Post-Gencon hack & slash
Last night, freshly imbued with gaming inspiration in the wake of Gencon, I ran a D&D game for several friends. It went extremely well--better, I think, than last month's Star Wars session, but that may just be a result of my greater experience with D&D. I was hoping to start using some of the "revised 3.5" improvements, but I haven't had time to sufficiently internalize them yet.
The adventure was about as straightforward as they get--"track the bugbears to their lair and rescue the hostage"--something that D&D does quite well. The players used 5th-level characters (a ranger, bard, cleric, and wizard) I had created in advance; the adventure itself was a modified version of "Vanity" from Dungeon #93. Much fun was had by all as the characters cleverly dealt with the bugbear sentries, then lured the remaining beasts out of their lair and into an ambush. Chaos ensued, and when the dust cleared, the ranger was dead (smashed by an ogre), the wizard was comatose at -9 hit points (also a victim of said ogre), and the other two (both of whom were darting through the skies with the benefit of Flight spells) in serious but stable condition: a tough but well-earned victory.
Good old-fashioned gaming at its best, and not a bad way to pass a too-muggy-to-venture-outdoors summer evening with friends.