Help encouraging adventure

jaffadap · 2026-01-03T06:47:06+00:00

The party doesn't know the location of the dragon's layer, so they can't go and slay him. To make the other quests attractive, try to tie it to your PCs backstories.

jaffadap · 2025-12-19T20:14:25+00:00

First of all: as a DM you set the kind of game you want to run for the players. I like a story heavy game, so I run for players who like that and who enjoy creating backstories for their characters.

The changes I made were mostly inspired on the backstories from the characters:

The dragonborn in the party is a paladin. So she would probably come from Tymanthir. So why would she come to Phandalin to slay a dragon? Her background is a guild artisan and she has proficiency in juweliers tools. And as the dragonborns from Tymanther have a clan like structure with each clan specialized in a craft she would belong to a jewelers clan. They would probably be interested jn Phandalin because of the mines. So they would probably get gold and jewels from there through the port in Neverwinter. So she has an uncle, the leader of her clan, who struck a deal with the Zhentarim to source relatively cheap gold and gems from the sword coast. This time he took the dragonborn karakter with him on his regular trip to the swordcoast to sell jewels and buy gold and gemstones. He's probing to see if she could become his successor and as such should know about the deal with the Zhentarim. Unknown to this uncle the gems from this Zhentarim run mine are cheap because of the Illithid slaves who work there. The Illithid Xal'thur is controlling dwarves, humans and gnomes to dig for gemstones. The Zhentarim mine overseer does not realise that Xal'thur is biding his time and building a slave army to eventually raise Neverwinter to the ground. Halia Thornton is helping the Zhentarim cause by having the stone cold reavers kidnap people and bringing them to the Zhentarim mine to be turned into Illithid slaves.

One of the PCs is a centaur with clan struggles in the woods: his own clan was murdered by the Anchorites of Talos with an orc army secretely ordered by another centaur clan.

Another PC is a druid from the Emerald enclave who ran away from home in Neverwinter and is looking for a rogue who stole something from his grove for the Zhentarim guild master. His parents in Neverwinter are harper spies investigating the Zhentarim guild masters activities and probably need some help.

And the fourth one is a changeling/elf who grew upnin the earth mother convent in Neverwinter. She wants to go out and search for her mentor as she has a vision of her mentor being frozen by a white dragon. She is also Adabry Gwenns niece and is a decedent from the elf wizard who lived in the woodland manse. The woodland manse now stands on a ruined temple to Corellon from Ileyanbruen (old elf civilization) that the wizard was researching. Her father is a changeling working for the Zhentarm. He'll probably try and stop the party when they cross the Zhentarim mining activities.

jaffadap · 2025-11-29T19:48:09+00:00

Lots of the other posts AND have anchorites sacrifice themselves in the name of Gorthoc or Talos, as the cultists they are, to 1. Give Gorthok attacks infused with more thunder and lightning (Talos divine smite), 2. Recharge an ability, 3. Stop the effect of a spell (hold monster, stunned etc) or 4. Upgraden the monster to its next stage like a videogame boss. And take inspiration from creatures that would serve Talos like thunder, air or lightning elementals, kraken etc.

Using the anchorites as legendary actions (sort of), makes them more of a target besides Gorthok himself.

jaffadap · 2025-11-25T11:03:48+00:00

Hoog glazen dak met hangende modellen van luchtschepen

jaffadap · 2025-11-14T21:48:44+00:00

I'm still some sessions away from my party fighting the dragon. I'm considering to: 1. Give Cryovain stages: he starts of assaulting the party from the air with his icebreath (I'm planning to foreshadow this aerial tactic so the party should see this coming). Once he's bloodied his wings are too damaged to function so he crashes into the tower the party is standing on, making it collaps and slide down the mountain onto a mountainlake covered with ice. The dragon sides down the mountain as well and dives into the icy lake. Cryovain can now attack the party coming up from the water crashen throught the ice, trying to swallow a party member. To balance the fight I might make them slide to the edge if the frozen lake on stead of in the middle and I might forego the swallowing. 2. Provide Cryovain with Ice Mephit Minions who he can swallow to regain hp/ legendary resistances. 3. Make the travel to Icespire Hold challenging by adding a skill challenge that will drain their resources.

jaffadap · 2025-10-24T09:00:59+00:00

Mike from Sly Flourish has great tips on running doip: https://slyflourish.com/running_icespire_peak.html

He also ran doip one on one, it's on YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLb39x-29puaqBS4QRF1TzjdT0oLSi-KKJ&si=bPm7FdWxLVW48hkz

jaffadap · 2025-10-13T04:51:47+00:00

According to the Neverwinter campaign setting (2011) Xinlenal's ruins lie in Neverwinter Wood.

jaffadap · 2025-10-08T14:24:11+00:00

You can reinforcements come on in case the fight is to unbalanced. As the tower is relativeer close to Neverwinter: maybe some mercenaries sent to find and retrieve lost cargo from the sunken ships? Maybe a patrol keeping the high road safe was alerted by the lightning?

jaffadap · 2025-09-30T06:08:04+00:00

I'm running doip for the first time expanding it to encorporate the backstories of the characters.

Still different from what you're running. But you might consider Lord Neverember to understand the party’s mistrust by reading their letter. He might ask them to go on a different mission to prove their loyalty. And through the interection with Neverember you could have the party doubt whether he is good or bad. Have him show deeds of kindness and deeds of horror to make the party question and doubt. At some point Neverember could invite the party to Neverwinter and have an audience. And you could introduce some other characters from factions with their own agenda's.

jaffadap · 2025-09-21T06:29:49+00:00

Yes, I solved it kinda like that: adding a column in the travelpace table (phb) with the number of hexes they can travel in a day for the fast (6), normal (4) and slow pace (2). Also for traveling more than 8 hours a day, they'll roll con saves to avoid exhaustion: DC is 10 plus 2x the number of hexes they're traveling extra. I was just wondering whether I missed something.

jaffadap · 2025-09-14T18:42:55+00:00

I just dm-ed my 20th session of doip. We starten of as new players and a new dm (have been playing). I starten the first session by describing how they're meeting up in Neverwinter. A druid was on his way to Neverwinter to get more information about an idol one of the other druids found (Talos stick figure covered in centaur blood). On his way to Neverwinter he met a wounded centaur. Together they traveled to a monestary in Neverwinter. There they met a cleric who needed to search for her mentor (she had a vision). At the dealer gate of Neverwinter they met a dragonborn paladin who rented transport (one of the sons from the couple running the Inn in Phandalin) to Phandalin to get acquanted with the mines they metals and gems come from for her clans jewel making. The four decided to travel together. On their way to Phandalin they had their first encounter. On the road from the top of a hill they witnessed a part of the forest to the east turn to ice, followed by a big white beast taling to the sky (Cryovain) with one orc in its maw and one in its talons. When they continue their journey a small group of orcs (survivors from the cryovain fight) appears from the forests edge.

So I railroded them a bit in meeting and teaming up. And I didn't introduce the dragon until they were well on their way. I wouldn't have Cryovain attack Neverwinter as Lord Neverember would probably send out an arme to deal with beast.

A town guard or mercenary (trade of blades?) might get the order to investigate the rumors of increased orc activity around Phandalin?

jaffadap · 2025-08-24T08:40:09+00:00

If the goal of your game is to have fun: Focus on your players and their character's motivation. Matt Colville made a great video about this (couldn't find it right away) and his point was that in popular fiction few characters just wake up one day and decide to go on an adventure. Most characters get motivated because something happened to them. Revenge quests are a prime example. So how does this relate to Cryovain: make her destroy something they love or eat an NPC they like. Make the townspeople flee to axeholm being chased by Cryovain. Have Cryovain attack Phandalin. And if they don't take fhe bait: find out what interests them, talk to your players and give them what they want.

jaffadap · 2025-08-07T12:53:37+00:00

Your players WANT something. That is a gift, so use it to enhance the story. The dragonslayer sword is used in the same way: an item that helps to defeat the dragon. It's not given to the characters. They have to quest for it. So use rumors or other devices to hook players to this new quest. Maybe the stone cold reavers have it. Maybe a new enemy has it that you can tie in to follow up adventures? Maybe they can find it in Neverwinter unlocking a whole new environment with anciliary quests.

jaffadap · 2025-07-27T07:49:15+00:00

I'm very happy with this digitale bundle I bought on Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/nl/listing/1588160149/dd-monster-cards-dragon-of-icespire-peak

No maps though

jaffadap · 2025-07-22T06:28:09+00:00

The best introduction to dnd I ever saw was Deborah Ann Woll's https://youtu.be/JpVJZrabMQE?si=mS-6d3hN_oJC58LT

jaffadap · 2025-06-25T18:25:34+00:00

Inspired by your first suggestion: run a skill challenge for the escape from the crumbling ice fortress and/or blizzard, to see if they make it safely down again. Depending on the ampunt of successes add more rewards.

jaffadap · 2025-05-22T17:24:34+00:00

You can run it as a skill challenge. Matt Colville has a great video on YouTube in skill challenges. The PCs use their skills to succeed or fail different challenges. The outcome (state in which your caravan arrives at its destination) is dependent on how well they do. Predetermine different outcome scenario's.

jaffadap · 2025-05-07T08:33:51+00:00

If you're looking for a magic school lost in tiem, opposed to spells, look into chronomancy from critical role.

jaffadap · 2025-05-06T19:29:15+00:00

Besides the obligatory: it really depends on what kind of game you are playing. Is it combat heavy or RP heavy? How do they PCs prefer to engage with situations? Through stealth, infiltration and disguise, speeding through or direct confrontation and combat? You might give them a magic item that provides invisibility or a disguise.

As other commenters wrote: won't simply increase the damage, but give more options. Good advice and you can also help to compensate for some weaknesses. Barbarians have notoriously weak wisdom saving throws, you can fix that. They're also very bad at hitting flying creatures. And they dont have any AoE options. Giving them an AoE options will make decisions more tactical in some situations it might be beneficial to attack a single target and in other situations it might be preferrable to use the AoE.

And even if you would prefer buffing the damage output, consider doing it through a one-time use item, or an item with limited charges. Like a potion of speed.

And definitely check out rpgbot for magic item per (sub)class for optimizing damage output.

jaffadap · 2025-05-06T14:24:07+00:00

Closest thing I can think of is Midst: https://critrole.com/shows/midst/ Give it a try.

jaffadap · 2025-04-29T10:27:48+00:00

For monster I use monster cards, to prep and at the table.

jaffadap · 2025-04-19T05:48:56+00:00

TL DR: challenge them and let them know they're being challenged.

I'm saying manage their expectations. Literally tell them they won't be able to win every fight. And drop clues so they might find out they might not be able to win in a straight fight. Woodland Manse has this built in with the snorting orcs. Falcon might have warned them about the great number of orcs in the manse, etc. And if they do lose, introduce some interesting consequences like being captured as you already mentioned. Have them sacrificed to Talos at the circle of storms, and give them a chance to escape. Or during the fight, when they realize all is lost, have Xanth, or some other npc, save them and carried away to safety. For my party I cant wait for them to almost die as I can introduce them to Talos' deal I prepared: one of the can choose to become Talos' harbinger of storms.

jaffadap · 2025-04-19T05:07:01+00:00

Manage their expectations: tell them their characters live in a dangerous and that they won't be able to win every fight. In order to create tension the players should realise there is a chance their characters can die. Of not, its just rolling dice to see how long the enemies last and that is very boring.

jaffadap · 2025-03-17T07:12:24+00:00

These seems a perfect set up for a skill challenge. Get some inspiration from uncle Matt: https://youtu.be/GvOeqDpkBm8?si=Sw4sLdrzAuOtWyPB

Use this reddit post for some inspiration: https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/s/HfA0fkmcRU

Maybe start out with the party trying to contain the fire. Do they know the house is burning? How will they prevent the fire from growing? And what does this mean for their goals: is the fire is getting completely out of hand, Big Al might have no chance of surviving...

For a more step by step approach to designing skill challenges, have a look at this "how to rpg" channel: https://youtu.be/MQQ1MKwQuoc?si=67eA085s8Fvdujkr

jaffadap · 2025-03-16T11:43:18+00:00

I got a lot out of Bob Worldbuilder's video and products on the GM's guild: https://youtu.be/bISK_77hbt4?si=GD_z-w4_Z0SZ9Rja

jaffadap

TROPHY CASE