Legacy of the Crystal Shard--D&D Encounters S16 S1

I am DM'ing this Season of D&D Encounters at Mercenary Market in Costa Mesa, CA. 

We are using the D&D Next rules, which I have not read.

My plan it to run a fairly loose and off the cuff campaign.

I started this by modifying the first encounter to involved Plague Touched Arctic Creatures [I plan to use a lot of Spell Plague stuff this season--since it will likely be completely retcon'd by the Sundering, I may as well do my best to make it memorable].

I started with a spell touched arctic hound to replace the Crag Cat in the adventure

And because I had twelve players at my table, I added a Plague Touched Boar.

FEAR IT!

The party slaughtered them no problem--D&D Next threat level is very old school--everything is fairly squishy in ways that are often unpredictable.

Jake is playing a mage. Brian is playing some kind of Hip Hop bard. Scott is playing Drizzt. Thor is playing a broken Death Cleric.

Sarah also has a bard. Jack is a gnome theif.

Will, who actually knows the rules, is playing a barbarian, Cody has a bard or something as well, 

Elizabeth was playing the NPC Aldo--she had not played in a while. Carlos has a knight with a foil riding an ice crocodile or something. Eric is playing Druid the Druid.

The adventure began with the players rolling on my Random Ideals Table:

They made quick work of the Plague Touched Beasts. They split the party to repair Aldo's cart, but I did not know how to take advantage of that--out of practice as a DM, I think. I will make them pay for that next time.

The combat with the Yeti's went well--players learned their characters.

There was not a lot of threat--the Yeti's were very squishy.

Looking foreword to next week.

Unboxing Legacy of the Crystal Shard

Single Shot Gruul Key Rune

Another great week of Tuesday Morning with Magic--Evan's mom sent over tangerines & Lisa made banana chocolate chip muffins.

The Boys all rolled in right around 8:00 AM--at this point they all have their own decks & we are looking to create a tournament pool going foreword.

Andrew, Evan, and Dylan all had winning records.

Derek [who cracked a fantastic Planeswalker], Matt, and Jack did not fair as well--actually, I think Jack was undefeated--but Derek struggled and Matt got crushed.

We had more questions on Double Strike and blocking--still something that confuses the boys--we think Double Strike deals damage two times [once during first strike, once during normal combat], even when it is blocking.

The First Strike vs Deathtouch also came up again--we think First Strike damage is applied before Deathtouch & if the creature dies during First Strike Phase Deathtouch does not come into play.

And finally we had a question about the Grull Keyrune

can the Rug Cutter be summoned and turned into a creature in one turn for 3RG? We voted that it could--Artifacts do not have summoning sickness.

FNM @ Majestix

Jack, Alexander, & I drove over to Majestix for some FNM drafting.

Jack ended up on the champions table having gone 2-0. He lost and came in second.

My lame BW deck went 0-2, but ended up beating Andrew at the Shame Table in round three. Did draft a lot of value, but did have a lot of fun.

Actual Play Legacy of the Crystal Shard--D&D Encounters S16 S0