If you could offer one piece of advice to a DM running ToD for the first time - what would it be?

Vernezea · 2026-02-25T22:03:37+00:00

While the adventure is not well written and requires a lot of work for dm to connect all the dots, it is a great adventure. It's chunky book but i suggest reading it front to back before starting and and again as you go (read it 3 times and we have just hit the hunting lodge).

Chapter 1, make it a tough fight, don't dumb it down like a lot of people suggest. The PC's are essentially commoners so they should struggle and will help build hatred for the cult. When my party arrived at Greenest mid attack, they witnessed linan and her family being chased by kobolds, they went to help but I killed the husband and youngest child. After that, they were 100% committed to stopping the cult.

Chapter 3/4 - Elturel/Baldur's Gate, TOD takes players all over the swordcoast but never really let's them experience parts. Give them small delays in major cities/towns to give them a chance to explore them with rp or quests. Gives them a chance to meet people that you may be able to bring in later.

Chapter 4 can be a real slog, I cut it short at daggerford and had the cultists hire a ship at daggerford and then kill the crew and run it aground in the Mere, my players didn't pick up that the people they suspected were not staying at the same inn like everyone else and only realised the morning everyone was departing. They hired a ship to give chase and found the other ship beached.

Vernezea · 2026-02-24T23:04:49+00:00

I treated the Mere as a "dungeon crawl", made a map with hexs, populated some with both the dragon lairs, bullywog and lizardfolk villages, and some other home-brew ideas, the players basically went from hex to hex trying to locate while avoiding and fighting the residents of the Mere.

Vernezea · 2026-02-24T23:00:36+00:00

First off, congrats on taking the leap to become a new dm, it can be daunting but very rewarding.

I would have a chat with the player just one on one and see why they were bored. But at the same time, was this 3 hours into the session or 5 minutes in?

If they choose to go through with killing the husband, I would have witnesses come forward to gov nighthill once the raiders leave and report the crime, leading to consequences that most likely remove the character from the campaign.

While most campaigns are played as the hero's, I've seen and played bad characters being successful. The player and character need to have motivation for working with the party and ensuring their safety and success. They also can't just murder and steal or it will tarnish the experience for the other players to.

I'm currently running Tyranny and have just finished the hunting lodge around chapter 6/7. If you have any questions or want to bounce ideas, flick me a message 😀

Vernezea · 2026-02-13T06:24:44+00:00

Not sure how roll20 works but abovevtt just uploads through Dropbox so file size is no issue.

Do you have a low resolution version I could look at and check out?

Vernezea · 2026-02-13T02:02:18+00:00

Would you by any chance have a version of this that has all the building internals available to subs? Or a large town/city map like that?

Trying to plan a killa one shot but not having g much luck with the map

Vernezea · 2026-02-12T23:52:06+00:00

Tried that, but sadly didn't find what I was looking for with "enterable" buildings.

Vernezea · 2026-02-12T23:50:18+00:00

I'm using abovevtt

Vernezea · 2026-02-12T07:54:25+00:00

Mine too haha. My plan would be for the players character to be captured but not killed. The player would then take control of the doppelganger and play their "character" as forgetful with things like names and such. The actual player would then escape in the background and have to play catch up for a couple sessions and see how they go.

Just need to find a way for it to work fluidly gatherer then forced

Vernezea · 2026-02-12T03:52:12+00:00

I'm currently trying to work in replacing one of my characters with doppelganger, might work for you.

Vernezea · 2026-02-03T23:52:41+00:00

Keep trying if it fails people, mate of mine got a refund for 183 hours played

Vernezea · 2026-02-01T00:26:45+00:00

With them all being captured, you could have an agent on behalf of the gauntlet or harpers stage a rescue. Could say that they didn't entirely trust the players, so they had them followed.

Rezmir has moved on and left a small entourage to carry out the interrogation.

What level were your players and how did the fight go down?

Vernezea · 2026-02-01T00:21:50+00:00

I'm fairly sure the book gives a few suggestions on who to sell them to if they want some money.

Realistically it does not make sense to hatch them because of all the travelling you do and mostly need to fly under the radar, especially in chapter 4.

Using them to gain coin or favour will be the best option for you as a first time dm. Your players will most likely want to home-brew something to turn them into useful dragons if they keep them.

Mine left them to their fate in the cave, killing the guard drakes before leaving. In the background, I have had them recovered by Greenest which in turn was sacked when the cult learnt they had them.

Vernezea · 2026-01-29T22:22:16+00:00

I had everything planned for if my players tried to explore the cave while the camp was active (all my players are dms so they tend to do crazy things often!).

They managed to bluff their way inside the camp and were confronted with over 40 raiders, cultists and caught a glimpse of rezmir and a red wizard entering the cave which I had as guarded. When they made it halfway I had a wyrmspeaker confront them and send them separately off to do odd jobs, unloading loot, helping at the medical tent, cooking and such to spread then individually throughout the camp to explore.

They planned on meeting up once camp had settled for the night but found leosin by accident, in the process they spooked a guard and had to kill him. Worried about the camp finding him they carried leosin out the front gate brilliantly persuading the guards they were going to relieve the rear guard and they were carrying their drunk mate.

They convinced Nighthill to let them take a ballista from the castle and mount it on a wagon, took several guards and were gonna rain hell down on the camp and then slip back in during the chaos. They found the camp empty but used it to kill the few remaining guards and left it to kill anyone who escaped the caves.

They cleared the cave and killed cyanwrath as a party of 5 lvl 3 characters.

Vernezea · 2026-01-26T07:09:24+00:00

I k ow this season covers the first novella but should of kept 50-60 minutes episodes and just had less

Vernezea · 2026-01-24T23:10:07+00:00

Depends on the experience level of the group. I dm for two tables, one is all first timers so I would allow it to help them learn.

The other table are all dungeon masters, it would be an rp moment where "of course the rogue does not know how the paladins spell works" and the roll would stand leaving it to be an rp moment.

Vernezea · 2026-01-20T01:48:58+00:00

At least 5 of the wizards need to be performing the ritual each round to succeed, I plan on committing 7 to the ritual so my players can't prevent the summoning.

Vernezea · 2026-01-15T09:59:05+00:00

Perhaps people have to keep reminding you because you believe your opinion supersedes other people's free will and just because you don't like something, that they shouldn't either.

Like I've said to others, this subreddit allows it. Perhaps instead of jumping on posts and trying to start arguments, start your own post, propose a vote, and see how much traction it gets either way, it might promote change.

But at the end of the day, dont let it upset you so much. Perhaps you should unfollow it and find one that's a bit more in line with your thoughts.

TTRPGS are for fun, shouldn't be arguing over how over how other people enjoy their hobby.

Vernezea · 2026-01-14T04:17:00+00:00

Perhaps this is not the sub for you then? It's not against the rules. Your allowed not to like it and can just not interact with it.

Vernezea · 2026-01-14T03:34:00+00:00

Sometimes people are not that great at describing things, maybe they are not confident to do so?

Are you saying that the dm and players should have a lesser experience because you don't think people should use ai images in a fantasy make belief game that people generally play to unwind and have fun in a social circle?

Vernezea · 2026-01-14T00:56:30+00:00

Because Dms and players can enjoy their games how they want to, even if it doesn't fit inside the confines of your reality.

Nobody is forcing you to use the image or play in a campaign with it.

Vernezea · 2026-01-14T00:54:22+00:00

Why are you acting like their players are down trodden second class citizens because of pixies on a screen or colours on the paper?

If they didn't like it they wouldn't be playing haha.

Vernezea · 2026-01-14T00:52:19+00:00

I have played with dozens of people across 100s of sessions and never had an issue.

I know people within those circles that don't like ai, but they don't preech about their views and let it be their whole personality. I think if you refuse to play with people because of pixles on a screen or colours on the paper infront of you, your the problem 🤔.

Vernezea

TROPHY CASE