How I Changed Adventure One of the Dragonlance Adventure

[@HowtobeaGreatGM]

*Thanks for watching!* What are your thoughts on my version of adventure one of Dragonlance? Let us know in the comments below! Our sponsor today is the epic PortraitWorks! Check out their app with all new features that allow you to create and share any portrait you can imagine! Find them here: www.portrait.works/

[@DargorV]

Do you plan to move away from the dnd brand after the ogl debacle? ORC looks like a worthy patron

[@Symbolic-Sky]

Thank you for these videos. I am an aspiring DM who loves stories and creative endeavors with friends. Your videos help me to try and absolve so many of my needless worries that my anxiety was festering. My home element has always been the written word rather than the spoken. I’m autistic and struggle to articulate clearly what my brain is trying to concoct. As a result of these trivial anxieties, I’ve found myself suffering from stage fright where I’m scared to DM my first and find myself unprepared, despite the premise of the Villains and Vigilantes: Unleashed and trying to blend elements of DC comic and anime shenanigans in spots, is my self-proclaimed wheelhouse.

[@KCBCollier]

For the messenger encounter, I’m cutting the messenger, instead having a javelin thrown from the cliffs, lawn darting with a flag of Takhisis and an note saying ”This village is claimed by the Red Dragon Army. You are commanded to bake all your grain to make bread, and slaughter all your animals for our welcome feast. This will be done by sunset. Any resistance, and we attack.” Cudgel’s Mercs are now too few to mount a resistance, so we won’t have PCs getting ideas of being able to make a stand. When Becklin urges evacuation, they will see the wisdom instantly. They know they are being watched from the cliffs where the javelin was thrown from. Now they have a chance to go covert to neutralize the watchers, while they organize the evacuation. Becklin gets her affairs in order and goes out to parley and stall, begging for the town to be left something to live off. She will take no more than one PC (The village needs more help) She meets with Kansaldi, who kills her. If a PC is with her, they are sent back with her helmet as a final warning. Now we’ve introduced Kansaldi, and martyred Becklin. Things are moving along nicely. Waiting to evacuate until there’s no time to do it made no sense. If they perform well, they earn their level by sneaking an entire town out under the nose of an army. But if anything goes wrong hiding the evac from the spies on the cliffs, motivating the citizenry, or finding enough rafts, the army marches in and they lose citizens, and the fight at the wharf can take place.

[@petemelvin4907]

I have a great idea to further connect this with the Dragonlance Chronicles books, that I'm going to use in my campaign that I'm starting next week. (minor spoiler if you haven't read the novels) Bakaris the Younger is already an Easter Egg here, as he shows up at the end of Dragons of Winter Night as a commander of the Blue Dragon Army. His most memorable scene in the novel is when he rides up to the High Clerist's Tower to demand their surrender. He arrogantly assumes that none of them would even think of shooting him, taunting them for their foolish sense of honor. This doesn't turn out very well for him. So here's my idea for this adventure: when the messenger comes to the gate to demand that Vogler offer lodging to their army, I will add Bakaris the Younger to the encounter, chastising Becklin for not shooting the messenger because of her foolish sense of honor. In my headcanon, this is what inspires Bakaris's overconfidence in the novel. I'll lift some of his lines from the novel and use them here (so that, in the novel, he's clearly remembering this encounter, and Becklin's 'foolish' response). Either the players of this campaign are familiar with the book and will appreciate the connection now, or they will (hopefully) want to read the books after playing and will appreciate the connection then. I might take it further and have Bakaris the Younger attempt to be the hero and shoot the messenger himself, which would force a combat (because I agree with another commenter here that having the party pursue the messenger as they're leaving could be ethically problematic)

[@chrispeters5780]

Hey Guy. You are, HANDS DOWN, my favorite source of D&D advice as a DM. I want you to know that I will support you in any way I can with the D&D OGL debacle. I'm not sure what you're going to do, and I imagine all that has been going on has been quite stressful for you. Just want you to know how amazing you are and very much look forward to standing by you in the future. Thank you for all you do. :)

[@TheOnlyToblin]

*patiently waits for the inevitable OGL 1.1 rant*

[@razorboy251]

It was my comment on your video on how you are going to prepare for Dragonlance campaign about Greenshield's shield. :) Thanks for remembering!

[@KCBCollier]

This is the video I’ve been waiting for! I just started my group’s campaign and had to make several modifications as well. I was curious what you thought needed fixing. The railroad-y nature of this story bugs me, but it sounds like you see it and are taking it in stride. It’s clear it was written to be a cinematic experience more than a D&D campaign. I did help my PCs write backstories that each involved Ispin, and had them meet by chance near Maelgoth and take the ferry in (as that makes the most sense on the map). I let them keep the Solamnic armor from the Prelude because it felt wrong that they didn’t have any as full members in good standing. The Kingfisher festival was shoved to the background. A singular fishing game felt forced, especially coming off Wild Beyond the Witchlight, running the carnival in it’s first session, so I nixed that. I also nixed Ledara. Like you said, she needs to be held up against Lord Soth to make sense, and he wasn’t there. I think you can get full mileage from her in her appearance in Ch. 4. My players were skeptical of the High Hill reenactment, as any party would be, so they split the party. Rather than “encourage” them to play their assigned part, I let them thwart Cudgel’s assassin in the box seats while the rest were in the battle, and gathered them together on the field for wave 2. They appreciated how I handled it. We ended the session tending the wounded in the Brass Crab. It’s amusing to me they act like they’ll be in Vogler a while, ordering a custom yellow wagon with smuggler’s hold from Vogler’s cartwright (We’ll see how they get it down river!). And they keep looking for Mages of High Sorcery to connect with here. Patience, players!

[@hawkname1234]

I disagree with your assessment of this as a railroady campaign, though that is a matter of opinion. If you haven't played modules before, it would definitely feel railroady. But this is NOTHING compared to the original AD&D DragonLance adventures, which are famous for MAKING the players do what the story requires.

[@KCBCollier]

@@hawkname1234 I've heard that about the AD&D adventures, but haven't seen them myself. I've played plenty of modules (and actually published several). The majority of my play hours are in Adventurer's League. But I accept railroaded plots in those because of time-bound play. There's "you all need to go here next" type railroading, and then there's "Your character needs to just accept this because I got married to my first draft." type railroading. For an official hardcover, I expect it to look better thought out. Why does the party need to be IN the reenactment? With just another pass through an editor it could have become AT the reenactment. Why does the party need to just accept that the traitorous Ironclad Regiment is defending the town, but also that there's no choice but to evacuate? With just another editing pass you can achieve all your story beats without forcing them to accept illogical direction.

[@urbanzomb10]

Thank you for your wisdom! It is helping me get setup so I can see what other issues might crop up. I started my campaign yesterday and I created my own prelude using some ideas from back in the tyranny of dragons stuff. This allowed me to have the players run along side Greenshield and form a relationship with him via adventure (and get to level 2). Also planted seeds of dragon rumors. Next I will run preludes from book as intermissions and then find out of Greenshields passing. Keep up the great work and I look forward to more!

[@Volrych]

Love this! Please do more on this adventure!

[@gingersndragons]

i wrote oneshot inspired for the opening of this campaign, first session is in 30 mins haha

[@kinsan89]

How'd it go? Lol

[@jagoldman007]

Great call to split up the shield into amulets. Also helpful added color to Darrett, who could skew annoying to many PCs. Might be interesting to try and make the gnome flinger a recurring theme. Maybe for future battles as a way to get atop a dragon, or a siege tank.

[@sqoody7invegas625]

The dungeon dudes method you mentioned for balancing an encounter, can that be put in here as link?

[@LandonTheDM]

This is very useful! Good to see how to run things to plot and also how it can be fine to have an established plot as long as the players "buy in" to going towards that plot

[@DyladeG]

Hello, I found this very helpful as this is going to be the first campaign I do I've done a few one shots and I'm looking forward to running this, please continue on your ideas for the future adventures

[@ppk3882]

Will you post videos after each one or two sessions with comments about what went right, what went wrong, and how you're going to change your plans based on player actions? It would be cool to see how your thinking about this adventure progresses as you play it.

[@The-Swift-Kobold]

Thank you for making this video I am running this campaign and all the advice and actual being able to see the campaign played will be a huge help and give me confidence in running this awesome campaign

[@davidmc8478]

SPOILER ……. Dark rider is definitely human as if you haven’t run the combat and cart prelude the draconians have not yet appeared. They dramatically appear by dropping off the cliff. Much like another creature dramatically appears for the first time later. I am feeding my players that all these creatures are fairy tales and don’t exits until they appear

[@sicariusdracus]

I am planning on having Kensaldi come to the funeral (Bakaris parlays with her because she has business there), get her bequethment, be upset she didnt get the greenshield or Ispin's armor, (Darret will get it), and leave, making it crystal clear she wants that shield. Later when she attacks Vogler, it'll be the mcguffin of the battle.

[@davidsutic9547]

I’m just about to start DMing this module and I will 100% steal your idea and set up Kensaldi immediately from the beginning, so thank you for that!

[@sicariusdracus]

@@davidsutic9547 It pays off! Especially if she's also the messenger before the attack on Vogler, and visible in the skies in the Wastelands occasionally. Her penultimate moment is fighting on the back of Red Ruin, while flying to the thing that flies end game. As written, quite disappointing, but her thread can be woven in to create anger throughout. (Soth is meant to inspire Vader-like fear and dread).

[@davidmc8478]

I agree this is a good adventure. It is linear so your players do need to be in board for the ride. I am struggling a bit with linking the separate combat encounters that make up the big battles. I have seen one video that says “take your time” with this book and I think that applies in multiple places. Another thing that’s hard is NPCs are met and described early but become Important later, so there is a little going back to find out what is this person like (Darret, Leedara, Bacaris the younger). Sean Connery for Greenshield was great and I totally stole that from you

[@jewabeus]

Thank you for an AWESOME sounding fishing idea. I know that you adapted the idea, but that sounds like something cool to throw at my party traveling around. LOL

[@melinnamba]

Something I would find very interesting, especially in light of the DnD OGL debacle, is if and how you can adapt adventure modules into different game systems. Or maybe some more general advice for how to convert individual characters, or ongoing adventures from one system to another. Personally I like to recreate characters in diffrent systems, to see how the systems compare, but I have never done that with anything I was actively playing. I'd really be curious to know if that's something worth attempting.

[@Jimalcoatl]

I convert modules all the time, most notably OSR modules to Sword World (a Japanese 2d6 based fantasy RPG). My general rule is figure out what is a light, medium, and high amount of damage in each system for non-combat hazards as well as check DC/target numbers etc so you can simply swap between the systems. So for example, say I'm running a 5e adventure that has a poison dart trap that requires a DC 15 perception to detect, hits on a +6 and deals 1d4 piercing damage and then requires a DC 13 con save to avoid an extra 1d6 poison damage. A 15 is a moderately difficult DC in 5e, so in Sword World I would call for an equivalent detection check at Target Number 13, which I figure is roughly equivalent. 1d4 is pretty low damage, so I would choose something equivalently low, maybe a power level 5 damage roll (would require explaining the SW damage system, but 5 is quite low) or simply deal 1d6 damage to keep it simple if I didn't want to deal with referencing the damage power level chart. Then I would swap out the DC 13 con save for a TN 11 Fortitude check and change the poison damage to either 2d6 (still quite low) or maybe a power level 8-10 depending on how threatening I want the poison dart to be. Most of this can be done in the moment with practice so I rarely write out what I will do for traps and hazards and just do it on the fly based on what the module says and how big of a deal I think the hazard should be. Then for monsters I generally just sub out monster stat blocks for similar ones from the new system. If an encounter is built around specific monster abilities/powers, I try to sub in equivalent ones if available, or simply create the ability for the new system and slap it on the monster. If the power doesn't have strict mechanics, even better since then you can just take it without any change. I have done this in the moment to various levels of success, but generally I would just build a new encounter using the new system that is inspired by the module. Since monster power levels vary, I may use the stats of a more appropriately leveled monster then give them the abilities of a monster that is a closer analogue to the one in the book. I'd generally base my decisions more on my party's power level and what I felt was appropriate to represent the world than trying to match equivalent power levels of monster between systems.

[@hawkname1234]

The "OGL debacle" was fabricated by KZbinrs. It's been 2 years now. You can look up whether any of the things the KZbinrs claimed were true. NONE of them were. It was all made up by KZbinrs for clicks and clout. LOOK IT UP, people. Don't be mind-controlled like everyone in the TTRPG sphere.

[@JLandroid]

Would love to see follow ups on this. Great insights, got me thinking about changes I would make.

[@KCBCollier]

It looks like we’re coming at a problem we both see with different solutions. The early chapters at least have a lot of insertions that feel out of place. The fishing game, Ledara, the gnomeflinger, narycrashes, (and later the boilerdrak and fargab). It seems like your bent is to build them up to become worthwhile, while my inclination is to dump them altogether. I was going to do the same with Bakaris, but fortunately read ahead to see that he does play a bigger role. As for the Rookledust encounter, because I’m cutting the gnomish inventions subplot, I wrote a different encounter that will be a better fit for my characters. Honestly, I think both approaches become about the same amount of work. It just depends on what game your table wants.

[@ryanrendon4009]

Fantastic! I love these video break downs! Please keep doing them

[@MikChaos]

Great breakdown and insightful suggestions sir, thank you

[@mbeskow14]

this is a great series and has inspired me to run this game. do you plan to address the "ticking clock" issue often associated with these types of games. I'd love some suggestions on how to alleviate the constant pressure and instead allowing PCs room to breath, maybe add some personal quests, and opportunities to explore.

[@lukekebell3146]

Newly hatched Octopi are Larvae, they will develop into Hatchlings or Fry

[@bigsarge2085]

Very helpful! Thank you

[@hawkname1234]

Guy - I'm so glad you're talking through this adventure/campaign. I think it's a great one and I'm interested to see how you adjust on the fly. RE: Pacing. I had the same thoughts as you. If you lean into roleplaying and character development, which I definitely think you need to do at this phase of the story, Vogler could/should take 6-10 hours. Which is great! I've been watching a live play by a group called d20play, and they blast through it at a crazy pace, largely by quickly narrating each scene and transition, with little player agency (IMO). But it's still entertaining to watch (and play, maybe). Just great to see different styles of running the game.

[@adamrandaustin]

Vampire the Masquerade V5 has something called Tenets (3 of them). These are guidelines the player characters must abide by. It creates cohesion with a carrot and stick approach I have adopted for other games. It's not an overt punishment but is equivalent to a gentlemanly agreement on how everyone should play with consequences that tends to be thematically appropriate to the setting, campaign or goals. The consequences in this particular game is loss of humanity. Other games may be loss of experience points/karma/character points or the like.

[@TheCJJeep]

The back and forth you "two" have is enjoyable. It didn't occur to me to give each step a distinct feel; I looked at this first adventure as a small whole. But I can see how giving each step a mood adds to the overall flavour.

[@TheCJJeep]

And I'm definitely going to track down the Dungeon Dudes video.

[@MrFleem]

Player cancels fishing. Interrupted by carp.

[@rollersoffatednd5280]

Really nice and helpful,thanks Sir ❤

[@mbeskow14]

is it possible we may get some more of these down the road?

[@casmith84]

I loved the idea of using the gnomeflinger, I have it set up so that the players in my group will be using it as a distraction by using it to attack the draconians on the cliff, and while they are fighting the villagers are evacuating. It’s done in a comedic manner with superhero landings, etc. why not use something that can be used so epically in this story.

[@neileddy6159]

Need to include something of the book title in the title of the video, I had been looking for this but if someone gets this vid randomly in their feed they will have no idea what it is about. Good video btw.

[@atsuskyreign7083]

I might take out some of the more optional encounters in chapter 2 and 3 to put in some space for character arcs to flesh out the story a bit.

[@nooctip]

First it depends on how frequent things like dragons and high level wizards are. The Baron of the area the pcs start at as level 1 will have never seen a dragon so his castle wouldn't change. Also youre putting a bit too much reliance on flight. Real life castles had all sorts of nasty things fly over their walls. Still worked.

[@KimRichardsGilchrist]

I'm SO sad this fell through. Dragonlance has been my favorite since the books first came out. I'm currently running Shadow of the Dragon Queen. It *should* be made!

[@demonheart13]

I'm gonna run this soon. Haven't played it, or any pre-written adventure before. Should I read through the whole thing first or read only the chapter that I'm working with, or should I keep myself about as blind as the PCs (aside from having the monsters cards at the ready) Thoughts?

[@1970joedub]

“What do you call a little octopus?” Answer: An octopus. 😂

[@JAH711]

Is there going to be more videos for adventures 2-5?

[@nickwhyte1996]

I call a little octopus cute!

[@RunKnitCoffee]

I just played this game. Oh do I wish my DM had watched this. We had some big issues with this game and ended up attacking Darrett because we were convinced he was evil after Act 3 and 4 because of the pre-scripted elements. The DM was so upset that we hated Darrett so much that we had to put the campaign on hiatus for a month before we finally finished act 5

[@czeuch]

Is there a video for the other Chapters too?

[@mikecarson7769]

thank you for sharing this useful example of how to work with the module. at least for me, i very much liked how the module presented the setting and most of the NPCs, but i disliked most of the adventure. i used a few parts of the adventure and the general idea of a timeline if the dragon army invasion, but my version became very different from the module. Your advice is very helpful for finding the key parts tat work well and how to adapt

[@DanMasucci]

More videos with tips for the rest of the campaign, please!

[@gingersndragons]

there is a gnomeflinger at the very end i think when defending kalaman

[@sebastianlindberg2976]

I would call it a small octopus!

[@TomKida]

Love your robe! Is it personal ally made or did you have it commissioned?

[@gingersndragons]

You said in an earlier video that you wanted to show Dragon Highmaster Kansaldi Fire-Eyes in the vogler fight, did you change your mind?

[@jackodenthal2392]

Whatever happened to your Battle Battalion channel? I'd love to watch you run campaings.

[@Tasfarel]

Watching this after the shows conclusion. I must admit is was a little bit of a downer that there will be no games for Adventures 2-5. Always enjoying your shows

[@taylorphillips3757]

I loved this video, I would relish more to fill out the whole adventure as I'm running it for a new DND group! I'm actually quite surprised at this adventure being both interesting/fun and also progressive! Even in just the first village there is amazing representation of female and POC people in power as well as artistic depictions of gay couples in the town of Vogler. The adventure is good but it's also nice to see diversity (not just the fantasy version of diversity) being slightly more normalized in the DND setting even if the increments are small!

[@ricrogers6726]

you mention Dungeon Dudes in you video. Would be nice if you linked to them in your comments.

[@tabletopgamingwithwolfphototec]

Please consider joining the Boycott against Hasbro & Wizards Of The Coast. Due to the new OGL 1.1 Everyone that is even remotely near D&D and earn any money on D&D that is not apart of Hasbro & WotC are at risk. For more information look up #OpenDnD or OGL 1.1

[@hawkname1234]

Strongly disagree. This is a moral panic whipped up by influences over the division of spoils between gaming companies. They're NOT going to "turn off" the back catalogs of all 3rd party publishers, and if they do, you can be mad at THAT time.

[@tabletopgamingwithwolfphototec]

@@hawkname1234 I'm sad to see you are poorly informed on the topic.

[@CentrurusVII]

Merci !

[@JimMonsanto]

Octopodet or octopodling, probably. Also, technically not "octopi" for the plural, but "octopuses" or "octopodes" if you want to be pedantic.

[@SweetLuups]

I find the whole part about the dark rider excessive and misinformative. Chasing down the messenger for one is lawful evil as hell, there's a reason the saying goes "don't shoot the messenger". Regardless, this is a perfect time to introduce Kassandi Fire-Eyes, as the messenger and maybe even showing off her dragon to help drive the threat home. And perhaps flying off after the message is delivered, and leaving the draconicans on the hill top to monitor the town. Then the players can canive their way either through sneaking up the hill, down the river on a boat or with the gnome flinger which are all suggested as viable options to taking out the draconians on the hill. They should also be prioritizing the villages safety instead of shoehorning several combats into the village, there's plenty of opportunity for that when people actually start dying

[@sqoody7invegas625]

Shouldn't the name of the video be "how I changed adventure 1 of Dragonlance", not adventure One of D&D adventure?

[@knowitall82]

Octopuppy

[@SweetLuups]

The gnome flinger is suggested to be used again during the seige of kalaman, and to get the party to the hidden grove. Did you read the whole book?

[@Eisenwulf666]

One part of me wishes no romance between the PGs and Highwater, because it can become very cheesy and even a bit cringe, another part of me would love to see it for exactly the same reasons XD I almost never let it happen in my campaigns(because my players are horrible people with the minds of 12 yo) so it could be interesting to see it done well.

[@TwinSteel]

First?

[@sebastianwilliams5060]

First.

[@karinafurie3018]

Definitely octopusling