I had a 4-room dungeon prepared for the game session, and figured it might be interesting to see how it worked out in real time. So, I made notes throughout the game session to see how things moved along.

We started the game a little after 8:00 p.m. (later than normal for our group). The PCs had just left the previous dungeon (which they did not fully explore, much to my disappointment), and were heading for a small town.

They stayed in the town a couple of game days to pick up supplies, They hired a guide to take them to a larger city they had never been to. Three days into the journey, they were waylaid by an ogre and a couple of orcs.

The PCs:
Human barbarian/sorcerer 1/3
Human cleric 4
Elf fighter (archer) 4
The NPC guide does not fight or join the dungeon invasion

9:20-9:33 — 1 ogre, 2 orcs [EL4, 4.5 rounds, 13 minutes (2.9 min/rnd; 29 secs/combatant)]
– Barbarian/sorcerer used mage armor, shield, enlarge person.
– Cleric used shield of faith and some healing.
– Fighter was badly beat up by ogre, but the cleric’s healing made it all better.

They had their guide trail the humanoids back to their lair. He did so, and they found the cave at 9:40. They discussed how to approach the cave and then entered the cave (attempt #1) at 9:45.

Room 1
9:48-10:01 — 6 orcs [EL4, 7 rounds, 13 minutes (1.8 min/rnd; 12 secs/combatant)]
– Barbarian/sorcerer used mage armor, enlarge person, shield?, and held bottleneck tunnel.
– Cleric stood behind and healed barbarian/sorcerer for first 4 rounds, then moved forward into room and engaged in melee.
– Fighter couldn’t do much for first 4 rounds, then moved in and engaged with bow at near point blank range.

After the fight, they explored beyond first room, found room 2. Room 2 was empty of enemies, but a cage held 3 gnome captives. The PCs freed the gnomes. Questioning the gnomes, they learned there were probably 20 orcs in total. The PCs decided to pull out with the freed gnomes to rest and recover. They left the cave at 10:05. Rested overnight. Went back into cave (attempt #2) at 10:25.

Room 1, again
10:25-10:40 — 6 orcs [EL4, 5.5 rounds, 15 minutes (2.7 min/rnd; 18 secs/combatant)]
– Barbarian/sorcerer used mage armor, shield, enlarge person and stepped just a little too far into room, allowing all 6 orcs to engage him (a couple had flanking).
– Cleric stood behind and healed.
– Fighter took some shots when he could, from behind the other two PCs for first 3 rounds.
– Barbarian/sorcerer fell to onslaught of greataxes, cleric healed him to consciousness, but he stayed prone (to avoid 6 AoOs) and fought poorly.
– Fighter jumped in, over barbarian/sorcerer, in round 4 and started shooting up orcs from near point blank range.

Battle went poorly, and the party was pretty used up. Left cave at 10:41. Rested overnight. Went back into cave (attempt #3) at 10:55. Went through rooms 1 and 2 (now unguarded), and made it to room 3.

Room 3
10:58-11:02 — 1 ogre, 2 orcs [EL4, 2 rounds, 4 minutes (2 min/rnd; 20 secs/combatant)]
– Barbarian/sorcerer used enlarge person, mage armor, shield; he did not block the way in, so cleric and fighter could join fight.
– Cleric used shield of faith.
– Fighter shot arrows.

This room had a chest, which the PCs opened (setting off a magic trap against which the cleric made her save for no effect). The chest had some treasure, and the PCs decided to leave it for now. They searched the room and found a secret door. They moved through the door.

Room 4
11:08-11:25 — 1 orc 5th-level cleric [EL5, 8 rounds, 17 minutes (2.1 min/rnd; 31.5 secs/combatant)] This orc cleric had heard the fighting outside the secret door, so he was able to fully buff up before this fight.
– Barbarian/sorcerer used enlarge person again, (still had mage armor), shield; held hallway to trade blows with orc.
– Cleric stood behind and healed.
– Fighter took shots from behind teammates each round.
– Barbarian/sorcerer fell unconscious, cleric healed him back to consciousness, orc stabbed him while prone.
– Barbarian/sorcerer died, cleric cast healing one round too late, orc moved over dead barbarian/sorcerer and attacked cleric.
– Cleric cast sanctuary, orc tried but failed to attack him.
– Fighter continued shooting orc.
– Cleric cast obscuring mist and retreated.
– Orc moved up to fighter and attacked.
– Fighter retreated.
– Orc had been reduced from 41 hit points to 20 hit points, so he used cure spells to fully heal.

The barbarian/sorcerer died, and the rest of the party retreated under cover of obscuring mist. Left the cave at 11:26.

Dungeon Time Summary:
First foray in dungeon (game day 1) = 20 minutes real time, saw rooms 1 and 2.
Second foray into dungeon (game day 2) = 16 minutes real time, saw only room 1.
Third foray into dungeon (game day 3) = 31 minutes real time, saw rooms 1, 2, 3, and 4.
Total time in dungeon = 67 minutes real time; about 20 minutes over 3 days game time.

The fights make for interesting comparisons:

The very first fight, before even entering the dungeon was against 1 ogre and 2 orcs. They eventually fought the same battle later, in the dungeon.

The first fight against the ogre and orcs was brutal on the party (on the fighter/archer specifically). The second fight against the ogre and orcs was a cake walk; I don’t think any PC got hit.

1st ogre & orc battle: 4.5 rounds, 13 minutes (2.9 min/rnd; 29 secs/combatant)
2nd ogre & orc battle: 2 rounds, 4 minutes (2 min/rnd; 20 secs/combatant)

The fights against the 6 orc guards were rough because the orcs were using greataxes (1d12+3 damage). In the first fight, the barbarian/sorcerer stood in the 10’-wide hallway, where only two orcs could attack at a time. The second fight against the 6 orc guards was brutal on the barbarian/sorcerer because he stepped through the “doorway” of the room, allowing all 6 orcs to attack him. The barbarian/sorcerer stayed in that position the entire time, and the cleric’s healing couldn’t keep up with the orcs’ damage output. [Note: this was a 3.5 game, but I had equipped the orcs with scalemail and greataxes, as statted up in 3.0.]

1st 6-orc battle: 7 rounds, 13 minutes (1.8 min/rnd; 12 secs/combatant)
2nd 6-orc battle: 5.5 rounds, 15 minutes (2.7 min/rnd; 18 secs/combatant)

These four battles show two different things:

The ogre and orcs fights showed what a difference a couple lucky/unlucky rolls can make – the fighter/archer got smashed hard twice in the first fight, but no one got hit in the second.

The orc fights showed what a difference a simple tactic can make in a fight – standing in a chokepoint where enemies were limited in room to attack, versus letting one’s self get surrounded.

Anyway, I thought the data was interesting (especially the comparative combats).

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

As of today, over 300 different people have come to this site. The exact number of distinct hosts (computers on an Internet connection) is 330. This excites me more than I expected it to.

I realize that 300 visitors is less than negligible to most Web sites. But for this site, with no marketing and no content other than my rambling thoughts, 300 is an enormous audience.

I know not everyone who has come here once, comes back regularly, but even a few is very encouraging and exciting. My latest report says that 18 pages were opened from this site yesterday—and 18 is among the fewest for a single day—there have been several days in the past couple months with numbers in the 60s.

When I started this blog site, I wanted to see if I could keep up a regular, daily routine of posting outside of a job schedule. I love to write. I’ve written for publication, I’ve written in a corporate job, and I’ve written as a hobby. I created this site for hobby writing.

My emails to friends, about things that happened in my daily life and things I experienced in my game playing, tend to be long and detailed. When I was playing World of Warcraft more regularly, I wrote a regular email to my friends titled “Weekly WoW.” When I started this site, I transferred those emails to this site, in the Computer Games section. Over the years, I’ve made many posts to a role playing game message forum. I transferred some of those posts to this site, in the Table Games section. Since starting this site in June, I’ve added all new stuff to those sections, and everything in this General section is completely new.

Writing something completely new every day, drawing from just mundane life experiences, has sometimes been a challenge. Trying to find something interesting, but not too personal, in my daily life is not always easy. I’m sure there’s been many times that what I thought was interesting probably wasn’t to many readers. But even so, it’s really fun to write all this. Sometimes I start with no idea what to write, but then I end up writing a whole article length piece. Sometimes I have a specific idea, but then realize that the subject really is boring or doesn’t really go anywhere as a story. I have about a dozen “almost” posts that I’ve written but ended up not posting, or not even finishing. I also have a few that I’ve written to completion but just haven’t posted.

I also have a back log of posts to make on my computer and table gaming. The past couple weeks have been rather busy, so I haven’t had the time in the evenings to get them together in a postable state. Some posts take 10 minutes to write, but most take at least 30 minutes. A few take an hour or more to write. And then there’s the 5-20 minutes to proofread and edit them the next morning before actually posting them.

You see, I write my posts in the evening but I post them the next morning. As both writer and editor, I need some time between the writing and the proofreading. Proofreading right after writing is called, “still writing.” I could “still write” a post for hours if I let myself. More than once, I’ve gone back and made a slight correction or edit to a post weeks after it was posted. I’m rarely perfectly satisfied with something I’ve written. There are things I’ve had published in hard form that I wish I could go back and edit just one more time. There’s always a better way to phrase something, always a better description, always a better way of expressing a thought. I’m envious of those writers who can write a perfect line in their first try. (There may actually be no such writers.)

Anyway. See, this post is a good example. I started out just wanting to mention my excitement at having over 300 visitors to this site, and that was covered in the first three paragraphs. I got on a roll and have ended up with 9 paragraphs of rambling on about writing.

And now the 10th paragraph—for the most important comment: Thanks to everyone who has visited this site, and especially thanks to everyone who has repeatedly visited. I hope it’s entertaining. I’m still sort of trying to find my “voice” for this whole thing, so I hope it isn’t too amatuerish. I’m a professional writer, but I’ve never written a daily “column” like this. It’s a great experience for me, and I want it to be an interesting read for you.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

My hometown family got together for a lunch yesterday at Ruby Tuesday. It was a small group of just nine. (That’s small relative to how many we could have had at the table with all our spouses and children.) I was sitting at one end of the table, with an empty chair beside me, so I was sometimes disconnected from the conversations going around. I started looking around the restaurant and daydreaming a bit.

Someone noted how quiet I was, and suggested I was probably noticing something to blog about. (Hi Becky.) I was looking around and noticing things, but I hadn’t really considered anything there worth noting in a blog entry.

Among all the junk clutter on the walls, there were two 1977 Star Wars posters.

At one point, a waitress grabbed our waiter by the arm and dragged him over to a table with two girls the waiter’s age. I was too far away to hear the conversation, but it looked like the girls had asked the waitress to introduce the waiter to them. The look on the waiter’s face was funny: like he was surprised to be snatched along, and then pleased to be introduced to the cute girls.

At the far end of our table, my eldest step-brother and his wife were entertaining and feeding their 11-month old grandbaby (yes, my brother is a grandfather). It’s a totally selfish and dispicable thing to think, but I was relieved that I wasn’t having to entertain and feed a baby/child. I was able to sit quietly and daydream.

So I was just a bit lost in my own thoughts at the table rather than really being observant.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

The traffic on the highway last night was back up and stopped. I was at a slight turn in the road, so I could see up ahead. I counted at least four blue, flashing lights, and a set of bright roadwork lights. The congestion was about a mile long.

Eventually the traffic started moving, but it was so slow that my speedometer never registered above 0 mph. Traffic cones narrowed the two lanes going east to one lane, and a sign on the side of the road announced this was a DWI checkpoint. “Cool,” I thought. “I don’t think I’ve ever been through one of these before.”

I immediately looked around the interior of my car to see if I had anything out that would make me look stupid or maybe guilty of something. Funny how an expected encounter with law enforcement makes you nervous. I knew I was not guilty of anything I knew was wrong, but I wondered if I might be breaking some rule I didn’t know about. Like, is it okay that my laptop is out of its case, sitting open and running on my front seat? (I was letting some software install while I drove—it just needed time to run—I didn’t have to give it any attention.) Would a cop looking in my car think I was typing on my computer while driving? I closed the lid. While stopped for a minute, I slid the laptop into its case. No need to take a chance.

Traffic just inched along. I kept my foot on the break, letting the car move forward just on idle speed. There were cops on both sides of the road; I counted 10. Most were waving their flashlights to move traffic along, but there were a few talking with citizens outside their stopped vehicles. I could see their handcuffs and guns glinting in the headlights. (No, I wasn’t really that nervous—I just notice things like that.)

There was a civilian car pulled off on the left side of the road, and just a little further up, a civilian van on the right side. Two cops stopped me and one asked for my driver’s license.

I had already pulled out my wallet in anticipation of this, so I handed over my card.

The cop aimed his flashlight at the card and said, “You’re from City?”

“Yeah,” I answered.

“You still live on Road?”

“Yep.”

“Okay.” He handed me my card and added, “Drive safe.”

That was kind of disappointing. I was expecting a test of some kind. You know, at least make me touch my nose or something. Maybe a lengthy conversation, and a flashlight poking around in my car. How could he tell whether I was sober or stoned with that little exchange? I thought I’d get an interesting experience in this checkpoint stop deal. But nope, just a couple mundane questions. Oh well. I went on my way.

I wonder how bad those drivers they had pulled over came across in such a short encounter? Were they just stupid and sloppy drunk or something?

In general, I don’t have a problem with DWI checkpoints. I think they can be a good idea in some places at some times. But on a highway at 10:00 at night, holding up traffic for a mile or more? That seems a little more bothersome than useful. Fortunately, I wasn’t in a hurry, so I won’t complain about it.

If they manage to actually catch some jackass driving drunk, good for us all. (Assuming the jackass actually gets some real punishment.)

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com