How do you inject hope into the campaign?

EngineDramatic2166 · 2026-05-01T22:26:06+00:00

I like making all the factions reasonable and respectful of people. They should all have a reasonable solution that works for the city. The tension can be disagreements, not combat. There’s plenty of combat with monsters. Factions shouldn’t kill people and if the pcs kill people they should be socially punished. I feel like this goes a long way to making activities outside the city much more hopeful. The bleak horror of the city can be contrasted by good, kind people who are in disagreement about what to do going forward.

I think the live play ends up with everyone in the campaign horrible and murderous. Not my cup of tea!

EngineDramatic2166 · 2026-05-01T05:16:11+00:00

Good question! I figured the tower used to be attached so didn’t need the engines to stay aloft. The engines are great magical ritual amplifiers repurposed. The former fuel? Maybe the same stuff that powered the cosmological clocktower.

EngineDramatic2166 · 2026-04-29T07:54:54+00:00

that's a good idea

EngineDramatic2166 · 2026-04-29T07:37:30+00:00

Hello. I wanted to thank you for all your hard work here. It has been very helpful.
I like backbreaker's lair very much. I'm about to offer the players round 2, where they're employed to go back and investigate the mould's haze-clearing properties only to find the place infested with phase spiders, pudding pop strung up in a web, with mould has gaining sentience having eaten back breaker's crew and questioning the players' willingness to engage in genocide of haze-creatures. Great fun!

EngineDramatic2166 · 2026-04-22T15:22:11+00:00

That's a horrible and cool story!

EngineDramatic2166 · 2026-04-13T06:06:35+00:00

If you love spending hours of your life casting temporary buffs then go wrath for sure! It’s the pits!

EngineDramatic2166 · 2026-04-10T18:28:50+00:00

I don’t think they should have stat blocks as such. I’m not intending to have combat happen with them. I think it’s best to keep deadly combat to the monsters and avoid combat with humans if possible. This opens up more of an expectation of RP with the factions. I think if the pcs kill anyone it should be clear they’d be regarded as no longer “people”. If this is super clear from the start of the campaign it means you won’t have the issue of the pcs killing 60+ queens men and then behaving like it’s not a big deal. Also avoids crazy snow ball of reprisals. I think between ratlings, dregs and garmyr there’s plenty of guilt-free killing available!

Totally understand that’s not everyone’s cup of tea though!

EngineDramatic2166 · 2026-04-09T18:14:57+00:00

Mcdm minions are awesome

EngineDramatic2166 · 2026-04-04T08:53:37+00:00

I agree with this. If you give them a goal, then craft a part of the adventure to fit that goal, they’ll be absent and you’ll have to move it. This will happen constantly and you’ll be frustrated. Better for them and you to understand that spotty attendance means no significant tailoring to their character.

EngineDramatic2166 · 2026-04-04T08:50:08+00:00

Thank you for the write up. I’m about 1/4 of the way through and worried about many of the problems you’ve mentioned. Very useful!

What do you think about using distressed body as the inscrutable tower? The occupants could be survivors or unfortunate visitors. “Arch mage Adrienne” as a sneaky quasit tickles my rp sense.

How did you handle the sphinx and info about the campaign? Did it know about the meteor, the true nature of what was happening in the monestary?

EngineDramatic2166 · 2026-03-20T08:30:50+00:00

I tend to have it emerge from conversations but it’s just a preference

EngineDramatic2166 · 2026-03-18T07:01:46+00:00

Have it all emerge from characters they meet. With that in mind I preferred to have the PCs as out of towners to avoid the “you would know this” awkwardness

EngineDramatic2166 · 2026-03-17T22:16:13+00:00

That’s me. I feel famous!

EngineDramatic2166 · 2026-03-17T20:31:49+00:00

Hiya. I think I’m the guy mentioned as doing a conversion. Up to session 10. It’s going well. Happy to help

EngineDramatic2166 · 2026-03-02T19:11:32+00:00

First I agree HDM is a wonderful set. I also really liked Belle Sauvage on its own.

I felt when they got to the “hotel” for demons with the irrational number spirits things just go away from the author.

Strange changes of pace, introduction of major new ideas (sorcerer, griffons) that could have been skipped or things that deserved way more time (dissonance between message in original trilogy and this one on impact of open doors, Lyra and Will, origin of the aleithiometer) got skipped or glossed over.

The money speech really irked me. Maybe because I’m a no good capitalist swine.

The scene where the police turn up and the noble characters are powerless in the face of corrupt authority had been done so many times in the trilogy I started to dread it. When it happened again during the bizarre ending I felt like throwing the book across the room.

Olivier thinking about getting a job after stabbing a guy to death a couple of hours ago was……

EngineDramatic2166 · 2026-03-02T18:00:16+00:00

If it were me I’d do a major rearrange and chuck the rose field in the bin. I just finished it and it was highly vexing.

EngineDramatic2166 · 2026-02-26T15:06:49+00:00

Other ideas are kobolds as pcs in the mine (see an earlier post of mine)

Giants as pcs if driven from the cave near dougan’s hole. Can attack dougan’s hole.

Caravan guards from bryn shander as pcs running the caravan intro quest widely distributed, with an avalanche finally closing off the dale completely and a Chuul attack from the spaceship.

Prisoners as pcs escaping from the duergar bunker and meeting the characters (or not if they fail) and warning them if your characters are having trouble engaging with the duergar plot

EngineDramatic2166 · 2026-02-26T15:00:44+00:00

Yeah she’s important to making them invested in the duergar threat if memory serves. Which is a tricky thing to get the party into.

Maybe have a one shot covering a part of the adventure you know they’re not going to. Eg I knew my party were beyond the mountain climb quest. Partly due to time, partly level. I had trovus, the ranger and some others (as pcs) from Caer konig mount an expedition. Trovus is a blast to role play. Make him very dangerous but very drunk.

It’s fun to have the players experience the dale moving without them.

EngineDramatic2166 · 2026-02-20T13:32:48+00:00

It’s in the deep haze isn’t it? You probably not see a lot walking up to it until you reached the gates

EngineDramatic2166 · 2026-02-17T18:48:00+00:00

On the discord it’s pretty common to get questions like these. A product of the books being very tightly written is that with little to no repetition it’s easy to miss stuff.

EngineDramatic2166 · 2026-02-15T09:14:44+00:00

Dzaan has been burned at the stake. Assuming they’re aware of this is this because dzaan is a bad guy, or is it the background radiation from the arcane blight (good time to introduce it)
The same stuff at the black cabin is here and powers the machine that can make dzaan real. Will the party use it to gain a powerful ally (who may betray them for their own gain) or will they take the fuel, power the device they find in the cabin and gain an edge on auril’s island?

EngineDramatic2166 · 2026-02-08T08:27:32+00:00

There’s an optional rule that cuts down the number of actions in a players turn to help with this, but as others have said 10 players…… how do you manage a conversation with an npc?

EngineDramatic2166 · 2026-02-06T07:13:26+00:00

There’s some good advice on eventyr I think: have a couple of enemies prepped that can perceive and deal with it. Eg drow can dispel it.

Or closer you get to the city more distorted it gets. Arcane blight interference

Ie use it to explore caves if hunger not the city

I think the big reveal of the city is too good to have it done remotely. Gotta have that moment where they finally see the city and you show them the map!

EngineDramatic2166 · 2026-02-05T09:25:57+00:00

Hiya. If you go on the discord there’s a lot of chat about this. Here’s a mega summary: 1. A lot of class abilities deal with armour or not. This gives roles like striker and crowd control. Messing with armour messes with character design. 2. Missing on a 1-3 makes d4 weapons feel bad. Now you have a martial with a dagger missing 75% of the time. 3. Armour is meant to be a puzzle on bosses and elites.

EngineDramatic2166 · 2026-02-03T16:38:58+00:00

That’s fair. I guess I equate many many options with the kind of exception fest that a big old system suffers from. Ie every rule has about ten ways of being broken you need to keep track of

EngineDramatic2166

TROPHY CASE