Beginner Box Bash Feedback?

[Sans_Serif]

I haven't seen any feedback for the individual beginner box bash scenarios, so I figured I'd start a thread.

Ran my players through "Tomes", and it seemed like the combat was way hard for a party of 4 1st-levels.

I'm running "Relics" next, as that's the other one I have the GameMastery map tiles for.

Was wondering if any of you had any thoughts on the bash scenarios.

[DarkWhite]

Hi Sans_Serif,

I've run each of the Beginner Box Bash! demos a few times now. Here is some feedback from sessions I've run:

Note: specifics of each encounter hidden behind spoiler tags, please don't read if you're not the GM and haven't yet played these.

Wow, they were tough encounters!

First time I ran these, I had one character death in Terrors, and multiple unconscious in all but Ruins. At the other table I heard reports of FIVE character deaths and multiple unconscious among his four demos, two of which should have been TPKs, but he had the creature in Tomes cease combat after the last character fell, allowing for unconscious bodies to be recovered.

Terrors:

The character death at my Terrors table was made interesting as the candle was still burning, so the player asked "do I raise as an undead now?" I didn't see any reason why not? so I said "sure, you raise as a 4hp skeleton". At one point, the candle had been extinguished, and the skeletons were losing one hp per round. The skeletal champion charged the length of the crypt to reach one PC, raised his weapon to strike, and then crumbled to dust as he was on his last hp.

At one table, a young player almost cried when his character died the first time, though he was more composed after his second character death in the next demo, so I guess the game taught him something - you can still enjoy the game even if you don't succeed.

Players at my table all wanted to exchange pregen characters after the first demo to play a different class. By the third demo, they were wanting to build their own - one player swapped out his cleric domain, another player used the Barbarian class provided in the Player Pack.

One player asked if he could re-roll his character, I said "sure", he picked up a handful of d6 and rolled 1,1,1,1 - I asked "do you still want to re-roll your character?", he said "no, I'll keep the pregen thanks" ;-)

Initially the lethality of the encounters shocked players, but as this was a demo with pregens, and players could change characters between each demo, everyone relaxed after the first and took character death in their stride.

Character death is an important lesson for new players to learn about the game, but if you're running Beginner Box Bash! demos for characters having successfully completed other adventures, such as Black Fang, you might want to a) take it easy on 1st-level characters; b) level characters up to 2nd after successfully completing their previous adventure; or c) run the Bash! with pregen or temporary or secondary characters, not kill off your player's favourite characters.

Example of taking it easy on 1st-level characters:

Tomes:

Once the mimic reveals itself and starts attacking, having weapons stuck can be crippling.

If Professor Montrovale is conscious, have her recognise the problem and suggest that alcohol in her top drawer might weaken the mimic's adhesive properties, though she's quick to add the bottle isn't hers of course! but one she confiscated from a student in class earlier this morning.

Second time I ran the Beginner Box Bash!, two more character deaths.

Tomes:

When my players revived Montrovale and asked what happened, she said the last thing she remembers was being at her desk looking through some books - if something had attacked her, she didn't know what hit her? "C'mon, you must have seen something?" "No, it was just as I described to you".

Then one of the players approached her desk and started looking through her books = make a perception check = below 20 = surprise round.

As always, I roll my dice in the middle of the table for all to see = natural 20! I roll again to confirm = natural 20! I roll for damage = 21 hit points = full-health to instant-death in the suprise round before I even had a chance to describe the creature = now they know why Montrovale didn't know what hit her!

This group absolutely enjoyed the Bash! Being forewarned of the challenge ahead, they approached the game with a relaxed fun attitude from the outset and enjoyed some class experimentation - one player built a barbarian, there was one of each of the other classes, but two clerics. The cleric and wizard players rotated their characters among themselves each demo, and the clerics swapped out their domains each demo.

I think six-player tables stand a better chance surviving these demos. Be very careful running a four-player table, particularly with beginners or kids at the table, as they're going to be unfamiliar with the game and make odd choices, they'll need all the help they can get.

For example, at one table there was a young gamer playing the cleric who wanted to attack every round instead of doing healing. During one desperate moment the GM suggested "you could do a healing burst, and everyone would benefit" the kid thought a moment and said "and the fighter could stay up for one more round" and everyone was hopeful ... but then he said "so I attack it!" and everyone groaned "Noooo!" but that was how he wanted to play his cleric. Unfortunately, he was also the first character to go down in each encounter, which meant no healing for the rest of the party, who then fell like dominos. At my second Bash! event, there were two clerics, so not so much trouble there.

It's often the odd things players do that stick in your mind, like the abovementioned cleric who wouldn't heal, or the rogue who stood a safe distance in the OPPOSITE corner of the room while another player did the searching:

Tomes:

Other player: "hey, I think there's a safe behind these books."
[discussion between players]
Me [hinting]: "isn't the rogue supposed to be good at that stuff?"
Rogue: "no, you open it, I'm standing back here" (opposite corner of room)
Whooosh! Flame trap destroys book and deals damage to two adjacent characters.

You may need to prompt some individuals, why are you playing a cleric if you're not healing? why are you playing a rogue if you're not searching for traps or opening locks? etc.

The Beginner Box Bash! highlights some important lessons. Every member of a group is important. Look what happens when the cleric goes down, or your fighter flees in fear, the rest of the group suffers for their absence. There are four classes for a reason, it's a team game, you need to support your party members to survive, and that's an important message to get across to new players.

Overall, though, everyone really enjoyed the demos. For short encounters, they were interesting, challenging, flavoursome and a lot of fun!