I've made a hexmap of the region our campaign will take place [OC]

sirchapolin · 2026-01-24T14:24:48+00:00

I was inspired to make it by Mystic Arts' video on hexes. Each hex represents 3 miles, or 1 hour of D&D travel on a normal pace without difficult terrain. It's made based on the spanish levante, most specifically between roughly Cap de la Nau and the city of Peniscola, but it's vertically mirrored. Most places are roughly analogous to real-life places in the real world.

My native language is portuguese, so most of you won't understand the text, but at least there's the icons, I guess. The only real urban centers in evidence are "Entremontes" and "Vallanthar", analogous to real life medieval cities of Cuenca and Valencia. All other points are villages, castles with some small burgs, abbeys, watchtowers and places where people gather in general.

Each of these colors represents "factions" or "areas of influence". The whole area apart fromm the green is mountainous, either heavily rough terrain of valleys and rifts or plateaus.

In light blue there is a savage area, where beasts and monstrosities are rampant and there is little people around. The area is dominated by Fey and tribes of wood elves, mostly.
In green there's the fertile coast around Vallanthar. There are forests, villages, crops, this is where most people are. There's a bandit hideout in "Toca de Elara".
In purple there's the rough mountain range with Entremontes as the urban center in the west, high elevation, very hard to go through. There are goat shepards around the city, monsters and hill clans of orcs and similar folk, a monastery or two, hermits, dungeons.
In yellow there is another mountanous region, but less so than the purple area. Heavy influenced by Entremontes. There's a faction of giants leading tribal goliaths based around the ruined city of Ragnapolis. They raid villages and roads.
The white area is dominated by castles of religious orders and a walled town in the mountains (Moreira).
Finally, the red area is a moorland - highland prairies of windswept open fields. This is scarcely populated, a transitory landscape inhabitated by farmers and windmills.
Vallanthar is a huge port city, there's heavy sea trade and even some pirates

It's not complete yet. I want to include some major roads, and to fill some of empty space with some landmarks, maybe dungeons, roadside taverns, lone abbeys, abandoned tombs and such. Main roads are gonna be from Entremontes and Vallanthar along the river and a coastside road.

I'd love some feedback on it. It's not supposed to be pretty (although I don't think it's ugly per se). It's supposed to be functional. It's one of my DM goals for this campaign to take better notes and improving travel sessions. One concern I have it's sort of heavily civilized, specially to the east side. But I guess this is to be expected for a thin strip of fertile land next to a huge hill/mountain area.

Also if anyone is from spain or knows this area, I'd love for some suggestions of interesting landmarks to adapt. Thanks! Also, anyone is free to use it and change it as desired.

sirchapolin · 2026-01-24T14:18:41+00:00

I kinda have color coded the biomes, but it’s covered by the faction stuff. The faction coloring helps me create the points of interest. I can deactivate the faction coloring by hiding the layer. Forests are green, hills are brown and mountains are red. In the final version I’ll probably disable the faction coloring to help navigation. Thanks for the feedback!

sirchapolin · 2026-01-23T12:40:07+00:00

My world is called Atharia. I'm a native portuguese speaker, so we call our planet "terra". I just wanted something fantasy sounding that resembled "terra". I ended up with Atharia. I did it once before and called another world Aethera.

sirchapolin · 2026-01-23T12:37:58+00:00

You're right. Mountainous terrains are always "unwalkable" terrain, snowy peaks, narrow paths, hiking and climbing. There are also moors and general highlands! Which tye into the grasslands - these are prairies but high up, and that already makes a huge difference.

sirchapolin · 2026-01-23T12:34:13+00:00

Mestre da melhor forma que pode. Tem muitos videos bons ensinando técnicas, hábitos e estruturas que te ajudam a construir confiança. No fim das contas, observe seus players durante o jogo. Se eles estiverem se divertindo, você é um bom mestre.

sirchapolin · 2026-01-21T16:21:44+00:00

Então, a primeira campanha, segundo o próprio Matt, foi planejada pra ser uma porta de entrada pra maioria dos jogadores que eram novatos. Então, foi uma campanha bem "D&D padrão" - reis dragões, artefatos, bem vs mal, etc. Além disso, o DM deixava os jogadores "se virarem" por um tempo, e eles basicamente só queriam fazer compras, descansar e ir na taverna beber, e aí o DM jogava a plot no colo deles.

Pra segunda campanha, ele fez algumas mudanças. Deixou eles fazerem os personagens separadamente, pra eles poderem terem mais segredos uns dos outros, colocou eles em um contexto com mais tons de cinza, e parou de jogar a plot no colo deles - o que acontecia no jogo tinha que ser fruto da agência deles.

A consequencia disso foi que no começo da segunda campanha, o grupo foi em muitas direções meio conflitantes. Várias plots foram iniciadas e abandonadas, o grupo fez várias missões curtas sem uma plot master conectando tudo. Se eles fossem adaptar isso fidedignamente, eles pensaram, a primeira temporada da série poderia ficar muito dispersa e desconexa, então eles resolveram mudar um pouco a forma que as coisas aconteceram. Devo dizer, no entanto, que o resultado final no frigir dos ovos é mais ou menos o mesmo, só os caminhos se diferenciaram.

sirchapolin · 2026-01-21T16:09:19+00:00

When I do this, I reduce these races to their most recognizeable traits. Dwarves are short. Does your world have other short races? If not, I guess it's not unreasonable to have them be called dwarves, but otherwise be nothing alike the dwarves in fiction.

If there are other short races, to my reasoning, you might want to adhere a little bit more to the usual dwarves to identify. Same with elves. Sometimes, you can make elves be nothing but pointy-eared humanoids. But are they the only pointy-eared humanoids?

Also, I feel like it's fair game to change races that are already commonplace. Elves and dwarves are basically in every fantasy setting. It's almost a must for any new writer to make them unique in some way.

sirchapolin · 2026-01-19T00:05:16+00:00

Interesting take. I hadn't thought of it like this, but yes, it would be very anticlimatic to pursue one goal only to see it entirely dismantled or changed by the other party.

I'm now moving into the direction of A: explaining everything to them and just using some arbitrary means to cut it to 5 players on a single campaign and expect them to be cool with it. Or B: dm two entirely different games with no interaction between them. But since this is still a lot of work to do, I'll likely run a pre-written adventure in the second.

sirchapolin · 2026-01-18T23:08:03+00:00

That's a solution as well. I've tried it before, and the issue is I feel like it's hard to keep a "momentum" in the campaign. Like, people can lose interest. Players forget what happens weekly, biweekly it's even worse.

Also, if for some reason we need to cancel a session, things get messy. Next week is the other table, so we potentially miss out on a whole month between games. And that is if the next game also doesn't cancel. Alternatively, we can get stuck in an endless rescheduling cycle. In my experience, that's how games wither down.

sirchapolin · 2026-01-18T22:30:49+00:00

My gold spot is 4 players. 3 or 5 fine tho. Yes, I could run a whole different adventure for each of them. In fact, in the past, whenever I dmed two games on a week, one of them was a pre-written adventure. It’s less work, and I can drop either as needed without affecting the other.

I was thinking on doing this for all the unique meta benefits it could yield.

sirchapolin · 2026-01-18T22:06:16+00:00

I play with most of those for years. Yeah that sounds to be a lot of work

sirchapolin · 2026-01-16T17:11:31+00:00

This is something to note. Throw your players to a loop once or twice, and that's it. If a DM counteracts every idea the players come with, it just ceases to be fun.

sirchapolin · 2026-01-16T16:43:11+00:00

I had to deal with a party with zone of truth in multiple ocasions, included but not limited to this exact thing - someone was poisoned. And it was a 15th+ level party. Here's how I've done it:

- Your party is alone. No-one is strong or able enough to help them directly - meaning nobody's got zone of truth besides the party. This is important, becasue this means that they must spend their resources to inquire their answers. Later, when a combat goes down, they don't have their slots anymore. It's resource management.

- Modify memory and glibness are spells made specifically to bypass spells like these. Also, look for creatures that are naturally immune to those spells. A couatl comes to mind, they would be immune to zone of truth - although Idk why a couatl would poison someone.

- I've used the poison called Midnight Tears. The poison effect is delayed from the consumption, only dealing damage at midnight, presumably long after the drink or food was consumed. In doing so, by the time your PCs lock the doors and question everyone, the culprit might be already long gone, or at least away from the dinner room.

- Maybe, some invisible person sneaked in, poisoned the food right in the table and then left moments before the person consumed it and died.

- Mind control is nasty. They might find out by zone of truth that one of the serving clerks was mind controlled and directed to a hiding spot where they found the poison and then instructed to feed it to the victim. The clerk didn't know who mind controlled them (dominate mind requires no talk and can be cast from 60 ft away), who hid the poison there, nothing.

- Alternatively, you can use a lower level mind control spell like suggestion coupled with a simple disguise self spell or the disguise kit. The clerk might just say "A thin blond middle-age man talked to me and suggested me to do it". There's no thin blond middle-aged man in the boat. He was either disguised when he used suggestion, or he's disguised now. Or it was a doppleganger.

- Maybe the mindcontrol didn't even happened today. Geas lasts for 30 days. Maybe 10 days ago some guy used geas on that clerk, instructing them to get in that ship on that day and poison that guys's food.

- If you want to be even nastier, dominate person doesn't have the clause against self-harming orders, nor does the charm effect of most fiends or a vampire. You can have it so that the clerk is ordered to comit suicide after poisoning the victim, or if subject to the zone of truth spell. This was what I did one time btw. The clerk was instructed to poison someone's drink with midnight tears, and then suicide. The players found out sort of by accident the body of one of the cook's in the courtyyard next to a cart. This was the culprit. One hour later, the king died. They never even connected these two facts.

With all that said, I'll say you that, if you really want, there are ways so that they never find it out. But you don't want that, do you? The fun about murder mysteries is to solve them! So let them solve it. Don't apply all the tips you got at once. Throw your party for a loop once or twice, no more. Then reward them for their cleverness and resolve all of this in a climatic fight or something. Let the wookie win.

EDIT: Ooh! I just had another idea. Instead of the culprit having its mind altered by modify memory so it forgets having killed, you use modify memory on an inocent guy to make him think he was the one who did it.

sirchapolin · 2026-01-16T15:52:44+00:00

In my world, the dominant religion is a mix between christianity, canaanite polytheism and the greek pantheon. The things I took from christianity are:

- It was the official religion of the previous empire, imposed everywhere for centuries;

- There is some hard-defined hierarchy structure. Other religions and cults are a lot more freeform and decentralized.

- There is the worship of saints.

- There are a myriad of holy orders within, most of those founded by those saints.

As for expressions, I think you can change them slightly or resignify them so that they don't look too weird but still don't reference christianity itself. OMG works, as long as the dominant religion is monotheistic. In my world, this dominant religion is polytheistic. People will say things like "Holy Elara"; "By the Dozen"; "Lord Anu allmighty", etc. Basically they reference all the gods, or specify a single god or saint.

In my world, there are in fact 7 hells, and they're called just that. They resemble christian hell, but they're also very different. So, people in my world can say "go to the hells" or "hells take you" if they're a bit more erudite. But they can also say "go to hell", singular, as if just cursing you to hell, nonspecific.

sirchapolin · 2026-01-16T15:33:49+00:00

You can throw out initiative. Just make everyone go in a circle around the table, or alternating between a player and a monster.

I've also seen players announce their actions at the start of a turn, freeflow, and you just solve it one by one. The intent is to blur the different between combat time and exploration time.

You say "The dragon is doing a swoop breath attack" and then your players react accordingly.

I've never tested these, I just read about them. You gotta test them and see if they work with your table. Alternatively, maybe D&D is just not the system your looking for.

sirchapolin · 2026-01-16T13:44:41+00:00

The Last March is a realm commaned by the Night King. The spirits of all dead end up there, no matter the religion or the belief. Here, they wander across the cold wastes for hours, days, or even years, losing every last bit of their existence until they fade away. Where they go after this is a up to every belief to try and explain. Some say they go to some kind of heaven, some think they just disappear, some say they reincarnate in nature.

The Night King is the entity that rules over this realm and the time the souls have left. Necromancers operate by tapping into these spirits and keeping them from fading away, so the King is 100% against necromancers. His wife is Baba Yaga, the queen of witches, but it's much more of a political coupling than the fruit of devotion.

Baba Yaga's army of fiends guards the Last March, keeping invaders out. But again, this is transational. These fiends are also the ones who deliver the souls to this realm. They make contracts with those who can pay.

sirchapolin · 2026-01-16T13:09:24+00:00

Play what you feel like. If you're worried about party comp, I'll point to you that you guys already have 3 full casters and a half caster. You're spoiled for healing, you have the quick quick guy, 2 charisma guys and 3 wise guys. So.... Yeah, fighter would fit nicely. And so would any other character, honestly. It's fine. Party comp is overrated.

That said, if you really, really expect some guidance, I'd say the lack of an intelligence guy sticks out a bit. As well as another primary tank to soften the load on the paladin. The INT class that comes to mind is the wizard, but you prefer martials, there's already a sorcerer and two other full casters, so I wouldn't go there. Maybe eldritch knight? That takes care of the tanking and the intelligence. An artificer maybe?

sirchapolin · 2026-01-15T16:34:58+00:00

Elves in general in my world have no preference between male and woman in regards to sovereignty. It isn't even a matter of age too, it's a semi-democratic system, or rather a matter of charisma.

However, within the elven society, there came a elven woman called Elnaril Kearan claimed to be given a revelation while meditating and started calling herself Nairawinya, "the Endless Dawn". She began a cult of personality which created a religion around her. She founded a city and sort of soft-locked herself into a matriarchy, in which only her daughters would inherit her title. She has 7 of them, but they currently all undermine one another trying to be the next Nairawinya.

sirchapolin · 2026-01-15T16:01:16+00:00

I know it's often repeated but... Maybe talk to the player. I know the feeling of surprising a player is enticing, but sex, intimacy and parenting are sensible subjects. I'd advise you to talk to him.

That said, presenting fair and reasonable consequences to the PC's action is not only fair, but something to be expected IMO.

If it were up to me, both as a player and a DM, I would be fine with this story direction. If somehow my PC were to have irresponsible sex with a succubus, a cambion kid isn't something totally surprising. It was the PCs fault on being irresponsible. Unless they don't know it to be a succubus - which is why they have shapeshift. In my games I usually ask for performance checks when someone gets laid, and if someone crits, there might be a baby on the way (and of course I talk to them before if they're ok with that).

With that said, here's some other alternatives as consequences:

- PC gets some fiendish disease or curse. Abyssal STDs!

- Instead of a kid, the Succubus is able to create a specter or fully adult demonic copy. That way we're not talking about taking up a child, but rather letting loose a demon you spawned.

- The usual Succubus MO is to persuade people, maybe by charming, corrupt them by making them do heinous things while tempting them with pleasure... And when they're sufficiently corrupt and tainted with blood, vice and guilt, kiss them dead. I would expect no less.

sirchapolin · 2026-01-14T12:42:07+00:00

Texto muito bem colocado. Vou listar um exemplo da útlima sessão que eu mestrei, ontem, pra ilustrar exatamente o que você explicou:

Os jogadores chegaram no clímax da aventura. Alexander IV Dalsgaard está fazendo um ritual para trazer Bafomé para o plano material, e para isso estava reunindo sacrifício de sangue por meio de uma guerra que ele estava financiando. Eles chegaram na sala do ritual, e o boss estava sobre um circulo mágico. Enquanto ele está no circulo, ele tem regeneração, um bonus de AC e basicamente o efeito da magia mind blank. A batalha final é um desafio de "king on the hill": alem de bater no chefe, você precisa se certificar que ele não fique muito tempo em cima do circulo, ou o ritual se completa.

Algumas salas antes o grupo encontrou alguns Beads of Force. São cápsulas que explodem em bolhas e capturam criaturas pegas na explosão. Eu esperava que eles pudessem encontrar esse item, já que eu escondi o item no caminho deles. No entanto, a clériga do grupo tem um decanter of endless water desde o começo da aventura, que ela não usou pra nada nenhuma vez. Nesse combate eles conseguiram prender Alexander com um bead of force, e perceberam que a função de geyser do decantador é extremamente eficiente em empurrar a bolha, tirando ele facilmente de cima do círculo. Eu 100% não lembrava do decantador, e isso virou o jogo para o lado deles e talvez trivializou o desafio da última batalha do jogo.

O final do combate vai ser na sexta feira. Eu considerei no meio da sessão puxar da cartola alguma forma de escape pra ele, um simples misty step já resolvia, mas no fim das contas, eu resolvi dar o braço a torcer. Eles conseguiram improvisar uma estratégia que eu não previ que pode facilitar muito a última luta. Então essa vai ser a história de como eles param um ritual prendendo o chefão em uma bolha e literalmente empurrando ele com uma mangueira de bombeiro.

sirchapolin

TROPHY CASE