I have been gaming with my current core group for the past eight or so years. That isn’t actually the longest run with a group I have had, but it comes close. Occasionally someone moves, goes back to school, gets burned out or breaks up with a significant other and leaves the state. Sheesh!
About a year ago one of the people (Paul) from the band my wife plays in and I started talking about D&D and MTG (Magic the Gathering) and the like. He had played when he was younger and mentioned how much he really would like to play again. So our four person + DM became a 5 person + DM.
For the last year Paul has immersed himself into both games with an appetite I haven’t seen matched in a long while. He paints miniatures too! Did I mention that? Not some crappy POS version you would expect from a rookie but the really good stuff you see pros doing. Every game we play he runs out (actually goes online) and buys then paints a figure for every character we have in our party.
Recently, like in the last couple of months, Paul has mentioned that he would like to run a game. The rest of us were like…”Uh, sure.” I know we aren’t the most clever of peeps but our point was loud and clear. Three of the core gamers, Ruben, Craig and I have all DM’ed and have only a couple of times played together as a group. Oddly that was a dark time in our past we don’t speak of. Let’s just say we don’t mention E-bob.
Soon I was wrapping up my game, thankfully as I had been feeling like the story became cloudy and there wasn’t much direction to it and the game sucked etc. You get the point. So I decided Paul could work into the rotation. We have 1 person run for 2 weeks and then another person runs for 2 weeks. This is so nobody gets burned out and we keep the games relatively fresh in our minds.
Paul started his game last week and we knew that out of the gate we were entering into combat as the background he gave us indicated as much. The combat seemed a little light but in retrospect maybe not. Ruben gave a resounding “FUCK YOU PAUL!!!” Of course this came after the first combat role for Paul as a DM was a natural 20. The significance of the 20 is lost a little because no damage was done by the spell the was slung but it did succeed in immobilizing Ruben. Ruben is playing a human monk and ran into the fray without a moments thought to defend the town we are in. It gets worse for Ruben who for the second time in as many rounds is immobilized.
We don’t make quick work of the assailants but we do manage to take them out. Some of us a little worse for the wear. As it happens we all finally now are introduced to one another as we were all strangers before this.
The Captain within the town comes over to thank us and explains that for helping to defend the town they are comping our nights lodgings. We rejoice momentarily as we get acquainted with one another and have a few drinks. The Captain finds us and explains that 2 children have been taken.
After a few brief questions we did what all heroes do in situations like this, we had another beer (not really) and sprung into action.
We headed out the gate to where the farmstead was that the children were taken from and asked questions of the mother. After som brief details we continue on.
We end up in the forest where things become gloomy and oppressive. We are soon ambushed by goblins and a giant phase spider. Nasty business that. After the fight was over and no kids were found we continue on the trail to a clearing with…of all things…a gingerbread house in it and two kids playing in the yard.
That is where the evening ended. Good job Paul. I enjoyed it thoroughly!
More to come.
James Nutt - In the shoes of a forty-something 