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It looks like that's more of a "make chases as complex as combat" type of deal. What I'm doing here is making chases even less complex than they already were, in an effort to avoid tracking too many values and positions, and to give the players more of a chance to be creative in deciding how...

Tracking movement within a chase is tedious, and I don't like that the dramatic tension of a chase can easily be removed by a small difference in movement speed, so I've come up with simplified chase system: Instead of tracking movement/distance, track two values: escape and capture, each...

Here are a few Darklake encounters I put together. I'd like to spice up the hag encounter a little, and provide some more choices for the party, but I'm not sure how. A Tight Spot (1,600 XP) A tight passage causes the boat to get stuck (no check to avoid; I want to provide choices, not just...

Here are a few I put together by combing terrain and creature encounters, as well as some of the flavor from DM_Jeff's tables above. Carrion and Crystals (450 XP; non-combat) The adventurers pass through a Faerzress suffused area containing fist-sized chunks of quartz that shed dim light in a...

The scouts will likely be a few drow and a couple of quaggoth, at least during the initial portion before Gracklstugh. The scouts are just part of the drow the PCs escaped from. I do not. I'm playing in that adventure, so no spoilers. ;)

Luckily, I plan to do it well. Is it an in-game problem though? It's as much, if not more, an issue of pacing the story and setting the scene than it is an issue of presenting the players with a problem. It allows the players to make more narrative decisions and participate in the storytelling...

Regular drow are only CR 1/4. I'd probably use a small number of drow plus 1 or 2 quaggoths, at least initially. The exact encounters will probably vary, especially as levels increase. I want the idea of letting even the scouts catch up to be pretty terrifying at first, but by the time the PCs...

The intent is to keep the party moving at fast pace, as if they're actually in a hurry and have enemies on their tail. Though I think I'm going to nix the pursuit increase on random encounters, since those really shouldn't be taking more than a couple minutes, and I think I'll start with only...

The pursuit system in OotA is kinda cool, but I thought I'd make it a bit more exciting, and clue the players in on the stress-inducing imminence of their capture. Here's my plan: Give the players three cards, two representing scouts and one representing the main drow force. Each card has five...

I've updated the document, now version alpha 2. The main changes are additional soulmelds (6 per subclass now), and a modification to totemists. They can now manifest totem weapons, rather than selecting a soulmeld as a totem. At this point, I'm pretty solid on the core design, but I'd love...

My plan is to play up the political/religious rivalry. Perhaps each factions offers the player boats in exchange for support in some form? If Shuushar is with them, maybe his blessing would of one of the sides would help settle the dispute, or the players, as a neutral party, could be needed to...

Here are a few NPC stat blocks I threw together, some filling in the gaps in the MM and others just things I came up with. Perhaps they will be useful to others. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/526357/Additional%20NPCs.html Feel free to post your own NPC stat blocks, or if you have...

The example there looks like the NPCs are built as full PC characters, which is much less useful for me, but if there are also a bunch of generic stats that function more like the 'back of the DMG' ones, this could be useful.

I personally prefer 1-4. At those levels, everything matters. At higher level, things start to average out a bit more, and no one is hanging on the edge of their seat for routine attack rolls. When one hit wit a high damage roll could drop a PC, it's very exciting. And I like when resources are...

My plan was to use him as-is as an arms dealer, but if the PCs manage to befriend him, he may stick around. At the very least, he'll feel indebted enough to keep them out of too much trouble in Grackletugh. Though I might give him a connection to the Keepers of the Flame. Perhaps he deals in...

I put together a companion system for handling all the various NPCs and baby monsters you can pick up in OotA: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?474885-5e-Companion-System

In planning an Out of the Abyss game, I came across a problem. There are a lot of NPCs that could end up tagging along with the players. I like all of them, and want them to be available, but I don't want to bog down combat with tons of extra turns for all these extra characters, even if the...

I started updating Magic of Incarnum to 5e right around the end of the playtest and the release of the PHB, but abandoned it for a while. Recently, I picked it up again and revamped the whole thing. The current version is an alpha, with a full class writeup, but only a few soulmelds...

My plan for the city was to have the guard initially attempt to arrest them, probably after they deal with the two-headed giant, intending to ship them back to the drow, but have the Keepers of the Flame show up and insist the party hear their offer instead, whereupon the dragon can make a...

This is some great advice. It's largely things I've figured out myself over the years, but put into an easy to digest guide that makes the concepts a lot easier to discuss and share.