Last night we had a great second session in Chapter 1 of the Storm King's Thunder campaign. The characters had secured Nightstone, thwarting off the Zhentarim. After a long rest, the morning was welcomed with the paniced war cry of the Orc band retreating from the Elven threat and storming the palisade wall. Although the drawbridge had been raised, the orcs are finding their way through the broken post a stones throw south of the draw bridge. Some well placed fire had created a choke point for better Orc management, but it's clear that the party is not going to stand up to the threat.
The hour was getting late and we had to close the session mid battle. I'm happy letting the Orcs stomp the characters knowing there's Elven reprieve, and honestly this group isn't used to party death so I plan on letting them have it until close to death and bringing in support. However, I don't really want to burn another session closing out this battle that will end with Character victory. We use slack for offline discussions, downtime activity, and character leveling. Does anyone have any creative ideas for resolving the rest of the battle over slack?
Taking it to narrative is pretty straightforward. Take the time and recount the battle thus far in narrative form so that the players can see how the table-top aspects translate to story form then move the story forward with some more narrative (perhaps the elves' arrival). Then ask the players what their character will be doing and have each respond in their initiative order so that each person adds to the narrative, keeping in mind in story-mode the action can (and should) be written in simultaneous fashion. Roll some arbitrary d% rolls to see the degree of success in their actions and build upon it until the battle is resolved and near-death situations are mitigated. Avoid table-top mechanics as much as possible in this medium so they understand that the story progressing is more critical than the metagame means that it did.
People that really added to the story this way, award them Inspiration at the beginning of the next tabletop session.
Last night we had a great second session in Chapter 1 of the Storm King's Thunder campaign. The characters had secured Nightstone, thwarting off the Zhentarim. After a long rest, the morning was welcomed with the paniced war cry of the Orc band retreating from the Elven threat and storming the palisade wall. Although the drawbridge had been raised, the orcs are finding their way through the broken post a stones throw south of the draw bridge. Some well placed fire had created a choke point for better Orc management, but it's clear that the party is not going to stand up to the threat.
The hour was getting late and we had to close the session mid battle. I'm happy letting the Orcs stomp the characters knowing there's Elven reprieve, and honestly this group isn't used to party death so I plan on letting them have it until close to death and bringing in support. However, I don't really want to burn another session closing out this battle that will end with Character victory. We use slack for offline discussions, downtime activity, and character leveling. Does anyone have any creative ideas for resolving the rest of the battle over slack?
I would say don't. Since you guys had to quit I would have just had the elven reenforcement show up and quickly end the battle. (personally I hate stopping mid battle).
Next game session just start with the elves coming to help. I don't feel like much is going to be gained by trying to finish the battle in a chat type environment. Could even take until the next game session to get through combat unless you had a time everyone could be there.... But that begs the question if why not just run instead.
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Hello fellow DMs,
Last night we had a great second session in Chapter 1 of the Storm King's Thunder campaign. The characters had secured Nightstone, thwarting off the Zhentarim. After a long rest, the morning was welcomed with the paniced war cry of the Orc band retreating from the Elven threat and storming the palisade wall. Although the drawbridge had been raised, the orcs are finding their way through the broken post a stones throw south of the draw bridge. Some well placed fire had created a choke point for better Orc management, but it's clear that the party is not going to stand up to the threat.
The hour was getting late and we had to close the session mid battle. I'm happy letting the Orcs stomp the characters knowing there's Elven reprieve, and honestly this group isn't used to party death so I plan on letting them have it until close to death and bringing in support. However, I don't really want to burn another session closing out this battle that will end with Character victory. We use slack for offline discussions, downtime activity, and character leveling. Does anyone have any creative ideas for resolving the rest of the battle over slack?
Taking it to narrative is pretty straightforward. Take the time and recount the battle thus far in narrative form so that the players can see how the table-top aspects translate to story form then move the story forward with some more narrative (perhaps the elves' arrival). Then ask the players what their character will be doing and have each respond in their initiative order so that each person adds to the narrative, keeping in mind in story-mode the action can (and should) be written in simultaneous fashion. Roll some arbitrary d% rolls to see the degree of success in their actions and build upon it until the battle is resolved and near-death situations are mitigated. Avoid table-top mechanics as much as possible in this medium so they understand that the story progressing is more critical than the metagame means that it did.
People that really added to the story this way, award them Inspiration at the beginning of the next tabletop session.
We all leave footprints in the sands of time.