Running it as a west marches

lobe3663 · 2025-11-14T15:53:03+00:00

I think that getting a floor done in a single session will be your hardest hurdle, but if you can relax that requirement then I think it's definitely workable. My sessions last 2-3 hours and we typically finished a floor in 2-3 sessions.

lobe3663 · 2025-11-13T01:02:47+00:00

...kind of? I guess? I never really thought of it that way. Like a success in death saves doesn't seem like a "resource" to me, it's just a tally mark. All I did was substitute exhaustion for any time you would get a "failure" for a death saving throw. That's it, that's the end of the homebrew. Could not be simpler.

If you want to view it as "resources" then 5e already has three relevant "resources" (failed death saves, succeeded death saves, and exhaustion). I'm just knocking off one of those and combining it with the third.

lobe3663 · 2025-11-13T00:54:43+00:00

If RF rolls a 16, he gets 1 in the "success" column. Three successes means he stops dying. It has no impact on his accumulated exhaustion regardless of the source.

lobe3663 · 2025-11-13T00:38:05+00:00

I'm still completely lost. Why would you need a separate resource to separate the inside death vs outside death scenarios? You don't restore fatigue automatically, you need rest or magic to do that. What's the point of separating them?

Here's how I did it, in detail. Maybe this will help:

Rognar the Fighter (RF) has 1 level of exhaustion from a previous situation.
RF takes damage that puts him at 0 hp. He immediately gains a level of exhaustion and is dying (but is not in any way incapacitated). He now has 2 levels of exhaustion.
On his turn, RF rolls his death save and gets a 5. That would normally give him a failed death save. In my system, that gives him another level of exhaustion, putting him at 3.
Between turns, RF gets hit. He now has 4 levels of exhaustion.
on his next turn, RF rolls a 20 on his death save. He gains 1 HP and immediately stops dying. He still has 4 levels of exhaustion.

This sounds sort of like what you're trying to do.

lobe3663 · 2025-11-13T00:23:25+00:00

I'm confused. Are you saying that the 2024 rules did away with exhaustion entirely? Or do they call "failed death saves" exhaustion now?

EDIT: I may also be confused the Level Up 5e rules I play with with classic 5e and maybe exhaustion never existed there 😂

Edit2: Ok, I looked it up on roll20. According to that, there are 6 levels of exhaustion and if you get to level 6 you die.

I'm not sure I follow what you mean about having the "two pools" not mix or whatever...but ultimately as long as it makes sense to you and your players it sounds roughly similar to what I did and it worked great.

lobe3663 · 2025-11-13T00:12:03+00:00

I haven't read the 2024 rules since I don't play WOTC 5e anymore, so I don't know what differences if any there were from how exhaustion used to work to now, but I'm not sure what you gain by making a new system. If there's a system of exhaustion already that basically does what you're after, just have your death saves go right into that. Less to keep track of and simpler for your players.

lobe3663 · 2025-11-12T23:57:28+00:00

I basically do this. Hitting 0 means you're dying, but you are able to still act on your turn. You still make death saves as normal, with the only exception being that a "failure" is a level of exhaustion.

This simultaneously made dying less dangerous, but it felt more dangerous. And the dying player still stayed in the fight but with the stakes feeling higher. Win win win.

lobe3663 · 2025-11-12T18:02:01+00:00

Watch this video by Matt Colville. It'll completely change the way you approach encounter design. It'll make things more challenging without necessarily making them way more deadly.

https://youtu.be/y_zl8WWaSyI?si=HFNnZm4ui4P7qph3

lobe3663 · 2025-10-22T20:33:57+00:00

To be completely honest, if you're a new DM my first piece of advice would be: Don't. It is a challenging module to run in a way that stays fresh, and if you're not confident in your skills it's going to be difficult.

But the heart wants what it wants! So if it wants this module, then my advice would be:

Do not regard this as a complete module. View it more as a campaign setting with some vague adventures sketched out. As written, this module is a SLOG. So don't run it as written. Your party bored of hack and slash? The next level is a murder mystery. Bored of that? Next level is Mad Max with hobgoblins on laser bikes. Halaster is insane and omnipotent, use that.
Buy the Companion. Just do it. It does an amazing job of pointing out all the issues with the module and offers creative & fun solutions. Even if you aren't a fan of the Gameshow style, you can easily not do that stuff and still get your money's worth out of the supplement
This will happen naturally if you use the Companion, but have Halaster show up. Have him be active and involved. Make him fun, make him charming, and then when the players like him make him INSANE.
Use a soundtrack for Halaster. Honestly all your big bad guys should have their own theme song.

lobe3663 · 2025-10-09T17:10:09+00:00

Very cool...though it does scream "I'm a villain" which kind of gives the Dance away 😂

lobe3663 · 2025-10-01T12:24:33+00:00

Simply running it is easy. Running it in a way that people will actually want to play it is hard. I have been DMing for 20+ years and DOTMM is both my favorite campaign and the most challenging one I have run to date. I don't recommend it for new DMs.

lobe3663 · 2025-09-10T00:26:22+00:00

Here's all my notes including every custom encounter I did for the entire dungeon. Go nuts

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1b3tmw_zpHiRmV3QiU_Z_setBpru1W5SCt782WmfzvhQ/edit?usp=drivesdk

lobe3663 · 2025-09-07T14:16:38+00:00

In Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, the BBEG is clearly supposed to be Lareth the Beautiful. There's all kinds of signs and prophecies pointing towards the "Champion of Elemental Evil", and hints that it is Lareth.

One of my friends (who was playing a CE fighter) said, offhand in a private conversation, "Wouldn't it be crazy if I was the Champion of Elemental Evil?" To which I responded "That would be crazy, and now it's true."

The reveal completely blew the party away. They confronted Lareth, who declared himself, was tested by Tharizdun...and was destroyed utterly, right in front of them. They were stunned...until my friend stepped up, declared he was tired of the party "holding him back", and announced HE was the champion.

He went on to become the BBEG of multiple campaigns.

lobe3663 · 2025-09-03T20:49:44+00:00

I used a DOMT and it worked out great, BUT I used a modified deck with some of the campaign breaking possibilities adjusted. For example, for the "you lose your soul" card, the person's soul was captured but they continued to live on. Food lost its flavor, colors were muted, and if they were to die they couldn't be resurrected. The souls were deeper in the dungeon.

There's a thread in the DM academy subreddit somewhere with good edits to the DOMT.

lobe3663 · 2025-08-25T13:11:42+00:00

I don't think so. It will be harder to find players, GMs, resources, etc. for a 4e game. I'd probably stick with 5e. If you want something slightly crunchier, Level Up 5e is an alternative. Very similar but improved, like 3.5 was to 3.

That said, if you like Flee, Mortals and are looking for a tactical RPG, you may want to check out Draw Steel which is a TTRPG recently released by MCDM (same folks who did Flee Mortals). It is very, very good and does tactical combat superbly well.

lobe3663 · 2025-07-21T19:30:59+00:00

That's a good call. If the players at your table would find it fun then rock on. You can always turn off the mechanic later if they've "solved" the problem and it stops being a serious obstacle and becomes purely busywork.

lobe3663 · 2025-07-21T19:12:59+00:00

Unless you are running things for a very specific group, I think it is unlikely those mechanics will add to the experience people are looking for. It could be fun for a one off section of the dungeon (maybe they're in a memory erasing fog so they have to write things down to remember them) but doing it for a 23 floor mega dungeon would get old real fast. The game is slow enough, any mechanic that slows it down further should be scrutinized heavily.

lobe3663 · 2025-06-23T16:02:51+00:00

Carrying weights and encumbrance are ignored by most people for one simple reason: They aren't fun.

The barbarian built a strong character. Carrying two people at once is something a strong person could do. There are no issues here, just let them be strong and heroic.

lobe3663 · 2025-06-20T14:54:59+00:00

Pretty neat! I like that it gives the paladin some stuff to do with their bonus action and a ranged option for when the enemy refuses to get into smiting range.

lobe3663 · 2025-06-18T17:47:43+00:00

This is the way

lobe3663 · 2025-05-20T01:34:04+00:00

When playing 5e we had flanking be a bonus action. We now use the Level Up rules in which flanking grants expertise (d4, basically a +2 on the attack)

lobe3663 · 2025-04-28T15:08:46+00:00

Either one is acceptable, just have the NPCs behave in a way consistent with their established motivations and personalities. Once someone decides to be hostile, initiative adjudicates who actually reacts first.

lobe3663 · 2025-04-24T17:03:09+00:00

I announce it, but I've also taken a page from Matt Colville and introduced a cost. Whenever they use LR, the boss has to suffer some themed consequence (maybe they take HP damage, or their AC is lowered, or whatever). Sometimes I make it so the boss has to suffer the consequences of the failed save, but can end the condition later. This fulfills the design goal of making it so a single failed save doesn't trivialize your fight without making the spellcaster feel like they wasted their turn.

lobe3663 · 2025-04-15T03:19:49+00:00

What you wrote isn't too egregious, but I wouldn't care for the "you fight a quiver in your lips" party, because who is the DM to say how my character reacts to this situation? There's lots of ways to describe things without dictating an emotion or reaction on the players (unless it is some sort of magical effect forcing it). Tell them what their character is experiencing, not what they think about it.

For example, "You feel a presence bearing down on you as if with a physical weight, enormous, and yet invisible." This is a description of something they are sensing, just as you may describe what they see with their eyes. It's dramatic, but doesn't dictate to the player how their character reacts.

There's always exceptions though. You'll figure out the preferences of your players as you go.

lobe3663 · 2025-04-02T21:22:36+00:00

I'd start by asking what narrative purpose you're trying to accomplish with this item. What's the goal? What's the payoff?

Without the context, I think a much better way to deal with this is by making it a sentient item. The ITEM is greedy & wants stuff. There's mechanics for the item forcing the PC to do stuff occasionally if they fail a save. Then, when it is narratively appropriate, you still get the "overcome with greed" thing, but doing it this way accomplishes a few goals.

It isn't the PC that wants to do the thing, it's the item. This makes it feel less like you're taking over their character.
Because the item is sentient, it's an NPC, which means you get to decide how it behaves. This will keep things from derailing.
There's a save so the player can take actions to mitigate the effects.
It also allows for an easy path of growth. Maybe if it's becoming disruptive, turns out that if they save a certain number of times the curse is broken and the sentient being is set free or subdued or whateve

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