D&D 5E (2024) Thoughts on Infinite Staircase?

[Eyes of Nine]

I'll be running my lads through Lost Caverns, but have to get them from the Evermoors, where they are about to finish Caverns of Tsojcanth as re-presented in Yawning Portal; to the foothills just beyond Mithril Hall...

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I think I would like it better if the adventure was about various factions spread out across an actual lost city, not just confined to close quarters in a small ziggurat.

But of course the actual lost city is the part that’s left for DMs to do themselves.

The original adventure had the lower levels of the ziggurat (octahedron) for that. The city is set up as an urban adventure rather than a dungeon bash, so you don't need detailed maps for every location. There is enough in the book that I could do the rest on the fly.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Any tips on how to practically manage the confusing nature of the Maze of Mists at the table? I get it in theory but I’ve always struggled with mazes in practice. I generally use DDB’s Maps these days, and you can’t rotate the maps. I think it’ll be hard to be mysterious in that format, so I’ll have to switch to TotM or paper for that part, I think.

No player map. On a VTT put up some art on the screen. I did something similar for a Faywild excursion.

Any tips on how to keep track of the passage of time in the pyramid? I’m supposed to check for random encounters once an hour.

Use real time elapsed (minus combat). Or just throw in an encounter when things get slow or the players spend too much time discussing what to do next. And for any rest periods, obviously.

How has the gnome commoner survived in the pyramid for five years?!

Gnomes are lucky sods.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I'll be running my lads through Lost Caverns, but have to get them from the Evermoors, where they are about to finish Caverns of Tsojcanth as re-presented in Yawning Portal; to the foothills just beyond Mithril Hall...

I think it's a shame they didn't include an update of the original wilderness map and encounters. My memory of running the original adventure was we had more fun in the wilderness than the dungeon.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

I think it's a shame they didn't include an update of the original wilderness map and encounters. My memory of running the original adventure was we had more fun in the wilderness than the dungeon.

It's in there, but I don't know about updated. Oh, actually, I own both. When I get home, I'll do a quick compare and contrast and report back...

 

[pukunui]

The original adventure had the lower levels of the ziggurat (octahedron) for that. The city is set up as an urban adventure rather than a dungeon bash, so you don't need detailed maps for every location. There is enough in the book that I could do the rest on the fly.

Aha. I wondered if something had been left out. I’d heard a lot of praise for this adventure over the years and thought it was a bit weird to call it the lost “city” when it takes place entirely in a single pyramid!

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Aha. I wondered if something had been left out. I’d heard a lot of praise for this adventure over the years and thought it was a bit weird to call it the lost “city” when it takes place entirely in a single pyramid!

It was a big ziggurat! I think the original was around double the size. The city in Red Nails was also a single very large building (although at one time the fields round about had been farmed). These days we would call a single-building city an archology.

We are really talking about "city" in the ancient world sense though - populations in the 3 or 4 digits at peak.

 

[Chaltab]

I think if I were running The Lost City I'd move the bulk of the action to the City itself and make the pyramid just the entrance.

Edit: Ie spread the various rooms of the pyramid over various locations in the city. Have the King and Queen buried elsewhere less obvious to dissuade looters. Except it didn't work because the real tomb was found anyway.

 

[pukunui]

It was a big ziggurat! I think the original was around double the size. The city in Red Nails was also a single very large building (although at one time the fields round about had been farmed). These days we would call a single-building city an archology.

We are really talking about "city" in the ancient world sense though - populations in the 3 or 4 digits at peak.

OK. Yeah, see I’m not familiar with any of the original versions of the Infinite Staircase adventures, so I have no idea what’s been changed.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Interesting thing I just noticed: some of the descriptions in Red Nails remind me of the Crystal Palace. Which burned down the same year Red Nails was published (1936).

Coincidence though, the story was published first.