Campaigning Again!

From 'Death Frost Doom'

As I mentioned in my recent look at Death Frost Doom, I was getting ready to start up my new campaign.  Despite the understandable allure of running a D&D 5th Edition campaign, I've stuck to my guns and am sticking with Castles & Crusades.  It's been close to a year since the last campaign I ran and, subsequently got put on hold around April of 2014.  It was supposed to be a temporary hold but, next thing you know, 5th Edition comes out and different campaigns start to try out the 'new and shiny'.  Sadly, most of us don't have the time to play in multiple campaigns so the adventure path we were going through will be on hold for an indeterminate amount of time.  Fortunately, I was still playing in different game with another group so putting my game on hold wasn't that big a deal.

One of the reasons that original game got put on hold actually stemmed from player dissatisfaction which his character's advancement (and rate of advancement).  I just recently found out the new D&D campaign he is in is running in a few other issues which seems to be pointing to a deeper problem with the player in question.

Aside from that, I did try running another session to start a new campaign, but as I wrote about in October (HERE), it didn't quite work out.  That session more or less imploded when 'partying' became the focus and not the game itself.  There was much imbibing and merriment and next to no gaming done.


So, here we are, the start of the new campaign.  I made a couple of adjustments to what I intended back last Fall and dropped one of the two prospective players from that group.  I decided to have only one 'unknown' variable at the gaming table and my my fiancee and a close friend of mine made up the rest of the players.  It's a small group: 3 players and one GM but certainly manageable and will likely expand once we get a good rhythm going.

Our first session was EXCELLENT so I think the future of the campaign I have planned is promising.  Death Frost Doom, albeit modified, is what I'm starting the group with and I've already laid the ground work to where this is headed beyond it.  Well, we'll see how the group fares.  It might be that the campaign will also be cut short based on the actions they take.

Without going into too many details (which could constitute as spoilers), the party consists of very much of a good spread of archetypes... We have a Barbarian (the non-berserking variety), a Cleric of Dagda (a Celtic deity), and a Rogue.  They are accompanied by their employer (NPC), a Wizard whom they know little about but have quickly realized how unreliable this person can be.  The Wizard, naturally, has his own agenda.  After some discussion, the party (spurred on by the Rogue) decided to go investigate the peak.  They have met with ol' Zeke and have found their way to the cabin and the large cemetery that surround it.  They are beginning to realize and experience strange things and wondering if this excursion was a mistake.

In truth, we didn't get that far into the adventure itself -- with character creations, questions, and the roleplaying, it was easy going.  Because the party decided to avoid the established trail up the to the peak, they got attacked by a pack of wolves and the dice were just not going their way.  Of course, the very first attack roll of the night, from a wolf no less, scored a critical hit.  That poor cleric.

It was the roleplaying I was most please with though.  The players grew comfortable in their roles much quicker than I am accustomed to seeing.  As it turned out, one of the players really got into roleplaying his character which really helped encourage the others to do the same with the NPCs and each other.  It was fantastic.

Next game is already set for two weeks from now -- we settled on playing the game once every two weeks on Friday evenings.   I can't wait!

M