Session 3 in the "Warden" today.
The PCs:
- ran from the evil tree, dogged by smaller tree-men and even smaller tree-men.
- fought a battle when run to ground by the tree-men.
- Crogar the Cursed got even more cursed.
- the party ****ed around fine-tuning the map and going in circles, and then did it again two more times.
- the party found some untainted food, and refused to have anything to do with it.
- the group explored around north of the river and found more killer vines, archer bushes, a weird yellow plant, giant seed pods, some "nests" for who knows what, and fought a pair of Rock Reapers (new monster!)
- a seal was discovered . . . one that matches one that Quenton Mudborne has been carrying around since he was Quenton Gale.
- more vegepygmies were contacted. Not as fruitful as before . . . or perhaps more so, even as reticent as they were.
Good session overall. I'd hoped they might be able to find their way out this session, but it wasn't to be. They made great strides, however, and I think you'll see why I say so when I post the full summary tomorrow.
"- the party ****ed around fine-tuning the map and going in circles, and then did it again two more times."
ReplyDeleteSounds like my Players:
"What do we do?"
"I dunno... recheck every corner of the map?"
"Sounds like a plan!"
I call it, Plan "When in doubt, turn over every pebble until a clue scuttles out where we can kill it".
I've seen that, and done that. This wasn't even that. This was literally spending 15+ minutes checking one clearing, leaving it, coming back, checking it again, checking which paths went where, re-checking cardinal directions to ensure the paths lined up with how they were expected to, etc.
DeleteI got actually really annoyed and stepped in and just drew the map section on paper.
Then they spent another 20+ minutes of real time and an hour and change in game time going in circles around a pond to ensure that their map connected.
So more than 30 minutes - probably more like 45 in total - connected up two clearings. Neither of these resulted in any new information, new encounters, or new anything . . . and honestly all it did was make them go from 90% certain it all lined up to 100% certain it all lined up.
It wasn't my finest moment of temper control but it was also a big waste of game time. Sometimes so-called "Jacquaying the dungeon" means the group goes around and around over the same ground ensuring they didn't miss a clue instead of exploring areas they know they haven't gotten to yet.
One of the many drawbacks to running a game that requires a map. Players start imagining all sorts of map-based puzzles and shenanigans and become mildly obsessed with "filling int he map".
DeleteTruth.
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