[Labyrinth Lord] Anna's Game - First Session

"Veeeelcome to my dungeon!"

Hey all,

Anna was a bit too shy to write her own game report so she gave me a quick and dirty report. I'll try to fill in the blanks based on some of the conversation we had about it on the way home. I have to say that I think she has gone beyond GMing 101 already has already started to GM on the fly, modifying monsters and creating treasures on the go as suits her adventure idea.

The three girls who are playing created a fighter, a magic-user and a thief. Anna had each of them write a one page background blurb explaining where they came from and who they are. The fighter, Full Moon, who's parents were killed by an ogre on the full moon and she has only a ribbon to remember them by. The rest of her memories are lost to amnesia. Anna approved a request for a special ability for the fighter who beserks if the ribbon is taken. The only person she will not attack is the thief, Kori, who is her only trusted friend.

Kori, was raised as a thief by her thief father without a mother. She was often in trouble as a child and even spent some time in a reform school of sorts, earning a nickname of "The Rat".

The magic-user is Rose who was born in the forest. Her mother died soon after her birth. She never new her father and was raised by woodland sprites. Rose had magical powers from birth.

The three characters have been friends since they were around 10-11 years old and have lived in the village of Monteruso together for years. The adventure began when the village was threatened by night time raids by a tribe of morlocks that had moved into some old abandoned mines in the hills. Taking an old map of the mines, the party decided to venture forth to try to save their home.

On the journey to the mines, the party was stalked by a cougar who failed to surprise the party. When the cougar attacked, Kori managed a spectacularly acrobatic manuever and thrust her dagger into the chest of the cat as it beared down on her. The party skinned the cougar and kept the pelt.

Anna decided to throw in a few accent creaturees on the way to make the party nervous, allowing them to see flights of bats flittering about. The bats drew the attention of a giant carnivorous fly that upon seeing party decided that they were a much more tempting prey. The fly attacked the party but failed to kill them. As the party was cleaning up the mess from the fly attack, the dead beast drew in another monster in the form of a giant ferret. The ferret lunged at Full Moon, trying to claim the kill, but the furious fighter was quick and managed to score a critial hit, taking the ferret's head off in one clean blow.

Once in the mines, the players used a prop map provided by Anna that depicted the known tunnels of the mines. Anna had her own GM's map with notes on monsters, traps and treasures laid out. Before the end of the session, the party had encountered their first morloacks, slaying both of them and finding a treasure chest that The Rat had to pick opn. Inside they found a dancing dagger (createdo n the fly by Anna) that would float and fight freely of its own.

I asked Anna how she did with handling the game and she said it went pretty well. She said she had to look up a few things like monster stats but she had read the combat system four times a few nights before and had it down pretty well. She had taken my advice to heart and tried to focus on fun and rulings instead of rules. In all the party suffered minimal damage (1/0/2 hp each).

She has informed me that the next session will bring the party in contact with the Morlock leader and his bodyguards. The Rat is hoping to get behind some of the bodyguards to backstab them. The party plans to let the dancing dagger loose on the rest of the morlocks while they remove Full Moon's ribbon and send her into a beserk rage again the morlock leader. Rose will remain in support wither her new favorite spell, Magic Missile.

What can I say but wow. For the first time out o the gates on her own and in the driver's seat I think she did really well. I gave her a little advice on her planned continuation of the game, talking her out of throwing 28HD worth of morlocks again a party of three first level characters, but that is really just about all the coaching I have given her except for the basics we discussed ahead of time.