Barbigazl: Part Five Notes

DM’s Notes and Final Thoughts. [by Peter A. This is it, folks!]

Barbigazl didn’t end the way I’d hoped, with something of a cliffhanger on an encounter that was definitely planned from the beginning, somewhat signposted, and was designed to test the loyalty of the party to an NPC leader whose own authority had taken a huge knock. Perhaps it’s best this didn’t happen, although by accounts talking to the players later, it’s likely the party would have stuck with Hurin. Would they and could they have beaten back the Dwarves of Nikulburg, or would diplomacy have had to see them through? I can’t say, although the conclusion written yesterday provides my casualty-free compromise.

The game ended pretty much where it could, at the end of a very busy night and one player down (this being Paul, although Jamas had joined us by that stage of course). The party had treasure, they’d faced some interesting challenges, and pretty much everyone had had their chance to shine. As games go it could have been worse. It also didn’t appear from my side of the DM’s shield to be too railroaded – there was definite objective which was adhered to, the Halls were found, and even ‘a’ forge, but there’s no escaping the feeling that had that last battle been fought or negotiated in game time it would have been much better.

Certainly there was literally no more game to play, although the very tip of the iceberg that was Barbigazl had been explored – but I'd written no more! And to be honest, with us all twenty years older and with jobs and daytime commitments, that was pretty much all we were going to be able to spare time-wise. So there it is.

As for thoughts I took away from DMing the game, there are a few. It’s not rocket science, but they still stand up years on from when we first played:

1. Have a timeframe organized for real time and adventure time

This was obviously more pertinent in the game recently than before. Paul’s commitment was for two nights, and we could really do no more than three, so a normal-sized game would have to be divided evenly.

2. Find out where your story ‘nodes’ are

Continuing from the first point, give the story suitable ‘chapters’ where certain goals can be reached and rewards encountered. I think we did that by splitting it between the climb up the mountain, the Gnome encounter (more of a cliffhanger of course) and the eventual battle in the treasury (although the vampire fight in the library was more dramatic, but probably for the wrong reasons). If the game has to end there, then it’s not that bad. It was interesting to find out part of the way through an encounter that what was about to be played through was probably going to just be a distraction and not a reward or a plot point. The Ice Mummies fizzled out, and the werewolves were totally unnecessary.

3. Don’t Overcomplicate the Backstory

I guess I did this, with a potted Dwarven history and the mystery of what happened to Barbigazl, and then of course the introduction of the Gnome subplot. Of course solving the mystery was a big part of the story – in hindsight it may have been better to just give the guys the dungeon-crawl they were no doubt expecting. I also broke a few cardinal rules with similar names – Hurin/Hrothgar/Harga. And then there were the red herrings – namely the story of the dragon, Flast (of course there was going to be one. I just hadn’t figured out where to put it!), and the mysterious Farer Nohan whom Lotus was looking for. These can all ‘seed’ further stories, and who knows- maybe they will. But in this case it may just have been too much all at once.

4. Don’t overpopulate the party!

Enough said! Again, it was intended that the party be outnumbered, but I could have managed it better combat-wise. And giving the players NPCs to look after actually slowed things down more.

5. Let everyone get a piece of the action.

This I think I did manage to do, which is all the more remarkable given that we were playtesting two new character classes. The bard proved to be an effective spell caster if not a great fighter (having only a 1d6 hit dice). Jamas and I tinkered with him a little more before the follow-up story ‘The Temple of Death’. By then he was working really well and was occupying a good niche in the party as knowledge-gatherer and exposition dump for the DM. It started here though! Morf had less opportunity to prove himself as a partial replacement for the thief Thaddeus, but given another game this might yet come to pass. He was certainly a fun character to create, and I think story-wise he’s got the farthest to go of all the party. Hopefully we can find out where that might lead in the not too distant future.

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