I started to help out a new hobby shop in town and found myself running Storm King's Thunder (SKT). I started with 10 individuals and now it down to 5 with a steady 4. All the players are new to d&d except 1. And he was tossed due not playing well with others. Things I did which I am getting excellence feedback.
1. Typed up the giant bag loot. Printed out 5 to 6 pages and cut the loot into individual slips. They pull from a tubberwear container when they loot a giant. They are tired of a lance being used as a tooth pick.
2. Printed out the Map 3.1 as a 2 by 3 ft map and stuck in a frame. this help all of us find the location and distance easier.
3. Had all the players rolled 3 % during session zero. Convert those into the wandering encounters. And I have a stuffed envelope for the players to pull from. Ex We on the road. bob rolled an encounter. Bob pulls the encounter. This encounter was brought to you by Sarah who roll 36. you Have 3d4 orcs who are raiding.
4. Track the time. They been playing for 55 Game Days.
5. Create Story Awards which tied into encounters and the various quests. This both a way for the group to take notes and have an interesting encounter. Ex. they have a 10% of if they mean a Frost Giant it is Fredrick who is still playing with his special metal sweeper.
6. Use some their backgrounds to tie into the story. Use other of their backgrounds for a side quest which has nothing to do with megaplot but will be a nice session.
7. Session Writes ups with the quests obtained listed. EX. Urgala Meltimer Free Giant slayer weapon. Travel to Zymorven Hall north west of Silverymoon. (page 61 and 108). Working on.
Ghelryn Foehammer Marks of Prestige. Present to King Morrinn at Citadel Felbarr (Page 62 and 79).
8. Cross reference the heck out Chapter 3.
9. I have added 1 of the new things from Bigby.
10. Gave most of them access to my Beyond account. For some I do print off a paper copy for the player who needs a hard copy.
11. I included Sidekicks as comedy relief but they were dropped due one player dropping out. And the other lost interest.
12. I am not pushing the story. If they want to back track and do a side mission, i just firgure out how many days in the saddle they will need.
I've not run nor played SKT, but there is a lot that you've done that's not Adventurers League. In order for the game to be considered AL legal, you have to follow the rules. Things that are not AL Legal:
1. You can't add treasure to the adventure that isn't in it, which includes mundane weapons. Players may only acquire things listed in the Treasure sections of the book or from defeated creature stat blocks.
3. You don't have carte blanche to just add to the adventure. Players across AL should largely experience the game the same way. You can adjust encounters in a way that is thematically appropriate to provide an appropriate challenge, but you can't rewrite adventures as you see fit. As an example, if an encounter has a Drow Elite Warrior in it, you can adjust it up to a Drow House Captain to increase the difficulty or down to a Drow to decrease the difficulty, or you can increase or decrease the number of Drow Elite Warriors there are in an encounter, but you can't swap out Drow Elite Warriors for Orcs nor can you add Orcs to an encounter that doesn't have them, and you certainly can't add things to the adventure that don't belong.
5. You can't create your own Story Awards, and you for sure can't make up and add your own equipment to the game. If it's to in the book, you can't just add to it.
6. You can't add content to the game that isn't AL legal. You can insert an AL legal module in between sessions, like you can run SKT one week, run DDAL05-02 the next week, then go back to SKT the week after that, but the characters have to be within the level range for the module range.
9. Not sure what you mean by adding something from BGG. If you mean that you swapped out a thematically appropriate creature from BGG during an encounter, great. If you mean that you inserted a magic item from BGG, that's not AL legal.
11. You can't include Sidekicks into most adventures. If it's not specifically written into the adventure, you can't just include them, which at this point is just Dragon of Icespire Peak and Dungeoncraft adventures as appropriate to the campaign (which you can't create your own).
The entire adventure you've run so far is basically invalid. Those characters can't play in other AL games. Not a big deal if they don't want to, but they might find out the hard way at another table.
My group has hit session 15. And are entering Chapter 5 with their Great Pumpkin scheme. Lots of sessions but we only have 2 to 2.5 hours of gameplay at the FLGS. I had to rewrite part of Chapter 4 and 5 due to the great pumpkin. They had been looking for the Hill Giant Queen location, and some just mention trapping her with food. And some how wanted to create a great pumpkin as a trojan horse thing. The plans look okay and since it was a good idea I not charging them for it. Now 30 foot high pumpkin with an installed bathroom weights how much?
Another player want to rule Nightstone and repair it. I allowed but told them it did not come with any titles and did not transfer to any tables. Next session they are returning to Nightstone to see how much progress has been made. And to pick up the Great Pumpkin.
I've not run nor played SKT, but there is a lot that you've done that's not Adventurers League. In order for the game to be considered AL legal, you have to follow the rules. Things that are not AL Legal:
1. You can't add treasure to the adventure that isn't in it, which includes mundane weapons. Players may only acquire things listed in the Treasure sections of the book or from defeated creature stat blocks.
3. You don't have carte blanche to just add to the adventure. Players across AL should largely experience the game the same way. You can adjust encounters in a way that is thematically appropriate to provide an appropriate challenge, but you can't rewrite adventures as you see fit. As an example, if an encounter has a Drow Elite Warrior in it, you can adjust it up to a Drow House Captain to increase the difficulty or down to a Drow to decrease the difficulty, or you can increase or decrease the number of Drow Elite Warriors there are in an encounter, but you can't swap out Drow Elite Warriors for Orcs nor can you add Orcs to an encounter that doesn't have them, and you certainly can't add things to the adventure that don't belong.
5. You can't create your own Story Awards, and you for sure can't make up and add your own equipment to the game. If it's to in the book, you can't just add to it.
6. You can't add content to the game that isn't AL legal. You can insert an AL legal module in between sessions, like you can run SKT one week, run DDAL05-02 the next week, then go back to SKT the week after that, but the characters have to be within the level range for the module range.
9. Not sure what you mean by adding something from BGG. If you mean that you swapped out a thematically appropriate creature from BGG during an encounter, great. If you mean that you inserted a magic item from BGG, that's not AL legal.
11. You can't include Sidekicks into most adventures. If it's not specifically written into the adventure, you can't just include them, which at this point is just Dragon of Icespire Peak and Dungeoncraft adventures as appropriate to the campaign (which you can't create your own).
The entire adventure you've run so far is basically invalid. Those characters can't play in other AL games. Not a big deal if they don't want to, but they might find out the hard way at another table.
Whether what he has run is AL legal or not depends on what exactly was done/modified/changed.
As far as a game being AL legal itself goes - there aren't any AL police. The players can have a great time playing the game but if they take the characters to another AL table/game/shop and want to play them then if there were issues in the previous sessions that the character participated in then they will need to be fixed (assuming someone notices).
SKT is a hard cover and these are often played in AL using AL legal table rules. For example, when I run a hard cover magic items and potions will duplicate in everyone's log but I ask the players to only bring as many items as were available in the adventure. Hardcovers are balanced around the loot drops listed in the game - one +2 weapon is one thing, having 6x +2 weapons at the next session because everyone decided to bring their copy is a different thing. Similarly, I ask players to only level the characters at the rate the DM suggests. Between 10 downtime days each session and a level each session (which is the current AL rule even for hardcovers), the characters could easily be level 20 long before the adventure concludes. However, what magic items a player brings and when the character levels are both AL legal decisions that the player can make and easily covered under a hardcover table rule. Similarly, trading and playing other adventures are also ok but please don't bring the new toys to the hardcover.
In terms of some of the specific comments ...
1. You can't add treasure. However, SKT has an incredible amount of rolled treasure from mundane items in giant bags to magic items from specified tables. In addition, mundane items, weapons and armor from monster stat blocks are also AL legal to loot these days. As a result, there is a ton of mundane items that can be found, especially in a hardcover.
2. The rules for what a DM can do are very broad:
"YOU ARE EMPOWERED Make decisions about how the group interacts with the adventure; adjust or improvise but maintain the adventure’s spirit. The setting, general story, and prominent NPCs of the adventure should remain largely the same."
"You can adjust an encounter’s difficulty by adding or removing thematically appropriate monsters but can’t create new monsters or modify them in such a way that modifies their challenge rating (aside from changing their hit points within the range afforded by their hit dice)"
In your example, you only replace Drow with drow. That is one approach, however, the DM is empowered to adjust or improvise AND make "thematically appropriate" changes to encounters to make them more interesting or challenging. In my opinion, this could mean replacing the drow with something else if necessary as long as it fits with the story. You could add some Quaggoths which are drow servants. You could potentially add or replace the drow with orcs or giants depending on the theme of the adventure and whether it would fit with the story. Thematically appropriate does not just limited to monsters of the same type.
The DM should not be changing the story but if one group plays it facing a group of drow and another a group of orcs due to requiring different levels of challenge then I don't see an issue with that.
3. SKT and all of the other hardcovers contain a range of quests and side quests. Although a DM can't add a quest, they can certainly involve the characters in the story more by connecting a character background or backstory to one or more of the existing quests. As long as the DM maintains the spirit of the adventure, there is quite a bit of leeway for an AL DM to leverage existing content and make connections that become meaningful to the players.
4. I am also not sure what the OP means by adding something from Bigbys. Items from Bigbys would not be AL legal for playing SKT since SKT specifies which tables and sources to use when rolling magic items. Magic items are one of the details where characters coming from different tables can run into problems and it is probably the one area where a DM running something under AL rules needs to be the most careful.
However, other than items, Bigbys likely contains a lot of lore, some creatures and other elements that might be cool to incorporate into an SKT run. Lore is free. Adding thematically appropriate creatures is also ok assuming Bigbys was added as an AL legal source for the FR campaign.
5. Sidekicks are one of the optional rules from Tasha's that is not legal for AL play in general though I think there may be specific adventures that call for the use of sidekicks. However, most adventures have NPCs that could fill a similar role and could join the party for a stretch of time.
"USING RULES IN TASHA’S CAULDRON OF EVERYTHING You may use any rules options listed in Chapter 4: Dungeon Master’s Tools of Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, with the exception of sidekicks and environmental hazards."
6. In AL, re-flavoring is free (at DM discretion). This means that a Frost giant could wield a "special metal sweeper" (whatever that is) as long as it is the same as some other existing weapon (maybe it is a glaive by another name - though if the players want to walk off with it, the DM should make sure that they know it is a glaive).
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As to whether the entire adventure is AL legal or not - as I said, it depends on what the OP actually did. Most of the comments they made could be done in an AL legal way and the rest could be fixed under the philosophy of "make the minimum necessary changes" to make the character sheets AL legal. Even if the characters might be forced to drop some sessions from logs due to some issue, they still have lots of sessions where they could level up and lots of downtime to do so.
However, given that the OP has trouble getting the players to make any notes at all, I am doubtful that the players are actually logging all the sessions anyway - in which case, whether it is AL legal or not really doesn't make any difference since without logs they won't be playing the characters anywhere else anyway.
To be clear, you mostly didn't actually correct anything I said.
1. That's literally what I said. Players can only acquire things from a treasure section or a treasure section or in the monster stat block. If it's in a monster stat block or in a treasure section, including if there's a rolled table or on a list the DM can choose from, they can take it. If it doesn't exist in the book, they can't.
2. I was intentionally using an oversimplified example to be extremely clear and not add a bunch of confusion or allow for a bunch of bad faith arguments. If both drow and orcs would reasonably be in the same area, then sure you can include them, but there are for sure circumstances where that's a bit of a stretch (like, it would be unacceptable in Riddle of the Raven Queen). If it's thematically appropriate, you can swap them out. If you're in Avernus, you can swap out a creature for another one that would realistically be there, like a bone devil for a yugoloth, a gnoll, a red cap, or a ghoul, assuming it's not a named NPC. If there's room for random encounters, you can add things that are thematically appropriate. Like, in Out of the Abyss, you can swap out all sorts of creatures for ones that would be found in the book or other creatures from AL legal sources that would be reasonably found in the Underdark, such as a deep dragon, but something like a red dragon would be far less reasonable.
3. That's what I said. You are right that making adjustments to the existing story to integrate characters to the story isn't changing the story, just like making adjustments to the story to get characters back on track. As a couple of examples, I've personally had a character do the former (she's was a retainer for Jarlaxle, which adjusted their interaction from the original conversation), and I had to make major adjustments to in WDH to get my party back on track because they were 5th level instead of 4th level, allowing them to derail it entirely. That's a pretty huge difference from just whole cloth creating your own story and having the characters do something not in the book.
4. Also literally what I said. You can add monsters from BGG, and lore that doesn't change the story should be fine, but adding magic items isn't.
5. I specifically said Sidekicks, and capitalized it to indicate that it was the game mechanic of the Sidekick, which would include one that would have the ability to level up, too. You could absolutely allow the party to have a minor NPC that they come across join them, but that didn't seem to be the case. A major NPC would be significantly changing the story, so that isn't likely allowable.
6. I didn't even mention that, but you are correct. Flavor is free. As long as it's correct on their character sheet (if renamed with an indication of the mechanics item) and in their logs, sure. You can call a longsword a katana, if you want. You could arguably call a glaive a lance, as long as it's a lance that does 1d10 slashing damage instead of 1d12 piercing damage, is heavy, two handed, and doesn't have the lance's special property.
To be clear, you mostly didn't actually correct anything I said.
True. :) However, a lot of the way your comments were presented seemed to assume that the OP had made unacceptable changes when he had not given sufficient information to conclude one way or another. So, I was making it a bit more clear what was allowed and what might not be.
1. That's literally what I said. Players can only acquire things from a treasure section or a treasure section or in the monster stat block. If it's in a monster stat block or in a treasure section, including if there's a rolled table or on a list the DM can choose from, they can take it. If it doesn't exist in the book, they can't.
Correct. However, interpreting the equipment in monster stat blocks including the mundane weapons they are wielding as lootable treasure is a more recent ruling. Treasure doesn't just include stuff in the "Treasure" section or magical items mentioned in italics in the text.
2. I was intentionally using an oversimplified example to be extremely clear and not add a bunch of confusion or allow for a bunch of bad faith arguments. If both drow and orcs would reasonably be in the same area, then sure you can include them, but there are for sure circumstances where that's a bit of a stretch (like, it would be unacceptable in Riddle of the Raven Queen). If it's thematically appropriate, you can swap them out. If you're in Avernus, you can swap out a creature for another one that would realistically be there, like a bone devil for a yugoloth, a gnoll, a red cap, or a ghoul, assuming it's not a named NPC. If there's room for random encounters, you can add things that are thematically appropriate. Like, in Out of the Abyss, you can swap out all sorts of creatures for ones that would be found in the book or other creatures from AL legal sources that would be reasonably found in the Underdark, such as a deep dragon, but something like a red dragon would be far less reasonable.
Just a quick comment on this since I am currently running Oota using AL rules. One of the main NPCs in Gracklstugh (the dark dwarf city) is the red dragon Themberchaud (from D&D movie fame) so it isn't really that unlikely that the party could encounter a red dragon in the underdark. Considering how events developed in Gracklstugh in my running of the game, the dragon might even be motivated to seek out his champions :). The point being that "thematically appropriate" can cover a lot of territory and an AL DM could add all sorts of different creatures into an adventure like OOTA if they thought it interesting or necessary.
3. That's what I said. You are right that making adjustments to the existing story to integrate characters to the story isn't changing the story, just like making adjustments to the story to get characters back on track. As a couple of examples, I've personally had a character do the former (she's was a retainer for Jarlaxle, which adjusted their interaction from the original conversation), and I had to make major adjustments to in WDH to get my party back on track because they were 5th level instead of 4th level, allowing them to derail it entirely. That's a pretty huge difference from just whole cloth creating your own story and having the characters do something not in the book.
Absolutely. However, between the flexibility given the DM in random encounters, the flexibility in the story itself and the free reign regarding thematically appropriate monsters as long as "the spirit" of the adventure is maintained - there is a lot of room for a DM to improvise while still running an AL legal adventure. They can't create their own magic items, or insert items or loot that aren't there initially but there is quite a lot of room to adjust the story flow to fit the characters (at least in hardcovers - I've run DoIP, CoS and currently OotA all for an AL group - I haven't run as many of the standard modules where the flexibility is generally a bit more limited).
4. Also literally what I said. You can add monsters from BGG, and lore that doesn't change the story should be fine, but adding magic items isn't.
Agreed - sorry for repeating what you said :) - I just expanded it a bit and pointed out that players who want to take their characters to different tables are most likely to run into issues if they are carrying items from difficult to obtain sources (if the player says they received it from SKT - that causes issues for them down the road which the DM would be better off avoiding by not giving it out in the first place). The OP didn't say what they added.
5. I specifically said Sidekicks, and capitalized it to indicate that it was the game mechanic of the Sidekick, which would include one that would have the ability to level up, too. You could absolutely allow the party to have a minor NPC that they come across join them, but that didn't seem to be the case. A major NPC would be significantly changing the story, so that isn't likely allowable.
I actually wouldn't see much issue with most NPCs joining the party for at least part of an adventure. For example, Esmerelda joined the party in CoS for most of the adventure though she is one of the possible options from the card reading so it wasn't an issue. However, I could have justified Themberchaud the red dragon joining the party for a bit in Oota if the story had developed that way (and the party had enough treasure to keep him happy :) ). I can also imagine a number of other plot twists that could happen in Oota that could result in some unexpected NPCs in the party at one point or another (though oota can be a party NPC heavy module).
On the other hand, I agreed with your comments about the actual "Sidekick" mechanic from the rules. There are only one or two modules where their use is specifically allowed for smaller parties.
6. I didn't even mention that, but you are correct. Flavor is free. As long as it's correct on their character sheet (if renamed with an indication of the mechanics item) and in their logs, sure. You can call a longsword a katana, if you want. You could arguably call a glaive a lance, as long as it's a lance that does 1d10 slashing damage instead of 1d12 piercing damage, is heavy, two handed, and doesn't have the lance's special property.
Agreed.
Anyway, I agreed with pretty much everything you said. I'm sorry if I came across as confrontational. However, after making your original comments you concluded with:
"The entire adventure you've run so far is basically invalid. Those characters can't play in other AL games."
... which I disagreed with. As I mentioned in my response, there were AL legal approaches to almost all of the OPs comments on how they were running SKT. There wasn't enough information in the OPs post to conclude that his "entire adventure was basically invalid" since almost everything he said could be done in an AL legal way (use of actual Sidekicks and not NPCs perhaps being an exception).
In addition, characters can generally play in other AL games as long as the errors are fixed. Make the minimum changes needed to continue playing in an AL legal fashion.
I was playing in one game with a level 9 dexterity focused multiclass halfling paladin/rogue. Cool character, fun to play, but as it turned out, the player was unaware of the multiclassing requirements so they'd played all 9 levels with 8 strength. Is their entire character and all their experience invalid since the character was not AL legal when they played the modules? Can they continue to play this character? Yes. They can play, they just had to make the minimum change required to make the character AL legal which was a slight redistribution of stats to make sure they had at least 13 strength for multiclassing. It wasn't a big deal and was an honest mistake on the player's part.
My group finished Chapter 5 Wednesday night. They wanted to meet the Hill Giant Queen. They decided to commission a Great Pumpkin Trojan Horse thingy. Since they met some of Gub husbands and were having fun designing the Greak Pumpkin.This idea was so silly, I just went with it. So the hill giants steal a 30 foot pumpkin with an indoor toilet. And the stem of pumpkin acts like a hose so they can use their decanters of water to as a fire hose.
Okay there is a problem with all magic items duplicating at the end of the session. Multiple of the same item. It is funny once to hose down bandits. But this is getting strange.
During my write ups I post the remaining quests they know about. With the page numbers. The group is having fun wandering around the map.
Example.
Relic Hunt Beorunna’s Well. (page 76).
Relic Hunt Grandfather Tree. (page 86).
Relic Hunt Great Worm Cavern. (Page 88).
Relic Hunt Morgur’s Mound. (page 99).
Relic Hunt One Stone. (page 102).
Relic Hunt Raven Rock. (Page 105).
Relic Hunt Shining White. (Page 107).
Relic Hunt Stone Stand. (Page 109).
Slaying Blagothkus Chapter 8 in Tyranny of the Dragons.
Darz Helgar Capture the Weevil alive for 500 GP. (Page 61 and 114). You will have visit this place to turn in paperwork for the reward.
Darathra Shendrel. Harper Mission. Visit Danivarr House in Everlund and the Moongleam Tower with their report. (Page 60 and 81).
Narth Tezrin Delivery to Noagnar Hold. Some horse harness and comes with free draft horse and cart. Takes place in the High Forest (Page 61 and 101)
Ghelryn Foehammer Marks of Prestige. Present to King Morrinn at Citadel Felbarr (Page 62 and 79).
You still have Zi Lang Quest (Page 52 and 112) You need to deliver a black pearl to Caulder Marskyl who is the head butler of House Thann. The house is known for its wines.
Circle of Life. The Harper Teleportation Circle Network is open to you. You don’t all the passwords but posters of you have been circulated so they will pass you on. Locations are the following: Everlund in Moongleam Tower, Loudwater in Smiling Satyr tavern, Mirabar in Steve’s Stable, Neverwinter in Roddy’s Rowhouse, Waterdeep in Myrna Crypt, and Yartar in Volo’s vacant villa. (Page 117)
Two main players could not play yesterday so the group decided to play around on the map and wander back to Nightstone. With the lowest AC being 17 I knew combat would be difficult. But they wanted to go monster and devil hunting. My solution was to restock the cave near nightstone with 7 bugbears and 1 hill giant subchief which was a cake walk for the pcs.
I then threw Pipyap the imp and 30 goblins at them. This was a more interesting fight as dice rolls were totally random on both sides. And everyone got to use a lot of their abilities that don't get use because the fights generally don't last enough. Also, we had some teaching moments on how you use their abilities. And how to use short rest on the phone app.
Next week, they want to finish one of the Waterdeep quests and a little more fooling around.
I am not giving out anything for these activities but the group is having fun. In October they want to get back to the story and they have 2 or 3 chapters less depending on their choices.
Okay after two sessions which all of enjoy of either just wandering around the map or working background side quests next week they are going to advance to Chapter 10. The group is growing a bit. Two pre Covid gamers have started to play. So It looks like we have a strong group each week. Slight problem. One will be begining at level 5 with no down time days unless they find their old Pcs.
Regarding @Rubahak's original point no. 1, I was under the impression that anything in the PHB was assumed to be available to be purchased for the listed cost, provided you were ina settlement the size of Phandalin or similar...?
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Okay after two sessions which all of enjoy of either just wandering around the map or working background side quests next week they are going to advance to Chapter 10. The group is growing a bit. Two pre Covid gamers have started to play. So It looks like we have a strong group each week. Slight problem. One will be begining at level 5 with no down time days unless they find their old Pcs.
Keep in mind that the character can CHOOSE to level up after each session. In addition, the character receives 10 DT days after each session which can also be expended to increase a level. So they may be level 5 for their first session, but can be level 7 for the next session and level 9 for the third session if you want or need them to level up that much to catch up with everyone else.
So starting at level 5 really isn't that much of an impediment. When playing hard covers I've found that the players could be level 20 several times over if they wanted to be but that makes the hard cover less fun to play so I ask the players to only level up as directed. However, the easy advancement makes it simple to catch a player up to the level of the rest of the group in a minimum number of sessions in an AL legal way.
Regarding @Rubahak's original point no. 1, I was under the impression that anything in the PHB was assumed to be available to be purchased for the listed cost, provided you were ina settlement the size of Phandalin or similar...?
I think Rubahak was referring to the treasure found by the players in the module, not that available for purchase. In most cases, the contents of the PHB are available at PHB prices in any town the DM decides is large enough. The players can also sell any mundane loot they find that is considered still usable (DM decision) at 1/2 the PHB price.
There are some modules though which limit the goods available and modify the pricing. Curse of Strahd for example only has PHB items worth 25gp or less that are for sale for 10x the PHB price which may over ride the usual AL limitations in some cases.
When my players are in trouble with Queen Dagnabbet of Mithral Hall. Earlier during the game I ran Day 10 of Zephryros castle. The Orb Stirke. The dwarves were successful on destroying the orb but as they were leaving the group casted sleep on them and some fell to thier deaths. Some time had passed and since they like returning to Nightstone or Waterdeep to rest between their encounters in Chapter 3. I decided to have Zephryros get his tower back in action.
This time I did use 6 shield dwarves against 5 pcs of 9th level. It wasn't much of fight even using the encounter builder. So next session they will finish the end parts of Chapter 4. I had to make some reason changes to Chapter 4. The book mentions relics. As they already knew of the Hill Giant Queen, I just changed the second visit reason to the temple must recharge the magic shell.
I will have to remind the 5th level pc to level up before the session.
Session 20 finally got them into the Chapter 10 and the Maelstrom. They are thinking about doing a diplomacy solution. It appears that solution is buried in the text of various chapters.
Session 21. You will need to flesh out the visiting giant lords if your group chooses to go the diplomat/ social encounter. I did play up the court back stab and jockeying for power. My group was given safe passage since they have the conch shell of teleportation. They suggested it was a pass key or membership key in the off table discussions which I ran with. I think I only called for 6 social checks all evening.
I also made
The ancient blue dragon
not present due to what happened in session 20 where the temple fell down.
I suggest new dms don't treat each room as static but more of real life business meeting location.
The group has finish Chapter 11. The 2.5 hour game time is both a help and a hurt. The group is learning to play so game time slows down as questions are asked. I did do call backs to other NPCs showing up to help the group.
Session 24. The group decided to go the diplomacy route. They are Storm Giant's King embassy to the other giants. For every two chapters of the ones they haven't played in they gain a level. They don't want to do the final chapter at this time. And I mapped out how big the boss battle will be. We be using the floor and some extra tables. The Theater is about 6 feet by 2.5 feet in actual inches.
I do keep forgetting to bring print outs to the game. And going forward, I will be assigning an NPC to each person, since the game states one of the royal family and 4 minions join the group for boss battle. I going to try both methods of initiative. Sidekicks go on their own. Or I think it would work better if they go right after the PC they assign to.
I had to tell one player no oath breaker but he can reskin one other paladin subclass and change some stuff for flavor. I also told him if he wants to start the crusade against slavery he welcome to if he can get the other players on board. It maybe a tpk but it will be interesting.
Session 25. Since the book hints in Chapter 10 that Serissa would like the group find a resurrection scroll for her mom, my group loved the idea. Two problems. 1 the scroll is never placed in any treasure of the book. 2. You have to roll on table D of the random magic items. Their solution was to ask to roll on Table D when the rewards were items on higher tables. I allowed this for a few sessions but they were not getting lucking. Finally last night they rolled on table D and got a sixth and eighth level spell scroll in the treasure. They asked if they could hit a big town and do a swap.
I agreed. They have burn rolls on higher charts. They are throwing away two spell scrolls to bring back to life an NPC.
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I started to help out a new hobby shop in town and found myself running Storm King's Thunder (SKT). I started with 10 individuals and now it down to 5 with a steady 4. All the players are new to d&d except 1. And he was tossed due not playing well with others. Things I did which I am getting excellence feedback.
1. Typed up the giant bag loot. Printed out 5 to 6 pages and cut the loot into individual slips. They pull from a tubberwear container when they loot a giant. They are tired of a lance being used as a tooth pick.
2. Printed out the Map 3.1 as a 2 by 3 ft map and stuck in a frame. this help all of us find the location and distance easier.
3. Had all the players rolled 3 % during session zero. Convert those into the wandering encounters. And I have a stuffed envelope for the players to pull from. Ex We on the road. bob rolled an encounter. Bob pulls the encounter. This encounter was brought to you by Sarah who roll 36. you Have 3d4 orcs who are raiding.
4. Track the time. They been playing for 55 Game Days.
5. Create Story Awards which tied into encounters and the various quests. This both a way for the group to take notes and have an interesting encounter. Ex. they have a 10% of if they mean a Frost Giant it is Fredrick who is still playing with his special metal sweeper.
6. Use some their backgrounds to tie into the story. Use other of their backgrounds for a side quest which has nothing to do with megaplot but will be a nice session.
7. Session Writes ups with the quests obtained listed. EX. Urgala Meltimer Free Giant slayer weapon. Travel to Zymorven Hall north west of Silverymoon. (page 61 and 108). Working on.
Ghelryn Foehammer Marks of Prestige. Present to King Morrinn at Citadel Felbarr (Page 62 and 79).
8. Cross reference the heck out Chapter 3.
9. I have added 1 of the new things from Bigby.
10. Gave most of them access to my Beyond account. For some I do print off a paper copy for the player who needs a hard copy.
11. I included Sidekicks as comedy relief but they were dropped due one player dropping out. And the other lost interest.
12. I am not pushing the story. If they want to back track and do a side mission, i just firgure out how many days in the saddle they will need.
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.
I've not run nor played SKT, but there is a lot that you've done that's not Adventurers League. In order for the game to be considered AL legal, you have to follow the rules. Things that are not AL Legal:
1. You can't add treasure to the adventure that isn't in it, which includes mundane weapons. Players may only acquire things listed in the Treasure sections of the book or from defeated creature stat blocks.
3. You don't have carte blanche to just add to the adventure. Players across AL should largely experience the game the same way. You can adjust encounters in a way that is thematically appropriate to provide an appropriate challenge, but you can't rewrite adventures as you see fit. As an example, if an encounter has a Drow Elite Warrior in it, you can adjust it up to a Drow House Captain to increase the difficulty or down to a Drow to decrease the difficulty, or you can increase or decrease the number of Drow Elite Warriors there are in an encounter, but you can't swap out Drow Elite Warriors for Orcs nor can you add Orcs to an encounter that doesn't have them, and you certainly can't add things to the adventure that don't belong.
5. You can't create your own Story Awards, and you for sure can't make up and add your own equipment to the game. If it's to in the book, you can't just add to it.
6. You can't add content to the game that isn't AL legal. You can insert an AL legal module in between sessions, like you can run SKT one week, run DDAL05-02 the next week, then go back to SKT the week after that, but the characters have to be within the level range for the module range.
9. Not sure what you mean by adding something from BGG. If you mean that you swapped out a thematically appropriate creature from BGG during an encounter, great. If you mean that you inserted a magic item from BGG, that's not AL legal.
11. You can't include Sidekicks into most adventures. If it's not specifically written into the adventure, you can't just include them, which at this point is just Dragon of Icespire Peak and Dungeoncraft adventures as appropriate to the campaign (which you can't create your own).
The entire adventure you've run so far is basically invalid. Those characters can't play in other AL games. Not a big deal if they don't want to, but they might find out the hard way at another table.
By calling them story Awards. My players TAKE NOTES.
1. The bags are just flavor.
3. Are the wandering encounters in the book. I just off load the work before hand. See wandering encounter happen on 18 or better on d20.
6. Is in game filler. Does not affect milestones or get them gold.
11. My players know their sidekick is not AL legal so know not to take to other tables. And they are not using it.
13. Please send the AL police to raid my game.
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.
My group has hit session 15. And are entering Chapter 5 with their Great Pumpkin scheme. Lots of sessions but we only have 2 to 2.5 hours of gameplay at the FLGS. I had to rewrite part of Chapter 4 and 5 due to the great pumpkin. They had been looking for the Hill Giant Queen location, and some just mention trapping her with food. And some how wanted to create a great pumpkin as a trojan horse thing. The plans look okay and since it was a good idea I not charging them for it. Now 30 foot high pumpkin with an installed bathroom weights how much?
Another player want to rule Nightstone and repair it. I allowed but told them it did not come with any titles and did not transfer to any tables. Next session they are returning to Nightstone to see how much progress has been made. And to pick up the Great Pumpkin.
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.
Whether what he has run is AL legal or not depends on what exactly was done/modified/changed.
As far as a game being AL legal itself goes - there aren't any AL police. The players can have a great time playing the game but if they take the characters to another AL table/game/shop and want to play them then if there were issues in the previous sessions that the character participated in then they will need to be fixed (assuming someone notices).
SKT is a hard cover and these are often played in AL using AL legal table rules. For example, when I run a hard cover magic items and potions will duplicate in everyone's log but I ask the players to only bring as many items as were available in the adventure. Hardcovers are balanced around the loot drops listed in the game - one +2 weapon is one thing, having 6x +2 weapons at the next session because everyone decided to bring their copy is a different thing. Similarly, I ask players to only level the characters at the rate the DM suggests. Between 10 downtime days each session and a level each session (which is the current AL rule even for hardcovers), the characters could easily be level 20 long before the adventure concludes. However, what magic items a player brings and when the character levels are both AL legal decisions that the player can make and easily covered under a hardcover table rule. Similarly, trading and playing other adventures are also ok but please don't bring the new toys to the hardcover.
In terms of some of the specific comments ...
1. You can't add treasure. However, SKT has an incredible amount of rolled treasure from mundane items in giant bags to magic items from specified tables. In addition, mundane items, weapons and armor from monster stat blocks are also AL legal to loot these days. As a result, there is a ton of mundane items that can be found, especially in a hardcover.
2. The rules for what a DM can do are very broad:
"YOU ARE EMPOWERED
Make decisions about how the group interacts with the adventure; adjust or improvise but maintain the adventure’s spirit. The setting, general story, and prominent NPCs of the adventure should remain largely the same."
"You can adjust an encounter’s difficulty by adding or removing thematically appropriate monsters but can’t create new monsters or modify them in such a way that modifies their challenge rating (aside from changing their hit points within the range afforded by their hit dice)"
In your example, you only replace Drow with drow. That is one approach, however, the DM is empowered to adjust or improvise AND make "thematically appropriate" changes to encounters to make them more interesting or challenging. In my opinion, this could mean replacing the drow with something else if necessary as long as it fits with the story. You could add some Quaggoths which are drow servants. You could potentially add or replace the drow with orcs or giants depending on the theme of the adventure and whether it would fit with the story. Thematically appropriate does not just limited to monsters of the same type.
The DM should not be changing the story but if one group plays it facing a group of drow and another a group of orcs due to requiring different levels of challenge then I don't see an issue with that.
3. SKT and all of the other hardcovers contain a range of quests and side quests. Although a DM can't add a quest, they can certainly involve the characters in the story more by connecting a character background or backstory to one or more of the existing quests. As long as the DM maintains the spirit of the adventure, there is quite a bit of leeway for an AL DM to leverage existing content and make connections that become meaningful to the players.
4. I am also not sure what the OP means by adding something from Bigbys. Items from Bigbys would not be AL legal for playing SKT since SKT specifies which tables and sources to use when rolling magic items. Magic items are one of the details where characters coming from different tables can run into problems and it is probably the one area where a DM running something under AL rules needs to be the most careful.
However, other than items, Bigbys likely contains a lot of lore, some creatures and other elements that might be cool to incorporate into an SKT run. Lore is free. Adding thematically appropriate creatures is also ok assuming Bigbys was added as an AL legal source for the FR campaign.
5. Sidekicks are one of the optional rules from Tasha's that is not legal for AL play in general though I think there may be specific adventures that call for the use of sidekicks. However, most adventures have NPCs that could fill a similar role and could join the party for a stretch of time.
"USING RULES IN TASHA’S CAULDRON OF EVERYTHING
You may use any rules options listed in Chapter 4: Dungeon Master’s Tools of Tasha’s Cauldron of Everything, with the exception of sidekicks and environmental hazards."
6. In AL, re-flavoring is free (at DM discretion). This means that a Frost giant could wield a "special metal sweeper" (whatever that is) as long as it is the same as some other existing weapon (maybe it is a glaive by another name - though if the players want to walk off with it, the DM should make sure that they know it is a glaive).
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As to whether the entire adventure is AL legal or not - as I said, it depends on what the OP actually did. Most of the comments they made could be done in an AL legal way and the rest could be fixed under the philosophy of "make the minimum necessary changes" to make the character sheets AL legal. Even if the characters might be forced to drop some sessions from logs due to some issue, they still have lots of sessions where they could level up and lots of downtime to do so.
However, given that the OP has trouble getting the players to make any notes at all, I am doubtful that the players are actually logging all the sessions anyway - in which case, whether it is AL legal or not really doesn't make any difference since without logs they won't be playing the characters anywhere else anyway.
To be clear, you mostly didn't actually correct anything I said.
1. That's literally what I said. Players can only acquire things from a treasure section or a treasure section or in the monster stat block. If it's in a monster stat block or in a treasure section, including if there's a rolled table or on a list the DM can choose from, they can take it. If it doesn't exist in the book, they can't.
2. I was intentionally using an oversimplified example to be extremely clear and not add a bunch of confusion or allow for a bunch of bad faith arguments. If both drow and orcs would reasonably be in the same area, then sure you can include them, but there are for sure circumstances where that's a bit of a stretch (like, it would be unacceptable in Riddle of the Raven Queen). If it's thematically appropriate, you can swap them out. If you're in Avernus, you can swap out a creature for another one that would realistically be there, like a bone devil for a yugoloth, a gnoll, a red cap, or a ghoul, assuming it's not a named NPC. If there's room for random encounters, you can add things that are thematically appropriate. Like, in Out of the Abyss, you can swap out all sorts of creatures for ones that would be found in the book or other creatures from AL legal sources that would be reasonably found in the Underdark, such as a deep dragon, but something like a red dragon would be far less reasonable.
3. That's what I said. You are right that making adjustments to the existing story to integrate characters to the story isn't changing the story, just like making adjustments to the story to get characters back on track. As a couple of examples, I've personally had a character do the former (she's was a retainer for Jarlaxle, which adjusted their interaction from the original conversation), and I had to make major adjustments to in WDH to get my party back on track because they were 5th level instead of 4th level, allowing them to derail it entirely. That's a pretty huge difference from just whole cloth creating your own story and having the characters do something not in the book.
4. Also literally what I said. You can add monsters from BGG, and lore that doesn't change the story should be fine, but adding magic items isn't.
5. I specifically said Sidekicks, and capitalized it to indicate that it was the game mechanic of the Sidekick, which would include one that would have the ability to level up, too. You could absolutely allow the party to have a minor NPC that they come across join them, but that didn't seem to be the case. A major NPC would be significantly changing the story, so that isn't likely allowable.
6. I didn't even mention that, but you are correct. Flavor is free. As long as it's correct on their character sheet (if renamed with an indication of the mechanics item) and in their logs, sure. You can call a longsword a katana, if you want. You could arguably call a glaive a lance, as long as it's a lance that does 1d10 slashing damage instead of 1d12 piercing damage, is heavy, two handed, and doesn't have the lance's special property.
True. :) However, a lot of the way your comments were presented seemed to assume that the OP had made unacceptable changes when he had not given sufficient information to conclude one way or another. So, I was making it a bit more clear what was allowed and what might not be.
Correct. However, interpreting the equipment in monster stat blocks including the mundane weapons they are wielding as lootable treasure is a more recent ruling. Treasure doesn't just include stuff in the "Treasure" section or magical items mentioned in italics in the text.
Just a quick comment on this since I am currently running Oota using AL rules. One of the main NPCs in Gracklstugh (the dark dwarf city) is the red dragon Themberchaud (from D&D movie fame) so it isn't really that unlikely that the party could encounter a red dragon in the underdark. Considering how events developed in Gracklstugh in my running of the game, the dragon might even be motivated to seek out his champions :). The point being that "thematically appropriate" can cover a lot of territory and an AL DM could add all sorts of different creatures into an adventure like OOTA if they thought it interesting or necessary.
Absolutely. However, between the flexibility given the DM in random encounters, the flexibility in the story itself and the free reign regarding thematically appropriate monsters as long as "the spirit" of the adventure is maintained - there is a lot of room for a DM to improvise while still running an AL legal adventure. They can't create their own magic items, or insert items or loot that aren't there initially but there is quite a lot of room to adjust the story flow to fit the characters (at least in hardcovers - I've run DoIP, CoS and currently OotA all for an AL group - I haven't run as many of the standard modules where the flexibility is generally a bit more limited).
Agreed - sorry for repeating what you said :) - I just expanded it a bit and pointed out that players who want to take their characters to different tables are most likely to run into issues if they are carrying items from difficult to obtain sources (if the player says they received it from SKT - that causes issues for them down the road which the DM would be better off avoiding by not giving it out in the first place). The OP didn't say what they added.
I actually wouldn't see much issue with most NPCs joining the party for at least part of an adventure. For example, Esmerelda joined the party in CoS for most of the adventure though she is one of the possible options from the card reading so it wasn't an issue. However, I could have justified Themberchaud the red dragon joining the party for a bit in Oota if the story had developed that way (and the party had enough treasure to keep him happy :) ). I can also imagine a number of other plot twists that could happen in Oota that could result in some unexpected NPCs in the party at one point or another (though oota can be a party NPC heavy module).
On the other hand, I agreed with your comments about the actual "Sidekick" mechanic from the rules. There are only one or two modules where their use is specifically allowed for smaller parties.
Agreed.
Anyway, I agreed with pretty much everything you said. I'm sorry if I came across as confrontational. However, after making your original comments you concluded with:
"The entire adventure you've run so far is basically invalid. Those characters can't play in other AL games."
... which I disagreed with. As I mentioned in my response, there were AL legal approaches to almost all of the OPs comments on how they were running SKT. There wasn't enough information in the OPs post to conclude that his "entire adventure was basically invalid" since almost everything he said could be done in an AL legal way (use of actual Sidekicks and not NPCs perhaps being an exception).
In addition, characters can generally play in other AL games as long as the errors are fixed. Make the minimum changes needed to continue playing in an AL legal fashion.
I was playing in one game with a level 9 dexterity focused multiclass halfling paladin/rogue. Cool character, fun to play, but as it turned out, the player was unaware of the multiclassing requirements so they'd played all 9 levels with 8 strength. Is their entire character and all their experience invalid since the character was not AL legal when they played the modules? Can they continue to play this character? Yes. They can play, they just had to make the minimum change required to make the character AL legal which was a slight redistribution of stats to make sure they had at least 13 strength for multiclassing. It wasn't a big deal and was an honest mistake on the player's part.
My group finished Chapter 5 Wednesday night. They wanted to meet the Hill Giant Queen. They decided to commission a Great Pumpkin Trojan Horse thingy. Since they met some of Gub husbands and were having fun designing the Greak Pumpkin.This idea was so silly, I just went with it. So the hill giants steal a 30 foot pumpkin with an indoor toilet. And the stem of pumpkin acts like a hose so they can use their decanters of water to as a fire hose.
Okay there is a problem with all magic items duplicating at the end of the session. Multiple of the same item. It is funny once to hose down bandits. But this is getting strange.
During my write ups I post the remaining quests they know about. With the page numbers. The group is having fun wandering around the map.
Example.
Relic Hunt Beorunna’s Well. (page 76).
Relic Hunt Grandfather Tree. (page 86).
Relic Hunt Great Worm Cavern. (Page 88).
Relic Hunt Morgur’s Mound. (page 99).
Relic Hunt One Stone. (page 102).
Relic Hunt Raven Rock. (Page 105).
Relic Hunt Shining White. (Page 107).
Relic Hunt Stone Stand. (Page 109).
Slaying Blagothkus Chapter 8 in Tyranny of the Dragons.
Darz Helgar Capture the Weevil alive for 500 GP. (Page 61 and 114). You will have visit this place to turn in paperwork for the reward.
Darathra Shendrel. Harper Mission. Visit Danivarr House in Everlund and the Moongleam Tower with their report. (Page 60 and 81).
Narth Tezrin Delivery to Noagnar Hold. Some horse harness and comes with free draft horse and cart. Takes place in the High Forest (Page 61 and 101)
Ghelryn Foehammer Marks of Prestige. Present to King Morrinn at Citadel Felbarr (Page 62 and 79).
You still have Zi Lang Quest (Page 52 and 112) You need to deliver a black pearl to Caulder Marskyl who is the head butler of House Thann. The house is known for its wines.
Circle of Life. The Harper Teleportation Circle Network is open to you. You don’t all the passwords but posters of you have been circulated so they will pass you on. Locations are the following: Everlund in Moongleam Tower, Loudwater in Smiling Satyr tavern, Mirabar in Steve’s Stable, Neverwinter in Roddy’s Rowhouse, Waterdeep in Myrna Crypt, and Yartar in Volo’s vacant villa. (Page 117)
Relic Hunt Flint Rock. (page 84). DONE.
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.
what is a pain is we generally only have two and half hours to play per session. So I sometimes calling combat in their favor before the store closes.
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.
Two main players could not play yesterday so the group decided to play around on the map and wander back to Nightstone. With the lowest AC being 17 I knew combat would be difficult. But they wanted to go monster and devil hunting. My solution was to restock the cave near nightstone with 7 bugbears and 1 hill giant subchief which was a cake walk for the pcs.
I then threw Pipyap the imp and 30 goblins at them. This was a more interesting fight as dice rolls were totally random on both sides. And everyone got to use a lot of their abilities that don't get use because the fights generally don't last enough. Also, we had some teaching moments on how you use their abilities. And how to use short rest on the phone app.
Next week, they want to finish one of the Waterdeep quests and a little more fooling around.
I am not giving out anything for these activities but the group is having fun. In October they want to get back to the story and they have 2 or 3 chapters less depending on their choices.
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.
Okay after two sessions which all of enjoy of either just wandering around the map or working background side quests next week they are going to advance to Chapter 10. The group is growing a bit. Two pre Covid gamers have started to play. So It looks like we have a strong group each week. Slight problem. One will be begining at level 5 with no down time days unless they find their old Pcs.
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.
Regarding @Rubahak's original point no. 1, I was under the impression that anything in the PHB was assumed to be available to be purchased for the listed cost, provided you were ina settlement the size of Phandalin or similar...?
Male Irish Dungeons and Dragons fan; age 39.
My other hobbies include reading, drawing, angling, and when I can, riding.
Keep in mind that the character can CHOOSE to level up after each session. In addition, the character receives 10 DT days after each session which can also be expended to increase a level. So they may be level 5 for their first session, but can be level 7 for the next session and level 9 for the third session if you want or need them to level up that much to catch up with everyone else.
So starting at level 5 really isn't that much of an impediment. When playing hard covers I've found that the players could be level 20 several times over if they wanted to be but that makes the hard cover less fun to play so I ask the players to only level up as directed. However, the easy advancement makes it simple to catch a player up to the level of the rest of the group in a minimum number of sessions in an AL legal way.
I think Rubahak was referring to the treasure found by the players in the module, not that available for purchase. In most cases, the contents of the PHB are available at PHB prices in any town the DM decides is large enough. The players can also sell any mundane loot they find that is considered still usable (DM decision) at 1/2 the PHB price.
There are some modules though which limit the goods available and modify the pricing. Curse of Strahd for example only has PHB items worth 25gp or less that are for sale for 10x the PHB price which may over ride the usual AL limitations in some cases.
When my players are in trouble with Queen Dagnabbet of Mithral Hall. Earlier during the game I ran Day 10 of Zephryros castle. The Orb Stirke. The dwarves were successful on destroying the orb but as they were leaving the group casted sleep on them and some fell to thier deaths. Some time had passed and since they like returning to Nightstone or Waterdeep to rest between their encounters in Chapter 3. I decided to have Zephryros get his tower back in action.
This time I did use 6 shield dwarves against 5 pcs of 9th level. It wasn't much of fight even using the encounter builder. So next session they will finish the end parts of Chapter 4. I had to make some reason changes to Chapter 4. The book mentions relics. As they already knew of the Hill Giant Queen, I just changed the second visit reason to the temple must recharge the magic shell.
I will have to remind the 5th level pc to level up before the session.
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.
Session 20 finally got them into the Chapter 10 and the Maelstrom. They are thinking about doing a diplomacy solution. It appears that solution is buried in the text of various chapters.
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.
Session 21. You will need to flesh out the visiting giant lords if your group chooses to go the diplomat/ social encounter. I did play up the court back stab and jockeying for power. My group was given safe passage since they have the conch shell of teleportation. They suggested it was a pass key or membership key in the off table discussions which I ran with. I think I only called for 6 social checks all evening.
I also made
The ancient blue dragon
not present due to what happened in session 20 where the temple fell down.
I suggest new dms don't treat each room as static but more of real life business meeting location.
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.
The group has finish Chapter 11. The 2.5 hour game time is both a help and a hurt. The group is learning to play so game time slows down as questions are asked. I did do call backs to other NPCs showing up to help the group.
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.
Session 24. The group decided to go the diplomacy route. They are Storm Giant's King embassy to the other giants. For every two chapters of the ones they haven't played in they gain a level. They don't want to do the final chapter at this time. And I mapped out how big the boss battle will be. We be using the floor and some extra tables. The Theater is about 6 feet by 2.5 feet in actual inches.
I do keep forgetting to bring print outs to the game. And going forward, I will be assigning an NPC to each person, since the game states one of the royal family and 4 minions join the group for boss battle. I going to try both methods of initiative. Sidekicks go on their own. Or I think it would work better if they go right after the PC they assign to.
I had to tell one player no oath breaker but he can reskin one other paladin subclass and change some stuff for flavor. I also told him if he wants to start the crusade against slavery he welcome to if he can get the other players on board. It maybe a tpk but it will be interesting.
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.
Session 25. Since the book hints in Chapter 10 that Serissa would like the group find a resurrection scroll for her mom, my group loved the idea. Two problems. 1 the scroll is never placed in any treasure of the book. 2. You have to roll on table D of the random magic items. Their solution was to ask to roll on Table D when the rewards were items on higher tables. I allowed this for a few sessions but they were not getting lucking. Finally last night they rolled on table D and got a sixth and eighth level spell scroll in the treasure. They asked if they could hit a big town and do a swap.
I agreed. They have burn rolls on higher charts. They are throwing away two spell scrolls to bring back to life an NPC.
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.