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

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
 

log in or register to remove this ad


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."
 

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.
 

I completed this as a player and loved it. Later read it through.

I echo a lot of what @Retreater said; I’d add that Level Up A5E’s Journey mechanics can also enhance the hexcrawl sections.

I like many aspects of the Tomb of the Nine Gods, but it absolutely can overstay its welcome. Consider removing the Skeleton Keys mechanic.

The first few Adventurer’s League adventures from that season provide a MUCH better start to the campaign than the hardcover does, and also offer a more fun and streamlined version of the Port Nyanzaru section. If I ran it. I’d use those to get the party to level 3 and then get them into the jungle ASAP thereafter.
 

Overall, I think it's a Top 3 adventure for the official WotC 5e era (I'd also include Lost Mine of Phandelver and Curse of Strahd)
Agreed. At the time it was released i thought the death curse stuff was dumb so I didn't rank it high, but then they didn't make anything better since so it stays in the top 3.

A reissue of Tomb would be great. Heck the advice in this post alone integrated in would be welcome.
 


I'd definitely start out in Port Nyanzaru rather than having the PCs be imported in. As others have pointed out, the timeline on the Death Curse gets pretty wonky, and probably needs to be adjusted. By the time my party finished the campaign, just about everyone afflicted with it at the start was long-dead.

I'd also recommend incorporating DDAL00-04 Winter's Flame. I used it for the opening of my ToA campaign and everyone loved it.
 

I loved ToA but we never finished in person. We had just gotten to the part of the Tomb and the first level. Still, we did Omu, which was absolutely fantastic, and the yuan-ti temple below. As others suggested, I would tweak the death curse. I wish a jungle hex crawl in 5e had more urgency, but purify food and water removes any urgency of disease or tracking rations. I would suggest looking at the many DM supplements on DMsGuild. I used one about Mezro that greatly added to side encounters. I tried to incorporate most of the encounters in the book, even if I had to change the location to be along the PCs path. I wish I had finished the campaign, but I also think I ran all the best parts already.
 


Remove ads

Top