New DM looking for some practice running games (Multiple One Shots) (5E)

[jjjtorrence]

FG License: Standard (Players will need Standard or above)
Game System: 5E (DM has MM, PHB, and DMG)

Time Zone: Pacific Time (PST)
Day of week and time: 03/08/17 6 PM PST
Planned Duration & Frequency: 3-5 Hours
Term: Periodically. TBD.

Text or Voice: Voice and Text
Voice software used: TeamSpeak (FG Server)

Roleplay & Combat mix: 50/50
Number of Players in game & needed: 2-5
Character starting level & equipment:Level 1. Have characters pre-made (I have 4 diff chars I made if you wanna use those)
Character restrictions: Standard PHB races/equipment/classes/backgrounds/NO FEATS/NO UA

Details of your scenario: This is a series of homebrew games titled "Trials of Mettle", which is a series of one-shot adventures. The first adventure takes place in the Caverns of Magesyre to find lost children who went missing. This adventure is filled with puzzles, fierce battles, and loot. What happened to the children? What perils await? Only one way to find out, step into the cave and face your fate.


Hello Fantasy Grounds community. I have been using FG now for about a month now and I think it's time for me to take a crack at DM'ing. I am in the process of writing a complete lvl 1-6 campaign, which is the first in a series of campaigns progressing in level and difficulty. I am new to D&D myself, but I do alot of studying and I am in an ongoing weekly campaign, so i am learning everyday. I would like to get a couple of One-Shot games under my belt before I go into the full thing with my full campaign, so i have created the "Trials of Mettle" to wet my whistle and have fun. Any experience level is cool, but would like to have some experienced players who can give me some pointers here and there too. Let me know if this interests you at at all, shoot me a PM or comment here and i will get back to you.

*Trials of Mettle Picture* 18068

*UPDATE: This will be the second game i am hosting, the first one went very well. Gonna shoot for 03/08/17 6PM PST*

[valiantcosmos]

Hey JJJ,
Nice TOM image! Sent you a pm.

[HabitOrez]

I'm a new player looking to get into this kind of gaming. I don't have any experience, but I'd love to give it a shot if possible.

[jjjtorrence]

Cheers HabitOrez for taking an interest. Fantasy Grounds is an amazing opportunity to get into RPGs. We are probably gonna shoot for the 02/29/17 date around 6 PM. Does that work for you? If so, shoot me a PM for further details my man. I highly recommend watching some tutorials on D&D 5E on YouTube to get the hang of it. 3 good channels for D&D are "WASD20" for general D&D info, "DawnForgedCast" for general D&D info, and my personal favorite "DigitalDungeonMaster" for General Fantasy Grounds and D&D info. Crash course these guys and find a class you like. Once you find a class you like, study the hell outta them. Cheers man. Have a great day!!!

[Hoodoolips]

Would love to join your group if you have room!

[jjjtorrence]

Yo Hoodolips!! Absolutely my man, there is definitely room. I really appreciate your interest in the game. I'll shoot you a PM with more details.

[valiantcosmos]

Hey JJJ,

Just realized there is no 2/29/2017, so I assume we're talking about 3/1/2017?

[jjjtorrence]

Yeah haha. I just realized that too

[dyermortal]

I PM you

[jjjtorrence]

Dyermortal.Cheers my man. I sent you a PM as well.

[tinroofrabbit]

I would love to help in the future, I can't do 3/1 but if the normal start time is 9ish my time and we're talking about 4 or so hour sessions I would love to help out.

I am new to virtual table toping (just picked up FG) but have played with a few of the other systems. I also run a home brew 5e campaign for my kids.

[jjjtorrence]

Yeah that sounds perfect my man. I will keep you posted. I would love to play with you!!!

[jjjtorrence]

This is awesome it looks like we have 3 players on board for tonight. 2 Wizards (Dyermortal/ValiantCosmos) and a Bard (Hoodoolips). If my buddy comes over to my house tonight, we will have a fourth (Fighter). Cheers guys this looks like it gonna be fun. We still have room for last minute entries. Shoot me a PM if interested and I'll give you the run-down!!! Cheers.

[tfoxsail]

I'd like to be considered if you keep running stuff. I can play on wed and thurs after 6:30 pm PST.

[jjjtorrence]

Tfoxsail I like the sound of that dude I just finished the session and it was a blast!! Yeah I will definitely keep you posted about sessions in the future.

[Elsender]

Ran this adventure with you last night; I have to say it was a great time. I thought the story and encounters were well done, great CR balance for low level players.
My RP skills are weak but you did an outstanding job in the RP dept. and that really helped with game immersion.
I did find it absolutely hilarious that, because of dice rolls, we PWNED the higher CR enemies and almost wiped to the lowest CR enemies. D&D at its finest.

small critiques for this test run, Please take these as constructive criticism as I had a great time.

The hook needs to be a little stronger, as I stated the story was good, but adventurers by nature are loot whores, so a promise of loot (money, items, shop discount, town reputation bonuses, whatever) may help with that, especially with a "traveling band" of adventurers with no vested interest in the townsfolk.
I noticed you didn't use all the available automation that FG offers. You did an outstanding job without it; I believe that if you take the time to set it up fully the adventure would run itself with you being able to focus more on RP/story, without having to be busy with some of the minutia.
The immersion was broken a little bit with figuring out how to utilize the "large pipe thing", most likely because we "as players" didn't ask the right questions, or didn't get the right rolls. I felt we META gamed a little to figure it out. Some way to hint or clue the way into the proper use would be nice to keep immersion.
You occasionally told us what rolls we needed to "beat" the DC of whatever we rolled against, I am not sure if FG can automate all the rolls we made, but that would help, and in any case, I suggest not letting players know the min DC for a skill check roll. You did outstanding RP'ing the crit success and failures, but the "middle" rolls (like a 8) could be a failure, the character has no way of knowing. So if it's stealth check let the character try to sneak in close with that roll while the enemies are fully aware of him; Maybe the enemies set up an ambush, maybe they investigate the noise, Maybe they attack as soon as they become aware, maybe they go get reinforcements, maybe they are drunk and ignore the failure anyway; Does the character see these possible reactions? That may give you the advantage of attacking a character "Flat footed" that believes he is stealthed!! fun times for all.

Would definitely run a game with you again.

[jjjtorrence]

Great tip about the DC's will definitely do that in the future. I guess the element of anything can happen would make the flow a little smoother. I did do a lot of prep, but when I accidentally deleted all of the tokens in the beginning it kind screwed it all up :(. I'll definitely boost up the hook for sure. The full campaign I am writing is much more complete with loot, reputation, great NPC's, unique weapons/armor, side quests. So look forward to that!!!!

[Elsender]

The whole DC thing is entirely up to you and how "hardcore" you want to play or how forgiving you want to be, its not fun for the player if every failed roll is insta-death. In every instance that I can think of you RP'ed the rolls very well, our successes and failures. just letting us know our success/failures immediately "OOC" before you RP'ed them was slightly immersion breaking.
As someone who is not good at RP this didn't bother me, but it was my understanding you wanted RP heavy, hence the suggestion.

I could definitely tell you did your homework and put a lot of effort into creating it, I didn't intend for you to believe I thought otherwise. It's your tabletop, and also your time and effort to put it all together, believe me I know how much work it takes. I thought it was very well done, and appreciate the effort it takes.

I did want to give you a +1 on helping me, as I have stated multiple times I am not good at RP,ing and you did an outstanding job covering for my lack of ability. "I attack the darkness"
As I play the character and get a better feel for "who" he/she is, my RP'ing improves, mainly in the dialog/attitude/persona, but I have a definite weakness in being able to describe every action my character takes, I prefer to state my intention, roll the die, and let the DM describe the outcome, it's the DM's story after all.

I am definitely looking forward to what else you have cooking.

As I stated before I had a great time, and so should anyone else that has the privilege to run with you. :D

[valiantcosmos]

Had the pleasure of joining Elsender last night in this one-shot courtesy of JJJtorrence who did a great job putting the game story together and DM-ing, so I'll echo all the positive comments that Elsender made above. JJJ, I really appreciated your keeping the game moving given the time constraints, you did a great job of adapting and improvising for the sake of our (the players) enjoyment. Look forward to more fun times to come as you develop your campaign, hope you keep me in the loop. Thanks again!

[Blood n Whiskey]

Sent you a PM, jjjtorrence. I'd like to get in on one of your future one-off adventures if you have availability.

[Allpower]

Hello i just joined this service today and I know that we are past the 3/1 date, I have very little exp in D&D 5e and am looking for some people to paly with. I work nightshirt Monday-Thursday (USA) Also I am down for long sessions and hanging out =) If you are going to run another campaign on Friday-Sunday please let me know!

[CelticAvenger!888]

When will this game be running? I have 2-4 people maybe interested in doing one shots. They're new to FG and would love to learn and use it in the future.

[CelticAvenger!888]

When will this game be running? Have 2-4 interested in doing one shots and are new to FG

[jjjtorrence]

CelticAvenger. The first game (03/01/17) already happened. But I will definitely be running it again shortly. I was thinking about Wednesday 03/08 6PM PST. I have updated the original post with new times and details. I just sent a PM to the players that reached out to me first. But if you shoot me a PM, we can schedule a game just for you and your friends in the near future, which I think would be great because you guys already have chemistry, so that would make for a great adventure. Cheers!!! I look forward to hearing from you.

[DivinDoc]

I am new i have table top experience and i have been deep into 5e books i even started a table top game at home i am new to FG if you have a spot id love to try this system out

[jjjtorrence]

DivinDoc. I'm gonna wait for the 5 members I sent PM's to to reply, 5 adventurers will probably be my max for this adventure. If I have a spot open for next Weds, I will let you know dude via PM. I'm glad you are expressing interest :)!!!! If there isn't a spot open for next week, I will definitely be running one-shots in the near future. I will keep you updated on anything my man. If you have any general FG questions as well, please feel free to shoot me a PM. Cheers man

[Vael]

Greetings from Paraguay!

As I mentioned in another fellow's post, I have owned FG for a while yet I have now decided to apply for a game.

I've been itching to roll some dice and your one-shot style seems to fit my current schedule.

Let me know, milord.

[Berlos]

I know you've said you already have more then enough players for this sessions, but I just wanted to express my interest in CSS you decided to run another session or two. I'm new to the whole experience but am desperately wanting to get into it. If you decide to run another session or two please keep me in mind!

[jjjtorrence]

Berlos and Vael. Thank you guys so much for checking out my post, I really appreciate you guys trying to help me out. I have 3 players who's spots are locked in for this upcoming Wednesday 03/08/17. I am waiting on a reply from another player that reached out to me a couple of days ago, if he joins then I will have 4 spots locked in. So as of right now, I have one spot open for sure. Since Vael posted on this forum first, he will get first dibs (Will shoot a PM shortly). Berlos, if the player I reached out to can't make it this Wednesday then the spot will be passed on to you!! I am for sure going to run this adventure again. I will update my Original Post with details pertaining to future games. Cheers!!!

[Berlos]

I understand thanks for keeping me updated!

[jjjtorrence]

Yo Berlos, a spot just opened up my man. I sent you a PM. Let me know if your still interested dude. I'd really like to run with you :)

[Allpower]

If you happen to have any openings in the future i'm a new player to FG and a new player to D&D if you ever have a weekend spot and are willing to work with a noob I would be really interested in joining up with all of you =) have a good run guys and gals

[jjjtorrence]

Allpower. I will definitely keep you posted about future events my man :].

[JonboyPizzaBuns]

torrence, I'm in the same boat as Allpower.

I can't find any dedicated groups for xxxx sake