I've been asked to step in and DM a game for my group of friends while our current campaign takes a break, though I'm at a bit of a loss as for what to run. I was hoping for some time saving suggestions, as choice isn't my forte, and they've not really given me much to go by. I don't have a lot of time to homebrew, or modify existing adventures too much, so 'as is' is my preference. Our session zero is in a few days, and I'd like to be able to give them their introduction and briefing before then. I have the legendary bundle on here already so everything is available to me, and am willing to look over on dmsguild (or elsewhere) for anything remarkable.
I think they're looking for a 'lighter' game that'll go for a month or two - possibly three, so it puts me in the unenviable position of having a one-shot being too short, and an adventure module much too long. I know that the module length estimates are all very in the 'how long is a piece of string' camp, so any advice will offered will come with that understanding automatically.
I originally suggested 'Dungeon of the Mad Mage', and just have them slog through each level till our DM is ready to resume, but it was voted down when I described it to them as a 'mega dungeon crawl'. They're after more RP opportunities. I'm aware that Yawning Portal could also fit the bill, but I haven't got time to really read them all to pick one out, and they all sounded very 'dungeon crawly' too. I'm aware I could be wrong about that.
I was considering running a chapter of Strixhaven, though on reading though it feels like that book really is best if the players are willing to really invest in the whole downtime side of things. Managing their exams, jobs, hobbies, and relationships doesn't sound very simple to me, and I'm not sure how I'd even begin to structure a session like this. I'd also wager that the Beyond character sheets probably don't support much in the way of tracking this. As I read it, it seems to be a very 'split the party' type of game where everyone is having their own moments, so I sort of put that book down. Please tell me I'm missing something if I have this wrong.
I'm currently considering Wilds Beyond the Witchlight right now, since it seems short. I know appearances can be deceiving though, and for all I know it's a years worth of adventuring.
regarding that length of string... any examples or modules you've run in one to three months that would correlate to the number of sessions you might expect to have with this group?
I really enjoyed running Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft example adventure The House of Lament it contains three possible story arcs the longer one might be relevant to you but I'm really unsure of how much ground you typically cover per session month as it were
Actually I did customise it quite a bit, I kind of assume you'd do that to... notable I blatantly stole from our dear DDB darklord of content Joe Starr and used an instance were a character split from the party to play out a for all intents and purposes TPK which in reality was a hallucination.
ach "light" and preferably "as is" yeah... probably not quite what you are looking for then, sorry I couldn't be of much help
“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
Thanks for the suggestions Justin. To answer your question, the games I run seem to be slow, compared to what other people are used to. I'm not sure why this is the case exactly, but it's probably because I seem to end up running roleplay heavy games, and my players enjoy engaging with the NPC's a lot. One of my Frostmaiden campains has been going on for about a year and a bit, and we're starting chapter 3 soon (though to be fair, they have completed more or less all of what was on offer for chapter one, and touched on a few side quests we made up, and a bit of chapter 2).
In the end I decided to just run Witchlight, since its shiny and new, and I've invited a young player to the table to see if the game is for them.
It's off-topic to my original post, but has anyone who has run the first chapter of this got any advice, or is able to warn me about anything to avoid happening? It seems like a very fun chapter, and not too long either, but there is a lot of moving parts here, and I can imagine it might cause confusion if things are explored in an unusual manner. My players have a mixture of the 'lost things' and 'warlocks quest' hooks.
Run Keep on the Borderlands, its a classic module and the most printed D&D module in the history of the game. You are given a keep as a base, there are wilderness encounters and then the caves of chaos with various humanoids to fight and slay. It will take the party from level 1 to level 3. You can make whatever story you want to go. I go with the default the monsters are there building an army to help the evil priest take over the keep. You'll learn how to run a sandbox if you do that module.
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I've been asked to step in and DM a game for my group of friends while our current campaign takes a break, though I'm at a bit of a loss as for what to run. I was hoping for some time saving suggestions, as choice isn't my forte, and they've not really given me much to go by. I don't have a lot of time to homebrew, or modify existing adventures too much, so 'as is' is my preference. Our session zero is in a few days, and I'd like to be able to give them their introduction and briefing before then. I have the legendary bundle on here already so everything is available to me, and am willing to look over on dmsguild (or elsewhere) for anything remarkable.
I think they're looking for a 'lighter' game that'll go for a month or two - possibly three, so it puts me in the unenviable position of having a one-shot being too short, and an adventure module much too long. I know that the module length estimates are all very in the 'how long is a piece of string' camp, so any advice will offered will come with that understanding automatically.
I originally suggested 'Dungeon of the Mad Mage', and just have them slog through each level till our DM is ready to resume, but it was voted down when I described it to them as a 'mega dungeon crawl'. They're after more RP opportunities. I'm aware that Yawning Portal could also fit the bill, but I haven't got time to really read them all to pick one out, and they all sounded very 'dungeon crawly' too. I'm aware I could be wrong about that.
I was considering running a chapter of Strixhaven, though on reading though it feels like that book really is best if the players are willing to really invest in the whole downtime side of things. Managing their exams, jobs, hobbies, and relationships doesn't sound very simple to me, and I'm not sure how I'd even begin to structure a session like this. I'd also wager that the Beyond character sheets probably don't support much in the way of tracking this. As I read it, it seems to be a very 'split the party' type of game where everyone is having their own moments, so I sort of put that book down. Please tell me I'm missing something if I have this wrong.
I'm currently considering Wilds Beyond the Witchlight right now, since it seems short. I know appearances can be deceiving though, and for all I know it's a years worth of adventuring.
regarding that length of string... any examples or modules you've run in one to three months that would correlate to the number of sessions you might expect to have with this group?
I really enjoyed running Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft example adventure The House of Lament it contains three possible story arcs the longer one might be relevant to you but I'm really unsure of how much ground you typically cover per session month as it were
Actually I did customise it quite a bit, I kind of assume you'd do that to... notable I blatantly stole from our dear DDB darklord of content Joe Starr and used an instance were a character split from the party to play out a for all intents and purposes TPK which in reality was a hallucination.
ach "light" and preferably "as is" yeah... probably not quite what you are looking for then, sorry I couldn't be of much help
“It cannot be seen, cannot be felt, Cannot be heard, cannot be smelt, It lies behind stars and under hills, And empty holes it fills, It comes first and follows after, Ends life, kills laughter.” J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, or There and Back Again
Thanks for the suggestions Justin. To answer your question, the games I run seem to be slow, compared to what other people are used to. I'm not sure why this is the case exactly, but it's probably because I seem to end up running roleplay heavy games, and my players enjoy engaging with the NPC's a lot. One of my Frostmaiden campains has been going on for about a year and a bit, and we're starting chapter 3 soon (though to be fair, they have completed more or less all of what was on offer for chapter one, and touched on a few side quests we made up, and a bit of chapter 2).
In the end I decided to just run Witchlight, since its shiny and new, and I've invited a young player to the table to see if the game is for them.
It's off-topic to my original post, but has anyone who has run the first chapter of this got any advice, or is able to warn me about anything to avoid happening? It seems like a very fun chapter, and not too long either, but there is a lot of moving parts here, and I can imagine it might cause confusion if things are explored in an unusual manner. My players have a mixture of the 'lost things' and 'warlocks quest' hooks.
Run Keep on the Borderlands, its a classic module and the most printed D&D module in the history of the game. You are given a keep as a base, there are wilderness encounters and then the caves of chaos with various humanoids to fight and slay. It will take the party from level 1 to level 3. You can make whatever story you want to go. I go with the default the monsters are there building an army to help the evil priest take over the keep. You'll learn how to run a sandbox if you do that module.