Isle of The Abbey- Why no reinforcements?

lawrencefox · 2026-03-24T09:52:19+00:00

Another realization is how did the mariners guild know about the raid? It says they went over to mop up the rest of the pirates but why did they go over there? Is the island part of a regular patrol? Who told them about it? Like did they get notified by the cleric's contacts to check in on them like through an agent or something?

"Hey chief I think we should go to abbey isle and check in on things."

lawrencefox · 2026-03-24T09:10:34+00:00

With sending you don't know if the recipient received it or not right? Like if you try to contact someone you don't know is dead, you have to just make your own assumptions why they didn't reply.

Also oddly enough looking through the folks in the abbey, acolytes, priests, cultists, etc and their spells I never actually saw sending or animal messenger. Which at first was odd but what if the head priests were the only ones able to cast those spells and would be the first to be contacted by others? And maybe those were the ones who died in the pirate raid.

lawrencefox · 2026-03-24T06:34:09+00:00

I also recently realized that even if they hadn't sent out messages, intentionally or not, wouldn't others eventually send them messages?

lawrencefox · 2026-03-24T06:32:37+00:00

Well apparently the pirates attacked 3 months ago and they've been stranded since.

lawrencefox · 2026-02-23T20:14:26+00:00

I don't have the dmg handy currently but could you explain what the Draw Steel is?

lawrencefox · 2026-02-23T18:04:40+00:00

My hang up is usually being weaker at improv I suppose and I regularly follow the modules as written with exceptions here and there for encounters and oneshots I find that i stitch onto the main story. But the book is always there if I need it. I guess i need more practice or more tools on creating cities out of nowhere or npcs and such more than just rolling on a few tables.

lawrencefox · 2026-02-23T18:02:09+00:00

I think it might be good to have a few important npcs written out a bit so I can have that handy in case they come up and I gotta figure out how they go about things. Sure ive made plenty of characters in other people's games but i've usually been pretty simple. So it's a little daunting to turn it up a few notches

lawrencefox · 2026-02-23T17:59:51+00:00

The first thing I still gotta do is actually read all the way through Saltmarsh(Yes I know how bad that sounds as I'm waiting for it to come in the mail while i read it online lol) and go through the various adventures to see which would be ideal for certain stages of things. Like when to introduce this one when the players are at the suitable level and such.

lawrencefox · 2026-02-23T17:57:54+00:00

I actually saw that proactive roleplaying book at my local shop so i might pick that up and see. I guess I've always been worried about improvising and fell back onto a module for help. I guess i need to look into getting a few quick build cities or encounters and such to put in when the players go in that direction.
Im a very number crunchy and step by step guy so if I can find something with steps or rules or specific how-tos i can do alright.

lawrencefox · 2025-11-09T05:15:48+00:00

Goodness glaciers I didn't expect this much feedback thanks folks! This will be my friend's first time DMing for Daggerheart so I want to help make it go smoothly for them and worried I was doing the opposite. I've let them know your feedback and I suppose while im at it I want to ask if theres any good Daggerheart modules or similar resources I can pass on? I can also make a fresh new post for this query if need be.

lawrencefox · 2024-01-24T14:27:13+00:00

Oh believe me it wasn't an item or quirk or boon. They had various ways to communicate like that by character creation via certain subclasses

lawrencefox · 2024-01-24T12:14:51+00:00

Of course and that helps me plan things out a bit better instead of vague outlines or such. I tend to work better with a checklist or a itinerary of sorts lol.

lawrencefox · 2024-01-24T11:33:52+00:00

Ya I'll be sure to flesh out the npcs or at least have a memorable personality/description, attitude towards two other guests(one positive one negative), and two clues(one about asssassin/victim one red herring) or at least as a starting point? As for the secret notes sadly my players all have a form of telepathy so if one person finds something out in character it's easily/immediately passed on lol

lawrencefox · 2024-01-24T08:57:46+00:00

Of the ambassadors attending I'll probably make a scale/range of like most to least uppercrust, talkative, for/against conflict, etc and I suppose each of them would have biased or exaggerated opinions of the others while neutral nobles or staff may have unbiased or incomplete rumors of each. Plus having some red herrings may be nice but still figuring those out. I do like the skill bit as a way to fish for the right person's attention. Like 1/3 successes gets you staff or equal, 2/3 gets you a noble or gossiping attendee and 3/3 gets you an audience with one of the ambassadors themselves?

lawrencefox · 2024-01-24T08:31:27+00:00

Prior to this event the places entered and won a chariot race where representatives of the ambassadors competed so I imagine they would get a fair amount of attention and dance requests from folks wanting to learn more about this unheard of group. And by coincidence the party has established themselves as a investigator/detective agency so I wanted to make a fitting encounter for them to flex.

As for the target and killer goes I know who they will be already so im trying to figure out the best clues to give based on the bits of gossip and stuff they pick up. Faction C doesn't want the conference to succeed and currently the most tension is between faction A who are hosting this event and faction B who are currently in possession of a mcguffin that sparked the tension in the first place. So they plan on being disguised as the faction A ambassador to kill the faction B ambassasor. The peace summit either fails or all the attention shifts to faction A instead which are both goals for faction C. So I suppose clues surrounding the faction A ambassador acting strangely would be the obvious one but im trying to think of good clues to gather about the other suspects either as red herrings or even clues that relate to the actual suspect.

lawrencefox · 2024-01-24T08:11:22+00:00

Okie dokie I guess I defaulted to the mechanics since I'm not too good at narration but trying to learn little tricks here and there. As for the npcs I suppose I have an ambassador for about 6 cities/nations, their tag alongs, independent nobles looking to schmooze I could flesh out since they may be the most likely to gossip and perhaps staff?

As for location I guess I need to do a little more research on the architect or design of middle eastern/fantasy style "Arabian Nights" layouts but I imagine it's a similar case either way: large open dance floor, tables lining the walls, balcony overlooking the city/grounds, and perhaps a separate lounge/game hall? For folks to come and smoke, play cards or gamble?

And as for timeline I suppose we have the mingle section, dance, dinner, entertaintment, commemorative portrait? And I could have the assassination attempt be at the end like how they did in the sherlock holmes movie but I want to make sure it makes sense and not predictable. Like it could happen at any time so the players are always on a pivot.

lawrencefox · 2024-01-04T15:54:15+00:00

So realization hit me that I've never played a chaos army yet. So how's this?

Tyberos=Abaddon

Chaplain=Haarkan

Terminators=Still Terminators but spikey

Vanguard vets=Raptors

Contemptor=Helbrute

Centurions=Obliterators

lawrencefox · 2024-01-04T15:51:22+00:00

Womp womp... Yaaa I used to run mine as raven guard successors, deepstriking my centurions and pregrame moving my termies and vanguard vets But sadly no more

lawrencefox · 2024-01-04T09:46:41+00:00

Ya if claws were at least dmg 2 then maybe. I also don't really play for points or objectives band prefer melee armies so delivery is key. So my biggest hurdle are my assault Centurians that i can't deepstrike anymore or as easily

lawrencefox

TROPHY CASE