4e Geekery/awesomeness
So , this Thursday offered by far the best LFR mod sitting I've had so far. Despite the threat of the two dweebs from Sunday being signed up, they didn't show and we had our usual adventuring party ready to go. For the record there was me playing my Female dwarven cleric Thurg, level 2; a dragonborn barbarian/sorcerer hybrid; a Deva psion; a warlord/wizard multiclass (not sure what he is); and our newbie switched out his wizard for a Drow rogue, which led to unintentional hilarity. More on that later.
The reason the session was so great was because of the GM, who was the best D&D DM I've encountered this side of viking_cat. First off, he let us know immediately he preferred roleplaying to dice-rolling. To quote: "If you're on a balcony and the guy you want to attack is 20 squares away and you tell me you want to jump off, swing on a chandelier, and do a backflip before landing on the bad guy's head, well, I'm going to find a way to let you try that." He also made us sing for our supper, so to speak - if you make a skill check or tried to assist one, you had to roleplay it instead of just saying, "I use interrogation to get the info from him." I loved it and thrived as spokesperson aside from having a diplomacy skill of 3 because he kept giving me big bonuses (I retrained at 3rd level to get the skill to a respectable level). This led to a lot of fun exchanges and quick thinking, and, as mentioned, our rogue's hysterical attempt to use streetwise. Long story short, we screwed up (we missed a few things over the course of the session - an off phrase someone used that I caught but misinterpreted; confronting when sneaking would have been better, etc. - making things tougher for us) and I suggested the rogue use his connections (streetwise) to find out where we could find some stolen medicine.
So he goes into a nearby bar and finds a guy selling doses of what we're looking for, and does a good job coming up with a story that he worked for a nearby town who wanted the stuff, and we needed it all. Then he lost his mind.
Our guy: So we need to get it all.
Fence: Fine, I'll take you there.
our guy: But it all needs to be there. At the warehouse.
Fence: yeah, okay.
our guy: all of it. There. at the warehouse. We need it to all be there.
Fence: Uhm, yeah, okay.
our guy: all of it, in one place. That's what we need.
At this point the GM decided to have him make the streetwise roll which was surely going to be a fail because he was being so damn suspicious but he threw a natural 20 and got away with it. With my diplo raised I'm going to become a little more vocal - for a dwarf serving a death god, Thurg's pretty cheerful.
The other reason it was so awesome was because the GM - his name was Duane - made incredible props before the session. We had buildings with signs and working doorways, carts, and even a fountain - why yes, I did remember to take a picture:
This is towards the end of the final battle. The blue thing in the front is a fountain, and above it to the left is a cart with toothpick axles. There were crossbowmen on the roof and having the buildings and carts and so on made the 3d aspect much easier to handle. At the beginning of the fight the entire board was filled with us, enemies, and civilians. In front of the screen is a warehouse that was removed so we could use the interior. I had so much fun with this I used my action point to make a dramatic dive to slam shut a door in order to trap diseased rats from escaping. Those are doorways and tables and little bottles, and the beads are the sick rats. The rat swarm that's coming out proved to be much less of a problem than expected because it was vulnerable to radiant, which ended up making my not-damage-dealing cleric suddenly a destructive machine. Ye gods, but this was a fun session. My cleric made 3rd level and has become a very useful cog - not flashy, but her healing and support skills are awesome (and can I tell you how much GMs HATE her daily of Curse of Misfortune, which make those affected roll two attack dice and use the lower roll? Heh heh heh).
Do i still want to find a home game? Yes. Will this do until I do? Yes, but it'd be awesome if we could get Duane to run every session.
The reason the session was so great was because of the GM, who was the best D&D DM I've encountered this side of viking_cat. First off, he let us know immediately he preferred roleplaying to dice-rolling. To quote: "If you're on a balcony and the guy you want to attack is 20 squares away and you tell me you want to jump off, swing on a chandelier, and do a backflip before landing on the bad guy's head, well, I'm going to find a way to let you try that." He also made us sing for our supper, so to speak - if you make a skill check or tried to assist one, you had to roleplay it instead of just saying, "I use interrogation to get the info from him." I loved it and thrived as spokesperson aside from having a diplomacy skill of 3 because he kept giving me big bonuses (I retrained at 3rd level to get the skill to a respectable level). This led to a lot of fun exchanges and quick thinking, and, as mentioned, our rogue's hysterical attempt to use streetwise. Long story short, we screwed up (we missed a few things over the course of the session - an off phrase someone used that I caught but misinterpreted; confronting when sneaking would have been better, etc. - making things tougher for us) and I suggested the rogue use his connections (streetwise) to find out where we could find some stolen medicine.
So he goes into a nearby bar and finds a guy selling doses of what we're looking for, and does a good job coming up with a story that he worked for a nearby town who wanted the stuff, and we needed it all. Then he lost his mind.
Our guy: So we need to get it all.
Fence: Fine, I'll take you there.
our guy: But it all needs to be there. At the warehouse.
Fence: yeah, okay.
our guy: all of it. There. at the warehouse. We need it to all be there.
Fence: Uhm, yeah, okay.
our guy: all of it, in one place. That's what we need.
At this point the GM decided to have him make the streetwise roll which was surely going to be a fail because he was being so damn suspicious but he threw a natural 20 and got away with it. With my diplo raised I'm going to become a little more vocal - for a dwarf serving a death god, Thurg's pretty cheerful.
The other reason it was so awesome was because the GM - his name was Duane - made incredible props before the session. We had buildings with signs and working doorways, carts, and even a fountain - why yes, I did remember to take a picture:
This is towards the end of the final battle. The blue thing in the front is a fountain, and above it to the left is a cart with toothpick axles. There were crossbowmen on the roof and having the buildings and carts and so on made the 3d aspect much easier to handle. At the beginning of the fight the entire board was filled with us, enemies, and civilians. In front of the screen is a warehouse that was removed so we could use the interior. I had so much fun with this I used my action point to make a dramatic dive to slam shut a door in order to trap diseased rats from escaping. Those are doorways and tables and little bottles, and the beads are the sick rats. The rat swarm that's coming out proved to be much less of a problem than expected because it was vulnerable to radiant, which ended up making my not-damage-dealing cleric suddenly a destructive machine. Ye gods, but this was a fun session. My cleric made 3rd level and has become a very useful cog - not flashy, but her healing and support skills are awesome (and can I tell you how much GMs HATE her daily of Curse of Misfortune, which make those affected roll two attack dice and use the lower roll? Heh heh heh).
Do i still want to find a home game? Yes. Will this do until I do? Yes, but it'd be awesome if we could get Duane to run every session.