I ran 3 sessions of D&D 5e at the expo. 2 on Saturday and one Sunday morning. I have to say all three of my groups were fantastic. I believe everyone involved had a great time. I myself had a lot of fun although it was exhausting. I think that I may be one of the most active Dungeon Masters playing the game. I realize after 3 games in a short time, I almost never sit down and I am constantly moving, either to point out something on the map or to act out something an NPC or Character is doing. Definitely keeps me and the players on their toes.
Each of the adventures were totally different, which added to my own personal chaos. each adventure had full terrain for the players to interact with. I figured this is an expo and should be done big and some were a little too big. Our group on Saturday had to move to the floor as the scope of the final showdown was large in scope.
The game was titled the Mysterious voyage. The players were the victims of a shipwreck and wound up on an island know as the Island of Chaos by other nautical folk. Unfortunately we ran up against the clock and played a little Speed D&D but I think we pulled it off. A lot of fun.
The first game was titled War and a Kidnapping. The Blacksmith’s daughter was kidnapped to be sacrificed and the party had to execute a rescue. The party included a brother and sister that were playing 2 otter folk characters that were also siblings. The game was a lot of fun and played a lot differently then I imagined it. In the end, the team was successful and rescued the the black smith’s daughter.
The third session was the Sunday morning session and it was called Myatery at Hawksmoor. I informed the players that there was a “joke” and the person who figured it out got a prize. And yes one of them did. The game was based on the characters in the movies Willard and Ben. The story did involve rats, out to destroy to take over the world.
It was a gas. This group had 2 younger players who were a joy to have at the table and played well.
The 2 games I hosted on Saturday were something that I never really encountered before. Most of the players were female. Of the 11 players 8 were women and they were a lot of fun. All of the games were as if everyone had been friends for years and were a team from the get go. Everyone was helping everyone else as the experience level of the groups were from beginners to veterans. It really complemented the game as the ideas on how to solve questions and accomplish the task at hand were varied and creative. One solution was to have the otter cleric attack a Cyclops with a coconut, with dire consequences, but went back, climbed up a tall rock and jumped on it’s head. The whole visual was quite humorous.
All of the characters that the players had to choose from in each game were the same, with the exception of level. The choice varied considerably from game to game with one exception, otter folk were always chosen. Even the player that chose a Lizard Folk Warlock in the Saturday night game chose to use an otter folk mini saying “Why wouldn’t I, it’s an otter!”
I want to thank all my players for helping create a wonderful experience and I hope they all come back next year and joins one of my tables again. I hope everyone had as good of an experience as I did volunteering an running the games.