I've been running Curse Of Strahd for a handful of player for the last couple months. We are finally reaching the point where the campaign will end in 7-8 sessions and I wanted to run another book I had always wanted to run CoS and my players have enjoyed it so far and want to continue their characters past 11. The problem im running into is that there are no modules that run past 11. (This is my first time running a campaign and I don't feel comfortable homebrewing my own world just yet between the picture prompts and a well written story modules do a better job then I could making my own world.) basically just looking for advice on what I could potentially run to level 17-20 for my players.
I've been running Curse Of Strahd for a handful of player for the last couple months. We are finally reaching the point where the campaign will end in 7-8 sessions and I wanted to run another book I had always wanted to run CoS and my players have enjoyed it so far and want to continue their characters past 11. The problem im running into is that there are no modules that run past 11. (This is my first time running a campaign and I don't feel comfortable homebrewing my own world just yet between the picture prompts and a well written story modules do a better job then I could making my own world.) basically just looking for advice on what I could potentially run to level 17-20 for my players.
Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage is level 5 to 20, but it is mostly just a dungeon crawl. You can also take a look at modules from Adventurer's League, and I believe their modules have guidelines on how to adjust encounters to be suitable for a given level range.
At the end of COS, I recommend doing another session zero and discuss with your players what they want. Do they want to feel like superpowered heroes going through lower level adventures? Or do they still want a challenge?
If you do not feel comfortable doing a lot of adjustments and your players want to feel like superpowered heroes, there is nothing wrong with going through lower level adventures as is.
If they want a challenge and you do not mind doing a bit of adjustments, you can simply beef up the encounters in lower level adventures with more monsters, stronger monsters, have additional waves of reinforcements, and having more encounters. To make balancing things easier and reduce prep time, I highly recommend giving monsters adjustable and variable HP; if a monster has an average of 100 HP but can have anywhere between 50 and 150 HP, once a monster accumulates 50 points of damage, you can make an assessment whether the fight is too easy or too hard, and have the fight end right then and there if it is too difficult, or extend the fight all the way to 150 HP if it is too easy.
Even during the middle of an adventure's campaign, you can have another session zero to see how they are feeling with the lower level adventure. Do they still want it to be easy? Do they still want it to be challenging? There is nothing wrong with adjusting the difficulty mid campaign either for plot reason, as it can be explained the villain have already used up all its trump cards against the party (for easier difficulty), or the villain has noticed their plans going awry lately due to the party's activities and decided to dedicate more resources to confront the players (for harder difficulty).
I've been running Curse Of Strahd for a handful of player for the last couple months. We are finally reaching the point where the campaign will end in 7-8 sessions and I wanted to run another book I had always wanted to run CoS and my players have enjoyed it so far and want to continue their characters past 11. The problem im running into is that there are no modules that run past 11. (This is my first time running a campaign and I don't feel comfortable homebrewing my own world just yet between the picture prompts and a well written story modules do a better job then I could making my own world.) basically just looking for advice on what I could potentially run to level 17-20 for my players.
Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage is level 5 to 20, but it is mostly just a dungeon crawl. You can also take a look at modules from Adventurer's League, and I believe their modules have guidelines on how to adjust encounters to be suitable for a given level range.
At the end of COS, I recommend doing another session zero and discuss with your players what they want. Do they want to feel like superpowered heroes going through lower level adventures? Or do they still want a challenge?
If you do not feel comfortable doing a lot of adjustments and your players want to feel like superpowered heroes, there is nothing wrong with going through lower level adventures as is.
If they want a challenge and you do not mind doing a bit of adjustments, you can simply beef up the encounters in lower level adventures with more monsters, stronger monsters, have additional waves of reinforcements, and having more encounters. To make balancing things easier and reduce prep time, I highly recommend giving monsters adjustable and variable HP; if a monster has an average of 100 HP but can have anywhere between 50 and 150 HP, once a monster accumulates 50 points of damage, you can make an assessment whether the fight is too easy or too hard, and have the fight end right then and there if it is too difficult, or extend the fight all the way to 150 HP if it is too easy.
Even during the middle of an adventure's campaign, you can have another session zero to see how they are feeling with the lower level adventure. Do they still want it to be easy? Do they still want it to be challenging? There is nothing wrong with adjusting the difficulty mid campaign either for plot reason, as it can be explained the villain have already used up all its trump cards against the party (for easier difficulty), or the villain has noticed their plans going awry lately due to the party's activities and decided to dedicate more resources to confront the players (for harder difficulty).
Ill take this into account! They've already talked about wanting to continue past CoS and enjoy feeling like their characters are mortal, I'll definitely check out Adventures league though not sure if they're into dungeon crawling but it's always a good thing to ask about. Thanks for the advice! ^
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
I've been running Curse Of Strahd for a handful of player for the last couple months. We are finally reaching the point where the campaign will end in 7-8 sessions and I wanted to run another book I had always wanted to run CoS and my players have enjoyed it so far and want to continue their characters past 11. The problem im running into is that there are no modules that run past 11.
(This is my first time running a campaign and I don't feel comfortable homebrewing my own world just yet between the picture prompts and a well written story modules do a better job then I could making my own world.)
basically just looking for advice on what I could potentially run to level 17-20 for my players.
Dungeon of the Mad Mage.
EDIT: Also, you can check Adventure League content, there are some quests for levels 11-20 over there
Thanks! I'll give adventures league a look! ^
Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage is level 5 to 20, but it is mostly just a dungeon crawl. You can also take a look at modules from Adventurer's League, and I believe their modules have guidelines on how to adjust encounters to be suitable for a given level range.
At the end of COS, I recommend doing another session zero and discuss with your players what they want. Do they want to feel like superpowered heroes going through lower level adventures? Or do they still want a challenge?
If you do not feel comfortable doing a lot of adjustments and your players want to feel like superpowered heroes, there is nothing wrong with going through lower level adventures as is.
If they want a challenge and you do not mind doing a bit of adjustments, you can simply beef up the encounters in lower level adventures with more monsters, stronger monsters, have additional waves of reinforcements, and having more encounters. To make balancing things easier and reduce prep time, I highly recommend giving monsters adjustable and variable HP; if a monster has an average of 100 HP but can have anywhere between 50 and 150 HP, once a monster accumulates 50 points of damage, you can make an assessment whether the fight is too easy or too hard, and have the fight end right then and there if it is too difficult, or extend the fight all the way to 150 HP if it is too easy.
Even during the middle of an adventure's campaign, you can have another session zero to see how they are feeling with the lower level adventure. Do they still want it to be easy? Do they still want it to be challenging? There is nothing wrong with adjusting the difficulty mid campaign either for plot reason, as it can be explained the villain have already used up all its trump cards against the party (for easier difficulty), or the villain has noticed their plans going awry lately due to the party's activities and decided to dedicate more resources to confront the players (for harder difficulty).
Check Licenses and Resync Entitlements: < https://www.dndbeyond.com/account/licenses >
Running the Game by Matt Colville; Introduction: < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-YZvLUXcR8 >
D&D with High School Students by Bill Allen; Season 1 Episode 1: < https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52NJTUDokyk&t >
Ill take this into account! They've already talked about wanting to continue past CoS and enjoy feeling like their characters are mortal, I'll definitely check out Adventures league though not sure if they're into dungeon crawling but it's always a good thing to ask about. Thanks for the advice! ^