D&D Gaming Finally Rolling!

I'm finally playing D&D again! Well, GMing D&D again. It's always easier to find a few people willing to play than one willing to GM. And as hard as that was when I was younger, it's only gotten more challenging with age as people have kids, demanding jobs, and busy social calendars. But hey, D&D!

After holding a much-delayed Session Zero two weeks ago we started my "City of the Dead" game for real this past Friday night.



There are four players in the game. I created a set of 5 pre-gen PCs with the appropriate mix of skills and motivations to make the game fun. I didn't require players to select a pre-gen.... I expected that at least two players would want to modify one of the pre-gens to tailor it to suit their preferences, or even build a character from scratch. Instead all four players took to my pre-gens quickly in the Session Zero. And everyone seemed to get their first choice. Woot!

Friday night's session had the party leaving the safe(ish) environs of the fading city of Durendal, heading out to the curse, haunted city of Graymount, "City of the Dead", a few days away. The players agreed that the main goal driving them was to investigate the disappearance of a cleric's superior and hopefully rescue him. Each of the PCs has a personal motive to want to venture there. I carefully crafted those to overlap yet simultaneously create just a bit of dramatic tension.

Things that go CRASH in the night

Friday's night session was taken up by a midnight raid on the party's camp while they were traveling. Two trolls and a young winter wolf lived in the area. One of the trolls and the wolf were out hunting. They spotted the party's camp and tried sneaking in. The sentry on watch heard their approach and woke everyone up. Having lost the element of surprise, the monsters backed off. Two hours later they tried again, also by then a bit wiser to the party's tactics. They gained the element of surprise and attacked. The PCs prevailed by fighting hard and making some wise choices. Everybody participated, everybody got to do something that only they can do.

In the morning after the nighttime raids the party decided to track where the monsters had come from. "We don't want a monster chasing after us," they reasoned. That was smart because there was another troll in the lair. Also, the treasure was in the lair. 😅

I was mindful as I wrote this nighttime raid into the story. This game is a short story: a single adventure I expect to span 5 sessions. Giving the entirety of session 1 over to a side plot requires... careful intentionality. When I wrote recently about "Making Wandering Monsters Meaningful" I was thinking about this adventure. My aims here were twofold.

For one, this sub-adventure helps flesh out the setting. This is a dangerous area, an area the vast expanse between cities in a fallen realm, where things routinely go bump in the night. Second, and really more important, is that I gave the party a shakedown encounter. It was an opportunity to figure out their characters' powers and how to work together before they get embroiled in the more intense encounters ahead in... The City of the Dead.

Three Actors We Lost this Week

This past week three actors from film and TV passed away.

On Tuesday Richard Roundtree succumbed to pancreatic cancer at age 81. He died in bed surrounded by family. Roundtree is most famous for playing the title character of 1971's Shaft. It was not just a classic movie but the kick-start of an entire genre. While that genre is customarily called Blaxploitation, a term that connotes poor treatment of Black people, it was actually a boon for Black people in film. It brought many more Black actors and actresses in front of cameras... and many talented Black photographers, producers, artists, and technicians into roles behind the camera.

On Sunday Matthew Perry, co-star in the ensemble cast of Friends, died. He was 54. Circumstances of his death are being investigated further as he was found in a hot tub in his own home, dead of drowning. Friends aired for 10 seasons from 1994-2004 and is one of the most successful TV series of all time. Oddly, though, I never watched it. It began at a time when I was watching very little TV so it never caught on with me. And by the time it was big news and everyone was watching it... well, I didn't find it entertaining. I felt the characters were all unrealistic for the fancy, urbanite lifestyles they led while working menial jobs. I mean, I was in the age demographic they portrayed, and it all rang false with me. I was like, "Yeah, no. No way does being in your 20s work like this." None of that is on Matthew Perry, though. I found his work as an actor in other shows and movies to be consistently funny.

On Thursday Richard Moll died at his home in Big Bear Lake, California. He was 80. Moll was best known for portraying the character Bull Shannon, a gruff but humorous bailiff on the TV comedy show Night Court, which ran for 9 seasons from 1984-1992. While Friends was a show I never watched, Night Court was one I watched regularly for half of its run. That's because back then I was a teen living in my parents' house, and Night Court was family-friendly TV. Moll was not the star of the series, but as an imposing 6'8" man wearing a bald cap his character Bull Shannon was memorable. Plus, Moll was gifted at playing the comedic straight man while stars Richard Anderson and John Larroquette chewed the scenery. Moll had a number of minor roles after Night Court as he struggled (but never really succeeded) to avoid being typecast for comedy.