Opportunity Actions: Red Box Play Report (Thurgenar’s Take)

After much anticipation, I got a chance to play in a Red Box scenario engineered by our own DM Samuel, the payoff to RPG Musings’ Red Box Haiku contest. I was one who volunteered to play and be recorded for an actual play podcast of the event. (I’ll post a link when it becomes available.)

Being that this was my first ever podcast recording, I was pretty excited. Our players were: myself, Adam Ford, Ryven Cedrylle, our winner, Matt Cicci, and DM Samuel running the show. Everyone was playing, respectively: Thurgenar Anvilbane (Dwarf Fighter), Illan (Eladrin Thief), Lukan (Elf Wizard), and Clarion (Elf Cleric of Pelor).

For this game, I broke a cardinal rule: I wrote a history for Thurgenar. Read my Dexter Theory post for that rule and others. I summarized, but here’s exactly what I wrote on my background sheet:

“Long ago, an earthquake struck beneath a Dwarven hold. At the same time, a Dwarf maiden was giving birth in a traditional Birthing Forge. The child was named Glimliron, for the glimmering irons of the forge. During the quake, the celebrant dropped Glimliron on the Anvil of Anointing, and it cracked as his head struck, having already been damaged by the quake. He became known as Glimliron Bane-of-Anvils, and founded the Anvilbane clan.”

I really enjoyed the party building exercise. I kept quiet for most of it, since I was waiting for a hook to draw me in. When I was told that they hired a Dwarf as a guard, I leapt in.

The other characters brought something along I hadn’t anticipated, but was ready to expound upon. The Elves considered themselves as good, if not better than the Eladrin, and I saw this inherent racism as my best in-road. It helped that the Eladrin was a thief that was being detained. While the Elves and Eladrin may not have gotten along that well, Thurgenar couldn’t even distinguish between the two sets, declaring that, “all pointy-ears look the same.”

I did a lot more voice-acting for this than I normally do. I tend towards tactical play, but this time I decided that character would be very important to the experience. I sort of went for a Sean Connery/John Rhys-Davies Scottish voice. I think it paid off insofar as the distinction between speaking in-character and speaking out-of-character was very clear. The bonus was that speaking in this voice seemed to add to the experience for everyone else. I’m leaning toward using this sort of thing more in the future as a result.

In keeping with my notion of playing to stereotypes for characters that aren’t fully developed, Thurgenar was envisioned as brash, stubborn, and driven, but also fiercely loyal; common traits for a Dwarf. If this were the start of an ongoing campaign, I might have been able to explore other aspects of his personality, eventually breaking through the stereotype, but for a one-off session, it made for a fun and easily recognizable character to play.

As we started playing, we revealed that we were looking for a person that was missing, either by accident or foul play. I (Thurgenar) knew that I was hired by the two fair-skinned fellows to guard the other fair skinned fellow, and that was all I concerned myself with. My challenge was that I wasn’t quite sure which fair-skinned pointy-eared fellow to watch, so I decided that I could do worse than watch them all. Elf-types tend to be untrustworthy anyway, so I could keep close watch on the Elves, too, and avoid the troublesome dealings of those shifty fae folk.

The Sheep

This was a maneuver that hearkens back to previous games I’ve played. It always gets me a note in the quote journal. Take a throwaway moment, and amplify it for comic effect. In this case, a local herdsman commented that a handwritten note looked like it could have been written by a sheep. Thurgenar, ever the inept detective, declared that we need to find that sheep. And so began the sheep jokes.

I like to keep the mood light, and once I get a feel for my fellow players, I try to play to every one’s mood. I can proudly say I’ve never been at a table where there wasn’t at least some sense of humor at work. It’s part of the fun, as far as I’m concerned. I’m glad to say this “table” was no exception.

The Elfish Twist

So, sometime later, we found ourselves heads-up with a Bugbear. I was ready to send this beast of to meet its ancestors, when one of those faerie-folk took a gamble, and called out a name that was scrawled on the Sheep Note. “Gunther!,” he called.

The Bugbear stopped mid-swing, and negotiations began. Kudos to Sam for rolling with it. Thurgenar would have been knocking on the Mine of the Hereafter had this not happened.

Essentials Review

After playing through here, I got my chance to speak briefly about Essentials. I’ll elaborate here.

In my experience playing the Fighter, I noticed something quite funny. The at-wills are minor actions lay on a stance. It bascally gives your basic attack the equivalent of being an at will power.  The encounter power is an Immediate Interrupt that triggers on a hit, allowing an extra weapon die. If the fight with the Bugbear had lasted any longer, I’d have been using it. The effect here is  odd. I could use an encounter power, but only if the triggering attack hit, so your encounter power never misses. Your at-wills also enhance this. You net a good few powers. However, you have no Dailies, and your powers are highly repetitive. Result: Not the sort of Fighter I’d like to normally play.

I see Essentials as a gateway to the game. D&D right now is a huge database of powers, feats, races, classes, and the like. Most people who have been playing all along are familiar with how this all works, and can informed decisions on how they want to build and play their characters. Not so for newbs.

To adjust the learning curve, and give new players a quick jump-in point that doesn’t hinder gameplay for everyone else, we now have Essentials.

For anyone who thought this was a new edition, put it to rest already. Nobody’s forcing anyone to play Essentials, and nobody’s saying regular 4e and Essentials can’t be mixed. Quite the opposite actually. Take Essentials. Get your friend whose only criticism of D&D is its complexity. Play a game or two. You’ll definitely play more.

Tell me what you all think, and watch your threatened squares.

IMAGE NOTES: Gimli (from the Lord of the Rings films) is property of New Line Cinema.