As title states, never DMed before, played a bunch and know the RAW pretty well. That being said, it’s still overwhelming to have to generate all the content for your players and keep them on track. The biggest thing I’m worried about is pacing, when do I move them from messing around in Port Nyanzaru and when do I introduce more random encounters to keep them from pushing too far too fast. Should I bring in Artus Cimber early or late?
Whatever input you guys can give on these questions or general advice will help a lot.
I am currently running ToA. Running Port Nyanzaru was a challenge due to the sheer number of possible places the PCs could go. I made the player's tell me what their intentions were for the next session so I could focus my prep on that content.
I started my PC's at level 2.
They leveled to 3rd in the city, and then hit the jungle.
Key encounters in the city (for me) were: Hire a guide, buy equipment, acquire the map.
So, city to 2nd or 3rd and jungle to 5th or 6th felt/feels right to me. There is a "Suggested Level" Chart at the front of the book:
Suggested Character Levels
Chapter
Suggested Level
1. Port Nyanzaru
1st and higher
2. Land of Chult
1st–6th
3. Dwellers of the Forbidden City
5th–8th
My experience has been that is just about right.
I didn't feel like I had to slow them down in the jungle. Just about the time the "Hex Crawl" got boring is about the time they had enough exp/levels to move on anyway.
I have kept Artus on the sidelines. My PC's and Artus keep "missing" each other. I don't really want my players and Artus to share the stage, so to speak. I would only bring Artus in to "bail" out the characters, or for dramatic effect at a key moment.
I really loved this adventure, but feel like it needs a lot of work to make it flow properly. There are a lot of inconsistencies in there if you are paying attention.
I wouldn't worry too much about pushing your people out or keeping them anywhere. Mine went into the jungle at level 1 despite several warnings (one from Hew saying - don't go in the jungle that is how I lost my arm) but they still did it. Survived too.
Tips: Join the facebook ToA DMs group - a great bunch when I was there. Look at the files - lots of good stuff. Find a calendar and keep track of days. Find a weather generator and use it. Roll up a few months at a time. (The Many Faces of Chult has weather patterns. Can get from DMsGuild). Plan out travel - could use "Meaningful jungle encounters" or another from DMsGuild (the ToA companion guide had 30 days of travel I think.) There are a several things on the DMsGuild expanding magical items to fit with the flavour of the location. If your players are likely to do it also find a "harvesting guide" for creatures including dinosaurs.
You know your players but mine got bored of the jungle hex crawl immediately. I basically did a few "cut scene" things to show how dangerous the jungle was and then hand waved the rest. With a guide, magic, equipment etc it isn't a challenge for long.
I never bothered to use Artus at all. Skipped him completely and no one noticed anything - he is completely superfluous to the adventure.
I would think about slowing down the death curse. My group skipped a lot of cool content because they felt a serious time crunch. One way is to have it that the curse doesn't effect people if they are on consecrated ground. The curse is basically a "rich person" issue anyway, because few will be able to afford to get raised. They aren't going to want to all live in a church (and the church won't want them there) so it adds a social time limit but not a hard time limit. Another option is 1hp per week or have it ramp up as you get closer to the Soulmonger. Lastly you could have the group in Chult but have the soulmonger turn on when they have been there for a while. That way you have the ticking clock, but they have had a chance to explore; also they are known in Port Nyanzaru so them being asked to sort it out makes more sense.
I really played with the dynamic between Ras Nsi, Dendar, Yuan-ti and Ubtao A LOT. To me Ubtao going missing was a really exciting thing to explore but the module doesn't touch on it at all.
Be aware of the tonal shift when you get to the tomb. The tomb is literally designed to just kill characters by fiat. You need a much different mindset to survive the tomb than to survive the rest of the module. Most people won't like this. My group certainly didn't. I had to find ways to have them "not quite die" otherwise my group was basically set to mutiny. Make sure you figure out what your guys want in Session 0.
Don't forget the hags! They are a fantastic resource and should come into it when the characters hit Omu or before IMO, not just at level 5(?) or in the tomb. Also carefully read about the effects of the soulmonger. Aside from the "can't be raised" bit and the "if raised lose HP" bit characters cannot regain reduce max HP by any means (or at least not naturally and for these levels that means not any means).
I think it is important to think about how the undead play into it as well. It isn't really spoken about but the undead were initially created by Ras Nsi (and Ubtao) and were tax collectors and ditch diggers etc. They did useful public works. I can see these as being respected and revered members of society. Where a families wealth was measured in how many undead they had because those family members sacrificed their afterlife (for a while) and stayed to serve the family (for a while). The undead being feral now would be a double hit - these are people they used to love that they are being forced to slaughter. It just puts a different spin on the undead and gives you a bit of cultural difference to play with.
Don't want to go into much more detail for fear of spoilers. Have fun, good luck. I really want to find a group and run it again, because I feel like I could do so much better the second time.
Combat counters do not need to end in death. No doubt death will always play a part in these game and I am in no way trying to convince you not to kill players, nor am I trying to tell you to kill them. TOA is just known for killing players left and right, and ruins fun for some.
Always trying to remember that some creatures, orcs, goblins, giants, drow, yuan-ti, and the like are sentient creatures. Meaning they have thoughts and feelings. So they might not outright kill, but take prisoners or straight up talk their way out of it. Also remember almost everything has as sense of self preservation. As in the reality of most things standing in place and fighting to the death is highly unlikely.
Oh and check out Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master. That book is by far worth more than it's weight in gold. You don't have to follow it to heart, but it will help you learn how to spend a hour or two writing up a single page of notes to help run the game. Instead of spending all week writing a novel of a session to not use 7/8ths of it.
As title states, never DMed before, played a bunch and know the RAW pretty well. That being said, it’s still overwhelming to have to generate all the content for your players and keep them on track. The biggest thing I’m worried about is pacing, when do I move them from messing around in Port Nyanzaru and when do I introduce more random encounters to keep them from pushing too far too fast. Should I bring in Artus Cimber early or late?
Whatever input you guys can give on these questions or general advice will help a lot.
Thanks!
There might be some things of use to you in this thread: tomb-of-annihilation-advice.
I am currently running ToA. Running Port Nyanzaru was a challenge due to the sheer number of possible places the PCs could go. I made the player's tell me what their intentions were for the next session so I could focus my prep on that content.
I started my PC's at level 2.
They leveled to 3rd in the city, and then hit the jungle.
Key encounters in the city (for me) were: Hire a guide, buy equipment, acquire the map.
So, city to 2nd or 3rd and jungle to 5th or 6th felt/feels right to me. There is a "Suggested Level" Chart at the front of the book:
Suggested Character Levels
My experience has been that is just about right.
I didn't feel like I had to slow them down in the jungle. Just about the time the "Hex Crawl" got boring is about the time they had enough exp/levels to move on anyway.
I have kept Artus on the sidelines. My PC's and Artus keep "missing" each other. I don't really want my players and Artus to share the stage, so to speak. I would only bring Artus in to "bail" out the characters, or for dramatic effect at a key moment.
I am happy to answer any questions you have.
I really loved this adventure, but feel like it needs a lot of work to make it flow properly. There are a lot of inconsistencies in there if you are paying attention.
I wouldn't worry too much about pushing your people out or keeping them anywhere. Mine went into the jungle at level 1 despite several warnings (one from Hew saying - don't go in the jungle that is how I lost my arm) but they still did it. Survived too.
Tips:
Join the facebook ToA DMs group - a great bunch when I was there. Look at the files - lots of good stuff.
Find a calendar and keep track of days.
Find a weather generator and use it. Roll up a few months at a time. (The Many Faces of Chult has weather patterns. Can get from DMsGuild).
Plan out travel - could use "Meaningful jungle encounters" or another from DMsGuild (the ToA companion guide had 30 days of travel I think.)
There are a several things on the DMsGuild expanding magical items to fit with the flavour of the location.
If your players are likely to do it also find a "harvesting guide" for creatures including dinosaurs.
You know your players but mine got bored of the jungle hex crawl immediately. I basically did a few "cut scene" things to show how dangerous the jungle was and then hand waved the rest. With a guide, magic, equipment etc it isn't a challenge for long.
I never bothered to use Artus at all. Skipped him completely and no one noticed anything - he is completely superfluous to the adventure.
I would think about slowing down the death curse. My group skipped a lot of cool content because they felt a serious time crunch. One way is to have it that the curse doesn't effect people if they are on consecrated ground. The curse is basically a "rich person" issue anyway, because few will be able to afford to get raised. They aren't going to want to all live in a church (and the church won't want them there) so it adds a social time limit but not a hard time limit. Another option is 1hp per week or have it ramp up as you get closer to the Soulmonger. Lastly you could have the group in Chult but have the soulmonger turn on when they have been there for a while. That way you have the ticking clock, but they have had a chance to explore; also they are known in Port Nyanzaru so them being asked to sort it out makes more sense.
I really played with the dynamic between Ras Nsi, Dendar, Yuan-ti and Ubtao A LOT. To me Ubtao going missing was a really exciting thing to explore but the module doesn't touch on it at all.
Be aware of the tonal shift when you get to the tomb. The tomb is literally designed to just kill characters by fiat. You need a much different mindset to survive the tomb than to survive the rest of the module. Most people won't like this. My group certainly didn't. I had to find ways to have them "not quite die" otherwise my group was basically set to mutiny. Make sure you figure out what your guys want in Session 0.
Don't forget the hags! They are a fantastic resource and should come into it when the characters hit Omu or before IMO, not just at level 5(?) or in the tomb.
Also carefully read about the effects of the soulmonger. Aside from the "can't be raised" bit and the "if raised lose HP" bit characters cannot regain reduce max HP by any means (or at least not naturally and for these levels that means not any means).
I think it is important to think about how the undead play into it as well. It isn't really spoken about but the undead were initially created by Ras Nsi (and Ubtao) and were tax collectors and ditch diggers etc. They did useful public works. I can see these as being respected and revered members of society. Where a families wealth was measured in how many undead they had because those family members sacrificed their afterlife (for a while) and stayed to serve the family (for a while). The undead being feral now would be a double hit - these are people they used to love that they are being forced to slaughter. It just puts a different spin on the undead and gives you a bit of cultural difference to play with.
Don't want to go into much more detail for fear of spoilers. Have fun, good luck. I really want to find a group and run it again, because I feel like I could do so much better the second time.
Thank you for the feedback! It’s much appreciated
Combat counters do not need to end in death. No doubt death will always play a part in these game and I am in no way trying to convince you not to kill players, nor am I trying to tell you to kill them. TOA is just known for killing players left and right, and ruins fun for some.
Always trying to remember that some creatures, orcs, goblins, giants, drow, yuan-ti, and the like are sentient creatures. Meaning they have thoughts and feelings. So they might not outright kill, but take prisoners or straight up talk their way out of it. Also remember almost everything has as sense of self preservation. As in the reality of most things standing in place and fighting to the death is highly unlikely.
Oh and check out Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master. That book is by far worth more than it's weight in gold. You don't have to follow it to heart, but it will help you learn how to spend a hour or two writing up a single page of notes to help run the game. Instead of spending all week writing a novel of a session to not use 7/8ths of it.