The DM's Guide to DMing

kenada wrote:

So…my PCs want to breed velociraptors for food. :lol:

What can possibly go wrong?

tanstaafl wrote:
kenada wrote:

So…my PCs want to breed velociraptors for food. :lol:

What can possibly go wrong?

IMAGE(https://media.giphy.com/media/DCrDqITcGz5KNnVWG5/giphy.gif)

kenada wrote:

So…my PCs want to breed velociraptors for food. :lol:

What could possibly go wrong?!

Edit: Oopsies. tanstaafl-hausered ^^

Question, then. Anyone run the Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat adventures before? Thoughts?

Eleima wrote:
kenada wrote:

So…my PCs want to breed velociraptors for food. :lol:

What could possibly go wrong?!

Edit: Oopsies. tanstaafl-hausered ^^

Question, then. Anyone run the Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat adventures before? Thoughts?

I think it might have been re-worked, but I know the original HotDQ was released basically right when 5e came out, which means it was being written as the game was being finalized and balanced. From reviews I've read, it's pretty universally regarded as the one genuinely bad published adventure out there. YMMV, of course, but I've heard it bashed by several YouTubers (so clearly HIGHLY AUTHORITATIVE), so I haven't been inspired to run it.

From what I understand, the reprint didn’t change the core of the module. It still has whatever problems it had at the time.

I ran HotDQ when it came out. It was not particularly good, especially compared to Murder in Baldur’s Gate, which was excellent. Even though I had it, I never ran Rise of Tiamat. I think we went back to Pathfinder 1e before going off on a multiyear sidetrack through Fate, Dungeon World, etc. After that, I ended up doing a brief stint in 5e before switching to PF2 (while wishing I could run OSE), but I digress.

From what I recall, the criticism at the time is the encounters were not well balanced. I also found it to be very heavy-handed in directing PCs where to go. Ultimately, I never bothered to run the second part because there was no emotional weight in the story. You basically went to places and did things because people to go or clues lead you there.

There are enough decent modules out for 5e now that I wouldn’t bother with HotDQ/RoT unless I was doing some kind of adventure Pokémon where I just had to run them all.

Eleima wrote:
kenada wrote:

So…my PCs want to breed velociraptors for food. :lol:

What could possibly go wrong?!

IMAGE(https://frinkiac.com/video/S06E04/u-CXmShhIQfNMMuTbpj55IcAeQM=.gif)

Thank you MilkmanDanimal and kenada for the feedback! I'm in no particular rush, but I'm shopping around for some adventures to take my players on further down the road. For now, I've just wrapped up Lost Mine of Phandelver, which I'd moved over to Amn, and now I'm taking them to Athkatla for some dealings with the Shadow Thieves and I'm going to have them go up against the Zhentarim. My inexperience as a DM is almost painful sometimes, but I feel I make up for that in improv sometimes.

Mixolyde wrote:

Found on Reddit, love this idea for more flexible games.

If you can find people willing to play a Furry-friendly game, there is a pretty neat established ruleset (it's very much "D&D lite," based on the OGL if that means anything to you) called Pugmire; although its world is just dogs and cats. But, it's clearly a labor of love, with tons of support.

https://www.realmsofpugmire.com/

kenada wrote:

So…my PCs want to breed velociraptors for food. :lol:

Have you read River of Teeth?

kenada wrote:

From what I understand, the reprint didn’t change the core of the module. It still has whatever problems it had at the time.

I ran HotDQ when it came out. ...

From what I recall, the criticism at the time is the encounters were not well balanced. I also found it to be very heavy-handed in directing PCs where to go. Ultimately, I never bothered to run the second part because there was no emotional weight in the story. You basically went to places and did things because people to go or clues lead you there.

There are enough decent modules out for 5e now that I wouldn’t bother with HotDQ/RoT unless I was doing some kind of adventure Pokémon where I just had to run them all.

I've read this about a lot of the books -- either very heavy-handed, or they expect PCs to behave in a very specific way to get to the next plot beat and don't have good options for what happens if the PCs don't engage that way. I've been thinking of getting a module or two to get back into DMing, but I'm wary of this problem, because it seems like it would take away a lot of the benefit of using a published adventure. Are there any you all would especially recommend?

LastSurprise wrote:

Are there any you all would especially recommend?

I had a lot of fun with Curse of Strahd. It's pretty much set out as "here's all the places, let the characters figure out how to reach their goal." I just let them explore whatever they wanted, following up the clues that interested them.

LastSurprise wrote:
kenada wrote:

From what I understand, the reprint didn’t change the core of the module. It still has whatever problems it had at the time.

I ran HotDQ when it came out. ...

From what I recall, the criticism at the time is the encounters were not well balanced. I also found it to be very heavy-handed in directing PCs where to go. Ultimately, I never bothered to run the second part because there was no emotional weight in the story. You basically went to places and did things because people to go or clues lead you there.

There are enough decent modules out for 5e now that I wouldn’t bother with HotDQ/RoT unless I was doing some kind of adventure Pokémon where I just had to run them all.

I've read this about a lot of the books -- either very heavy-handed, or they expect PCs to behave in a very specific way to get to the next plot beat and don't have good options for what happens if the PCs don't engage that way. I've been thinking of getting a module or two to get back into DMing, but I'm wary of this problem, because it seems like it would take away a lot of the benefit of using a published adventure. Are there any you all would especially recommend?

I’m a big fan of Murder in Baldur’s Gate. It follows a set timeline, but what the PCs do during that time is entirely up to them. That recommendation comes with a few caveats: it was written during the D&D Next playtest, so it would need updating for 5e; the book provides the timeline and NPCs, but it leaves almost everything else up to the GM; and it’s fundamentally not a heroic adventure (the PCs can’t win, but they can survive the chaos).

People have said good things about Curse of Strahd, but I haven’t run it. From what I understand, the PCs are expected to eventually go to Strahd’s castle, but it’s not heavy-handed about it like HotDQ is.

The Alexandrian did a remix of Dragon Heist and is working on one for Avenus. I’m a big fan of Justin’s work, and the first remix seems well-received.

If you’re looking outside 5e, Kingmaker (until the re-release with 5e bestiary, anyway) is solid. It’s my group’s favorite Pathfinder AP, and it’s the only one we played to completion.

Hmm, actually, Lost Mines of Phandelver is also a pretty solid adventure. It’s not without its problems, but it’s one of the better intro adventures that’s been released.

kenada wrote:

People have said good things about Curse of Strahd, but I haven’t run it. From what I understand, the PCs are expected to wcentually go to Strahd’s castle, but it’s not heavy-handed about it like HotDQ is.

Yeah, the end goal is set: you have to kill Strahd and break the curse to escape from Barovia. But the rest is pretty much open to do however you want (especially as some key elements are randomised).

Running CoS at the moment and yeah, would recommend (assuming your players don't have any problems with children in peril because pretty much every set piece has at least one child in peril!). There's also the stereotypical portrayal of the Vistani (gypsies), and of course Strahd's creepy vampire Incel nature. Nothing a few tweaks (and a stake through the chest) can't sort out though!

On an entirely self indulgent note i have been chronicling the progress of my Curse of Strahd game here, for anyone vaguely interested
Curse of Strahd: The Spoop Report

Tomb of Annihilation is also supposed to be pretty good, with more of an open ended hexcrawl in the middle and a big classic dungeon finale at the end.

The others all have some good stuff in them as well but if/when i get to running them i'll probably end up heavily modifying them to suit my own purposes. I've been ripping bits out of Saltmarsh and plugging them into my EuroGWJ game just to fill some content for a "sword coast road trip" before the players get to the Lost Laboratory of Kwalish.

I ran Waterdeep: Dragon Heist and finished it recently and loved it, and we all had a great time, but it is a very, very open-ended adventure with all sorts of varied plot threads, and it does require a lot of creativity and improvisation to make it work. As a very experienced DM, I had a great time, and I was able to weave player backstories into the main plot in such a way that they were really engaged. I had a great time, but, due to all the branching stuff, I think it'd be a lot harder to run for DMs with less experience and less comfort with improvising and just winging it in the moment.

Moved onto the Dungeon of the Mad Mage. Enough thinking creatively, time for a murderhobo dungeon crawl as a palate refresher.

I was thinking of starting a run through Mad Mage for my saturday game but changed my mind since i got a new player and don't want to throw them into something like that right away unless it scares them off!

It got me thinking about how best to run it though so i'd be curious to know how you plan on tackling it? My gut feeling is that i wouldn't want to do the ENTIRE thing like a board game, with the map constantly available, because it'd slow things down a fair bit - and take away from being descriptive with the mood and setting.

Instead, what I thought might work better is that if *I* would be able to see the map (with all tokens and things set up in advance) and move them to keep track with what the players were doing whilst theatre of the minding it for their side of things...up until there is actual combat, in which case i'd switch the players to the map and run the combat tactically... then switch back again afterwards.

Also i just finished a job and got paid so i reckon i'll order myself another sourcebook...i'm thinking either Tomb of Annihilation or Out of the Abyss (mainly for raw materials for plugging into my own underdark campaign).

Actually before i take the plunge on that, does anyone have any good recommendations for NON official 5e campaigns (full length campaigns rather than individual adventures)?

Been looking at some of the Kobold Press stuff and it's pricier, but mighty tempting.

pyxistyx wrote:

Actually before i take the plunge on that, does anyone have any good recommendations for NON official 5e campaigns (full length campaigns rather than individual adventures)?

Been looking at some of the Kobold Press stuff and it's pricier, but mighty tempting.

I am a big fan of Kobold Press stuff and have run a number of both their side quests and individuals as well as just wrapping up last month Court of the Shadow Fey, which was Level 7 to 11. Very much a social status climber in which Shadow Fey superiority and distain is the principle villain. PCs earn or lose status ranks through various activities, duels, favor trades, etc., which open up new interaction opportunities.

Minotaar, Chavyn, and Wayfarer are in the campaign (and post here on occassion) so they can give more feedback. There is A LOT of stuff packed in there. You could stay in that world for quite a while. I think we overstayed in it and it got better when I liberally cut things out and streamlined some other aspects.

Some of that stems from fitting it into an existing campaign, when we had other threads I think we were looking to get back to.

I really like the collection of adventures from Tale of the Old Margreve and I think my group had fun with the two I pulled from it. Very much a living forest setting and it gave me a chance to use Baba Yaga, so, that was a big plus.

Feel free to shoot me a PM if you want to peruse anything to see if it would be of interest to you and your group.

I've never looked at any of Kobold Press' adventures, but their Tome of Beasts and Creature Codex are phenomenally good supplements. Lots of interesting monsters, pretty good balance, full-color illustrations for every single creature. I don't use them a lot because my group are thoroughly embedded in the D&D Beyond ecosystem and it's easier to use established monsters because lazy, but I still pull them out pretty regularly. Have an adventure planned where the bad guy will be a Grim Jester, which is, in fact, a chaotic, insane undead jester who has all sorts of unpleasant abilities. They're fun books.

MilkmanDanimal wrote:

I've never looked at any of Kobold Press' adventures, but their Tome of Beasts and Creature Codex are phenomenally good supplements. Lots of interesting monsters, pretty good balance, full-color illustrations for every single creature. I don't use them a lot because my group are thoroughly embedded in the D&D Beyond ecosystem and it's easier to use established monsters because lazy, but I still pull them out pretty regularly. Have an adventure planned where the bad guy will be a Grim Jester, which is, in fact, a chaotic, insane undead jester who has all sorts of unpleasant abilities. They're fun books.

Us too, as to Beyond. I have also entered a bunch of KP creatures in as custom monsters. Not too tough, though the spellcasters are more of a chore.

The Tome of Beasts / Codex have been super tempting but they're hella expensive and i don't really need more monsters at the moment.

* I decided to stick with Tomb of Annihilation for now. It's one i always wanted to pick up anyway and if my saturday game lasts through the reboot of Phandalin that i'm planning then I might jump them straight into this afterwards (with a bit of tweaking for the early chapters).

I think that's the last of the current official books that i'm interested in having a hard-copy of though (maybe storm kings thunder? That one seems ok) The rest i've got access to through D&DBeyond right now anyway.

pyxistyx wrote:

* I decided to stick with Tomb of Annihilation for now. It's one i always wanted to pick up anyway and if my saturday game lasts through the reboot of Phandalin that i'm planning then I might jump them straight into this afterwards (with a bit of tweaking for the early chapters).

Hey, so, that's almost exactly what I did with my very successful three-year campaign! Started with Phandalin, ran a couple of one-shots, then went to Tomb of Annihilation. The later parts of Tomb of Annihilation are great, but it's pretty much a hodgepodge of sidequests until about level five anyway. I won't bore you with the details (or risk spoilers) since you'll probably see intuitive ways to handle it; but I think you'll have great fun with this.

I was going to run the extra adventures you get with the Essentials kit (three linked adventures via D&D beyond that take players up to 10 or 11) but now that i've ordered this what i might do is, plant some seeds about the "main maguffin" for Tomb in the latter stages of the Phandalin campaign.

Spoiler:

(Right now, the one that sticks out is that Gundren might want to try to resurrect his dead brother from Wave Echo Cave, but it fails horribly for an "unknown reason"

A little beginner question on how to handle Wizard's spells book and the cost of adding new spells.

My Lost Mines of Phandelver campaign is currently run with all the pre-set characters to trivialize it as the group (including me the DM) is very new to D&D. The module provides a list of spells the pre-set-Wizard already has. Recently my Wizard discovered that he could copy spells from scrolls or other mage's spellbook, and asked me if there would be ways for him to obtain new spells. Not entirely sure how to answer him, I mentioned there are various sorcerer's type villains in the campaign that maybe he could get one from them if it feels natural for them to have a spellbook on hand.

Q1. How do you guys handle giving your wizard access to new spells?
I'm also unsure how a start-from-scratch Wizard PC would come up with a list of spell?

Session continued and my PC met a necromancer; [roleplay, combat, story]; the necromancer died and they searched the tent. With a very high investigate check I decided my Wizard found a spellbook containing some level 1/2 necromancy spells. Here comes the question

Q2. How the hell do I calculate cost of copying spells from one book to another
Google searches mostly show 50gp & 2hr per level; my player made the observation that he has ink and paper and components in the inventory that he should get some discount for the price. After some discussion we decided on having him purchase "spell copying kit" at any shop for the price of 50gp, but he can carry multiple kit so that if they're on the road he can copy additional spells during short/long rest.

While knowing full well there are probably better ways to handling Q1 and Q2, my player is happy and I thought it's fair and we're all having fun. I'd still like to know if there are more rigorous way of handling this situation though?

For Q1, I don't think I would hesitate to sprinkle level 1 and 2 spells around like you did. It'll make the player excited for gaining something, but none are so powerful they will unbalance anything.

For Q2, I think I would say that the sort of ink and paper you'd carry around from, say, a kit is not "spellbook quality" unless you specifically buy that stuff in advance. But I wouldn't make it hard to find that stuff in town unless the adventure specifically revolves around resource scarcity. I think once in town, I'd simply let them convert gp and hours to new spells, as a sort of downtime activity.

I typically let Wizards find spells occasionally, but the more regular source is in the city; any magic shop is going to find selling scrolls with Wizard spells a good source of income, so you can buy spell scrolls in magic shops. I think I've typically done 50 gp/level for 1-3, 250 gp/level for 4-6, 1k gp/level for 6-9. My general take is letting Wizards find stuff constantly winds up kind of stepping on a Sorcerer or Warlock a bit, who sit back and have comparably very few spells, so I don't do it all the time, but it's more of an exciting, occasional thing.

For copying, some little general store in the country might be able to scrounge up 50-100 gp worth of ink, but, for any real quantity, time to head into Waterdeep and scrounge. Then again, I tend to be VERY stingy with magic items as a rule; my players hit level 5, and then got their first items. Too many magic items is IMO usually New DM Mistake #2, as it can really run campaigns off the rails quickly when those 4th level characters are swinging Blackrazor around.

New DM Mistake #1 is allowing homebrew, because 99% of homebrew is stupidly overpowered hot garbage where somebody thinks recreating some anime character that can punch planets of existence as a 6th level class feature isn't a problem because "that's just whatever blahblahblah can do".

lucci.tonight wrote:

Q1. How do you guys handle giving your wizard access to new spells?
I'm also unsure how a start-from-scratch Wizard PC would come up with a list of spell?

The easiest way to give your wizard access to new spells is via spell scrolls. Also, any wizard enemy they defeat could have a spellbook they could take. Generally any time my players defeat an enemy spellcaster with "...has the following wizard spells prepared:" in their spellcasting block I'll include a spellbook with their list of prepared spells as loot.

A start-from-scratch Wizard PC starts with a spellbook with six 1st-level wizard spells of their choice.

Q2. How the hell do I calculate cost of copying spells from one book to another
Google searches mostly show 50gp & 2hr per level; my player made the observation that he has ink and paper and components in the inventory that he should get some discount for the price. After some discussion we decided on having him purchase "spell copying kit" at any shop for the price of 50gp, but he can carry multiple kit so that if they're on the road he can copy additional spells during short/long rest.

50gp and 2hr per spell level is correct.

Player's Handbook wrote:

Copying a Spell into the Book. When you find a wizard spell of 1st level or higher, you can add it to your spellbook if it is of a spell level you can prepare and if you can spare the time to decipher and copy it.

Copying that spell into your spellbook involves reproducing the basic form of the spell, then deciphering the unique system of notation used by the wizard who wrote it. You must practice the spell until you understand the sounds or gestures required, then transcribe it into your spellbook using your own notation.

For each level of the spell, the process takes 2 hours and costs 50 gp. The cost represents material components you expend as you experiment with the spell to master it, as well as the fine inks you need to record it. Once you have spent this time and money, you can prepare the spell just like your other spells.

Thanks folks for the response. That's something for me to think about when preparing.

Side note; I just scrolled up a bit and

Eleima wrote:

Thank you MilkmanDanimal and kenada for the feedback! I'm in no particular rush, but I'm shopping around for some adventures to take my players on further down the road.
...
My inexperience as a DM is almost painful sometimes, but I feel I make up for that in improv sometimes.

Hello friend, nice to see a familiar face (name?) diving into the world of DM around the same time. My inexperience is painful too, but thankfully my players couldn't recognize them Too many times I needed to tell them after a session "so uh I screwed up [that situation] and it probably should've been done like this..."

LIitle late to the party here, but I have run both Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Storm King's Thunder.

HotDQ suffers from being written as 5e was finalizing their ruleset as others pointed out. It was created to be released at the same time as the player's handbook, so things weren't completely finalized and it is apparent things like monsters changed (there is a fight against 4 CR 8 monsters when the players are level 4). The story is on fairly tight rails, with some small breaks available in a couple chapters where they are potentially ahead of their quarry and can take some time to explore a town. I think it would work a lot better for at least a DM steeped in Forgotten's Realm lore as the party makes a highlight trip up the Sword Coast. I have not tried the rerelease to see what changed, but if your group is into a more structured campaign, I think HotDQ would be a good option. Memorable enemies and a goal to pursue from early on.

Storm King's Thunder is a smartly made adventure, but suffers from a mix of expectations. The story tries to hide itself in the beginning, trying to give a "sandbox" feel to the adventure. When I ran it, it seemed somewhat at odds with itself, trying to raise this tension of "Giants are doing something!" but also locals being like "Giants are just being giants". I think if you lean into the "Something is off with the giants" factor a little harder and really dig that hook into your players, it could be an interesting campaign. The adventure as written is tough, I ended up TPKing my party about halfway through.

Without knowing your players or what the updated HotDQ is like, I would recommend SKT over it, but I did enjoy what I played of Hoard, just wish I had known more about FR at the time.

1,001 Fantasy Adventure Hooks: http://mapacker.blogspot.com/2017/08...