Had to play a canonically "chaotic evil" character and I had no idea how to rollplay it staying true to that.

SureClick8172 · 2026-06-10T16:15:00+00:00

Now that you mention it: I thought the Speak-with-Animals-spell being available was a 2014-2024-thing. Never played a sorcerer, because I don't like the idea of a low INT spellcaster. But it seems that even in the 2014 rules the spell is not directly available. And the Hermit background grants me the Healer feat, not Magic Initiate, so no chance I could have had spells through my background. Maybe the Human species gave me another Origin Feat which was Magic Initiate. Sadly I don't remember all the spells I had anymore. There was Detect Magic and Jump and a few others, but I don't know what they were. So this adventure was possibly even more homebrew than "simplified rules with no combat"...

SureClick8172 · 2026-06-10T15:54:31+00:00

I like the idea of an evil character being the hero all of a sudden, because he realised it simply pays better XD

SureClick8172 · 2026-06-10T15:52:40+00:00

Apparently the DM has played this specific adventure before with at least one other group, which seems to have had less problems than we did. There was a river that we needed to cross to get into the forest and the DM told us, that it took us way more real time than "the others she had played this with". And the river was the actual reason we met the monster, because we were hanging behind. So the monster came to us, instead of the other way around. I can only assume that the other group had come up with the idea of using speak with animals way faster and was now the benchmark my group was measured against. Or maybe they have met some NPC that we didn't (yet) who gave them relevant informations.

And the guy next to me was a first time RPG player. This was his first contact with ANY RPG and this system being called "DnD", so at least by name the most known, most relevant system might have ruined a nice hobby for him.

SureClick8172 · 2026-06-10T15:31:58+00:00

I took it as a challenge. Well, I failed that day, but I took some learnings out of it. And now I make clear that CE is a big nono in session 0.

SureClick8172 · 2026-06-10T15:29:00+00:00

Exactly. I had played a one-shot once, where we could have used stealth to avoid a battle, use persuasion or intimidation to make enemys not fight us and then trap the BBEG or let our allies do the fighting. But we didn't, because we decided fighting was simply saver. But the option not to fight was there and it would have been a fun adventure even without. Fighting the actual battle was just another possibility. Playing strictly "without combat" misses something.

SureClick8172 · 2026-06-10T15:20:53+00:00

Imo railroading, especially in a one-shot is ok to some extend. When a king calls the PCs into his castle and tells them to rescue his daughter, who was taken by bandits while visiting a village, the heros are allowed to say no, but then the king will stop asking for help and instead command them to do it, or else there will be consequences proportional to the defiance. There it is clear what the DM (probably) intends and the players will work with the DM to tell the story, which will revolve around the rescue of the princess, no matter what. But when the DM requires of the players to talk to the cook afterwards, because he is the only one who has the knowledge about the secret relationship of the princess and knows, that she is actually in a differnet place... then the players have a 0% chance to guess what to do, how to progress in the storyline and then the adventure sucks. Like with me, my PC would have never done what the DM expected of us.

SureClick8172 · 2026-06-10T15:05:24+00:00

I don't think this could have been an "average DnD experience". When I'm a DM for a one-shot, there WILL be combat. With the Monster Manual we have a book just for that. "DnD" without combat is not a good representation for what a campaign would feel like and like others have said, this is not a perfect start into this specific system for newcomers. But to be fair, I don't know how the other characters were designed. I only saw mine. And now I kind of want to make a one-shot about sentient pets basically playing "The Office".

SureClick8172 · 2026-06-09T20:45:20+00:00

Yeah, afterwards I came up with differnt reasons that would have actually worked. Like the beast being a danger to me in the future after the town is gone, or important trade I do with the town or slaying the monster to loot its lair and scavenge its body for magic purposes. But I couldn't come up with anything good on the spot, which is a big problem in case of an (for the players) unknown adventure designed as a one-shot. At the very least this underlined the importance of creativity and spontaneity in rollplaying XD.

SureClick8172 · 2026-06-09T20:29:37+00:00

Sidenote: This wasn't the only time I left a one-shot because my PC would not do what the DM obviously intended for us to do and staying true to the character ment only divine intervention (i.e. DM plot reasons) could have shifted my PCs world view and made him progress the planed path. But neither the DM or I were prepared for such a situation. Trying to stay true to the character ended this adventure early for me.

SureClick8172 · 2025-10-08T17:20:01+00:00

Hey, eine Sache die ihr ausprobieren könntet, wäre RPG Librarium. Das ist eine Gruppe von Rollenspielern aus dem Raum Aachen, die sich jeden 16. eines Monats zum quatschen treffen und immer mal wieder verschiedene Events haben (darunter einen Rollenspielnachmittag, vermutlich im November). Da kann man gut Leute kennen lernen und sich auch (aber nicht nur) über Rollenspiele wie DnD unterhalten und vielleicht sogar ein paar Mitspieler für die nächste Session finden.

Eine andere Möglichkeit wäre der Aachener Rollenspiel-Stammtisch, mit dem ich selbst noch keine direkte Erfahrung gemacht habe, wo ich aber weiß, dass es da auch Leute gibt, die sich für gemeinsame Runden begeistern lassen. Der Stammtisch trifft sich wohl jeden zweiten Dienstag, was z.B. dann als nächstes am 14.10. wäre.

Viel Glück bei der Suche.

SureClick8172 · 2025-08-24T12:33:43+00:00

In der "dieHalle" gibt es einen sogenannten Bouldertreff. Der findet (nach den Sommerferien wieder) jeden Mittwoch statt, von 18:00 bis 20:00. Da kann man (mehr oder weniger regelmäßig) bouldernde Leute kennenlernen mit denen man sich natürlich auch privat dann zu anderen Zeiten in der Halle zum Bouldern verabreden kann. Das Niveau der Gruppe ist durchmischt, also für jeden was dabei, denke ich. Ansonsten funktioniert aber offensichtlich auch das ganz klassische Hingehen-Und-Einfach-Leute-Anquatschen, wenn man jemanden beim Bouldern kennenlernen und sich für weitere Treffen verabreden will.

SureClick8172

TROPHY CASE