First Time Running Session, Character Creation + Skogenby

Torchbearer The Tavern
1

Finally played our first session. DM (me) +5 players, all experienced gamers, no rules lawyers and good role players. I set the room up with actual lanterns, candles, etc and mood music so after character creation, which took about 70 minutes, we began the adventure by our lantern light for ambiance. The entire session took five hours and the players all died on the final fight.

Random thoughts and questions:

  1. When a player loses all Disposition assigned to them, I gave them the Injured condition but not sure if that was right. It made sense at the time.

  2. It’s a very “mentally intensive” game. You really have to be invested and use a lot of thought. It worked out extremely well and we were having a blast role playing, earning checks, etc but as the night dragged on I could tell we had “spent” our creativity before the session was over. This makes me concerned for the long-term game. After everyone gets off work could we play this game for 4 hours every week? Probably not.

  3. I did a lot of winging it as people would use traits, Wises, skills, etc all interchangeably and I’m sure in some cases “incorrectly.” A lot of bad rolls meant a lot of twists or conditions. Maybe I’m so used to telling people to “roll dice” when they ask for something but TB might be setup so the players should have more auto-successes and therefore not so many conditions/twists.

Overall we had a lot of fun - probably the most fun single session we have had in a while, but the group seemed to agree they wouldn’t want to play a long-term campaign and I was relieved because the thought of the time I would have to invest to prepare it. However, I imagine if I got to PLAY the game with an experienced TB DM then this game would be epic. I have up being a player (I just DM) years ago out of boredom but I would definitely love to play the game.

2

  1. Nope. They’re out until the end of the conflict unless back in through the Defend action. They may become Injured as part of compromise or loss results.

  2. We’ve played almost every week (Friday nights) for nearly a year. Sessions are roughly 3.5 hours. It’s like weight training—you can lift more the more you do it.

  3. Play by the rules or the game doesn’t work. Traits are for gaining a die or earning checks, wises are for assisting or re-rolls, skills are for making tests.

  4. Keep at it! If you can create a 5-10 room dungeon and your players have interesting beliefs, you’re solid.

3

No doubt if we played more, it would become easier. There were many times someone asked me if they could do something and to keep play moving I said, if it sounded right, “sure.” Again, my main point was we did have a blast. A lot of creativity was shown. In our normal AD&D game, it’s very “ok I roll to hit, I hit for 8 damage” etc and this is definitely NOT like that, which is a strength but also adds a different level of challenge. The fact that people could help with dice kept folks engaged whereas in AD&D for example, when it is someone else’s turn, other people can “check out” and wait for their turn.