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

[Istbor]

I am just running it now with my home group. I am a little unsure how long the opening scenario of being captured should really run. Did anyone else provide interesting items that the PCs were able to smuggle back to their pen with them? If so, what where they? And did they differ from the provided table much?

My players were just offered the escape opportunity by the Drow so now is the discussion of whether they take the quick way out through the webbing or make an attempt to fight to their gear. (One was flogged by the Mistress in her personal chambers, much to her delight and happened to spy some of his clothing piled near the chest)

I too noticed the large amount of expected random encounters, and while I intend to roll often on those tables, I want some interesting and more meaningful encounters infused in the travel as well.

I should note, that this is my first real attempt at running a published adventure. I did run the started set to entice my players into 5e, but by and large my experience has been with home built campaigns. Any tips or things I should avoid?

 

[CapnZapp]

it would appear my initial concerns are confirmed with a bonus prize.

<megarant deleted>

What are your concerns? Sorry but since I didn't know what you were railing against my eyes glazed over halfway through your post.

 

[CapnZapp]

My players HATE random encounters.

You have essentially two constructive options going forward:

1) Play another adventure
2) Prepare the encounters beforehand. Link them together. Make it impossible for the players to realize they are random.

Cheers,
Zapp

PS. I don't know if you realized this, but I didn't include "3) Bitch about OotA being something else than you want it to be" as an especially constructive option, since by doing so you're only souring the mood here at the forums while the adventure won't change a single bit.

 

[DMCF]

Encounter tables are guides. I have an encounter imagined that has the group walk up to a giant mushroom lit by moss. There are several spiders moving about and the party can easily sneak by...they will probably decide to do this given the chase mechanic....they roll perception and 10 shows a spider working on a silk wrapped figure. A 15 shows a gleaming sword hilt exposed from the mess of webs.

It isn't just random now. It is a decision based encounter for the players. For the DM I suggest you just look at the tables and let your imagination kick in. You'll think of a pairing and make an enticement. Players love risk and reward. Depending on their RP style you can vary how often you use the "shiny object" trope.

Once in a while you use the NPCs at your disposal. Bupido hates spiders because he sees Lloth as competition of a Derro deity and just sets out to kill them sparking an encounter etc.

 

[Guest 6801328]

Encounter tables are guides. I have an encounter imagined that has the group walk up to a giant mushroom lit by moss. There are several spiders moving about and the party can easily sneak by...they will probably decide to do this given the chase mechanic....they roll perception and 10 shows a spider working on a silk wrapped figure. A 15 shows a gleaming sword hilt exposed from the mess of webs.

It isn't just random now. It is a decision based encounter for the players. For the DM I suggest you just look at the tables and let your imagination kick in. You'll think of a pairing and make an enticement. Players love risk and reward. Depending on their RP style you can vary how often you use the "shiny object" trope.

Once in a while you use the NPCs at your disposal. Bupido hates spiders because he sees Lloth as competition of a Derro deity and just sets out to kill them sparking an encounter etc.

This gave me an idea:

It would be fun to have a bunch of "pre-planned random encounters" like this, but with notes on the various NPCs:
"If Bupido is with the group, he..."
"If so-and-so is with the group..."
Etc.

Make the party composition affect how the encounter unfolds.

 

[ad_hoc]

1. Random encounters aren't necessarily meaningless. I quite like them as they create variation in the story. The story is necessarily not completely preplanned. Part of RPGs is improvisation. Incorporating the random encounters into the story can be part of the fun. They are not necessarily combats either.

2. Followers can be tricky to manage. The players can always choose not to have any, or just 1 or 2 if they prefer. High level games follow different rules. I would expect high level adventurers to have followers. At the very least, to have people to attend to a camp and the animals.

3. D&D 5e is not the magic item light game, it is the game where magic items actually matter again. When magic items are tied to level they become inseparable from power you get on level up. They aren't special because they are necessarily and everyone gets them equally. Not every party will even do that adventure, and the ones that do will not always get the sword. Even then, it is a sentient item that has its own demands. It is quite a disadvantage to have a glowing sword giving away your position all the time. The discovery of something powerful and then dealing with its history and consequences can make for a good story.

 

[Guest 6801328]

Are they really saying 75% of the entirety of XP characters will gain is from random encounters?

They're not random if you don't roll.

And even less random if you plan them.

But another way of looking at it is: why is a randomly rolled encounter "worse" than an essentially random encounter placed by the author? "A room with 9 orcs" vs a table, one entry of which is "2d6 orcs".

 

[Daern]

I have a feeling that the designers are leaning toward a "milestone" system for level advancement.

Anyways, I'm getting into the whole prepared encounter idea. Basically, there are a couple different points the characters need to get to in order to get out of the Underdark and everything in between is up for grabs.
The DM's challenge is to offer meaningful choices within those travel situations, including meaningful rewards in the form of XP and treasure. (Maybe offering xp for gold is a solution to xp budgets...)
It really is more of a Campaign Story book than an Adventure Path. I'm into that. Now I just need to worry about throwing in too many side trek type situations that slow it down.

 

[Daern]

I am just running it now with my home group. I am a little unsure how long the opening scenario of being captured should really run. Did anyone else provide interesting items that the PCs were able to smuggle back to their pen with them? If so, what where they? And did they differ from the provided table much?

My players were just offered the escape opportunity by the Drow so now is the discussion of whether they take the quick way out through the webbing or make an attempt to fight to their gear. (One was flogged by the Mistress in her personal chambers, much to her delight and happened to spy some of his clothing piled near the chest)

I too noticed the large amount of expected random encounters, and while I intend to roll often on those tables, I want some interesting and more meaningful encounters infused in the travel as well.

I should note, that this is my first real attempt at running a published adventure. I did run the started set to entice my players into 5e, but by and large my experience has been with home built campaigns. Any tips or things I should avoid?

You're doing it exactly right! My players chose to just run for it and have been making their way almost naked in the dark. Pretty scary. They were almost caught by drow twice but escaped due to causing a rockfall and burning holes in the Silken Path webs. They starved. They scored a couple weapons. They were infected by gas spores. They betrayed the helpful goblins. They rescued a halfling. Now they are in the midst of the ambush before the Kuo Tua village. Many of their fellow prisoners have fallen and died. I've basically kept the ones I liked and who I think might be cool to have around later.

My main advice is, keep it moving, especially through the Underdark. It is a strange environment. Hard for players and DM to imagine. Give them clear choices about how fast they want to go, about the consequences for getting lost or ambushed or running out of food (remember they can go without food for a number of days before becoming Exhausted), then move quickly, describe travel, terrain and the next encounter which you can roll or choose. Try to avoid using "And now THIS attacks you!" too many times and you are golden.

 

[Talmek]

I ran the capture/escape scenarios with a group this past weekend, and probably had one of the best sessions ever out of the fifteen years I've been running games. It could have been simply because we were all in a good mood and were enjoying the suspense, but here's where I broke away from the book and kinda went our own way with it...

- Followers: I didn't like the idea that ten folks were going to be running around with the group, possibly giving away their positions or worse, turning on them when they were already weakened by not having their gear (this didn't happen but I had to be prepared for if the group just hauled *** after breaking free). So, I had the entire group there for the prison break, started initiating some type of drama (between Ront and Prince Derendil) and seeing who the group was interacting with the most. They liked Stool (of course they did...) the most, so by the end of the escape all they had was Stool following, with the remainder either running different directions or being taken down by the drow. While I realize this could have significantly limited the storyline, I felt that just because there were something like ten NPCs in the book did not mean that we should try to run all of them with a group of four adventurers.

- Gear: I made an effort to point out to my group that they were without their gear, which was going to greatly diminish any chances of survival without finding some kind of replacement. Mind you, this was with a group of players that have never read about the underdark or the survival aspect of that place. My expectations would have been much higher had this been with an experienced group of players. However, this statement alone created an interesting roleplaying session between the players and the NPCs prior to the prison break, where the players ended up asking Stool if he knows where their gear was taken, how to get it, etc. The end result was a great roleplaying experience for new(er) players and they ended up getting their stuff back...for the most part.

- Encounter Difficulties: After running the first scenario I realized that the drow outpost inhabitants could have absolutely wiped out the entire group on multiple occasions, and I would warn any GM attempting this scene to keep that in mind. This group consisted of 3rd level (relatively) inexperienced players who knew how to work together and play well off of one another's abilities. However, the absence of their equipment made everyone but the rogue squishy to the point where they could have very easily ended up back in that cell awakening from unconsciousness. I'm going to take this lesson into account with the various chase scenes that may occur in the next sessions.

Overall, the first session went over extremely well. The PCs aren't entirely alone (they have a myconid 5-year old to deal with) in a very dark and dangerous place, and they feel like they accomplished something by making it out of there alive, especially when they saw some of the cell mates cut down in the mayhem of the prison break. I would suggest putting in a fair amount of pre-work to get the post-escape prison break encounters assembled, but I base that statement only on reading the results of others within this thread.