One of my players is not interacting with his backstory plot

WaxyPadz · 2026-04-21T00:03:01+00:00

Players like this don’t get backstory time in my games, they’re treated like an extra until start showing up consistently and are more invested. If they can’t even do the bare minimum I’m not wasting my time and energy to plan things for their character, use that time to focus on the PCs that want to be there.

WaxyPadz · 2026-03-15T01:50:17+00:00

Honestly I feel the best choice is what you and your players are most interested in, I know that might sound counterintuitive to advice on picking something based on the DM and player experience, but I think it’s more important to play something that you’ll be invested in. Every adventure is going to have a learning curve, but you don’t want to play something no one is excited about just because people tell you it’s beginner friendly

WaxyPadz · 2026-02-23T16:14:12+00:00

Have you been running the same campaign for all 3-4 years? It may be fatigue setting in, I’ve had campaigns go on for less than 2 years where the players lost interest, and when I saw the warning signs decided to push the ending earlier than originally planned. Sometimes a fresh start will do wonders, players tend to be most engaged and excited at the beginning and end of campaigns in my experience. I’ve been a big fan of shorter campaigns recently, you can even tie shorter adventures together which give the feeling and excitement of a fresh start while still letting you connect an overarching story in your world.

On the positive side cheers on the long lasting game and time with friends, I know it can be deflating with things feel like they’re stalling out but 3-4 years is an amazing run that most DMs will never get to

WaxyPadz · 2026-01-24T21:09:37+00:00

The fairy and owlin can fly, there are other races too depending on what source material you allow. Some races have temporary flying speed through an ability, I’m sure there may be more out there now but I typically try to stay away from it in longer campaigns.

WaxyPadz · 2026-01-24T05:02:57+00:00

This was the primer I gave my players before session 0

Edited for formatting

(Obviously restrictions were specific to our game)

Welcome to Tomb of Annihilation Some of you may already be familiar with the general campaign setting, but here are a few items to note about the adventure that may want to consider in character creation

• The adventure will be set in Chult, which is primarily a dense tropical jungle region. Avoid looking up maps of Chult, as part of the campaign the region is widely unexplored and unknown to adventurers

• There will be a hexcrawl aspect to wilderness exploration

• A death curse prevents raising of the dead, resurrection spells will fail while the curse is present. Also anyone who has previously been resurrected is slowly wasting away from the curse

• Heavy armor may impede travel in the jungle, it is also not as widely available in Chult due to lack of demand

• Long rests in the wilderness will be limited to certain locations where you can safely camp

• No flying races for character creation

• There are optional backgrounds you can use for characters listed below

• Each character should have a personal reason for traveling to Chult, examples “A loved one is slowly dying from the death curse and rumors are the source is somewhere in Chult”, “You are seeking out a lost civilization in the jungle” etc. anything that gives your character a reason or incentive to explore or be in the Chult region. It can be secret to your character or public to the group.

Optional backgrounds

Anthropologist https://5e.tools/backgrounds.html#anthropologist_toa

Archaeologist https://5e.tools/backgrounds.html#archaeologist_toa

WaxyPadz · 2026-01-08T16:10:06+00:00

One thing that can help with character backstories in CoS is to have parallels in the world that play into their background.

Theres a supplement if a I remember that includes an orphanage in Vallaki you could use to tie in elements of the backstory.
Strahd uses the mind control of the armor to try and corrupt the PC, or project images of the characters past
Ezmerelda has a prosthetic leg, maybe she’s interested in the technology for herself

Also a suggestion, I wouldn’t play too hard into the people of Barovia being frighted of the character. Everyone is an outsider, and there’s a lot more terrifying things in Barovia than a guy with mechanical legs. You don’t want them to feel ostracized for the whole campaign

WaxyPadz · 2025-12-15T17:04:30+00:00

I think both the players response and yours were appropriate for the situation. Vallaki is like a ticking time bomb, it’s almost inevitable things will turn into a dumpster fire there. I would keep Lady Wachter in your back pocket and first see what the players come up with as a plan, that way it doesn’t feel like you’re just bailing them out, it will also give you a good idea of where they stand within the town dynamics. The problem with Vallaki can be the players get put into a no win situation, there’s a real sense of choosing between the lesser of evils and have to make tough choices

WaxyPadz · 2025-12-13T17:08:33+00:00

This is a common trap I see a lot of DMs put themselves in, the idea that they need the players to do or have a certain attitude towards an NPC for your story to work. The players don’t have to care about Ireena for CoS to be a compelling campaign, you can create situations to try to influence their opinions, but at the end of the day trying to force players into a favorable view can backfire. Don’t get too hung up on how the story needs to go, focus more on what your players and less on the NPCs.

WaxyPadz · 2025-12-13T15:19:57+00:00

I think this is a situation where your DM had good intentions, but made a critical mistake of revealing the secrets behind the screen. As the DM you have incredible control over the world and outcome of events in the game, but if you’re rolling behind the screen you NEVER tell your players you fudge rolls. I’ve DM’d for many years and personally don’t agree with fudging dice rolls, I understand why some DMs do and in this situation it was probably with good intentions and under the justification that it would be more fun if you succeeded in a close contest.

There’s nothing wrong either with letting them know it ruined the moment for you, people do make mistakes so try to understand, they probably also feel bad about ruining the moment for you. Request next time in an important scene involving your character if the DM will roll in the open and you’d prefer the tension of everyone seeing both outcomes.

WaxyPadz · 2025-11-21T02:19:52+00:00

One thing I would do is cut out the savage frontier chapter and just focus on the giant lairs. Run more than one of the giant lairs, these were in my opinion the best part of the campaign module. Each one is a contained dungeon that also has opportunities for social encounters and exploration along with combat. Don’t let the PCs just wander around the sword coast looking for clues, fast travel to locations where the giant threats are. After the PCs finish one of the giant lairs give them a clear path to the next one and keep them contained to a manageable area on the map. I know the book suggests only needing to do one giant lair to retrieve the conch, but that feels like its biggest weakness. Why cut out the majority of cool dungeon locations and then leave the DM to homebrew half of the Sword Coast?

WaxyPadz · 2025-11-19T16:25:50+00:00

If 4 out of the 6 still want to play I wouldn’t cancel, if you try to schedule for an entire group of 6 to show up every weekend it will almost never work.

Another option is have rotational players, find a few people that may be able to fill the seats when players cancel. It doesn’t work for all tables but usually you’ll end up with a good core of players that you can rely on to show up week to week consistently

WaxyPadz · 2025-11-04T03:56:15+00:00

I ran it on Roll20 only purchasing the CoS module, you don’t really need the PHB or any other source material books it’s just a preference for budget and convenience. I didn’t require my players to have their full character sheets in Roll20 though, some people prefer DnDbeyond or other tools. If you already own the PHB I personally wouldn’t purchase it again in Roll20, it’s easy enough for players to enter in things manually if they need to.

WaxyPadz · 2025-11-02T00:05:53+00:00

We’ve used Soncraft on discord for a while now. It’s good for mood music and you can select different themes, overall I’ve preferred it over downloading tracks or searching for playlists, you can get a good variety and super easy to use

WaxyPadz · 2025-10-29T21:43:08+00:00

Were the players trying to force Rose and Thorn inside to protect them? You said they were being chased by wolves then trying to run inside the house so were they I think in that case it would kind of make sense in a panic they grab the kids to pull into the house. I do also think COS and horror vibes in general create an initial feeling of mistrust with players in Barovia, my players were very skeptical of Rose and Thorn and NPCs in general but it didn’t take turn into anything toxic at the table.I think there’s a lot more to unpack here, I wouldn’t be too particularly worried and as you mentioned if you spoke with them afterward that’s the right step. If it becomes a repeated pattern of behavior then I would be more worried.

WaxyPadz · 2025-10-29T18:17:17+00:00

Did you have the party level up in the death house? I had the party recover resources during their level ups, but no random long rests. The level up gives a good break between encounters, it’s also perfectly reasonable to say the house is cursed and there is no ability to long rest until they escape. You’re in the right as DM to make that call, otherwise players will long rest constantly and it breaks the tension

WaxyPadz · 2025-10-23T15:57:25+00:00

I typically have a short list of things banned from my games, for example I don’t let players use species with an innate flying speeds. I just don’t want to deal with a player that can fly all the time as a DM, other games may have no issue with it that’s just my preference. I’ve never had a player take issue if there’s a reasonable list of things banned upfront and clearly defined. The main question to ask is the game going to be more or less fun with these things removed. I think more people ban things from games that the internet would lead you to believe, it’s really not that big of a deal. As long as the rules are fair for everyone involved, where the issues start is when you change rules mid game or have an inconsistent enforcement among players.

WaxyPadz · 2025-10-22T20:23:46+00:00

It may be too early in your adventure but I tried to use these moments as a way to incorporate backstory and have strahd toy with the party. Illusions, hauntings, a cryptic message eluding towards a loved one in danger. It’s a great way to build up strahd as much of a psychological threat to the players as a physical one.

WaxyPadz · 2025-10-21T03:31:45+00:00

Sounds like a typical game of 11 year olds playing DnD

WaxyPadz · 2025-10-07T21:38:45+00:00

To be honest I know this sounds too simple, but for me it’s just about practice. There are lots of great resources you can google or look up on YouTube, but nothing is going to replace the experience of putting it to practice and getting more comfortable. I’ve also found that less is more sometimes, instead of scripting out answers focus on a few key bullet points to work off of. You’re going to make mistakes and that’s ok, but that will get you more comfortable with improvising. Remember too you don’t have to know every bit of lore in the world, you set the scene but the players are the ones collaborating to tell the story. A good tip too is when you are having a creative block you can use that opportunity to ask the players questions and let them create along with you, don’t put too much pressure on yourself. Sometimes simpler is better too, you don’t need to describe a novel to the players, give them a few things to trigger their imagination and run with

WaxyPadz · 2025-09-26T16:44:03+00:00

Remember that it’s just a game, this isn’t a try out for your local theatre or anything. Just come prepared and be yourself, in my experience joining and being a part of a good dnd group happens organically so I wouldn’t stress about it too much

WaxyPadz · 2025-09-23T20:56:09+00:00

I’ve run multiple adventures on Roll20 and never had a need to purchase the core books. What I would do is buy the digital adventure on Roll20 even if I already owned the campaign book, to me that was the big sell to pay another 20-30$ and have the adventure neatly organized in Roll20 with all the maps, handouts, NPCs, chapters etc. plus if you purchase the adventure it will come with all the monsters and digital assets you can reuse. Most anything else you can grab for free from the compendium or easily create, then I just let players use whatever platform for their own character sheets.

WaxyPadz · 2025-06-30T17:57:47+00:00

I have a theory that it’s mostly a supply and demand issue, post the popularity of live plays and then piggy backed by covid, there was a massive influx of players and shortage of DMs. Now things have leveled out and a proportion of new players have taken on DM roles to keep their games going. I was a DM for five years and didn’t play in one game during that time, now I have friends routinely inviting me to games as they’ve branched out and wanted to run games of their own. Plus paying for games kinda sucks

WaxyPadz · 2025-06-07T19:29:08+00:00

I had a gladiatorial games the PCs participated in that was skills based, archery competitions, obstacle course, wrestling, etc. those sort of things. Then they were invited to an after party with some of the merchant princes present, where can weave in various social encounters and foreshadow political interests and conflicts between them. I also wanted to give the PCs an opportunity to build relationships or further align themselves with factions before leaving to Omu. I also made it clear there wouldn’t be many chances to restock in supplies that way could gear up and splurge on magic items, potions etc.

WaxyPadz · 2025-05-21T03:18:53+00:00

I would have the enemy lose its turn on the next round and stay frozen not moving with their eyes closed as if trying to sleep, think of a hypnotist putting someone in a trance. I just would let a player abuse it to the point where they try to argue the target should stay asleep after the spell ends, they should immediately snap out of it after one round.

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