CHART A COURSE IN THE WILDS
Venture into the wilds with this kit for the world's greatest roleplaying game.
This kit equips the Dungeon Master with a screen and other tools that are perfect for running D&D adventures in the wilderness.
The Dungeon Master’s screen features a gorgeous painting of fantasy landscapes on the outside, and useful rules references cover the inside of the screen, with an emphasis on wilderness rules. The kit also includes the following:
5 dry-erase sheets, featuring hex maps, a food-and-water tracker, and rules references (wilderness chases, wilderness journeys, and the actions you can take in combat)
27 cards that make it easy to keep track of conditions, initiative, and environmental effects
1 box to hold the kit's cards
On the one hand, I have been really wanting exactly this product lately to the point of stitching stuff together from a bunch of non d&d products like One Ring and Middle Earth Roleplaying (and reading but not wanting to use a bunch more). And especially those two amazing 1st ed books the Wilderness Survival Guide and Dungeoneers Survival Guide.
But given all the 5e work so far I dont see how their current team could make this good. They seem just incapable of coming up with good, tested rules for game procedures outside of combat (and in combat is at best ok). I expect more "random tables" with 10 entries when they'd need 100 to be worth using. Like the wild magic from the phb. And those tables are just gonna be cut down versions of ones from 1st ed anyway (where most of the random tables in 5e come from).
CHART A COURSE IN THE WILDS
Venture into the wilds with this kit for the world's greatest roleplaying game.
This kit equips the Dungeon Master with a screen and other tools that are perfect for running D&D adventures in the wilderness.
The Dungeon Master’s screen features a gorgeous painting of fantasy landscapes on the outside, and useful rules references cover the inside of the screen, with an emphasis on wilderness rules. The kit also includes the following:
5 dry-erase sheets, featuring hex maps, a food-and-water tracker, and rules references (wilderness chases, wilderness journeys, and the actions you can take in combat)
27 cards that make it easy to keep track of conditions, initiative, and environmental effects
1 box to hold the kit's cards
On the one hand, I have been really wanting exactly this product lately to the point of stitching stuff together from a bunch of non d&d products like One Ring and Middle Earth Roleplaying (and reading but not wanting to use a bunch more). And especially those two amazing 1st ed books the Wilderness Survival Guide and Dungeoneers Survival Guide.
But given all the 5e work so far I dont see how their current team could make this good. They seem just incapable of coming up with good, tested rules for game procedures outside of combat (and in combat is at best ok). I expect more "random tables" with 10 entries when they'd need 100 to be worth using. Like the wild magic from the phb. And those tables are just gonna be cut down versions of ones from 1st ed anyway (where most of the random tables in 5e come from).
The Wilderness Survival Guide is amazing. I took all of its random weather tables (of which there are many) and put them in a spreadsheet to generate random weather years at a time for my hexcrawl game.
CHART A COURSE IN THE WILDS
Venture into the wilds with this kit for the world's greatest roleplaying game.
This kit equips the Dungeon Master with a screen and other tools that are perfect for running D&D adventures in the wilderness.
The Dungeon Master’s screen features a gorgeous painting of fantasy landscapes on the outside, and useful rules references cover the inside of the screen, with an emphasis on wilderness rules. The kit also includes the following:
5 dry-erase sheets, featuring hex maps, a food-and-water tracker, and rules references (wilderness chases, wilderness journeys, and the actions you can take in combat)
27 cards that make it easy to keep track of conditions, initiative, and environmental effects
1 box to hold the kit's cards
On the one hand, I have been really wanting exactly this product lately to the point of stitching stuff together from a bunch of non d&d products like One Ring and Middle Earth Roleplaying (and reading but not wanting to use a bunch more). And especially those two amazing 1st ed books the Wilderness Survival Guide and Dungeoneers Survival Guide.
But given all the 5e work so far I dont see how their current team could make this good. They seem just incapable of coming up with good, tested rules for game procedures outside of combat (and in combat is at best ok). I expect more "random tables" with 10 entries when they'd need 100 to be worth using. Like the wild magic from the phb. And those tables are just gonna be cut down versions of ones from 1st ed anyway (where most of the random tables in 5e come from).
The Wilderness Survival Guide is amazing. I took all of its random weather tables (of which there are many) and put them in a spreadsheet to generate random weather years at a time for my hexcrawl game.
Based on the 5e books so far the weather table in the new product will probably be a d4 with something like:
1) Clear
2) Rain
3) A portal to the plane of fire rips the sky apart. 1d6 fireballs per minute rain down from the sky.
4) I dunno make the DM decide
And because of #4 most people will say the system works perfectly.
Well, immediate question (I know nothing about this module other than MAD MAX IN HELL)
Will the hideout stay in place? CAN the hideout stay in place?
If you want to ease the difficulty up, have the players catch the cultists mid-evacuation. OR mid attempting to fortify. Your players are long resting, right? Play the cultists up as paranoid - they're going alll in on this fortification jam, and that's the problem - they're going all in when they just need to be doing the bare minimum.
If you do wanna be mean: Traps, traps traps. Objectives have been moved. Treasure has been lost. Is that one cultist holding explosive candles and running at the party while sounding awfully like a grunt from halo? Maybe!
You could also have whatever they've done help signal what's coming up next.
Finally: Cultists are still human. They might be evil loonies, but they've just suffered a home invasion that presumably left a whoel chunk of em dead. That's gotta have an impact on morale. Maybe they want to hunt the players down!
The hideout in question is
Under a bathhouse, carved out of rock. The cultists could just pick up and move, but part of the story here is that there's also some strife with the cultists getting some orders to kill the person who was sent to lead them. Players are supposed to stumble upon that and get some info from those folks at the end. So I suppose it could be a situation of "boss man heard there was trouble, came to investigate, cultists are trying to leave, boss man disagrees, fight ensues, everyone's stuck for a bit until the players show up" kind of thing. So some surely got out, some treasure is gone, but many are still in there, arguing?
Definitely some good options to play with. And they're not even
in hell yet!
Well, follow up question would be:" How did everyone coming to the bath house react to a bunch of mangled advnetuers staggeirng out". Like.. bathhouses do not normally exist just by themselves in teh wilderness. Even if it's some sort of natural spring bathhouse up in the mountains, there should be ther guests etcera.
This being dnd, it's possible that it's all by itself and had no other guests and your party members walked in going this is fine, i love the ambidence. They are after all, advnetuers, and therefore a rare and deeply stupid yet brillaint species quite apart from "people"
But it's equally likely the town guard is going Oh shit oh shit and your advneuters are ariving mid during this and everyhtings goign to hell.
My Nangalore side quest in SKT ended yesterday after two sessions. It went incredibly well! The party seemed very engrossed in the mystery/history of the place and its prime inhabitant. They engaged in a pleasant, if narcotic filled, conversation with Zalkore (not yet revealed to be a Medusa, but they had a good idea) until it tuned not so pleasant.
She whipped off her veil, catching 4 PC in her gaze. Starting the petrification process on the wizard and immediately turning the bard to stone. The Oathbow wielding rogue however made his save and critted for 70-ish damage! Cleric moved up and got some decent lumps in. Then Zalkore acted again, called in her lover for help and tried to get out from being almost surrounded and pummelled with an arrow sticking out of her heart. The party smelled blood, even though the Medusa got into a position where she could level her gaze again and catch a few more of them. Then her half dozen Eblis got involved and pretty much stunned everyone with hypnotic patterns. Barbarian and cleric both sidelined, wizard more worried about himself turning to stone. Second rogue staring at the pretty feathers. Cleric rolling a 1 on her save, used inspiration, and then rolling another nat1!! With most of the party disabled, they were ripe to turn into statues. In the space of a few turns, still on round 1, the party went from elated to deflated! Round two comes around and that MOTHERFUCKING ROGUE WITH THE GAWDDAMN OATHBOW LANDS ANOTHER CRIT!!! Well, Zalkore is now dead in the reflecting pool and everyone cheers. Party wizard shakes off the petrification and tosses a fireball, smoking most of the Eblis and causing the rest to fly away. What a rollercoaster!
Then, in realizing that 7th level clerics cannot cast greater restoration (oops, my bad) I threw some potions into the loot pile. One of which was Stone to Flesh. Now the party can bamf back to Yartar with the Black Orchid in hand and collect their reward!
Oh boy, I volunteered to run a short one shot tonight after I get off work. Gotta come up with some encounter ideas!
I was thinking the party had been sent to find and take care of a beast that has been causing issues for a local town. I was going to play a little game I got in the itch.io bundle called "Have You Heard About The Beast?" where each player is given several cues and they take turns making up ridiculous facts about the beast. Turns out they're all true, down to the letter, and then they'll have to go find and slay it or drive it off somehow. I have no idea what sort of abomination they'll create, nor how I'm going to stat it lol. They'll be level 3 characters with a minor magic item each. I don't know about creating a creature that's somewhat at their skill level but I'll figure something out.
I was also thinking of having them do some skill checks for crossing a terrain feature, like crossing a ravine or climbing up a difficult ledge, maybe at a transition from forest to mountain? Maybe a series of skill checks for it? And maybe have some other stuff nearby that will let them get creative with solutions?
Also was thinking of having them fight the creature once or twice and have it run away. Once they track it to it's lair, they'll find it has some babies and maybe some eggs too or something, and it will be protecting them. They can decide to just murderhobo it up, or drive it away somehow, or just leave it be. If they choose one of the latter two options, some villagers will show up and try to kill it instead and the party will have to fight them off.
I'm just talking out loud here, trying to crystalize my ideas, but if y'all have any suggestions or criticisms please let me know.
Does all that sound stupid and generic? It's just gonna be a quick session, something easy to run and play so we can all get back in the swing of things since I haven't DMed in awhile and none of this group has even played in a longer while (it's my Spelljammer group)
Does all that sound stupid and generic? It's just gonna be a quick session, something easy to run and play so we can all get back in the swing of things since I haven't DMed in awhile and none of this group has even played in a longer while (it's my Spelljammer group)
Nah, it all sounds pretty fun.
I'm going to be checky and toot my own horn here: My grand beast generator might provide some inspiration for your players, or for extra creatures to throw in.
Sounds great for a short session. The whole "Choose the form of your destructor!" is fun and montaging the journey with a Skill Challenge is always effective. Gets everyone to the meat and potatoes of killing monsters/arguing over whether to kill monsters. The real monsters are the friends we made along the way etc.
Well, immediate question (I know nothing about this module other than MAD MAX IN HELL)
Will the hideout stay in place? CAN the hideout stay in place?
If you want to ease the difficulty up, have the players catch the cultists mid-evacuation. OR mid attempting to fortify. Your players are long resting, right? Play the cultists up as paranoid - they're going alll in on this fortification jam, and that's the problem - they're going all in when they just need to be doing the bare minimum.
If you do wanna be mean: Traps, traps traps. Objectives have been moved. Treasure has been lost. Is that one cultist holding explosive candles and running at the party while sounding awfully like a grunt from halo? Maybe!
You could also have whatever they've done help signal what's coming up next.
Finally: Cultists are still human. They might be evil loonies, but they've just suffered a home invasion that presumably left a whoel chunk of em dead. That's gotta have an impact on morale. Maybe they want to hunt the players down!
The hideout in question is
Under a bathhouse, carved out of rock. The cultists could just pick up and move, but part of the story here is that there's also some strife with the cultists getting some orders to kill the person who was sent to lead them. Players are supposed to stumble upon that and get some info from those folks at the end. So I suppose it could be a situation of "boss man heard there was trouble, came to investigate, cultists are trying to leave, boss man disagrees, fight ensues, everyone's stuck for a bit until the players show up" kind of thing. So some surely got out, some treasure is gone, but many are still in there, arguing?
Definitely some good options to play with. And they're not even
in hell yet!
Well, follow up question would be:" How did everyone coming to the bath house react to a bunch of mangled advnetuers staggeirng out". Like.. bathhouses do not normally exist just by themselves in teh wilderness. Even if it's some sort of natural spring bathhouse up in the mountains, there should be ther guests etcera.
This being dnd, it's possible that it's all by itself and had no other guests and your party members walked in going this is fine, i love the ambidence. They are after all, advnetuers, and therefore a rare and deeply stupid yet brillaint species quite apart from "people"
But it's equally likely the town guard is going Oh shit oh shit and your advneuters are ariving mid during this and everyhtings goign to hell.
I ruled it as "A bunch of armed and well armored adventurers stormed into a massage room and then didn't come out after interrogating one of the masseuses so everyone left in a hurry" so that the bathhouse was empty when they got back to the surface. Although...
There's specifically some invisible imps spying on that location for another character. That character might be involved somehow...SO MANY OPTIONS
We ended up doing the bath house last week in the most efficient way
We ended up underground in the dungeon with most of the party in nothing but towels and I had to put one of the masseuses in my bag of holding because she wouldn't stop freaking out about the dead 3
about halfway through the dungeon we finally agreed that yeah we should have just SCOUTED the place during the day while using the bath house and come back later for the dungeon with our gear
after we were done we went back up and all hopped in the baths to wash the viscera off and then a bunch of tiamat cultists showed up and we convinced them to go away after giving them the dragon crown we found
fun times
I have tavern brawler so I killed 3 people with my towel
edit: bonus points was when the paladin said "wait the bard (me) has a bag of holding, why didn't we just put our clothes and armor in that?) (as I open the flap to let the poor masseuse breath every 5 minutes)
Sounds great for a short session. The whole "Choose the form of your destructor!" is fun and montaging the journey with a Skill Challenge is always effective. Gets everyone to the meat and potatoes of killing monsters/arguing over whether to kill monsters. The real monsters are the friends we made along the way etc.
That was my thought too! Excellent, yes, yes, goooooooooood
Does all that sound stupid and generic? It's just gonna be a quick session, something easy to run and play so we can all get back in the swing of things since I haven't DMed in awhile and none of this group has even played in a longer while (it's my Spelljammer group)
Nah, it all sounds pretty fun.
I'm going to be checky and toot my own horn here: My grand beast generator might provide some inspiration for your players, or for extra creatures to throw in.
On one hand, yes! Your monster generator is great lol. But on the other hand I want them to come up with the details entirely on their own, and then I'll weave them into an unholy abomination before all the gods! 😂
I'm starting a new campaign tomorrow that begins Seven-Pillared Hall (a location taken from 4E's Thunderspire Labyrinth adventure. I've made maps using Dungeon Tiles, removable adhesive, and backing board for a dwarven embassy, a duergar trading outpost, a temple to Torog, a temple to the Prime Deities, the customs house/guard headquarters, the local magic item emporium, a trading hall for smaller vendors, an open area in the hall, a bridge leading over the river that bisects the hall, a cavern leading to a duergar fortress, and the duergar fortress.
I don't expect to use all these maps, but I never know where a fight might break out.
Okay, so instead of having the players meet at a tavern, I was thinking of having my party all meet at a roadside stop during a dark and stormy night. I can't recall if those were a thing that actually existed (and what they're called) or if I'm imagining things entirely.
Regardless, I think thematically it'd be cool. Some strangers all meeting on a road in the woods, nearly pitch black except for the campfire under the awning, storm going fucking wild above and around them. Telling each other the rumors they've heard about the beast.
Hmmm, like, think of a bus stop. Just a shack by the road, open on three sides, for travelers to rest under and get out of the sun/rain for a bit. Maybe those didn't exist back in the day and I imagined them somehow
They probably did? But then some enterprising soul thought, "Hey! What if I sold food and drink to those weary travellers? And provided a safe place to rest and sleep out of the wind and rain? Maybe even a place to shelter their horses too. Yeah, that's the ticket!"
Hmmm, like, think of a bus stop. Just a shack by the road, open on three sides, for travelers to rest under and get out of the sun/rain for a bit. Maybe those didn't exist back in the day and I imagined them somehow
Yeah, I dunno but I can definitely picture similar situations or gin something up.
There is a deep dark forest a little less than a days travel from the nearest town. It would be incredibly foolish to be in the forest at night because faeries/nocturnal bears/Shelob. So right before it caravans and travelers always stop in a broad space in the road. Over time this has lead to some rude structures being created and gradually improved. There are lined fire pits, maybe a few lean-tos, even a couple that were raised up off the ground a bit.
I stole a spellcaster's arcane focus from stealth before we engaged, and the DM happily informed us that fireballs were in our future had I failed to do that (yikes! LEVEL 2!)
Hmmm, like, think of a bus stop. Just a shack by the road, open on three sides, for travelers to rest under and get out of the sun/rain for a bit. Maybe those didn't exist back in the day and I imagined them somehow
Alternatively, small shrines to (beings of importance) regarding travel can sometimes be found in places in the world. Y'know, to bring blessings on travelers traveling travels. If you (were a commoner and) believed in such things.
Okay, so instead of having the players meet at a tavern, I was thinking of having my party all meet at a roadside stop during a dark and stormy night. I can't recall if those were a thing that actually existed (and what they're called) or if I'm imagining things entirely.
Regardless, I think thematically it'd be cool. Some strangers all meeting on a road in the woods, nearly pitch black except for the campfire under the awning, storm going fucking wild above and around them. Telling each other the rumors they've heard about the beast.
If you wanted to save the headache on the details, it could just be a rocky outcropping in the side of a cliff. Deep enough to keep the rain off, not deep enough to be a cave of any sort. Pretty well known 'round these parts as a good place to wait out a storm if'n you get stuck in one out on the road.
Hmmm, like, think of a bus stop. Just a shack by the road, open on three sides, for travelers to rest under and get out of the sun/rain for a bit. Maybe those didn't exist back in the day and I imagined them somehow
Alternatively, small shrines to (beings of importance) regarding travel can sometimes be found in places in the world. Y'know, to bring blessings on travelers traveling travels. If you (were a commoner and) believed in such things.
Honestly, some kind of "Oh, there's a semi-permanent shelter here" sort of thing wouldn't be that unusal, especially if the road is decently well traveled, but not enough to justify someone building a tavern. But a merchant who goes regularly down it may have at some point set up a more solid lean-to, and other people have added to it over time - so now travelers on this road know there's a place with a roof for your beasts and flat, but sheltered ground to ptich your tents, and you refill the woodpile when you're done for the next set of travelers.
So I just learned that (according to Spelljammer at least) the illithids first came into existence in the Underdark of a world they had planned to conquer but was destroyed by demons just before they raised their own forces to the surface. A godlike entity responded to the illithids' rage at being denied the conquest of their home world's surface race. This entity transported the illithids to the moon of another planet before destroying the home world and banishing all the demons on it back to the Abyss. Survivors of the cult that had allowed the demon invasion, the Unbidden, attacked the illithids' new home in retaliation before fleeing to the Astral Plane. A great force of illithids followed to track down the Unbidden, but eventually they gave up the chase and instead began their empire.
I stole a spellcaster's arcane focus from stealth before we engaged, and the DM happily informed us that fireballs were in our future had I failed to do that (yikes! LEVEL 2!)
Yeaaaah
My players just stormed into that room and got fireballed in the face. They killed her but she's NASTY. They had to retreat back up to the top and will presumably be heading back down next session after a rest.
It's a REALLY mean dungeon for level 2 characters.
Ahh, I found out what I was thinking of is called: rest areas/rest stops! Lots of countries have them, and nowadays they're well-equipped and often have stores and such, but not always. Here's some examples that're similar to what I had in mind (though think rougher, just made of stone with a wooden roofs, perhaps firepits, stuff like what Penguin said):
Ahh, I found out what I was thinking of is called: rest areas/rest stops!
Yeah, tons of them exist on the Appalachian Trail. I imagine they wouldn't be uncommon. There's a bunch all over the Midwest, too. They used to be built along game trails or known roads between settlements. They're usually just lean-tos or half a cabin. I imagine if there's farms out in the wilderness, those guys might have one at the edge of their property. Might warn travelers not to go any further up to the actual homestead.
I'm pretty sure Japan has a history of covered roadside shrines, too.
Ahh, I found out what I was thinking of is called: rest areas/rest stops!
Yeah, tons of them exist on the Appalachian Trail. I imagine they wouldn't be uncommon. There's a bunch all over the Midwest, too. They used to be built along game trails or known roads between settlements. They're usually just lean-tos or half a cabin. I imagine if there's farms out in the wilderness, those guys might have one at the edge of their property. Might warn travelers not to go any further up to the actual homestead.
I'm pretty sure Japan has a history of covered roadside shrines, too.
So in last night's one shot I had a bunch of angry locals show up at the end since the party fell for my plan for them to befriend the beast (it was guarding it's babies!) and it was mostly just some regular peasants as cannon fodder and a CR5 dude as the main antagonist. Well the party barbarian, who I let use the Wild Soul UA, ran up, raged, rolled on the wild surge table, and blasted everyone in 30 feet with enough magical juice to kill all of the minions. Then one of the wizards enlarged him and he just put the guy in a headlock while everyone beat the shit out of him lol whoops
It was a displacer beast that lived in a cave in the woods. It had killed many local children. It was ageless and it's size changes. It can teleport short distances, and it's feet were on fire. It also had a pile of diamonds in it's lair! It's nickname was Carlitos (lol)
I basically just gave it displacer beast stats and bumped it's hp to 300, gave it a flaming kick attack in addition to it's tentacles, and let it teleport around and grow or shrink as it pleased. I made it's babies just regular displacer beast cubs and each party member has one as a pet now, except for the party bladesinger who befriended Carlitos itself lol
So, they're just not bothered by the child eating thing or....?
They figure the beast was just hungry and was snatching up easy prey to feed itself and it's cubs (kittens?). They'll feed them regular (non-humanoid) meat and teach them good manners.
Failing that, they'll find some tasty children to feed them. Fuck it, they ain't their kids so who cares
Just some updates on sixth edition, the new D&D edition what I am in charge of making:
1. Going forward it will now be referred to as Dungeons and Dragons for Glory: Extreme ReMake.
2. Backgrounds now come with preset Background Feats.
3. Races have been replaced with Cultures and Heritages. Mix and match to find what fits your concept best. You are no longer bound by forced ability score bonuses upon character creation, instead it is +2/+1 to any ability scores you wish.
4. Warlord is back as a main class. Sub-classes remain, along with the new d3000 Nuance Table which grants you bonus abilities every odd level.
5. We’ll be publishing the new campaign setting Olliberron, tales of heroic skaters fighting the Man along the west coast of a magic-tech state, as the edition’s default setting.
6. Greyhawk has been rebranded Gayhawk. Free Pride flags with every purchase of the Dungeon Master’s Guide along with a pamphlet on how not to be a fascist pig get out of my hobby you bastards.
7. 16 flumph variants in the Monster Manual.
8. The alignment system, while I wouldn’t go so far as to say is replaced, as it is beloved by many, has been discreetly moved to a nice farm, where it will live a long, happy life.
Posts
On the one hand, I have been really wanting exactly this product lately to the point of stitching stuff together from a bunch of non d&d products like One Ring and Middle Earth Roleplaying (and reading but not wanting to use a bunch more). And especially those two amazing 1st ed books the Wilderness Survival Guide and Dungeoneers Survival Guide.
But given all the 5e work so far I dont see how their current team could make this good. They seem just incapable of coming up with good, tested rules for game procedures outside of combat (and in combat is at best ok). I expect more "random tables" with 10 entries when they'd need 100 to be worth using. Like the wild magic from the phb. And those tables are just gonna be cut down versions of ones from 1st ed anyway (where most of the random tables in 5e come from).
The Wilderness Survival Guide is amazing. I took all of its random weather tables (of which there are many) and put them in a spreadsheet to generate random weather years at a time for my hexcrawl game.
Based on the 5e books so far the weather table in the new product will probably be a d4 with something like:
1) Clear
2) Rain
3) A portal to the plane of fire rips the sky apart. 1d6 fireballs per minute rain down from the sky.
4) I dunno make the DM decide
And because of #4 most people will say the system works perfectly.
Well, follow up question would be:" How did everyone coming to the bath house react to a bunch of mangled advnetuers staggeirng out". Like.. bathhouses do not normally exist just by themselves in teh wilderness. Even if it's some sort of natural spring bathhouse up in the mountains, there should be ther guests etcera.
This being dnd, it's possible that it's all by itself and had no other guests and your party members walked in going this is fine, i love the ambidence. They are after all, advnetuers, and therefore a rare and deeply stupid yet brillaint species quite apart from "people"
But it's equally likely the town guard is going Oh shit oh shit and your advneuters are ariving mid during this and everyhtings goign to hell.
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/id/TheZombiePenguin
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She whipped off her veil, catching 4 PC in her gaze. Starting the petrification process on the wizard and immediately turning the bard to stone. The Oathbow wielding rogue however made his save and critted for 70-ish damage! Cleric moved up and got some decent lumps in. Then Zalkore acted again, called in her lover for help and tried to get out from being almost surrounded and pummelled with an arrow sticking out of her heart. The party smelled blood, even though the Medusa got into a position where she could level her gaze again and catch a few more of them. Then her half dozen Eblis got involved and pretty much stunned everyone with hypnotic patterns. Barbarian and cleric both sidelined, wizard more worried about himself turning to stone. Second rogue staring at the pretty feathers. Cleric rolling a 1 on her save, used inspiration, and then rolling another nat1!! With most of the party disabled, they were ripe to turn into statues. In the space of a few turns, still on round 1, the party went from elated to deflated! Round two comes around and that MOTHERFUCKING ROGUE WITH THE GAWDDAMN OATHBOW LANDS ANOTHER CRIT!!! Well, Zalkore is now dead in the reflecting pool and everyone cheers. Party wizard shakes off the petrification and tosses a fireball, smoking most of the Eblis and causing the rest to fly away. What a rollercoaster!
Then, in realizing that 7th level clerics cannot cast greater restoration (oops, my bad) I threw some potions into the loot pile. One of which was Stone to Flesh. Now the party can bamf back to Yartar with the Black Orchid in hand and collect their reward!
I was thinking the party had been sent to find and take care of a beast that has been causing issues for a local town. I was going to play a little game I got in the itch.io bundle called "Have You Heard About The Beast?" where each player is given several cues and they take turns making up ridiculous facts about the beast. Turns out they're all true, down to the letter, and then they'll have to go find and slay it or drive it off somehow. I have no idea what sort of abomination they'll create, nor how I'm going to stat it lol. They'll be level 3 characters with a minor magic item each. I don't know about creating a creature that's somewhat at their skill level but I'll figure something out.
I was also thinking of having them do some skill checks for crossing a terrain feature, like crossing a ravine or climbing up a difficult ledge, maybe at a transition from forest to mountain? Maybe a series of skill checks for it? And maybe have some other stuff nearby that will let them get creative with solutions?
Also was thinking of having them fight the creature once or twice and have it run away. Once they track it to it's lair, they'll find it has some babies and maybe some eggs too or something, and it will be protecting them. They can decide to just murderhobo it up, or drive it away somehow, or just leave it be. If they choose one of the latter two options, some villagers will show up and try to kill it instead and the party will have to fight them off.
I'm just talking out loud here, trying to crystalize my ideas, but if y'all have any suggestions or criticisms please let me know.
Nah, it all sounds pretty fun.
I'm going to be checky and toot my own horn here: My grand beast generator might provide some inspiration for your players, or for extra creatures to throw in.
Steam: https://steamcommunity.com/id/TheZombiePenguin
Stream: https://www.twitch.tv/thezombiepenguin/
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I ruled it as "A bunch of armed and well armored adventurers stormed into a massage room and then didn't come out after interrogating one of the masseuses so everyone left in a hurry" so that the bathhouse was empty when they got back to the surface. Although...
about halfway through the dungeon we finally agreed that yeah we should have just SCOUTED the place during the day while using the bath house and come back later for the dungeon with our gear
after we were done we went back up and all hopped in the baths to wash the viscera off and then a bunch of tiamat cultists showed up and we convinced them to go away after giving them the dragon crown we found
fun times
I have tavern brawler so I killed 3 people with my towel
edit: bonus points was when the paladin said "wait the bard (me) has a bag of holding, why didn't we just put our clothes and armor in that?) (as I open the flap to let the poor masseuse breath every 5 minutes)
That was my thought too! Excellent, yes, yes, goooooooooood
On one hand, yes! Your monster generator is great lol. But on the other hand I want them to come up with the details entirely on their own, and then I'll weave them into an unholy abomination before all the gods! 😂
I don't expect to use all these maps, but I never know where a fight might break out.
Regardless, I think thematically it'd be cool. Some strangers all meeting on a road in the woods, nearly pitch black except for the campfire under the awning, storm going fucking wild above and around them. Telling each other the rumors they've heard about the beast.
Boom. Tavern/Inn. :razz:
:rotate:
Yeah, I dunno but I can definitely picture similar situations or gin something up.
There is a deep dark forest a little less than a days travel from the nearest town. It would be incredibly foolish to be in the forest at night because faeries/nocturnal bears/Shelob. So right before it caravans and travelers always stop in a broad space in the road. Over time this has lead to some rude structures being created and gradually improved. There are lined fire pits, maybe a few lean-tos, even a couple that were raised up off the ground a bit.
How the fuck do you handle it at level 2?
I stole a spellcaster's arcane focus from stealth before we engaged, and the DM happily informed us that fireballs were in our future had I failed to do that (yikes! LEVEL 2!)
Maybe have it be the make-shift base for a marching army long ago. Maybe they built the road.
Alternatively, small shrines to (beings of importance) regarding travel can sometimes be found in places in the world. Y'know, to bring blessings on travelers traveling travels. If you (were a commoner and) believed in such things.
If you wanted to save the headache on the details, it could just be a rocky outcropping in the side of a cliff. Deep enough to keep the rain off, not deep enough to be a cave of any sort. Pretty well known 'round these parts as a good place to wait out a storm if'n you get stuck in one out on the road.
Honestly, some kind of "Oh, there's a semi-permanent shelter here" sort of thing wouldn't be that unusal, especially if the road is decently well traveled, but not enough to justify someone building a tavern. But a merchant who goes regularly down it may have at some point set up a more solid lean-to, and other people have added to it over time - so now travelers on this road know there's a place with a roof for your beasts and flat, but sheltered ground to ptich your tents, and you refill the woodpile when you're done for the next set of travelers.
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Yeaaaah
It's a REALLY mean dungeon for level 2 characters.
The next dungeon f'ed us though. Only our rogue survived (mission accomplished though!)
She was cool with it, serving.... myrkul or something
Yeah, tons of them exist on the Appalachian Trail. I imagine they wouldn't be uncommon. There's a bunch all over the Midwest, too. They used to be built along game trails or known roads between settlements. They're usually just lean-tos or half a cabin. I imagine if there's farms out in the wilderness, those guys might have one at the edge of their property. Might warn travelers not to go any further up to the actual homestead.
I'm pretty sure Japan has a history of covered roadside shrines, too.
The romans built these as well.
It was a displacer beast that lived in a cave in the woods. It had killed many local children. It was ageless and it's size changes. It can teleport short distances, and it's feet were on fire. It also had a pile of diamonds in it's lair! It's nickname was Carlitos (lol)
I basically just gave it displacer beast stats and bumped it's hp to 300, gave it a flaming kick attack in addition to it's tentacles, and let it teleport around and grow or shrink as it pleased. I made it's babies just regular displacer beast cubs and each party member has one as a pet now, except for the party bladesinger who befriended Carlitos itself lol
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Many people! A surprisingly large majority of the people!
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looks at his Crusader Kings save...
They figure the beast was just hungry and was snatching up easy prey to feed itself and it's cubs (kittens?). They'll feed them regular (non-humanoid) meat and teach them good manners.
Failing that, they'll find some tasty children to feed them. Fuck it, they ain't their kids so who cares
1. Going forward it will now be referred to as Dungeons and Dragons for Glory: Extreme ReMake.
2. Backgrounds now come with preset Background Feats.
3. Races have been replaced with Cultures and Heritages. Mix and match to find what fits your concept best. You are no longer bound by forced ability score bonuses upon character creation, instead it is +2/+1 to any ability scores you wish.
4. Warlord is back as a main class. Sub-classes remain, along with the new d3000 Nuance Table which grants you bonus abilities every odd level.
5. We’ll be publishing the new campaign setting Olliberron, tales of heroic skaters fighting the Man along the west coast of a magic-tech state, as the edition’s default setting.
6. Greyhawk has been rebranded Gayhawk. Free Pride flags with every purchase of the Dungeon Master’s Guide along with a pamphlet on how not to be a fascist pig get out of my hobby you bastards.
7. 16 flumph variants in the Monster Manual.
8. The alignment system, while I wouldn’t go so far as to say is replaced, as it is beloved by many, has been discreetly moved to a nice farm, where it will live a long, happy life.
Look, there's two kinds of people in the world
Those who have eaten children and those who don't realize how plentiful and delicious children are.
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar