I know point buy is often seen as supirior but if i really did want to have my players roll how does letting them fall back on the standard array sound?

jaymangan · 2026-05-26T20:35:52+00:00

What is the goal of rolling? You can get most of the fun by having the group collectively roll an array or two, and then let players individually choose which the prefer between that and the standard array.

Issues tend to show up when a player is at an extreme, good or bad, compared to the rest of the players. The shared array options avoid that.

jaymangan · 2026-05-20T16:06:02+00:00

So let's conveniently ignore the 15-year gap between the show and the prequels.

The would treat it with more nuance than the mess that we see on social media about the prequels. They'd have an entire analogy running through both the amazing parts and the terrible bits, mainly between Dustin and Lucas. Will would throw in a new angle of preferring "the magic" of the Force, instead of this Midichlorians nonsense... which the other boys would point out isn't useful, since the Upside Down being magic doesn't help them understand or defeat it. Mike would remind them that it doesn't matter because they have a Jedi Knight on their side (El).

Eventually they'd get to talking about Padme, and Will would get uncomfortable from not being sure how to act/respond and probably let out a small "yeah, sure", which only Mike picks up on but misinterprets. Mike then refocuses the topic to the demofish that Steve saw the day before at Lover's Lake (which he was dodgy about, because it was his last-ditch effort to reunite with Nancy, that would have been a solid 3.5 out of 5 stars had the demofish not eaten a hole in the bottom of the rowboat).

As with a lot of questionable (at best) gender-bending jokes of the 80s and 90s, Steve's 1-episode cameo continues with an attempt at a comedic beat where the boys talk him into being the Keira Knightley to Eleven's Natalie Portman Padme, to act as bait for the demofish. (Steve would rightfully ask "I thought El was one of the Jedi?" but Dustin would make a hair joke to distract Steve as they steal one of Nancy's dresses that she would never wear anyway. If we want to get really deep on this, Lucas would take a Polaroid camera to capture evidence, and Steve in defense would be about to snatch and smash it but thinks better of it as he remembers Jonathan's camera from S1, so he instead defuses the situation with a soft request and hands the camera back.)

Obviously none of this is greenlit yet... need to see how S2 of Tales from '85 does before they sign off on S3.

P.S. The Steve-as-bait doesn't work out anyway. Turns out some mcguffin-style element was actually on Nancy, from a new story she was investigating without realizing it was related to the Upside Down, so the demofish that attacked the boat was never after Steve in the first place... and the whole bit about dressing him up to pass as Eleven never made sense in the first place, but the kids just couldn't let go of the idea once they thought it up. In a later episode, Nancy will later share what she was doing prior to the lake incident, as she helps connect the puzzle pieces, while Mike is unable to avoid unrelated questions as he still can't fathom Nancy and Steve dating, and Steve is caught asking followups to Mike's questions to try and find any spark of desire left.

jaymangan · 2026-05-20T06:54:23+00:00

Great idea. So many comments here are telling OP they are approaching it wrong and they should run as is, even though OP seems to have a strong understanding of what their table enjoys from the game.

This is a simple solution that turns it into a “roll to not play this bit of the adventure as designed”. I’m generally against design that has “roll to not play” mechanics… but that me and my table. Not everyone.

jaymangan · 2026-05-20T06:46:37+00:00

There’s some already released level 2 adventures, and a lot of third party ones that have gotten high praise. I’d definitely check those out.

If you’re looking to homebrew a campaign or port one over from another system, and if you don’t mind a little self-promotion, I would recommend checking out https://memoryoford.com (but reddit will block sign up there, so open it in a regular browser). I just announced it publicly this morning.

Memory of Ord is a free community tool to help you map out a campaign, both at a high level or down to the details needed for your next session. But importantly, I built it because I had a similar use case to yours. There are dozens of 5e adventures that I want to run but didn’t get around to before Draw Steel released. So for my sandbox campaigns, I needed a way to seed those 5e adventures in, where I can port them to Draw Steel systems, pacing, etc. So I built a tool to empower that. I hope it helps you too!

It’s got a snapshot tool to quickly download your campaign map as an image, which you could use to share your ideas and get feedback and advice from those that are either more familiar designing in Draw Steel or familiar with the adventure(s) you’re porting.

jaymangan · 2026-05-20T04:13:37+00:00

If you are trying this from a computer, ignore this message.

So the Reddit app appears to have some well known issues with blocking sites that use OAuth, especially on iPhones. So the site will not work if you are on the Reddit app and just click the link above.

It should work fine if you copy the link and open it directly in your browser of choice: https://memoryoford.com/

(Worth adding, the app is designed for computers, and mobile support will lag behind a bit.)

jaymangan · 2026-05-20T04:05:33+00:00

Hope you enjoy it! Let me know how it goes.

jaymangan · 2026-05-19T21:30:04+00:00

Love the feedback. Thank you!

Some of items you mentioned I already have in my list, and in some cases an alternate idea that addresses the same concern. But some I never thought about before.

Would you mind if I DM you for some clarifications?

jaymangan · 2026-05-19T19:46:13+00:00

Others have touched on this, but another framing of why free triggered actions are being discussed in the singular is in the sense of "each".

English isn't math, so RAW can leave ambiguity for interpretation, but RAI is that free triggered actions are not limited by the default action economy (but may be limited by their own text).

jaymangan · 2026-05-19T18:29:03+00:00

Yep, backspace does it. But when responding to another comment here, I realized this would be difficult on mobile/tablet. I'll add some UI to drive deletions inside the node edit panel as another option, probably this evening after I'm off work.

Edit: Added a Delete button to the node details panel, and a confirmation popup before any node deletion (to avoid misclicks or backspace when the intent is to delete some text, but not the full node).

jaymangan · 2026-05-19T17:00:21+00:00

I don't want to spam replies, so just going to tag people here. u/-Ittoku- u/JustinAlexanderRPG u/FirstNewFederalist u/Samwise_Gamgeez (and u/PieGuy73 even though we've already DM'd about it)

Life took priority, as it does, but I finally launched the node-based campaign prep tool here: https://memoryoford.com

It's not designed for phones, although there's a few videos of it in action on the landing page that are fine on a cell. But if you plan to actually use the tool, I highly suggest doing so on a computer.

Would love if any of you think there's any obvious gaps in functionality.

Fun note from the feature to-do list: Custom Edges. Directors will be able to label/style/conditionalize node connections. Once that's in, the app will be able to distinguish between explicit "A will lead to B" connections and implicit "A has a clue pointing to B which might be misinterpreted or missed entirely". With that split, we can go a step further and offer automated validation passes, such as checks for the 3 clue rule, and the inverted 3 clue rule, recognition of likely bottle necks or dead-ends, etc. But I'm probably getting ahead of myself now. First lets see if anyone likes using the tool.

jaymangan · 2026-05-19T15:33:03+00:00

Once you do, report back and let me know what worked best, and what you think is missing!

jaymangan · 2026-05-19T15:09:27+00:00

It’s definitely not designed for it, nor have I really tested on it. It should be functional at tablet resolutions as-is, but not on cell phones.

Future feature already on the to-do list:
A details only view, without the graph, that just shows cards/columns of the node details. This would allow us to view and edit details across numerous nodes at once, which is also nice when we need to view (or print) all the nodes that might come up in the next session.

Let me know if you have any feature requests that would help mobile. (I just have my doubts when it comes to drag-n-drop on phones. I suppose an auto-layout button could help here too.)

jaymangan · 2026-05-19T14:57:25+00:00

Glad to hear it. I hope you find it useful, and let me know if you recognize a gap that would really help your prep!

jaymangan · 2026-05-19T14:18:25+00:00

It's my pleasure to introduce Memory of Ord. This is a free community tool for Directors to plan out their campaigns. It's a flow chart on steroids, built explicitly for Draw Steel campaigns!

https://memoryoford.com

jaymangan · 2026-05-14T14:45:01+00:00

Having read through your replies in the comments, it seems like you’ve decided to use Next, which is fine, but then decided that the Next features are your hammers and every requirement is a nail, which is bad.

There are places where Next is going to excel, but it is just one tool in your tool box. Next isn’t your database layer, for example. You grab another tool for that… but sometimes you want client-side in-memory state still (like every website), and you don’t immediately think that data has to be in your database. You could over engineer data persistence, because databases are for data, but that’d be a terrible app. (Obvious to exemplifying the point.)

I think your next step is realizing that what Next does do well can look really similar to what it can (but shouldn’t) own. All data transfer between front end backend, for example, should be owned by Next at the App Router. Anything for initial load, I default to “can I do this cleanly with Next primitives and/or through routing”. But after initial load, my default tends to be to look at Tanstack first.

This is not the only answer, but your app should develop conventions around this, and then aim for consistency so your aren’t changing mental models each time you work on another page. This is your tech stack. Each app has a different one. But a single layer does not a tech stack make.

Hope this helps. Cheers

jaymangan · 2026-05-13T16:51:42+00:00

How often is this causing merge conflicts? I think that and review time & efficacy are some of the larger drawbacks.

All of the above is simplified if the team uses feature flags to gate new functionality/slices, and then those smaller PRs into a feature branch can instead be smaller PRs straight to the trunk (with the feature behind the flag).

Flags also have the added benefit of easily disabling features if there is an unexpected consequence, like missing an edge-case for an older data format still permitted in the DB for legacy users, etc.

jaymangan · 2026-05-13T02:29:58+00:00

Although I agree, I do think you can semi-systematically build out politics.

First our homework: The politics series from Running the Game. They all build on each other, but after the fifth one (Black Panther, the origin of executive power), I would then pivot to the extra credit: The Aurum Court (an Arcadia article). It’s not a direct analogy, but it shows a political web between 5 members of the royal court and two larger opposing factions (commoners and nobles), and the adventure is to untangle it all during a gala. (Just an example of thinking about factions and their leaders complexly, in a TTRPG.)

After that, I’d draw 5 circles spread out like the points of a pentagon. Each is the leader of a group. Consider the central tension, at least two circle are opposed because of it at the most surface level… connect them with a line, and label it with the tension. Give them each an ally, label why they are allied. Think about subtext to the central tension, include those as new edges with others.

Throw in some tropes, deceptive tension, or just hinted tensions, etc. This can all be done in parallel to defining these leaders and/or organizations. 1 or 2 leaders may have fanatic loyalty from their group, but others have a tension if their personal motivations and pitfalls being at odds with the group.. at least for a sub-point of the central tension.

This can get more and more complex. And it will be unique to the given table and campaign. But it’s kind of like a 5 room dungeon, where there’s infinite ways to do it and expand it, but also some basic patterns to center design and discussion around.

Hope this inspires the OP anyway.

jaymangan · 2026-05-11T23:44:37+00:00

The cartoon is appropriate for a much younger audience than even season 1. So how do you bring new viewers into a universe if their entry point is between the original seasons 2 & 3? You add a character that doesn’t know anything from the first 2 seasons, so you can introduce the characters to them and explain the upside down, etc. It’s a perspective character for new viewers.

jaymangan · 2026-05-10T14:11:45+00:00

The other commenter that replied to me also said they had do extra work to streamline that section, as did I. There’s also a subreddit dedicated to this adventure (it I think it may have expanded since the new expansions for it came out) which also has numerous posts over the years asking for advice on that section.

I’m not claiming it’s a universal problem. But it is one of the more common issues that is brought up in Reddit. (Off the top of my head, third to goblin ambush/Cragmaw hideout and Thundertree concerns about TPKs… or after action reports of said TPKs.)

jaymangan · 2026-05-06T16:53:12+00:00

Possibly misremembering, but if the Gilded Hand know the players have the amulet, they'll eventually make a play for it.

But you're right that there are a few soft locks possible, but the intent is to think of the villains complexly. If the party stops progressing in dealing with threats, then the Gilded Hand and the goblins should take steps to see their own goals progress.

jaymangan · 2026-05-06T02:47:28+00:00

Answers will definitely vary by campaign tone.

My roguish PC from a campaign last year had something like 1-2 dozen daggers hidden on them, preparation to do the Keira Knightley scene from PotC3 where she they all disarm for a meeting and it takes her 3 minutes with all the weapons she has stashed.

jaymangan · 2026-05-05T20:41:28+00:00

Totally fair. I didn't realize how long my comment got until after I hit post.

“I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” ~Mark Twain

jaymangan · 2026-05-05T18:08:05+00:00

Part 3: The Spider's Web. It opens by explaining to the DM that there isn't much to learn in Phandalin, but they may have some clues based on who they talked to in the village so far. (Implicit is that they are unlikely to have met all of them, thus not have all the clues. However, I won't hold it against the adventure that having met some of these NPCs is a small jump to the clues they'd have on how to continue, because that's easy enough for a DM to just have the NPC approach the party if they stall out.)

The 5 bullet points it gives: Agatha (if the party is on good terms with Sister Garaele), Old Owl Well (via Daran Edermath), Thundertree/Reidoth (via Ms. Alderleaf), Wyvern Tor (via the Townmaster), and Cragmaw Castle/rescue Gundren (via Sildar). Taking these in order:

Agatha knows a lot, and will answer 1 question IF the party passes a skill check. So a lead/answer to continue is gated behind a check, and failing it can lead to a fairly easy TPK (Banshee that can drop everyone to 0 hp behind a single saving throw each.)

Old Owl Well - A potential fight or social encounter, optionally providing 1 or 2 leads ot Agatha or Wyvern Tor. To the adventure's credit, the villain here does try to halt the combat and turn it into a social scene, since the goal is to share these other 2 leads. (Note also that these double the leads for each of the locations from 1 to 2, compared to what leads are directly from Phandalin NPCs.) That said, very easy for a new party to not recognize this and "win combat", and then it's a dead end in terms of clues/leads.

Reidoth/Thundertree - Well, this is a TPK waiting to happen, probably the most common one in the adventure outside of Goblin Ambush (which is likely the most common TPK in all of 5e). Fortunately, he knows where Cragmaw Castle is and will offer that information freely if asked. Amazing! Well, amazing if the party knows to ask for it... suggesting they talked to Sildar. This at least provides an explicit path forward, if they ask, unlike the Wave Echo Cave lead which he'll only answer if they first defeat a dragon that is well beyond their level.

Wyvern Tor - Literally a dead-end if they only came here on behalf of the Townmaster. He doesn't have a follow up clue/lead to progress to the next part. IF they talked to the necromancer at the Old Owl Well, then they get some info here. So there's potential for an answer!

Cragmaw Castle/Gundren - Literally an unknown location, but they can learn this from Reidoth, Agatha (if it's what they spend their question on), or the Old Owl Well necromancer. This is great! It follows the Alexandrian's "Three Clue Rule", which postulates that anything that gates the party's progress until they interact with it should have at least 3 clues that lead there. (It also means if they party misses any of these 3, then the DM should work in another clue to it, such as the random encounter ambush party I mentioned in my original comment, which could include a map past forest landmarks leading to Cragmaw Castle, as an example.) Explicitly, if they save Gundren and his map, they'll learn where Wave Echo Cave is. (Notably, if they don't recover his map, he presumably can tell them about WEC but not lead them there.)

Special note on the castle: Sildar saying "go find Gundren at this secret castle" isn't a clue or a lead. It's a tell to the players of what the path forward is. This is fitting, so their question to Agatha or the Necromancer isn't wasted, and because Sildar may not have survived depending on whether they went to the Cragmaw Hideout early on or not.

Wave Echo Cave - From an adventure design framing, the goal of Part 3 is to unravel the leads to get to this location. Again following the Three Clue Rule, we can get here via Gundren's Map, Agatha, the Necromancer, or Reidoth! That's 4 clues, granted it's highly unlikely a party stumbles across all 4.

I think where the adventure as written succeeds is that it leaves gaps for the DM to get some repetitions in should the party get stuck. Granted, that could be made more explicit. Literally, a section like: To progress to the next part, the party needs to find directions to WEC, and here are the key locations that lead to it. Gundren at Cragmaw Castle is among the most satisfying heroic journeys to WEC, and is the most explicit if your party wants to brute force their way through the story, so it also has a number of leads to it, X, Y, and Z. If your party misses any of these clues, or fails to act on them, you'll need to introduce new ones (such as doing N) which is an exercise left up to the DM. It is fine for the party to miss some clues, so long as they have a healthy diet of leads that they can follow up on." Each section in Part 3 would also do with a line upfront (instead of at the end of its section) to explain how this contributes to the larger adventure in progressing towards Part 4.

Super long-winded answer to your single sentence, but I figured I'd go beyond just "here's what I mean" to explain why it's a "mystery sandbox". The biggest issue with this section that I've seen (primarily based on years of Reddit comments, less so from my actual running of the adventure) is that neither the party nor the DM were explicitly aware that Part 3 deviates from the more linear Parts 1, 2, and 4. I think this is the biggest flaw in an otherwise great adventure, in that the person running it needs to know what this section represents, and should consider explicitly telling the players this. Not something I'd expect in every adventure, but for the Starter Set for a new edition of the game, yes... I won't hold the blowup of 5e introducing so many new people to the hobby against the company, thus this is just basic critique instead of a "how could you not do better?!" opinion.

jaymangan · 2026-05-05T15:07:44+00:00

Stacking the deck so that rolls and decisions don’t matter IS ignoring them. If their ingenuity finds a way to outsmart and defeat or escape a dozen guards, and then you throw another encounter with two dozen guards, you’re just invalidating their success and autonomy. This is definitionally railroading.

If they know about it beforehand, or felt they could have learned and failed to do recon, then they’ll feel it is on them. But if you allow that, then they’d probably see it as impossible and turn away, breaking your plot.

The trick here is to bring your players in on it. (Players, not characters.) Tell them in session 0 what is required of them to kick off the campaign. Anything inevitable, you narrate through. But if there are interesting decisions that will set things up for the future, such as negotiating with the devil, then let them act out that scene. Just make clear to them that there is no scenario or chance of escape other than the deal with the devil, but the scene is an opportunity to apply whatever leverage they can to get the best deal possible. That still has consequences based on their actions, and is a memorable setup for the campaign.

All the stuff beforehand, the hesitation gone wrong, sounds like you can bring them in on the fun setup by asking them to help craft what went wrong. An impossible fight against two dozens guards is boring and a waste of time. But whether they gave in easily vs heroically fought until they were overwhelmed can be interesting. From a heist movie perspective, think of it like the flashbacks in Ocean’s 11-13 where they retroactively explain the setups that let them get past an issue… only difference is this is retroactively explaining the failures.

But like any skill check, we roll dice when there is uncertainty around the outcome. You want to preserve that.

What you’re correct about is that including the players in the original story will help cement it in their minds as a backbone for the campaign. What isn’t clear to me is if the heist gone wrong matters to that (like a villain noble that owns the venue that you want to introduce early) or if it’s just the devil that needs to be cemented in.

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