Death Frost Doom Session Report #1

I always tell myself to just breath easy, take a moment before speaking, and try not to freeze up when there is much I must respond to immediately and anticipate its “logical” reaction in real time. There is nary a session I have not been freaked out at some point during play. The freak out goes something like this: What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?

So if I am spinning out while running Death Frost Doom I conclude it must be me and not the published module. Maybe I can’t run these “awesome” adventures effectively? This is all rubbish of course. The only struggle, and I have had it before, is good old-fashioned page flipping during the game. If I get caught going back through my game material (mine or others) I start to unwind.

That is the other benefit of recording the game sessions. I make shit up that is not true in my head and believe it. Being your own worst critic. Little voices in your head...

The session was no better or no worse than any other. The PCs were wary, concerned and fearful of the place, but pushed on, nonetheless. The interesting moments of the session were player initiated. Any bad form I could find was having to do more retcon with the PCs than I usually must or desire. Retcon, my advice, get over it. Now if you want to find an indicator, some mark you have become a Dungeon Master master it is simple you never ever have to retcon during your campaign, Ever! This is clearly not possible, but I like it as a metric. The less I retcon the better all of us at the table are doing as far as attention and engagement are concerned.

Change of pace. Finding organic instances to change the pace of the action I consider important to. The previous session was a full-on wilderness night fight with wolves, werewolves, and the forest catching fire. Most grognards would call this a “combat heavy” session. And they would be right! For the player’s first time spending an entire session in the crypts there was no combat had. And I felt the players thought the stakes were just as high here as they were rolling on the forest floor with werewolves fighting knife, tooth and sword!

If you are a Dungeon Master curious or fretting on running DFD, the recorded session (link below) may put your mind at ease and may spark some ideas you want to include to pick your session up a notch. Please note, this is a recording of the live stream so there is no editing. The game session doesn't get started until 36 minutes in. Also, in another two weeks the game goes again and there is no sign the PCS are ready to quit the dungeon so you will most likely get a chance to see the module played all the way through? Heck, I'll even provide a link to some appropriate background music.