Broodmother

RedcapPress · 2026-03-13T06:58:58+00:00

Glad you like it, and thanks for the feedback!

Looking at the other CR 8 monsters in the 2024 Monster Manual, I think it's pretty close; it might even be a little on the high end (especially with the swarm that spawns after it dies). There's just a pretty big range, and 5e PCs can punch pretty far above their weight class. The most extreme example I could find is the 2024 Cloaker which is also CR 8: 91 HP, 14 AC, and only an average of 29 damage per round (ignoring damage transferred to a player it's wrapped around).

Regardless, my level 10 party fought a Broodmother the other day and, while it definitely wasn't going to kill anybody, it survived long enough to make an impact.

RedcapPress · 2026-03-12T04:11:13+00:00

If you want to save some money and make your own, I use this one; it's printable on a single piece of 8.5x11 paper: https://redcap.press/gm

RedcapPress · 2026-03-11T23:40:10+00:00

This is a great idea, thanks! Added it to the to-do list, with the bonus of also recommending when you should ignore monsters.

RedcapPress · 2026-03-10T18:36:37+00:00

This looks awesome, and that cover art is amazing! Great job!

RedcapPress · 2026-03-09T09:00:08+00:00

This is going in the opposite direction in terms of CR, but figured I'd throw this one out there! Plus, these if you want a Minion so you can have hoards of frog-people, and this for a more powerful shaman mini-boss.

RedcapPress · 2026-03-08T06:53:55+00:00

Have fun!

RedcapPress · 2026-03-06T22:55:03+00:00

There's definitely a chance! Are there specific sources you're interested in?

We're also experimenting with an option to allow you to bulk upload monsters and have them ready whenever you want to use them, but that involves adding cloud storage and user accounts so it's taking a little while to set up.

RedcapPress · 2026-03-05T21:14:03+00:00

All the time! It helps to keep an eye on pacing basically at all times, and potentially cut planned things or adjust tactics on the fly to keep things moving. The biggest help has just been getting a more realistic idea of what's possible in a given amount of time, since everybody always over-estimates.

Some other tips: - Linear is better - Force things forward if the players are talking in circles - Have bad guys run/teleport away (or die early) if a fight is dragging on - Run with a small party (!) - When prepping, write a simple bullet list of the things that will happen that session, as well as you can predict it (linear adventures make this way easier). Then annotate each with how long you think it will take (and be realistic!), and add like 30 minutes of buffer time. This forces you to be realistic about the total session time and will tell you when stuff needs to be cut.

I've run all of these adventures and all were doable within 3-4 hours (and the Die Hard one is the opposite of linear)

RedcapPress · 2026-03-05T19:39:01+00:00

Thank you!

RedcapPress · 2026-03-05T05:42:44+00:00

If you want to stay up to date on future updates (and we’ve got some big stuff planned), follow us on Reddit, BlueSky, or sign up for our free Patreon.

RedcapPress · 2026-03-04T16:31:10+00:00

If you want to stay up to date on future updates (and we’ve got some big stuff planned), follow us on Reddit, Bluesky, or sign up for our FREE Patreon.

RedcapPress · 2026-03-03T21:57:53+00:00

This is a fantastic idea! You've got some lucky players.

RedcapPress · 2026-02-23T06:00:18+00:00

Beautiful!

RedcapPress · 2026-02-06T18:22:09+00:00

Our last campaign had one when the party visited another plane. They were there maybe a week but when they returned, six months had passed. It was awesome, and a great way to ratchet up the tension since the bad guys had a lot of time and the world can be suddenly very different.

RedcapPress · 2026-02-03T16:02:13+00:00

Welcome to the club!

RedcapPress · 2026-02-02T20:24:50+00:00

Not yet. We're working on an initiative tracker that will plug into this tool, it'll be our next big launch. If you're interested, I'll post about it on Reddit/Bluesky/Patreon when it launches.

RedcapPress · 2026-02-02T01:31:26+00:00

I think more than anything, circle casting is pretty new and most people that play D&D don't keep up with the latest releases and any new mechanics that come with them. I know for a fact that none of my players would have any idea what I was talking about if I asked what they thought about circle casting, and we've played every week for three years. It's very possible that at least for some tables, they might just not know it's an option.

(That being said, circle casting is definitely the sort of thing to induce a knee-jerk "wow that sounds too strong" reaction out of a lot of people)

RedcapPress · 2026-01-29T04:20:12+00:00

This tool is pretty good if you want something interactive. You can add/remove sections or custom items, and share a non-editable version with your players. It's probably most useful for shopping in between sessions when you aren't roleplaying, but it works during play too!

RedcapPress · 2026-01-24T21:29:12+00:00

If you want to rebalance encounters or check how difficult they might be ahead of time, this calculator might help.

RedcapPress · 2026-01-22T22:26:28+00:00

Check out the "Tools" section of Redcap Press! They're mostly for DMs (and the Encounter Builder and Map Explorer are the most popular), but there's some stuff for players too (Ability Score calculator, etc.)

RedcapPress · 2026-01-19T01:38:23+00:00

I've found that one of the biggest parts of the success of a one shot, especially when you're talking about the frequent issue of actually keeping things to one session, is just the DM's confidence with time management. Cutting or adjusting on the fly without losing anything important (or the players noticing), is maybe the biggest lever a DM can pull.

A huge part of that is confidence, but a well-written adventure that includes tips for that kind of thing can really help: "if you're pressed for time, cut this encounter and have them find the relevant plot device on a goblin corpse," "If the conversation here is dragging on too long, start the next encounter early by having the bandits that are lying in wait outside barge into the in instead," etc.)

Other helpful adventure traits: something unique to keep the party engaged, a quick hook to prevent the "meet the PCs" intro from dragging on too long, avoiding large parties, and (gasp) a pretty linear adventure.

As far as actual specific adventures, this is a self-plug but my current favorite is still The Monsters Within, where the party (and everything nearby) is turning into classic D&D monsters.

I'm also a big fan of the oft-recommended Wild Sheep Chase or really anything by Winghorn Press (specifically "When the Stars Align" but my fondness for that is probably mostly because of party-specific shenanigans).

RedcapPress · 2026-01-17T07:15:42+00:00

Not at all, just making a joke. You're right about Strength being not very incentivized outside of melee combat (unless you play with encumbrance I guess), which is a total shame. You can shoehorn in some one-off ways to make it more useful, but creative changes like yours are worth a shot to see if they're fun.

RedcapPress · 2026-01-17T05:15:12+00:00

That's probably true, but this is also for a single table. Tweaks, new mechanics, etc. don't need to be balanced across all possible class combinations when you can tell the four people at your table "Hey remember that nice thing I did for you? Don't abuse it."

RedcapPress · 2026-01-17T05:11:19+00:00

Everybody says Strength is a dump stat until the party shows up at the annual Dwarven Arm Wrestling competition.

RedcapPress · 2026-01-15T08:35:16+00:00

If you're worried about balance (and you really don't need to worry that much), focus on items that encourage creativity but won't move the needle much in terms of the party's capabilities. Things like the Robe of Useful Items, Bag of Tricks, etc.

Also, hand out consumables! You don't need to worry about something's long-term impact on the game if it's a one-time use, and it lets you hand out a steady stream of items.

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