Tuesday, January 17, 2017

Child's Play 2


About 3 weeks ago, I ran a quick fantasy RPG session for my two eldest daughters (Briella is almost 6 and Illyria is 4).

I call it "D&D," but it's really the most free form, rules light, and no-frills (meaning that we don't worry about much) version of D&D you could ever play.

 First session is here.  I brought up the idea of playing multiple times and Briella just wasn't interested.  So, I assumed it would be a cold day in Hell before I'd get her into another game.

It just so happens that school was called off on account of freezing rain, icy roads, and all around shitty winter conditions.  Briella was helping me get my youngest daughter, Trinity, up for the day.  Trinity's room was semi-dark, so Briella turned on this little green lamp on the dresser.  It made the room seem weird and kind of creepy.

I'm almost sure it was Briella who suggested that we play D&D under these conditions.  So, I got my stuff, told Illyria she could join us, and started things off.

Briella wanted to play a new character.  Illyria followed suit.

Briella played Melody, a magic-user princess with a pet bunny as her familiar.  Illyria played another magic-user princess named Beatifulness with a pet cat as her familiar.  Trinity is only 19 months old, so I made her character an imp thief named Tres.

That's all the character creation we needed.  The three adventurers were in a local tavern in the village of Elslow.  They had lived in Elslow all their lives, only journeying to the Tower of Soft Black Stars for their apprenticeship in sorcery.

As they were seated around a wooden table, enjoying refreshments, they noticed a cloaked stranger enter the tavern and look around.  He sat down at their table, introduced himself as Urstan, and told the three of his mission - to find adventurers who could clear out the local dungeon.  This nearby dungeon is where monsters live... monsters who come up to the surface at night and cause mischief.

Both girls were impatient to explore the dungeon, kill monsters, and take their treasure, so I sped things up a bit.

After some traveling, the three stood in front of a cavern shaped like the yawning mouth of a monstrous giant.  Hesitant but eager to get in there, they entered and walked into a side-cave containing 4 goblins.  I gave them a list of options: attack the goblins, talk to them, or leave them be.  They decided to attack.

Melody attacked first with her dagger.  I asked Briella if she'd rather use a spell, but no - t'was the dagger.  Briella needed to roll a 3 or better on a single six-sided die.  She did and the first goblin was stabbed and killed.

Illyria also wanted to use her dagger, despite my suggestion that she cast a spell.  She also hit and another goblin died.

With two goblins remaining, one attacked Beautifulness, slashing her leg.  The second goblin missed.  Almost forget, one of Briella's conditions before agreeing to play again was that they couldn't be killed.  I agreed.

Even though I assured Illyria that her character was alive and still had her leg, she up and quit the game.  Briella asked me to play her character for the remainder of the session, so I did.

Briella decided to cast sleep on the goblins.  She was successful and both slept as Beautifulness (now played by me), slit their throats.  They only had 9 gold pieces between them.

The next cave was based on an idea that Briella had while I was doing something for Trinity.  In the center of the cave was a gold statue with several humans in strange clothing standing around the statue.  At the far end of the cave was a door, the likes of which the PCs had never seen.

Briella wasn't sure what to do, so I asked if she wanted to talk to the humans.  She did.  They were foreigners who had been invited to clear the dungeon by the cloaked Urstan.

One of the humans was a wizard with a long gray beard named Ivellios.  He had been studying the runes outlining the door, and was ready to open it.  They were clearly magical.  Ivellios swung the door open, revealing a black portal.

Beyond was an unfamiliar countryside, rolling hills, a dark forest, and on the other side of the forest was a castle.  Melody wanted to reach the castle, so off they walked.

Halfway through the forest, the adventurers heard trolls.  Two of them chopping trees with large axes.  Melody wanted to attack them and cast sleep again.  She was successful, but only put one of the trolls to sleep as trolls were stronger than goblins.

Playing Beautifulness, I cast an ice storm to cut the second troll to ribbons with little shards of razor-sharp ice.  I rolled well and soon both trolls lay dead.  The trolls carried gemstones with them, as well as, a magic item - it was a gold scepter with ruby centerpiece and two snakes carved onto one side.  No idea what it did.

It wasn't long before they had reached the castle.  Inside was a handsome prince.  Melody turned down the prince's advances; however, Beautifulness, again played by Illyria, was very interested.  Soon enough, the two were married in a brief ceremony.  The reception was furnished with all manner of delicious foods and drinks.

No time for a honeymoon, as the adventurers wanted to get back to the dungeon.  Then one or more things came up and we had to stop the session there.  All told, we probably only played for an hour, but it was still fun.  These mini-games keep my GMing muscles from completely atrophying.

VS




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