I am running Hotdq but in my home-brew world. So I'm adding a new plot hook, I have taken the monk Leosin and replaced him with a man named the Coordinator. Basically a guy who hires the players, in return for their services he offers them something they greatly desires. Most of the time it's something relating to their backstory. (Revenge, wealth, redemption, love, knowledge, etc.) After switching that plot hook chapter two kinda became pointless, as the whole point is to save Leosin. I felt like it was also over estimating the strength of the players to have them chase after the raiders right after the first chapter. After they took on the blue dragon and the half dragon. I want to add an change a lot in the book as most of the group like having their backstories in d&d or role playing with the group and the world. They have even expressed their concern in me not following the book. I also am worried about following the book because a lot of it is combat and never really gives the players a chance to do anything. I was a player for he fist chapter of this story and the DM messed it up by railroading the whole thing, often times skipping or interrupting our conversations to rush the story. I want to put more of my homebrew, and the pc's backstory into the game but how do I do that? How do I take out some of the combat in this game for more roleplaying?
IMO the module does have room for things like RP. You just have to allow the players time to pursue it, which it sounds like your DM for episode 1 didn't really do based on what you say about it. Episode 2, the raiders camp, has room for RP too. Most of it is RP, trying to figure out how to not engage the raiders and figure out what is going on. (Think of that long list of things that Leosin knows about the raiders that is provided in Episode 2 of the module.) What level are your characters at this point? They should be level 2. If you're worried about the power level, do what I did and have the camp have already been abandoned by the time the players get to it. (It helped that my players took a long rest after the fight with Cyanwrath.) They missed the stragglers but managed to find out the ambush ahead of time (one of the players has the soldier background so some tactical thinking helped there). I'd moved Leosin and the other prisoners into the hatchery. Doing what I did eliminates a lot of RP though. Leaving the camp intact allows for more RP as the players try to pass themselves off as cultists, determine what the raiders' goal is, and figure out what the cult's next steps are. The module doesn't have to be a railroad if you don't want it to be. I am looking at the book as more of a timeline of what the cult is doing and when. If my players go off the "rails" of the module, I know where the cult is at in their goals when my players come back to it and it helps to make the cult into a living, breathing entity rather than a plot device.
My players (because I gave it to them) got the opportunity to get their hands on the green dragon mask. This in turn led to lots of RP opportunities because they reached out to their contacts (Leosin and Onthar) for help with trying to figure out the mask and this in turn led them to an ad-libbed session of a portion of the Council of Waterdeep. The module gives you the framework but it's your call whether to use it as is or to restructure that framework to fit the type of game you and your players want.
If your players are worried about you going off-book, then don't. Just beef up the existing RP sections so that the pillars of play are more in line with what you and your party want. If they want a by-the-book adventure, then you can give it to them. But if they want that and you don't, you may have a conflict of fun that's going to lessen the fun for everyone at the table.
Yes but I have replaced Leosin, I took him out of the game. I felt like making a better pot hook cause A. PC don't even know why they are in Greenest B. Players drop out more times then you can count so you need an easier reason to bunch PC up. Leosin only propose was to push the plot by connecting the PC to factions and guilds, The Coordinator can do all that and more.
I like the idea of the camp being abandon and giving the PC a dragon mask cause it sounds fun. That leaves me open to set up encounters with a dragon of that type. I also could set up the hatchery so that the cult was waiting to kill anyone who followed.
I supposed I need to read more thoroughly through the book to fin moments of RP, I felt the traveling scenes were interesting but none the less the atrocities that is WaterDeep having not a single drop of RP or even description is horrible. In my world I replaced many of the factions, I even replaced the faction aiding the Cult Of Dragons with an orc tribe.
I get a lot of it is up to the players but I'm the one writing it, the PC don't really care if I go off the books or not but they choose roleplaying over combat. I'm trying to include things like a lovely day in the village, a realization of the threat to come, witnessing the ugliness of the world, and making progression in not only the main plot but in their stories to. Sitting around a fire and taking about the pain of losing a love one, healing your wounds and admitting to how scared you are to your fellow companions. I guess I'm trying to find a way to put moments like that in this game when most of it is so ....rushed.
Also I kinda want to cover the Cult Of Dragons trying to get the Dragons Masks cause that seems pretty big
I am running Hotdq but in my home-brew world. So I'm adding a new plot hook, I have taken the monk Leosin and replaced him with a man named the Coordinator. Basically a guy who hires the players, in return for their services he offers them something they greatly desires. Most of the time it's something relating to their backstory. (Revenge, wealth, redemption, love, knowledge, etc.) After switching that plot hook chapter two kinda became pointless, as the whole point is to save Leosin. I felt like it was also over estimating the strength of the players to have them chase after the raiders right after the first chapter. After they took on the blue dragon and the half dragon. I want to add an change a lot in the book as most of the group like having their backstories in d&d or role playing with the group and the world. They have even expressed their concern in me not following the book. I also am worried about following the book because a lot of it is combat and never really gives the players a chance to do anything. I was a player for he fist chapter of this story and the DM messed it up by railroading the whole thing, often times skipping or interrupting our conversations to rush the story. I want to put more of my homebrew, and the pc's backstory into the game but how do I do that? How do I take out some of the combat in this game for more roleplaying?
IMO the module does have room for things like RP. You just have to allow the players time to pursue it, which it sounds like your DM for episode 1 didn't really do based on what you say about it. Episode 2, the raiders camp, has room for RP too. Most of it is RP, trying to figure out how to not engage the raiders and figure out what is going on. (Think of that long list of things that Leosin knows about the raiders that is provided in Episode 2 of the module.) What level are your characters at this point? They should be level 2. If you're worried about the power level, do what I did and have the camp have already been abandoned by the time the players get to it. (It helped that my players took a long rest after the fight with Cyanwrath.) They missed the stragglers but managed to find out the ambush ahead of time (one of the players has the soldier background so some tactical thinking helped there). I'd moved Leosin and the other prisoners into the hatchery. Doing what I did eliminates a lot of RP though. Leaving the camp intact allows for more RP as the players try to pass themselves off as cultists, determine what the raiders' goal is, and figure out what the cult's next steps are. The module doesn't have to be a railroad if you don't want it to be. I am looking at the book as more of a timeline of what the cult is doing and when. If my players go off the "rails" of the module, I know where the cult is at in their goals when my players come back to it and it helps to make the cult into a living, breathing entity rather than a plot device.
My players (because I gave it to them) got the opportunity to get their hands on the green dragon mask. This in turn led to lots of RP opportunities because they reached out to their contacts (Leosin and Onthar) for help with trying to figure out the mask and this in turn led them to an ad-libbed session of a portion of the Council of Waterdeep. The module gives you the framework but it's your call whether to use it as is or to restructure that framework to fit the type of game you and your players want.
If your players are worried about you going off-book, then don't. Just beef up the existing RP sections so that the pillars of play are more in line with what you and your party want. If they want a by-the-book adventure, then you can give it to them. But if they want that and you don't, you may have a conflict of fun that's going to lessen the fun for everyone at the table.
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Yes but I have replaced Leosin, I took him out of the game. I felt like making a better pot hook cause A. PC don't even know why they are in Greenest B. Players drop out more times then you can count so you need an easier reason to bunch PC up. Leosin only propose was to push the plot by connecting the PC to factions and guilds, The Coordinator can do all that and more.
I like the idea of the camp being abandon and giving the PC a dragon mask cause it sounds fun. That leaves me open to set up encounters with a dragon of that type. I also could set up the hatchery so that the cult was waiting to kill anyone who followed.
I supposed I need to read more thoroughly through the book to fin moments of RP, I felt the traveling scenes were interesting but none the less the atrocities that is WaterDeep having not a single drop of RP or even description is horrible. In my world I replaced many of the factions, I even replaced the faction aiding the Cult Of Dragons with an orc tribe.
I get a lot of it is up to the players but I'm the one writing it, the PC don't really care if I go off the books or not but they choose roleplaying over combat. I'm trying to include things like a lovely day in the village, a realization of the threat to come, witnessing the ugliness of the world, and making progression in not only the main plot but in their stories to. Sitting around a fire and taking about the pain of losing a love one, healing your wounds and admitting to how scared you are to your fellow companions. I guess I'm trying to find a way to put moments like that in this game when most of it is so ....rushed.
Also I kinda want to cover the Cult Of Dragons trying to get the Dragons Masks cause that seems pretty big