The party was following the shore line and, on a whim, I decided that there was going to be some boats on the shore. This can be as simple as a rumor that “there is a witch living in an ancient abandoned city to the southwest that may know something“. I’d be very keen to hear your experience of running this adventure and how you handled the problems I’ve raised. I really enjoyed the blue fog of madness, and was able to tie this back into some of the people from Port Nyanzaru who had wronged the players previously. However, after being with the party for a while and getting comfortable, they often became a source of comic relief. You’ll find a glimpse of what to expect within the hexcrawl as well as my overall impression and tips for the following areas: *Possible Spoiler Alert*: If you are planning on ever playing ToA (rather than DMing) please proceed with caution. If you’re a player who may experience this as a campaign, don’t read this post, since it will contain spoilers for the module. This helps to build upon the notion that Chult is a far-away and exotic land that is not well understood. Looking back, my primary reason for this was to create a more vivid description of the Death Curse for players. The coolest thing about the hex crawl is being able to stumble upon new places and to get a feel for what the jungle contains. Later on, as I mentioned earlier, I tended to “fast travel” from location to location for two main reasons. I didn’t find most of them to be too challenging, but it all depends on your specific circumstance. Rumor says each item is incredibly powerful, and when all 4 of the set are worn, the wearer is said to have complete control over the dinosaurs.”. It was a blast for everybody at the table and was one of the most unique Dungeons and Dragons experiences that I’ve had the opportunity to run. The gist of this is to gather the 4 ancient items of Ubtao and become the master of dinosaurs. The pirates came up at two different points in my campaign. This avoids one person at the table having an absolute blast while everybody sits around bored on their phones. Tomb of Annihilation Companion - This expansion to the Tomb of Annihilation adventure gives dungeon masters ready-made material to help run certain secti Even a year into the campaign, the party’s end-game goal is to defeat the dragon turtle and claim his underwater treasure trove. Be sure to join the email list and sign up for the FREE 5-day email course centered on running your very own homebrew campaign! I always spoke very softly when roleplaying as them and physically leaned in (almost as though as I was crouching) whilst constantly darting my head to look “around the jungle” mid conversation. Although I portrayed the death curse as serious, the port seemed like too much fun to simply gloss over. Nothing quite separates Chult from “your-typical-DnD-setting” like a fast paced, violent, and chaotic dinosaur race through the city. You see, due to the intense nature of the race, their previously hired racer had been seriously injured. Tomb of Annihilation is no doubt a great adventure with some memorable locations and story threads running through it but it requires either a lot of handwaving or a lot of DM preparation and creativity to link them all up. Players did end up going to any of the locations that river and flask knew about, and rather ended up using them as general guides to the jungles of Chult. If you haven’t heard of it, you should absolutely check it out. Tomb of annihilation pdf is a D&D’s board game where you embark on an adventure in the land of Chult, which has been inflicted by a death curse. Running Tomb of Annihilation Tips and Tricks. In the same spirit, due to the sheer volume of guides, I recommend choosing a handful of guides that you think you would enjoy playing – since you may end up playing that character for a while – and introduce them as NPCs. In my game this ended up being possible in one of two ways for the players. There's a particular "gateway" challenge there: Access to the shrine at the top of the ziggurat is protected by magic, and there are different things one must do at each level of the ziggurat to get past. If the guide is a traitor, try to give some subtle clues throughout the journey for players to pick up on. Communities Tomb of Annihilation DMs Discord Server Tomb of Annihilation DMs Facebook Group /r/TombOfAnnihilation guides PowerScoreRPG Guide A Plus, if they come across another one, that’s just a zombie-puking-undead-carnivorous cherry on top. These Red Wizards were searching for the party and attempting to kill them – to no avail. Per Wakanga’s recommendation, the party sought a guide for their jungle expedition. Read about them here and get learnt! This could be accomplished through small actions or phrases. This campaign has essentially been a cycle of me making up information on the spot (due to being unprepared), and then working that made-up information into the campaign canonically. These items are based on the large statue of an ancient Chultan warrior (which they passed when arriving at the port). Unlike previous campaign adventures, Tomb of Annihilation doesn't include a small and focused low-level scenario to kick off the adventure. Less succinctly, there were some relatively minor audio-visual quirks we need to work out, but the game itself went very smoothly and everyone seemed to have a good time. If so, I’d appreciate you sharing the article with any fellow Dungeon Masters that would also find it useful. Though I may sound like I’m complaining, the hex crawl was a bunch of fun. The next bout with the Red Wizards came about when the players stumbled across the Heart of Ubtao (and Valindra). It felt like there were so many god damn factions thrown towards me at the start of the adventure; I didn’t know what to do. In the midst of chaos when Aremag first arrived, one of my players shot him square in the eye with a mounted harpoon. If your players do not end up choosing any of the potential guides that they meet, just keep introducing different guides until they either: settle on one, or choose to go without a guide. The duo started off as very quiet, with Flask mostly just repeating the endings of what River says and shaking his head in agreement. It may seem like a long ways off, but eventually you’ll need to know about all of them and I believe the characters should have seen most of them by the time it becomes relevant. Heck I tell ya! They could appear in a tavern, they may approach the players,or they may have posters and advertisements around the town that the players find. I wanted to write a scathing, vicious review deriding the Killer Dungeon and all the malicious, antisocial behavior it fosters among roleplaying game players. Players had an easy enough time finding him through NPC interactions. Running Tomb of Annihilation. We’ll probably be making new characters for it, since the current ones will be over-leveled for Tomb by then. The first method was a bookie located in the sketchy part of the Port. In Storm King’s Thunder, there was some aimless running around. I run the Discord server and am a mod on the Reddit sub. They’re all pretty fun and unique, so don’t miss your chance to try out some new monsters. 1 Variants 1.1 The Soulmonger Calls 1.2 Azaka's Procession - Part … I highly recommend giving the players some sort of clue about one of these characters. Some of the most excited I’ve seen my players is when they almost died, but ended up acquiring a piece of this set. Contains max of 3 charges of the Command spell (DC 15). If the players are caught exploring the jungle without a charter of exploration they will face the wrath of the Flaming Fist. If you’re enjoying this article, please take a moment to check out How to Start a Campaign! These women joined in the conversation and exchanged information relevant to the plot. Honestly, learning the course of this race gave me a better understanding of how the city is laid out. The heroes returned to Port Nyanzaru and filled their coffers with gold. About two sentences later and this had evolved into a band of pirates unloading their loot into a secret underground stash. Thankfully, for me, the party decided to go with River and Flask due to their cheaper price. First, they appeared as a sudden impromptu adventure during one of the early traveling days. The general premise of the campaign is a Death Curse which is plaguing the realm. This lead to a very memorable moment for the party with players still making references back to this instance. Though I thought that this was super cool and interactive, it was also incredibly time consuming and wasn’t really the best long-term solution. Players are attempting to locate the source of this curse and put a stop to it. For the most part they kept out of combat, except for a single instance or two (this is partially due to me forgetting about them cause I’m focusing on all the other things), and were often the assigned dinosaur babysitters for the party when they went into somewhere that may have been difficult for dino travel (random temples and stuff). Check the DMs map for information as to the level of undead activity. I think it probably took my party a solid 8 months from leaving the city to arriving at Omu. Throughout conversations I was sure to convey to players that it was very important for them to get a charter of exploration. If you’re enjoying this article, please take a moment to check out How to Start a Campaign! So rather than diligently spend my time learning about the differences and minutia of each faction, I simply got rid of a large majority of them. The second method was private betting at one of the Merchant Princes Villas. Regain 1d4 charges each dawn. Even if your players do not end up gambling, simply presenting it as an option will help Port Nyanzaru feel like a truly living society. My players were given time to explore the city in great depth. When Wakanga discovered this crucial information about the Death Curse, he had these ladies come back out and reveal their true identity: Harpers agents. They will be lured deeper and deeper into the jungle with hopes of gathering small slivers of information about the Death Curse. Succinctly, it went very well. After a lot of fiery explosions and a battle against 3 full pirate crews, the party had safely eliminated the threat of pirates and gained some insight to the location of Omu from a captured Red Wizard. Running Omu. The second time the pirates showed up was when the players decided to take on Jahaka Anchorage as a side-quest for Wakanga O’Tamu. Hello all, In about a month, I'm begin DM'ing Tomb of Annihilation for my group, and I am in need of some outside advice on how to prepare effectively to make sure I can keep sane with all the details while my party is still having a good time. For a start, the hex grid is rather empty. All in all, the wizards were a fun group to play as against the party and I was able to turn them into the mid-campaign antagonist without much hassle. I cannot stress this point enough! As it turns out, these two other main survival challenges did not prove to be much of a challenge at all. Initially, I introduced the concept of a dinosaur race to the players through small bits of dialogue with NPCs. Two of the other main survival challenges are getting fresh food/water and navigating where they need to go. Some of them have hidden agendas and could be secretly working against the players in some manner. It was pretty neat to see the players thinking back to their original interaction with Wakanga and connect the dots. The book presents the jungle as being a pretty deadly place if you’re not prepared. After reading advice from Sly Flourish, I was a huge fan of having the players come to Chult by crossing the ocean. It seemed like killing two birds with one stone, so to speak. I started off giving my players a hand-drawn replica of the “starting area” on a large dry-erase grid. To run Tomb of Annihilation’s hexcrawl, the book has you roll randomly for weather and encounters. An Alternative to 5e Inspiration: POWERBANDS, 5 Free Tools Every New DM Should Know About for 5e. You can find links to all of the articles below: Session Zero of Tomb of Annihilation; Running Port Nyanzaru in Tomb of Annihilation; Exploring Chult; The Urgency of the Death Curse Once per long rest you may deal 1d8 additional thunder damage (auto max damage against dinosaurs), +1  Studded Leather, and gives the user resistance to all non-magical bludgeoning/slashing/piercing damage. This allowed the players to get an understanding of the dangers lurking in the jungle, as well as a general understanding of the atmosphere. This meant when my party came across the camp – without a proper charter – there was heck to pay. “Once owned by a grand king of Chult, these items have been lost to the sands of time. With these two NPCs you can introduce potential guides to the party as well as plant a hook for the dinosaur race. I recommend speeding up the travel in one form or another. He offered them general advice about Port Nyanzaru (places to stay, what to do, etc), as well as his limited knowedge about the Death Curse. This made it easier to describe while players are going through and exploring. What’s not to like?! You're going to end up doing a lot of encounter rolls at the start. Be sure to join the email list and sign up for the FREE 5-day email course centered on running your very own homebrew campaign! In addition to the time aspect, I also chose to do this because I wanted to have a solid grasp on realm of Chult (or at least my version of it). This will help save face when running the game so you don’t have to think of details on-the-fly. Other rules are for adapting the game to our play style. The past month, I’ve been running Tomb of Annihilation, in 5E D&D, for two different groups. Running city-based adventures can be daunting. He’s a god damned T-Rex that fucking pukes zombies, how could you not want to run this guy?! This seemingly insignificant detail came around full-circle when the players decided to return to the Port (about 8 months into the campaign). This can be a crazy fucking long process, especially since the players really have no idea where the Death Curse lies starting out. When confronted you may have to do a deception check if the players are inquisitve. Her father was presented as completely bed-ridden and essentially incapacitated. This is how you mitigate this… This article is one in a series of artices I wrote for running the D&D hardcover adventure Tomb of Annihilation. Out of nowhere, I decided to introduce a long-term side quest to the players. There’s a BUNCH of information to keep straight, which proved especially difficult for me in the beginning. If you enjoy the content, I'd love your support to help fight off the undead (website costs)! They had learned the Death Curse was originating from Omu and had determined approximately where Omu was on their map. I thoroughly enjoyed playing-up his cover as a “playboy millionaire”: when first introduced to players, Wakanga was wearing a silk robe with his arms wrapped around two women. Valindra and the party fought for a bit, but she decided it was time to escape and to rally some troops. Resurrection magic no longer works and individuals previously resurrected are starting to wither away. The players could mark notes on it including: points of interest, their current location, and where they are planning to go. Tomb of Annihilation Companion is a guide with time-saving tips and suggestions for running the epic D&D campaign Guest poster Brian McGee started playing fifth edition Dungeons & Dragons with my home group earlier this year, quickly discovering enthusiastic … They got 4,800 for the three pirate ships (1,200 to Captain Ortimay and her crew) and then another 1,500 for the three captains.. Paroth and Arendel said thank you and goodbye as they were going to look for the rest of their group, the Society of Stalwart Adventurers. I'm running the Tomb of Annihilation adventure, and my players are about to come to Orolunga.. Mike Shea uses the checklist from Return of the Lazy Dungeon Master to prepare for his weekly D&D Tomb of Annihilation game. I have been running a ToA campaign now for over a year for a group of friends. Running the zombie T-Rex is an absolute must. When the players asked them a question / the party came across a jungle anomaly I had them roll a nature check and give relevant information depending on the outcome of the role. by Mike Shea on 17 December 2018. The party was there to learn about the location of the death curse, and so was a Red Wizard. The large majority of members perished, with one managing to use a teleportation circle to return to the mainland. At the time of writing this, I have been running Tomb of Annihilation for a little over a year. One of my players had the noble background and was able to gain an invitation to an upper-class viewing party of the race. There was even a few heads that got kicked off. You’ll find a glimpse of what to expect within the adventure as well as my overall impression and tips for the following areas: *Possible Spoiler Alert*: If you are planning on ever playing ToA (rather than DMing) please proceed with caution. I've seen a few posts here and there asking for tips on running Tomb of Annihilation. This is a post mortem about my experience running the 5th edition D&D module Tomb of Annihilation. This is the first official adventure I ran (thus the insane amount of resources on this page). I ran Tomb of Annihilation for four players. I opted to just come up with certain things ahead of time, but if you DO want it to be completely random you should at least consult the random tables before running the sessions. Therefore, with immense power, spells, and enchantment weapons, you should investigate the wilderness of Chult, where you will have to battle beasts, conquer traps and discover treasure just as you did in the Tomb of the Nine Gods. Command spell duration increases to 8 hours. A 34 page PDF containing guides, structure, overview, suggestions and troubleshooting for all five chapters, which will help you prepare the most amazing Tomb of Annihilation-campaign for your players! This will hopefully keep your players invested in the campaign for a long time to come. This was an awesome solution and I would 110% recommend it, if you have the available tech. There’s a place later within the actual tomb where a zombie t-rex can appear, but you’re not guaranteed to come across it, so you had might as well run it during the hex crawl. Another method for players to be invested is to include gambling and bets on the dinosaur races. https://thealpinedm.com/running-tomb-of-annihilation-hexcrawl There were 2 very experienced wilderness explorers in the group. We eventually started using a digital copy of the players map on an iPad. River and Flask seemed like the natural choice. Additionally when traveling, try to have the players come across all the different animal versions of the 9 trickster gods. I decided that the guides who payed Jobal also had a charter of exploration which was valid for the entire party. I really wanted to hate Tomb of Annihilation.It’s a Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition campaign book advertised as a module full of super-hard challenges and vicious traps.“You will die,” said the advertising and interviews. Here are the main factions that I ended up using: The flaming fist ended up as a combination between the actual Flaming Fist and the Order of the Gauntlet. Instead, as written, the adventure begins with the characters teleported into Port Nyanzaru and set off exploring the city. The second group includes friends from high school and college. Not sure what the different schools of magic are? The relationship between Red Wizards and the party continued to escalate well into Omu, as both groups were fighting over control of the puzzle cubes. Running the Journey. Naturally my players asked Wakanga about the statue and he explained some of the history behind the statue, but also (more importantly) that the items worn by this ancient warrior supposedly exist and are insanely powerful. The first group includes my daughter, step-daughter, and their friends. After your players have geared up, you are ready to begin running the hexcrawl portion of Tomb of Annihilation. There’s a vast jungle filled with booby-trapped temples, savage dinosaurs, and ravenous hordes of the undead. Not feeling inspired with 5e's Inspiration system? In Tomb of Annihilation, my players have had a goal at every turn. It won’t cost you more, just helps the site stay online. Though it can sometimes feel like a marathon, I can confidently say ToA is an insanely fun module for 5e. Firstly because I was getting a bit bored as a dungeon master, and secondly to speed things along so we didn’t end up taking a couple of years to finish the campaign (since the hexcrawl is really only Chapter 2). Tomb of AnnihilationWaterdeep: Dragon HeistStakesThe end of the worldLocal corruptionScaleContinent-spanningOne cityPaceRace against the clockAs long as it takes The campaign took us a… This is complete with skill challenges related to the locations in Port Nyanzaru. This set of Tabaxi siblings stuck out to me because I love cats and always played a Khajiit in Skyrim/Oblivion. This accomplishes giving the players some sense of direction, while still preserving the complete mystery as to ‘what is really going on’. When running Tomb of Annihilation, you can either: I think you are seriously missing outif you rush your players through Port Nyanzaru. Whether you are currently running Tomb of Annihilation or on the fence about buying it, this article will act as an initial campaign guide. I wish I would have done that, but the book I was using to run the adventure was somebody else’s and I didn’t want to tear it out for them. Many of the guides are tied to a faction or a personal quest which manifests into their motivations and actions. Disclaimer: As an Amazon Affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases. My ranger always knew which way north was, and thus the direction they were headed; the barbarian had an outlander background so they were always able to find clean food and water. Whether you are currently running Tomb of Annihilation’s hexcrawl or on the fence about buying it, this article will act as an initial campaign guide. They were able to meet merchant princes, befriend potential guides, and discover plenty of possible side quests. Firstly, I opted to change up the plot hook and general introduction of the story. When all 4 are together: Dinosaurs regard you as friendly. Honestly I was kind of disappointed with the strength of the Yuan-Ti leading up to the Fane of the Night Serpent. Tomb of Annihilation is a campaign in Idle Champions of the Forgotten Realms. In reality the guide is nearby and sending a secret message. I didn’t feel like making up the specifics of factions on the spot. The best way to do this is to use ray of frost as a legendary action against that character, dealing 4d8 damage (or an average of 20 damage) each time, as many times as there are rounds between the end of that character’s turn and the beginning of Acererak’s (a … His deeply-wrinkled skin was sloughing off, his eyes sunken and yellow, and he smelled of decaying flesh. This motivation will determine how you play your guide. During the hexcrawl, all that you really need to know about the Yuan-Ti is that they are scouring the jungle (and the city of Omu) for the puzzle cubes which act as a key into the actual tomb. My players had some insight into this and were able to buy plenty of insect repellant to fend off those pesky skeeters. For those of you who are already running a Tomb of Annihilation campaign, what tactics or ideas are you guys using to get your players to "gravitate" to Omu? The Red Wizards were probably the biggest rival group to the party during the hexcrawl and as the players got closer to Omu. Of course, Syndra is correct about the deadly nature of Chult but I just love the immediate build of expectations-vs-reality in this campaign. Be sure to present hordes of undead when traveling through areas of heavy activity, while other areas are a perfect place to present the dangerous flora and fauna contained within the jungles of Chult. But, I like the idea of the PCs being affected by the Death Curse themselves. Functions as a magical +2 spear. Be sure to keep in mind whether the party has a charter of exploration when they’re coming across any traveling bands of other explorers. It just seemed to go on a little longer than I’d prefer. This will most likely occur through dialogue with an NPC as players are trying to discover information. ... (This is still a vast improvement in this scenario, since the jungle speed detailed in Tomb of Annihilation is significantly slower than the regular "Sword Coast" speed of the DMG. This companion offers an alternative set of rules for the race – which I prefer to the original rules – and a specific course around the city. Instead of repeating, I think it's worth a short post. 1 Requirements 2 Formation 3 Adventures 4 Blessings Must have completed 4 adventures Adventures in this campaign use the Wedge formation. For these reasons, I still had them make survival checks for certain things, but it really only affected how long it took them or whether they got turned around a few times before finding their bearings. Tomb of the Nine Gods is one of the adventures in the campaign Tomb of Annihilation. The values of the organization were based off of the Flaming Fist (looting ruins and whatnot), but my version also had control of Camp Vengeance and Fort Beluarian. As the players got closer and closer to the lost city of Omu, I would start sprinkling in some scouting parties of Yuan-Ti to get them acquainted with the fact that these are going to be enemies involved in the larger picture. I hope you enjoyed the article! It's a great though uneven module. Auto succeeds on dinosaurs. Not to mention the much more bothersome random encounters you can skip) After my players finish the tomb – if we continue playing – there will most certainly be a reappearance of the Red Wizards. choose to present the death curse with an immediate sense of urgency or, choose to wait momentarily before revealing the time-sensitive nature of the campaign. If you are running Tomb of Annihilation, you absolutely don’t want to miss out on this! Tomb of Annihilation is a 5th-edition Dungeons & Dragons adventure set in the Chult region of the Forgotten Realms. Naturally he was in no condition to convey the details of the quest, which is where Syndra stepped in. Of course, the jungles of chult are exotic, dense, and deadly. I am running a Tomb of Annihilation campaign but as with my previous major D&D campaign set in Mystara, I have begun modding the game adding house rules of various kinds.Some are simply dealing with adapting the campaign to the Mystara setting, which required some changes. Of course, I didn’t want to force the players into choosing them but when the party’s rogue visited the shady part of town (Malar’s Throat) I was sure to lay down some conversational-cues which lead to a meeting with River and Flask. New DM here! With that being said, Tomb is the first “official” adventure I have DM’d and I will admit that it can feel exhausting at times. After my current campaign is over, I’m planning to run my group through Tomb of Annihilation. This could be something as simple as an NPC’s farewell sentence, “I’ve gotta get goin’, need to start getting ready for the race tomorrow”. Give your players some form of map for them to use. This was some of the reasoning why I was okay with fast traveling at a certain point in the campaign. A super useful resource is the Tomb of Annihilation Companion, (Created by Sean McGovern of Power Score RPG). So, two Sundays ago, I sat down and DMed the first session of our Tomb of Annihilation campaign. r/Tombofannihilation: This subreddit serves as a helpful place for any DM's running the Tomb of Annihilation module. Or do you gently lead them too it by giving them the hint that's where the curse is originating from? Port Nyanzaru is such a lively city filled with unique characters who can bring the adventure to life.

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