Open Table Session Report (#14) - Tunnel Spiders
Player Characters
Elowen (Elf 1), accompanied by Persa (Thief 1)
Laeryll (Elf 1)
Wilson (Thief 1), accompanied by Cullen (Fighter 1)
Wynn (Cleric 2)
Prep
Wynn purchased iron spikes and an oil flask. Wynn prepared Cause Fear, Laeryll prepared Hold Portal and Elowen prepared Floating Disc.
Events
The party decided to head towards Kadmacho's domain once more and went west from the entrance. In the ruined tavern they investigated the eastern door through which lizards had previously entered, spotting a raised set of flagstones and a long groove in the corridor wall at waist height. Wynn crept forward and hammered spikes around the flagstone, pinning it in place, and the party proceeded in this direction.
Following winding corridors, the party came upon a familiar fresco-d hallway of cheering crowds and gladiators - the secret door to the arena lay ahead. To their surprise, their lantern light caught the shining eyes of several creatures in the darkness ahead who hooted and grunted - a party of Swine, apparently equally as surprised. Wynn cast Cause Fear on the lead Swine, sending it fleeing into the shadows. The others swiftly followed.
Wynn and Elowen investigated the secret door for signs of recent use, finding no such activity, while Laeryll took notes on the mosaic scenes along the walls. Having updated their map, the party headed back.
As they rounded a corner, the party were surprised by a group of dog-sized spiders scuttling out of the shadows. The creatures surged forth - two engaged Wynn and Cullen in the front line while one scuttled up the wall and dropped down at the party's rear. In the battle that followed, Persa the Thief fell to the beasts' venomous fangs and Wynn narrowly escaped injury as his shield was sundered by an arachnid attack. The party slew one of the spiders and the remainder fled into the darkness. Wynn and Elowen harvested the mandibles and venom glands from the fallen spider.
Bearing Persa's body, the party returned down the route they had come. At a junction, they heard strange grinding stone voices echoing down one route and instead took a door which triggered a pit trap before them - the door opened into the room with the magical obelisk. Hopping the 5' pit, the party made their way back to the dungeon entrance and headed back to town for Persa's funeral.
Outcomes
Treasure retrieved: 0sp
Combat XP: Crab spider (35XP) - 35XP
Feats of Exploration:
Overcome a trap (2%)
Total: 2% XP required to level up.
Shares: 4.5 full shares | 7XP/share / 3XP/half-share
Thoughts
This was a rough session, which sucked because we had a new player joining us and they mentioned to me that they probably wouldn't return. One player took a phone call and had to leave before we got going, which is fine. The returning players were all a couple of sessions behind and hadn't read up on previous events, so they struggled to form a coherent plan or call upon useful information and indecision reigned. Several players were also distracted at the table, and I saw a few phones out here and there. I ended up leaning on my wife, who is an active and engaged player, quite heavily for input to try and drive events forward, which burned her out and she confessed that she was annoyed by the conduct of other players in the game. Overall the session was a slog which ended on a bit of a bum note, and while I think I kept it under wraps, I was very irritated by what I perceived as the players slipping into treating me as an 'RPG delivery system' rather than another player in the game.
The session's issues can be summarised as:
- I don't think I was on my best form as Referee, which is solely on me. I've apologised for that to the players.
- The party lacked direction and an objective, leading to a meandering wander through the dungeon with unclear aims. Returning players weren't up to date with events of previous sessions, leading to indecision.
- Players were distracted at the table, compounding the above issues.
To try and remedy this, I've spoken to the players and instituted the following:
- Aiming for a 2-3hr session with a good pace, we'll take short breaks every hour. There'll be dedicated pre-session and post-session segments for role elections, plan finalisation, XP totalling etc. Shopping will ideally be done in advance.
- I'm implementing a list of leads based on what the party have found. Progress on these leads and new leads will be discussed at the end of each session's wrap-up.
- The party must discuss a plan in advance, based on the above. Players must avail themselves of session summaries to keep track of game information, or just ask me for a shortened version.
- Player roles, decided by election in the pre-session segment: Captain/Caller, Mapper, and Scribe. Each carries XP bonuses.
- Hardline no phones out at the table. If you need to take a call outside, that's fine. Otherwise, keep them away and respect the time of the other players.
We'll see how it goes. I've had some positive feedback from the players already, as well as some apologies.
On a mechanic-related note, I tried using standard random encounter rolls and I think I'm going to keep using the Underclock for more predictability between rolls - this session's encounters felt quite crowded. Also we nearly forgot the shield sundering rule that we're using, which would have doomed our newly-minted second-level Cleric to death by poison - thankfully remembered just as the failed Saving Throw was rolled...