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Warlocks aka The Class That Talks Like A Pokemon
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Jul 5, 2019 15:53
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Anyone know of a good 1 session adventure for 3-4th level characters? Some of my group missed a couple sessions so I am gonna use our dead week to get them caught up with exp and gear.
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Jul 7, 2019 18:18
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The Dregs posted:Anyone know of a good 1 session adventure for 3-4th level characters? Some of my group missed a couple sessions so I am gonna use our dead week to get them caught up with exp and gear. I ran Wolves of Welton in one session and it worked pretty well, I think. Besides that, Sunless Citadel is a bit longer than a one-shot but I ran an abbreviated version that skipped all the kobold stuff, and cut down some of the exploring, and it seemed to run fine as well.
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Jul 7, 2019 19:01
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lightrook posted:I ran Wolves of Welton in one session and it worked pretty well, I think. Besides that, Sunless Citadel is a bit longer than a one-shot but I ran an abbreviated version that skipped all the kobold stuff, and cut down some of the exploring, and it seemed to run fine as well. I'll check out the Wolves. They got to level 3 in the Sunless citadel. Wait......they never did kill that dragon...
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Jul 7, 2019 19:48
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I need some advice. First a bit of backstory: I've had some experience playing DnD. Back in our late teens me and my friends had a few sessions that quickly died out, but I got a taste for the game.Then years later, in my 20s, I had a group of friends and we played a decent campaign about halfway through until the group broke apart. Great DM, his own campaigin, and it felt like we were playing how it was meant to be played. Fast forward to now. I'm 31, I've got disposable income and some time to play now. I recently (2 years ago) started a job that is fairly unique. I care for kids in foster situations on temporary basis. Basically, the kids I care for (ages 6 to 18-21) stay with me (my house is set up to accommodate up to 5 kids at a time) for weekends and school holidays, so that the foster parents can have a breather. We do this in a tiny village that's set up for this kind of work. Around half the people living here are in some way connected to the work. Half the kids living in this village live in foster families. It's an awesome concept. Tons of facilities around, ranging from sports-fields, special needs schools, places the kids can get their therapies, etc. The kids that live here (and thus, stay with me) are all special needs in one way or another. Some are developmentally challenged, other have severe ADHD or (various forms) of autism, many are just traumatized from things in from their past. There's always a reason they're in specialized foster care. Most of the people living here do some volunteer work that involves the kids as well. There's a radio station run with the help of the kids. The local restaurant has kids working there, the greenery service uses the kids for help. Just to involve them and develop life-skills and stuff. It's all pretty wonderful. I was thinking on how to participate a bit more in the community aside from doing some tutoring here and there, and when one of the girls starting showing interest in DnD (because she watches Riverdale and apparantly a DnD-esque game is part of the plot) I've been playing with the idea of starting a low entry campaign with some of the older, more capable kids. I've got the core books myself, bought a battlemat, and started browsing the available adventures, looking for a short and sweet adventure that can be done in 2 or 3 short sessions. The first one that really piqued my interest was Dead House. I got the Curse of Strahd book and I'm hooked. I'm definitely going to run that campaign some day, but probably with friends. It's just a bit too gruesome for the kids. The problem isn't so much the monsters, it's the human suffering as a result of it. The Dead House adventure seemed perfect as a introduction, except all the torture, the rapey nature of Strahd trying to turn women, etc. It all might be a bit much for my target audience. Might bring up bad memories from their past and stuff. I also don't want to overwhelm myself and the kids with too wide a world with too much politics. That made Curse of Strahd ideal as well. You've got a valley closed off from the rest of the world, and the mists as a tool to railroad the players if they head towards things I haven't prepared for yet. My question is: are there any short campaigns I can use to introduce a bunch of kids (ages 13 to 18) playing first level characters that's limited in scope and not too gruesome? I'll check out Wolves of Welton mentioned by lightrook, which seems like might be exactly what I'm looking for, but any other suggestions, advice, etc are more than appreciated. If I can't find anything suitable I'll just adapt Dead House to tone down the horror a bit and start working on my own adventures if time allows it. Thanks in advance. Taeke fucked around with this message at 01:46 on Jul 9, 2019 |
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Jul 9, 2019 01:42
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I can't think of an appropriate adventure, but I did want to say that you're kind of a saint.
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Jul 9, 2019 03:20
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You should start a GoFundMe to get some books for the kids. Having something they can take home and fuel their imaginations would probably do some good. Long before I ever played, I’d read the Players Handbook and Monster Manuals, and just let them take me places.
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Jul 9, 2019 03:45
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You might be able to rewrite CoS to work, mainly by dropping the gothic romance subplot entirely. Have Strahd obsessed with finding the reincarnation of a Vistani woman who he blames for having cursed him. A few subsections would need some revision, but the basic framework of the story could remain intact. Have Strahd's jealousy focus on the land itself, not on a woman, and have his failure to actually be a wise custodian of the land be an element in his damnation. Make community-building a centerpiece of the campaign, allowing the kids to make their own connection between the community they live in and Barovia.
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Jul 9, 2019 04:52
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Taeke posted:I need some advice. I have no specific advice about which products to buy but I've been running RPGs for traumatised young people for a while and also helping out people who do tabletop games for kids with different needs so if you wanna chat about it or have specific questions feel free to PM me. But definitely use X cards or something similar: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SB0jsx34bWHZWbnNIVVuMjhDkrdFGo1_hSC2BWPlI3A/edit Elector_Nerdlingen fucked around with this message at 05:00 on Jul 9, 2019 |
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Jul 9, 2019 04:57
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IMO just run Curse of Strahd in a spooky-like-Halloween manner and treat the main plot like Castlevania - the players need to fight spooky stuff and help downtrodden people and collect artifacts until they are strong enough to bust down Introduce them to the world and give them some simple sidequests around the village of Barovia until they get a few levels and figure out how things work, then follow the main quest but tone down any of the depressing or cruel stuff and get rid of the vampire courtship stuff. People in the land are sad because there's a mean vampire living in a castle on the mountain above them and need heroes to beat him up to free the land.
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Jul 9, 2019 05:23
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Taeke posted:Thanks in advance. What you're doing sounds great but honestly all the official adventures are various degrees of miserable depressionfests if you run them by the book. Just flip things around and make everything a lot brighter tonally for all of them depending on your skillset. Castlevania tongue in cheek, kick the door in for Curse of Stradh if you want to run that. If you're more comfortable redesigning encounter then maybe the original Hoard of the Dragon Queen is the way to go as its very much a 'evil cult people lets go stop them!' type of adventure, its just the combat encounters are a mess.
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Jul 9, 2019 05:56
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Taeke posted:I need some advice. I know this is the D&D 5e thread and not the What System Should I Use thread, but in all honesty I don't really know if D&D is gonna be a good fit. Sure, you can try and tweak things here and there to make it a bit less Killbilly Deluxe, but you might get a bit more mileage out of something specifically designed to be less grimdark. Given what you're telling us, something like Beyond the Wall might be a little more up your alley here. It's based more on themes from YA-novels (so less gore and more "save the village"), has a decent variety of playbooks to be able to build and run characters with a minimum of fuss, and directly gets everybody at the table involved with worldbuilding and character interaction right from the start (so less work from you as the GM right out of the gates). It still hits a lot of the fantasy notes that D&D does, but it's not as rules-heavy or murder-happy in doing so.
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Jul 9, 2019 07:03
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Taeke posted:I need some advice. Danger Patrol is free and the definition of lighthearted but only really suitable for one shots and technically unfinished: http://www.dangerpatrol.com/ (it's my favourite game, PM me if you have any questions) Also technically the world got nuked E: The One Ring and Fellowship are two explicitly Tolkien games Splicer fucked around with this message at 07:58 on Jul 9, 2019 |
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Jul 9, 2019 07:49
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LMoP isn't particularly dark and gritty, I thought? Pretty standard "fight some evil guys" stuff. Definitely nothing close to CoS.
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Jul 9, 2019 08:02
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History Comes Inside! posted:LMoP isn't particularly dark and gritty, I thought? Pretty standard "fight some evil guys" stuff. I mean you're right thats the other one thats pretty safe good vs evil stuff and the darker stuff is easy to write out.
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Jul 9, 2019 08:03
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D&D as a rule does assume an adolescent fascination with violence and sometimes titties.
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Jul 9, 2019 08:11
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Yeah. The best way would probably be to find an adventure that's about the right length and just reskin everything into spoopy skellingtons or oozes or whatever monsters aren't going to trigger any issues with anyone.
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Jul 9, 2019 11:51
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Taeke posted:I need some advice. If you want to just dip their toes in Strahd in a Castlevania, go kill Dracula, way you could do a modified version like this: https://www.dndbeyond.com/posts/359-strahd-must-die-tonight-how-to-play-ravenloft-in-a There’s some neat advice and rules in there about turning it into a one shot. Save the full campaign for your friends. Besides Strahd, I can’t recommend anything first hand but I think the adventure in the new essential kit has gotten some good buzz, The Dragon of Ice Spire Peak.
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Jul 9, 2019 14:09
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thespaceinvader posted:Yeah. Do a Super Mario Bros. campaign. "Oh no, a goofy turtle monster has captured the princess! And is taking her out to a spa! Go rescue her!"
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Jul 9, 2019 14:42
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Lost Mines of Phadelver is a good one, goblin raiders and exploring an old temple etc. If you did want to keep Curse of Strahd you can make him oppressive by oppressively taxing people so that they're barely getting by and ensnaring both men and women etc. I wouldn't tone it down too much into Disney crap, leaving a little crunch and grit is going to be fine especially for older kids.
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Jul 9, 2019 15:53
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I don't think that D&D is an issue here, but I do think that Curse of Strahd is probably a poor fit as a first adventure given everything you've talked about. It's a dark, sprawling, narrative-driven, roleplaying-heavy campaign - so you'd need to do quite a bit of adjustment to get what you want out of it. I'd suggest checking out some of the Adventurers League modules, since they are shorter and more episodic, not to mention tend to be lighter fare generally. They give you everything you need for a party to get together, do some adventuring, beat up some baddies, and come home. You can find episode summaries here (https://dndadventurersleague.org/storyline-seasons/). I particularly liked the Storm King's Thunder set; "In Dire Need" was basically a perfect adventure, with some roleplaying in a town where players are asked to save some lost dwarves, followed by a wildland trek for all the Druids and Rangers to shine, then a mini-boss, followed by a set-piece where you have to sneak past a troll/giant camp, then something of a mystery as you explore a sacred site that the dwarves are defending, and concluding with an explosive finish. To my mind, the AL episodes really don't get the attention that they deserve. The big campaigns get all the attention, but even adult players sometimes struggle to maintain the kind of focus that's needed to play out these sweeping epics without forgetting details or losing interest. And honestly these little adventures tend to be a bit better written on the whole - the narrower scope lends itself to tighter writing and better balance. Kaal fucked around with this message at 16:41 on Jul 9, 2019 |
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Jul 9, 2019 16:30
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It'd be somewhat challenging but maybe you could save strahd by making it like, a straight up haunted house? Like you're in a park designed to scare adventurers and the stuff is scary and threatening but also not so serious? Like strahd can be a ridiculous "I vant to suck your blood" type vampire and some of the monsters are people in costume. Maybe have an NPC guy who plays a zombie drop the act because he's had a bad day and become their friend? Maybe they can sneak "off-grounds" and find hospital that treats the actors who the players have stabbed and shot and fireballed? That's definitely not the easiest approach, but I think it'd be doable if you really like this adventure. I'm not a big fan of WotC modules in general but strahd seems like a decent one.
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Jul 9, 2019 16:48
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Thanks for the advice and recommendations everyone! Seriously, it helps me a lot. I think I'm going to stick with Strahd but tone it down just a bit. It doesn't have to be Disney-friendly. The youngest kid I'll be playing with is 14, and I'd let her watch Stranger Things, just to give you an idea. It's just that all of them have pretty severe abandonment issues, which gave me pause. My plan now is to run a session or two over the summer and do Dead House, but I'll adjust some things. Spoilers for those who are yet to play Strahd. I'll do away with the whole human sacrifice to please Strahd bit and instead have an actual monster in the basement. The parents are still alive but Strahd kidnapped them, giving them a reason to go to the castle aside from just 'gotta kill the bad guy'. Walter is still alive, giving them a reason to explore the house. That kind of thing. That should be a good introduction to the game, and if Dead House is a success I can continue with Strahd after the summer. Gotta save the parents is a great hook to keep them coming back after the summer. I like the Vistani, so I'll keep them in, and I think I can tone down the other elements enough to make it work. The crazy priest's son was still turned, but it's only been a couple of days instead of a year and there's an old artifact at a second location that there's a family connection to that might work to reverse the vampirism, that kind of stuff. The fact that it's a bit roleplaying-heavy is actually a plus. I think it'll keep the kids that are less interested in combat hooked and it's an opportunity for them to think about and practice social skills, empathy, etc. It'll be a small group to start with, 2 or 3 kids, so I'll be having my own NPC character join the party anyway. It'll give me the opportunity to set the tone, push them in the right direction, and offer comic relief. I was thinking an Ash from the Evil Dead type of character, or a bumbling old magician if the group needs a caster. Elector_Nerdlingen posted:I have no specific advice about which products to buy but I've been running RPGs for traumatised young people for a while and also helping out people who do tabletop games for kids with different needs so if you wanna chat about it or have specific questions feel free to PM me. It's my first time being the DM, so that makes me a bit anxious as well. I have no idea how things will play out. I'll read up on other pre-made adventures just in case they like the game but don't like Strahd, and if all else fails I've got a whole summer to cook something up myself.
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Jul 9, 2019 17:02
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Kaal posted:I don't think that D&D is an issue here, but I do think that Curse of Strahd is probably a poor fit as a first adventure given everything you've talked about. It's a dark, sprawling, narrative-driven, roleplaying-heavy campaign - so you'd need to do quite a bit of adjustment to get what you want out of it. I'd suggest checking out some of the Adventurers League modules, since they are shorter and more episodic, not to mention tend to be lighter fare generally. They give you everything you need for a party to get together, do some adventuring, beat up some baddies, and come home. Speaking of Strahd I know Misty Fortunes and Absent Hearts is supposed to be CoS adjacent but like what are those adventures actually about? Can you or someone give me a rough breakdown? I'm running CoS and if there's more stuff or just different interesting stuff in those that I can integrate into my campaign I'd love to hear about it. My party is already Level 5 and has done Death House, Barovia Village, Vallaki and are now at the Wizard of Wines so I don't know if it's too late to merge anything.
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Jul 9, 2019 17:47
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Taeke posted:I need some advice. I might qualify myself as contrarian here, but try and separate yourself from what your adult politics tell you and realize that kids are usually smarter than they are given credit when it comes to the perils of messaging. Especially in the 13-18 range. Also, while I don't like D&D 5E, most of us learned RPGs on versions of D&D that are harder to learn.
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Jul 9, 2019 19:59
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I'm gonna start playing a Druid who was exiled to a swamp for being a mad apothecary and having an experiment go wrong. I want to make some unusual mystery potions to hand out to party members. Is there any good resource or DM Guild materials for making new and unusual potions?
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Jul 9, 2019 20:50
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Sodomy Hussein posted:I might qualify myself as contrarian here, but try and separate yourself from what your adult politics tell you and realize that kids are usually smarter than they are given credit when it comes to the perils of messaging. Especially in the 13-18 range. I appreciate what you're saying here, but it's not about politics or some "won't somebody think of the children?!-morality. It's that I have to be careful with certain subjects and themes. Like, I'd never include a scene where a father (possessed by a demon or vampire for example) murders the mother in front of the kids, because that's literally the kind of thing some of these kids went through. Even if they themselves didn't experience such a thing, they for sure have friends who did. On the other hand, a part of dealing with such trauma is being able to handle it in certain, controlled, settings. It might even be therapeutic and beneficial and give them the opportunity to deal with things from the past from a new perspective, a bit more removed than talking about their own experiences. It's a delicate balance to find, and I'm going to discuss my plans with the primary caregivers and/or therapists/behavioural scientists just to be save.
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Jul 9, 2019 20:51
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Epi Lepi posted:Speaking of Strahd I know Misty Fortunes and Absent Hearts is supposed to be CoS adjacent but like what are those adventures actually about? Can you or someone give me a rough breakdown? I'm running CoS and if there's more stuff or just different interesting stuff in those that I can integrate into my campaign I'd love to hear about it. Typically you can think of those adventure seasons as being optional side missions. They're great for adding detail and flexibility to an existing campaign, particularly if you have a party that likes to go off-trail as it were. I recommend being fairly choosy about what you want to do, since they tend to support fairly specific gameplay - maybe your players would enjoy it, maybe not. You'd likely want to browse through their actual text in order to decide what to include, but here's a decent overview: https://amp.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/58tcgc/is_it_possiblerecommended_to_mix_ddal04_modules/ Kaal fucked around with this message at 21:11 on Jul 9, 2019 |
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Jul 9, 2019 21:09
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Taeke posted:I appreciate what you're saying here, but it's not about politics or some "won't somebody think of the children?!-morality. I don't think you should run curse of strahd at all if you are concerned about this, as nearly every quest or event links to the books theme of family and abuse Proud Rat Mom fucked around with this message at 22:17 on Jul 9, 2019 |
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Jul 9, 2019 21:20
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Hey, I'm running my Paladin that turned into a werewolf from another game into this one and the DM is fine with it. A lot of the stuff was homebrewed and I think by level ten my Paladin would've gotten a handle on the situation. So I'm standing by with my Oath of Vengeance Paladin and I think a STR Lycan Blood Hunter would be a good dip instead of trying to run by a bunch of different homebrew things that probably wouldn't be applicable to someone experienced with their Lycanthropy. I know it might be a little MAD but I know I want to focus on STR instead of dexterity. Does anyone have any suggestions for Vengeance Paladin and Lycan Blood Hunter multiclass that will help me get the most out of my choice? I appreciate the help. I usually wouldn't ask but there's a hell of a lot with Blood Hunters and I'd like to see what would be fun stuff.
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Jul 9, 2019 22:30
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Stick to Paladin and follow the Lycanthropy rules from the Monster Manual.
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Jul 9, 2019 23:20
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So I've got a Protector Aasimar level 4 warlock/level 7 sorcerer, and last night I quickened up 6 eldritch blasts and after 2 crits I ended up doing 83 damage in one turn. I'm new to the thread, but why the hell are sorlocks so OP? I didn't know sorlocks had a reputation before I made this character.
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Jul 9, 2019 23:51
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graham cracker posted:So I've got a Protector Aasimar level 4 warlock/level 7 sorcerer, and last night I quickened up 6 eldritch blasts and after 2 crits I ended up doing 83 damage in one turn. I'm new to the thread, but why the hell are sorlocks so OP? I didn't know sorlocks had a reputation before I made this character. Their item-agnostic damage dealing is at the higher end of the optimization spectrum, and they achieve it through the application of a couple very simple mechanical interactions, while maintaining a high degree of versatility from their Sorcerer spellcasting progression. Basically they have very obvious (and other not so obvious) strengths, with few shortcomings. They can do better than your character, even: Half-Elf with Elven Accuracy, Sorc 9/Hexblade 2 and combo Devil's Sight + Darkness + Hexblade's Curse.
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Jul 10, 2019 00:07
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Proud Rat Mom posted:I don't think you should run curse of strahd at all if you are concerned about this, as nearly every quest or event links to the books theme of family and abuse Yeah vampires aren't a great antagonist type if you don't want abuse-adjacent themes. To remove the archetypal abuser stuff is to remove the behavior that makes them recognisably vampires. Edit: from past experience someone's gonna want to respond to this as if the topic isn't gaming with actual children who have literally been abused, so here's the reminder up front.
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Jul 10, 2019 00:37
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In the interests of science I drove to Target the other day and bought the new Essentials Kit, an these are my thoughts on it: TL;DR: Best box set since 4e Essentials DM Kit Details: As a physical product, this blows the original Starter Set out of the water. More dice, more complete rules, better-quality rulebooks (cardstock covers and square bindings, pretty much equivalent to a trade paperback comic book), and extras you can actually use: a DM screen, poster map, several sheets of perforated cardstock cards that serve as various player handouts, a tuck box for storing said cards, and those sweet, sweet DnD Beyond codes. Great choices were made, as well. For example, a pet peeve of mine is when a product comes with DM-specific poster maps, which IMO are completely useless. You can't lay them out on the table for your players, or easily unfold them for reference behind your DM screen, where you really need a small version of the map, so what are you supposed to do with them? Here we get a poster with un-annotated player-facing maps of the northern Sword Coast on one side (the exact same area as was used in LMoP) and Phandalin on the other. The extra d20 and d6s and d10% in the dice are handy. The handout cards include one each of every combat condition in the game, 3 combat order reference cards, a Charm (buff) that you can obtain in the adventure, every magic item you can obtain in the adventure, 9 Sidekick character reference cards, 9 Quests which can be completed in the adventure, and...the one complete dud of a sheet: 9 initiative order cards (who the hell will use these?). The DM screen has the exact same reference info as the DM Screen Reincarnated, in a slightly condensed format (to fit 4x 8.5"x8.5" square panels instead of 8.5"x11" panels), and great art. They also included character creation in the rules this time, gave us an extra class (bard); 2 subraces each for dwarf, elf and halfling (no variant human, because no Feat rules), and 2 subclasses for each class, so new players have more interesting choices to make as they build and develop their characters. Unfortunately, for some inexplicable and completely rear end-headed reason, they decided to only present the dice rolling method for generating ability scores (gently caress THIS). The sidekick rules help make the game more playable with fewer players (I'm skeptical how well it will work 1 on 1, but I think a 2-3 player party with a sidekick or two will be completely fine), and also to that end, the adventure is structured so that encounters automatically scale based on the number of players. The adventure is also great (more on that below). For reference, these are the subclasses you get for each class: Bard: Lore/Valor Cleric: Life/War Fighter: Champion/Eldritch Knight Rogue: Arcane Trickster/Thief Wizard: Evocation/Transmutation Finally, I can't ignore the included codes. Buy the box and you get the full digital module, including maps, monster/item assets, and all adventure text on DnD Beyond, plus free extra mini-modules that serve as sequels to expand the campaign (upcoming, not yet available), plus 50% off the digital PHB. This is fantastic and you should buy this box and redeem those codes just to convince Wizards to keep doing this in future products. I did have a few nitpicks: Rolling dice for abilities is garbage-tier. I guess that's how they justified including 4d6 in the dice set, but they really should be steering people toward point-buy. Dice color isn't my favorite DM screen could have been on slightly thicker, more rugged cardstock, it tends to bow quite a bit. They've used sturdier card stock that lays flatter in the past. I'm not a fan of the perforated cardstock they used for the handouts and would have preferred card sheets more in line with what they did for the power cards in the 4e Essentials red box. The magic item and charm cards could have had an illustration of the item/charm on one side, like the combat condition and sidekick reference cards have, instead of just saying "Magic Item" or "Magic Charm" in the same boring font. The initiative order cards are literally a waste of cardstock and could have been an extra sheet of conditions, more character sheets, or a sturdier DM screen instead. The adventure once again is based around the mining boomtown of Phandalin, which Chris Perkins said in an interview, is supposed to be a lot like Deadwood. I totally see it, and when I play this I am completely making Halia Thornton (the Zhentarim agent who runs the Miner's Exchange) a female version of Swearingen and Harbin Wester (the pompous town master) an E.B. Farnum analog. Other NPCs don't translate as directly but these two stood out to me bright as day. I think I might have Adabra Gwynn (a new NPC this time around) sort of take after Doc Cochran, and Sister Garaele (who is supposed to be out of town for this adventure) be a bit wacky like Reverend Smith. Like in Lost Mine, it would have been nice if we were presented summaries of the relationships and power dynamics between the various NPCs, but since it's left more or less undefined, we can flesh those out to fit our own narrative - the one which involves our foul mouthed Zhentarim power-broker pulling every string she can get her fingers on and using our mealy-mouthed fop as a front-man while she really runs the town. Structurally, the adventure is composed of 9 main quests, and 4 optional side quests/exploration areas, each of which are designed to be completable in a single session. This is a pretty good idea if you can pace it correctly, but the adventure doesn't really offer a lot of guidance to new DMs on how to maintain that pace, or even note that this was the goal of how they designed it the way they did. Plot-wise, the quests are all related to the fallout of a dragon setting up its new lair on a nearby mountain, and they doled out by the town master who posts them on a job board outside his house but otherwise refuses to come outside or open his door because he's afraid of the dragon. This is kind of funny, but could easily get old. Some of the quests include going to help locals who have had their farm ransacked by rampaging orcs (who have become homeless due to the dragon moving into their mountain fortress), reclaiming an abandoned dwarven fortress to use as a refuge for townsfolk afraid of dragon attacks, asking a clan of gnomes for any inventions they might have that would help fight a dragon, and raiding the tomb of a dead dragon-slayer for her magic sword. Several of these quests turn into something completely different when the party takes them on. For example, the gnomes can't help because one of their kings has imprisoned the other one, and there is a serial killer in their cave town they need help rooting out. Many of the optional side-quests have multiple links to the various job-board quests, or can be uncovered through rumors the adventurers hear in town. The most interesting one of these for me, the Tower of Storms (which is also the quest with the best/most loot in the module), only shows up in one rumor though, so I might find ways to make it more appealing for my players. The adventure isn't perfect though. Some of the quests suffer a bit from the desire to condense them into one session. They are presented as large, rather fleshed-out locations, but then very sparsely populated with monsters or treasure, making them feel very empty. For example, Axeholme, the abandoned dwarven fortress is huge - 30 keyed rooms, all lovingly mapped out and described in great detail - but boils down to one fight with some spiders, one fight with some stirges, one fight with a banshee, and 3 fights with some ghouls, which, as written will probably be condensed down to one big fight with a lot of ghouls. The stirge and banshee fights are easily bypassed, neither attacks unless the players bother them, and neither have any loot (although it's not necessarily obvious that they don't have loot). The treasure in the whole dungeon is: a bog-standard holy symbol of Moradin, a potion of greater healing, and a 5gp ring on one of the ghouls, which also unlocks the locked chest containing the real treasure, but which of course is also hidden behind a secret door in an otherwise empty bedroom. That chest contains a dread helm and gauntlets of ogre power for characters lucky enough to find it. That and exactly 1/2 of an experience level, using the adventures 2-quests = 1 level milestone system, are all the characters get for completing this level 5 quest. The final dungeon in the game, Icespire Hold, home of the dragon Cryovain, is even worse: 23 rooms, containing: 3 stirges, the dragon, and a group of 4 npcs hiding in the entrance waiting for the dragon to go hunting so they can rob its treasure, and who may or may not fight the PCs for the right to do so. Jokes on them if they win, the only treasure in the whole place is: a bag containing 22.7 gp worth of coins, a cracked spyglass worth 100gp, a broken wooden chair inlaid with six branches of red coral worth 25gp each, and an "elegant-looking" nonmagical greataxe. Congratulations! You fought the dragon and won the adventure! Here's 273gp! And an extra greataxe in case your fighter loses the one you started with! A decent DM will be able to fix these issues without much trouble, by restocking what are otherwise some fine dungeons with more appropriate dangers and rewards, but a new DM might not notice these problems and some players may be disappointed by rather lackluster resolutions to what should have been two of the most exciting parts of the adventure. Gripes with dungeon inventory aside, this adventure is great. I didn't get into it but the orc tribe which serves as a secondary villain to the dragon is also a very cool cult dedicated to the storm-god Talos. They have awesome shape-shifting thunder-shamans and they can summon Gorthok the Thunder Boar who loves frolicking through the forest and smashing everything with its lightning tusks and thunder hooves. They make me want to roll up an evil moon-druid/tempest-cleric build so that I too can be friends with Gorthok the Thunder Boar and revel in wanton electrocarnage. Also, it mixes together very well with Lost Mine into a larger campaign. As the characters work to save the Rockseekers and reclaim Wave Echo Mine, the surrounding area can gradually fall to chaos due to the arrival of the new dragon. Substitute some of the earlier quests in Icespire Peak for some of the less interesting ones in Lost Mine. Scale up some of the bigger encounters and locations in both adventures as characters grow a few levels higher than they "should" be if you were running only one or the other. Make the dragon a bit older/tougher, and give it an actual horde worth fighting for, and I think you've got a great campaign spanning levels 1 through 9 or 10. That's probably how I am going to run it, anyway. I don't feel at all ripped off for shelling out $25 for this box, but if the preorder price on CoolStuff is anything to go by, you'll be able to get pretty deep discounts on it if you want to wait out Target's exclusivity deal and pick it up in September. St0rmD fucked around with this message at 01:54 on Jul 10, 2019 |
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Jul 10, 2019 01:45
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Elector_Nerdlingen posted:Yeah vampires aren't a great antagonist type if you don't want abuse-adjacent themes. To remove the archetypal abuser stuff is to remove the behavior that makes them recognisably vampires. I guess part of running CoS is how you frame the story. There's a big difference between fighting an established vampire who has been victimizing communities for generations, and preventing a vampire from fully establishing himself and saving the local community from abuse; the former is plays more into horror (i.e. things were awful before you got here and they'll still awful when you leave) while the latter is more of a conventional heroic fantasy story (i.e. you saved the day and everyone lives happily ever after). I'm not really an expert on CoS, but I wonder if it's possible to reframe the story so Strahd moved in only very recently, instead of being some eternal evil from time immemorial. But the other option is to just run a more conventional heroic fantasy adventure story that ends with the players saving the day and feeling heroic and everything is great afterwards. It seems like the adventure packaged with the Essentials kit is the new definitive starting adventure, moreso than LMoP? Although that's arguably not a high bar with all critiques against Lost Mines.
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Jul 10, 2019 03:51
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Taeke posted:Thanks for the advice and recommendations everyone! Seriously, it helps me a lot. I'm not gonna try to steer you away from D&D in the sense of "don't play that; play this," but you might consider Masks, a Teen Titans/Young Avengers type superhero game as well. What I really like about it (and what might be extra good for a group of teens) is that characters feel very real in terms of big futures ahead of them, but ordinary teenager problems like obligations to family, struggling to find oneself, etc. https://www.magpiegames.com/masks/
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Jul 10, 2019 04:47
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Taeke posted:I don't have PMs but thanks for this, I'll definitely use it, just in case. You can also reach me at my username at protonmail, I don't check it very often but I'll definitely get back to you sooner or later.
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Jul 10, 2019 05:21
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I have never played DnD but an old friend from high school has an opening and my evening is free and I really need to get some time out of the drat house. I'm going to be a Wereraven playable NPC. If I do anything I want to do it balls to the wall, beautiful, brilliant. How do I best play this character, thanks in advance 
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Jul 10, 2019 18:14
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Do a Super Mario Bros. campaign. "Oh no, a goofy turtle monster has captured the princess! And is taking her out to a spa! Go rescue her!" "Barovia's greatest heroes have been kidnapped by vampires. Are you a bad enough dude to rescue them?"
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Jul 10, 2019 18:20
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