Three Skulls Walk into a Bar

    No real miniatures painted (not necessarily true, have one but I want to save it for the next post) this week. The big project that I undertook prior to last week's open table session was printing out generic enemy tokens to use when we use miniatures for combat because I HATE lugging a bunch of stuff with me to and from the game shop. I made these by combining skull files found on thingiverse with some bases created by Battleyak. They weren't painted when I used them for the session, but they worked just as well! Now onto a session recap and some thoughts I've had.

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 Last week in Bara-Kraz...

12th of Obsidian, early night, on the second level of Ormstone Mine.

    Korda the Dragonborn Paladin hangs barely breathing on the chasm cliffside while Daisy and Galen prepare to fend off more of the lizard creatures. Suddenly, three adventurers appear and lend a hand in the ensuing chaos. They are Grokk a half-orc fighter, Olson a shifter bard, and Elrin an elven monk.

    Despite more creatures showing up the newly formed party wins the day and goes on to explore the insides of the island that rises out of this underground chasm. Within they interrupt a savage feast over a human corpse and ruthlessly dispose of a group of lizardmen who seemed to be in an intoxication like stupor due to the chirping of cave crickets. After catching two of the cave crickets and debating on whether they should head North down some crudely cut stone stairs or descend a ladder cut into the ground the party decides to descend.

    Their descent brings them to a misty cavern of ankle-deep water. Olson discovers a red hunk of ormstone that seems to be made up of fine serrated crystals. Korda decides to sharpen his blade with the rock, giving it a fine serrated edge. The party heads out of this cave and encounters two lizardmen cooking something in a large cauldron.

    The two lizardmen indicate to the party that they want the two crickets they're holding for the stew. The party complies and then a bowl of cricket soup is produced.

    Some of the party struggle on whether or not to eat the soup, others have no qualms. In the end, Elrin and Daisy outright refuse and the group brutally murders the lizardmen...but not before Galen, under the effects of comprehend languages, hears their last hiss: "don't trusssst the intruderssss"

    The party then departs back to Bara-Kraz. Despite difficulties in determining where exactly they are, they make it out alive and to struggle another day.

It was a really fun session and one where I tried out a few things.

• Escaping the Dungeon: from The Alexandrian. I announce when there's 1 hour left in the session and if players don't end up getting out by the end of the session then they roll to escape the dungeon. This helps start and end every session in the city so nobody has to be "handwaved" in or out of next session and PCs have time to engage in downtime activity (something that I find players LOVE). I'm using a week of in-game time to mirror the week of out of game time between sessions.
• Dungeon Crawl Procedures: This is something I really wanted to try but I had a hard time implementing. I'm going to try to do it this coming session now that I changed some of my maps around to visually make sense with applying the procedure. 
• Weekly Roster: This removes the aspect of the open table where walk-ins were welcome but the weekend before the previous game I was receiving enough messages to realize that it's a possibility I could run for 9+ players! Not being ready for that emotional experience, I decided to implement a roster and alternate list. If you're on the alternate list you automatically get a spot the next week. Time will be the only real indicator of whether or not this works.
• Improv Dice: No idea where I learned this from but when I don't know the answer to something, asking myself the question and rolling a d6 gets me an answer that looks like it always existed in the game world. 1= no, and... 2-3= no, but... 4-5= yes, but... 6=yes, and... 

    Contrary to what I wrote last week about minimal notes, I don't think they hindered me this time. Maybe it's because I think I've spent enough time mentally with this dungeon now that I get it and my brain can fill in the blanks?

    We have our next session of the open table tomorrow! It looks like the party is going to try and go back into Ormstone mine to try and rescue the strikers. But who knows? There will be two new folks joining us this week and maybe they'll talk the others into checking out the sunken colosseum or accompanying a group of bounty hunters in escorting their quarry to a gnomish air station in the Southern Savannah...I have a feeling they'll just go to the mine though.

And when they do, they'll have quite the battle on their hands.