9/100 - D and D Prep

I am running a D and D campaign, "Princes of the Apocalypse". We have two sessions left before I move to Lawrence. I spent my creative time working out some of the details from the last two sessions.

I have learned a lot GM-ing this campaign. First, we have 7 players, and learning to adjust to a group that big has been interesting.  I have had to make rooms bigger, monsters meaner and more numerous. I also instituted a card system for initiative. Basically, each player in the party is given a card with their name on it. At the start of the encounter everyone rolls initiative as normal, but instead of keeping track of each person separately, the party has a certain number of turns between the monsters. Each player still only has one turn per round, it just doesn't matter what order they go in. When a player takes their turn, they hand in their card. At the end of the round, I return all the cards.

This has done two things. First, combat is much faster as the players are more engaged in what each other is doing. Second, they coordinate their attacks better, allowing those with AOE spells go first, before the melee fighters get in there and muck up the works for the spellcasters.

I wish I had more time to keep playing with this group. We aren't going to finish all of the content. It has become a dungeon crawl in order to get to a satisfying stopping place.

I have also learned that I don't need to follow the maps EXACTLY as they are in the books. Drawing is not my jam, and I tend to find the drawing of the maps for play out tedious. Once I let go of being exact, I enjoyed the map making process a lot more.

It has been fun.