First time running a dungeon
Jun 21, 2020 13:49:18 GMT
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Post by wheretheresawil on Jun 21, 2020 13:49:18 GMT
I sent my players on what I think is a pretty typical level 2 adventure for my first time running them through a dungeon. A fort in the mountain overlooking their starting town was overrun by goblins and the local sheriff sent them to empty it out, offering cash as a reward for proof of goblin-slaying. I was a player in this group in our previous campaign so I thought I had a pretty good idea of how they would handle it: methodically exploring room by room. So I put a small encounter in each of the fort’s six or seven rooms, nothing that would overwhelm them but soften them up before they found the boss.
I expected my players to Solid Snake.
Instead they Ramboed.
I told them three ways they could enter the fort: a man made circular opening in the back (a drain pipe), a window on the second floor, and a damaged bit of the ramparts. They opted for the latter, which gave them a clear view of the fort’s boss fight, a bugbear chief, four wolves, and five vanilla goblins in the central courtyard, complete with a couple short stone walls for the rogue to hide behind and a big bonfire for potential improvised fire damage. The enemies were currently singing songs around the campfire celebrating a successful hunt, roasting a deer carcass on a spit. My players took down one archer sentry on the ramparts and then decided to just set up a firing squad up top and take pot shots at the ten enemies below without any more reconnaissance.
The bugbear chief called for help on her first turn and aggroed almost every enemy in the fort towards the party. I thought for sure I was on my way to a TPK in my third session. I fudged one or two damage rolls because the odds were so stacked against my players. But they did position themselves in such a way that I really only could attack the barbarian from one end of the ramparts and the cleric from the other, and they kept the sorcerer, rogue, and artificer in the middle of the one-square-wide walkway.
So long story short (too late), we left the session with no player characters down, the bugbear chief and about eight other goblins defeated, four or five others running away for safety, and my players getting crop dusted with the effects of Stinking Cloud as the homebrewed incontinent goblin I made up ran for safety. Oh, and the Goblin Boss stationed in the armory I gave a homebrew magic weapon to never even got to get an attack off. They should be able to explore the rest of the fort next game, we had to cut it short because of babysitter timeframes.
I expected my players to Solid Snake.
Instead they Ramboed.
I told them three ways they could enter the fort: a man made circular opening in the back (a drain pipe), a window on the second floor, and a damaged bit of the ramparts. They opted for the latter, which gave them a clear view of the fort’s boss fight, a bugbear chief, four wolves, and five vanilla goblins in the central courtyard, complete with a couple short stone walls for the rogue to hide behind and a big bonfire for potential improvised fire damage. The enemies were currently singing songs around the campfire celebrating a successful hunt, roasting a deer carcass on a spit. My players took down one archer sentry on the ramparts and then decided to just set up a firing squad up top and take pot shots at the ten enemies below without any more reconnaissance.
The bugbear chief called for help on her first turn and aggroed almost every enemy in the fort towards the party. I thought for sure I was on my way to a TPK in my third session. I fudged one or two damage rolls because the odds were so stacked against my players. But they did position themselves in such a way that I really only could attack the barbarian from one end of the ramparts and the cleric from the other, and they kept the sorcerer, rogue, and artificer in the middle of the one-square-wide walkway.
So long story short (too late), we left the session with no player characters down, the bugbear chief and about eight other goblins defeated, four or five others running away for safety, and my players getting crop dusted with the effects of Stinking Cloud as the homebrewed incontinent goblin I made up ran for safety. Oh, and the Goblin Boss stationed in the armory I gave a homebrew magic weapon to never even got to get an attack off. They should be able to explore the rest of the fort next game, we had to cut it short because of babysitter timeframes.