Dwimmermount After Action Report

Last night was my second foray into the world of gaming via Google+ and it went very well indeed. My players this week consisted of Jason Azze, Ryan Browning (who filled in for someone who couldn't show), Robert Conley, and Michael Curtis (who also filled in at the last minute for someone who couldn't show). As you might have guessed from my parentheticals, the roster for the 3-hour session didn't finalize until close to start time, as several people I'd tapped to play had something pop up that prevented their participation. I blame myself for this; I didn't plan very well in advance and that likely contributed to the chaos. For future sessions, I'll try to do a better job of assembling players and alternates several days beforehand.

I had a lot of fun last night, both because I didn't feel as ill at ease with using video chat for gaming as I did the previous week and because I had a really great group of players. Jason played a fighting man named Martin, Ryan played an elf named Felren, Rob was a magic-used called Argyll, and Michael was another fighter named Rake. Once again: no clerics! Because Ryan had played the previous week and because his new character was an elf, I made the assumption that he was an associate of Locfir the Astrologer, Tavis's character from the week before. That assumption gave Ryan the excuse to use any information he recalled from the previous week in last night's session. As it turned out, it didn't matter all that much, since this group went in a different direction, exploring rooms the other party did not.

One thing I really have to give the crew last night was how thorough and cautious they were. They reminded me quite a bit of my home players. They used every trick in the old school playbook -- 10' poles, iron spikes, etc. -- to avoid falling prey to traps and other hazards. As a result, none of them died, which is fairly impressive for 1st-level PCs who spent three hours in Dwimmermount. Of course, as I mentioned before, the first level is filled with lots of empty rooms and oddities, so careful players can avoid many dangers. It also helps that the bulk of the monsters on the level aren't clustered around the early chambers, so you have to delve pretty deep into it before you encounter them. Neither group I've played with on Google+ has yet done that.

Last week, Zak suggested we make use of an online whiteboard called Twiddla to handle mapping. This worked quite well night, as you can see from this screenshot:

Among the highlights of last night's session were:

• A battle with some orcs
• The discovery of the Gallery of Masks
• Hiding from some spiders wandering on the ceiling of a nearby corridor
• Fighting some eldritch bones in a chapel dedicated to Mavors (a similar scene is depicted by Jeff Dee on the Kickstarter page)
• Exploration of the Hall of Memories
• Finding stairs down to Level 2
• And, of course, looting a secret treasury

I had a great deal of fun. It's not quite the same thing as playing face to face, but it's not far off. There are also two other benefits I noticed. First, I have a much larger pool of people with whom to play. Distance is not an impediment. Second, because you have to be sitting at your computer to stay engaged, there's little temptation to get up and wander away, distracted by something you see in the other room. As a result, we got in a very solid three hours worth of play, with very little downtime. That's not to say there weren't occasional, brief, friendly digressions -- I'm not a proponent of 110% deadly serious gaming -- but last night further proved to me that Google+ is a very viable platform for tabletop gaming. I look forward to future sessions with great anticipation and have a feeling that, even after the Kickstarter has ended, I'll continue to use it as a way to play with people with whom I wouldn't otherwise get the chance.