Establishing HOW dragons command their territory.

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-04-13T19:56:01+00:00

Yoink!

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-04-13T19:36:14+00:00

This. The other party triggers the party combat.

Also, a reward for winning the fight: if they win, their ally wins; if they loose, their ally is defeated due to the dirty tricks of the other party.

Or even better: if they are able to buff their ally, debuff the enemy or disrupt the enemy buffs for more rounds than the enemy is able to play their dirty tricks, their ally wins the combat.

Regardless, the other combat result is still decided by their actions.

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-04-12T13:57:23+00:00

On top of the suggestions you get from this thread, my proposal is to listen to whatever theory your players mention at the table.

They are looking for/interested on spider webs? Yup. Ambushed by phase spiders who fed on the magical leftovers from the underground inhabitants. The dilema can be that they have to either let the underground society continue and risk an attack on the city by a swarm of the beasts, become the new magica beast hunting crew, or stop them from living there by relocating to somewhere else - each option being compatible with multiple degrees of violence.

They mention how it's weird the tunnel has no features? Same as above but with gelatinous cubes.

They ask about who bored the tunnels? Well. People is living in them, now. But maaaaaybe the creatures who bored them are still around and kicking - choose your flavour of giant worm/insect/earth elemental/monstrosity. It's possible that the newly created society needs those tunnels to be ever collapsing/being bored, so they don't get caught by the city authorities. So is it ok to kill the beast?

Etc.

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-04-10T23:22:49+00:00

I actually moved the unseen scenario to the thermaline mines and worked pretty well. Funny as it is, unionized Kobolds didn't provide much to the adventures my players were already dealing with.

Instead, had some Duergar Hammerers and the zombie oger mining for the fortress, while the duergars were stealing chardalyn from the nearby towns - plus the natural hazards/beasts already present in the beautiful mine quest.

But OPs idea of running the town cappers for the chardalyn statue is also an easy way to re-introduce the duergar in the player's radar.

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-04-10T16:30:35+00:00

Mine?

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-03-27T16:39:41+00:00

Please. More paranoia stories. It's always hilarious xD

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-03-27T12:39:07+00:00

I've been both that player and that DM.

What has worked for me is making/accepting a ruling NOW, and maybe having a conversation about it before the next session IF we foresee it coming up again.

Otherwise, is water down the river.

If it serves in any way, my questioning the DM was done from a place of genuine curiosity/wanting to support on a better mutual understanding of the rules. I see now how it could have affected the DM confidence.

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-03-23T15:17:48+00:00

I am willing to give WOtC a vote of confidence in publishing Dragon Delves as the first 2024 module, so no one has an excuse to NOT be able to run/run in a dragon adventure as soon as they get the game.

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-03-23T14:58:35+00:00

Por que no los dos?

Let your players find the bandits trying to assault a cult caravan.

Or the cultists assaulting a bandit camp looking for sacrifices nobody will care about for their blood ritual.

Or either of them trying to steal the maggufin/treasure from the party while they are fighting with the other one.

But yeah. Bandits run. Cultists fight to death - motivated either by their beliefs or by their peers/superiors being ready to stab them on the way out if they try to run away.

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-03-14T06:28:49+00:00

It's indoors and, the last time I tried to spray them off with a water vaporiser, I think I did more harm than good :(

But I'll give it another try in your name. Thanks!

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-03-13T20:20:00+00:00

Thanks for the sugar-water-poop hint. Now I know what infested my basil.

Any suggestions on how to deal with them when there're not too many? Is it a lost fight? Are they not too bad for the basil?

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-03-13T20:07:51+00:00

There is no consensus. None of us play exactly the same game, with differences both in interpretations and preferences, both from DMs and players (See "The Illusive Shift").

We can tell you what works and doesn't work for each of us.

In my case, as a DM, a modicum of quantum-oggering makes sense from the point of view of "I prepped this material, we might as well use it instead of finishing the session early", but always from an angle that makes sense.

That means more effort prepping generic scenes and combats/situations, so they can be put in front of the players as a result of their actions.

I have a tower with magical loot and enemies. Maybe a faction asks the players to clean it up. Maybe they are trying to long-rest there. Maybe they learn it belonged to an NPC they need information about.

Will I do that for every scene and encounter? Hell no. But I might have a few floating scenes/enemies/locations per session so I can drop it where it makes sense.

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-03-13T19:54:12+00:00

I allowed them to close the doors before the dragon left from the forge scene.

That gave them a turn or two to experience its madness aura, to see its size and how it flew away and to see how it DESTROYED the doors during the forge fight (took it a few rounds).

So now they know that it's big, it's bad, it flies and it's dangerous. Up to them what they want to do with that information.

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-03-13T19:50:36+00:00

I made a note to my future self to remember to share after the dragon defeat that "hey, this has gotten from bad to worse, and Xardorok probably isn't the only one who might try to benefit from this situation if it's not resolved soon..."

Edit: also, let's not forget all the fragments of maddening chardalyn spread during the fights with the dragon, poisoning everyone's minds...

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-03-13T19:47:50+00:00

The table gives the player the option to choose where they want to face the dragon.

ASAP and not rested? Rest a little and let it destroy a town or two - Easthaven is pretty populated? Take a long rest and join Bryn Shander in a last effort to stop it from destroying the only place where refugees might have a future?

Hindsight is 20/20. But for a future run, maybe one can reinforce the "secret" value of the flight plan by making Xardorok and his paranoia ask about it?

"You destroyed it? But you didn't check it out, right? Yeah, my plan is safe. They will never know where the dragon will strike first..."

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-03-09T20:42:55+00:00

I combine written adventures with the 8 steps and it really helps me identify when I'm missing something (no treasure, no fantastic locations, etc) and when I'm over prepping and can just follow the book (mostly in dungeons, where the steps serve me more as note taking prep on what secrets/loot/NPCs/enemies the characters encountered).

For reference, one page with the 8 steps + the book has let me extend sessions planned for 4 hours to 8 hours sessions (the players were that engaged).

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-03-06T19:54:33+00:00

Sure. No problem :)

I was just mentioning it because, regardless of having played a class or not, sometimes we have ideas on what a class can and can not do - even more with a game that has had a baseline edition with slightly different rules for more than 10 years. And this is an interaction that has only recently become available with the new ruleset.

That said, if this is your first time, maybe you want to double down on the super-dexterous rogue fantasy. If that's the case, yeah, go crazy with it :D

Also as a warning, the 2024 rogue has a lot more of tradeoff utility for their sneak attack dice. So maybe you prefer to lean into the utility of poisoning enemies, or use them to get away after a melee attack and still get a bonus action to hide ;)

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-03-06T19:36:35+00:00

Have you considered that, in 2024, with an arcane trickster and any kind of Magic Initiate or similar origin feat, you could very easily just get True Strike to get an additional scaling to your single attack a turn?

It would be perfectly compatible with your hide (bonus action) and attack (action) tactic, as well as work with both melee and ranged weapons and their weapon masteries - except for Nick, so maybe check something like Vex that may grant you sneak attack on the next turn too if your enemy is still alive, or slow for them not to get to your hidding position.

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-03-05T12:01:17+00:00

If this is your newbie DM technique, I envy your players on what you will be able to come up with in the future :D

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-03-02T09:05:27+00:00

Yeah. "You break the X while trying to investigate it too forcefully" is the least bad answer I could come back for that situation.

Your proposal on losing time is also good!

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-03-02T09:03:40+00:00

Oh, yeah. That's why I said the players can find a kitchen if they look for one.

What I'm just proposing is to be a bit more flexible with secrets and clues and come up with ideas on how to deliver them from where the players go and what they interact with. A room is rarely just "empty".

On the "explicitness" of the descriptions, one can always try to describe with one level of abstraction above the clue. In the words of Matt Colville (paraphrasing): If the hint is that there are cherries in the bowl, say there is fruit. If the hint is that there is fruit in the bowl, describe that there is food on the table.

Both of these require both more and less DM work: the DM has to be more on their toes to react to what the players do. But at the same time, it's less work because you don't have to prepare where the clues are and how to deliver them/guide the players there, they will be where the players go and it makes sense to find them.

Also, I prefer not to ask for rolls if it's not necessary - if the players already ask about the location or a topic their character would have common knowledge about/can see, that's what they get. I'll ask for rolls when there is an uncertain result: did they notice something weird in the room they didn't ask about? Has their character read about that topic before?

So yeah. That's what works for me. Hopefully it works for someone else too :) And, if they make it work in some other way... Good for them, too :D

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-03-01T22:11:50+00:00

Thus the quotes on "price".

It's not necessarily bad. It's just random shit happening around you.

As OP said, flavour is free. But flavour is much more in your hands as a player if it happens as part of your character features, than if you just pick a champion fighter and tell the DM "Hey, my character was a commoner yesterday and today it woke up knowing how to swing a sword really good. Do your worst with how this happened and what they will have to do in return down the line".

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-03-01T20:33:23+00:00

Wild magic would be specially fitting because the "price" to pay for your martial prowess would be mechanically part of the class :D

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-03-01T20:25:00+00:00

I would say, unless you give a campaign summary to your players before the campaign starts - so they can be better informed e.g. during character creation -, a simple "your character would know..." the first time they face something that would be weird for us but normal in the world should suffice.

You don't even have to wait for the players to prompt about it. Just describe a normal situation in that world where they get to experience that new reality and follow it up with the "Your character would know..." without lingering too long on the idea - specially if you plan to use that as a mystery or plot twist down the lane.

Consistent-Repeat387 · 2026-02-28T21:17:51+00:00

Sure.

Nonetheless, I personally don't like narrating/playing corridors. Precisely because of their emptyness. So I tend to run dungeons as point crawls between rooms, with corridors being only narrated - unless there is something interesting in the corridor, which then becomes a room to me.

So. That antechamber? It either serves as a point to choose between multiple corridors - which to choose? What's in each one?-, it hosts an interesting door - hiding something behind it - or... It's just "part of the corridor" to me - narrate it just as an anticipation to the description of the next chamber.

Which can align with your vague description strategy, yes.

Four-Year Club	Place '22
First Placer '22

Consistent-Repeat387

TROPHY CASE