Lost Mine of Phandelver Remix: A Brief Interlude About Wilderness Travel Options

Intro and TOC

So let’s talk about traveling in the wilderness. I should have put this at the beginning of the articles on the “sandbox” I suppose–but I didn’t think of it. So here it is at the end instead. One of the many things that bothered me about this adventure was that it included a “sandbox” without any kind of instructions or rules for how to deal with wilderness travel. Yet the placement of these locations is definitely not on any roads or major paths, according to the area map.

When this was released, only the Player’s Handbook had been published. The Dungeon Master’s Guide, which does have rules for wilderness travel, was still months in the future. I had the advantage of reading the adventure several years after publication, and I had already bought the three core rulebooks. Still, since the adventure itself doesn’t tell you how to handle this, I thought I would briefly summarize the DMG rules, as well as give you some interesting alternatives I’ve found.

Dungeon Master’s Guide and Player’s Handbook

Funny, the wilderness travel rules are kind of split between the DMG and the PH. The DMG offers two ways to handle wilderness travel: a cinematic narrated montage, or an hour-by-hour method (both are on page 106 of the DMG). The PH has rules about travel pace (page 181-182) and a list of activities PCs can perform while traveling (page 182-183.

Unfortunately the hour-by-hour method seems unnecessarily tedious…even old school hexcrawls didn’t go hour-by-hour! And the rules for wilderness survival, foraging, getting lost and so on are rather vague. There aren’t any clear procedures, steps, instructions, or anything like that. It doesn’t really tell you how to run this.

13th Age Travel Montage

Now if I were going to do a travel montage, I would probably rather use the kind used in 13th Age. Rather than being a simple narration by the DM, 13th Age travel montages are more interactive and collaborative. You start with a player who is good at improvising. You ask them to think of an obstacle, problem or challenge that the party experiences during their journey. Then you take Player 1’s response, turn to the next player and say “On your journey you encountered X problem/obstacle. Your character was instrumental in overcoming this obstacle/problem. How did you do that?” Once Player 2 has described how their character helped the party overcome the challenge, you ask Player 2 for another obstacle or event, and so it goes around the table until everyone has chosen a challenge and also narrated how their character succeeded in overcoming an obstacle or problem.

It’s a cool technique. However, it works best with an experienced group who is comfortable with improvising, coming up with creative ideas, and/or acting out what their characters do. A group of players who don’t know each other, who are new to D&D or a group of younger players may not know how to respond. They also might not like being in the spotlight, or feel pressured by the expectation. So this method isn’t for everyone.

Pointcrawl

This one is interesting. I’m not sure how long this has been around but I only discovered it recently. A pointcrawl is a way to present and track travel by established paths or routes, such as roads, rivers, herding paths, game trails, landmark chains, and so on. Instead of a detailed map, a pointcrawl represents major locations like settlements, large natural features, landmarks and adventure sites as boxes or nodes, with paths delineated between them. It ends up looking more like a flow chart, although some DMs will sketch in large natural features like mountains, hills, or what-have-you if they need a reminder for how the points of interest are positioned in relation to the large terrain elements. That can also be a reminder for what kinds of encounter tables to use during the journey. Here are some links to some articles with more information:

• Pointcrawls from the Hill Cantons blog
• Pointcrawls for Cities and Overland Travel in D&D from the Sly Flourish blog
• Pathcrawls (kind of a mashup of hexcrawl and pointcrawl) from Detect Magic

Hexcrawls

This is a big topic, and one that has been written about extensively elsewhere. So I won’t go into too much detail. I will say that as much as I love 5E, its wilderness travel rules are anemic. And they don’t really give you a process for running a proper hexcrawl. Tomb of Annihilation took a stab at providing actual hexcrawl rules and is supposed to be a hexcrawl adventure…but again, it doesn’t really provide you with concrete procedures for actually running a hexcrawl that isn’t a dreadful bore. There are lots of interesting locations, but not what you could call a proper key (the locations are all listed in alphabetical order instead of in an order that connects in some way to the actual map).

Hexcrawls are designed specifically for exploration, for areas where there are few (or no) paths established. You are exploring just to see what’s there, or to search for something that should be there, used to be there, or is rumored to be there. For more detailed information on hexcrawls, including procedures and tables and stuff, see the links below.

• The Alexandrian 5E Hexcrawl Series
• Welsh Piper’s Hex-based Campaign Design Series
• Ode to Black Dougal (This is very old and uses B/X D&D but can still be useful)

Applying This to LMoP

If you look at all the sandbox locations, only Conyberry is actually on/near a road. Thundertree is technically on a path (because you could start at Neverwinter and follow the river east to get there) but either you take the road to Neverwinter and then follow the river (which is much more lengthy), or you go overland (which might as well be hexcrawling because there is no discernible path). Old Owl Well is in the hills with no path or road marked on the map given. Wyvern Tor isn’t even on the map! Although I think the text mentions that it is south of Old Owl Well. Unless you made up some kind of path, both of those locations are wilderness as well.

So you have two locations relatively easy to find (though one is a much more lengthy journey if you take established paths). The other two are difficult to get to, and one of those two isn’t even marked on the map.

It’s hard to make a recommendation, because it’s really going to depend on both your preferences as a GM, and what your group of players find fun. If your players aren’t the exploring or completionist sort, you might be better off with a travel montage. You can always toss in an encounter or two if you think a narrative or collaborative montage would be boring for them. If you have players who are curious and exploratory sort, try a pathcrawl or hexcrawl. The links I’ve provided in this article should give you some solid information on how to run that. I especially recommend the Alexandrian, as Justin Alexander’s 5E Hexcrawl series is basically the material from his older Hexcrawl series, but adapted specifically to the 5E ruleset.

Well Gentle Readers, that’s it for this week. Next we’ll be diving into Revelation Lists, Secrets and Clues. Stay tuned!

Thoughts on Eberron and Monster Tactics

I don’t recall when exactly I learned about Keith Amman’s The Monsters Know What They’re Doing blog. I remember having an “aha” moment though. Especially because I missed 4E’s monster design, where they would tell you exactly what each monster’s tactics were, as well as what other monsters it was likely to team up with. I love exploration and roleplaying, but oddly enough I also really enjoy tactical combat. Tactics and strategy turn combat into a puzzle…and I love me some puzzles.

I recently acquired the hardback collection of (or conversion of? adaptation of?) Amman’s blog entries, also titled The Monsters Know What They’re Doing. But since I’ve become so enamored of Eberron lately, something stuck out like a sore thumb when I started reading it. Namely, that this book was written based on the Monster Manual. Complete with “all of X monsters have Y alignment.” Something I have come to dislike very intensely, and something which definitely does not hold true in Eberron. (Ironically, sometime last year it appears that Amman has started covering Eberron, probably coinciding with the release of Eberron: Rising from the Last War. I just noticed that today as I was looking up the blog to grab the link. I’ll have to analyze that later.)

At any rate, it made me think about whether or not I could even use any of the material in the book. And also made me wonder if I could write up some tactics articles on the sentient races in Eberron. I’m getting this post out late, so I won’t be diving into this just yet. But I’ll have more to say on this in upcoming posts. Stay tuned, Gentle Reader!

Megadungeon Monday: Roslof Keep

The Roslof Keep campaign was originally published in multiple parts: ROS1 The Folio #1, ROS2 The Folio #2, ROS3 The Folio #3, ROS4 The Folio #4, ROS5 The Folio #5, and ROS6 The Folio #6. As I write this, all six pieces are on sale for less than $3US each! I have Folio #1, and I also purchased The Complete Roslof Keep Campaign, which collects all six Folio modules along with several short connecting adventures in between the major chapters. This is another one of those “old school” products that is written for an older edition of D&D (or an OSR clone) but also has stats for 5E.

Things I Like

• This is a full campaign, starting at Level 1. As I mentioned in some of my previous reviews, many megadungeons (old and current) start at a higher level. So finding one that starts at Level 1 is nice.
• The first chapter details Roslof Keep and Level 1 of the dungeon (which is designed for PC levels 1-3). It has a lot of detail, but it’s also somewhat generic in the sense that you could easily swap out place names, NPCs, and even noble Houses without changing the story much.
• The central premise is interesting: Several noble Houses are sponsoring different adventuring companies in a competition to get as much treasure as possible while getting to the bottom of the dungeon. The dungeon itself is yet another “mad wizard” type, but the competitive parties and machinations of the different Houses makes it stand out compared to other dungeons of this type.
• Another interesting thing that catches my attention is that each House is in possession of a magical item (a banner) that is required to open the dungeon. At least one house has more than one of these items. Since it is essentially a key, and there seems to be no other way to get in, the items are very valuable. I normally don’t like one-entrance dungeon designs…but this is fascinating, and lends itself to yet another reason for each company to be out to get the others–to steal their banner.
• There is both a simple old-school graph paper map, and a more detailed isometric map as well. I like this combo…the isometric map gives you a more 3-dimensional understanding of the space, but the 2D simple map is helpful if you can’t quite make out the layout. Numenhalla would have gotten a higher grade if it had taken this approach!
• The dungeon key does not have boxed text!! It does have a description of the room (what the PCs would see) in bold text, however. I like this as a compromise. After the bolded text is normal text that gives the DM more information. Entries are not huge, but not compact either. Middling.
• I like the formatting tricks they use to emphasize important information and make it stand out. Stat blocks, for example, have a gray background as well as being in bold. Ability checks are in bold text also. Overall the document design is not flashy or fancy, but is very practical and efficient.
• I like the abbreviated monster stat blocks used in the dungeon key. They minimize space, while including the most pertinent information a DM needs. Yet they aren’t the arcane and indecipherable blobs of text you often find in old 1E adventures. Again…not fancy but very efficient and practical.

Things I Don’t Like

• It takes WAY too long to get to the information I’m really looking for, and that I would need to run this. I am not a fan of putting all the history, background, NPC details, and so forth in the front of an adventure. Give me a synopsis and put the rest in the back for reference! I want to get to the meat of the adventure.
• There’s an emphasis on “clearing” the dungeon, which isn’t great. There is a magical barrier over the entrances to the next level, and PCs can’t get past it until they have cleared every room on the current level “at least once”.
• There’s a kind of awkward mechanic connected to this. When a room has been cleared, it stays cleared–as long as the doors are left open. Due to the competitive premise, other groups will often deliberately go around shutting the doors on cleared rooms (which leads to more monsters spawning there). Some parts of this are interesting but I don’t like the videogame-like mechanic of monsters spontaneously appearing in a closed room. I prefer a method of restocking that simulates the realistic movement of creatures into a place that has been cleared or abandoned.
• I despise most of the NPCs. There isn’t the gross racism or misogyny I saw in Numenhalla, but…there is definitely some sexism and racism here. There’s a dark-skinned guy who has like three wives, and who will sexually harass any female character in the PC party and try to get her to marry him (so he can steal their banner, of course). It’s gross. I’d probably keep the main NPC who leads the house the PCs will be sponsored by (although I’d rename him and change some details) but I’d throw out most of the rest of them.
• NO WANDERING MONSTER TABLES?! What self-respecting OSR aficionado builds a megadungeon adventure with NO RANDOM ENCOUNTER TABLES?

Verdict and Grade

While there are a number of things I don’t like here, the vast majority of them can be easily ripped out and replaced. I don’t like having to spend extra time to make my own wandering monster tables, but it’s doable. That’s really the biggest strength of this product–it’s generic in all the right ways, with elements that are easy to rename, replace, swap around, or leave out. The essential premise is interesting and solid, and I could definitely see using this for an open-table game. The only problem is that while I can think of an area in Eberron where this would work, it isn’t the area I’ve chosen. I really, REALLY want to play something in Black Pit and Roslof Keep would work much better in the Mror Holds. Still, I can probably steal parts from it so it’s definitely useful either way.

Grade: B (would have been a B+ if there were tables!!)

Quick Update

Hey there, Gentle Readers! Unfortunately, the content I wanted to post this week all took more research time than I had available. I’m working on several things, but couldn’t get any of them to a publishable state over the weekend. Rather than post off schedule, I’m going to take this week to get enough content done to be a bit ahead again. Apologies for the lack of content this week, but next week there will be juicy stuff! So stay tuned!

Monster Monday: Night of the Living Dead

My Monster Vault

Okay I did some alchemical goblin zombies and skeletons awhile back, but since Halloween is this week (in the USA), I’m gonna give you a BUNCH of undead goodies. NOTE: I was only able to get the Haunted Forest category done by Monday night. I will keep working on these until they are all done! I also have something new in mind for next Monday, too.

UPDATE: Fancy stat blocks for everyone! Leaving text in for accessibility (screen readers can’t read images!).

Army of Wights (Game of Thrones-style)

Wildling Wight Medium undead, neutral evil
AC: 13 (Hide Armor)   HP: 58 (9d6+27)  Speed: 30 ft.
STR: 16 (+3)  DEX: 9 (-1)  CON: 16 (+3)  INT: 3 (-4)  WIS: 7 (-2)  CHA: 5 (-3)
Damage Immunities: poison
Condition Immunities: poisoned, exhausted
Senses: darkvision 60 ft., passive perception 10
Languages: Understands Common but cannot speak
CR: 2

Undead Fortitude. If damage reduces the wight to 0 hit points, it must make a Constitution saving throw with a DC of 5 + the damage taken, unless the damage is radiant or from a critical hit. On a success, the wight drops to 1 hit point instead.
Pack Tactics. The wight has advantage on an attack roll against a creature if at least one of the wight’s allies is within 5 ft. of the creature and the ally isn’t incapacitated.
ACTIONS
Greataxe: Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 9 (1d12 + 3) slashing damage.

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Ancient Wight Medium undead, neutral evil
AC: 11 (Scraps of Hide Armor)    HP: 9 (2d6+2)  Speed: 30 ft.
STR: 16 (+3)  DEX: 9 (-1)  CON: 15 (+2)  INT: 6 (-2)  WIS: 8 (-1)  CHA: 5 (-3)
Damage Vulnerabilities: bludgeoning
Damage Immunities: poison
Condition Immunities: poisoned, exhausted
Senses: Darkvision 60 ft., passive Perception 9
Languages: Understands Common but cannot speak
CR: 1/8

Pack Tactics. The wight has advantage on an attack roll against a creature if at least one of the wight’s allies is within 5 ft. of the creature and the ally isn’t incapacitated.
ACTIONS
Spear. Melee or Ranged Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft. or range 20/60 ft., one target. Hit: 4 (1d6 + 1) piercing damage, or 5 (1d8 + 1) piercing damage if used with two hands to make a melee attack.

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Cannibal Wildling Wight Medium undead, chaotic evil
AC: 13 (Hide Armor)   HP: 58 (9d6+27)  Speed: 30 ft.
STR: 17 (+3)  DEX: 10 (+0)  CON: 16 (+3)  INT: 7 (-2)  WIS: 11 (+0)  CHA: 7 (-2)
Damage Immunities: poison
Condition Immunities: poisoned, exhausted, charmed
Senses: darkvision 60 ft., passive perception 10
Languages: Common
CR: 2
Pack Tactics. The wight has advantage on an attack roll against a creature if at least one of the wight’s allies is within 5 ft. of the creature and the ally isn’t incapacitated.
ACTIONS
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d6 + 6) piercing damage.
Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d4 + 6) slashing damage. If the target is a creature other than an elf or undead, it must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or be paralyzed for 1 minute. The target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success.

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Night’s Watch Wight Medium undead, lawful evil
AC: 14 (Rotted Splint Armor)  HP: 49 (9d6+18)  Speed: 20 ft.
STR: 16 (+3)  DEX: 10 (+0)  CON: 13 (+1)  INT: 3 (-4)  WIS: 7 (-2)  CHA: 5 (-3)
Damage Immunities: poison
Condition Immunities: poisoned, exhausted, charmed
Senses: darkvision 60 ft., passive perception 10
Languages: Common
CR: 3
Undead Fortitude. If damage reduces the wight to 0 hit points, it must make a Constitution saving throw with a DC of 5 + the damage taken, unless the damage is radiant or from a critical hit. On a success, the wight drops to 1 hit point instead.
ACTIONS
Multiattack. The wight makes a Longsword attack and a Shortsword attack.
Longsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 7 (1d8 + 3) slashing damage, or 8 (1d10 + 3) slashing damage if used with two hands.
Shortsword. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 6 (1d6 + 3) piercing damage.

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Haunted Forest Undead Beasts

Zombie Brown Bear Large undead, neutral evil
AC: 8    HP: 26 (4d8 + 8)  Speed: 30 ft., climb 20 ft.
STR: 18 (+4)  DEX: 8 (-1)  CON: 15 (+2)  INT: 3 (-4)  WIS: 5 (-3)  CHA: 5 (-3)
Skills: Perception +3
Damage Immunities: poison
Condition Immunities: poisoned
Senses: darkvision 60 ft., passive perception 10
Languages: N/A
CR: 1

Undead Fortitude. If damage reduces the zombie to 0 hit points, it must make a Constitution saving throw with a DC of 5 + the damage taken, unless the damage is radiant or from a critical hit. On a success, the zombie drops to 1 hit point instead.
ACTIONS
Multiattack. Zombie brown bear makes a swipe attack and a bite attack.
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 7 (1d6 + 4) piercing damage.
Swipe. Melee Weapon Attack: +4 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 8 (1d8 + 4) bludgeoning damage.

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Zombie Wolf
AC: 10    HP: 9 (2d6 + 2)  Speed: 30 ft.
STR: 12 (+1)  DEX: 11 (+0)  CON: 14 (+2)   INT: 3 (-4)  WIS: 7 (-2)  CHA: 5 (-3)
Skills: Perception +3, Stealth +4
Damage Immunities: poison
Condition Immunities: poisoned
Senses: darkvision 60 ft., passive perception 10
Languages: N/A
CR: 1/4

Undead Fortitude. If damage reduces the zombie to 0 hit points, it must make a Constitution saving throw with a DC of 5 + the damage taken, unless the damage is radiant or from a critical hit. On a success, the zombie drops to 1 hit point instead.
Pack Tactics. The wolf has advantage on an attack roll against a creature if at least one of the wolf’s allies is within 5 ft. of the creature and the ally isn’t incapacitated.
ACTIONS
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 6 (2d4 + 1) piercing damage.

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Zombie Dire Wolf Large undead, neutral evil
AC: 11    HP: 32 (5d8 +10)  Speed: 40 ft.
STR: 17 (+3)  DEX: 11 (+0)  CON: 14 (+2)  INT: 3 (-4)  WIS: 7 (-2)  CHA: 5 (-3)
Skills: Perception +3, Stealth +4
Damage Immunities: poison
Condition Immunities: poisoned
Senses: darkvision 60 ft., passive perception 10
Languages: N/A
CR: 1

Undead Fortitude. If damage reduces the zombie to 0 hit points, it must make a Constitution saving throw with a DC of 5 + the damage taken, unless the damage is radiant or from a critical hit. On a success, the zombie drops to 1 hit point instead.
Pack Tactics. The wolf has advantage on an attack roll against a creature if at least one of the wolf’s allies is within 5 ft. of the creature and the ally isn’t incapacitated.
ACTIONS
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 10 (2d6 + 3) piercing damage.

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Zombie Giant Rat

AC: 9   HP: 5 (2d4)  Speed: 20 ft.
STR: 7 (-2)  DEX: 11 (+0)  CON: 10 (+0)  INT: 2 (-4)  WIS: 6 (-2)  CHA: 5 (-3)
Damage Immunities: poison
Condition Immunities: poisoned
Senses: darkvision 60 ft., passive perception 10
Languages: N/A
CR: 1/8

Undead Fortitude. If damage reduces the zombie to 0 hit points, it must make a Constitution saving throw with a DC of 5 + the damage taken, unless the damage is radiant or from a critical hit. On a success, the zombie drops to 1 hit point instead.
Pack Tactics. The wolf has advantage on an attack roll against a creature if at least one of the wolf’s allies is within 5 ft. of the creature and the ally isn’t incapacitated.
ACTIONS
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +2 to hit, reach 5 ft., one creature. Hit: 4 (1d4 + 2) piercing damage.

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Some Necrophages from The Witcher

Rotfiend Medium undead, neutral evil
AC: 12    HP: 22 (5d8)  Speed: 30 ft.
STR: 13 (+1)  DEX: 15 (+2)  CON: 10 (+0)  INT: 7 (-2)  WIS: 10 (+0)  CHA: 6 (-2)
Damage Immunities: poison
Condition Immunities: charmed, poisoned, exhausted
Senses: darkvision 60 ft., passive perception 10
Languages: Common
CR: 1
Death Burst. When the rotfiend dies, it explodes in a burst of guts and decay. Each creature within 10 feet of it must make a DC 12 Constitution saving throw, taking 2d6 poison damage and receiving the poisoned condition for two rounds on a failed save OR half as much damage on successful one.
ACTIONS
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 13 (2d6 + 6) piercing damage.
Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 11 (2d4 + 6) slashing damage. If the target is a creature other than an elf or undead, it must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or be paralyzed for 1 minute. The target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success.

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Bilge Hag Medium undead, chaotic evil
AC: 13    HP: 36 (8d8)  Speed: 30 ft.
STR: 16 (+3)  DEX: 17 (+3)  CON: 10 (+0)  INT: 11 (+0)  WIS: 10 (+0)  CHA: 8 (-1)
Damage Resistance: necrotic
Damage Immunities: poison
Condition Immunities: charmed, poisoned, exhausted
Senses: darkvision 60 ft., passive perception 10
Languages: Common
CR: 2
Stench. Any creature that starts its turn within 5 ft. of the bilge hag must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or be poisoned until the start of its next turn. On a successful saving throw, the creature is immune to the bilge hag’s Stench for 24 hours.
Throw Goop. (1/Day) The bilge hag hurls a ball of infectious goop that explodes at a point it can see within 30 feet. Each creature in a 10-foot radius sphere centered on that point must make a DC 15 Dexterity saving throw. A creature takes 1d6 poison damage and 1d6 necrotic damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.
ACTIONS
Bite. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 12 (2d8 + 3) piercing damage.
Claws. Melee Weapon Attack: +3 to hit, reach 5 ft., one target. Hit: 10 (2d6 + 3) slashing damage. If the target is a creature other than an elf or undead, it must succeed on a DC 10 Constitution saving throw or be paralyzed for 1 minute. The target can repeat the saving throw at the end of each of its turns, ending the effect on a success.

Thoughts About Eberron and Megadungeon Locations

I haven’t even gotten through half of my candidates for my open-table megadungeon. But I’m already thinking I may have to make a Franken-dungeon rather than just running something out of the box. So I’ve been thinking about the bits I like so far, and wondering where in Eberron I could set this megadungeon.

I’m leaning towards three different opening or framing elements:

• The above-ground barrow mounds from Barrowmaze.
• Competing houses sponsoring expeditions into a dungeon (this is from Roslof Keep, review to come).
• Starting with a mine that then connects to the main dungeon.

There are lots of places I could put the megadungeon…there are plenty of spaces on the map of Khorvaire that have a name but little to no information about them. There are a few that seem more suited to my purpose, though.

• The Black Pit, in the Blackcap Mountains of Breland: A seemingly bottomless pit, said to reach all the way to Khyber itself. The sides of the hole are rich in dragonshards, and many have attempted to mine them.
• The Mror Holds: The ancient dwarves in the Ironroot Mountains had a vast empire underground that contemporary dwarves call the Realm Below. The daelkyr and their minions destroyed that empire, and forced the remaining dwarves to flee to the surface. Sometime in the past century, dwarven miners opened a passage leading to ancient ruins from the Realm Below. Great dwarven Houses have mixed opinions on whether the ruins should be explored and plundered, or whether they should be sealed up once more.
• Q’Barra: There are ruins from the Age of Demons here, tribes of lizardfolk and Dragonborn, and a wealth of dragonshards (some of which are actually sealing either fiends or daelkyr). A small community of humans migrated here to escape the horrors of the Last War. More recently, a “gold rush” for dragonshards has occurred, causing several settlements to spring up around the area. This has led to tension between humans, lizardfolk and Dragonborn.
• The Shadowmarches: As in Q’Barra, there are ruins from the Age of Demons here, as well as a wealth of dragonshards.

These are all interesting locations, but for some reason I am drawn to Black Pit. It seems to be a combination of mining settlement and “hive of scum and villainy,” a place where deserters, smugglers, and criminals hide from authorities and conduct illegal commerce. It is said to be in “a deep valley,” making it hard to find.

My thoughts right now are that there is a Dhakaani ruined city in the same valley, and there are burial grounds outside the city ruins. I can put the barrow mounds there, with catacombs beneath them. Then perhaps have the catacombs connect up with ancient mines (the Dhakaani were extremely skilled weapon and armor smiths so mining and ore processing seem like necessary industries). Finally, the Dhakaani mines would connect to the Black Pit itself, which would be the entrance to the main megadungeon.

I have a couple of ideas about the lowest part of the megadungeon. One is that it leads to one or more demiplanes in Khyber. The other is that I could graft on the Arcana of the Ancients adventure Where the Machines Wait. Arcana of the Ancients is a 5E adaptation of material from Monte Cook’s Numenera RPG. It’s a perfect fit for Eberron, honestly. That’s especially the case for either the Mournlands, or places influenced by the daelkyr—because of the mix of tech and magic, flesh and steel that makes up the items and monsters associated with Arcana of the Ancients.

So I’m leaning towards that combination right now: Black Pit for the location, a Dhakaani ruined city in the same valley, barrow mounds above catacombs outside the ruined city, catacombs connecting to ancient Dhakaani mines, those mines connecting to the Black Pit itself as well as the “main” megadungeon.

I’m still researching the next “Steal This” article, so that should be up next week. Friday will be another installment in the Lost Mine of Phandelver Remix series. Stay tuned, Gentle Readers!

Megadungeon Monday: Barrowmaze

Next we come to Barrowmaze (I bought the Barrowmaze Complete; it was originally released in two parts). This was originally created for Labyrinth Lord (another OD&D or AD&D clone) but the Complete edition was done for 5E as well as Labyrinth Lord.

Things I Like

• It starts at Level 1, which seems unusual. Most of the megadungeons I’ve looked at (including Dungeon of the Mad Mage) start at level 5-6.
• It includes a small overland area, with wilderness, a few towns, a Duchy. So there is material there for a hexcrawl expansion or other forms of play outside of the dungeon. Fairly generic, too, so easy to drop in anywhere.
• The key uses a shortened entry style with no boxed text. I kind of hate boxed text, personally, so this is a plus for me.
• Because this is an expansive tomb, the silence of the dungeon is emphasized. Noise can attract attention in any dungeon, but it’s exaggerated and highlighted here as an additional hazard.
• There are lots of random tables to use.
• Before the main underground dungeon, there is an extensive outdoor area of barrow mounds which are essentially mini-dungeons. Each of these has a map and for most of them the map and key are on the same page. There are 70 mounds (the last being somewhat hidden however, and leading to a semi-secret boss).
• There are explicit instructions for restocking the dungeon, along with specific tables to do so (although it states you can also just use random encounter tables if you want).
• Interesting environmental obstacles and complications.
• A lot of interesting new magic items and spells.
• A few interesting new monsters.
• Lots of art and handouts at the end of the book.

Things I Don’t Like

• There’s a McGuffin at the end of the dungeon. Although to be fair, it’s not the sole reason for the evil stuff happening, and destroying it doesn’t solve all the problems caused by the dungeon, nor does it immediately destroy everything in the dungeon. So this is just so-so, not terrible.
• What is the deal with Orcus? Like Rappan Athuk, there is a temple of Orcus and cultists of Orcus. But at least you don’t fight Orcus.
• Adventure hooks given at the beginning of the dungeon are anemic and few. I skimmed through the overland stuff, there might be more material there to generate quests/hooks.
• The dungeon itself is a sprawling horizontal dungeon rather than stacked levels. This is more difficult to do with an open table.
• The full map does not have the separate “areas” marked out in any way. The end of the book has the full map broken up into 8×11 pages…but that makes it even harder to use, because some areas are spread on up to 3 pages!
• The numbering scheme for the key is…not good. It’s terrible in fact. It gave me a headache trying to puzzle it out. Additionally, there are some places where instead of a number being one room, there was a number and then a bunch of lettered rooms? I’d have to dig deeper to figure out the rationale behind that
• I know WotC has copyrighted or trademarked certain iconic monsters, but I didn’t know “dracolich” was one of them? So the “New Monsters” section has a grick-that’s-not-a-grick, and the dracolich is called a “lich-dragon”. Weird.
• There were one or two pieces of art I found…questionable. But nothing as overtly sexist or racist as the Megadungeon zine had.

Verdict and Grade

There are a lot of things I like about this. The main drawback here is the horizontal, all-one-level format. It would be time consuming to break the full map into the different “areas” or zones, and even just marking them or coloring them would be a lot of effort (especially due to the very strange numbering scheme). I do like the idea of smaller areas on the surface, with mini-dungeons, and only some of them leading down into the actual dungeon. Provides a low-level area and also provides multiple entrances to the dungeon itself. I would give it a higher grade if the sections were easier to separate, because then I could break them out and layer them in a more typical dungeon fashion.

Grade: C+

Lost Mine of Phandelver Remix Part 12: Sandbox – Ruins of Thundertree

Intro and TOC

At last we come to the last location in the sandbox section of Lost Mine of Phandelver. It’s funny, I’m not sure I noticed this when I started this series. But if you look at the other locations, and you look at the Ruins of Thundertree–there’s a big difference. The other three locations get a couple of paragraphs, one encounter, and no map. Thundertree gets a huge section, a map, a handful of keyed encounters, and an NPC who knows where Cragmaw Castle is AND where Wave Echo Cave is. It’s almost like the designer was trying to tell us something. Let’s get into the breakdown.

Analysis

A lot of people like this adventure, and like the designer who created it. I’ve got no beef with the designer, nor with the people who like LMoP. But I have to say…this is another thing that makes no sense to me. The whole point of the “sandbox” section is for the PCs to hunt for information about where these two primary locations are. We are told that Gundren has a map to Wave Echo Cave, and that’s why he was kidnapped. We are told that the goblins took Gundren to their headquarters at Cragmaw Castle, and Gundren’s buddy wants us to rescue him. But we also know that Black Spider is trying to get to something inside Wave Echo Cave, so of course the PCs could decide that’s the place to go (if they are cold and heartless and don’t care about rescuing poor Gundren).

Here’s what I don’t get…if you put a sandbox in an adventure, and the goal of the PCs is to travel around gathering information about one or the other destination (or both), then why would you make one location in the sandbox so much more important than the others? Because that’s what the designer did here. “Hey look over here, we got a bunch of encounters and a map and a DRAGON over here!” And this NPC, the druid? He’s basically got all the information the PCs need. In one guy. Who according to the text is kind of stuck here trying to figure something out, that has nothing to do with the plot of this adventure. So why even have a sandbox in the first place? If you’re going to railroad the players by making one location obviously more important than the others, and put all the information the players need in that location–what do they need the other places for?

The dragon is mildly interesting. She offers a reward to the PCs if they will get the stupid Dragon Cultists away from her eggs. It could be at least as interesting a roleplaying encounter as the one with the banshee (or hag, if you take my suggestions). There is an interesting new monster, the Ash Zombie, which is kind of fun. And the Twig Blights from Sunless Citadel show up here as well, meaning you could possibly lead into that adventure from here (which is what I was going to do if the game with my son and his friends had continued).

Problems

• This site has WAY more stuff in it than the others. Which is not bad, as such, but means the sandbox isn’t really a sandbox because everything the PCs need is right here.
• Based on the established lore for green dragons (both in D&D generally and in Forgotten Realms particularly) it doesn’t really make sense for a young green dragon to nest in a ruined village. So again…WHY? Why is she here instead of nesting in the forest, which is her natural habitat?
• The druid knowing everything the PCs want to know and being willing to just tell them for nothing: It’s ridiculous. And he’s supposed to be someone who wanders around, presumably serving several small communities on a kind of itinerant preacher circuit. But instead he’s stuck in this one place, like a questgiver in an MMO. “Look over here, I have an exclamation point over my head!”
• What the hell are the cultists doing here? I mean sure they try to recruit dragons, blah blah. But why are they HERE, and stealing THIS dragon’s eggs? No clue. No reason is given. They’re bad guys! Who cares why they’re here?

My Solution

• First of all, the druid needs to move around. I would make a random table, and give him a certain percentage chance of being at any one location in the sandbox. Or even back at Phandelver, for that matter. He’s supposed to be serving the general area, so have him wander a bit. In fact, you can make him a proactive node, rather than a static one.
• Let someone else in the area have information about one or the other of the two major destination points in the adventure, so it’s not all on this druid to give them what they want. Agatha can give it to them, but only if they decide to fail the quest that took them to her. I talk about this a little in the parts about other sandbox nodes. I would spread the love, make the NPCs in those other areas just as knowledgeable as this druid.
• Get rid of the stupid Dragon Cultists, or give them a good reason to be in this place recruiting/intimidating this dragon. I might replace them with some other Forgotten Realms faction instead, depending on what other published adventure I wanted to use next.
• Have fun with the Ash Zombies and Twig Blights. Maybe throw in a goblin encounter as another thread leading to Sunless Citadel. Sunless Citadel would be great if the players miss most of the middle content in LMoP and they need to level up some before the final confrontation. Or it could be good to run after LMoP. I’d have to adjust the difficulty of the encounters, and tweak some things, for a higher level party. But it’s not too hard to do.

Find Your Solution

As I’ve said in many other articles in this series, the main question to ask is WHY. Why is the dragon here, why are the cultists here, why is the druid here? And why is it that the druid knows everything the PCs need or want to know? Make more connections between the various sandbox locations, and seed the information about Cragmaw Castle and Wave Echo Cave in many places, so the druid isn’t the only one holding all that informational capital.

Aside from those things, this is a solid encounter area, with a good map and some interesting opportunities for both combat and roleplay. You could use it as a model to rework the other sandbox locations, honestly, to make the whole thing a lot more interesting. People have created maps for the other sandbox locations, you can find them in a Google search. Or you could go to Dyson Logos’ Dodecahedron blog and pick one of his free maps.

Next time we’ll be taking a little interlude to talk about wilderness travel options in 5E. I probably should have done this before the articles about the sandbox locations, but I didn’t think of it then. So I’m sticking it in here. Can’t have a sandbox with lots of travel if you don’t know how to run wilderness travel! And LMoP itself doesn’t really help you there. But fear not, Gentle Readers! I am here to advise you. Stay tuned!

Steal This: Escalation Die

There’s actually a lot of stuff on the interwebs about the Escalation Die from 13th Age, but most of it is from years ago. So I’m going to toss this out there.

The Escalation Die is a mechanic in the 13th Age RPG, that speeds up combat and makes it more exciting. The way it works is pretty simple: In the second round of combat, you put a d6 in the middle of the table (or somewhere everyone can see it) and turn it so the “1” is facing up. Each round after that, you turn the die to the next number. Players in combat get a to-hit bonus that matches the number on the die. Round 2: +1. Round 3: +2. And so on up to +6.

Now, 13th Age has specific mechanics that interact with the Escalation Die. There’s also a rule stating that the GM removes the Escalation Die if the players decide to negotiate or refuse to fight. But you don’t have to make it that complicated.

Combat tends to slow way down as player levels rise. Each character has more and more abilities, leading to decision fatigue in players. The Escalation Die can be dropped in all by itself, ready to give players incentive to speed up combat.

So this one is short and sweet. If you want to know more about the Escalation Die and how to use it in D&D 5E, check out the links below.

• Sly Flourish
• Matt Colville’s subreddit
• GM Without a Cause
• Realms of Chirak
• Tower of the Lonely GM
• PhD20

Megadungeon Monday: Numenhalla/Megadungeon Zine

The next megadungeon I’ll be reviewing is Courtney Campbell’s Numenhalla, which is being published a bit at a time through Campbell’s RPG zine called Megadungeon. Campbell is also the writer of the Hack & Slash blog. I’m basing this review on the first five issues of Megadungeon, which I own.

This is a bit of an odd duck. I’ve honestly had mixed reactions to this material. On the one hand, it’s intriguing enough that I spent the money to buy all the issues of the zine that are currently out. On the other hand, I read through these things and…my thoughts range between “OMG” and “WTF”.

Things I like:

• Presenting the dungeon in modular parts is pretty interesting, and unusual in the industry. I mean, you can chop up any dungeon, if you want to put in the work (see Alexander’s Strip-Mining Adventure Modules or his scenario reviews for some examples). But presenting modular pieces from the beginning makes it much easier to use it however you want.
• The modules presented are nonlinear, make good use of 3D and verticality, have enough connections and looping to fit the Jaquaying the Dungeon technique.
• In issue #2, there is a very interesting section on Town Activities. It’s basically about Downtime, time spent in the town when you aren’t in the dungeon. This is important because Numenhalla opens and closes on a fixed schedule (you can’t enter or leave at any time you want). The most interesting part of this section has to do with “Carousing”. It’s interesting because you spend gold on these activities…but you gain experience for doing the activity. This is a rather ingenious way to turn gold into experience, without going back to the old “1gp=1xp” system of older editions.
• The dungeon key is really interesting, because the format is extremely minimalistic and streamlined. It’s not perfect; I would probably organize it differently and/or format it differently. But it’s a good example of how you can toss out the “wall-o-text” keys in old D&D adventures, and a good model of something simpler.
• There are some smaller elements I could strip out and use: some monsters, treasure lists, random tables of quests and rumors, and so on.
• There’s a super interesting section of a dungeon module that includes a mushroom house and a leprechaun that is funny, but also challenging for players. And unlike some of the dungeon module areas, this one isn’t quite as deadly.
• The designer/author clearly intended this for Basic/Expert (B/X) D&D (even says that directly I think) but also includes 5E stats and mechanics alongside. That’s why I’ve included it with modern adventures specifically written for 5E.
• There’s a few sections on how megadungeon play is supposed to work, which is honestly really useful since the last few editions of D&D have been severely lacking in this area.

Things I don’t like:

• While the sections on how megadungeon campaigns work are useful, the last one basically says “5E sucks for megadungeon play.” It gives you some suggestions for how to modify the 5E rules and mechanics to “fix” this, but I’m not sure I agree with those suggestions and the obvious distaste in the tone of the writing makes me frown so hard I get a headache.
• Most of the “NPCs” presented are at best mediocre and at best ridiculous. There are also some aspects that will be on another list so I won’t mention them here. I see very few NPCs I can use or want to use.
• While the dungeon modules are interesting in design, the maps are hand drawn in pencil (of all things) and in attempted orthogonal view in order to represent the verticality or other 3D environment elements. Unfortunately, pencil drawings don’t publish well if they aren’t enhanced by ink, or drawn by a skilled artist. The lack of contrast in the maps makes them extremely hard to read, so the skill of the design is undermined. However, it does seem to improve as you go from issue #1 through the rest, and later issues are somewhat easier to interpret (some of them even seem to be inked, which is a big improvement).
• Some of the monsters are just…I won’t even say they are crap, as much as they just seem either too gross, or too silly, or just nonsensical to me. Your mileage may vary, it could just be me.
• Almost every single dungeon module is incredibly deadly, often in unfair and arbitrary ways. I’m fine with difficult dungeons, but I hold to the principle that if you are putting something deadly in your dungeon (or any adventure), you need to give the characters (and players) information about it ahead of time. Information that it exists, information that it can kill you, and information about how you might be able to overcome or avoid it. You don’t spoon feed them that information…but it needs to be there. Somewhere. I don’t see a lot of that in these dungeon parts.
• The pantheon of gods Campbell uses in the backstory/history of the whole megadungeon is basically a mashup of the Greek and Norse pantheons. The choices he makes for what is included and what is left out are indecipherable. It’s not well done, and in fact seems haphazardly slapped together. Especially because I can tell he has given a lot of thought to this, from looking at the other lore/backstory material presented in the five issues I have. So it shouldn’t feel slapped together. Which means he just isn’t very good at what he’s trying to do.
• I realize zines are amateur publications, but this one is particularly rough. I mean ROUGH. The editing and layout improves from issue #1 to #5…but it’s still ROUGH. The writing is also not that great. I make my living as a writer. A large part of my job is also editing. As a result, I am very familiar with what it looks like when someone knows something, but is not very good at conveying what they know. Sometimes, a good editing job can fix that. Sometimes, the writing is so bad that you can’t really just edit it, but instead have to completely restructure, revise, and rewrite it. This zine? It’s the latter, at least in most of the issues.
• This megadungeon, its story, and some of its individual elements seem to combine fantasy with science fiction. Even a little cyberpunk is buried in there. Nothing inherently wrong with mashing up genres, but in this case it isn’t well integrated. I don’t like the mechanical construct player option, for example. Knockoff warforged, maybe? But less elegant. More like a Tin Man aspiring to be a warforged.

Things I despise:

Okay now we get to some real deal-breakers. Things I think are completely intolerable.

• There is a slave race called the Gortha. Here’s how they are described: “Gortha are a race of thralls, empty of will and bereft of rights, who exist for the sole purpose of serving Men. They live to serve and know no other way to exist.” Gortha have light colored skin, so essentially they are white people. Maybe he thought if he made white people the slaves it would be more acceptable? But the very fact that there is a slave race described in this way, that PCs can purchase, is abhorrent.
• Humans are described as “Men”. I know this is what was used in the oldest editions of D&D but it’s just awful. Hate it. Also? The “men” are described as dark-skinned. So regular folks are dark, but the slave race (created to be slaves, apparently) are white. Revenge fantasy? Justification? I don’t really have a problem with dark-skinned people being the top dogs, and I’m certainly not someone who whines about how terrible white people have it IRL (I’m a progressive liberal dirty hippie to be completely transparent). But that whole dynamic smacks of either overt racism or downright blind obliviousness. Either way it sucks.
• SEXISM. I can’t count the number of NPCs that are either sexpots or ugly hags. The monsters even. HATE IT. Also some implicit “sexy=thin” crap that’s also kind of gross.
• The names of monsters, NPCs, elements from the lore/history…they are mostly unpronounceable, nonsensical, and meaningless. This isn’t a cultural/ideological abomination, it’s just a personal pet peeve. There is no indication of what these things are supposed to mean, or where these ridiculous names come from. It’s like he just had some program that randomly generated letters and syllables and he slapped them together. The few that are not unpronounceable or nonsensical seem to be taken from other cultures, which verges on appropriation since they are taken out of context and seem pretty random.

Ambivalence

There’s one thing that I can’t fit on any of the above bullet lists. And that is the “Agonarch’s Argot” section of each issue. It seems to be a kind of “Forward” or “From the Editor” type article. But it’s very strange. It seems to be fictional, sort of. Like instead of speaking from the actual writer/editor’s viewpoint and experience, it’s trying to communicate as an unnamed character in the fictional universe. Alternatively, it could be that it’s meant to be the writer/editor’s voice, but conveying fictional information tied to Numenhalla itself. The problem is, I can’t tell which it is. Again this tells me that this person is not proficient in writing.

But it’s oddly compelling. I’m a sucker for the tropes of “I thought this was fiction but actually it’s not and it’s kind of making me question reality” or “I’m a real person but I found this fictional thing and I think it’s actually real and here’s why”. Both of these tropes are present in these sections. There is a striving for poetic language here that sometimes reaches past the amateur level of skill. Perhaps it is that small spark that makes it compelling enough that I spent the money on five issues.

Verdict and Grade

I’m really torn on this one. As you can see from the bullet lists above, I dislike more than I like about this product. And especially given the deal-breaking elements, I would be inclined to just call it crap and give it an “F”. On the other hand, I did identify some elements that I liked, that I can pull out and use with a minimum of work. And I have to give the guy credit for having that spark, that drive to share his ideas and his creations (even if part of that creation is abhorrent, and even if his skills and ability are not really up to the task much of the time). I doubt sincerely that even the abhorrent bits come from a place of deliberate racism and misogyny. It’s more likely he just doesn’t see why they are a bad thing (which may actually be worse).

Grade: D+