Finishing Laban

Jarom 1:2 And as these plates are small, and as these things are written for the intent of the benefit of our brethren the Lamanites, wherefore, it must needs be that I write a little; but I shall not write the things of my prophesying, nor of my revelations. For what could I write more than my fathers have written? For have not they revealed the plan of salvation? I say unto you, Yea; and this sufficeth me.
3 Behold, it is expedient that much should be done among this people, because of the hardness of their hearts, and the deafness of their ears, and the blindness of their minds, and the stiffness of their necks; nevertheless, God is exceedingly merciful unto them, and has not as yet swept them off from the face of the land.
4 And there are many among us who have many revelations, for they are not all stiffnecked. And as many as are not stiffnecked and have faith, have communion with the Holy Spirit, which maketh manifest unto the children of men, according to their faith.

Last week was bittersweet, as we finished our first adventure, but also said goodbye to Elder Meinhart, who finishes his mission and goes home this week. He was the first missionary to grace our doorstep, nearly 2 years ago, and was the man who baptized Jesse. He will always hold a special place in our hearts.

As you may recall, our intrepid adventurers had found the Plates of Brass, and were deciding what to do about King Laban when we left last week. The group decided that King Laban definitely needed to die, because God said so (and also because he would continue to pursue the party and the plates until he got them back, putting the rest of the missions in peril).

The group decided to use Group Prayer to decide which direction to follow, after one of them came to a crossroads and saw many options. They rolled well and were directed down the right path, towards Laban's personal quarters.

Along the way, they encountered Laban's Homunculus, which alerted him to their presence but did not otherwise pose a threat. Our resident Chaotic Neutral decided to fight (and kill) it anyways.

Pause for identification

They found the door and managed to open it, only to find Laban immediately on the other side of the door. For the sake of time (and HP), Laban was a Noble. 

I believe what happened next was:

• Moroni made him mad
• Archeantus stole his rapier
• Laban attempted to attack Archeantus and fell flat on his face in the process 
• Emrin, now closest to Laban, "shanked him" with her dagger, thereby protecting the plates and all their lives. 

Ziff, whose poor short legs allowed her less speed per turn, basically just heard a kerfuffle around the corner. Amulek was there as back up for Emrin.

Sister Lott played Emrin (a Lawful Good) beautifully - right down to the conflict between being told to kill Laban, but not wanting to kill anyone.

It was magnificent.

First Night

1 Ne 4:6 - And I was led by the Spirit, not knowing beforehand the things which I should do.

Oh you guys. 

I don't even know how to start this, because it was just. that. fun. 

We have such an incredibly beautiful group of humans right now, and what happened last night was nothing short of magical. I can only hope some of you may find this experience for yourself. I suddenly understand the draw for D&D. I get it. And we played maybe 2 hours. It was...I dunno. 

 Pre-players setup. 

As the group descended the stairs, they entered the tavern in that order, chose minis, and chose seats in the bar. 

 Minis game on point.

 I believe at this point Amulek (the Elven Wizard Outlander, as played by Jesse) was encouraging Moroni (the human soldier as played by Elder Meinhart) and Archeantus (the human charlatan rogue as played by Elder Guymon) to go talk to "that beautiful elf and her adwarfable friend" (Emrin the elven Bard as played by Sister Lott, and Ziff, the dwarf paladin as played by sister Cox).

Shortly after this, Nebacca (Nephi, as played by a Chewbacca mini from the Star Wars Clue game) ran gasping into the tavern, crying out for help in getting the plates of brass back from King Laban, who had not only refused to give them back but had also stolen his family's treasure as well. He begged our brave adventurers to go to the castle (he couldn't return himself, because he had already exhausted Laban's short supply of good graces) and recoup the book and kill Laban (because God had told him it must be done...if not, Laban would continue to pursue him and his family in order to get his revenge. I'll admit, this was one part I didn't think through enough...why would the adventurers want to do this? Especially since, before this, they didn't know each other as a collective.) Any treasure they found, they would be free to keep.

The players found their way out of the tavern and into the castle. They'd just finished disarming a fire breathing statue. Of note, at the entrance to the castle was Animated Armor, which Moroni (I believe) managed to trick into believing our friends were all friends of Laban's. (I'd had a riddle prepared for this...sort of...and they completely side stepped it. Oops.)

Pause for sustenance. Sisters Lott and Cox on the left, Elders Guymon and Meinhart on the right, and Jesse in the middle. My heart is full looking at this picture.

Debating what to do next. After next week's conclusion, I'll post pictures of the maps of the castle and town. Honestly, the town doodle was supposed to be just a funny doodle, but when they rolled for persuasion against the crying guy in the bar (who happened to be a recently fired Castle Guard with a lot of handy information), all they got was "that rusty suit isn't so scary." They may have gotten an unmarked map of the castle if they'd rolled better, but alas.

Side note, it is hard to remember who knows what in this game. Just another thing I didn't think about when putting it together, and maybe I'd use that as a mechanic later in the game.

The final setup right before curfew. They'd found the book (which is loosely based on the Book of Exalted Deeds) and used one of the mechanics I came up with (which may actually be in DnD canon, but I haven't read that far yet) to decide what to do with it. The Prayer mechanic allows the player whose turn it is to ask a single, explicit question of the DM prior to performing their action on that turn. They roll and add their Religion modifier to determine the answer. What was beautiful was that Moroni came up with a Group Prayer mechanic, in which only one question is answered, but anyone in the group who participates in the prayer (must be within 10 ft of the player asking the question, or in the same room) rolls for an answer. Highest roll counts, and the answer is given (for now) to the group at large. Maybe in the future the answer will be given only to the one who rolls highest, and they have to figure out how to convince the others of its truth.

This mechanism worked well to reveal whether the players should continue to seek and kill Laban (the lawful Good gals weren't fans of killing and wanted to just leave the castle), and revealed the truth about the Book (that it may only be read by a character of Good alignment, and must remain in custody at all times. If the character is unable or unwilling to be part of a given adventure, it must be passed on to a character of Good alignment. The conclusion of the story will have more of the details on this I think.)

That's about as much as I can reveal at this point...I'm excited to show off my terrible doodles in next week's post! Next week is Elder Meinhart's last week on his mission, so it'll be a great way to send off this young man who has meant so much to us (he was the first elder who came to our door nearly two years ago, and his were the hands that baptized Jesse last July). 

The Grand Experiment

Hello there friendly travelers! Thank you for joining us on this beautiful Saturday for a preview into what could be something amazing (or maybe just a funny attempt at something amazing).

A little back story:

We, in the nethermost regions of the vineyard, have been blessed to have not only a spectacular ward to attend, but also some of the most fun, enjoyable, and down right nerdy missionaries one could hope for. In the few months that they've been here, we've shared conversations that range from incredibly deep scriptural and doctrinal discussions to downright silly and ridiculous discussions on fandoms and collective nerdities. Many times, these have overlapped - the number of times I've said "God speaks to me in pop culture references" is >0 per week. Often per day.

So it should be no surprise that at some point the idea of a game night for FHE (because we are, as of yet, childless and in possession of a great hosting house) came up. That morphed into an idea of playing Dungeons and Dragons, but since we'd be playing with missionaries, making it scriptural and playing through the stories found in the Book of Mormon. Anyone who's read any amount of the BoM knows that there are many high adventures to be had, with much blood shed and many souls saved. To that end, I welcome you to....

Mormons and Dragons

This blog will chronicle our attempts at playing through the BoM as an RPG. I'm hoping we can play at least once a month, and the adventures will need to be short - two hours or less, if possible. This week, we'll start with 1 Nephi 3-4, where our brave adventurers will need to retrieve the brass plates from King Laban's castle. More on that later.

A couple of housekeeping thoughts:

• Yes, the missionaries did ask their president for permission to play. 
• No, they don't read any of the DnD books outside of the game night, and we do our best to respect their restrictions by reading passages to them instead of having them read for themselves. 
• This is a true FHE, and as such will start with a prayer and a scripture (usually one relevant to the adventure for the night), and close with a prayer and a spiritual thought. 
• Some blessings we've already seen include deeper reading into the stories of the BoM, deeper reading about the characters (the characters built for the group were based off of folks found in the BoM, named after them, or both), and a better appreciation for the trials that our ancestors went through in the BoM time period. 
• The mechanics of the game will be based on DnD, but this DM will emphasize choosing the right as much as possible. (Even though that clearly did not always happen in the BoM.) 
• Modifications to the stories will be for the sake of adding adventure (such as including mythical creatures and traps in Laban's castle), but will try to maintain the message of the stories. 
• Parables won't likely be included in adventures - those are stories with a purpose other than historical bookkeeping, and are sacred. That's just my opinion and as such how I'll run the game. They may show up as answers to questions or in riddle form. I'm not sure.
• As the missionaries transfer in and out, hopefully the new ones will want to keep the game going. If not, we may have guest appearances by other ward members periodically, or gaps in play. 
• If this concept interests you and you want to adapt it to your group, please do! And please let me know how it goes! 
• I used a couple of apps to help us generate character stats, as most of us have not actually played DnD before. Just look for them in the app store. 

More infor and details to come!