Back At The Table For D&D 3.5

Well, I did it. I finally sat down at the table for a little 3.5 D&D. Figured I'd better after mentioning the need for such a game to the local game store owner. As it turned out, he got a DM who intends to DM a newcomer game all summer, set in the Forgotten Realms some 5-10 years before the Time of Troubles.

When I picked up my Player's Kit Friday at the store, I was a bit overwhelmed. The Kit really didn't and still doesn't impress me, but I'm talking about the rule book itself. See, this is what bothers me about this game. Too many rules and stats. I'm an old grump I suppose, but I miss the old days of six characteristics, AC, HP, equip and let's roll. Of course, it's with that spirit that I am doing Heroes of the Dungeon Crawl.

But as much as I have heard people from my way of thinking dump on this game, I had to try it out. I agree that what Gary and Dave created was D&D enough for me, but I'm not going to hate on this game without trying it. I've played Neverwinter Nights and had fun, though I confess I played a Fighter and paid barely any attention to the Feats or any of that stuff. It just seemed like somebody was talking another language to me.

But a new generation sees it another way. I suppose I gotta give it a try if I want to sit at the table with them. I know, I'm an old crank when it comes to that, and it amuses me to think of what I could say to these kids. Thinks like:

Back in my day, Armor Class was better the lower it got. That's the way it was and we liked it.

We didn't need no damn Bard. If we wanted a Bard, we created a Theif and gave him a guitar.

But anyway...

The DM patiently spent over an hour, probably closer to two, explaining things to us. I recognice one of the players from the session I have watched at the store previously. He actually brought his own character. The DM preferred we use his pregen characters, but he was able to keep his. I decided to scrap my character after showing him to the DM. I don't think there were any objections to me using what I brought, but why make waves? Besides, this one had more Hit Points. I named him Gerald, and went with it.

My first Dice Roll in this session was a luck roll that gave me Banded Mail for armor. By the time I calculated the armor, shield and Dex bonus, I had an AC of 19. High AC still seems weird to me, but it's a good number for a starting Fighter.

Once equiped, we went to town to get a writ from the Duke to allow us to adventure. There was a Crusader, a Wizard and a Druid to go with my Fighter. Our Crusader went to negotiate while the rest of us went to the bar (Reminds me of the Dead Ale Wives comedy bit, roll to see if I get drunk, heh heh). Well, he comes back with the writ while we have had our pockets picked of 20 gp at the bar.

Aparently the writ was good for three weeks and we are required to do a task for the Duke. We must rid the farmland of some Brigands who are burning crops and buildings in their raids of the area. Thing is, our Cruader made the deal so that this was just the first of other tasks before we are granted a full writ.

So, our characters, roughly 17 years of age and all human, head down a trail that is an old dried up creek. Our Druid steps on an old Dwarven Electrum Piece, slightly injuring his foot as metals and Druids don't mix. I suggest we look for more coins and we find about 12 in total. They are ancient and Dwarven. We go a little further up the mountain and set up camp for the night. In the morning, our Druid encounters a ghost of a Dwarf, who died in battle nearby. The Dwarf asks that he find his body and bury him.

The Druid conveys this to the party. We figure the coins found on this trail were his, so we keep walking in hopes of finding the body. We do. Poor Dwarf died of a spear wound to the chest. We bury him in one of the Dwarven traditions, burning his body. The Crusader says a few words, and I am feeling antsy. I am watching all around us as we light this fire for fear of provoking an enemy.

As it turns out, no enemy appeared, But, we did find 200 more of those coins underneath the Dwarf, some nice cross bow bolts and three scroll tubes, one in particular that may come in handy. As my character could read Dwarven, he could tell that it said something to the effect of do not open unless in dire need to save a loved one (Now that I think of it, we missed the boat on this one as I'll explain further down).

At this point, the DM explained that we have gained a level. Ah, RP experience. Another thing foreign to this old hack & slasher, but I actually like the RP aspect. This is one reason I wanted to get in with a group. I wanted to experience this aspect of the game. A little more combat might have been nice, but I understand why the DM wanted to go a different route. He's defintely more into the story aspect, for one, and I think he was trying to ease us newbies into this thing. We had also been gaining XP's for various RP type situations. As an aside, this is something I'm working on incorporating into HotDC.

We of course gained new skills, feats, spells and such, along with a few other modifiers and HP's. After taking a moment to calculate all of that. We were off. We made it over the hill, walking under the trees at the high point as our Wizard wanted to be careful. On the other side, we saw a farm, so we came in to talk to the people there. It was getting late. Our crusader showed the writ to their leader to varify who we were, and then they invited us in for a meal and a drink.

Once inside the three story farm house, we were instructed to take off our weapons and we engaged in various conversations with the people. The Wizard saw some books of interest, the Druid was talking with one of the women about the crops and when they should be planted. The kids seemed to love the Crusader, and well, Gerald seemed to catch the eye of one of the young ladies.

Later in the night, that young lady came into Gerald's room. He tried to politely decline her advances for fear that a liason between the two might upset one of the elders. I'd like to tell you that I made the savings roll on that one, but....

Speaking of savings rolls, I fumbled another one in my big clunky armor waling down the hill to the farm. The Wizard missed catching my Fighter, but the Druid was able to stop him before he hurt himself.

That next morning, the Druid was engaged in more crop conversation while the Wizard offered to work to repay them for their hospitality. The Crusader and my Fighter went looking for one of the leaders to ask about the Brigand activity.

Just then, there was a commotion further down the hill. We heard shouting, so we gathered the rest of the party and went to investigate. It looked like some of the Duke's men had been killed with just one still standing. Of course, we went in, but we were outnumbered. My Fighter couldn't move fast enough to keep up with the Crusader's charge into battle, and my shot with the crossbow missed.

In two rounds, the Crusader was taken down and the Fighter was hurt pretty batly, both from the Wizard they had in their party. We were taken captive, and that was the end of the four hour session.

There were a few things I forgot, but a lot of the 3.5 stuff is new to me. Our Crusader and Druid had a tense moment early on as the Druid felt the Crusader did a bad job in negotiating the writ. The Crusader apologized, and all seemed to be forgiven.

Two things I realize now as I type this.

1-The scroll we shouldn't open unless it was an emergency might have proven useful (nobody even asked, duh).

2-Could this have been a setup by the Duke or somebody else? It just seems that this battle we charged into was hopeless from the very beginning.

As for what will happen next with the group, I don't know. There are some intriguing questions. Will I make it to the next one. I'm not saying no yet, but I don't have a yes at this time either. Mondays are gonna be a tough night for me to do this, so we'll see. While the hack factor is a little low, I admit I am interested in seeing where this is headed. The party could use a Rogue though, but that's another story.