An unusually epic game

Yesterday I played a nine-hour game of D&D 5e with eight players.

It's part of an ongoing campaign with very irregular meet-ups.  This was my second session.  My character is an arcane tricker rogue forest gnome called Marian - I believe I was thinking about Maid Marian and her Merry Men when I created her.

Rather than a full write-up, I've just done some edited highlights...

D&D 5e game about to start. 8 players. No idea who anyone is, IC or OC. Should we do name badges?

My character sheet has gone missing but fortunately I have a copy on my phone. Fifth edition character app is excellent. But you can't write the other characters' names on the back.

There is about 6 feet of 3D terrain on the table. It looks amazing. We are here to convert the orcs to the worship of Bast. We are the Bastards.

Currently rolling to see what happened on the journey to our current location. Thanks to a number of failed rolls we have visited an orc brothel, got on the wrong side of an elf gang, and are being pursued by an angry badger.

The badger has caught up with us. It's an angry MUTANT badger. It's trying to eat me! It's fine. The dragonborn has my back.

Now engaged in an epic battle with some giant crabs, unhappy that we ate their friends for breakfast. I am now using one of the half orcs as an artillery platform, having remembered that I can cast fire bolt.

Apparently that was the orcs' meat farm. Whoops. Now for a swim. Can we make flotation devices out of dead arachnid parts?

This boat has a safety rail. I find this immensely suspicious. Since when has anything health and safety related existed in D&D? The wizard is making friends with the boat. It's working better than I expected.

My argument that we have not taken this boat because it has not moved did not prove compelling. Now we have to fight 37 orcs. What a funny time to find out the cleric has no healing spells.

I'm starting to think this boat is evil. Just saved a half orc from sirens with a minor illusion. Now back to the orc brothel for a long rest. I hope they'll accept the loan of an unseen servant and some prestidigitation as payment. Bast is not impressed with our performance.

 

"Oi, Fenris! Fetch!" We are now on driftwood, floating towards some rocks, where a bunch of sirens are waiting. Damn.

What impressed me most is that D&D 5e can actually handle an 8 player game.  Part of it is the highly structured combat, combined with the GM using combat order markers on the GM screen, which meant we could not only see whose turn it was but also see how many people there were to go before our next turn so we could be prepared.  I thoroughly recommend these for any game using initiative order, even if it's just slips of paper with the character names hung off the GM screen.  Every game I've played with them has been better for it.