D&D 5E (2024) Tomb of Annihilation: likes and Dislikes

[TheSword]

I ran it for less than a dozen sessions... I think one big thing I'd alter is either Valindra's presence, her motivation, and/or her reaction to the party finding her. I couldn't understand why she'd react the way she does, abandoning her cool base when the PCs find her. It's been years now, but it never made sense to me. I should give it a reread because that was one of the things that ended my groups playthrough of that adventure.

Interesting. My players never went that way so I only skimmed it.

When I run again I would want to put far more effort into the five factions. Introduce them right in Port Nyazaru and give them competing goals and interests. Similar to how Dungeons of Drakkenheim run it.

• Flaming Fist
• Merchant Princes
• Red Wizards
• Yuanti
• Pirate Lords

 

[pukunui]

It's got a zombie t-rex. Anything after that is gravy.

A zombie t-rex that regurgitates humanoid zombies no less!

And a living t-rex that is covered in feathers and can teleport around!

 

[pukunui]

I've run this adventure twice. The first time was more by-the-book. I had the Death Curse going from the start, and the PCs missed a lot of the fun stuff. Omu was a real meat grinder. Numerous PCs died there, including one that lasted maybe 30 minutes in real time!

Second time I ran it, I turned it into a bit of an Acq Inc campaign. The PCs got a franchise in Port Nyanzaru, and I used a bunch of the guides more as quest givers than guides. So the two guys with the triceratops were just two guys with a treasure map who wanted the PCs to help them recover the dead green dragon's treasure. I had a Flaming Fist patrol waiting for the PCs when they emerged to show them the whole tithing thing and make them resent the Fists. Hew Hackinstone was just a dwarf who hired the PCs to help him investigate the old dwarf mines. Etc.

We got to explore most of the different locations in Chult (unlike in the first campaign) before I finally introduced the Death Curse and sent them to Omu -- I had Omin Dran send them an Acq Inc airship to get them to the lost city.

With the first campaign, the PCs met Valindra at the Heart of Ubtao, but they had the couatl lady as their guide - so Valindra and she could both see each other's true forms, which led to some tension. The second time I ran it, the PCs also met Valindra at the Heart, but then I had her show up in Omu later, and she actually helped the PCs get through the tomb before betraying them at the end - so they had to fight two liches not just one!

I had originally intended to run some more of the DDAL adventures afterwards to continue the campaign in Chult, but by the time we finished with Acererak, I was pretty tired of the jungle, so we moved on to a different campaign.

@TheSword: If you're interested, you can read about my first campaign here: Tomb of Annihilation – TALES FROM THE YAWNING PORTAL

And my second campaign is here: Bungle in the Jungle

I’ve been reading the journey rules from Uncharted Journeys which seem really good. I’m thinking of using these to replicate travelling through the jungles.

I started using the Uncharted Journeys rules partway through my second campaign. They worked a treat! I described the switch as being "You're more experienced at trekking through the jungle now, so we don't need to worry about the minutiae as much. Let's just make it more of a narrative thing."

 

[Seramus]

what did you like or dislike about the campaign?

This is a very nitpicky thing, but I always felt like Acererak had no chance of winning. There are just too many strong liches in Forgotten Realms who were always going to foil his plans. Normally you circumvent this with other major NPCs being busy with their own things, but the Death Curse is a fairly big deal that would earn Acererak the ire of too many people. So I always felt like there had to be some other gambit at play here, and the Death Curse was just a distraction.