Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Next
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
Twitch
YouTube
Facebook (EN Publishing)
Facebook (EN World)
Twitter
Instagram
TikTok
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
I feel at peace
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="!DWolf" data-source="post: 8752158" data-attributes="member: 7026314"><p>Been a while since I’ve posted due to my new job keeping me super busy, but I had a really fun Abomination Vaults session last weekend, so I figured I would briefly gush about it:</p><p></p><p>We have been playing with the downtime house rule discussed in a previous post, except it has sort of morphed into at least one day of downtime per session. It is working out extremely well and is providing a lot of “structure” (for a want of a better word) to the game: the PCs are basically doing delves or expeditions into the dungeon trying to achieve some objective (mostly treasure related since my players are poor because they are REALLY bad at finding treasure) and get out. The objective means they have motivation to explore and clear rooms. It also means that they have in character arguments about which objective to pursue and which entrance to the dungeon to use (they have found four so far). It is a lot of fun and makes me feel like a kid again, especially since we are using theater of the mind for the dungeon portion (with the exception of a couple of the more complicated rooms). </p><p></p><p>The overloaded encounter dice is also working much better now that I have more experience with it. I am mostly using it when the party is traveling through the wilderness, camping, or taking ten minute rest turns. Interesting results include: <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The party encountering Volluk himself when they were camping in the surface ruins (they decided not to head back to town through the swamp at night) and retreating leaving all their stuff behind. They observed him messing with the gauntlight and now suspect he is behind it though they have no clue who he is;</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Encountering Freznelkesh while returning to the boathouse to get their boat and having to book it back to the lighthouse; </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Hearing monsters poke at a barricade they made from the other side and then set a trap for them (trap later went on to almost kill the wizard);</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Encountering a Basilisk multiple times while traveling and absolutely refusing to fight it - either sneaking around it, or in one case running from it; and</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Hearing a strange and ominous “bird” in the Fogfens that they don’t want to go investigate because “swamp.”</li> </ul><p></p><p>With these two systems in place and the excellent adventure in the book, the dungeon practically runs itself and I am doing almost no prep for most sessions. I just need to think about what changed and how the dungeon/town is going to react to the player’s actions, make a couple notes on the changes, occasionally print out a map of a more complicated room, and maybe print out the stats of a monster/hazard the inhabitants were able to add to the dungeon. It’s very liberating. </p><p></p><p>Fighting through the dungeon has also been a lot of fun (for me at least and hopefully for my players <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite8" alt=":D" title="Big grin :D" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":D" /> ). Fights in the claustrophobic, dark dungeon are dynamic and typically range through two or three rooms and are constantly adding in fresh monsters/traps or old monsters get to employ new strategies in new rooms and it’s brutally fun in a “the dungeon hates you” old school way. It helps a lot that my players are perfectly willing to retreat (and often do). I do wish there were more complex hazards incorporated into combat encounters, since that adds further environmental activity in the middle of an already pitched battle - but I also wrote a book of deathtraps so make of that what you will. </p><p></p><p>Overall, I am loving Abomination Vaults. So much so that I bought the hardcover despite already owning all three softcovers. Also I am bad at writing briefly…</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="!DWolf, post: 8752158, member: 7026314"] Been a while since I’ve posted due to my new job keeping me super busy, but I had a really fun Abomination Vaults session last weekend, so I figured I would briefly gush about it: We have been playing with the downtime house rule discussed in a previous post, except it has sort of morphed into at least one day of downtime per session. It is working out extremely well and is providing a lot of “structure” (for a want of a better word) to the game: the PCs are basically doing delves or expeditions into the dungeon trying to achieve some objective (mostly treasure related since my players are poor because they are REALLY bad at finding treasure) and get out. The objective means they have motivation to explore and clear rooms. It also means that they have in character arguments about which objective to pursue and which entrance to the dungeon to use (they have found four so far). It is a lot of fun and makes me feel like a kid again, especially since we are using theater of the mind for the dungeon portion (with the exception of a couple of the more complicated rooms). The overloaded encounter dice is also working much better now that I have more experience with it. I am mostly using it when the party is traveling through the wilderness, camping, or taking ten minute rest turns. Interesting results include:[list] [*]The party encountering Volluk himself when they were camping in the surface ruins (they decided not to head back to town through the swamp at night) and retreating leaving all their stuff behind. They observed him messing with the gauntlight and now suspect he is behind it though they have no clue who he is; [*]Encountering Freznelkesh while returning to the boathouse to get their boat and having to book it back to the lighthouse; [*]Hearing monsters poke at a barricade they made from the other side and then set a trap for them (trap later went on to almost kill the wizard); [*]Encountering a Basilisk multiple times while traveling and absolutely refusing to fight it - either sneaking around it, or in one case running from it; and [*]Hearing a strange and ominous “bird” in the Fogfens that they don’t want to go investigate because “swamp.” [/list] With these two systems in place and the excellent adventure in the book, the dungeon practically runs itself and I am doing almost no prep for most sessions. I just need to think about what changed and how the dungeon/town is going to react to the player’s actions, make a couple notes on the changes, occasionally print out a map of a more complicated room, and maybe print out the stats of a monster/hazard the inhabitants were able to add to the dungeon. It’s very liberating. Fighting through the dungeon has also been a lot of fun (for me at least and hopefully for my players :D ). Fights in the claustrophobic, dark dungeon are dynamic and typically range through two or three rooms and are constantly adding in fresh monsters/traps or old monsters get to employ new strategies in new rooms and it’s brutally fun in a “the dungeon hates you” old school way. It helps a lot that my players are perfectly willing to retreat (and often do). I do wish there were more complex hazards incorporated into combat encounters, since that adds further environmental activity in the middle of an already pitched battle - but I also wrote a book of deathtraps so make of that what you will. Overall, I am loving Abomination Vaults. So much so that I bought the hardcover despite already owning all three softcovers. Also I am bad at writing briefly… [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
I feel at peace
Top