On a New Beginning (Session One)

Tonight we just had our first session with Dungeonslayers and I have to admit, it went over quite well. This is more of a log, rather then a full review (That'll come next Wednesday), but I wanted to log a session report, before it was not as fresh in my mind.

Some things:

First, my birthday party was last weekend, so there was more alcohol consumed then normal.

Second, Dungeonslayers is a great system with some entertaining translations. ("Is your character a tough hunk who can cope with a lot of damage?")

Third, the introductory adventure is terrible. You kill rats in a basement with no traps, and little treasure. It's possible to build characters so that the starting monsters pose almost no threat to the players, and there are no twists, nor any plot hooks for further adventures. On the plus side, it does hit the cliche of killing rats. And it isn't strictly linear.

Instead of a step by step recap, I'll post pictures with the things that were said before they were taken.

Roll a die and see if you get a one

On of my players in the opening rooms wanted to check out one of the barrels. Having specialized as a healing mage, she had a body of 4 and a strength of 1. This is a roll under game, so those stats are terrible. She asked if she could shake the barrel back and forth, and I said no. Reconsidering, I said, roll a die and see if you get a one. Sure enough. . .

(There was nothing in the barrel)

You are welcome

I have no idea what is going on in this picture to the left. I mean, they found this cave with this trapped spider, and indeed two small rats (the red gems). The quote says "you are welcome" and although this is just several hours in the past I have no idea what this refers to. I blame it on the DM always being so busy.

As an aside, that room to the back there is coated in spiderwebs. Our intrepid dwarf fighter headed right in after the fight and cleared out the spiderwebs by setting fire to the room while he was in it.

Dwarves. Always good for a laugh.

They're fsking rats!

This dice are giant rats and the little red stones are little rats. No sooner then I had set them out, when I get eight questions (I only had four players) What are those?! What are those?!

Hence the quote, they're fsking rats!

They don't put minotaurs in first level dungeons

Here we have our adventurer's in a hallway discussing the room beyond. Could there be a minotaur in it?

Don't be silly, they don't put minotaurs in first level dungeons.

Note to self: Steal wandering monsters list from the Alexandrian.

The rat rubs against you.

They put on the black cultist robes that they found. Clearly not the brightest move. On the plus side, it did make the rats friendly.

Upon entering this chamber, these rats came out to greet the armored dwarf. They do like any friendly animal would do.

Me: The rat comes out and rubs up against you.

Player: That's fsking gross and I pin it to the ground with my spear.

Se La Vi. *Shrug*

You do understand that a boner
does not involve a bone

I know I was losing cohesion by this point in the night. This skeleton was tied down and when the dwarf came to inspect it, he got stabbed in the head. After they killed the skeleton, they were searching it, and they looked at it. I baited them by saying it had nothing but a cloth to cover it's private parts, and by that I mean hips.

Sure enough, someone seconds later says, "You do understand that a boner does not actually involve a bone."

I mispronounced cistern as dragon.

And when they entered this room, I drew this on the map, and in a loud voice announced.

Me:"Ahead of you in the room, you see a Giant Dragon. Oh, wait, I mean cistern. There is a cistern in this room."

Players:"Wait, what?"

Me:"I mispronounced cistern as dragon. Sorry."

 Finally they were facing off against the bad guy. When I realized our weaver mage was casting barrier every round on our fighter, giving him a defense of over 20, I started to see how this big bad rat golem was barely able to scratch our dwarven fighter.

Everytime I rolled to hit, I'm fairly certain I said, "Bulls**t, and fsk you" though I was a bit tipsy by that time of night.

The system is a lot of fun, I think it requires a bit of tweaking, but overall is fairly excellent.