Tomb of Annihilation

[Digital M@]

I am finalizing my prep for running this adventure (and am very excited) and wanted input from people who have RUN OR PLAYED the game, I do not want to hear from people who have only read the adventure. So many (almost all) of the reviews are written by people who have never played the game and in the end are mostly worthless. I wish there was a place where reviews were only done by people have already used the product.

1. What is something you would change in how you ran it
2. Any planning you would have done differently?
2. As a player, what is something you wish were done differently
3. Overland travel - there is a ton of it - Did it bog the game down after awhile - Why did it work or why didn't it work?
My concern on overland travel is after many days and game sessions mostly consisting of travel could become fatiguing

4. What was your favorite part?
5. What was your least favorite part?
6. anything else you would like to share about your experience

Thanks - I hope my tone did not come out as snarky, I just want to hear from people with specific experience with the adventure.

 

[practicalm]

I hope you've seen this.

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?594662-Tomb-of-Annihilation-Meta-Thread

 

[Digital M@]

I have, thanks. - I used it quite a bit but it does have a different purpose than what I am looking for.

 

[Brotton Goodfellow]

My players are almost through the tomb.
List of things to consider:
1. If there’s a ranger in the party, the whole surviving in the jungle thing gets easy and relatively pointless, as the ranger just finds food and water without having to try. The only downside for the ranger was that they had to be actively foraging and couldn’t navigate or do other travel activities.
2. The overland travel can be tiresome. If I were to do it differently, I’d use the map more as a guideline than a precise scale. Unless the party is really into hex crawling, I’d put the interesting locations in their way whether or not they landed in the exact hex or not. Close is good enough. There’s a lot of cool things in this adventure, and my players missed a good 75% of it because they made their way straight to Kir Sabal and were told by the Bird People where Omu was. They then got the components for the spell that lets them fly, and they made it to Omu very easily. I also felt as a DM that I had missed a lot of fun places to run for the party.
3. Let them know right from the beginning that there’s this thing called the Soul Monger stealing peoples souls, and that it is located in the lost city of Omu. Then depending on who the party talks to in their travels, let them know the legend of the 9 gods and Acerack’s tomb. Your players might be a little more curious and inquisitive that you could drop hints and they’d put the pieces together, mine weren’t and they still aren’t sure why the soul monger is in Omu.
4. The list of random encounters is very helpful. I did make a few of my own for fun.
5. Introduce the Yuan-ti earlier than Omu and make them a menace for the party during their travels. Once they get to Omu and find out that this is where the slimy, slithering bastards live, they’ll maybe have more of a reason to interact with them other than Snake People bad, Snake People have puzzle cube.

 

[Digital M@]

That awesome advice - thanks

 

[Quickleaf]

I am finalizing my prep for running this adventure (and am very excited) and wanted input from people who have RUN OR PLAYED the game, I do not want to hear from people who have only read the adventure. So many (almost all) of the reviews are written by people who have never played the game and in the end are mostly worthless. I wish there was a place where reviews were only done by people have already used the product.

1. What is something you would change in how you ran it
2a. Any planning you would have done differently?
2b. As a player, what is something you wish were done differently
3. Overland travel - there is a ton of it - Did it bog the game down after awhile - Why did it work or why didn't it work?
My concern on overland travel is after many days and game sessions mostly consisting of travel could become fatiguing

4. What was your favorite part?
5. What was your least favorite part?
6. anything else you would like to share about your experience

Thanks - I hope my tone did not come out as snarky, I just want to hear from people with specific experience with the adventure.

We're 18 sessions into ToA, started in March 2018. I'm DMing a group of 6 savvy detail-oriented players who mostly came from a Pathfinder background. I started the group at 3rd level (to avoid them feeling the needed to "grind for XP" just so they can survive the jungle). I slowed the pace of the Death Curse to -1 Hit Die every 2 weeks (to allow for more breathing space to explore, softening the edges of the "ticking time bomb" theme) & included a few "life relics" which can be used to buy more time for a creature with the Death Curse (so a PC with a Death Curse loved one could have a chance at saving them). One player moved, one player joined, and one switched PCs, no deaths yet. You can read our session logs over here: https://tombofannihilation-67.obsidianportal.com/adventure-log

1. I received constructive criticism about 6 sessions in that the jungle exploration was too meandering, with too few clues, and too little reward. I realized my player's criticism was spot on, and immediately course-corrected, adding more clues, foreshadowing, meaningful choices, and treasure into the jungle trek. I wish I'd done that as soon as they'd entered the jungle at session #3, but at least I figured it out relatively quickly.

2a. Hard to answer. From my initial read-through, I knew the jungle exploration would need work, but I didn't realize just how much work until we were playing. I've actually been designing so much "connective tissue" that I'll probably release my notes onto DMs Guild once we wrap up the campaign & I have time to edit/format them.

2b. I'm DMing, but one of my players wanted more treasure and magic items earlier on. There is definitely a dearth of magic items until reaching Omu/Tomb.

3. My approach is integrative: I switch between rolling for random encounters, handling travel with narrative montages, and using "skill challenges." So far this has avoided my players burning out on random encounters...but then I've also overhauled how I handle the random encounters. At one point, during a 10-day stretch of travel down River Olung I let my players roll for the random encounters, and they really enjoyed it. If you're interested in specifics, just ask. I've posted extensively about this elsewhere on ENWorld and https://www.reddit.com/r/Tombofannihilation/.

4. My favorite part? I love the Tomb, but haven't run it yet. Port Nyanzaru is a well done city; we only had two sessions there, but we had a blast. My favorite part was when the players told the tale of how they met to Wakanga using a card game with "leading phrases" I ad-libbed...part of their backstory was they explored a dungeon off the coast of Calimshan where they found a sentient lich's skull that had info on the Soulmonger – this replaced the hook on page 5 about the "Harpers receiving their intelligence from a lich."

5. My least favorite part? I couldn't believe Mezro had no detail in the book. I ended up purchasing Ruins of Mezro (DMs Guild, by one of ToA's authors), but it didn't have much connective tissue to ToA nor did it explain in greater detail what happened to Mezro. It introduced these weird cultists that had no connection to the rest of the adventure. And several major areas like the College of Wizards – which were clearly meant to be "dungeons" to explore – had less than a paragraph write-ups. It's a cool map, but I didn't feel it was substantially more detailed than the treatment of Mezro in AD&D Jungles of Chult.

6. Read the adventure in advance, and don't hesitate to modify stuff that you feel wouldn't be a good fit for your group. This adventure takes a lot of DM elbow grease, so be prepared. Make it your own.

 

[Digital M@]

I love the feedback on connective story telling during travel and foreshadowing. I had added some of that in Port Nyanzaru but didn't think of building more in during travels as non random encounters. The spots of interest in the adventure all all spread out and with one day of travel per hex are over a weeks travel from each other. Add encumbrance rules and the players will make one trip back to the Port and then realize the time cost and ditch most of the treasure they find in the future due to encumbrance. That is OK as the adventure is about ending a severe curse and not treasure hunting, but PC's like their treasure.

I thought of making their expedition a large one with pack animals and camp laborers and have the group break off from them from time to time. That changes the feel of the expedition but could also give it more importance. The PC's could take pack animals with them, but the truth is, they would die quickly and stop river travel slowing the game even more. Maybe a pack dinosaur in honor of Bill from the Hobbit - still no river travel.....

I love this adventure but it offers some challenges to run (which I like).

 

[Stark Wolf]

It's a great adventure, but the overland travel really needs to either be shortened or spiced up with more interesting things.

 

[dave2008]

I haven't run it, but Mike Shea (The Lazy DM series) has run it at least twice and he has some advice for you:

http://slyflourish.com/deadly_shift_of_toa.html

http://slyflourish.com/death_curse.html

http://slyflourish.com/tag-along_npcs.html

http://slyflourish.com/running_omu.html

http://slyflourish.com/tomb_guardian_generator.html

http://slyflourish.com/exploring_chult.html

http://slyflourish.com/running_port_nyanzaru.html

http://slyflourish.com/lost_monuments_of_chult.html

http://slyflourish.com/toh_session_zero.html

I feel like he usually gives good advice.

 

[The M'hael]

I am running this right now, my group is in the first level of the tomb.

1. What is something you would change in how you ran it?
Definitely do more with connecting of the different factions to the random encounters. Have more yuan-ti, red wizards, etc. When the players get to the city it should feel like a culmination of the jungle trek. Have the mapped locations give more clues to the history of Omu and Chult in general.
2a. Any planning you would have done differently?
I would recommend having a really solid grasp of the backstory of Chult and its inhabitants. Understand the timeline of Omu and its rulers, from the various lost royalty to Ras Nsi to the current inhabitants.

3. Overland travel - there is a ton of it - Did it bog the game down after a while - Why did it work or why didn't it work?
My concern on overland travel is after many days and game sessions mostly consisting of travel could become fatiguing
To make it less fatiguing to DM, I had all the weather and random encounters pre-generated. For players, make all the random encounters feel like part of the story. Really emphasis how they are connected to the different jungle factions and let players build connections that will matter.
I also had there be some clues when the players were near the keyed locations that drew them in. It could be from their guide, or random encounters that showed them the way.
4. What was your favorite part?
My favorite part was the Yuan-ti Fane in Omu. There are just so many ways that can play out, and it really gives the players an opportunity to be creative.
5. What was your least favorite part?
Ive really enjoyed it all, but as I was saying earlier, the random encounters were just that, random. They didn't feel like part of the story and were more just filler. I wish I had done more with them.
6. anything else you would like to share about your experience
I am finding this adventure really fun. There is a fair amount of prep and bookkeeping that is needed to make it run smoothly, but the adventure is has a lot of potential to be really great.

 

[Rabbitbait]

Here's my campaign log: https://app.roll20.net/campaigns/forum/3041203

And @Nebulous has a great thread of his campaign: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?587369-Tomb-of-Annihilation-campaign-recaps

I've really enjoyed the old school feel of this adventure so far with the hex-crawling and random encounters.

I foreshadowed how dangerous and randomly fatal the jungle is and how easy to get lost and using the 'player actions' while exploring, rolling weather tables and keeping everything random has really made it feel hard and dangerous. The players know that I am rolling things randomly and that there is a less than zero change they will die. It adds a good tension to the game. At one point the group got totally lost and an entire session was two weeks of wandering around in the jungle while getting attacked by stuff. It was a fun session, even though one of the characters died.

Remember that not every encounter has to be a fight. Generally characters will get some level of warning (through their tracker or scout, through noise coming towards them or through other means) that danger is coming their way. They can often avoid fights. Also, encounters with intelligent creatures is likely to be a chance for roleplay and foreshadowing rather than combat.

In the last few sessions I have started handwaving some of the creature encounters as they are now high enough level that most of the random encounters are not much of a threat. I also changed the story a little so that locations are more likely to lead to other locations.

We've just started in Omu now, and that has a completely different feel to it. There isn't a chance of getting lost, but there is a lot more resource management needed. In Chult you might get one encounter a day (two if you are really unlucky), in Omu it could be a set-piece, a few random encounters and a temple filled with traps before lunchtime.

My only issue is with the death-curse. I feel that it is both too powerful (it kills it's victims too quickly) and not powerful enough (it only affects those that have been ressurected). In my game the players have been warned that as the soulmonger gains power it will start to pull the souls from all living things. They didn't find this out till well down the track though (In Orulunga I think).

I also have most of the intelligent creatures and humans only speaking Chultan - unless they are merchants or scholars. It feels a bit more real if one of the characters has to translate all the time.

Artus Cimber and Dragonbait are brilliant, but don't let them become part of the party - they are just too powerful.

 

[Nebulous]

Artus Cimber and Dragonbait are brilliant, but don't let them become part of the party - they are just too powerful.

Yeah. They were there for a while, but they are unbalanced, mostly just the Ring of Winter, but I found a really cool way to resolve that problem. It will be in a later recap.

 

[Retreater]

I am in the process of running ToA for two different groups. One group is about half the way to the Forbidden City while the first group is on level 4 of the Tomb.

Both groups have the same complaint. Due to the nature of the Death Curse, they felt rushed through the colorful, vibrant, exciting city of Port Nyanzaru and they weren't allowed to explore the lush continent of Chult. I would encourage you to bring the Death Curse into the campaign later and find other reasons for the party to explore the continent. Maybe they are explorers, treasure hunters, etc. Then later they can be hired to find the source of the Death Curse - because you're really missing what I think is the best part of the adventure.

When you get to the Tomb, be prepared to alter the rules. It's a deathtrap dungeon that breaks a lot of the rules of the game. I would allow saving throws where they're normally not allowed and take out the instant-death traps, for example.

 

[Digital M@]

One of the scenes I am excited for is Camp Vengeance. I am changing the commander's personality to make him torn between fatigue, the futility of the mission, his dedication to his men and duty. I am inspired by the scene in the Movie the Good Bad and the Ugly where Blondie and Tuco talk with the Union Army officer and convince him to blow up the bridge so there is no reason to fight anymore.

I am going to give the soldiers of Camp Vengence naphtha and create an opportunity if the characters chase the hook, to convince the commander to destroy the fort so there is nothing left to defend and go back to Port Nyanzaru. They can use the Naphtha to blow up the fort as a major offensive of undead men and dinosaurs attack. Leaving the fire as a barrier between them and the undead, the Order of the Gauntlet load the wounded in the boats and the rest follow the river out of there.

 

[Pawndream]

I have been running ToA since January 2018, 3-4 hour sessions twice a month, and the PCs are currently in the 1st level of the Tomb of the Nine Gods. We started at 1st level and used the standard Sindra Silvane plotline. For what it's worth, I have run this using Adventurers League rules, with a steady cast of 3-4 PCs and a much wider cast of characters who have played a session or two here or there.

1. What is something you would change in how you ran it

As others mentioned, I would have introduced Yuan-Ti and Red Wizards much earlier in the campaign. Like as early as Port Nyanzaru. I don't really do that great of a job with the foreshadowing on these groups...and they play a pretty big role once you get to Omu.

2. Any planning you would have done differently?

As above, probably spent more time working Red Wizards and Ras Nsi into the story earlier.

3. Overland travel - there is a ton of it - Did it bog the game down after awhile - Why did it work or why didn't it work?

I hand-waved the bookkeeping/survival part of the overland journey and just used it as a series of mini-adventures to get the characters to 5th level before they reached Omu. I didn't find it that tedious, but I also strung them along and gave them the info they needed to find Omu.

4. What was your favorite part?

The race for puzzle cubes was pretty cool, but honestly, the whole adventure has been fun.

5. What was your least favorite part?

Having to have a good handle on all the different traps, factions, etc. prior to the session, to ensure the game runs smoothly.

6. anything else you would like to share about your experience

ToA is my favorite published adventure, all time, and has been quite enjoyable. I am just fearful it will end up in a TPK now that they have entered the Tomb of the Nine Gods. But if it does, it will be a spectacular flame out, for sure

 

[MockingBird]

I'm about to start this adventure. I will DM and have a small group of 2 players. I was planning on fleshing out a guide to help round out the group. Any pointers on running this with a small group?

 

[Quickleaf]

I'm about to start this adventure. I will DM and have a small group of 2 players. I was planning on fleshing out a guide to help round out the group. Any pointers on running this with a small group?

Yeah, I'd suggest starting them at 3rd level.

For the guide(s), I'd suggest tailoring the guide(s) based on whatever party roles your 2 players don't cover. Say they decide to play a ranger and a sorcerer, and neither has healing magic or thieves' tools proficiency. I'd steer them towards guides who might have those sorts of skills. For example, Eku is known as an accomplished healer, and River Mist & Flask of Wine are likely to have shady reputations (i.e. you might give them thieves' tools proficiency and Thieves Cant).

You might also check out the recent Unearthed Arcana - Sidekicks which has a system for leveling NPCs along with the player characters.

 

[Teemu]

The hex crawl part through the jungle was too monotonous. Every day the same checks. I'd make the whole experience more abstract (in terms of resources) and varied.

Some folks are saying that the death curse is too imminent, that they want to see more of the jungle. But honestly, the large majority of locations in the jungle pale in comparison to Omu and the Tomb of the Nine Gods. Getting the party to Omu fast is a good thing.

 

[MockingBird]

Thanks for the tips! Been binge watching Force Grey. I like how Mercer ran the jungle trek pretty much structured all the way to the lost city. I'll definitely dial the death curse back so my players can explore. Theres a lot of cool locations I dont want them to miss.

 

[Nebulous]

My players are 5th level and about to find Omu in the next session or two. I found that getting lost and suffering any detrimental effects from thirst and disease were practically negligible at even low level. There were multiple characters with Survival skills and rolling advantage was common. Create Food and Water and Lesser restoration cures practically anything, so that was never a real threat. The party made sure to keep a full supply of bug repelling gel at all times, and were able to resupply before it ever ran out.

My point is that the jungle itself never felt as threatening as I wanted it to, but I think that is more a product of the magic in D&D and the prevalence of how important rolling a d20 is over the actual skill of a character. Roll high and can suck at anything and still succeed.

Regardless, I LOVE this adventure. The feel is different than any other, and the constant threat of random encounters beyond the PC level to overcome keeps them on their toes.

I did introduce Artus Cimber and dragonbait fairly early on, but I would recommend not using the Ring of Winter unless you have a solid exit plan for Artus. It is overbalancing and too powerful. If you DO use it, I would have the frost giants hot on his trail, or other powerful agents.