D&D 5E (2024) Thoughts on Infinite Staircase?

[jasper]

I’m not telling you it’s okay, I’m making suggestions as to what you could do about it.

There is a tension between what makes a good digital map and what make a good tabletop map. Digital maps want eye candy, and it’s easy to make the grid as clear or hidden as you like to suit your play style. A good tabletop map is bi-coloured and as simple as possible so it can be easily reproduced with pencil and paper.

This map is clearly intended to be a VTT map, not a tabletop map.

I found Vecna: Eve of Ruin particularly frustrating as it switches between VTT and tabletop style maps at random, so however you are playing the next map is going to be in the wrong style.

As for this particular map, the area is only about 50 miles across, with lots of habitation. It’s more a ramble in the South Downs than the Oregon Trail. It’s not like anyone is going to run out of food and starve. You can give the players a copy and say “where do you want to go” then tell them how long it takes.

And if I am giving them a photo copy from the BOOK. It will still not tell me how many miles because the hex are muddy.
My review was talking about the physical copy. My complainant is the print copy. Wotc needs to do better print maps. Telling me to buy whole another product, does not fix the issue.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

And if I am giving them a photo copy from the BOOK. It will still not tell me how many miles because the hex are muddy.
My review was talking about the physical copy. My complainant is the print copy. Wotc needs to do better print maps. Telling me to buy whole another product, does not fix the issue.

The map has a scale. You don’t need to be able to see the hexes to find a distance, you just need to be able to use a ruler.

But if the printing is really as bad as you make out you should return the product as it’s clearly defective.

 

[jasper]

The map has a scale. You don’t need to be able to see the hexes to find a distance, you just need to be able to use a ruler.

But if the printing is really as bad as you make out you should return the product as it’s clearly defective.

Thank you for your great help.

 

[plecostomus]

Here's a Level 1 combat report for a couple rooms in The Lost City module: B11 and B12. These rooms represent the headquarters for one of Lost City's factions, the Guardians of Gorm.

This is what B11/B12 look like when all the Guardians are placed on the map:

The PC in B12 was escorted there by a B11 Guardian, so there is 1 extra Guardian in B12 and 1 less in B11 at the start of the fight.

I had to move some of the B12 Guardians up onto the bunkbeds just to get the PC in the room. See #7 in the list below, but I'm not sure that would entirely prevent having to move the Guardians around awkwardly because this room also has 3(!) doors that they may inadvertently end up blocking.

Here's what I did with the combat in B12:

1. [Party] 3 PCs + 1 retainer (MCDM Hobgoblin Tactician), Level 1 using 2024 rules. [Enemies] Kanadius is CR2, each Guardian is CR1/8. There are 5 Guardians in B12 normally, 1 extra in this case for 6 total. Kanadius and the Guardians are unique creatures for this module without 2024 equivalents.
2. The module says that if combat breaks out, Kanadius (blue token in center B12) flees the area through the trapdoor under his throne. He can be found later with 2 Guardians, but the module doesn't specify where those Guardians come from, so I happily removed 2 Guardians from this fight by having them follow him through the trapdoor.
3. Before Kanadius left, one of the other PCs asked him to stop fighting and spent her action on 2024's Influence (the codified action for a Charisma check) to convince him. She rolled a 16 and no one was dead yet, so I had Kanadius tell her, "Very well. Leave immediately and do not return."
   
   Instead of leaving, she chose to question why the party had to leave. He repeated his order and she questioned it again, and at that point fighting resumed. Kanadius is a polite and kindly NPC, so you could have him indulge questions if you wanted instead. In this case since combat started because a party member had already wronged him, I didn't give a lot of lenience.
4. There are rules in the module for sending extra Guardians to B11 if fighting breaks out there, but no rules for sending Guardians to a fight in B12. I decided to follow that absence of a rule very strictly, and although 1 Guardian from B11 was already in B12 and joined the fight, the other 4 remained in B11.
5. 1 PC and the retainer both went unconscious, the other 2 were able to finish the fight. Conveniently, there are 3 potions of healing in a chest in this room.
6. The PCs went to B11 after this fight and the B11 Guardians stood down after seeing the PCs were victorious in B12. This may allow the PCs to recover some of the information they would normally get from Kanadius.
7. What I did that you should not do: Don't move the throne to the middle, even if that feels better narratively. It's in the corner on the map to give more maneuvering room.

This fight was super fun. It made me feel better about my improvisation skills. I'm glad the enemies were intelligent, I feel that gave me more opportunity to roleplay and communicate and take actions besides attacking in combat.

 

[plecostomus]

Module 2 / When A Star Falls has a few encounters with no maps provided.
Here are the free maps I decided to use:

1. Death on the Moors (Memory Web)
   Moorland Stream from fantasymaps
   • Party starts lower right across the stream
2. Piyarz's Shadow (Sion)
   Camp from darkvineworld
   • Party starts in sleeping/watch positions
3. Arrival at Cernant Valley (giant eagle x2, elk x3)
   Forest Fork - Path Version by stainedkarbon
   • Alternative: Forest Campsite by stainedkarbon
   • Party starts in center
   • Only needed if the party really pisses off the eagles
4. Random 1 (griffon x3)
   Mountainous Path from hasslyart
   • Haven't decided yet if party starts on the north or south road - south road would let them hear the griffons and decide if they want to climb up to investigate, but puts them in danger of being knocked back off the cliff.
   • Using the Flee Mortals! griffon adds a grapple and 5-ft push ability.
   • Nest is located on the rock in the center under the dead tree. One of the griffons starts beside the nest, one comes out of the cave below it, and one is airborne/can appear anywhere.
5. Random 2 (displacer beast x2)
   Forest River from angelamaps
   • Party starts beside the fallen tree over the river
6. Random 3 (ogre x1, boars x5)
   Grassland Trail from lostmysteries
   • Party starts on the road at the southern map edge, ogre + boars start on the slight rise above it.
   • Per the encounter text, party may only fight the boars.
7. Random 4 (bugbear warrior x5)
   Wilderness Roads 3: Side Track Up a Valley from msjaymaps (the Patreon with this map was deleted and the artist seems to only have a Roll20 site now)
   • Party starts at the fork in the road
8. Random 5 (10 giant bats)
   Cave Entrance from themodernlich
   • Party starts between the tree left of center and the cave mouth
   • I edited this map look more like night time. If you use it this way...remember not to run the encounter in the middle of the day. Or you could say it's in the shadow of the mountains.
9. Random 6 (dire wolf x2, wolf x5)
   Snorlax from czepeku
   • I thought this encounter was a bit boring as written and I liked this map with the sleeping giant, so this is what I'm using. Party starts beside the giant. They can fight the wolves in the grassy area when they try to go around. That's what they're going to do, right? Go around...?
10. Random 7 (troll x1)
    Rocky Wilderness from scalpelarts
    • Party starts in the center. Troll walks out from behind a boulder and they have a chance to try and hide before it notices them.
11. Random 8 (jackalwere x6)
    Rocky Ravine by afternoonmaps
    • Party starts at southern end of ravine, the "injured hunter" is located where the ravine narrows. Claiming each elevation of the ravine wall is 10 ft.
    • If the party played through The Lost City they may have met 2 jackalweres who tried to sell them fake potions. If they spared those jackalweres, I will say the same jackalweres are part of this ambush. They will call off the initial ambush when they recognize the party and may try to sell them fake potions again, or threaten them into buying potions now that they are part of a larger group.

Will edit this post if I find more mapless encounters while prepping the module.

 

[Zardnaar]

Thoughts on B4 List City as Netherese survivors?