Dungeons and Dragons Part 1: "I am Domingo"

So, a couple weeks ago at the Haunted Game Cafe I met a group of three kids and we played a game of Catacombs (I was the Overlord). After the game they said they were interested in playing Dngeons and Dargons. So we agreed that next Saturday we would get together to create characters.

Theat day I went to the store and got a text saying that they weren't able to get a rids, so they wouldn't be able to come. I suggested that maybe we could meet somewhere else closer to them, and they said they were still looking, and maybe they could get a ride from someone else. In the meantime I went across the street to the mall to get some food. Wile I was there I got a text saying they had found someone else to take them, and were on their way. I finished my food and started walking back to the store, and while I was on my way (about 10 minutes after the text) saw that I had texts on my phone saying "Where are you" and "If you don't answer we are leaving." I had just assumed that they were much farther away than that, because they weren't able to come at all at first with no car (and the buses were running, so I assumed they were out of the bus service area as well). I texted him back saying "I am coming", but I spelled it wrong and the auto-correct corrected it to "I am Domingo". He said "what?" And I rushed back, and fortunately managed to get there before they left.

Anyway, with that resolved, we got into the actual character creation process. Only two of them were there but we started the process, and they made a warlock and a wizard. Some interesting things that happened were the following:

-They were well aware of how to exploit time inconsistency. When you determine your character's stats (strength, intelligence etc.) you have two choices. One choice is to roll dice, the other choice is to use a "point buy system" where you have a fixed number of points to allocate between the different stats. They chose the rolling method, knowing that if they really did roll poorly then there was no way I would actually be so mean and make them keep the poor rolls.

- It seemed like one of them wasn't interested as much in the fighting aspect. A few times during the session he asked if it was possible to negotiate with monsters rather than fight them, and even asked that question at the end when I set up a simple combat encounter not part of any actual adventure, just to show them how the combat worked.

- I am thinking that it may be a good idea to switch to a different role-playing game system. That is for a few reasons. First there are only three of them, and it seems likely that not all of them will be able to make it on any given day. The Dungeons and Dragons combat system is really designed for having at least four players to fill all the roles in the fight, and battles will likely be very tough with only two or three, especially since neither of the two characters they made had any healing or special defense abilities. 

- After this session I have been thinking about what to do for the actual adventure. One good source for adventure ideas, or ideas for things to put in the adventures, is the (real life) news, and I will tell you about what I have come up with when the time comes.