What the player does during a session: Not everyone uses tokens or the grisd map. I usually don't most of my games are me talking then asking what do the players want to do? Over skype. I type a few notes if I want to remember something. Very casual. I use post-it notes attached to my PC screen over the players face in skype cam so I can keep track of hit points and such. I know that's not utilizing the API andf scripting, I could care less. this is how I generally do it. Other than that it's roleplaying: One player is DM. You listen to the referee as he describes what you can see , and sense. You tell the referee what you want to do. As the referee describes your surroundings, try to picture them mentally. Close your eyes and construct the walls of the place described around yourself. Imagine the hobgoblin as the referee describes it whooping and gamboling down the corridor toward you. Now imagine how you would react in that situation and tell the referee what you are going to do about it. That's it. Most people here use skype or a talk chat, some use cams, some rely only on text. The player's character is placed in the midst of an unknown or dangerous situation created by a referee and must work his way through it. The player adopts the role of a character and then guides that character through an adventure. The player makes decisions, interacts with other characters and players, and, essentially, "pretends" to be his character during the course of the game. Whenever the character is called on to do something or make a decision, the player pretends that he is in that situation and chooses an appropriate course of action. An adventure usually has a goal of some sort: protect the villagers from the monsters; rescue the lost princess; explore the ancient ruins. Typically, this goal can be attained in a reasonable playing time: four to eight hours is standard. This might require the players to get together for one, two, or even three playing sessions to reach their goal and complete the adventure. But the game doesn't end when an adventure is finished. The same characters can go on to new adventures. Such a series of adventures is called a campaign. The point of an adventure is not to win but to have fun while working toward a common goal. But the length of any particular adventure need not impose an artificial limit on the length of the game. The AD&D game embraces more than enough adventure to keep a group of characters occupied for years. From 2e Player's: This is typical of the sort of action that occurs during a playing session. Shortly before this example begins, three player characters fought a skirmish with a wererat (a creature similar to a werewolf but which becomes an enormous rat instead of a wolf). The wererat was wounded and fled down a tunnel. The characters are in pursuit. The group includes two fighters and a cleric. Fighter 1 is the group's leader. DM: You've been following this tunnel for about 120 yards. The water on the floor is ankle deep and very cold. Now and then you feel something brush against your foot. The smell of decay is getting stronger. The tunnel is gradually filling with a cold mist. Fighter 1: I don't like this at all. Can we see anything up ahead that looks like a doorway, or a branch in the tunnel? DM: Within the range of your torchlight, the tunnel is more or less straight. You don't see any branches or doorways. Cleric: The wererat we hit had to come this way. There's nowhere else to go. Fighter 1: Unless we missed a hidden door along the way. I hate this place; it gives me the creeps. Fighter 2: We have to track down that wererat. I say we keep going. Fighter 1: OK. We keep moving down the tunnel. But keep your eyes open for anything that might be a door. DM: Another 30 or 35 yards down the tunnel, you find a stone block on the floor. Fighter 1: A block? I take a closer look. DM: It's a cut block, about 12 by 16 inches, and 18 inches or so high. It looks like a different kind of rock than the rest of the tunnel. Fighter 2: Where is it? Is it in the center of the tunnel or off to the side? DM: It's right up against the side. Fighter 1: Can I move it? DM (checking the character's Strength score): Yeah, you can push it around without too much trouble. Fighter 1: Hmmm. This is obviously a marker of some sort. I want to check this area for secret doors. Spread out and examine the walls. DM (rolls several dice behind his rule book, where players can't see the results): Nobody finds anything unusual along the walls. Fighter 1: It has to be here somewhere. What about the ceiling? DM: You can't reach the ceiling. It's about a foot beyond your reach. Cleric: Of course! That block isn't a marker, it's a step. I climb up on the block and start prodding the ceiling. DM (rolling a few more dice): You poke around for 20 seconds or so, then suddenly part of the tunnel roof shifts. You've found a panel that lifts away. Fighter 1: Open it very carefully. Cleric: I pop it up a few inches and push it aside slowly. Can I see anything? DM: Your head is still below the level of the opening, but you see some dim light from one side. Fighter 1: We boost him up so he can get a better look. DM: OK, your friends boost you up into the room . . . Fighter 1: No, no! We boost him just high enough to get his head through the opening. DM: OK, you boost him up a foot. The two of you are each holding one of his legs. Cleric, you see another tunnel, pretty much like the one you were in, but it only goes off in one direction. Thee's a doorway about 10 yards away with a soft light inside. A line of muddy pawprints leads from the hole you're in to the doorway. Cleric: Fine. I want the fighters to go first. DM: As they're lowering you back to the block, everyone hears some grunts, splashing, and clanking weapons coming from further down the lower tunnel. They seem to be closing fast. Cleric: Up! Up! Push me back up through the hole! I grab the ledge and haul myself up. I'll help pull the next guy up. (All three characters scramble up through the hole.) DM: What about the panel? Fighter 1: We push it back into place. DM: It slides back into its slot with a nice, loud "clunk." The grunting from below gets a lot louder. Fighter 1: Great, they heard it. Cleric, get over here and stand on this panel. We're going to check out that doorway. DM: Cleric, you hear some shouting and shuffling around below you, then there's a thump and the panel you're standing on lurches. Cleric: They're trying to batter it open! DM (to the fighters): When you peer around the doorway, you see a small, dirty room with a small cot, a table, and a couple of stools. On the cot is a wererat curled up into a ball. Its back is toward you. There's another door in the far wall and a small gong in the corner. Fighter 1: Is the wererat moving? DM: Not a bit. Cleric, the panel just thumped again. You can see a little crack in it now. Cleric: Do something quick, you guys. When this panel starts coming apart, I'm getting off it. Fighter 1: OK already! I step into the room and prod the wererat with my shield. What happens? DM: Nothing. You see blood on the cot. Fighter 1: Is this the same wererat we fought before? DM: Who knows? All wererats look the same to you. Cleric, the panel thumps again. That crack is looking really big. Cleric: That's it. I get off the panel, I'm moving into the room with everybody else. DM: There's a tremendous smash and you hear chunks of rock banging around out in the corridor, followed by lots of snarling and squeaking. You see flashes of torchlight and wererat shadows through the doorway. Fighter 1: All right, the other fighter and I move up to block the doorway. That's the narrowest area, they can only come through it one or two at a time. Cleric, you stay in the room and be ready with your spells. Fighter 2: At last, a decent, stand-up fight! DM: As the first wererat appears in the doorway with a spear in his paws, you hear a slam behind you. Cleric: I spin around. What is it? DM: The door in the back of the room is broken off its hinges. Standing in the doorway, holding a mace in each paw, is the biggest, ugliest wererat you've ever seen. A couple more pairs of red eyes are shining through the darkness behind him. He's licking his chops in a way that you find very unsettling. Cleric: Aaaaarrrgh! I scream the name of my deity at the top of my lungs and then flip over the cot with the dead wererat on it so the body lands in front of him. I've got to have some help here, guys. Fighter 1 (to fighter 2): Help him, I'll handle this end of the room. (To DM:) I'm attacking the wererat in the first doorway. DM: While fighter 2 is switching positions, the big wererat looks at the body on the floor and his jaw drops. He looks back up and says, "That's Ignatz. He was my brother. You killed my brother." Then he raises both maces and leaps at you. At this point a ferocious melee breaks out. The DM uses the combat rules to play out the battle. If the characters survive, they can continue on whatever course they choose. ********************************************8888 That's the same here. if you are seeking a game with tokens and all of that, I'm not running those. Good luck with your band. I started a garage band in 1984 and we sucked, doing speed metal. We all then said hell with it, and joined the military. Now I'm retired and glad I did not go down that road, I found out over 30 years, i got no talent for Music. But I am okay as a DM so here I am.
