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    Canonfire :: View topic - Running a game as a new DM -- the Good and the Bad
    Canonfire Forum Index -> World of Greyhawk Discussion
    Running a game as a new DM -- the Good and the Bad
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    Apprentice Greytalker

    Joined: Dec 23, 2009
    Posts: 25
    From: Sacramento, CA

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    Sun Feb 28, 2010 11:08 pm  
    Running a game as a new DM -- the Good and the Bad

    Overall, I'm pretty ecstatic. (In case you haven't noticed, this is the good bit)

    This Saturday, I was finally able to sit down with my friends and run them through their first session in Greyhawk -- and my first session as a DM.

    I've been working on this campaign, on and off, for about two months, ever since I first was asked to run one. During the waiting, I was able to hand draw a reasonable facsimile of the Principality of Ulek -- at about 22" by 30" -- on some nice cotton rag watercolor paper. When I unrolled it, the players seemed pretty excited. Overall, I think, they were glad to have an "interactive" experience.

    Now, this particular game is run using 4E rules, but the particular adventure I used is one published for AD&D (2E). Now, I gave this module a few passes, getting a gauge of the encounters, running mock battles while converting from 2E to 4E. As far as my experience goes, this actually went rather well -- the combats were relatively quick, so it's possible I might have made them a bit too easy.

    Anyway, after one encounter, the PCs had a chance to roleplay a bit with one of the dwarves they saved--which I tried to give a Scottish accent, but it actually came out Russian. At any rate, I was reading strictly from the adventure, and at one point, -- here we get to the bad part -- this dwarf, declares -- "I am Karl Stonecutter of Irongate,” he says. “We are in your debt. We were hurrying
    south to heed our prince’s call to arms when these attacked us."

    At this point, I actually broke character, and consulted my handy-dandy LGG map, which put Irongate across the bay, several of hundreds of miles away. Not to be undone, I simply kept reading, and when I read the DM Only stuff at the end of the script, I fell nearly out of my chair.

    To quote, "He gives the party leader a medallion which will guarantee the friendship of any dwarf of Irongate, a dwarven province in the Lortmils."

    So for a quite minute, I sat there, staring at this snippet of text, going back and forth between it and the map.

    Finally, I was able to sink myself back into game mode, but the sheer, inaccuracy(?) of this little tidbit really makes me wonder ...

    ----------------------------------------
    Your thoughts?
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    The Golem<br />
    Apprentice Greytalker

    Joined: Feb 27, 2005
    Posts: 59
    From: Winnipeg Canada

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    Mon Mar 01, 2010 6:38 am  

    Isn't there an Irongate the province and an Irongate the city?

    Don't worry about it... let the players figure it out. If they show up in the wrong place waving their medalion around expecting preferenial treatment, things could get interesting.

    And this will actually make your DMing task easier believe it or not.
    Apprentice Greytalker

    Joined: Dec 23, 2009
    Posts: 25
    From: Sacramento, CA

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    Mon Mar 01, 2010 7:30 am  

    You could be right. I've no idea. Is there an official list somewhere? I suppose I could just say whatever I want, being DM and all >.<
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    The Golem<br />
    Master Greytalker

    Joined: Aug 17, 2004
    Posts: 924
    From: Computer Desk

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    Mon Mar 01, 2010 12:22 pm  

    IIRC:
    The passage caused quite a stir and after some hedging the designer admitted to was a mistake. Of course it took some effort to get the admission but GH fans are nothing if not tenacious.

    Two fixes were offered - ignore the reference or create an Irongate dwur stronghold within the Lortmils. The lortmils have several strongholds it is not such a unique name that a dwur clan elsewhere chose Irongate. The city of Irongate is merely the most famous or at least the one on the map.

    Personally I like the suggestion of JohnD; have the nosy players run home find their maps and dig up info on the city of irongate which they should not have travel all that way as they chat about their audience with Cobb Darg. When they arrive and proudly florish the medallion have the dwarves ignore them or better yet treat them as a laughing stock.

    A dwur guard calls out - Hey bortoli come here these "heroes" traveled here with this (medallion) to see the mayor - Both dwur collapse in belly laughs and the other dwur guards rush over to see what has so affect there normally taciturn comrades.

    Centuries later the tavern erupts in encouragement as an dwur elder tells a tale when as a humble gate guard a group of human heroes arrived with a medallion...

    It is a very popular tale among the dwur clans of the city and to this day a bored gate guard will ask an odd inquiry of human adventurers...

    Have a medallion?

    The inquiry never fails to produce a smirk among his fellow dwur gate guards and a grimace among the humans.
    Grandmaster Greytalker

    Joined: Nov 23, 2004
    Posts: 1212


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    Mon Mar 01, 2010 12:26 pm  

    The module is probably messed up. It happens. Make the best out of it. A dwarf might want to go south to get to a river, then to port a port, to cross the sea to get to Irongate to the east. But, the Lortmil Mts. have not been fully mapped, and so there would be another Irongate there too. The name is not that unique. But it then they should be traveling north or west to head back into the mts.
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    Plar of Poofy Pants
    Apprentice Greytalker

    Joined: Feb 27, 2005
    Posts: 59
    From: Winnipeg Canada

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    Wed Mar 03, 2010 8:59 am  

    The great thing about DMing is that you don't need to know everything... you just need to look like you do infront of your players.

    Assuming you are dealing with mature, intelligent people (I know... I know...), they will expect that their PCs don't have the full background/story.

    A lot of what you decide and do can flow naturally from the decisions they make, and what you hear them discussing.

    Makes for a very fluid and interesting campaign if you take this approach.
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