Redbrook Mini-Campaign

My local¹ roleplaying group finished a D&D 5e one-shot². We put aside the previous campaign³ to introduce a new player to roleplaying with a small adventure: something that wouldn’t require too big of a commitment, or force her to deal with a year of backstory.⁴

The gist: twenty years ago, my character was in a relationship with a villainess. When it came time for her to sacrifice an aasimar child to gain terrible powers, I noped out of the whole thing and ran off with the baby (Kivian) and our twins. Ever since then, I’ve been raising them to be adventurers, to help out people in need … with a dash of extreme paranoia, because I knew that one day, my ex would return.

(You can get some more details in my rant from December.)

What went well

• The DM was good! I don’t think we ever really flummoxed him, or at least not for long. He had endless patience for us, particularly the new player, but also for me — I could never find my spell modifiers on my character sheet in the moment.
• Playing a family of adventurers made the intra-party dynamics click quickly. It was fun trying to protect my now-adult “kids” from the truth, and only letting it slip when things got dire.
• Gaining a level (from four to five) in the middle of the campaign made our characters feel mechanically more powerful at the same time we were getting more agency in the story. It felt good.
• There was a lot of cool stuff. There was a random devil hanging out in the inn’s basement. A giant oni would show up after a while and attack us. The final boss fight was big and climatic, and the skill challenges afterwards to save Kivian meant that the climax of the adventure was us coming together as a family. Yes!

What didn’t go well

• I’m still annoyed at the combination lock puzzle. I’m sure the DM intended us to die there repeatedly, trying to work out the combination. It drove me nuts.
• Combat was too long. Our sessions are short, which makes it hard for the DM to have a big battle without it stretching across multiple sessions. But there were a few times I wanted battle to end already.
• I hate D&D levelling. I said it felt good when we jumped up a level, but I also hate it. Why did my character suddenly figure out how to attack twice per round instead of just once? Why was my character, who was some twenty years older than his kids, at the same level as them? I can ignore this stuff in a videogame, but it really bothers me when roleplaying.
• This is on me, but I have zero context for what an “oni” is. To me it was another demon, and we had a portal with them pouring out. I think the DM wanted it to mean something extra, and it went right over my head.

Final thoughts

I like it when things end. It’s the nature of roleplaying games that campaigns rarely finish, but I want the satisfaction of following a story to conclusion. And this time we got it: there was a clear story, with a beginning, a middle, and an end; and we completed it. I have my complaints, but … it was great!