Tonight will be a gaming first for me...

[pawndream]

Going to run a Castles and Crusades one-shot tonight at one of the local gaming stores here in Honolulu. I have never played at a game store before so this should be interesting. I have met and played with one of the players before, but only once. Don't know the rest of the players but it sounds like none of them have played C&C before. If all goes well, hopefully will gain a few new fans of the game.

The scenario I am running is one I have run on Roll20 for some old friends and also once during the RPGGeek online game convention, so I know it can be completed in 3 to 4 hours.

Should be fun!

[Tadhg]

Excellente!!!

Let us know how it goes!!!

[slimykuotoan]

!

[tylermo]

Pawn Dream, let us know how it goes. In the future, please let me know about your upcoming store sessions. We'd like to get the word out. My e-mail is sword@castlesandcrusades.com C&C in Honolulu. Who'd have thunk it?

[pawndream]

Game tonight went extremely well.

Four players showed up to play, none of whom I had met before. Also, none of them were even aware of the Castles and Crusades game. The players had background in other versions of D&D, mostly 3.5 and later, and all seemed to really enjoy the free-flowing nature of C&C. The PHB sat on the table, unopened for most of the game. Meanwhile, at other tables, players had their nose in the books, searching for the answer to their problem, somewhere within the wall of text.

Adventure synopsis: A plague sweeps through the land and an old hermit comes forth claiming the cure lies in a concoction that will require three rare mushrooms found only deep within the haunted Old Forest, at the site of an ancient tree. Armed with this information the young adventurers must travel to the tree and retrieve the three mushrooms before the plague runs its course. The fate of the Village, nay, the Realm rests on their shoulders.

The Cast:

Hartwell, Elven Wizard, "Dasher of a Dryad's Dreams"
Chet Awesomelaser, Human Cleric of Crom, "This is what happens when you allow other player's to name your character"
Tavrock, Dwarf Fighter, "He of the Slippery Axe-Haft Clan"
Romulus, Human Paladin, "One Smooth Talking Dude"

The action, in a nutshell, well, in that case, in the hollow of the ancient Tree:

1. Party negotiates with a grig named Skreek and obtains one of three mushrooms for a "magic mirror" which has the power to create illusions...aka a normal mirror, but Grigs are easily fooled by the ruse.

2. Party makes an ally of a plague-ridden dryad named She, who agrees to give up another of the three mushrooms if the PCs will evict a pesky dragon-man (aka Kobold Shaman) who has made a residence beneath the tree, in its roots. The catch: the dwarf stays with her once all is said and done.

3. Party enters a hollowed out root and encounters undead dragon-men, a shrieker, and then The Dragon-Man himself...as well as an enraged dire honey badger and a dire rat named Ben.

4. The party prevails over the Dragon-Man and his menagerie and claims the third mushroom. After a tense negotiation with She, the dwarf wrestles her to the ground and they get her to release her claim on the third mushroom and the dwarf. She is jilted...of course, but that is a story for another time.

5. The adventurers triumphantly return to the Village, thus ending the terrible plague.

Aftermath: All four players were very eager to know when we would play again and decided to keep their pre-gens, rather than roll-up new characters. What began as a one-shot looks like it will now be the seed of a campaign. Found in the depths of a hollowed out tree no less.

Crusade-on!

[Captain_K]

Well done and congrats!

[Litzen Tallister]

Very cool! I applaud your bravery in running a game for total strangers. The joy of not having to search rules as part of gameplay is definitely part of why I enjoy C&C so much.

[tylermo]

Glad to hear the game worked out well for you.

[Relaxo]

AWESOME!!!

[pawndream]

Pawn Dream, let us know how it goes. In the future, please let me know about your upcoming store sessions. We'd like to get the word out. My e-mail is sword@castlesandcrusades.com C&C in Honolulu. Who'd have thunk it?

Okay. Will do.

There is actually a decent-sized gamer population here in Honolulu, but mostly for boardgames and D&D 3.5/PF/4e and 5e. But maybe C&C has gained a small foothold on these shores as well?

[pawndream]

Very cool! I applaud your bravery in running a game for total strangers. The joy of not having to search rules as part of gameplay is definitely part of why I enjoy C&C so much.

I have run virtual games for total strangers before, but that is a little different. Wasn't sure exactly who would show up, but turned out to be a great group of players including a guy who had not played any RPG in 7 years, a guy who started playing in the 4e D&D era, a guy who had played a total of three sessions of 3.5e and one old hand like myself, going back to AD&D 1e days. Age range as probably 20 to 40'ish and all seemed to really enjoy the free-flowing nature of C&C.

They took right to using the SIEGE engine to attempt "Feats" and the game was basically, describe what you are trying to do and we'll figure out a simple roll mechanic to see whether you succeed.

Oh yeah, the other first was running C&C face-to-face, ever. I have been playing C&C for 3 years now and up until now have only run it via PbP and virtual tabletop. It runs like a champ face-to-face.

[Tadhg]

Glad to hear this. Well, done!