D&D 5E DMing "Out of the Abyss"

[Kestrel]

Thanks!

Suggestion: add the DMG rules for going without food and drink to the spreadsheet?

Also: since foraging is an active check, change the bonus you have currently chosen for improved foraging (+5), which is commonly associated with passive checks, to "advantage", which is the game's standard bonus for active checks?

Good ideas! Done!

 

[CapnZapp]

Looking at your helpful spreadsheet, I realize I still need a summary of "things to do and remember each day", from the players' perspective.

That is, each day:
1) Decide on travel speed: Slow, Normal or Fast
Slow Pros: stealth (not only detect and retreat from encounters, but ambush or sneak past them too), +5 to Navigation and Foraging
Slow Cons: slow speed, probably slower than Drow pursuers

Normal:

Fast Pros: fast speed, probably faster than Drow pursuers
Fast Cons: -5 to passive perception and navigating, no foraging

2) Each party member selects a function for the day: Front Rank, Middle Rank, Back Rank, Navigate, Mapmaking, Track, Forage, or Cover Tracks. Choose only one.

Front Rank: provides passive perception to notice threats before getting ambushed, possibly stealthing if slow travel (do note that surface dwellers need light, so the middle rank need to hang way back if not everybody has darkvision)
Middle Rank: regular travellers
Back Rank: provides passive perception to notice any pursuers before getting ambushed, possibly stealthing if slow travel

Navigate: DC 10 Wisdom (Survival) check each day and after each short or long rest. +/-5 depending on speed.

Mapmaking: No check. Automatic navigation (no risk of getting lost) in the area covered by the map.

Track: if following someone or something

Forage: DC 15 Wisdom (Survival) check to find 1d6+Wis food, 1d6+Wis water

Cover Tracks: DC 16 Wisdom (Survival) check

3) Did you eat and drink? (Or even sleep!)




What have I missed?

 

[CapnZapp]

Good ideas! Done!

I must confess the DMG is handing out static bonuses even for dynamic rolls. (bonus/penalty for speed on navigation rolls). So I guess your initial idea to give slow foraging +5 is equally valid...

 

[Kestrel]

I like using advantage over static mods to rolls. Your list of daily set up looks good. I'm going to have the party leader also set up marching formations for each type of area (narrow, standard, and wide). I don't really need the navigation checks due to an underdark ranger in the party.

 

[CapnZapp]

I like using advantage over static mods to rolls. Your list of daily set up looks good. I'm going to have the party leader also set up marching formations for each type of area (narrow, standard, and wide). I don't really need the navigation checks due to an underdark ranger in the party.

Choosing between advantage and +5 is an art.

Where the adventurers can earn advantage on the roll, you would ideally want to choose +5, so their efforts can be rewarded (instead of "we already got advantage, so no point in making the extra effort"). Where there is no common source of advantage to be had, you can base your choice on other factors: such as "what do I like best" or "matching similar checks already described by the rules".

I know the module generalizes areas into narrow, standard or wide, but personally I think more variety is needed to convey the utter dissarray of Underdark passages. I think I'll use three d6 to inspire me when describing any random encounter, where the idea is to focus not on cold hard numbers such as "width" or "height", but on much more subjective parameters: the experience.

White d6: the "difficult trek die", a roll of 1 means a perfectly smooth dungeon corridor, a roll of 6 means a very rough going among rubble with several hard climbs and terrifying descents.

Red d6: the "claustrophobia die", a roll of 1 means large airy caverns - the Underdark equivalent of a four-star hotel room ;-), while a roll of 6 indicates low crawlspaces, disgusting lichen and creepy-crawlies, ominous rumbling, bad stale air, and even water-filled sections.

Yellow d6: the "exotism die", a roll of 1 means regular D&D caves: browns, greys, the odd skeleton; a roll of 6 means the most beautiful caverns from the real world dialled up to eleven, with bizarre fungus formations, sickly colors and lights, perverse tinkling sounds, faerzness wild magic, and what not.

When the dice indicates low numbers, that's a good place to allow "easy" Survival checks for food and drink: DC 10.

Where the dice indicates high numbers, I'll place the "difficult" foraging spots (DC 20). On the other hand, it's where the going get exotic you have the best opportunities to harvest those Underdark fungi.



Noone else finds something missing or wrong about the daily check list...?

 

[speculart]

Now THAT I can use!

 

[ddaley]

Does anyone have either of these? Would either provide any useful information/ideas for this campaign?

http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/28621/Underdark-35?it=1
http://paizo.com/products/btpy7nzx?Underdark-Adventure-Guide

 

[Kestrel]

Very nice...going to yoink this. I was looking for a way to add more detail.

 

[Rejuvenator]

In Gracklstugh, they mention how duergar invisibility leads to law-abiding behaviour (you never know when a duergar is watching you invisibly). I imagine a sort of 1950's style paranoia where neighbours are spying on neighbours for subversive behaviour. Taboos against voyeurism perhaps? Any other interesting repercussions in a society of invisible citizens?

 

[Daern]

Gracklestugh is totally a Soviet behind the Iron Curtain fascist situation. Everyone is a secret policeman!