It started out at noon, when I ran the first of two sessions of the D&D Worldwide Game Day. The first group was mostly members of my regular games (Nathaniel, Martin, Rich and Josh) along with one complete newbie – Liam (I don’t think he’s even a teenager yet, though I might be wrong).

 

From my point of view, I think the session went well. The PCs  were successful in their quest, and they did a really good job of co-operating (and occasionally rolling really good criticals). The adventure had a few flaws, but I really enjoyed running the skill challenge: it had a structure that made it work a lot better than some of Wizards’ previous attempts at such.

 

We finished the session at 3.30pm, and after a short break I ran a second group through the adventure. This included someone who had never played D&D before (and wasn’t enjoying it either) and three people who had – including Mark, one of the owners of Good Games where we were playing. As we were under more of a time limit on this one, I reduced the monster’s HP by 25%, and I’m fairly pleased at how the session turned out. We finished just after six.

 

After that, Nash "dragged" me into a game of Small Worlds, the new game by Days of Wonder. It was really, really fun – I played some Forest Trolls, followed by some Fortified Halflings after the Trolls went into decline. That meant that my opponents (Shane, Nash and Jackson) really didn’t want to attack me… and by the end of the game, I was victorious: 69 to 66, 66 and 61.

 

To finish off the day, I played in a booster draft of Magic using the three sets from the Alara cycle. I managed to draft a three-colour deck (Red/Green/White) which worked really well. How well? Well, I won all six games (three matches) I played in the draft. 🙂 Shane had the one deck that probably could beat mine, but he mana-screwed himself in the second round and so we never duelled.

 

One of the cards I was passed (and used it against the guy who passed it to me in the final round) was the Retaliation Griffin: it’s a 2/2 flyer for 1WGR. The trick? Every time I take damage, it gains +1/+1 counters equal to the damage I just did. When paired with the Exalted Angel (my first draft pick: creatures attacking alone get +1/+1 and lifelink), it was a terrific combination.