Tomb of Annihilation Is Here - What Do You Think?

Today's the day - WotC's latest Dungeons & Dragons adventure, Tomb of Annihilation, is out! Head on down to your friendly (or unfriendly) local (or not so local) gaming (or comic) store and pick up your copy. Alternatively, if you use a virtual table top, it's available for Fantasy Grounds and Roll20.

 

[Azzy]

Which is what they have with the loose guideline of "metal armour". A baseline DMs can modify as needed. A foundation to house rule.

Most of the posters here that have noted interest in creating houserules penalizing armor use in the jungle have said they were basing it upon armor type (notably heavy armor), so I'm not seeing what your post has to do with what's actually been discussed.

 

[CapnZapp]

Considering that some of the armors are listed light, medium, heavy fairly arbitrarily, and some "light" armors (padded, for instance) would be as worrisome in a jungle environment as plate armor. So, if you're looking for "realism", basing penalties on armor types is a rather poor way to go about it.

Now you're only trying to make issue so complicated you can conclude it's best to do nothing.

Well, I've got news for you: you can already do nothing.

Sent from my C6603 using EN World mobile app

 

[CapnZapp]

But that's taking one element of reality and ignoring others to the detriment of medium and heavy armor.

The game already ignores the reality that heavy armor is vastly better than no armor at all. There is no real world logic for monks and barbarians getting such high AC wearing no armor.

It's a salad bar approach to 'realism' that works to the detriment of players who wish to wear armor.

And you're free to not use these ideas.

But this forum already contains far far too many negative posts. So how about you allowing people interested in armor + heat rules to discuss that, while you focus your attention somewhere where your opinion is appreciated?

Sent from my C6603 using EN World mobile app

 

[MonsterEnvy]

I feel I need to point out somthing to people talking about how the Death Curse would result in tons of people going to Chult.

Most people don't actually know the Death Curse is a thing it's currently just rumors when the Adventure starts. Most of the people that are wasting away don't actually know the reason and even more of them don't know the source of it.

Only a few groups like the Harpers and Thay were able to link the source of the events to Chult and they don't really know any more. Which is why they sent groups to investigate. Also the Undead like Szass Tam are unaffected by it Tam is purely interested in it as a way to increase his power, which he why he sends Valindra and a Red Wizard team to investigate.

 

[Mirtek]

Because lots of people D&D to simulate a world to some degree. While the mechanics do not completely hew to reality, real world logic is meant to still apply. Gravity works. People need to eat and sleep and use the outhouse.

And running around a sweltering jungle in a tin can breaks some people's immersion as much as someone stepping off a cliff and not falling because the rules don't explicitly say anything about gravity.

And the barbarian stopping blades with his abs and the monk with the power of will is totally not breaking any immersion at all. But the equally superhuman (try parrying a giant or a dragon, everybody in D&D is superhuman) fighter or paladin trotting through a dessert or jungle in his armor is.

 

[SuperTD]

In regards the the maps, I love that they have a consistent style and quality through the whole book, due to all being done by Schley. Also, they are all mapped for a 5' square grid! Other adventures were always a little annoying for online play having to resize different maps by different amounts on Roll20.

 

[tomBitonti]

I feel I need to point out somthing to people talking about how the Death Curse would result in tons of people going to Chult.

Most people don't actually know the Death Curse is a thing it's currently just rumors when the Adventure starts. Most of the people that are wasting away don't actually know the reason and even more of them don't know the source of it.

Only a few groups like the Harpers and Thay were able to link the source of the events to Chult and they don't really know any more. Which is why they sent groups to investigate. Also the Undead like Szass Tam are unaffected by it Tam is purely interested in it as a way to increase his power, which he why he sends Valindra and a Red Wizard team to investigate.

Liches are affected: The curse prevents their souls from reaching their phylacteries.

I would expect the Harper’s knowledge to spread quickly. If there was confusion about the source of the curse, the response at large would be different, but the adventure makes no suggestion of that.

Thx!
TomB

 

[Ath-kethin]

This is way off the various topics I see in this thread, but let me say: my favorite thing about ToA is how it accommodates low-magic campaigns.

Hear me out.

I've shied away from running any of the other APs for two reasons: I don't care for the baked-in-full-campaign approach of them and they all presume the standard 5e/FR gonzo magic baseline (TFtYP notwithstanding). While ToA is still an AP, it's set up more to my liking in terms of styling. Care seems to have been taken to make sure that those of us who run games without ridiculous magic and goofy Star-Trek style "4 million sentient humanoid races" can still use it.

Two distinct bits of evidence to support this claim:

1) the adventure starts in earnest at the docks, where the teleportation spell drops them. But this also means that if you erase the magic bit and have the party take a ship, everything starts in the same place.

2) in the 2e Chult sourcebook, there were two groups called Tabaxi: a tribe of human barbarians and the redundant cat-people race. By combining these into one set of people, the designers made it easy to remove the cat-dudes and just have the tribe, with no confusion.

Was all this intentional? I'm not sure. But I'm actually going to run this adventure, unlike the others.

 

[fjw70]

I am not sure I see any difference from the other APs in regards to multiple sentient species and magic.

 

[Jester David]

And the barbarian stopping blades with his abs and the monk with the power of will is totally not breaking any immersion at all. But the equally superhuman (try parrying a giant or a dragon, everybody in D&D is superhuman) fighter or paladin trotting through a dessert or jungle in his armor is.

Only if the DM describes the monk and barbarian's higher AC as supernaturally tough skin and not a preternatural ability to dodge.

If that's what breaks your immersion, then change those rules.

The game sets a baseline and it's up to groups to customise for their desired realism. Tweak healing. Hit points. AC. Whatever. The game gives the base rules and some modifications to get the DM started (like the metal armour in hot weather rule in the PHB), and leaves them to make the game their own.