D&D 5E Quests from the Infinite Staircase: How Is It?

[SkidAce]

The cartography is from Mile Schley and a few other similar, detailed style maps (the Barrier Peaks maps are the most interesting and unique maps in 5E, bar none).

I cant seem to locate the Barrier Peaks maps (unless you mean ship and not mountains?)

 

[Parmandur]

I cant seem to locate the Barrier Peaks maps (unless you mean ship and not mountains?)

Sorry, I meant the spaceship itself: I just love how different the computer terminal layout is.

 

[SkidAce]

Sorry, I meant the spaceship itself: I just love how different the computer terminal layout is.

Those are nice!

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I already shared all the FR info in the other thread, but here are the background set-up, the hooks, and the Setting info from Pharaoh:

View attachment 373475View attachment 373473View attachment 373474

Amd the Setting stuff for Beyond thw Crystal Cave:

View attachment 373472

Thank you.

 

[Stormonu]

Granted, I'm still reading through it but the Lost City portion is well done enough for 5E (the Goodman Tome version would be my go-to, but the Infinite Staircase version is a good abbreviated version if you don't want it be an entire campaign).

I dare say this may be the best compilation adventure they've put together so far (prior to this, it was Saltmarsh was my most cherished for me).

Also, anyone else reading through the Infinite Staircase section and thinking, "this would make a great skeleton to rework the Demonweb Pits portion from Q1"?

 

[Demetrios1453]

@Demetrios1453 that’s fantastic stuff! Be sure to share it in the Enhancing Eve of Ruin thread.

I've posted some ideas over there already.

I'm still working out some of the 1 - 10 stuff that I'll do as a lead in (basically 1 - 5 Descent into Avernus' Baldur's Gate portion up to Candlekeep, and 6 - 10 Tomb of Annihilation with a bit of the Chult part, and then the Tomb itself, probably with very few changes in this part). It's mainly in the early stuff that will see changes, to liven up Baldur's Gate with more encounters besides what's in print (I dislike level 1 in published adventures having like 1 - 2 encounters at most; let's do a few more, just with some time to rest between), most notably seeding Vecna from start (the Vanthampur family are Vecna cultists and not Tiamat cultists, which will allow me to integrate Nest of the Eldtich Eye from D&D Beyond), and making the trip to Candlekeep more lively (basically recreating encounters from that area of original Baldur's Gate CRPG which are happily level-appropriate - bandits, ankheg, and gibberlings - my thanks to Staircase for publishing official stats for that last one just in time!). I may even work in the freeing of Elturel from Avernus as part of the party's time there much later!

One big thing is that the chapter where the party is level 18 is basically nothing more than the big plot twist and then one encounter fighting a handful of demons. That chapter certainly needs to be livened up a lot more with something...

Once I've got things worked out and coherent for the entire campaign, I'll post my completed ideas over there.

 

[TerraDave]

The Barrier Peaks ship map looks like the same crashed ship, at least on a quick inspection of the images above. But apparently there were some changes?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

The Barrier Peaks ship map looks like the same crashed ship, at least on a quick inspection of the images above. But apparently there were some changes?

It was bigger, with a lot more empty rooms. Whilst I love the original, the new version is definitely improved. Going to drop this into Vecna in place of the dull Underdark chapter.

I think some of the weapons in the new art are miss-labelled though, I suspect I might dig out some of the original diagrams for the tech gear.

 

[TerraDave]

It was bigger, with a lot more empty rooms.

Interesting. I guess the first level looked smaller, or with fewer rooms at least. Still have the big”outdoor” area.

 

[Evaniel]

I'm running our first session of Infinite Staircase today. I'm doing away with the Staircase conceit and adopting more of the "in medias res" conceit of old pulp fantasy. We'll use Xanathar's downtime mechanics between modules to purchase stuff, but otherwise we're focusing on the adventures themselves.

I've skimmed through most of it, but I've mostly focused on Lost City. Lost City is one of my favorite old school modules, and I love what they've done with it here. They've carved out a lot of the "monster hotel" expansion suggestions in the original, streamlined some things, made it much more feasible for PCs to interact with the factions, and more.

I would agree with the comparison someone upthread made to Goodman Games' version: it's not as "complete" and wouldn't do as a campaign on its own, but as a standalone adventure, it's awesome.

I haven't read Beyond the Crystal Cave too deeply yet, but having run the original BitD, I'm excited to see what they've done with it based on what they did with Lost City.