D&D Encounters Session 1

This week I played in the first session of the new D&D Encounters season at my new FLGS, Big Larry's in Leonardtown, MD. We were supposed to start last week, but it was the night before Thanksgiving; kind of poor planning on WotC's part. We had a full group of 6 players, and the store is a great setting to game in. It is a game and comic book store, and a burger/ice cream place. I think that is a great idea.

This was not my first time playing 4e, but it is my first time in a long time. I ran Keep on the Shadowfell when it first came out, and I also ran a campaign through most of heroic tier in the first year of 4e. The only time I have played it since was at the 2010 GenCon Open, the Podgecast guys and I got destroyed in the first encounter. I enjoyed 4e, but had no real desire to run it long term. I looked forward to being a player for one encounter a week though.

There are plenty of recaps out there of session one, so if you want the plot just look around a bit; it is basically Romeo and Juliet. Or maybe it is West Side Story, perhaps there will be dance-fighting and a lot of snapping later on.

The encounter itself is the usual RPG introductory encounter against "goblins". In this case the goblins wee some kind of blue fae. I had a good time, mostly because the group is full of nice guys, but the main weakness of the system was apparent even in the first session. It took two hours to kill a handful of first level monsters. The time between your turns is way too long. If you are with a group of funny guys, this isn't really a problem, but there is really no reason for it to be like this.

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