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Post by Sidera on Sept 15, 2016 21:14:16 GMT
Out of the Abyss is going to be my first campaign I run as a DM. I've heard its one of the harder ones to run and follow out of the officially released stories and looking at it I can see why! It may be because its the first one I've looked at but the information seems to be dotted all over the place, it could be that I just haven't had time to read through it in its entirety yet (do people manage that before they play?) but there seems to information about things, such as characters, spread over several sections so my main worry is I'll miss something important about an NPC etc. because its written later in the book instead of at the beginning where their descriptions are. Has anyone on here run it and have experiences and tips they can share? It would also be great to hear stories of things that happened in your run of it or any adjustments you made or things you added in  |
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redwolf602
Commoner
Posts: 6 
Favorite D&D Class: Barbarian (Axe Idiot)
Favorite D&D Race: Dwarf
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Post by redwolf602 on Sept 29, 2016 23:21:39 GMT
I'm currently running this campaign. It is a headache until you catch a feel for the flow. I suggest plotting out the first leg of the adventure to get your bearings before letting the players make too many decisions on destinations. I found the following helpful in running it as well (http://thecampaign20xx.blogspot.se/2015/12/rage-of-demons-guide-to-out-of-abyss.html) You'll find a lot of opportunity to alter the flow of the book as well if you goof up. I goofed almost right out the gate but the players will never know lol.
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Post by Sidera on Oct 2, 2016 15:01:39 GMT
I'm currently running this campaign. It is a headache until you catch a feel for the flow. I suggest plotting out the first leg of the adventure to get your bearings before letting the players make too many decisions on destinations. I found the following helpful in running it as well (http://thecampaign20xx.blogspot.se/2015/12/rage-of-demons-guide-to-out-of-abyss.html) You'll find a lot of opportunity to alter the flow of the book as well if you goof up. I goofed almost right out the gate but the players will never know lol. Thanks for your input! It does seem a very complicated book which could be just because its my first shot at it but from what I've heard its just a complicated campaign. We managed to get pass the very first section so far ( the escape) which I had a bit of experience running as the first time we did it there was a TPK so we chose to restart with new characters. In relation to the rage of demons guide I actually managed to find that too and have created a list of other resources for Out of the Abyss that I have found so far as it didn't look like anyone else on here had run it until you posted! So maybe it will help you! How far have you got into the game? I'm at the point just after they've escaped so it would be interesting to hear how you managed traversing the underdark for your group  |
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redwolf602
Commoner
Posts: 6
Favorite D&D Class: Barbarian (Axe Idiot)
Favorite D&D Race: Dwarf
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Post by redwolf602 on Oct 5, 2016 5:16:17 GMT
So far we aren't very far in. My players went to Slubladoop first after "escaping". This was my first big booboo as I didn't run them through one of the dungeons or hazard area's in chapter 2, but those are meant to be "any time" events anyway. After the event's of Slubladoop, they decided to take Stool home and are on their way there through the hook horror hunt (I decided to do the dungeons as a d6 roll for randomness). We only have 2 sessions in as we're playing it bi-weekly with our third session this coming monday where they SHOULD get to the Grove to bring Stool home..... or so they hope lol.
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redwolf602
Commoner
Posts: 6
Favorite D&D Class: Barbarian (Axe Idiot)
Favorite D&D Race: Dwarf
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Post by redwolf602 on Oct 5, 2016 5:18:06 GMT
Also one tip I found that helped with party management was making tents for the NPC's from Velkenvelve and have the players run them on their initiative. The player controlling Buppido is kind of in on my plans for how crazy he is, but they all hate Buppido anyway. They failed intimidation checks on him and he punched a fewof them in the junk....... he may not make it to the Grove lol.
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mysticfedora
Commoner
Get off my lawn!
Posts: 3
Favorite D&D Class: Monk
Favorite D&D Race: (Elf?)
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Post by mysticfedora on Oct 6, 2016 2:57:38 GMT
I set up a plan for handling it, but haven't actually run it yet. My thought was to put a daily "regimen" in place and pre-roll everything and include "something" from the NPCs while tracking them on 3x5 cards. I came up with this (again, untested).
Day 1:
If lost, it will take 6 hours before another check
Buppido tries to earn trust and scopes out a chance to take out Shuushar
Shuushar convinces all to go first to Sloobludop
Derendil mumbles incoherently
Jimjar observes
Ront bullies
Sarith quietly takes guide role
Stool cozies up
Topsy and Turvy bicker
No encounter
Foraging: Trillimac fungus
No pursuit change
No encounter on camp
Day 2
If they get lost, if so 2 hours until next check
NPC Actions
Shuushar gives speech about the failings of war
Encounter Narrow Passageway, light by Faerzress: Patch of yellow mold and giant rocktopus (giant octopus pg 28)
Foraging: Waterorb
+1, if engaged the remainder of the party join the scouts in 8 rounds
Camp: Another rocktopus!
Madness, this whole area is Faerzress
Day 3
If they get lost, if so 5 hours until next check
NPC Actions
Buppido attempts to murder Shuushar, tries to knock him out so he can ritualistically murder him
No encounter on travel
Foraging: Ripplebark
No change on pursuit
No camp encounter
And then by then they'll reach the next milestone. So then I do this day by day until the next milestone, etc. I think the trick is to roll all the stuff ahead of time and run what you rolled.
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Post by Sidera on Oct 7, 2016 23:34:04 GMT
This was my first big booboo as I didn't run them through one of the dungeons or hazard area's in chapter 2, but those are meant to be "any time" events anyway. I think it actually states to use them from between chapter 3 onwards so wouldn't come into play until after the darklake. I'm popping in the umber hulk one near the fish folk town so they can come across it. I'm choosing to map out the area as well instead of randomising it so its possible for players to map out where they have been like it says in the book which if its purely randomised everythings gonna be crazy all the time and it wont make sense if they turn back the way they went and there is all new terrain there etc. Planning on posting my map on here soon when its done. Almost everything will have been created from the randomised rolls just prerolled and mapped out by myself. I set up a plan for handling it, but haven't actually run it yet. My thought was to put a daily "regimen" in place and pre-roll everything and include "something" from the NPCs while tracking them on 3x5 cards. I came up with this (again, untested). And then by then they'll reach the next milestone. So then I do this day by day until the next milestone, etc. I think the trick is to roll all the stuff ahead of time and run what you rolled. Yeh that's basically what my plan is, I also saw it in Sean Mcgovern's guide to out of the abyss. But as I'm mapping out the area so the players can choose which turning to go down etc. its going to be harder to decide what NPC action occurs in which specific place as it may not make sense to the order in which they go to each area. |
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mysticfedora
Commoner
Get off my lawn!
Posts: 3
Favorite D&D Class: Monk
Favorite D&D Race: (Elf?)
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Post by mysticfedora on Oct 8, 2016 1:33:48 GMT
This was my first big booboo as I didn't run them through one of the dungeons or hazard area's in chapter 2, but those are meant to be "any time" events anyway. I think it actually states to use them from between chapter 3 onwards so wouldn't come into play until after the darklake. I'm popping in the umber hulk one near the fish folk town so they can come across it. I'm choosing to map out the area as well instead of randomising it so its possible for players to map out where they have been like it says in the book which if its purely randomised everythings gonna be crazy all the time and it wont make sense if they turn back the way they went and there is all new terrain there etc. Planning on posting my map on here soon when its done. Almost everything will have been created from the randomised rolls just prerolled and mapped out by myself. I set up a plan for handling it, but haven't actually run it yet. My thought was to put a daily "regimen" in place and pre-roll everything and include "something" from the NPCs while tracking them on 3x5 cards. I came up with this (again, untested). And then by then they'll reach the next milestone. So then I do this day by day until the next milestone, etc. I think the trick is to roll all the stuff ahead of time and run what you rolled. Yeh that's basically what my plan is, I also saw it in Sean Mcgovern's guide to out of the abyss. But as I'm mapping out the area so the players can choose which turning to go down etc. its going to be harder to decide what NPC action occurs in which specific place as it may not make sense to the order in which they go to each area. Let us know how it goes, I'm not sure when I'll be able to run it, but I'd like to |
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