So yeah, episode 1 was just amazing. The sheer holy shit reaction from the players when the dragon attacked was just too good.

room topic changed to HotDQ discussion (warning spoilers!): Horde of the Dragon Queen discussion [dnd-5e] [hot-dairy-queen]

@Miniman hehe love showing a CR 16 dragon at L1

@waxeagle Yeah, it was pretty hilarious when they were like...

So are the NPC defenders basically our HP right now?

yeah, pretty much, give or take 2-3

When/if you run it, if you do the mill or the church missions can you let me know how it goes? I skipped those ones.

@Miniman will do

I'm really looking forward to running episode 4. It reads like an oregon trail minigame

and the final episode, OMG

@waxeagle I know right, just amazing. When I saw the sidebar 'Wyvern Riding and Castle Catching' I was like...this should be a movie.

@waxeagle That one sounds really cool, but as a first-time GM it's a bit daunting.

@Miniman running this will be by far my most ambitious attempt at GMing. I mostly run one-offs

@waxeagle I definitely wouldn't try GM-ing without a published adventure. I think my head would explode.

I've yet to run anything without one. One of these days I'm going to write something myself. probably something simpleish (Dread scenario maybe)

our regular GM has mostly run published stuff, though he's run two adventures he's written himself.

@waxeagle I'd be tempted to write a straight dungeon crawl. I think I could about manage that. With the assistance of my RPG-ing degree-in-creative-writing sister, I could probably come up with a decent campaign, but the details would kill me.

@Miniman yeah, if I ever write a campaign, I'm cowriting it with my wife who is way more in tune with the story aspects

so are you running the combats tactical, TotM or something in between?

@waxeagle I've kept it on a grid, but I haven't been too strict about it. It's mostly so we can have moments like the wizard killing 12 kobolds with a single Burning Hands.

I started rolling Reflex saves, and then one of the other guys was like - half damage is still a guaranteed kill.

lol nice :)

@waxeagle Yeah, the damage on that spell is pretty intense for a level 1.

That was one of 2 combat encounters in the whole of Episode 2. I actually found it a bit disappointing compared to Episode 1.

@Miniman lots of social stuff in ep 2 right?

@waxeagle Yep, almost 100%. They handled it really well, and ticked almost all of the XP-granting boxes listed at the end of the episode, it just felt a little flat.

@Miniman that actually makes sense. Those are the scenes I have a lot of trouble as a relatively new DM making pop. Combat is easier as it's already dynamic, social/skill areas are harder

oh, did your PCs fight in the duel or did they send the guard dude?

@waxeagle They fought the duel. They were a bit surprised when Cyanwrath attacked 4 times in 1 round though.