Sharing a great DoD experience!

[larsdangly]

I had a great session with my group yesterday and wanted to share a positive experience we had working with all the materials from DoD (as well as some earlier products that go well with them).

We started play with the party sort of getting its act together after a chaotic fight that ended the previous session. They had some clear goals in mind for the day, but wanted to rest for a half hour before heading off to the next thing. I casually rolled a d6 for a random encounter, not really thinking that it could end up mattering much one way or the other...

When the die came up '1' I realized I needed to do something and wasn't in the mood for the crummy GM's standard answer of just throwing a monster at them. So I pulled out my Wilderness Encounters deck and drew a random card. Apparently, one of the players who was acting as lookout spotted a mysterious stone doorway to a subterranean tunnel in the bottom of a nearby gully, presumably something very ancient that was exposed by the stream's erosion.

The players speculated that this might be a previously unknown entrance to a truly enormous megadungeon that underlies my campaign area. The idea hadn't occurred to me before, but I thought 'why not?'. Anyway, they decided to explore!

I drew a card from the labyrinth map hex deck (i.e., the pack of hexagonally shaped cards you can tesselate to make an impromptu dungeon) and picked one end of one of the tunnels as the entrance. Then I tossed a die into the DoD box lid to check for some sort of feature and it landed on 'corpse of a wizard'. I drew a card at random from deck of wizards — an orc shaman who must have come here recently with some purpose in mind. Why was it dead? I figured she must have had a run in with something nastier than herself, so I rolled on the ITL random tables: giant snakes! Naturally they are venomous and can spit poison, because that is the funnest thing I could spot in a quick refresher of the giant snake description.

The players crept into the dungeon, which my labyrinth card showed was water filled. So I poked around my MH collection for some appropriately water filled tiles and laid out the space. They found the wizard's body face down in the water, pierced by many mysterious puncture wounds.

They searched her, and it stands to reason she would own something of value, so I drew a Treasure card. A very peculiar item - the chain of three interlocking magic rings, one of which was on her finger (for all the good it did her). The players pocketed it for later inspection and explored further.

A wild battle with giant, poison-spitting snakes, including one 3-hex monster, ensued. They drove them off with sorcerous flames and gun fire, but killed none, so clearly the snake horde still poses some threat hidden deeper into the labyrinth they would find in the next draw of a card...

Once the session was over, I took a quick cell phone picture of the maps and cards that had been played and pulled out a copy of the labyrinth journal as well as my folder full of maps for my megadungeon and got the new space recorded and dropped it into my larger scale space as a new entrance (currently with lots of unmapped space between where the players are and other parts I've mapped).

Anyway, what I loved about the quick hour of play was the free-flowing integration of all the parts; several decks of cards, several scales of mapping; different modes of play; all sorted out instantly at the table.

[Shostak]

Thanks for sharing that! When I first looked at the DoD on Kickstarter, I thought, "I'm never going to use any of this stuff." But then I came to see how useful it could be for both pick-up games w/newcomers to TFT and as a tool to assist with ongoing campaigns in pretty detailed homebrewed settings.

[ParadoxGames]

I love this story! I enjoy reading recounts of others' adventures.

[TippetsTX]

Not to give anyone ideas, but I think this has great expansion potential... new decks for towns, cities (talking to you, Phil), the sea, etc.

[philreed]

Originally Posted by TippetsTX

Not to give anyone ideas, but I think this has great expansion potential... new decks for towns, cities (talking to you, Phil), the sea, etc.

I happen to have some city stuff happening right now. :)

[TippetsTX]

Originally Posted by philreed

I happen to have some city stuff happening right now. :)

Yes, but I was trying to help you avoid shameless self-promotion. ;)

In all seriousness, everyone should check out Phil's stuff.

[philreed]

Originally Posted by TippetsTX

Yes, but I was trying to help you avoid shameless self-promotion. ;)

In all seriousness, everyone should check out Phil's stuff.

Aw, thank you.

[larsdangly]

Where can I find info on more recent things along the lines of your Wilderness Encounter cards?

[philreed]

Originally Posted by larsdangly

Where can I find info on more recent things along the lines of your Wilderness Encounter cards?

Hopefully, everyone will forgive the link:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...-fantasy-rpgs/

[philreed]

Originally Posted by larsdangly

Once the session was over, I took a quick cell phone picture of the maps and cards that had been played and pulled out a copy of the labyrinth journal as well as my folder full of maps for my megadungeon and got the new space recorded and dropped it into my larger scale space as a new entrance (currently with lots of unmapped space between where the players are and other parts I've mapped).

So very cool to hear the tools being used in this way. Thank you for sharing!