I think this is an easy one for me.

The session I have in mind was impactful in many ways. First of all, it was my first session ever. Then, it’s also the session that made me decide that I want to be a Dungeon Master. And, finally, it’s the session that made me love Eberron.

A few years ago, an acquaintance of mine invited me to play D&D with some of his friends. I was very excited because, while I knew what D&D was, I had never played before. So we met at a cafe and started creating characters for a one shot. The DM was very experienced and helped us a lot at character creation. Apart from me and my acquaintance, there were three more players, one of which was the DM’s brother and actually the only one with previous experience. When character creation had finished, the party consisted of a wizard, a ninja(I think), a rogue that really wanted to be Van Helsing, a fighter, and a shaman. By the way, I think the system was D&D 3.5.

The game was a one-shot set in Eberron. Rumors of a still working Warforged factory had started spreading and we were tasked to work as a vanguard and to find and capture it before anyone else did. The place where we were supposed to go must have been in the Mournland. The factory was supposed to be somewhere inside a desert canyon thingy. We would drop in by an airship that would go as close as it could to the search area.

During our travel on board of the airship, some friendly roleplaying took place between the shaman and the fighter. The ninja and the rogue, however, prefered to do some pickpocketing and managed to get a magic wand and some cold from the captain. Not long after that, we had reached our destination.

The winds made it impossible for the airship to land, so we had to use a rope ladder. Most of the party members managed to not land on their face. Once everyone was down and on their feet we started traversing the canyon. After a while we found a fork on the road. One path had scratch marks on its walls while the other had traces of something being dragged on the ground. We couldn’t decide where to go and the fighter got bored so he decided to follow the second path. After a minute we had to follow him because we heard sounds of battle. When we managed to catch up, we found him fighting some goblins.

There were five or six goblins with pretty bad gear. The fight was going pretty well, until the last standing goblin decided it was time to run away. We started chasing it but it was faster so some of us decided it was a good idea to start throwing our weapons at it. A ridiculous scene ensued with the goblin running away and various weapons, including a battle axe and a huge war totem, flying past it, miraculously missing it. It finally jumped behind a chest which was actually what left the drag marks on the ground. While we were trying to gather our weapons, it opened the chest, picked up a wand, and shoot lightning at us. It managed to hit a couple of us, however a critical hit from the rogue planted a crossbow bolt in its forehead.

We decided we shouldn’t check out the second path and move forward instead. That was actually a good choice because, after a bit of walking, we finally found what most probably was the entrance of the factory. Sadly, its huge gates were wide open and there was a goblin guarding them. The rogue proposed once the goblin turned its back on us, we should throw a rope with a loop on its end so we could catch it from its neck and drag it fast towards us. The plan went pretty well, and a critical hit from the fighter made sure the goblin didn’t make a sound.

By getting closer to the gates we discovered that there were more goblins and had made a camp in the middle of the giant room. The rogue and ninja went into action and stealthily moved to an advantageous position while the rest of us waited for the signal. When the two of them were ready, we charged and finished the goblins pretty quickly.

Once the room was clear we moved to the next one. That one was a puzzle which I don’t remember very clearly. The room’s walls, floor and ceiling was made by plates of different colors. Stepping on one of them teleported you to another and, if you had picked the right one you were okay. If you had picked a wrong one you would take some damage. The type of damage was determined by the color of the plate you were teleported on, I think. After a bit of thinking, the wizard figured it out and we were out of that room in no time.

Then we reached the main forge area. We were pretty sure that was it because the room was full of giant furnaces. In the middle of the room was a figure and next to it a huge adamantine golem. The figure was a Warforged,and a follower of the Lord of Blades. It was there to the factory him. So, of course, battle ensued. The problem was not the Warforged, even though it was a caster. It was dealt with quite quickly. The real problem was the huge golem that almost killed the rogue and the ninja in one hit.

So while, the rogue and the ninja were unconscious, the wizard, shaman, and fighter had to deal with the golem. The shaman’s healing spells proved to be much more helpful than expected, because they were what kept the other to member going. After a few rounds of healing, attacking, and running away from the golem’s huge fists, we managed to take it down and apply first aid to our unconscious companions.

Some time later reinforcements arrived, so we took the golem and left. Yes, we took the golem. It was entirely made of adamantine! What were we supposed to do? Everyone wanted to coat their weapons and armor with adamantine and have enough money left to go on vacation.

The whole adventure, including character creation, took about 6 hours. The DM was amazing. The way he roleplayed the airship captain and the Warforged was incredibly good. The way he described every place and situation was exceptional as well. It’s because of him I decided to become a DM and I don’t regret it one bit.

And that was my most impactful session. I really hope I get to DM such an impactful session for someone else in the future. What was your most impactful session?

Tomorrow’s question is “What is a good RPG to play for sessions of 2hrs or less?”.

So until then, have fun!