Tomb of Annihilation Is Here - What Do You Think?

Today's the day - WotC's latest Dungeons & Dragons adventure, Tomb of Annihilation, is out! Head on down to your friendly (or unfriendly) local (or not so local) gaming (or comic) store and pick up your copy. Alternatively, if you use a virtual table top, it's available for Fantasy Grounds and Roll20.

 

[CapnZapp]

I haven't looked at the book in a long time and I don't remember anything about a nursery rhyme, so I probably just skimmed it.

Read the room again and get back to me if you still harbor your earlier misgivings (that "there is no way [to] figure out the correct sequence to not trigger the trap").

(I did search around, but couldn't find anyone else complaining about this particular part but you.) Cheers.

 

[dave2008]

Read the room again and get back to me if you still harbor your earlier misgivings (that "there is no way [to] figure out the correct sequence to not trigger the trap").

(I did search around, but couldn't find anyone else complaining about this particular part but you.) Cheers.

I will, but just a clarification, I didn't say there was no way to figure it out, but no way my group would figure it out. Now it is entirely possible I missed the clues when I skimmed, as I don't remember anything about a nursery ryhme. I will check it out and get back to you.

 

[dave2008]

Read the room again and get back to me if you still harbor your earlier misgivings (that "there is no way [to] figure out the correct sequence to not trigger the trap").

(I did search around, but couldn't find anyone else complaining about this particular part but you.) Cheers.

Ok, I see the issue.

[sblock]None of the group at the time could read infernal (I don't think anyone can now either). We don't have any full casters and no one regularly preps comprehend languages. Unless I missed something, I don't see any other way to deactivate the trap other than read it in infernal.[/sblock]

 

[CapnZapp]

Ok, I see the issue.

First off, please keep in mind that SBLOCK tags work on desktop but not in the app; and SPOILER tags work in the app, but not on desktop. The tldr is: always use both.

Spoiler

[sblock]That's fair... but also not representative - a party that's approaching double-digit levels that still can't cast language magics, and that haven't taken other steps to gain language capacity, even in a foreign land with significant amounts of content communicated in other languages than Common must be considered weak in this area, weaker than can reasonably be expected of the adventure writer.

I am fully aboard the notion that nobody knows a specific language such as Infernal. But a party steaming ahead without having any recourse to translate it? They pretty much deserve getting banged up by the trap - remember, we're at the very end of a very long campaign, so I don't see the stakes being raised as unreasonable here. (Pro Tip: When they next can't decipher a clue, maybe send in one hero and have the rest stay back? )

I don't think I would call that assumption "hardcore D&D" [/sblock]

But anyway - thanks for replying, now I know the room likely doesn't have any (other) hidden gotchas. Cheers

 

[dave2008]

First off, please keep in mind that SBLOCK tags work on desktop but not in the app; and SPOILER tags work in the app, but not on desktop. The tldr is: always use both.

Spoiler

[sblock]That's fair... but also not representative - a party that's approaching double-digit levels that still can't cast language magics, and that haven't taken other steps to gain language capacity, even in a foreign land with significant amounts of content communicated in other languages than Common must be considered weak in this area, weaker than can reasonably be expected of the adventure writer.

I am fully aboard the notion that nobody knows a specific language such as Infernal. But a party steaming ahead without having any recourse to translate it? They pretty much deserve getting banged up by the trap - remember, we're at the very end of a very long campaign, so I don't see the stakes being raised as unreasonable here. (Pro Tip: When they next can't decipher a clue, maybe send in one hero and have the rest stay back? )

I don't think I would call that assumption "hardcore D&D" [/sblock]

But anyway - thanks for replying, now I know the room likely doesn't have any (other) hidden gotchas. Cheers

I didn't realize the sblock didn't work on the app - good to know.

I full realize my group is abnormal. Heck they don't even have a cleric (or any magic healing to speak of)!

 

[epithet]

I guess I can't really agree with this. I like GH fine, and I like FR fine, but within the limited scope of Princes and Tomb, you're in the hills and temples in the former, and the jungle and dungeon in the latter. Within the context of whatever "fantasy world" it takes place, it doesn't matter because it doesn't have much impact on the story.

The only difference I would see is the deities a PC might worship, but that is still going to fall under the generic domains of Life, Death, War, Love, etc.

Now, if one were running a full fledged open campaign or homebrew, then the feel of the game world would have a much stronger impact.

Then again, I've never understood the Greyhawk/Realms love/hate thing. I like the Realms fine, but it's just a generic fantasy world for me with locations and some history that we have a consistent group memory with. If Greyhawk had been there more than the FR then I would have memories of that one, but either way, I don't care, so long as they have a fleshed out world to play in.

Has anyone seen a map for this adventure in Hepmonaland? I guess you could just use the Chult map, but how well does it track with pre-existing Hepmonaland geography?

 

[Quickleaf]

Has anyone seen a map for this adventure in Hepmonaland? I guess you could just use the Chult map, but how well does it track with pre-existing Hepmonaland geography?

The main challenge is that the rivers in Chult – Soshenstar, Tiryki, Olung – flow south to north, and generally the PCs need to go south, so each river essentially serves as a narrative to determine what sorts of preplanned encounter areas the PCs discover along the way. For example, the Soshenstar has escalating signs of goblins > undead-ravaged abandoned camp haunted by goblins > new camp with its own problems.

While Hepmonoland is vaguely Chult-like with its coastline & towns in the north, it doesn't have any long rivers oriented the same way as Chult, so there is none of that built in narrative flow.

I believe ToA recommends the Amedio Jungle for DMs running Greyhawk (in part) because the layout of the Amedio – while looking different from Chult – does have three predominant rivers flowing alongside one another which can take place of the Soshenstar, Tiryki, and Olung.

 

[Stormdale]

I used the Amedio jungle and ignored much of the ToA map- we didn't hex crawl it but ran it more as a narrative based adventure.

I decided which of the keyed encounters I wanted them to stumble upon but offered options to different locations after each one.

Stormdale