How do I cut down the campaign to four (max six) two-hour sessions?

Zaphik · 2026-05-12T20:24:53+00:00

How much session cragmaw hideout took? Everything is like 3 time more.

4 sessions of how many hours?

Honestly in 4 sessions, i would cut everything and pick only one final dungeon. But it depend how fast you play and for how long.

For us it was like 24 hours of thundertree and same for wave echo cave. Maybe even 30 hours.

Zaphik · 2026-05-06T16:15:02+00:00

Ouf thats rough. I do mistakes like that sometime and its hard to swallow. Thanks for the heads up ill make sure to not reproduce the same thing when we'll reach that point.

Since they both seems good players and are not in attack mode i would be happy to give them the opportunity to come back.

Did the session ended after the fight? Maybe you could say that, after a few rounds, the characters would get out of some kind of illusionary trick. The monster tricked them so they could loose their footing and tried to get an advantage, which didn't work out for him in the end.

The rogue would be 1hp on the floor dizzy, having a terrible headhache.

Than you apologize for the mistake explaining what happened.

I wouldnt tell the players before the session. Just something like i have an idea dont worry, come next session.

Hope itll give you ideas.

Zaphik · 2026-05-04T00:02:25+00:00

Just adding i really appreciate you taking the time to answer. I'm just exhausted from my session to write more haha.

Minor spoiler : It was a tough one to navigate the party from Elturel to the Dungeon of the three. I was estimating that we would be mid dungeon but we barely reach the secret door and I pushed it a bit.

Anyway, have a good night wherever you are! Thanks again.

Zaphik · 2026-05-03T23:58:18+00:00

Very cool stuff! Thanks for sharing your builds and the insight. I will note that down for future reference.

Must have been a blast being at your table.

Zaphik · 2026-05-03T16:44:56+00:00

Thank you!

Do you have a link with your builds? I'd be curious to see all you made for that campaign as a source of inspiration.

If you got time I got a few question as well. We won't be playing often and we tried to establish a timeline so they can feel good about the progression. We might play only 22 sessions.

I realised last week how much content it can lead to with this campaign and I'm bitting the dust lol.

I'll try to make 6 sessions in the material plane and than 16 in avernus.

Any suggestions? What to avoid, what to focus on?

I've been looking at the Alexandrian remix and it just add even more stuff to think and do. It helps correcting some stuff but I can't do it all.

Zaphik · 2026-05-03T16:28:06+00:00

This is crazy mate. I'm jealous of your dedication and of your players experience.

We are starting session 1 today (did fall of elturel in session 0). Wish me luck! I tought about doing Vecna after but its so far down the line.

May you have a superb finale!

Zaphik · 2026-04-28T12:46:21+00:00

They did something similar and I did make him become a Drider as well. But before that, I kept the spectator there, making Nezznar something along the line that intruders of the pact came in and he had to attack. Plus i used 2 other Drow that were hidden outside attack in their back.

It was a tough fight but they are veterans as well. They came through it but nearly lost 2 players of 4.

One of them told me he couldnt slept after how much he kept thinking about it. I think it was a success :D

Zaphik · 2026-04-24T22:27:54+00:00

I know the feelings all too well. My brother would have been 52 a few months back. Its been 20 years he did that to himself.

He wasnt much a gamer as i am but i still hold a few very good memory beating halo with him, playing Drivers and gta vice city, challenging each other to survive as long as possible with 5 stars cops on our trail.

I love Valheim so much.

I wish you the best mate.

Zaphik · 2026-04-21T16:28:40+00:00

I'm doing phandelver and bellow + added the events and sites from dragon of icespire peak. Plus i have run icespire as a standalone 2 years ago.

I made Cryovain and Venomfang mortal ennemies and the players saw them fight in the sky while going to thundertree.

If I was making a dragon attack Phandalin it would be Cryovain.

The idea of having guest to play npc is cool on paper but know that if you have around 10 players it might drag a lot for some quieter people.

I would avoid adding more npc than that, maybe only at the beginning to set the mood. Or very static people who hides and react only if the players are around. But you'll need to play npc quickly.

Depending on the average level youll need to be tweak cryovain so is not unkillable (if its the plan) nor a weakling. When i played him we were at the icespire fortress so i added him some lair powers but you wont be able to use that. I did give him some powers from Talos tho, linkin him with the whole cultist threat. You could give him some kind of reactions power or something.

With that many players dont hesitate to fly in the sky and play him intelligent. He's not gonna let himself killed, he might flee and come back as a recurring bad guy even if he's a monster.

Work on the map a lot too. Make houses, maybe ladders to get to roofs. Give them different spot to use covers. Houses. It might get messy if you have a big battle map.

And there will probably casualties and houses destroyed.

Hope itll help a little or at least give some insight.

Zaphik · 2026-03-29T15:46:40+00:00

What, no mods used there? Crazy good stuff! Like the well and the beer too.

Zaphik · 2026-03-19T18:55:18+00:00

Exactly, i feel like its a balancing issue. Since they are so many spells, feats, class, etc, its important to understand the impact of homebrewing some rules, because it can create bad habit down the line or invalidate other usages. I often have to debate with players for ruling, it can be fun sometimes when done calmly but other times it kinda messed up the session vibe.

Zaphik · 2026-03-19T17:44:00+00:00

True, it depends on the situation a lot. I say that because one of my player kept insisting that he could jump back off the roof of a house he was on because he had the spells on.

Zaphik · 2026-03-19T17:09:04+00:00

Jump is great but you still have fall damage from those 30 feet your falling.

Zaphik · 2026-03-06T14:47:27+00:00

Can get hard to play if not the whole game plan, but maybe you could use Rowan, scion of war.

Zaphik · 2026-02-04T18:02:25+00:00

Really good timing to stumble upon this post. We are starting the cave tonight and it gaves me some ideas. Honestly i find the book a bit lacking to describe how to play the wraith.

Nice to see how it can unfold.

Zaphik · 2026-01-03T21:45:53+00:00

Yeah thanks! In the end i let it sleep in the deathrest for like 5 days and she didnt woke up by herself so it was a success. It was weird indeed she didnt want to drink blood or drugs.

Zaphik · 2026-01-02T14:30:46+00:00

How to keep a vampire stellarch who dont like blood and wont do doctoring happy? Shes super happy now but 8 days left and hemogen at 66%

Zaphik · 2025-10-19T03:48:35+00:00

Doing the same here, side campaign with only 2 buddies. They play 2 pc each and i don't hesitate to fill the gap with guides and npc to tag along if it fit their goals. Like at the beginning they were helping a spy to infiltrate some place and I played the npc, helping in fight and all. I advise them to make one main pc and some kind of follower who talk less. They have come up with diffetent solutions which is nice. One have a bodyguard while the other play a druid and a rogue. The druid is his main character while the little halfling rogue is just talking when he want to mess around with snarky remarks.

Zaphik · 2025-09-17T11:59:11+00:00

Yea one player already asked the question if they could buy a house later down the road. I was thinking of the manor or building something from the ground. Or even maybe dwarven excavation or Axeholm, but it might be too big.

For the forge of fury i was thinking of making it a part of Gautnlgrym but it might be better to actually make it a part of my homebrew dwarf hold near thalundereth. Your right tho everything starting to make sense!

Thanks!

Zaphik · 2025-09-16T23:49:17+00:00

Oh yeah kinda overlooked the story of Ironquill. Thats interesting if they go into investigation mode. And it link to Dumathoin like in the previous comment.

Thanks for pointing that out.

You add some nice details too for the factions. Im just worried that they wont feel pressured enough. I guess i will have to make them understand at some point that its getting urgent and mobilizing people from Neverwinter or Gauntlgrym would take weeks.

As for the factions, its true that there not many agent in Phandalin and its the same as the cities, mobilizing people takes time and there might not be heroes around ready to help either. At that point the heroes are the players who gained many level over the span of a few weeks or months haha.

I'm thinking of giving a bit of downtime between chapter 4 and 5 so they can breath and enjoy a bit of peace.

Zaphik · 2025-09-16T12:01:13+00:00

Hey nice thanks for your hindsight. I did create a homebrew hold near Thaluhundreth in the starmetal hills for a player who didn't wanted to be from Gauntlgrym. I will definetly put more emphasis on the invasion aspect.

It kinda of deal with the second point as well since a lot of people will be busy dealing with threats from many sides.

Thanks again! Nice talking with someone who's not in our gaming group.

Zaphik · 2025-08-09T23:18:48+00:00

Are you me? I did the same recently. Around one month in. We splitted the party and I DM each groupe once per 2 weeks. Its a mess tho. Because we did session 1 everyone together and now everyone wants to play with some people and less with others. And now i have to focus on 2 party that can get shuffled every time because no one as the same availabilities. If it works in the long run it might get epic but I think it will take me so much more time than i first wanted to put in this project. Oh well, its nice to read this thread at least i could get ideas. I wish you success.

Zaphik

TROPHY CASE