D&D 5E Tomb of Annihilation - how's it going so far?! **spoilers**

[Burnside]

Well, the curse is not the actual threat. If's more a symptom of the threat. Acererak's plan is not just to bother the folks who've had the resources to be raised from the dead.

Sure, but as written, the "resurrected people are dying" is pretty much the whole hook of the plot. Stopping that is meant to be the main motivating factor for the players. As written, the rest of Acererak's scheme would not be clear until the adventure is 90-95% complete.

I don't mean to imply that this adventure is bad or broken or anything, but the book insists up front that the Death Curse is the centerpiece of the campaign (and the current AL season insists the same thing) and personally I find it super lame and awkward from the get-go.

ToA is redeemed by being filled with great locations and great characters and monsters. But its central hook irritates me.

I think the Chult that WoTC has given us for ToA is a great campaign setting. I'm not at all sure ToA is a great "adventure", though.

As a DM, I really enjoy coming up with fun ideas for my players. The tedious part for me would be the dirty work of structuring my stuff in a way that would be accessible for another DM to run, and make their life easier. WoTC apparently feels exactly the same way and that's why this book is a lot less user-friendly than it ought to be.

 

[robus]

Sean's posted guide, doesn't have quite the level of detail some were wanting (linking NPC's, locations, etc) although his ideas for stringing together exploration portion in Chapter 2 are pretty sweet. Gives some great ideas for linking GM choice locations together.

http://thecampaign20xx.blogspot.ca/2017/10/dungeons-dragons-how-to-run-tomb-of.html

Well I totally agree with his comments about the initial hook being weak (and the whole Artus Cimber tacked on). But he does seem to ignore the curse and I guess just expects that to work out...

I loved his travel day ideas though, very colorful.

 

[Nebulous]

Well I totally agree with his comments about the initial hook being weak (and the whole Artus Cimber tacked on). But he does seem to ignore the curse and I guess just expects that to work out...

I loved his travel day ideas though, very colorful.

At first I was a little leery of the Artus Cimber thing, but then I found six frost giant miniatures, and I just can't shake the idea of sweating, bitching, angry giants loping through the jungle, and the PCs trying to figure out what the hell is going on, and this reinforces that there's other people with agendas in the world, and not everything revolves around the main plot (although this early in the campaign, the PCs barely know what the "plot" is).

Having said that, I wonder if there's a way to actually, deliberately tie the RING of WINTER into the story with Acererak and Soulmonger? Any ideas? It's artifact vs. artifact......

 

[pukunui]

[MENTION=31465]Nebulous[/MENTION]: Perhaps one of the ring's undocumented powers can be used to destroy the Soulmonger or something.

 

[Nebulous]

[MENTION=31465]Nebulous[/MENTION]: Perhaps one of the ring's undocumented powers can be used to destroy the Soulmonger or something.

That might work. Another idea i'm toying with is to slowly increase the Death saves, from 11+, to 12+, etc. Maybe the Ring of Winter is a way to reset it to the norm, and thus becomes a major Macguffin in and of itself....

 

[Demetrios1453]

At first I was a little leery of the Artus Cimber thing, but then I found six frost giant miniatures, and I just can't shake the idea of sweating, bitching, angry giants loping through the jungle, and the PCs trying to figure out what the hell is going on, and this reinforces that there's other people with agendas in the world, and not everything revolves around the main plot (although this early in the campaign, the PCs barely know what the "plot" is).

Having said that, I wonder if there's a way to actually, deliberately tie the RING of WINTER into the story with Acererak and Soulmonger? Any ideas? It's artifact vs. artifact......

I agree about the frost giants - just the thought of frost giants forced to be in a jungle, and the WTF factor when the PCs bump into them are enough to excuse the Artus Cimber sub-plot.

Granted, at least he has actual ties to Chult - he originally found the Ring of Winter there and his wife from there (and currently missing there as well). That's not something new, but long-established lore from 2e days. But it is still something of a side plot to the main storyline. Then again, if he (and Dragonbait, who is far more of "lets throw them in" NPC than Cimber) decide to travel along with the party, the Ring of Winter can potentially get the party out of many potentially sticky situations. But, conversely, that runs the risk of removing some danger from story (thankfully the known powers of the ring aren't too excessive)....

 

[Nebulous]

I agree about the frost giants - just the thought of frost giants forced to be in a jungle, and the WTF factor when the PCs bump into them are enough to excuse the Artus Cimber sub-plot.

Granted, at least he has actual ties to Chult - he originally found the Ring of Winter there and his wife from there (and currently missing there as well). That's not something new, but long-established lore from 2e days. But it is still something of a side plot to the main storyline. Then again, if he (and Dragonbait, who is far more of "lets throw them in" NPC than Cimber) decide to travel along with the party, the Ring of Winter can potentially get the party out of many potentially sticky situations. But, conversely, that runs the risk of removing some danger from story (thankfully the known powers of the ring aren't too excessive)....

I admit it's a slightly odd subplot, but I don't terribly mind it.

I purchased Ruins of Mezro from DM Guild, and part of that is ALSO about Artus Cimber, and it can potentially take a high level party above and beyond the scope of the Tomb. It also has lots of low level plot hooks. So I'm going to use that, and Artus is within or around Mezro, and I have a tabaxi PC who is searching for Mezro as part of his own background.

The map itself is pretty damn cool.