At the beginning (No I’m not telling you the good part first you have to read the whole thing, or get someone else to read it then ask them) the group took a bit to get together, it was a long week, and I think as a whole we just needed to chat for a while. I got there late because of adulting and just added myself to the conversation, although I was antsy to get started because I wanted to end the story arc and move on to something new. When we finally got started I had them all on the storage level and I asked if there was anything anyone wanted that might be here. It’s a big vast level of the *cough* dungeon *cough* underground base.
(Tangent! I know that this dungeon was not very complicated and I did wing it a bit more than I probably should, but to be honest the group has only been playing together on this campaign for about what 3 months. I think I want things to be less complicated for them to start out and give them the look and feel of “We got this.” As a Game Master you should build up to the complicated stuff, that way there is room for building. If you have them solve the most complicated thing you can think of at the beginning then where do you go? I should also point out, because this came up, that you don’t always have to follow the rules to the letter. When it comes to certain aspects of the rules be flexible…let me say that again BE FLEXIBLE! What I mean by this is that you don’t have to do encounters every 15 feet and you don’t have to make the group roll every single time they do the same task over and over again. The dice rolling is supposed to add to the thrill and fun of the game, not make it boring (e.g. because Beau had to take aim and shoot every zombie in the head as she went down the line of zombies. Yeah make her do some of the rolls, or do a roll to see if there is something special about some of the zombies, but if there are 20 zombies in cages you don’t need to have the player do a roll for every, single, shot, that is taken. It’s BORING! Make it fun, use the rules as a guideline. Stick to the rules that you are going to use, and it’s easier to remember or look up the ones already in the book. If you change something, then write it down, and stick to it.)
So the group having already beaten one of my bosses in the dungeon/facility, I had them check the other floors and then they went to the floor with all the cages on it. On this floor I had to worry about which way my group went. I was trying to make the final big bad monster be at the end so if they went to the right I was going to have it on the left, if they went left I was going to have it on the right. They opened the first door getting of the elevator with Plug and Play. Tom, the person with the gift, decided to then open the second door just inside the first one while the rest of the group went to the right. Tom decided to stay behind. After that the group went into the next section of the floor, that was laid out like the other floors, and saw cages with various types of zombies in them. Well, Beau the Ragabash decided to just shoot them all in the head. I did not make the player roll on each one as she was using a glock with 4 shots per action and was taking the time to aim. Then the Ahroun decided to use a flamethrower to burn the bodies. I had them do this for all but one of the mobs on this side of the building. The last mob I had was much tougher and could speak. Despite that[1] , the pack actually took him out even though one of the PCs wanted to talk to him some more.
Then I had them find a garage with a Humvee in it that they all could fit into, the group decided that they would come back to it and make sure to use it to get out of the base. At this point I had them make their way around to the other side of the floor. On this side I had them kill more zombies, but this time had them be aware that these zombies were of some were-creatures, sad but true, the Wyrm had taken them over. They got to the hallway for the boss monster. I had them go down the hallway and the Ahroun was going to open the door to the boss’s room. I told them there was an electronic lock as well as a physical lock on the door. At this point I gave them an out, now I know that there are some hard core people that will say I gave them an easy way out, and that I should have just made them fight the boss. I probably should have, but I wanted them to have the option. I was keeping it not too gory and there was a chance I was feeling generous. I know I talk about having a mean streak, but I try my best to keep it under control.
Anyway, I had them go into a control room and they looked around while Beau the Ragabash found a row of buttons. One said Release, one said Experiment, and one said Do Not Push. I know my players, there are some that will think, “Omg, this is bad, don’t push it, we are all going to die,” and there are others that will think, “Ok, I like the chaos, I have to push this button now.” The conversation went sort of like, “Well should we push the button to destroy the monster because obviously it is there to kill the monster? Do we know that it will only kill that monster and not all of us too?” At this point one of my PCs that shall remain anonymous but whose name rhymes with row and happens to be a Ragabash decides to push the Do Not Push button. I must say that this character’s actions may have appeared to cause some disgruntlement among some of the players. They were all worried about whether he had killed them all or not. I had to ask Tom, the character that stayed behind, whether they were inside the floor or outside by the elevator (You know I could be an ass, stop right there and not tell you what happened, like a serial novella or comic, but I won’t). Tom’s player said that he would be outside next to the elevator. So instead of having the whole group die, which would have been amusing to me, but reading the group I felt they were a little attached to their characters. Making time to get them to create new characters would have been a bit much between sessions, and I am at a point where I just don’t have a lot of prep time, so I decided to have the room that the group was in and the entrance area where Tom was standing be outside the elimination zone. Yes, I took the easy way out. To the group I promise I will do better with the next dungeon. I’m pretty sure the group is getting into their characters and enjoying the game. I could be delusional, but I think not. They took the Humvee that was parked on this floor, grabbed the gear and sold some of it. Then they went back to where their van was parked and being fixed. Thus ended the session.