Some Thoughts on the First Trelleborg Session of 2015

As mentioned previously, I recently ran the first session of 2015 of my ongoing social game campaign, The Trelleborg Campaign. I posted a brief recap of the session over on the campaign blog today.

It was enjoyable, but there are, as always, areas of improvement.

Primarily, i think i could have done  a better job of making the fight seem more epic and the evil more malevolent.

During the game, I did for a second, start to regret the use of the d30 rule a bit when one player used it to deal a massive pile of damage to the salamander. On the one hand, that is the point - a moment of tremendous luck/grace of the gods. At the same time, it's one of many times when the d30 has taken the sting out of an otherwise challenging encounter and I think it actually lessens the threat of danger the players feel.

It was the 2nd time we've played at one of the players' houses, and it seems so far that, compared with the games played at the FLGS, socializing takes a greater priority. I don't dislike it - i rather like getting to know the people in the group outside of what character they play in the game and what their play style is - but at the same time, I am there primarily to play (and have spent hours prepping to do so) and would rather minimize socializing during the game, and do it before and after, and during intermissions. 

Not sure how, or if, I will address this, as two data points is hardly enough to base action on. Ideally, I would create a similar situation as described in How to Run, where players have ample time to unwind and hang out before the game begins.  

Alas, we don't have that flexibility at the moment.

As for next session, i took a quick poll about what they planned next, and the consensus seems to be that they will go and attempt to finish off the white apes (and pick up Snow Ball along the way) who are a thorn in the side of the Nezumi (rat people) on level 3 west. That part of the complex is already mapped and pretty much ready to go, so i will focus on improving my descriptions of atmosphere and tone before then.