D&D 5E Call of the Netherdeep: marketing has begun, screenshots thread

teitan

Legend
Bleh. Roleplaying is what happens during the game - as a natural extension of the drama of the combat, mystery, exploration, and what the players bring to it. It's not what is published in the adventure - that's just like publishing a short story.
Nah. I understand what you’re saying but adventures can also focus on roleplaying like Dragon Heist is an RP Heavy adventure.
 

log in or register to remove this ad

Retreater

Legend
Nah. I understand what you’re saying but adventures can also focus on roleplaying like Dragon Heist is an RP Heavy adventure.
True. But that one frequently tops the list of Worst Adventures of the 5e Era.
I don't think anyone can successfully write "role-playing."
You can write political intrigue, you can write mystery, but how the group chooses to interact with the material is up to them.
 

DEFCON 1

Legend
Supporter
The easiest way to write a "roleplay" adventure is to just not write in the encounter block "And when they see the party they attack" after every instance of a bolded creature name.

Honestly, that's the issue so many times in most adventures. Both in 5E, 4E, 3E and so forth... creatures get placed in the adventure and immediately are written to attack the party. It's no wonder most players are conditioned to swing first and ask questions later.
 

teitan

Legend
True. But that one frequently tops the list of Worst Adventures of the 5e Era.
I don't think anyone can successfully write "role-playing."
You can write political intrigue, you can write mystery, but how the group chooses to interact with the material is up to them.
Oh that’s weird because it’s the top selling adventure on Amazon that isn’t Netherdeep and #19 overall on the top 100 D&D list.
 

Retreater

Legend
Oh that’s weird because it’s the top selling adventure on Amazon that isn’t Netherdeep and #19 overall on the top 100 D&D list.
We're talking about Dragon Heist?
I guess I live in a bubble. I've never read a positive review of it. When we did our (granted, informal) poll on here, it ranked pretty close to dead last.
 

The players in Critical Role frequently have scenes of extensive roleplaying even just between party members. I'm curious if having elements to encourage interparty roleplaying is what he means.
 

Bleh. Roleplaying is what happens during the game - as a natural extension of the drama of the combat, mystery, exploration, and what the players bring to it. It's not what is published in the adventure - that's just like publishing a short story.
They way you write roleplaying is you create the situation, and detailed characters, but you don't write what happens.

The NPC party is a clear example. Given that there are multiple versions of the characters for different tiers the expectation is the PCs are going to interact with those characters multiple times, and build relationships with them. The nature of those relationships isn't written, that is determined through play.

The expectation is that this adventure is intended to be played the way Critical Role play D&D, so you would probably want to at least watch an extract to see the playstyle.
 


teitan

Legend
The players in Critical Role frequently have scenes of extensive roleplaying even just between party members. I'm curious if having elements to encourage interparty roleplaying is what he means.
I try this with my players... I get maybe 3-5 minutes if I am lucky. I get brain fog sometimes due to migraine medication and it gives me time to plan the next thing a little more so I don't blink out. My wife keeps pushing them and its getting there. The next Starfinder session is going to be wild because... they're going to Golarion. MWAHAHAHAHAHA
 

I try this with my players... I get maybe 3-5 minutes if I am lucky. I get brain fog sometimes due to migraine medication and it gives me time to plan the next thing a little more so I don't blink out. My wife keeps pushing them and its getting there. The next Starfinder session is going to be wild because... they're going to Golarion. MWAHAHAHAHAHA
It sure helps a lot if your players have had a few acting lessons!
 


teitan

Legend
It sure helps a lot if your players have had a few acting lessons!
I have a friend, excellent DM, his other group has a young lady in it who compares the group to Critical Role and him to Matt Mercer and not always favorably. He doesn't know what to tell her half the time so I told him to tell her "When you are Laura Bailey and we all get paid millions to play this game, I will be Matt Mercer".

He already invests hours a week painting minis, building terrain and writing their adventures. He runs for me and my wife and its lovely and wonderful and we have an amazing time and he's the best DM I have had in 20 years. He gets so delighted that we bring our own minis even LOL.
 

I have a friend, excellent DM, his other group has a young lady in it who compares the group to Critical Role and him to Matt Mercer and not always favorably. He doesn't know what to tell her half the time so I told him to tell her "When you are Laura Bailey and we all get paid millions to play this game, I will be Matt Mercer".

He already invests hours a week painting minis, building terrain and writing their adventures. He runs for me and my wife and its lovely and wonderful and we have an amazing time and he's the best DM I have had in 20 years. He gets so delighted that we bring our own minis even LOL.
The difference between pro and am sport!
 


Bitbrain

ORC (Open RPG) horde ally
I have a friend, excellent DM, his other group has a young lady in it who compares the group to Critical Role and him to Matt Mercer and not always favorably. He doesn't know what to tell her half the time so I told him to tell her "When you are Laura Bailey and we all get paid millions to play this game, I will be Matt Mercer".

I take a proactive approach with this myself. Whenever we get a new player in my group, I explain that if they are looking to play with Matt Mercer, they’ll just be disappointed. I have autism, prefer combat to roleplay (although there will still be a little bit of it), and can’t do accents because I have two small holes in my mouth right where the hard and soft palate meet. If I try to speak in an accent, I’ll just end up gagging violently.
 

Retreater

Legend
I have cut back on my accents in recent years. It was pointed out that mine can border on stereotypical, so it's distracting at best and offensive at worst. Mannerisms and physical cues have taken a hit when I'm not running in person. So I'm having to retrain my role-playing skills in the present era.
I guess what I've learned is that my players now care less about story and characterisation than they did when we were in college and had all the time in the world to think about how deep and immersive the game is.
 

darjr

I crit!
Dragon Heist, from what I can see, does pretty well. I know when I run it again we’re going to hang out in the middle of it and Waterdeep a good long time.
 

Urriak Uruk

Gaming is fun, and fun is for everyone
5 star reviews on Amazon yeah. It's very highly regarded.

It's hard to find any D&D book that doesn't hit 5 stars. The ratings on Amazon are mostly based on the quality of the printing (was it delivered damaged or not) rather than the quality in writing.

That said, I've run Dragon Heist twice and like it. It isn't an intuitive book and not one I recommend running exactly as the book describes, but the core can be very fun.
 

Parmandur

Book-Friend
It's hard to find any D&D book that doesn't hit 5 stars. The ratings on Amazon are mostly based on the quality of the printing (was it delivered damaged or not) rather than the quality in writing.

That said, I've run Dragon Heist twice and like it. It isn't an intuitive book and not one I recommend running exactly as the book describes, but the core can be very fun.
It comes off better if you look at as a Setting book with a large number of Dungeon modules that have a loose suggested framework. There are nearly two dozen dungeons in there, and several have multiple keys!
 

teitan

Legend
It's hard to find any D&D book that doesn't hit 5 stars. The ratings on Amazon are mostly based on the quality of the printing (was it delivered damaged or not) rather than the quality in writing.

That said, I've run Dragon Heist twice and like it. It isn't an intuitive book and not one I recommend running exactly as the book describes, but the core can be very fun.
That's very true but coupled with the sales it tells a bigger story. I liked it. I may run it again next year. Haven't decided. My wife wanted to play it but the group fell apart when Covid hit and one of the player's decided he had a crush on her.
 

Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition Starter Box

An Advertisement

Advertisement4

Top