Stepping up to DM again

I have been thinking about running a few sessions of 4th edition D&D for the guys while we wait for Wizards of the Coast to get their act together and release the online gaming table. While I’ve been thinking of what adventure to run, I’ve also been reminiscing about previous D&D games.

One game in particular keeps coming to mind. It was a third edition game and I was running an old second edition Forgotten Realms module, Storm Riders. In the beginning of this module the PCs are suppose to flee from a horde of barbarians (think Mongols) and then meet a woman that serves as the adventure hook for the whole module. First I almost had to kill the party to get them to run away from the 100,000 barbarians (we can take them was actually said at one point). Then when the mystery woman saved the party by forming a bridge made of smoke over a chasm the group’s barbarian almost killed her (I hit her in the head with my sword). The bridge then disappeared with one of the PCs still on it (some lucky rolls saved him from certain death). This introduction went so badly that I should have known that this game was just not going end well. The next three hours were spent role-playing through many diplomatic encounters until will finally reached the next combat encounter. This series of combat encounters took place in a monster infested monastery. Unfortunately the party’s lawful good monk noticed that the thief kept stealing from the monastery’s treasures. When the monk ordered the thief to put back his ill-gotten gains a combat erupted within the party. When the dust settled, 4 of the six party members were dead. The only surviving party members belonged to the two players who had been smart enough to leave the monastery when the fighting began. At this point I looked at my friend Derek and told him that he was DMing from now on.

Hopefully these few sessions that I’m about to run will end better.