly we could and should have played it differently, but would that have been enough to win? I'm not sure, there were a lot of brothers on the wall and Esteban was in full-rude health.
We may still have lost.
And in any case, there was a devil waiting for us inside. :P

What do you all think?

Bard to the Bone

A week before the end...

Mendez’ face is clouded when Estaban moves to sit back down with his youngest son.
"Now Mendez, although I’m grateful for the gifts you have given your brothers, let’s see what else you have that’d be useful... Hmmn. Frankly I’m surprised by how little magic you have considering you’ve been adventuring for nearly three years. These ‘Tanglefoot’ bags look like you’ve been carrying them around for ages! Still from what I’ve recently learned a few of these items, specifically this pot of ‘Silversheen’ may prove useful…"

Stinker, Sailor, Soldier, Spy

About five weeks ago…

As the massive gorilla bounds into the clearing, the three sailors draw their swords.
The two Hamster men simply cower idiotically and try to hide behind the trees.
Easily out powering them, the gorilla rends the first sailor in half and quickly turns to dispatch the remaining two. With astonishing speed, the huge ape grabs at the second sailor. His powerful jaws clamping down on the weathered sailors throat.
Suddenly a sword erupts through its powerful chest.
Dropping the dying sailor, the ape tries to turn, but his back is stabbed again.
With blood pouring from the two serious wounds, it dies gazing up at the fragile looking human. A look of confusion frozen onto its leathery face.
Benidict regards the massive ape with contempt and then calls to the Hamster men.
“Come out. You’re safe now.”
Obviously relieved, the two Hamster men emerge timidly from the foliage.
Like sheep they approach the remaining Sailor for reassurance and like lambs they are cut down by their supposed saviour.
“I’m sorry rodents, but I just can’t have you telling the adventurers what I just did.”
Benidict stares at the carnage for a moment before getting to work.
He carefully arranges the bodies to make it look as though everyone was fighting the lone ape. He then proceeds to cut himself several times across his chest. Deep enough to bleed freely but shallow enough not to cause serious injure.
Benidict then hides himself in the bushes until help arrives.