12th Birthday Dungeons and Dragons Party

Today, my grandson Matt turns 12.  Last night, he had a birthday sleepover with four of his friends and I was invited (by him) to run a Dungeons and Dragons Adventure as the main event at his party.

Needless to say, I was honored, excited and pleased.  :)

Matt has played Savage Worlds, Swords and Wizardry Whitebox and Warhammer 40k.  His friends had never played anything like D&D except on computers.  They all play a lot of Minecraft.

We started at 5:30.  Several of the boys explained to me that they didn't know if they were going to like it, but they all sat down at the table and listened intently as I explained the basics of the game.

I greatly simplified the game (you'll see that shortly) and in an effort to make all the characters unique and interesting, I used a simple "Encounter Power" mechanic that was random.  So, there was a lot about this game that was "Old School" -- player skill not character skill -- but there were some modern elements too.  It was a successful mix that I will detail further in the near future.

The bottom line is that the party ended in a TPK at 11:30pm! (after an amazing and glorious battle) and the boys exclaimed "how exciting!" "this is so cool!" "this was a lot of fun!" "I want to do this again!"

The adventure was a total success!!  I am so proud of these young men for embracing the adventure and really exploring the dungeon, figuring out the traps and NEVER shying away from the use of the 10' pole.  Seriously.  I think they enjoyed that part too!

Here are some pics of the map towards the end of the adventure --

The Scrabble chips were simple farmers who signed on for the adventure to help the heroes.  The group was tasked with rescuing the Mayor's daughter and another farmer who was captured by an evil wizard and his dragon.

Here's a link to the adventure, the blank character sheet (front/back) and the treasure cards.  More info later -- I'm off to the family birthday party!  Happy 12th Birthday Matt!  I love you!