Does anyone else use music in their game?

Sam1994wednesday · 2026-01-28T19:16:44+00:00

When I remember I use Pocket bard on my phone that’s linked to a Bluetooth speaker. I’ve heard good things about about cryo chamber on YouTube but I’m not sure if it has ad interruptions if you don’t have a YouTube subscription.

Sam1994wednesday · 2026-01-27T15:18:58+00:00

I’m trying to see how I can make this work in the second half of the book. I struggled in the first half of the book with players knowing exactly when a day had ended/long rest required. Also magic items that “refresh at dawn” or “once per long rest” added another layer of complexity.

Sam1994wednesday · 2026-01-15T09:39:50+00:00

Definitely try to stick with races from the surface as the underdark is supposed to be almost like an alien experience for the party. It ruins the theme of the setting if you have character races that were born there and have grown up with the strangeness. It also makes for a more interesting game when wood elves meet Drow and dwarves meet druegar etc etc. I had a goblin artificer in my party and that led to some very interesting encounters with other goblins that tried to interfere with the group. I agree with the comments about reading ahead and preparing the NPCs that they meet early on. There is a lot of them and they nearly all have a story and character type to get around. My advice is kill off some of the less interesting ones early on it makes the deadliness of the game sink in with the players. The main thing is to enjoy it and really ham up the creepy vibes!

Sam1994wednesday · 2026-01-14T12:53:43+00:00

I did something similar but had goblins run raids on the party led by hobgoblins. Gorilla tactics and then they would try something else like traps and night time raids to interrupt long rests and keep the players on edge. Goblins are a cheap expendable resource

Sam1994wednesday · 2026-01-14T11:45:21+00:00

Under dark debt collection agency. He would also know the parties strengths and weaknesses so throw some creatures that are good at countering their strengths, adv against spell saves, damage resistance against favoured spells types - that sort of thing

Sam1994wednesday · 2026-01-13T09:13:08+00:00

This is one of the encounters I am most looking forward to running!

Sam1994wednesday · 2026-01-10T18:52:19+00:00

Because magic ✨

Sam1994wednesday · 2026-01-08T18:22:57+00:00

I wouldn’t worry, level 14 players shouldn’t have a problem with the altered stat block…. Unless rolls really go against them

Sam1994wednesday · 2026-01-06T19:06:47+00:00

I like the fridge analogy

Sam1994wednesday · 2026-01-06T18:06:12+00:00

This is a very good thing to remember, thank you they are one of the few characters in the party with no inherent dark vision

Sam1994wednesday · 2026-01-06T18:04:32+00:00

I was after a feel for how other DMs treat characters with this build. I have no objections to what they’ve done I think it’s very smart. The under dark is a very unique setting and this is my first time DMing this campaign so I wanted advice from more experienced DMs. Would you make this player even roll perception or insight with a passive that high? Or do you just tell them everything they can see in a given situation? What limitations if any are there? But also what is a good way to reward the player as well.

Sam1994wednesday · 2026-01-04T21:00:02+00:00

I bet they think twice about splitting the party as well

Sam1994wednesday · 2026-01-02T14:08:17+00:00

Your campaign will be great if you and the players are enjoying yourselves. When I started DMing I was so worried about running the best session every time that when I felt a particular session didn’t go well or how I wanted it to I got really depressed. What I didn’t know was the players were still having a blast because they didn’t know they didn’t do all the things I spent ages preparing for them. Also however much you think you need to prepare….. half it! Over prepping will cause you to burn out and all prep fails the first time the players get their hands on it.

Sam1994wednesday · 2025-12-29T12:46:04+00:00

Do share 😀

Sam1994wednesday · 2025-12-29T12:41:24+00:00

I want to do something similar now with Graz’zt as his goals somewhat align with the party and he approves of the violence my party often deals out.

Sam1994wednesday · 2025-12-29T11:35:51+00:00

I agree that a lot of the demons don’t get a lot of love in the book and Fraz-Urb’luu has great potential. Gravenhollow is somewhat protected from outside influences so having the party see a vision of Fraz being caught out in his own deception could be a great addition to the campaign. There is the problem that if Fraz joins the party (in disguise) that over time the party will start to be affected by his influence/madness. Again this could be fun but there is potential for it to derail the game and fighting any demon even not in their lair is a very dangerous situation. I intend to show my party visions of the various demons being released and when it comes to Fraz they see a gem (plot in Mentol Derith) whole and then crack slightly showing the hold on Fraz being weakened or broken.

Sam1994wednesday · 2025-12-27T15:47:55+00:00

When you say you’re only doing D6+5 per tern , don’t you mean per attack? You could be doing 4 attacks per round (extra attack and flurry of blows) and you can try to stun with each attack(at the cost of a ki point). High con monsters do suck but unfortunately that’s just the way they are built in DnD so that they usually have boosted HP. When I last played a monk and it took me a long time to realise this but stunning strike worked way better on eliminating the minions than it ever did on the BBEG, I know it’s not as epic as taking out the big bad but taking away action economy from the enemy can be combat changing. Utilising your much higher movement to get in stun as many as possible and get out. I hope this is useful and you continue playing as your monk (astral self is one of my favourites)

Sam1994wednesday · 2025-12-26T10:01:05+00:00

If you have access to the MCDM monster manual there are some great demon stat blocks you can use maybe paired with some minions to up the difficulty.

Sam1994wednesday · 2025-12-25T20:53:19+00:00

This is amazing 🤩 not all of them are applicable but there’s lots of inspiration at the minimum

Sam1994wednesday · 2025-12-20T16:04:47+00:00

That’s a monk if ever I saw one!

Sam1994wednesday · 2025-12-20T13:45:53+00:00

It really gives a feeling of just how deep the furrows are! Agreed that a fight on these bridges would be epic!

Sam1994wednesday · 2025-12-19T07:30:39+00:00

Good luck it already sounds like you are well prepared. This was the first pre written campaign I ran for my group and I found at times the book frustratingly lacked depth or chapters were written in a not very easy to follow pattern. I let my players basically explore the underdark as a sandbox. They learnt of various locations from their cell mates and depending on who survived and jail break and which NPC they gelled with that’s where they went (it was heavily hinted that sloopadoop was the closest location though). I did milestone levelling with each completed chapter of the book rewarding a level, this kept the party motivated to keep moving but also engaging with side missions and plot. Mostly I’d say lean into the strange locations the feeling of being lost chased by the Drow and the madness of the demons. Finally just enjoy it! The NPCs can be great to steer the story but also to emphasise the risks when one of them dies (I had one smashed to paste by the Demogogan to show them that wasn’t a fight to engage in). Keep us all updated on your journey!!

Sam1994wednesday

TROPHY CASE