Just finished Swllswords as first time DM

[SteveC]

This was my first "real" taste of playing a fantasy adventure, having played various board games with our group. Two of the players have a lot of experience while I being new, as well as two other first time players made things interesting. I was selected to DM as I can be truly ruthless, yet hold back just enough, to keep from wiping out the entire party!

Anyway, it was great introduction for me, as I was new to role play and running the game. I was given Sellswords and the Tarnished Jewel to prepare. The players really enjoyed it , and loved the surprises! The Scion of Nirmuth was great, as they had no idea what to think!

My plan is to inter mix the Punjar Crawls in with the Scales of War series, and I'm sort of making my "custom-world" using the Forgotten Realms map. I keep editing that map, and inserting the locations as needed. My players have seemed to adopt Punjar as their "home base", at least for now.

I embellished with a few characters mentioned in "Tarnished Jewel" and a few other made up characters. Having "accidentally killed" one of the player characters, I created a side mission into the Temple District with skill challenges and small final encounter to rescue a Cleric's son in order for him restore the dead character's life if they were successful.

Punjar seems to be a truly interesting place, and it looks like I'll soon be purchasing the other Punjar related crawls very soon.

I must also say, the pull out map was great help, as were the roof tiles! The little extras really made it cool. The vertical drawings mentioned in another thread, would have been helpful, as I was put on the spot several times, luckliy, I was usually close. Great job on this one!

I created a website with a wiki for the players to reference various things. One player journals both of his character's progress in the blogs section. One last thing comment / suggestion, as I have also enjoyed putting the website together, it would be cool, if some of the art was available for download to include in player websites and such.

Feel free to check it out. http://www.freewebs.com/gameknightsadventure/

Thanks again!

[Harley Stroh]

Steve,

Thanks for playing Sellswords. I'm glad it was a good game for you. I love your campaign world; it sounds like you are taking the best of what 4E has to offer and making it your own.

I stopped by your website. Your run down of the adventure was *awesome*. I also saw the Gen Con countdown. If you get a chance, see if you can sign up for some of our games at Gen Con and stop by our booth when you're in the dealer hall. It would be great to put a face to the name.

Thanks again,
//H

[Treebore]

That is a nicely done website for your game group.

[artOwar]

As a player in this game I can say it's truly a pleasure to see the "lights come on" for a new roleplayer. I've had a love affair with D&D since I was in middle school in the early 80's when D&D was all the rage. I played for many years but had not had the pleasure since the late 80's though I own most of the books from most editions. I've attempted to interest my friends in playing but it can be difficult when most of your would be players are board gamers and have no experience with this type of game. Last year at Gencon I bought our first Punjar mission (the one we just finished) and gave it as a gift to my friend SteveC. It took a number of months but we finally recruited a number of players and gave it a try. After a number of sessions I believe that all the players finally started to "get it". I attribute this to an exciting adventure and the fact that this type of game has something for everyone if they are allowed to explore it fully. SteveC loves to plan and control, some love to play at combat and tactics, I like a mix of combat and character development, and some just love to level up. SteveC has truly done a fantastic job of setting up our website and taking the time to keep it updated though he has limited time to do so. I even get to blog my characters journals. It's been great so far. Thanks SteveC and all my crew for letting me remember and relive one of my favorite pastimes from my younger days and here's to Punjar and Goodman Games for being the catalyst for my adventures.

[Harley Stroh]

That's an awesome post, artOwar. Thank you and congrats on forming a gaming group. Here's hoping to many adventures in the months to come.

//H