First session of Lone Wolf multiplayer game – part 1

I’m somewhat dissatisfied with the current 4th edition of Dungeons & Dragons. And the way my friends play it doesn’t help too. It became too tactical. The powers and descriptions blended into something generic, with little to differentiate them. You could come up with the name “Power No. 1″ and slap on some statistics (balanced against the other powers of course), and the game still works.

Where was that sense of adventure, that feeling of wonder, that nervous swallowing of spit because you’re surrounded by danger and there seemed to be no way out? This wasn’t the Dungeons & Dragons I had imagined.

One of my game buddies then suggested that I look at the Lone Wolf multiplayer version. I bought it, read it, and found it interesting. My frank opinion is that there wasn’t enough effort in bringing the multiplayer version up to speed. For whatever reason, the publisher and writers simply slapped on a few more rules to accomodate more than 1 player and that’s it. There were some obvious printing errors, and I’m not talking about grammar or spelling. I’m talking about things like pointing the GM to read the wrong part of the introductory adventure.

But I’m writing ahead of myself.

Frankly speaking, this is much closer to D&D 1st edition, though I’ve never played it. My friends say it’s so. Because of the open-endedness.

I will assume you are somewhat acquainted with the Lone Wolf single player series and D&D. And there are spoilers of the introductory adventure.

So let me recount what happened when I was the games master for the first session. I decided I would just play through the introductory adventure written, descriptions, stats and all. First of all, let me just say that the author of the introductory adventure have never met my friends. Or apparently any D&D players from 1st edition. Because the adventure was written to be too confined.

I get that it was meant for new games masters and players. But expecting my friends to play the roles of Kai monks was really stretching it… and the story branches and choices were too… tame. You’ll see why as you read on.

Ok, the game session started with me giving a brief explanation of how to fill in the character sheet. There wasn’t much to choose from (unlike D&D 4th ed 1st level character. But I digress). Choose 5 out of 10 disciplines:

• Camouflage
• Hunting
• Sixth Sense
• Tracking
• Healing
• Weaponskill
• Mindshield
• Mindblast
• Animal Kinship
• Mind Over Matter

There was some misunderstanding on Weaponskill. Apparently, they thought they could choose it again, so they can master another weapon. I had to gently tell them that it doesn’t matter which weapon they were wielding, so long as there was a weapon. Mastering a particular weapon simply means they had a better chance in combat. And they will start with that weapon anyway. (Remember, these are D&D players. The weapon affects the powers and skills you can use).

Next, there was the problem of healing. There’s no concept of a leader (the D&D role with healing powers). You can’t heal much for another. So everyone’s on their own. Guess what most (if not all) of them chose as part of their equipment? Potion of Laumspur. One of them was even considering stockpiling the potion.

Animal Kinship was another discipline that seems innocent, but extremely dangerous in the hands of my players. One of them is extremely skilled in mind controlling chickens and commanding them to jump into the fire so he can have a fowl dinner. I kid you not. This player is also adept at bundling gerbils together to form a fist and he will launch the gerbil punch at the enemy. The enemy gets hit by the punch, and the gerbils separate to then bite the face. I. Kid. You. Not.

Right then, I was already regretting my decision to host the game session. Nothing could go according to the scripted adventure. And I was right. And I hadn’t even started the adventure.

I had a total of 5 players. That’s a lot of Kai monks. The introductory adventure was meant for 2 to 4 players, but on hindsight, a single player would still be able to breeze through it. It’s too easy.

I think it will be interesting to give the players some kind of identity. It makes describing the action easier and more meaningful (and funnier).

Blender. Because he blends in very well. No drastic actions nor decisions. I believe he’s more interested in seeing how the multiplayer version works than actually playing through my game.

Catatonia. Poor guy didn’t sleep well, so wasn’t really into the game. Lucky he’s not playing D&D, or he might go into concussion just deciding which at-will power to use.

Beastmaster. He’s the gerbil guy. Enough said.

Torturer. This name will make sense as you read along…

Archer. This guy rolled the highest COMBAT SKILL, yet rolled a Bow for his weapons mastery. I said it’s too bad. He’ll just have to live with it.

The start of the adventure

So they were all Kai initiates under the Kai Master Stormsong. The first task was to recover the cargo wagon of a merchant. His wagon of goods was attacked, and he gave the location.

At this point, my players were supposed to ask some questions to get some interaction going on. Oh they asked questions and interacted alright. But none of the questions were those posed in the script. I think I let them loose on the role playing.

They didn’t want to start. They wanted to stock up on potions, and weapons, and meals (because if I say they are to eat, and they don’t have a meal, they lose some health. They’re cautious, I tell ya). They even wanted to take on Kai Master Stormsong. I was flabbergasted. How do you GM a Lone Wolf game for a bunch of players like these?

Eventually, they decided to ask what kind of cargo the merchant carried. Spices, silks, steel, ale and carved toys. The carved toys initiated another round of role playing. It involved something about carved toys of bears and other furry creatures, and extremely suggestive of some adult activities which I cannot write about here. I just kept thinking, “Why me?”

Finally, I was able to get them out of the gates of the Kai Monastery and get on with the task. They reached the site of attack and proceeded to do some tracking. They passed some Tests (the D&D 4th edition equivalent of skill challenges), and I was reading from the script, describing the surroundings. And Archer noted the crossbow bolts on the trees when I mentioned them. “Too bad they weren’t arrows,” lamented Archer.

There was a special section on Animal Kinship, if any of the players had the discipline. I could already see the mess in store for me… A red fox was in the vicinity, and Beastmaster proceeded to do his mind control thing. I read from the script, describing more of the wagon’s assailants, the foul creatures Giaks. The last line of the script was:

You relax your mind and let the link fall away slowly.

Apparently, Beastmaster wasn’t ready to let go. He wanted to bring the fox along. Possibly to surprise the Giaks. Like throwing the fox into the face of the first Giak he sees. I was expecting animal activists to climb all over me right then. I had to force the situation that the fox was extremely scared and bounded off (as written in the script, when the Animal Kinship Test failed). He wanted to follow and bring it back, but I said the fox really scampered off. Like out of sight. Beastmaster sighed. I think the red fox owes me its life.

Up next, Archer being really paranoid about running out of arrows.