Saw a Reel about Attacking the Character sheet

The reel is here. The Witches Hex removing a Death Save really resonated with me. I mean you talk to an old crone in town and she gives you the Evil Eye and you're down a Death Save until the next full moon. Thats interesting, a bit chilling, and not something the players can do much about beyond being nicer to old crones. If feels fairy tale ish. Some other ideas that might be fun for short duration annoyance:

• Dropping a PCs Initiative bonus
• Dropping a PCs passive perception
• Reduce or remove a spellslot
• Eliminate one usage from some ability or magic item that only has a certain number of uses a day.

The other ideas don't work as well for me. Having negative inspiration only works if you use inspiration for example, and I don't like Inspiration just as I don't like Luck die. Feels overly gamey to me.

Anyway the idea is fun and has my head thinking about all the possibilities.

Three Round Combat

Questing Beast mentioned 3-round combat in his latest Can this DnD hack actually work? The idea is interesting, short brutal combats. Part of me likes the idea as my group has been fighting Giants lately and the bag of hit points that are giants results in a bit of tedious combat (at least from my point of view, my players seem to love it). So I went to the webpage that came up with the Pretendo the website that came up with the idea to see if they had anything that that filled it out better. Alas I was still unsatisfied. The jist:

Combat lasts 3 rounds at most. It may be initiated, decided, and concluded in a single round, or it may be initiated in round 1, decided by round 2, and concluded by round 3—but however it plays out, the victorious side is known by the end of the second round.

Round 3 is for transition and conclusion. At the start of round 3, the enemy side takes stock. The GM signals to players who’s about to win and what their options are.

• If enemies trail, they forfeit. The details depend on the nature of the enemy. Frightened animals may simply whine and run away when they’ve sustained too many wounds. A gang that’s lost their leader and half their fighters may thumb their noses and throw a dagger on their way out—but they still know when they’re beaten. Soldiers may surrender, repeating name, rank, and service number.  
• If enemies lead, they press their advantage. The GM should be transparent about the circumstances—it’s clear they’re winning, and they’re about to get a huge bonus against you if you stick around. The situation changes while preserving players’ agency about how to proceed. The specifics will di!er against di!erent enemies: surrender may be possible with soldiers; fleeing may be the only option against hungry predators; going down swinging may be more palatable than running away in some cases. 

• If unclear, use best judgment—but something changes. In a relatively even match-up, it’s up to the GM to make a ruling based on the nature of the enemy—or just going with “fleeing,” if that’s easier or more satisfying. For instance: a frenzied beast might attack recklessly for a huge bonus to attacks and damage, guaranteeing its own demise in the process; humans might take a breath and o!er to parley; robots might have repeated a routine multiple times, revealing a predictable behavior players can exploit. Again, though, no matter what, something changes.

Pivotal battles might go longer—but in round 3, there’s a twist.

So after reading that I kind of think it makes a good case for ignoring the normal reasons one might roll morale and instead rolling Morale after 3 rounds of combat. If the PCs are winning have the Foes roll at Disadvantage. If the Foes are winning have them roll at Advantage. If the Foe makes their morale roll perhaps they get an extra desperate attack the 4th round. Not sure about the last part but I like the "bloodied" idea from 4E and think something similar could be implemented here make round 4 more interesting.

Here are some Bloodied Effect ideas from 4E filtered through ChatGPT.

d12 Bloodied Effect

1. Makes an immediate melee attack against the nearest foe.
2. Immediately shifts (moves without provoking opportunity attacks) several squares.
3. Gains a bonus to attack rolls until the end of the encounter.
4. Gains resistance to one or more damage types.
5. Recharges one or more expended powers.
6. Summons reinforcements or calls nearby allies.
7. Enters a berserk rage, dealing extra damage but suffering lower defenses.
8. Begins regenerating hit points each round.
9. Gains an additional action each round (or an immediate bonus action in systems that use them).
10. Drops its shield or armor, sacrificing defense for increased offense.
11. Emits poisonous blood, acid, fire, or necrotic energy whenever struck in melee.
12. Reveals a hidden weapon, mutation, or magical ability unavailable before being bloodied.

Thoughts on Storm King's Thunder

Giants crushing Phandelin (or they should be)

259 page adventure that takes players from 1st to 11th level, or 5th to 11lth if you enter from Lost Mines of Phandelver and skip the first chapter. And there you have a good example of the first problem with this module, throw away content. The thing is 300 pages but:

1. 16 pages is skipped if you started with Lost Mines of Phandelver
2. Chapter 2 has you pick one of three attacks to involve the party so you use 6-9 pages out of 25.
3. 60 pages is a gazetteer of the Sword Coast and not really specific to this module.
4. The bulk of the Campaign has you pick one of five paths, each of which average 10 pages so we're throwing away another 40 pages here. 

So you are skipping half the book. Yes some might run it again and use the skipped parts but for most that's a huge waste of content. That might have seemed like a good idea to the wealthy folks at WotC but that's just crazy. Also I think as an adventure path its falls apart at some point. 

How I Would have Designed it Differently

1. I would have removed the gazetteer section entirely. That should have been added to another product, along with the maps and info for Nightstone, Bryn Shander, Goldenfields, and Triobar. DMs using the Forgotten Realms could use this sort of reference info and shouldn't have to buy an adventure module to get it.
2. I would have loosened up the structure a lot. Removed the adventure path and left it as a bunch of site based mini-adventures that aren't necessarily linked into one grand campaign. 
3. I would have dumped the Great Upheaval and started the thing at 5th level as one of two followups to Lost Mines of Phandelver (Phandelver and Below the Shattered Obelisk* being the other). I would move Dripping Caves to Phandelver and Below as well.
4. I would create a Southern Giants Mini-campaign. Fighting against Hill Giants with the Stone Giants there as a possible addition. Take the Goldenfields attack and rewrite it to be an attack on Phandelin. The PCs presumably have some investment in saving the place. Set it up so the players have to figure out how to defend the place or lead the Giants off or whatever. The players can then track the attackers back to the Den of the Hill Giants (which has a great map) to free captives, scout out the area for greater powers, or whatever they think might work. Lastly I'd yank Steading of the Hill Giant Chief (the old G1) from Tales from the Yawning Portal (released a year later) and put it here with better maps. The Canyon of the Stone Giants would be there as well, these two might be wound into the mini-campaign as another threat, or allies that could be used against the Hill Giants.
5. Next I would create a Northern Giants Adventures. This would include Berg of the Frost Giants and Forge of the Fire Giants (both of which have great maps) as well as G2 Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl and G3 Hall of the Fire Giant King (both with cleaned up maps and removed from Yawning Portal where they don't belong). This mini-campaign is just a bunch of stand-alone adventures easily justified by Giant raids. When Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden was released 4 years later it would include notes on how to include the Northern Giants Adventures into the mix. Also whichever product had a better map of Bryn Shander would get it.
6. The Cloud and Storm Giants would be stand-alone adventures. Just sort of bonus content for a really high level challenge. 
7. I would take a note from Tales from the Yawning Portal and include a bit about where the different adventures might be located in Forgotten Realms or in Greyhawk or other settings.

It might not have been a perfect 259 pages my way but I'd be happy to dump the Cloud Giants or even the Storm Giants if we need space or add a second Stone Giant adventure if we need to bulk it up a bit. The point is that all the giant modules should be in one product and they don't need to be connected. I'd probably add Mountain Giants and ettins and other Giantkind to the adventure to show how they fit into the mix. There is also a 4E product Revenge of the Giants that could be looted and updated for 5E if it has anything worthwhile.

Interesting bits I found in D&D Adventures League modules

 A friend gave me a couple of old D&D Adventurers League Modules and I have a few things to say. I mentioned yesterdays post that I really like the way two of the modules used a neighborhood  map. The map is simple, beautiful, and the perfect scale and running a few adventures in the same neighborhood to give a nice sense of the area. Here is the one from Gangs of Waterdeep.

Neighborhood that doesn't exist in other Waterdeep sources

In addition to that Gangs of Waterdeep has a nice use of the skill system. I don't think they are using DC right (I haven't really read the DM's Guide on the matter), and they don't explain what they are doing, but its clear enough to me and I think 5E should have done a lot more of this. In fact it reminds me a lot of my 1-page rules I've been doing, really using the idea that the better the roll the better the result. Yay Gangs of Waterdeep! I'd give the authors props if only they hadn't ruined the great read with a silly coach with ejector seats in the same module.

The issue I really decided to write a post about though was from the module Once in Waterdeep. We all dodged a bullet that this one didn't become the style of 5E. For example:

The plot is a railroad which I can forgive because the module has a time-limit, and most convention modules are a bit railroady. But if time is an issue why waste it creating plot points with the players instead of just having them written up already?  The determining plot points with the players make this basically a Storygame. It doesn't feel very D&D at all. Here's more.

So it is not only story-gamey but it's like a lame school assignment when you had to get into groups and make some kind of presentation. Guess I just don't like/get storygames at all.

 

Cognitive Load and 5E

This video puts a word for what I've been noticing about 5E and Forgotten Realms. Cognitive Load. I recommend DMs watch the first 8 minutes of the video where he talks about the Cognitive Load issue. 5E may not look complex but every time they level up each PC gets a new ability or two. Over time that load starts to slow things down. I think that's why folks are drawn to Shadowdark.

I'm not sure if I'm ready to dump initiative, the VTT makes that pretty simple, but a lot of the other stuff I've already trimmed (or ignore, trusting the players to be honest).

Campaign Update

Not that anyone probably cares but I thought I'd update what's been going on in my current campaign and my thoughts about it.

Phandelin

So I ran the players through the Lost Mines of Phandelver + The Dragon of Icespire Peak. The two starter campaigns go together well and by using both you can dump the lamer missions (or merge them into other missions) and still have plenty to work with. 

They enjoyed all that but then when it was winding up I put it to a vote. Keep going with these players or write up new ones and start fresh. We'd started with the Basic set and thus had limited Race and Class options, I thought they might appreciate having more options. But not they all voted to continue. I did allow one Elf Fighter to become a Ranger and allowed everyone to pick Feats. Its rules as written mostly so I sucked it up and let them pick the feats they wanted. I've decided Feats are overpowered and I won't use again.

So then I had them vote on what they wanted to do next. Stay in Phandelin (in which case I'd use the Shattered Obeliks levels to continue their journey, or leave Phandelin. They all voted to leave. They were a bit sick of the place. 

Storm King's Thunder

So I looked over different adventure options. We were playing on Roll20 and I wasn't super-confident with creating for 5E yet so I bought Storm King's Thunder. The first chapter takes the players up to 5th level and tells you how to segway over if you come in from another module which seemed perfect at first. I took the Dripping Caves map for later use and plugged on. The next part of the adventure is a Giant attack on one of three cities, GMs choice. I decided to mix things up and have the Hill Giants attack Phandelin. That would make a nice send-off to the little village and if things got tough the PCs could retreat into the dungeons/redbrands hideout. 

The party stood their ground and defeated the Giants with missile fire before most of them got close enough to do anything. At this point Storm King's Thunder has a bunch of mini-quests that all seemed stupid and took away any sense of urgency regarding the giants. So I invented a Giant Attack on the nearby city of Leilon and had a small  number of giants holding civilian prisoners in that Dripping Cave map mentioned earlier. When that was done I bought Against the Giants and used the Steading of the Hill Giant Chief module. Players enjoyed the sneaking around aspect and avoided any true combat with the Giants in that one. 

Some time in Neverwinter

Then I bought White Plume Mountain which I don't think anyone really enjoyed. Too funhouse and the magic weapons are overpowered (players liked that). 

One player wanted to get into faction fighting so they went to Everwinter where I had had to make up pretty much everything which was fun as I was tired of prepared modules. I had different factions after the Magic Items attained from White Plume Mountain. Blackrazor was a family artifact stolen from one characters asshole Uncle recently and that Uncle wanted it back and would be sending envoys and eventually a small army to get it. Crazy water-gd cultists wanted Wave and attacked to get it, but eventually a small cult started to form around the player possessing the thing (still figuring how I'll work that one out). Dwarves wanted Whelm and put a bounty on it. That player, a Paladin, in a moment of actual true role playing gave the Hammer back to the Dwarves and earned their friendship.

They met up and helped the rebel group in town, the Sons of Alagondar. They dealt with the conniving Lord Neverember. 

They cleaned out terrorists from the Moonstone Masks place and got semi-safe and free room and board for a few weeks. They cleared out the Castle Never, killing a Lich and minions took that over as a place to stay short term. They attacked the Temple of Tempest currently occupied by Red Wizards and broke the Red Wizards power in the city. When that was done they learned Lord Neverember had been assassinated and that evil Uncle had entered the city with a small army looking for Blackrazor. The cousin met secretly with the party, planning to betray his Uncle. 

They found the Uncle had some kind of psychic connection with his old sword Black Razor and used that to feed false information to the Uncle. They arranged to meet in the cemetery but the players double-crossed the Uncles double-cross. They killed him. Then brought him back to life so the PC with Blackrazor could kill him again and suck his soul out. 

At that arranged to put a puppet on the throne of Neverwinter. They traded control of Castle Never for proper ownership Cloak Tower on the East edge of town which I found to be vacant. And they got a bit tired of fighting against factions, for now.

As an aside Wizards has blown it with Neverwinter. They should have the place mapped out and updated for 5E. Most of what I found was all 4E related materials. I mean the movie took place in Neverwinter, why didn't someone think to release a Neverwinter setting book at the same time? I found some nice maps but it took a bit of looking and everything had to be imported into Roll20 because Wizards would rather make shitty adventures than useful products.

Back to Storm King's Thunder, Sort of...

After hearing from the Harpers that the Hill Giants were trashing the countryside and taking hostages to their queen to eat the players went into the wilderness to hunt them down. They fought a few small groups near Neverwinter, then went after a group with hostages and destroyed it. Then they learned a large group of Hill Giants had been destroyed in battle by human cavalry and wounded groups were about trying to work their way to their home base. They decided to use guerrilla tactics and kill Hill Giants in small groups, letting a few Giant allies escape to tell the tale and fill the Hill Giants sleep with nightmares.

Then a battle near Grudd Haug left the possessor of Blackrazor flush with hit points sucked from dead Giants. The group decided it was time to raid the place and do some damage, and that's where the campaign is currently.

Note the map of Grudd Haug is significantly better than the Hill Giant Stead from G1 but I find the over-arching plotline of Storm King's Thunder to be lacking and full of holes the GM has to fill in. I'm considering changing things up but I'm not sure how or where. i do think if I go with the Storm King's Thunder plan I may have them go after three Giant horns instead of just one. That'd be more interesting at least. We will see.

So to recap, I enjoyed the low level stuff in Phandelin, mostly. Didn't really like the way 5E handles things above 5th level, especially if you consider feats. I really liked the urban/faction play we had in Phandelin but think WotC wasn't a lot of help in that regard. I like a few of the maps in Storm King's Thunder but think it's not terribly well put together as a campaign. And I'm ready to dump 5E entirely and go for Shadowdark when this campaign is over, but we'll see.

Free: GROUNDED, A Remix of 5E Backgrounds

 They had some good ideas with 5E Backgrounds but it was never really implemented correctly. So I worked on my own version but before I was really happy with it I soured on 5E in general and moved on to Shadowdark.

Included  are all the 5.1E races but not the changes that happened with 5.2. In fact while 5.2 de-emphasized race this one leans into it by attaching the Backgrounds and Personality, Ideal, Bond, and Flaw to race.

 So this is a cleaned up version of what I had released into the wild. Usable but a bit rough. Hopefully someone will find it useful. 

Grounded

Free: GUTTED, A 5E Character Creation Supplement

Note: I goofed up the sharing on the Google Drive, my apologies. It should be fixed now and available to everyone that follows the link.

5Es Tiers of Play

 I liked the idea of Tiers of play in theory, but my game just went to the 2nd tier and I didn't really like the way 5E handled it. I've felt the game gets more and more complicated as the players go up and it becomes less and less fun. Feels more and more video-gamey, and becomes more and more of an exercise in Min/Maxing (for two of my players at least). 

For example I have one player who picked the Polearm Master Feat instead of a Attribute bump at 6th level. So now he gets 2 attacks (for 5th level fighter) an occasional 3rd attack (Action Surge once per shor rest) and the Polearm Master feat allows one more bonus attack with the butt of the weapon (1d4). So he's making 4 attacks some rounds. That's just ridiculous. 

Unless I'm misreading something it's in the 2014 Players handbook which is where I drew the line in the sand about which rules counted so It's legal by my own rules. We'll see how it plays out, maybe he'll need all those attacks as we meander through Tier 2 play but it really makes the PC into a super-hero and I don't like it. 

I've always felt D&D combat was a bit like rock-em sock-em robots with both opponents standing still and punching each other. By turning shields into an AC boost and dodging being mostly in the fantasy of Hit Points there really isn't much tactics to the fighting. Even the tactics found in the Battlemaster Martial Archetype are pretty bland (trip and do extra damage, or scare and do extra damage, and oh my god if the enemy misses you the Repoist gives you a bonus attack making that possibly 7 in one round (i'm not giving a bonus ontop of the bonus for that one).

5E seems overly complicated and gets worse and worse for DMs as you progress. The game promotes the Min/Maxing I've always disliked. I'll continue going (Storm King's Thunder now) and see if it grows on me over time, and see how the players feel about it, but now I'm dreaming of RuneQuest 2 which we thought was complicated at the time but which is actually a pretty clean system.

If I Ran Phandelin Over Again

With a new group, that is. I've run them through a blend of Lost Mine of Phandelver with the Dragon of Icespire Peak from the start (both were pretty cheap on Roll20). I mostly like the adventures and combining the adventures gives you a lot of choices and allows you to toss the mediocre bits. 

Foreshadowing

Since the adventure ends with the players at 5th level you then have a few options for the players to choose from. I'd like to better setup the options ahead of time. The three likely options:

1. Option 1 is to go into Phandelver and Below: the Shattered Obelix. Shattered Obelix contains the Lost Mines of Phandelver so it's an easy transfer.
2. Option 2 is to continue into Beyond the Dragon of Icespire Peak extra Adventures. The extra adventures were designed to continue on from Dragon of Icespire Peak so it should be an easy transition as well.
3. Option 3 is to continue into Storm King's Thunder. The module has lots of notes on how to continue on from Lost Mines of Phandelver including skipping the first chapter.

Backstory - I'd give the players more of a backstory. When set up from the Starter Set you don't get much backstory. I noticed a lot more going into Storm King's Thunder so I'd use that to help link the two (if things go that way). Backstory that links one or two players with the Harpers (the chosen faction because they appear in the movie and so have some recognizability right away) or the Lord's Alliance or have a player that grew up on Butterskull ranch or in that area. 

Initiating Mission - Caravan guards is to bland. The PCs are doing that, but actually the Harpers in the party are going to Phandelin to figure out why the Harper representative isn't reporting back (Sister Garaele is missing from Lost Mines, why?). Any Lord's Alliance members are sent to look for what happened to Iarno Albrek. 

Re-arranging, combining, and dumping Missions - I hate fetch-quests and both adventures are filled with them which has them journeying here and there and back again. It feels very video-gamey and I'd try to get away from that by bundling them into a few mini-campaigns. This means I don't need rationals for 30 mini-adventures but only for 3 or so which makes them feel more important. Also the order of adventures is odd as the mission to save their friend gets put aside for a bunch of level-up fetch-quests. There should be a ticking clock to save their buddy, then after that there is time. The re-arranged sequences follow:

Goblin Troubles

So we start with Gwyn, the Rockseeker brothers scholar friend that appears in Phandelver and Below traveling with the party. I want her introduced early in case they segway into that adventure. She's also a useful resource as a scholar to give the PCs info. The order goes:

1. Goblin Arrows
2. Cragmaw Hideout
3. Cragmaw Castle

So the first two run as normal. Gwyn starts with the group, she can take the wagon to town and get reinforcements. If the party is beat up dealing with the Cragmaw Hideout she could have returned with help, and perhaps a healing potion or two, otherwise they are free to continue to Cragmaw Castle uninterupted. 

Changes The only real changes to the first two adventures would be the addition of dead Goblins hung near the entrance of Cragmaw Hideout. These Goblins have strange tattoos (the mark I'm giving to all the Sawplee Goblins from Phandelver and Below). Helping to set them up a bit, early on. The elongated heads are silly. 

I'd also include a captive Sawplee Goblin (if it survives the onslought through the Hideout, which is no sure thing) that can provide guidance to Cragmaw Castle and basically answer any questions the party has about Goblins or Orcs. At this point problems between Sawplee and Cragma Goblins should look mostly like tribal conflict. This Goblin would be a bit like Golum, not really trustworthy but in the end he doesn't try to deceive them. He will not help in a fight, but won't double-cross or anything either. 

I'm not one for a lot of funny voices but this guy gives the opportunity for lots of that. He's not a big fan of the Sawplee Goblins (he was drafted) and hates the Cragmaw Goblins. He also really hate the Orcs. If set free he'll head to Butterskull Ranch where he might be met later. If he's brought to town it's likely he'll be hung as a bandit and marauder.

More Changes Spider is a weak villian so he's gonna be a minion of Glasstaff. 

Phandelin

The time pressure is off. The party are heroes of the town.

4. Phandelin & Redbrand Hideout

This part should play out mostly as written. There are a few changes to the town.

New Faction Dwarven Ultra Patriots: The Miners Exchange is filled with Dwarf miners and they have a mine directly below the exchange. That mine is the economic heart of the town. The non-Dwarfs in town like the Dwarf coin but the Dwarves don't spend much which is a problem. Human miners mine the streams and rivers and sell their gold at the Exchange but don't think the Dwarves give a very good rate of exchange. So there is a bit of tension there. The Dwarves think the whole area is there as they once had a great kingdom here and they want it back. The Rockseeker brothers are sympathetic with the Dwarves but not as Zealous about their long-term plans. The races of the Forgotten Realms is to friendly.

Changed Faction The Redbrand Ruffians. They don't just beat people up. They are a proto-Thieves Guild that has set up gambling in the Sleeping Giant Tap House. A lot of the human miners have gambling debts and are occasionally beaten to get them to pay. Pretty standard stuff but the locals are hoping the heroes in town will deal with the problem for them so they are mostly mum. One might let it slip once Redbrands are gone, otherwise the paperwork in Glastaff's office might give it away. It may not matter. Glasstaff's paperwork will also show he is looking for Wave Echo cave without luck. He has a whole Grail Diary of info on the Wave Echo Cave and if given to Gwyn she can sort through it and provide hints and info to the party as they go. Also Glasstaff.

Other Changes Obsidion. There is a giant shard of obsidian at the Shrine of Luck. There are also shards of Obsidion flecked with color at different spots throughout town (Cornerstorne of Miner's Exchange, and embedded in the counter of the Sleeping Giant Traproom. These bits set up things alter, foreshadowing of sorts for Phandelver and Below.

If the party hasn't decided to remove the Red Brand Ruffians on their own, Sister Garaele will return and any Harpers in the group will be requested to do so. Any Lord's Alliance members will be told Iarno Albrek is Glasstaff.

Changes to Redbrand Hideout Glasstaff should survive if at all possible so he can replace Nilron Darlost in Storm King's Thunder and links things to Frost Giants. If he doesn't survive then Nilron Darlost can be himself. Otherwise the hidout plays out the same. 

Dwarves & Wave Echo

So now the rest of Lost Mines is silly fetch-quests and Wave Echo Cave. The party has still not found it. If you want to cut things short the location could be found in Glasstaff's notes and the party could go right there. Otherwise they go to Dwarven Excavation to see if they've found anything that might indicate the location of Wave Echo Cave. 

5. Dwarven Excavation
6. Axeholm/Wyvern Tor
7. Wave Echo Cave

Now we are jumping to Dragons of Icespire Peak for a bit. No changes to Dwarven Excavation and the Dwarves there haven't learned anything. They suggest Axeholm which has a map room of old Dwarven Kingdom but warn it's been owned by Orcs for generations. They may just be being difficult as Dwarves wouldn't want others to find the Cave, and sending the party to Axeholm may be a sort of suicide suggestion depending upon the DMs mood and how the Dwarves were treated. 

Changes To Axeholm Axeholm's Ghouls will be replaced with Orcs and Ogres from the Wyvern Tor adventure (which had no map anyway). The Banshee can stay, and maybe be talkative if the GM likes and the players are reasonable. Perhaps Sister Garaele gave her silver comb and asked her question, except now it's in Axeholm and not Agatha's Lair.

Changes To Wave Echo Cave The only real change is the location. I'd place it beneath the Ruined manor, at the bottom of the ravine in the Redbrand Hideout. Maybe Glasstaff knew it was there and has been trying to open some Dwarven doors to allow access, while keeping the site secure, maybe the Dwarfs at the Miner's Exchange know and are actually tunneling to get around Glasstaff. Either way putting it there removes an additional journey.

Morglum's Marauders!

So now the Lost Mines main adventure is over. If the DM wants to continue it a bit further Sister Garaele can have them go to Triboar with the art and other stuff they've accumulated. And to tell the Harpers there that Wave Echo was found and its a bust, and all that. 

8. Ruins of Thundertree/Conberry 
9. Butterskull Ranch (part 1)

On the journey the party pass through Conyberry a ruined town sacked by barbarians long ago. I'd use the Thundertree map and adventure. The players can get involved or not depending upon their whims. 

Changes To Thundertree/Conberry The dragon is Cryovain the White Dragon. If the players manage to kill him here, that of course would change or eliminate the need for killing it later. 

Changes To Butterskull Ranch (part 1) The cowboy hat is gone! It's embarrassing and stupid. The first time through the area the ranch is peaceful. The players meet Alfonse Kalazorn, he's a pleasure and puts them up for the night.  

Alfonse also has a Cow named Butterspout. The Cow was given limited intelligence and the ability to talk by a passing Elf Wizard. The Elf also gave the cow amazing tasting milk (which is used to make the Butter that Butterskull ranch is famous for). The Cow replaces the intelligent Crab from Tower of Storms. It can be used for comic relief (it proudly pushes milk and butter products and is very proud). The cow might even fall in love with an Elf if any are available, or a horse if none are.

Eventually the party makes it to Triboar, meets with the Harpers representatives. I now own Storm King's Thunder which has maps and details of Triboar. The PCs can exchange things of value and perhaps buy up a magic item if they'll need help when they eventually fight the dragon. They will learn about the white dragon that has been driving Orcs out of the mountains, and about the Dragon Barrow where the great dragonslayer and her sword were buried with suggestions the sword might be helpful and tokens to keep the spirits of the dead tranquil as long as the dead are not actually disturbed.

On the return trip they go to Butterskull Ranch again only to be overwhelmed by Orcs.

10. Butterskull Ranch (Part 2)
11. Shrine of Savras
12. Circle of Thunder (optional)

Morglum and his Orcs comes from issue #110 of White Dwarf. His maurders are Warhammer Greenskins full of malingering and screwing around. This was long before Pathfinder did their Gremlins take on Goblins and I like it a lot better. Also I'd have them wearing Talos symbols and chanting Talos a lot to help set up Talos cultists if the adventurers go into the Beyond the Dragon of Icespire Peak extra Adventures.

Changes To Butterskull Ranch (part 2) The party is dining with Alfonse when the Orcs attack. It should be a battle with the players able to select defensive positions and make a go of it. Possibly escaping to snipe at the Orcs. It's twilight and during the dark the Orcs can see nicely. In the end Butterspout the cow has been taken, along with a ranch-hand. The trail will be easy to follow in the morning, they were taken to the Shrine of Savras.

Changes To Shrine of Savras The main difference is the party is there (if they decide to get involved) to rescue the talking cow Butterspout. Otherwise the adventure should play out the same except some Orcs will escape at the end, leading to the Circle of Thunder where there will find re-enforcements.

Changes To Circle of Thunder (optional) The location is moved to a mile away from the Shrine of Savras. Circle of Thunder is optional because the players may not chase the fleeing Orcs. If they do, they can catch the orcs long before they arrive at the Circle of Thunder but will notice Orc footprints leading them clearly to the Circle of Thunder. Otherwise the adventure is the same.

13. Dragon Barrow

14. Icespire Hold

Dragon Barrow and Icespire Hold should play out mostly as written. I'd give the Sword a personality. Make it annoying and full of elitist "I will not allow that!" talk but basically it's all talk.

Segway to the next Tier of Adventure

So now you need to figure out where you are going with the adventure. Are the characters sick and tired of Phandelin, or are they protective of the place. Either way the 5th level portion of both Phandelver and Below and the Storm King's Thunder start with an attack.

15. Goldenfield (Storm King's Thunder) / Paths of Peril (Phandelver and Below)

Changes To Goldenfield The attacked city is Phandelin. I think Goldenfields is a lame location and nothing about the attack is really specific to the location. Hillgiants are my favorite Giants, and the lowest level giants, so they're gonna attack Phandelin instead, from their the Harper Sister Garaele can send the party to Triboar to inform them the giants are acting up. While there the PCs can be in the middle of the Triboar attack and are well into the Storm King's Thunder storyline.

Changes to the Paths of peril storyline. None, we've set up things nicely for Phandelver and Below.

If they go for Beyond the Dragon of Icespire Peak, nothing happens and they head to the coast. 

GM Mischief The GM can drop hints, or let the players figure things out for themselves. If going forward with Phandelver and Below then the Spider was working to stop the Mind Flayers, but he was stopped/killed by the party before he could. If going forward into the Storm King's Thunder it can be stated that Dragons and Giant are enemies, and hinted that a single white dragon near Phandelin would have stopped the Giant attack on the city that occurred prior to the goblin attack. A bit of guilt can help motivate PCs to push forward and do the right thing.

You Missed a Few Adventures?

There are a handful of mini-adventures in the Lost Mines of Phandelver and Dragon of Icespire Peak that haven't been used yet. 

Umbrage Hill, Logger's Camp, and old Owl Well can be repurposed for adventures along the road. Random encounters are dull, better to have something a bit more planned out from time to time.

x. Umbrage Hill (Manticore) 

x. Logger's Camp (Ankheg)  

x. Old Owl Well (Necromancer and zombies)  

Changes To Old Owl Well The Necromancer will sense/notice Glasstaff's staff if the players have it. He doesn't like Glasstaff so that could go either way depending upon how the players handle it.

The rest of the adventures I don't like. If you want wererats have them attack as a faction in Phandelin, otherwise get them out of there. 

x. Agatha's Lair (Banshie)

x. Falcon's Hunting Lodge

x. Mountain's Toe Gold Mine (wererats)

x. Gnomengarde (Mimic)  

x. Tower of Storms (Talking Crab)

x. Woodland Manse

Conclusions

This whole post is about how I would blend and inter-connect a module with other modules. In general I like Lost Mines of Phandelvin and Dragon of Icespire Peak. I think they made a mistake when they made Phandelin & Below instead of officially combining the two modules into a big low level sandbox with foreshadowing of The Shattered Obelisk. Then have shattered Obelisk as its own thing for levels 6-10.

The crazy way WotC handles modules

Most of these comments are based on Lost Mines of Phandelver, Phandelin and Below, Dragon of Icespire Peak (and the additional modules that came with it in Roll20) and Storm King's Thunder. Maybe the other modules change this but it doesn't really look like it. So...

1. Broad, not long

I have a problem is with the way Wizards does modules as a skeleton outline from level 1-20. This maps out a characters entire life. You start with this module and damnit your gonna go all the way... 20 levels is too much commitment. My characters are sick of Phandelin and they've only gone through a mash of Lost Mines of Phandelver and Dragon of Icespire Peak and they are only at 5th level. Space considerations ensure they can't put enough content for proper levelling so they race through levels and the DM has to fill in a lot of adventures along the way. Charitably this could be seen as a way to encourage DMs to home-brew but I don't think it works that way in practice. I think most will lean on DMs Guild content full of mini-adventures or just have them race up the levels.  

Storm King's Thunder showed the way, somewhat  (I haven't finished reading it). The module goes from 1-20 but also starts with a disposable 1st section that takes you from 1-5 and suggests skipping that part if your characters come over from the Starter Set's Lost Mines of Phandelver. I'd prefer the first chapter was skipped entirely but If you must start every adventure at 1st level this is the way to go.

I've also read that Storm King's Thunder and Rime of the Frostmaiden both have great middle-play and flop a bit at the end. If true that suggests, once again that they should be concentrating on the tiers of play. They list tiers of play in the DM's Guide. Write the adventures for the Tiers. A sandbox with a throughline. Then when done the GM can look over the next Tier of play for adventures or pick the one that naturally segways with the previous Throughline. 

I guess the downside is that a crappy adventure will never sell the upper tier, and like TSR found, high level adventures don't sell so well. Well then encourage the DM's Guild writers to concentrate on the upper tiers so the Wizards don't have to spend the time and resources. Let 3rd party folks continue the through-line. It would be great to have multiple companies come up with a high tier conclusion to different adventure threads.

2. Organize Better

I'm a technical writer by trade so organizing information is one of my bug-a-boos. I'm reading Storm King's Thunder and it's driving me crazy. In the Technical Writing World we have a thing called DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture). The idea is to divide types of information (instruction, reference, info) so that different parts can be re-used easily. A simple example of this is the way Wizards has Goblin printed in a module with the Statblock in the Appendix or in the Monster Manual. Saves space. Not the most usable, but it saves a lot of space and makes reading the module far easier.

So in Storm King's Thunder they have a section of detailing a town. Then following that a bit of adventure, then quests. Then detailing a second town. Then adventure, then quests. Some of these quests take you to additional location. So the straight-up location info is great as it could be re-used in a dozen adventures but it's spread out all over the place making it far harder to use that way. It also is stuff that really isn't so relevant for the adventure or the quests. Then in the next chapter they have info on the different cultures and sites throughout the Savage Frontier. Great stuff for running those adventures between the set-pieces but it makes it harder to have them spread all over the place. Then they have a few locations that a blended with the adventure they serve. I'm not talking about those because those are logically combined.  

A better organization would have been to divide the book into three big sections. 

1. The Savage Frontier - Include all the details about cultures, locations (not specific to a one-shot adventure), cities. All the stuff you would want if you dumped the Giant content and just wanted to run adventures in the Savage Frontier.
2. The adventures. A chapter on each attack location and the Quests that follow. Mostly the way things were done in Storm King's Thunder from Chapter 4-12.
3. Appendixes. exactly as they are.

This would make the book easier to read. Easier to run at the table. 

3. Cut the fat

Reading through the town descriptions is a chore because they try to give fun little bits about every single building. for example:

Tl7. ULDINATH'S ARMS

This hilltop smithy across the road from Foehammer's Forge (area T18) is run by Harriet Uldinath (LG female Illuskan human commoner), the great-granddaughter of the establishment's founder. Harriet has known Ghel­ ryn Foehammer since she was a child, and the two are friendly rivals. Harriet sells fine weapons stamped with the Uldinath family glyph, which generally increases their value by 25 percent.

Could have been just...

Tl7. ULDINATH'S ARMS - Harriet Uldinath (LG female Illuskan human commoner) sells fine weapons stamped with the Uldinath family glyph, which increases their cost by 25 percent.

The rest could be included in a table of potential backgrounds for proprieters in that town and saved a lot of time. So now it's all canon but most adventurers aren't gonna go to T17, and if they do are unlikely to talk about the family history, so it's wasted space. Fluff takes longer to read, and makes it harder to find anything. Fluff is bad.

So if I was made lead designer of WoTC that's what I'd concentrate on first. Better modules.

Some Thoughts on the Lost Mines of Phandelver

First a minor nit, the names Phandelver and Phandalin are too similar. Also Phandalin is a village on the frontier with tribes of goblins and bugbears around and it has no defenses, no militia, nothing. It's a miracle it hasn't been wiped out yet. I would expect a ditch and wooden palisade at the very least if not a stone wall surrounding the place. 

Second, the maps. Cragma Caves reminded me a lot of the map in Murria's Revenge in the old Runequest Borderlands box. It's a good map and the similarities might be accidental. In fact most of the changes are improvements, still you start on the left side of the stream and circle around and cross to the right. Weird coincidence. 

The map of Cragma Castle was nice as well, My players enjoyed the tactical nature of it, even if the designer has apparently never actually seen a castle before. I didn't like the Wave Echo map at first, visually its pretty bog-standard, but in play it worked nice as my players were trying to circle around the enemies and take advantage of the looping nature of the place. It needed more verticals but it was nicely designed. Just goes to show you can't judge a map entirely on the appears. Lastly the Orc mission needs a battlemap. Luckily pretty much any map you could dream of is online somewhere.

Third, I like the way they aimed for a sandbox but the pacing was odd. Maybe I misread something but it felt like there is a bit of hurry to save the missing dwarf brothers, but you aren't really high enough level so first right away, so you do a side-quests or two to level-up before hand. Very video-gamey and artificial. It would have been better if it started in Phandelin against ruffians, then side-quests and sandbox fun, and on one of those the party is Ambushed > Cragma dungeon > Cragma Castle > Wave Echo cave for the win.

Lastly the module missed a chance to explain how to run urban adventures in Phandelin.  They needed details on how to handle encounters, how to dole out rumors, maybe an encounter table. Instead they just list out the important buildings and leave it all up to the DM. They leave you the feeling that the players need to go door to door knocking and asking questions for quest hooks which is silly. They should have had carousing rules of some sort. Not the kind used throughout the OSR for XP, but some fun tables to handle the celebration that was likely to spring-up when the players took out the Redbrand Ruffians. Tables that helped introduce NPC and dole out scenario hooks. 

So it was a good module for my parties intro to 5E and re-intro to RPG after a couple of decades. 

Some thoughts on 5E

I was a little late getting into 5E. My players and I cut our teeth on AD&D so that is something to think about during this post. Also for the first few sessions every player wanted a fighter (the most popular character class in polls as well) which creates a somewhat unique dynamic. A group of four fighters, two of which are archers, provides a pretty devastating attack.

My players prefer to get increases in to hit rather than the fiddly benefits at each level. They were constantly reminding each other not to forget class features. It all felt meta gaming and I didn't like it. Also it adds a level of complexity to the GM who has to keep track of what they can do. This I think dates back to AD&D when your fighter got better at fighting, and there were no extras per level.

This next complaint is not a 5E issue but an issue with every game. After a particularly successful mission the players were the toast of the village they saved. Playing out the events of carousing are dull and awkward. Also going door to door looking for plot hooks as seems to be expected in Lost Mines of Phandelin is dull and stupid. It would be much better to mix the two. Have the players take out the Redbrand Ruffians and then while drinking the rumors come to them.  A Carousing mechanic would work easily enough handle the celebration and hand out rumors. Then the players can have a more targeted search for info the next day when sober again. Carousing tables were a fun idea but they are just under-used when used for experience (or just used for experience). 

Another one that is not strictly 5E, but... I thought I liked platform leveling. That is mission complete you go up a level. This avoids counting XP like a bookkeeper. I'm a GM not a bookkeeper! But we had a session where two players didn't make it. They may join half way into this next adventure. So do they go up when the group goes up, that doesn't seem fair.

Lastly, for now at least, 5E and Lost Mines level the PCs up too quickly. I think if the pace of leveling slowed down the players might get a chance to get use to their new Class Features each level instead of just collecting them and forgetting about them.

Lifestyle Expenses

I like the idea of Lifestyle expenses but this also should be baked into the different races the way backgrounds are to tell you something about the race. The player should roll for their lifestyle during character creation. A series of tables will better show what I mean.

Hill Dwarf

2d6	Lifestyle
--	Wretched
01	Squalid
02	Poor
03-08	Modest
09	Comfortable
10	Wealthy
--	Artistocratic

Mountain Dwarf

2d6	Lifestyle
--	Wretched
01	Squalid
02-05	Poor
06-09	Modest
10	Comfortable
--	Wealthy
--	Aristocratic

High Elf

2d6	Lifestyle
--	Wretched
--	Squalid
--	Poor
01-05	Modest
05-06	Comfortable
07-09	Wealthy
10	Aristocratic

Wood Elf

2d6	Lifestyle
--	Wretched
--	Squalid
01-02	Poor
03-08	Modest
09-10	Comfortable
--	Wealthy
--	Aristocratic

Halfling (Stout)

2d6	Lifestyle
--	Wretched
--	Squalid
--	Poor
01-06	Modest
07-09	Comfortable
10	Wealthy
--	Aristocratic

Halfling (Tallfellow)

2d6	Lifestyle
--	Wretched
02	Squalid
03-04	Poor
05-06	Modest
07-08	Comfortable
09	Wealthy
10	Aristocratic

Half Orc

2d6	Lifestyle
01-02	Wretched
03-04	Squalid
05-07	Poor
08	Modest
09	Comfortable
10	Wealthy
--	Aristocratic

Human

2d6	Lifestyle
01	Wretched
02	Squalid
03-04	Poor
05-06	Modest
07-08	Comfortable
09	Wealthy
10	Aristocratic

A character may select to live a week at a higher level than their normal level, but not below. What happens when they are unable to afford their normal level is up to the GM (take out a loan, take up petty crime) but unhappiness and a feeling of desperation is likely. Possibly enough to risk their lives on an adventure.

If they spend too long at a lower level their own lifestyle expectations might drop a level as well.

Here is what the lifestyles mean according to the 5e srd.

Lifestyle Expenses per day

Price/Day	Lifestyle	Notes
--	Wretched	You live in inhumane conditions. Violence, and hunger follow you wherever you go. Other wretched people covet your gear, which represent a fortune by their standards. You are beneath the notice of most people.
1 sp	Squalid	Your lifestyle means you live in a desperate and often violent environment, in places rife with hunger, and misfortune. You are beneath the notice of most people. Most people at this lifestyle level are refugees of some sort.
2 sp	Poor	A poor lifestyle means simple food and lodgings, threadbare clothing, and unpredictable conditions result in a sufficient, though probably unpleasant, experience. People at this lifestyle level tend to be unskilled laborers, costermongers, peddlers, thieves, mercenaries, and other disreputable types.
1 gp	Modest	A modest lifestyle keeps you out of the slums and ensures that you can maintain your equipment. You don't go hungry or thirsty, and your living conditions are clean, if simple. Ordinary people living modest lifestyles include soldiers with families, laborers, students, priests, hedge wizards, and the like.
2 gp	Comfortable	A comfortable lifestyle means that you can afford nicer clothing and can easily maintain your equipment. You associate with merchants, skilled tradespeople, and military officers.
4 gp	Wealthy	A wealthy lifestyle means living a life of luxury. You live a lifestyle comparable to that of a highly successful merchant, a favored servant of the royalty, or the owner of a few small businesses. You are happiest when you have a small staff of servants.
10 gp	Artistocratic	You like to live a life of plenty and comfort. You have excellent lodgings, you dine at the best restaurants, retain the most skilled and fashionable tailor, and have servants attending to your every need. You receive invitations to the social gatherings of the rich and powerful, and spend evenings in the company of politicians, guild leaders, high priests, and nobility.