LFR - The Rotting Ruins of Galain

11/22/08 - The Game Keep
Module AKAN1-1 - "The Rotting Ruins of Galain"

Characters:
Rhogar (Bryan) - Level 1 Dragonborn Fighter (GreatAxe)
Voranna Elun (Matt 1) - Level 1 Eladrin Ranger (Archer)

This was the first time either of us had played 4th Edition.

There were four or five other players in our group. We started out by going around the table and introducing ourselves. Bryan and I were a bit short on background information, so that was a little embarrassing. I don't remember much about the other players, except that one was playing a Gnoll. I also remember that one of the players wasn't really into it, and kept getting distracted. He was paying more attention to his phone than to the game, and sometimes when it was his turn, he would answer with an "I don't care, whatever" attitude. This pissed a couple of the other players off, but I was glad because it kept the attention away from my newbie-ness.

My first impression of the game itself - it felt more like a board game than a role-playing game. But that's probably just because of the time constraints of the LFR games. I only remember one encounter that involved roleplaying. I don't want to post any spoilers for those who might play the module in the future, but it involved interrogating a goblin.

I had drawn up the character sheets for both Bryan and myself, along with a power spreadsheet in lieu of power cards. I did a bit of the math wrong - I had Bryan's greataxe doing double-damage for a while. Chalk it up to bad handwriting: I had written 1d12 someplace, but it looked like 2d12, and I'd kept copying it over from that source to fill out his power descriptions. But the DM was nice about it; he didn't make Bryan reroll anything. (But for this reason, I'm very glad for the new Character Builder program. There's just too many factors in determining damage, and it's nice to have a computer figure it out for me.)

There was some confusion between me and the DM on whether you can move and attack in the same turn. The DM seemed to think that any time you move and attack in the same turn, that's charging. But in the RAW, you can make a move action (up to your speed) and a standard action (most powers & attacks) in the same turn. That's a fairly basic thing for the DM not to know, but I will concede that it might have just been a communication error.

As an archer in a group of mostly melee fighters, I didn't take very much damage at all. Which is good, because I wasn't doing much damage either. My "Twin Strike" At-Will Power confused me, so I mostly relied on "Careful Attack", which grants a +2 attack bonus, but it actually does less damage than a basic attack. I also kept forgetting about my Encounter Powers, so I missed a lot of opportunities to be more helpful to the party. But this is how we learn.

While I may have been ineffective for most of the session, I ended up being the hero of the game. On the final encounter, the boss fired off some sort of area effect spell. I was on the opposite side of the AoE, a good 15 squares away, and the only way to reach him was to move through the affected area, or shoot across it. I stayed where I was. Once all his minions were dead and the boss was bloodied, I decided to use my Daily Power. I fired off my "Hunter's Bear Trap" ranged attack (2d10+5) from across the battlefield. Crit! The 25 damage finished him off. Later I realized I had forgotten to make him my Quarry, which would have added even more damage. A moot point, really.

All in all, it was a great time.