D&D 5E Anything extra recommended to run Tomb of Annihilation?

[PieAndDragon]

If you've run (or read thoroughly) Tomb of Annihilation, are there any extra bits you would recommend preparing?

So any changes you would make, thing you felt were missing or extra content you added to enhance the adventure?

 

[hastur_nz]

I think the published starting point, and basic low-level introductory "adventure(s)" / "hooks", is rubbish, and you'd be better off making up your own intro and/or re-working it so the plot isn't handed to first level noobs in Waterdeep. There's a thread here about it already - basically, don't throw the "death curse plot" at the PC's until they are at least 4th level.

 

[Yes]

I read "The Ring of Winter" written by James Lowder. It's an excellent novel taking place in Chult. There are some interesting lore parts and pnj backgrounds completely left out of the campaign book. (And it's great read!)

 

[maxed]

I had my players start with the DMs Guild adventure Cellar of Death. One character is older, so I created an NPC as his son, who happens to be a Harper. The son is killed during the battle in Cellar of Death and cannot be raised, making the Death Curse personal for at least one of the characters. Now he has to end the curse in order to have his son brought back to life.

 

[CapnZapp]

If you've run (or read thoroughly) Tomb of Annihilation, are there any extra bits you would recommend preparing?

So any changes you would make, thing you felt were missing or extra content you added to enhance the adventure?

Don't start the death curse unless you want the party to ignore everything that's wonderful about exploring the Chult map.

Even 4th level is probably too soon, especially if the PCs haven't made any progress in finding Omu.

 

[CapnZapp]

I had my players start with the DMs Guild adventure Cellar of Death. One character is older, so I created an NPC as his son, who happens to be a Harper. The son is killed during the battle in Cellar of Death and cannot be raised, making the Death Curse personal for at least one of the characters. Now he has to end the curse in order to have his son brought back to life.

As a story motivator, that's great.

But the mechanics of the death curse does not support it, assuming that son was a low-level character (he will inevitably have been consumed way sooner than the adventure can be completed, even if you streamline everything).

Of course, I'm not saying you are using those mechanics. Just to make sure everyone understands the difference.

 

[Quickleaf]

If you've run (or read thoroughly) Tomb of Annihilation, are there any extra bits you would recommend preparing?

So any changes you would make, thing you felt were missing or extra content you added to enhance the adventure?

Have read it pretty thoroughly, have not run it. There's a lot of "wandering the jungle" filler...or at least it will come off as filler for a more mission-oriented group OR a group with PCs suffering the Death Curse as written. But a lot of it this "filler" is really well written and seems like it would be a blast in play.

I'd probably start PCs at 4th level, then roughly follow this outline:
Levels 4-5: Port Nyanzaru
Level 5-7: Jungle “finding and getting to the Lost City”
Level 6-8: PC chosen waypoint, like Kir Sabaal or Mezro or a DM’s Guild location
Level 7-9: Lost City of Omu (“exploring, dealing with yuan-ti, getting key”)
Levels 9-11: Tomb of the Nine Gods

I'd consider toning down the Death Curse and making it reduce Hit Dice (instead of hit points) at the rate of 1/week, and if you reach 0 HD, you get undead traits and Acererak gets to use you as a scrying sensor & may attempt to control you (maybe using sentient magic item guidelines). This avoids reducing HP (which can become a death spiral), and doesn't put extreme pressure to reach destination ASAP, thus allowing time to explore (but still keeps up some pressure).

 

[maxed]

As a story motivator, that's great.

But the mechanics of the death curse does not support it, assuming that son was a low-level character (he will inevitably have been consumed way sooner than the adventure can be completed, even if you streamline everything).

Of course, I'm not saying you are using those mechanics. Just to make sure everyone understands the difference.

I was going to use DM prerogative (a.k.a. fudge my dice rolls) and make sure his son's soul is not consumed. That way he has a carrot dangling in front of him for the entire adventure. Now, in the event of a TPK, then all bets are off.

Though a few players have mentioned just waiting until the Death Curse has killed off most of the nobility and leadership in the world before tackling the Soulmonger. It was said half in jest, but the prospect bothers me.

 

[Stormdale]

I started my group at higher levels, two pcs have been affected by death curse and its not been an issue, being higher level they didn't muck round on side quests just to get xp, they had a pretty good reason to find Omu ASAP and have done so.

Flagged the yuan ti area, didn't really add much to my game. They are currently in the main dungeon, lots of fun/nastytraps in the whole adventure- reminds me a of old older modules, some great material to be mined there even if you don't use the whole thing.

Agree with the others spring the hook on them later on once they've gained a few levels but the adventure is a great framework and really worth running.

Stormdale

 

[sim-h]

If you've run (or read thoroughly) Tomb of Annihilation, are there any extra bits you would recommend preparing?

So any changes you would make, thing you felt were missing or extra content you added to enhance the adventure?

Read everthing in advance twice - as you never know where the players will go.

I have mocked up a spreadsheet marking days showing weather/rainfall with each day split into three sections, and also randomly generating the encounters. I've included how many gallons a raincatcher can harvest in each day section, too. Cutting down on the exploration admin like that I see a good idea.

I started with the standard death curse hook and the teleport at level one and the players are loving it. I see no reason to change it. They haven't asked about the specific time limit yet, so are not aware of the deadline although I will start to push this after a few days. I intend to say the curse has been ongoing for 20 days and Syndra feels "maybe 75-80% of her old self". That should allow them to work out how long they've got without saying "she's got 79HPs and is losing 1 HP per day".

From the book, levelling the players will be hard without extra encounters, so you need to check all the Port Nyanzaru side quests and random encounters and introduce the ones you want. I'm going to use the drunken sailor, his reprisal, the executioners run innocent and probably the undead attack on Malar's Throat. Possibly the rogue Ankylosaurus but that might need Zindar to make an appearance to help. Whatever happens they need to be L2 before leaving town, I would say!