All of the players but one have created their characters. Everyone was given the option of using the Standard method (roll 4d6 and drop the low) or the Purchase method for generating Ability Scores. However, I did state that if anyone chose the Standard method, they would have to play the character regardless of how poorly the dice rolled. Everyone elected to go with the Standard Method. This resulted in some rather low scores for a couple of characters but nothing too horrible.
Since it has been a couple of years since any of us have played a 3.5 type game, character creation probably took longer than it will normally…plus we only had one book between us with a couple of the PRD chapters printed out. Eventually, the party shaped up to be the following (in order of shortest to tallest:
- Cornichon: A gnome bard played by Jamie.
- Monte: A dwarf ranger played by Thomas.
- Serena: A half-elf monk played by Rachel.
- Lilac: A half-orc rogue played by Todd.
Interestingly, of the four, only one is a “core” class. One more player still needs to create a character and he has commited to playing a cleric. I think there may be some difficulties given the lack of a true arcane spellcaster but we’ll see. As something of an experiment, I don’t plan on adjusting things to “fit” the class make-up of the party. I’d rather that the players deal with any such challenges that arise.
Once the characters were created, I asked each player to write down (on an index card) a brief physical description of their character, the number of moons in the night sky, the number of suns, the name of the inn that the character stayed at the night before, and the name of the city or town in which they were the night before.
I then started the game with something along the lines of the following:
“When you awoke you found that you had been stripped of all your belongings, but a strange amulet had been placed around your neck. You were manacled to a cold stone wall and, when conscious, you could hear the muffled complaints and clinking chains of other prisoners. Each time you regained consciousness, you were visited by a fearful presence that would draw near and grasp at your very soul, wrenching pieces of it away with a slobbering cry of joy and your screams of agony. How long you have languished in your cell, visited only by the gluttonous being that uses your spirit for food, you cannot say.
Each player made a Constitution check and Thomas rolled the highest for Monte. As the dwarf regained consciousness, he could feel the chill of the amulet against his bare chest and sense the presence of the spirit that had come to “feed” again. As it approached, however, there was a tremendous crash that shook the walls against which Monte slumped. In a raspy, feminine voice, the creature spoke for the first time and said, “What has strayed into my larder?” Then it left.
That is where we ended our first session as the character creation had taken up pretty much the whole session.
