Love your posts as usual Quickleaf.
May take might not work for your game, but for ToA it is, provided how big the world around the PCs is, to make things happen that would effect the PCs and give them more opportunities and subtly guide them towards the clues.
For example, if after 10 sessions and, I guess a few weeks of in game time, you party has accomplished anything of note and has some jungle credit, Stormfang might seek them out proactively to help her with her problem with the whattheirnames of Firefinger. If they tell her of their quest and ask her the right questions and help her, she can lead them to Saja N’baza.
Obviously, for this to work if the PCs have done something she would and that reasonably incentivise her to approach them proactively. But I hope you get the idea, with a truckload of NPCs in the adventure, at some point PCs are bound to do somethimng that will cause someone to act in a way that effects the PCs. They can be approached for help, threatened, attacked, there might be a manipulation attempt or a dozen other things.
In short - make them see consequences of their actions and choices & don’t let them feel as they are the only force that is in motion.
Thanks Dan! That strategy of having NPC quest/clue-givers come to them is certainly something I can incorporate more down the line. What I’m noticing with this group is they’re very detail oriented. Which is great because it keeps me on my toes, but it does have a shortcoming in that sometimes their focus goes in multiple directions and they end up moving far slower than they or I expect. We’ve covered 8 Days game time after playing for 10 sessions.
Then perhaps you might increase the rate of levelling to get them there faster.
Yes, I am leveling them a bit faster now after checking with group. But that is a separate issue that doesn’t impact quickening the narrative toward Omu. And it doesn’t really “solve” the hexploration, it just recognizes the hexploration as the weaker part and mostly bypasses it.
Another technique I used for clues was communication with their sponsor/quest giver. I didn't use Syndra Silvane. Instead, I replaced her with the Seer from the SKT AL modules. My party knew her from those adventures, so there was a lot more incentive for them to help her. The Seer has a pseudodragon familiar, named Hsing, who was also part of the SKT modules; So once or twice he's shown up either with questions from the Seer (to remind them of the urgency of their mission) or with additional info/clues.
That makes sense. I did something similar with a magical map one of the PCs had crafted & they gave to Syndra Silvane, allowing her to contact them with project image using the map as a focus. During the exploration I’m also planning on including a cracked sending stone in a t-rex footprint, a stone formerly belonging to the Company of the Yellow Banner which they used to communicate with Syndra until losing it when a t-rex chased them. It will allow PCs to communicate with Syndra on their terms for a limited time (maybe 20% cumulative chance per use of falling apart).
Sorry for not knowing my ToA but. . .
Can you include the tried-and-true opposing band of adventurers? The ones who get there first, and then gloat about their progress at the friendly, local tavern?
I do plan to include foils/rivals. ToA is a bit more difficult to do this because it’s a deadly adventure, and the foil of dead PC A might not be a good foil for new PC B. My approach, which I’ve only barely gotten to scratch surface of, is to introduce little glimpses of potential rivals via other explorers/Red Wizards/Zhentarim/etc. Hopefully at least one of these can be developed into a genuine rival once they’re in Omu, Fane of the Night Serpent, and/or the Tomb.
Also, I wonder if the bored PC is the type that you could appease by adding more character development for him, since the plot isn't developing much.
I had an open dialogue with him and there were multiple points I picked up from it.
The first and biggest complaint was the vagueness of the mission & lack of clues toward what is causing the Death Curse / how to stop it. Currently I’m looking at detailing the crafting of the Soulmonger artifact (at least somewhat), and using that as a guideline for clues. This is where I could use help.
Secondarily was a complaint about not enough reward vs. risk — this is the level advancement pacing that I mentioned upthread (as well as not much treasure), both which I’m responding to by accelerating level advancement to 1/four sessions & including more treasure (easy enough). Btw, these were issues that I checked with others in the group, and most of the players agreed they were issues. The treasure issue may partly be due to many of the players coming from a Pathfinder background which, as I understand it, is a magical loot abundant game.
Thirdly was a mild complaint about zombies. There have been three fights involving a fair number of zombies, and their Undead Fortitude has been major PITA for the players, and perhaps it has been a bit discouraging to face such hard to kill monsters in light of the above two complaints. To my credit, in each zombie encounter I’ve included some “trick” allowing circumventing the zombies’ hit points, for example: (1) pit traps zombies could be lured into, (2) holding a line vs. zombies till a NPC finished casting gaseous form on the party, and (3) using zombies to solve a deadly puzzle-trap during parlay period with wight necromancer disguised with magic. While I like “zombies as puzzle/challenge” rather than “zombies as mooks to kill”, later on I may introduce a magic item or charm which bypasses Undead Fortitude.
Fourthly was a mild complaint about PCs not driving the narrative, and the party going from lore dump to lore dump without a sense of direction. Because I haven’t heard this complaint from other players (indeed at least one other has really enjoyed how deep I’ve gone with lore of Chult), I’m inclined to think this is just a passing issue brought about by a combo of the above complaints & urrently the party exploring the Mezro Library & College of Wizards which, as you’d expect, have lots of hidden lore. However, my friend’s comments brought to light a challenge I have with this group...despite that we’ve connected most of the PCs to ToA via backstories (e.g. lizardfolk shaman who lost Semuanya’s visions when touched by Acererak in his dream, grung seeking to save her mate Blurble from the Death Curse, Ranger reclaiming ancestral lands from undead after forced to kill his zombified wife) most are playing some shade of give-me-reason-to-care-neutral. While I have a good read on what each player enjoys most about D&D, figuring out their PC’s motives and then successfully incorporating that into ToA in interesting and mutually supportive ways has been a challenge. Maybe I’m just rusty at DMing.
