Jasper runs Portal and Season 6.

jasper · Dec 26, 2017

Second session of Tomb of Horrors.
Only 2 players came back. One bailed for a movie. I started them in front of the door 16 which had reset. The player who played the monk brought in a level 16 multiclass pc. And I was able to shame one guy who talked a lot of stuff about wanting to play TOH into the dungeon. With the level 16 PC all of the combat was a cake walk up to the final battle. Again the traps and dirty tricks the dungeon uses came into play a lot. Some people missed treasure and clues due to panic. The level 16 mc was able to convince me to a creative use of rope trick to swing over a pit full of spikes. I allowed he to tie a string to the rope. Throw the rope into the middle of trap. Cast Rope trip then bring the rope to his side and everyone swing over.
The fighter did stand out in game play. The pc was naked due to trap and was able to make back to group. He burned 3 wishes getting the dead dead pcs back with all their stuff back. Then he died. The party used the final wish to get him and his stuff back.
The final battle went to MR. A for the two rounds only due he got the second highest init. Mr. A wail and energy drain did in one of the pcs. And then the level 16 MC got a his turn with all his abilities on. If the level 16 multiclass character could have went first in the first round MR. A. Would have never gotten a lair action and maybe not even a legendary. I did keep the room the same size 10 by 20 which seriously will be messy if you are running more than 4 pcs.
So summary. Traps are sucky. No dead dead pcs. Everyone got their stuff back due to wishes. Some combos will make or break this adventure.

jasper · Dec 26, 2017

I ran A Thousands Tiny Deaths on the 23rd I had an average party. And a tpk. Don't cast both Fireballs on the group. It was down to last man standing. Pc with 2 hp and boss with 5. After 2 rounds of toe to toe and disadvantage on Fire bolt
the boss won. I felt bad about the TPK.

jasper · Dec 27, 2017

Season 6 random ending thoughts.
Okay. 7 April through 17 December. 4 to 5 hours per Friday session with 4 hours on the occasional Sunday. 9 months of gaming every Friday. Worth full price here in the USA.
As an Dm from 1E to 3.5E it helped I had either owned, played in, or dm all the adventures except for Thay.
The 2.5 pages about the Yawning Portal could have and should been dropped. It adds nothing to adventures since there is a small paragraph about placement in the adventure itself. And it just flavor text if you don’t follow Forgotten Realms lore.
What worked? The props were fun. Both looking for them and giving them out. The slips of paper which duplicated the giant bags were the best loved thing. Photocopying the monster appendix kept me from flipping back and forth in the book. Using bookmarks or sticky tabs in the monster manual for this week upcoming monster.
What didn’t? Rule knowledge was the occasional pain. The maps are hard to read for people with bifocals. Buying a prop for each magic item was unneeded as the group did not find them all. Some game nights running long for various reasons. I think after 10 pm if no battle was going it is time to go home.
What got redesigned? My title sheet, and cheat sheet. I will post one below.
My dm bag went from two shoulder bag to a small rolling luggage bag. I have the following with a little space to spare. 2 banker boxes. The banker boxes hold current adventure/hardcover, 2 players hand book, sword coast book, dungeon master guide, Volo’s, monster manual, small notebook page white board, my dice, plastic skull, hat, various folders for dming including 40+ pregen characters. I have small case of monsters and pcs. 12 tact-tiles in a box. Big props, and clip board in main compartment. Side compartments hold. Thrown blanket. Courtesy dice. Bag of props. 3 section makeup bag I use for markers and etc. And I still have not loaded full.
What was fun? My dice sucking and then turning mean on the players. Reskining some encounters to foil player knowledge.
What was unusual for me? The group not clean out the dungeon. You know making sure all the encounters were done. Having to deal with anything from a weak group one week to a very strong the next.
Sunless Citadel. This was a good update but the sword needs to be redesign.
Forge of Fury. Some of monster placement does not make sense but this a common design flaw.
A Thousand Tiny Deaths. I am in the Déjà vu when running this now. Don’t fireball the group twice if you have an average group. Only 1 group charged the boss monster in the final encounter. I can see why it got it reputation.
Hidden Shine of Tamoachan. This was an okay update. Light on treasure medium on monsters and traps. Some of the monsters they used either need new monsters or a note to reduce the CR and Xp of it.
Redemption of Kelvan except for giving out flip flops for the magic item I don’t remember this.
White Plume this where certain power builds can ruin encounters. I also learn a dm needs to adjust the encounter level on the fly to take power builds and table size into the formula. Wandering monster checks will foul up a short rest too. Blackrazor was allow to escape in the hands of npc.
Dead in Thay. This should a separate mega module. I discovered information sheets will not be read or kept by some players. But keeping a state of dungeon information for me is great. The key placement seems to assume the players are entering from top of the map. OSCAR OTYUGH RULES! (I bought an Otyugh just for this). Demilich rule the battle field if player dice suck.
Crypt of the Death Giants. Nice slugfest but I need to brush up on my higher level spells.
Against the Giants. I will urge new dm to run this static as in the monsters really don’t hear what is going on in the next room. Also one square equals twenty feet. The evil granny killer druid was fun. The player and I decide will amount of killing his druid was doing an alignment change was necessary. Depending on the players this can be an all-out fire fight or sniper mission. Waythe is a great role playing sword.
Tomb of Horrors. This is evil dm dungeon and should be played as the dm is out to kill and loot the pcs. Some of the flavor text needs to be change to trigger traps.
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…. Sample of my notes on an adventure. Fonts are bigger in real life.
Tales of the Yawning Portal
Tomb of Horrors
DCI #######
Jasper
LEVEL 14 TIER 3
XP
GP
Renown 1 per 4 hrs.
Downtime Days 5 per 2 hrs.
Party Composition Party Strength
3-4 characters, APL less than Very weak, 3-4 characters, APL equivalent Weak,
3-4 characters, APL greater than Average, 5 characters, APL less than Weak
5 characters, APL equivalent Average, 5 characters, APL greater than Strong
6-7 characters, APL less than Average, 6-7 characters, APL equivalent Strong
6-7 characters, APL greater than Very strong
Magic
Room 11 Gem of Seeing
Room 13 Ring of Protection
Room 18A Potions of healing x 6, Scrolls Charm Person, Misty Step, knock, Magic Weapon, Shatter, Shield, Thunderwave, Treasure map
Traps do max damage. No xp for respawn monsters. Secret doors
Room 2 Starting on 20 block slides a foot per initiative
Room 8 Gargoyle Lair
Gargoyle AC 15 HP 77 XP 450 Multiattack x 3 MM 140

any questions, comments, gift cards?

Dungeonosophy · Mar 29, 2018

jasper said:
Ok, after 3 and a third dungeon. I suggest if the table has 6 players unless they are all below the dungeon level, treat 6+ tables as strong or very strong. psst guess the magic item

Ladle of Minty-Fresh Breath? I give up - what was it?

Dungeonosophy · Mar 29, 2018

jasper said:
any questions, comments, gift cards?

Jasper! You are an unsung hero of D&D story-telling. I enjoyed reading through this thread. Glad neither of your eyes have been replaced with Natural 1's! I like your props - fun! Thanks for sharing your story man! Any updates since December? What adventures and shenanigans are you up to nowadays?