Last night I ran my wife through a small adventure
using Swords & Wizardry. I had her
roll two characters. Her first character
was named Diana Prince, the other Jaime Sommers. Wonder Woman, I meant Diana was a magic-user
and the Bionic Woman, err, Jaime was a fighter.
After a several minute distraction of who would win in an arm wrestling
contest (Of course Jaime would be using her bionic arm) we got into the
game.
Well almost.
It took a bit of verbal acrobatics to explain the magic system. Being flooded with visions of Harry Potter,
Gandulf and a handful of TV mages whipping out spells left and right it was
tough to tell her she got one spell to start with. That didn't go over to well. Then to top it off I had to tell her she
couldn't wear armor. I explained this is
why I had her roll up a fighter character.
After buying armor, weapons and equipment we
started into the adventure. Since she
was playing two elven females I made Amazonian type village on the fly. The adventure started with one of the other
female villagers running from a rabid wolf.
Jaime ran out of her home and launched a spear at the wolf killing it
easily. What she didn't expect was the
wolf transformed into a goblin.
Diana recognized the ritual markings on the
goblin, a member of the Black Foot tribe, a tribe that they had a treaty with
for several years. The leader of the
village asked Jaime and Diana to go to the tribe and see what has
happened. The trip would take the better
part of the day. Ivy decided to leave
now and arrive at the goblins just before nightfall.
As she travelled through the forest a group of three
goblin zombies came out of the trees. Her
initially volley, spear and two darts missed.
One dart did damage to one of the zombies. Two of the goblin zombies engaged with Jaime
and one hit (she had an AC of 18) and did maximum damage. Second round, Jaime hit with her axe killing
the wounded zombie. At this time there
was some discussion why her sleep spell wouldn't work against these
undead. She argued she was only allowed
one spell and now her spell was no good.
When the zombies attacked they rolled very well and putting both Jaime
and Diana down for the count.
Our after game discussion about what happened was
good. She enjoyed herself. I am still getting her used to what dice are
what, the general mechanics of the game and how to play the game. Next time I will have her roll up two more
characters, a cleric and a thief so she has a full party. She already has their names picked out, Kelly
Garrett and Nancy Drew.
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Ahhh, the joys of introducing a neophyte to gaming.
ReplyDeleteFortunately, my wife was a Rifts(!) veteran, so her training wheels were already off, so to speak. :)
Neat story. I like your adventure idea, so far. I can definitely see how people not used to games would not be happy with first level characters. Maybe give them a level bump to 3 or so, so they are more what she is expecting.
ReplyDelete"Being flooded with visions of Harry Potter, Gandulf and a handful of TV mages whipping out spells left and right it was tough to tell her she got one spell to start with. That didn't go over to well."
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh! My sons have that same issue with D&D. I want to find an easy-to-play system that emulates Potter style magic so that they can get their Hogwarts on.
Knowing the Happy Whisk, I'm betting that you had some yummy snacks to go with your game.
She should have proposed an arm-wrestling contest, then ripped the arms off of the zombies. Problem solved!
ReplyDeleteI will have to try that next time.
ReplyDeleteReally a nice post, Tim. My girlfriend used to play some years ago, I hope I can bring her back.
ReplyDeleteSee, none of that 1 spell BS in Errant. :)
ReplyDeleteI was pretty surprised recently when I told my wife that I was thinking about playing online tabletop. She wants to play! She said that playing it online would remove the social pressure she feels at the table to talk in funny voices and compete with others for speaking time.