Did my first session this weekend. Print out some notes and maps for the group. Things I learn. Make your players take notes. Especially if they choose to come from Ten-Towns. The snowflake system is interesting but is a lot to keep up with in your head. Go SLOWER. No need to push the book or the quests.
Double think the quests giving. Toll and Trouble is NOT a first level quest. My group finished Cold-Hearted killer then choose that one. Oops. I had to drop the big monster, and play stupid with some of the other monsters.
Do create a calendar as the full moon, and new moon dates are important.
Second Session. Make sure your player take notes. Print out the map of Ten towns. And the Locations map. My group finished Toll And Trouble and follow that to Mountain climbing one. It is very interesting how some of these quests are tied together. I am also keep track of the number of deaths around ten towns as this will play into later chapters. So far the total ten towns pop has decrease by 17.
Third session. My group wants to run all the quests in Chapter 1. I told them they either have to freeze their pc at level 4. Or they can bring new pcs at level 1. So some players will have a pool of 2 pcs going into Chapter 2. The group is planning a hostile take over of the gem mine. And are burning through about 20 game days to do this. I had to adjust the number of Icewind Kobolds in the mine up to adjust for the party level.
Yeah, this looks like it will be a problem with RotF and AL. Too much ch 1 content we won’t be able to touch with a given character. We just want our little guys to experience it all! And get paid for it, too.
Session 4. REMEMBER TO HIGHLIGHT. The group did the white moose quest. I did a rewind (first time in years). Why. Look at the mummy encounter. Sahnar, is not your normal mummy. Also my group hated the Banshee encounter. They really hated the longbow. Also light conditions are still very important.
Seesion 5 was two sessions in one seating. One part the group help rig the mayor election in Termaliane and start the take over of the gem mine. Second part was the Lake Monster. The Lake Monster is not much of a challenge except boredom. The monster in CR 2. Even with bad light conditions, a third level party can handle it. I had bad rolls on the monster. In fact, the random Knucklehead trout did more damage to the party than the monster.
Session 6 the group ran the Mead must flow. They were a weak group. I have two problems with the way this quest in written. One It been winter for two years but the bees are still flying. Two the offer to elect a pc the speaker afterwards. I dropped two due to one of the pcs of the group is now speaker of Termalaine. This pc will lose their speakership if they go adventuring. AL says remove the PC from play. But I think it better to just lose the speakership.
My problem with bees was solved by pc action. I mentioned the will of the speaker, and the combination to the town safe was missing. The player who has the shapeshifter secret broke into the speaker house. Stole the will and found the safe combination. He then planted the documents on the town clerk. I had Tempus bless the town bees. So the bees are all wearing extreme cold weather gear when they go out.
The combat was swingy in the party favor. As the giant could zero out anyone in the party in one round. I also had the giant's backup arrive at different rounds. So they won by the skin of their teeth. I was evil. Since they didn't have enough strength to open the crypt, I did not give them the magic items.
I still deciding on how many town folk will die by Gahg before the town militia, kill her.
Session 7 was really two sessions. I ran the Foaming Mugs. You will need to adjust the fight with goblins if you have an APL group of 3 +. For grins, I rigged a slingshot on top of sled. The goblins were shooting Iron ingots at the party for 3 pts of damage. This was a war machine call back to last season.
The group has taken over the gem mine. And killed the mine owner. But forgot to forge a will. The evil Kobolds were making an escape tunnel. This was discovered and they wanted to go on strike. So did some of miners. The group allowed me to fast forward some days to the reading of the will. Turns out the son Rodeo of Hollywood have half the shares in the mine. The town and miners own the other half. We had fun for 50 minutes talking about the strike. Talking about the income about the strike. And who owns the Cauldron of Plenty. The end result was the adventuring party has abandon the mine and were shopping around to rent out the cauldron of plenty for GP. This netted the PCS no xp or GP but we did have fun.
Second session the party backtrack to Good Mead and Raided the Tomb due to having the abilities to open it now. I held off on the effects of curse and have the two items being story items currently. They then ran Unseen. And a player surprise me with their secret of "Old Flame". The group now owns an inn in Caer-Konig. The fight in Unseen is a hard fight at APL 3 if they charge in. I did allow the main PC to escape while invisible. And skipped the tribal warrior combat due to time. But they release one duergar and one nomad. If they meet the wolf tribe nomads, the encounter will be shifted toward friendly.
During the last session my group did the Black Swords quest. DMs need to remember the triggers on if the people inside the castle are going to welcome the pcs, or not be happy with them. They were welcomed. I did use the Soothsayer to drop some quests, and add some minor warnings.
They also Started Chapter 2 with Id Ascendent quest. I was not prepared for that one fully. Two of the pcs had connections.
One had the Psi crystal from the mine. The other was an escapee.
Reread the set up. I skipped that and had the golem doing regular damage. Which killed one pc. The group fled from the encounter. The results will be a certain zoo animal will be snacking on Dougan's Hole towns folk.
I ran Angajuk’s Bell for a party of three. 2 fourth level and 1 fifth with no changes. If you have above a weak party, you may want to adjust the number of foes up.
The Dark Duchess you will need to down grade the Ice troll if you have a weak party. I do dislike the sudden ally which saves you if you get in trouble. But my group was able to loot the ship. Due to me not rolling below 65% on the first hour and over 80% on all other rolls.
Saturdays game my group finished four quests. Black Cabin the players did not like the "DEATH by Box Text" this also a heavy skill check quest so you may want to warn your players. Revel's End is interesting but appears to written to beat a frontal attack. Note only the cells have anti-magic on them. My players are now getting information from the prisoner when they are in the courtyard doing P.T. Due to me getting ill during play and working on players background I combined the Skytower and Wyrmdoom quests. The players were able to start the peace talks by winning a dodge ball contest.
Since my players have ask to run this as close to homebrew. The Ghost of Easthaven is still drowning town's people during the night. The Bulette from the spaceship is now eating townspeople of Dougan's Hole. If they don't stop it during next session, I will roll a combat against the town's people and put the result into the game.
Session11 was long for various reasons. They room broom the Lost Spire of Netheril. I dropped one combat since they were a strong group, it would have a been a cake walk. The Berserker cave went south for them. Do your best to draw out the map mostly accurate. I drew straight hallways and most did not hear it when I said the tunnel were S shaped. See the special effect. Bobby the berserker just told them "You can't hurt me anymore." They did slow the bad guys by pushing them in the fissures.
The Captain and Bulette from the space ship ate and or destroyed Dougan's Hole. The group killed the captain but the bulette escaped. Toward the next town.
They then traveled to the Crackling Chasm. The Chasm part was almost a cakewalk due to their tactics. But since I forgot to run them through the Dougan's Hole quest, I combined parts of it with a wandering monster. So an
Awaken Mammoth
and five other mammoths shook down the group for money. Yes it was an over powered wander monster encounter but chapter 2 does that. Remember Overland travel is 1/2 of a mile and mountain travel is 1/4 of a mile. RATS. I forgot for them to double back. DC Survival 15 mountain travel means you hit a road block.
Session 13 the group did the Jarlmoot and Karkolohk. The Jarlmoot should be adjusted for your group combat level as some of critters in the opening can put out the damage. The Karkolohk is easy if the group go for diplomatic option. I made the shield guardian a story item. One player did get to befriend a Snowy Owlbear. He was upset on the upkeep cost.
Session 14 They met some wandering monsters. Got rid of the Ghost of Easthaven. And complete Chapter 3 and 4 by allying with Sunblight. Which really threw me.
Session 15 and the players are in Chapter 5. They raided most of the boats. To make mapping easier for me I just did a 40 foot by 100 foot rectangle for all the boats. But I suggest you use some the boats from Ghosts of Saltmarsh. Also minor nitpick for the Grimskalle map. It is one square equals 10. This squeezes the monster on the Entry level. Since the keep was built for this size monster, I would say one square is either 15 or 20.
Also two of the towns have allied with Sunblight but it is just a waiting game until they stop Auril.
Just caught this while reviewing my sessions notes. I gave out the Amulet and Shield Guardian as a story award. It is not, they are banned according to Content Catalogue V9.02. oops,
Session 16. Off board I had some goblins steal the shield guardian from the pcs hideout. Chapter 5 is going to be difficult for new DMs to handle. My group had alerted Auril so I send in the Yeti a few at the time. The group got downstairs and I had to on the fly adjust some of encounters for a strong group. The various tests are interesting as they cover roleplay, skill checks and a little combat. If you are keeping a calendar about a ten day will go by.
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No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.
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Did my first session this weekend. Print out some notes and maps for the group. Things I learn. Make your players take notes. Especially if they choose to come from Ten-Towns. The snowflake system is interesting but is a lot to keep up with in your head. Go SLOWER. No need to push the book or the quests.
Double think the quests giving. Toll and Trouble is NOT a first level quest. My group finished Cold-Hearted killer then choose that one. Oops. I had to drop the big monster, and play stupid with some of the other monsters.
Do create a calendar as the full moon, and new moon dates are important.
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.
Second Session. Make sure your player take notes. Print out the map of Ten towns. And the Locations map. My group finished Toll And Trouble and follow that to Mountain climbing one. It is very interesting how some of these quests are tied together. I am also keep track of the number of deaths around ten towns as this will play into later chapters. So far the total ten towns pop has decrease by 17.
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.
Third session. My group wants to run all the quests in Chapter 1. I told them they either have to freeze their pc at level 4. Or they can bring new pcs at level 1. So some players will have a pool of 2 pcs going into Chapter 2. The group is planning a hostile take over of the gem mine. And are burning through about 20 game days to do this. I had to adjust the number of Icewind Kobolds in the mine up to adjust for the party level.
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.
Yeah, this looks like it will be a problem with RotF and AL. Too much ch 1 content we won’t be able to touch with a given character. We just want our little guys to experience it all! And get paid for it, too.
moon dates? this feels important, even though i just started reading idrotf. Thank you for the advice! This will be my first AL game I'm dming
Session 4. REMEMBER TO HIGHLIGHT. The group did the white moose quest. I did a rewind (first time in years). Why. Look at the mummy encounter. Sahnar, is not your normal mummy. Also my group hated the Banshee encounter. They really hated the longbow. Also light conditions are still very important.
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.
Seesion 5 was two sessions in one seating. One part the group help rig the mayor election in Termaliane and start the take over of the gem mine. Second part was the Lake Monster. The Lake Monster is not much of a challenge except boredom. The monster in CR 2. Even with bad light conditions, a third level party can handle it. I had bad rolls on the monster. In fact, the random Knucklehead trout did more damage to the party than the monster.
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.
Session 6 the group ran the Mead must flow. They were a weak group. I have two problems with the way this quest in written. One It been winter for two years but the bees are still flying. Two the offer to elect a pc the speaker afterwards. I dropped two due to one of the pcs of the group is now speaker of Termalaine. This pc will lose their speakership if they go adventuring. AL says remove the PC from play. But I think it better to just lose the speakership.
My problem with bees was solved by pc action. I mentioned the will of the speaker, and the combination to the town safe was missing. The player who has the shapeshifter secret broke into the speaker house. Stole the will and found the safe combination. He then planted the documents on the town clerk. I had Tempus bless the town bees. So the bees are all wearing extreme cold weather gear when they go out.
The combat was swingy in the party favor. As the giant could zero out anyone in the party in one round. I also had the giant's backup arrive at different rounds. So they won by the skin of their teeth. I was evil. Since they didn't have enough strength to open the crypt, I did not give them the magic items.
I still deciding on how many town folk will die by Gahg before the town militia, kill her.
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.
One thing I'd change from AL is removing the PC from play. It's more fun to let them rp
and even defend the town from the chardalyn dragon if i read right
Session 7 was really two sessions. I ran the Foaming Mugs. You will need to adjust the fight with goblins if you have an APL group of 3 +. For grins, I rigged a slingshot on top of sled. The goblins were shooting Iron ingots at the party for 3 pts of damage. This was a war machine call back to last season.
The group has taken over the gem mine. And killed the mine owner. But forgot to forge a will. The evil Kobolds were making an escape tunnel. This was discovered and they wanted to go on strike. So did some of miners. The group allowed me to fast forward some days to the reading of the will. Turns out the son Rodeo of Hollywood have half the shares in the mine. The town and miners own the other half. We had fun for 50 minutes talking about the strike. Talking about the income about the strike. And who owns the Cauldron of Plenty. The end result was the adventuring party has abandon the mine and were shopping around to rent out the cauldron of plenty for GP. This netted the PCS no xp or GP but we did have fun.
Second session the party backtrack to Good Mead and Raided the Tomb due to having the abilities to open it now. I held off on the effects of curse and have the two items being story items currently. They then ran Unseen. And a player surprise me with their secret of "Old Flame". The group now owns an inn in Caer-Konig. The fight in Unseen is a hard fight at APL 3 if they charge in. I did allow the main PC to escape while invisible. And skipped the tribal warrior combat due to time. But they release one duergar and one nomad. If they meet the wolf tribe nomads, the encounter will be shifted toward friendly.
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.
During the last session my group did the Black Swords quest. DMs need to remember the triggers on if the people inside the castle are going to welcome the pcs, or not be happy with them. They were welcomed. I did use the Soothsayer to drop some quests, and add some minor warnings.
They also Started Chapter 2 with Id Ascendent quest. I was not prepared for that one fully. Two of the pcs had connections.
One had the Psi crystal from the mine. The other was an escapee.
Reread the set up. I skipped that and had the golem doing regular damage. Which killed one pc. The group fled from the encounter. The results will be a certain zoo animal will be snacking on Dougan's Hole towns folk.
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.
I ran Angajuk’s Bell for a party of three. 2 fourth level and 1 fifth with no changes. If you have above a weak party, you may want to adjust the number of foes up.
The Dark Duchess you will need to down grade the Ice troll if you have a weak party. I do dislike the sudden ally which saves you if you get in trouble. But my group was able to loot the ship. Due to me not rolling below 65% on the first hour and over 80% on all other rolls.
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.
Saturdays game my group finished four quests. Black Cabin the players did not like the "DEATH by Box Text" this also a heavy skill check quest so you may want to warn your players. Revel's End is interesting but appears to written to beat a frontal attack. Note only the cells have anti-magic on them. My players are now getting information from the prisoner when they are in the courtyard doing P.T. Due to me getting ill during play and working on players background I combined the Skytower and Wyrmdoom quests. The players were able to start the peace talks by winning a dodge ball contest.
Since my players have ask to run this as close to homebrew. The Ghost of Easthaven is still drowning town's people during the night. The Bulette from the spaceship is now eating townspeople of Dougan's Hole. If they don't stop it during next session, I will roll a combat against the town's people and put the result into the game.
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.
Session11 was long for various reasons. They room broom the Lost Spire of Netheril. I dropped one combat since they were a strong group, it would have a been a cake walk. The Berserker cave went south for them. Do your best to draw out the map mostly accurate. I drew straight hallways and most did not hear it when I said the tunnel were S shaped. See the special effect. Bobby the berserker just told them "You can't hurt me anymore." They did slow the bad guys by pushing them in the fissures.
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.
Session 12 was part homebrew. Ok not really.
The Captain and Bulette from the space ship ate and or destroyed Dougan's Hole. The group killed the captain but the bulette escaped. Toward the next town.
They then traveled to the Crackling Chasm. The Chasm part was almost a cakewalk due to their tactics. But since I forgot to run them through the Dougan's Hole quest, I combined parts of it with a wandering monster. So an
Awaken Mammoth
and five other mammoths shook down the group for money. Yes it was an over powered wander monster encounter but chapter 2 does that. Remember Overland travel is 1/2 of a mile and mountain travel is 1/4 of a mile. RATS. I forgot for them to double back. DC Survival 15 mountain travel means you hit a road block.
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.
Session 13 the group did the Jarlmoot and Karkolohk. The Jarlmoot should be adjusted for your group combat level as some of critters in the opening can put out the damage. The Karkolohk is easy if the group go for diplomatic option. I made the shield guardian a story item. One player did get to befriend a Snowy Owlbear. He was upset on the upkeep cost.
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.
Session 14 They met some wandering monsters. Got rid of the Ghost of Easthaven. And complete Chapter 3 and 4 by allying with Sunblight. Which really threw me.
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.
Session 15 and the players are in Chapter 5. They raided most of the boats. To make mapping easier for me I just did a 40 foot by 100 foot rectangle for all the boats. But I suggest you use some the boats from Ghosts of Saltmarsh. Also minor nitpick for the Grimskalle map. It is one square equals 10. This squeezes the monster on the Entry level. Since the keep was built for this size monster, I would say one square is either 15 or 20.
Also two of the towns have allied with Sunblight but it is just a waiting game until they stop Auril.
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.
Just caught this while reviewing my sessions notes. I gave out the Amulet and Shield Guardian as a story award. It is not, they are banned according to Content Catalogue V9.02. oops,
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.
Session 16. Off board I had some goblins steal the shield guardian from the pcs hideout. Chapter 5 is going to be difficult for new DMs to handle. My group had alerted Auril so I send in the Yeti a few at the time. The group got downstairs and I had to on the fly adjust some of encounters for a strong group. The various tests are interesting as they cover roleplay, skill checks and a little combat. If you are keeping a calendar about a ten day will go by.
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.