Ding! Full table. That's a wonderful thing to say. And I'm very happy with both the players and the party composition. They chose these characters without asking that dreaded question - "What hole needs to be filled?" I dislike that. I much rather they play the characters they want than one they feel they have to play.
So we have:
Sun elf wizard/fighter
Human ranger
Shield(?) dwarf fighter
Strongheart halfling rogue
Half sun elf cleric
We did end up with the classic party composition and since there's five players we got a ranger, which is atypical but can be darn useful.
To my personal regret the cleric chose a LG deity. Some day I'd like to see them choose one that lets the player decide if they WANT to heal someone rather than feel that they're obligated to do so. To me that's a failure in how people have been pressured to play clerics. They're the first aid kit of the party. To have them decide not to heal would be a departure from the norm. But that's just me.
We were supposed to play the first game today. I had to cancel. The day after Session 0.a I went into the hospital unexpectedly and then have been dealing with that ever since. I'm not able to give them a good game, much less a good starting game. And then I found out one of the players couldn't make the next game either.
This time of year is difficult to get a group together. Holidays make scheduling complex. Some of us don't have many or any obligations. Others have obligations all over the place. I'll still try for the 'every two weeks' and see what happens. I was really hoping that since the second actual gaming session didn't happen the Saturday after Thanksgiving we'd get to play but alas, we don't. I offered up the dungeon crawl or board games if people do want to get together anyway. We'll see but I don't think they'll do it.
Another problem is location. The bar where we use the event room is dependent on them not having other events that day. Since those people pay for the time we lose out and that's fine. We have a secondary location which can also be unavailable because of events. So the location is always up in the air. I might have to suck it up, clean my place, and offer it. Space is a bit tight but I've done it before. And this way we have a regular location. It's about four miles from the original one which doesn't seem like a lot but I think one person mostly rides a bicycle. I'll ask. But first I'll clean.
I've been thinking about where and how to start the game. I think I'm going to have them start away from the ever popular Sword Coast since there's a lot of locations and it will be interesting to have them in ones that aren't so well known. My plan is to have them all be in the city because the caravans they were accompanying ended up there. That gives them a reason to be looking for work and a reason for the experience they have. They're only second level at this point.
I did take an idea from Twitter and asked them to make backup characters. I'm going to take those sheets and make their nemesis party. It's kind of mean but also I like having that happen. It will be interesting (to me) to see what they create and how I can use them to enrich the story. It's all well and good that they have their encounters. I wonder how long it will take for them to realize what I've done.
A bit of GM mechanics here. I needed to give them starting gold. I let them equip themselves (within reason) at no cost. To me they already bought all that stuff so there's no point in making them 'buy' it again. But the characters should have accumulated treasure appropriate to their level. The book says that should be about 2,000gp. I went low. I had a base of 1,000gp and rolled a d8 to see what their total treasure would be. That way it's not an 'across the board' amount. It's still plenty of money.
When someone started to complain I reminded them that the amount was more than most of the people they encounter in the game would ever have in their lives. That got them thinking and stopped complaining. Of course it's not a pile of gold pieces. I let them decide what format the amount would take. I'm not fussy about that one but it reminds me I need to give them access to a gem chart so they have an idea of what gems are common, what ones are rare, etc.
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