Majestic Wilderlands 5e

About time.

Way back in December, 2011 I reviewed the Majestic Wilderness by Robert Conley. Last night, I finally got to play in the Majestic Wilderlands. It was 5th edition D&D, GMed by Robert Conley himself.

I really only got to play because this winter has been been horrible on Monday nights. So I needed a PC I could drop in with and then drop out with.

I played Alb Irex*, a 4th level cleric of Mitra. He wears scale armor, a shield with a big swan on it, and carries a mace. I chose a cleric because I figured I could be useful, do something that had a connection to the setting (Mitra, covered on p. 126), and get to try out 5th edition spellcasting. It made for a convenient cover, too - a PC who had to miss the session introduce my guy to the group, and since I played a circuit priest of Mitra covering an area by walking it and ministering as he went, it was a pretty easy explanation for being in the game, being concerned for the locals, and being able to depart suddenly even if the mission was unfulfilled.

Long story short, we did some discussion and the Lassie (okay, some kid) ran in and said poor Old Man Fish (okay, a boy named Carpe) had fallen down the well (okay, went into a dungeon) and needed rescuing (that part is the same.)

We went down, found some bandits, and attacked them. Tim Shorts, in remakably un-Tim like behavior, rolled a lot of not-1s. We fought some bandits and a wizard. We got lucky when a fireball smacked the lot of us and Tim rolled a critical to slam the door on the incoming fireball. My only combat move in the whole game was to use Cure Wounds cast at 1st level to heal the terribly wounded boy Carpe (the one who had been seized by bandits, appropriately) of his fireball-related injuries.

I also had to depart early, because I had non-gaming things to attend to.

My impression of the game was good. I knew the players already, and Rob runs a tight game and the pacing was fine. 5e runs very smoothly, and the more times I play it the more I am impressed with how light but tight it can be. It's very internally consistent without being clunky. I liked casting spells too - being a healing cleric meant my spell didn't suck, and if I'd needed to juice it up to level 2 I could have. I felt like there was a real choice to be made in "spells ready" but I had the flexibility to cast off the list as needed at the same time. Cantrips also made me feel like my magic wasn't a thing I could do sometimes but rather an intrinsic part of what my character was capable of.

Although I only got to play for about 2 hours, roughly half action, I enjoyed it a lot. I hope I get to come back - perhaps next week, weather depending.




* There is a Japan joke in there I expect no one to get, but it oddly made a good fantasy name. Maybe qpop will get it.