Pre-Session Notes

It's almost 7 AM and I'll be running a game in a different state today. I'm posting this blog from AZ but am getting on a plane in a few hours to fly back to CA. It'll be good to get back to the craziness of L.A., though that sounds weird. Family is great, and I got to see a couple old friends, but my life is in L.A. now, so I'm just more comfortable there.

It's mostly going to be character generation today, and probably a light bonk to get everyone familiar with the rules. Probably three players (as everyone's out of town for the holidays) and I've got two other confirmed players which makes a nice party of five for me to slaughter... er, to run them through Keep on the Shadowfell.

I'll probably be using kobolds instead of goblins (or is it goblins instead of kobolds?) to change things up, but honestly, the stats won't change at all.

Still not sure if I want to run it in Eberron, though I may keep it general enough to go either way. I am a huge fan of that world and did so much prep work for the last epic game that it'd be a shame to just move on. At the same, time, there's something to be said for playing in a homebrew world, but I have neither the time nor the inclination to create the universe from scratch. Forgotten Realms has its appeal as well, but there's so much going on in that world and the maps are already set... Likewise Eberron already has maps, but I'll have to do a little more work to figure out the timeline.

I'm not a huge fan of retcon but it's hardly the worst thing in the world as long as everyone has fun. The plan is to run them through the first pre-adventure in the back of the DM's Guide, then morph that into the pre-adventure steps for Keep on the Shadowfell. The big goal is to have them on the King's Road towards Winterhaven at the end of the Kobold's Hall adventure. Shouldn't be too difficult (he says knowing that players love to fuck up simple things).

If all goes according to plan (it never has before, but there's always a first), I'll run them through the next two modules, Thunderspire Labyrinth and then Pyramid of Shadows -- presuming they survive, of course. Although how that's going to happen I have absolutely no idea. I'm sure they'll provide me the answers by the time we're ready to go there.

I've never been the kind of GM who's out to murder his players' characters. I believe that the group tells a story together, and it's not much fun when the main characters die for no reason. That being said, I'm in a slightly murderous mood, and if they provoke me then there's no reason to stop them from killing themselves, is there?

So, yeah, I have no idea what classes or races they'll want to play, but I'll have the pre-gen characters ready just in case to fill out the other roles in the party. I'm a firm believer in getting the players physically together in a room to create characters so that they can all talk it out and find their party roles, rather than have three people submit elf rangers via e-mail and then try to talk them out of it.

I'll post more as events transpire.


S.