One direction to take this conversation is to legitimize a formal ads platform and move the technology in that direction. It's not a concept that has had airtime in federated social(open source, anti-corporate and all) but it fits into the model of enthusiast communities to have a magazine that is "both articles and ads".
When running a module don’t be afraid to tell the players that they should expect things to happen within the confines of the module. That’s not railroading, that is just playing a cohesive game. I find that many new DMs are so afraid of railroading that they overcompensate into the other extreme. Then that adventure becomes an incoherent mess which also isn’t fun.
As for Dragon Heist which I have run recently I got a few tips: You can run it as is which imo is absolutely fine and I did that. There is also the “Alexandrian Remix” which expands the module fairly short module to a huge campaign adventure. I personally don’t think you should do that as a first timer but it’s still useful to know it exists.
From here on very major spoilers. Players of the module don’t read further.
Before session 1 what I did was give all players the Waterdeep Enchiridion to use as player knowledge if they want to. 2/4 players red most of it. You as the GM should read chapters 1 to 3 and the Enchiridion fully, plus the major NPCs. Chapter 4 only makes sense once you figured out which villians to run. I selected 2 villians to have appear. Imo more is too much to keep track of for the players in this context and they already felt overwhelmed at times. I used the Casselanters as main villians and the Xanathar guild as further Antagonists. Then I had the Zhentarim and Jarlaxle only slightly involved in the background and as a faction in chapter 2.
Chapter 1 is fairly linear. Bar fight, troll comes up (I changed the troll to a devil to hint at infernal activities by the casselanters). Quest by volo to investigate. Absolutely use Old Xoblobs shop, it is very fun. Investigations in the Skewered, encounter in the streets. This is where I’d level up the party to level 2. The encounter in the warehouse with the Kenku is pretty deadly otherwise. And the Xanathar hideout even more so. This is the biggest balancing flaw in the whole adventure imo.
Capter 2 starts once they got the tavern. I leveled them up to 3 at this point for 2 reasons. First so I can run more faction missions in this chapter so the fireball chapter doesnt get diluted as much. Secondly because it felt like the correct timing. This chapter is the open sandbox part. Stay here as long as it is fun. Let them get to know the neighbors, decide weather you want the competitor guy interfere with the tavern, how far you want to take the management part, or if you let them higher a manager etc. The ghost can be fun too. There is a fantastic DMs guild resource with fully fledged out faction quests for chapter 2 which I used. This is where my players did a ton of cool shit. They made friends with the Zhents and Black Viper, Once this stops being fun throw the fireball.
Chapter 3 can be mostly run as is imo. You might need to hint less subtly at how to find the construct. I didnt like the part with the detection device so I had the group follow some other clues. Also I had Floxin in liege with the Casselanters because I removed Manshoon.
Chapter 4 against all advice I ran exactly as is with the chase rules from the DMG, it wasn’t even 2 sessions of 3h each long. But that was the most fun part of the adventure for me. The players got the stone but had no idea who the villian was yet. So they ended up handing the Stone to the Casselanters asking for 10% of the treasure which they did get (50k gold is nothing to sneeze at).
Chapter 5 the players Casselanters were invited to the Founders Day Festivities where the sacrifice was to take place. I took some inspiration from the book but mostly made up the exact events as it fit to what happened so far.
Dragon Heist is the most fun I had running a 5th edition module so far. So I hope you enjoy it as well and I was able to help a bit with your preparations.
Wow! Thank you so much! I really appreciate it. I actually bought the Alexandrian Remix and ended up getting more intimidated than I was before, so it’s comforting to know that it might be too much.
I’ve been on the fence between running Xanathar or the Casselanters as the villain and I think you might have pushed me towards the Casselanters. I really like the story flavor that you described. Also, the sheer amount of villains/factions have been bogging me down quite a bit and it’s nice to know that I don’t need to deal with all of them. That seemed way too cumbersome.
Either way, I really appreciate the advice. Thanks!
From the remix just grab what you like and leave what you don’t need. Same for the main adventure. Or any module you will ever DM. It’s your game and your player’s game, so you decide what happens and what it’s about.
As for the potential allied factions I did look at what my PCs were likely to flock to. Then I had those factions contact them. They ended up allied with the gauntlet and Savra Belebranta is a major recurring NPC. They Grey Hand and Force Grey with Meloon and the Blackstaff is another factions the players love. One of the shadier PCs is allied with Davil Starsong and the Zhents. But the others didn’t make sense for my party like the Emerald Enclave for example. So I left them out.
The Casselanters have the most interesting story. But it gets dark quickly and the moral dilemma might not be for every group.
The Xanathar is super iconic and a great straight up villian. We will end up fighting him soon now in Dungeon of the Mad Mage.
Jarlaxle is absolutely amazing and likely the most fun villian. Him being fun depends on using his cover identities in fun ways and good roleplay and planning from the GM. He is also vastly overpowered. So there is little chance in the PCs taking him head on.
I found Manshoon not very fleshed out or interesting. So Idk.
You can also switch villians later. If after chapter 2 for instance the player for some reason really have grown to hate the Xanathar even though you planned on using someone else, you can simply change the villian as nothing is set in stone at that time. Also the seasons don’t really matter too much. Don’t worry about those too much.
I homebrewed a thing set on an alternate history future Earth where basically, there’s an alternate history divergence with Jimmy Carter not losing reelection and then the US basically turning into a demsoc utopia resulting in world peace and sustainable prosperity, and then three different races of aliens show up. At first things go well with humanity, but then there’s complications and tensions both between and within those three races, and the most advanced of the three ends up seeing humanity as a threat to them due to a bunch of other factors I introduced that would take way too long to explain and releasing a viral bioweapon that ended up killing most of humanity in the space of a year before a coalition of scientists and soldiers from all four species banded together to synthesize a cure and stop things. All of the game stuff happens well after, in the ruins of civilization, a la Fallout, but with a post-plague instead of post-nuclear aesthetic.
I have a whole novella detailing all of that lore on my Google Drive, most of which I wrote while unemployed in 2019. So you can imagine how weird 2020 was for me.
But that’s on the backburner at the moment because my group is playing through the one with Gundren Rockseeker on the Sword Coast right now, with someone else DMing, because my mental health wasn’t great in 2021 but we still wanted to play.
Currently running Dungeon of the Mad Mage after we finished Dragon Heist. We’re in level 3 and skull port in the dungeon. But the party has taken a way back to the surface of Waterdeep now to deal with their conflicts with the Xanathar guild which has escalated into all out war.
How has the transition been? I’ve played Dragon Heist, but Mad Mage is a megadungeon, right? It seems like a completely different gaming style, has your group adapted well? Do you see them finishing the megadungeon, or do you think their travel back to the surface means the campaign is going towards homebrew?
There is a lot of homebrew that I added in. I tied in NPCs from the PCs back stories. All the lose ends from the Dragon Heist adventure I’m also directing to down there such as the fleeing Skeemo Weirdbottle is making his way to skullport now. Some is already in the adventure like the Xanathar guild.
The gameplay is very different but the party said they wanted to try it and it’s a nice change of pace. But I make sure to expand some of the roleplay elements down in the dungeon to be more prominent. Overall the dungeon is pretty well designed imo so it all ends up working out well.
Currently they are back to Waterdeep to deal with the Xanathar once and for all.
I’m a big fan of sorcerers; it gives me a nice balance of having fun spells to use while not having to manage which ones I’ve “prepared.” My first character was a half elf draconic bloodline sorcerer, and I had a ton of fun playing him.
Even though they can be a bit one dimensional, I love playing a barbarian. The ridiculous stuff you can get away with with a high strength is just too silly to pass up.
Barbagosh, know affectionately as Barb, is an elderly Half-Elf. She seems to be gaining powers of sorcery as quickly as she is losing her marbles. She comes from a fishing village known as Jigow, where she worked in the Unbroken Tusk Inn as a baker. She prided herself on making delicious pies, and resented that Agathe, her orc colleague, held the title for best pies in the city.
Barb is thought of in Jigow as a kind old lady who is everyone’s granny. A wise lady who could help with your garden, or baking tips, a mediator between feuding neighbours, an avid reader that had lots of knowledge of the local area, and a fabulous cook that could fix any problem with food. A few months ago however, she began to change. Working in the kitchen at the Inn, Barb was baking a delicious fish pie when she was unable to find her measuring spoons. She assumed that Zorgath, a cheeky orc child, had taken them for a game. Rifling through a drawer that had been jammed closed as long as she had worked there, Barb came across a set of wooden measuring spoons that seemed deceptively light. She continued baking the pie, and using the spoons, but began to feel ill. Cold to the touch, and pale, Barb went home early, forgetting the measuring spoons in her apron pocket. Overnight, Barb continued to grow weak and unwell, waking in the morning with barely a heartbeat, and a bluish tinge to her skin. Wearing the same clothing as the day before (unheard of for the meticulously clean woman), Barb left her house to head back to work. She did not greet the neighbours with her usual ,cheery smile, and did not respond to Zorgath, running up to her with a cheeky grin, holding out her beloved spoon set. Barb went through the motions of baking her fish pies, but each one was a little off. Instead of adding baking powder to the flour, she would add sugar, instead of water to make the gravy, she poured in vinegar. When Agathe appeared to begin her shift, she was shocked to see Barb placing the pie the gently in the oven using hands that were not hers. A spectral hand had appeared, that Barb seemed to be controlling, Barb was totally unresponsive.
The following day, Barb continued on her routine as normal. Walking to work, she greeted the neighbours cheerily. She play-acted the grumpy old lady with Zorgath as she gave back the stolen measuring spoons. She walked through the door of the Unbroken Tusk Inn and picked up her baking apron, ready to start her day. Agathe questioned Barb about what she had witnessed, but the old lady was confused and told Agathe she must be imagining things. Barb remembered feeling unwell and staying home from work, how could she have possibly been doing what Agathe was claiming?
As the weeks went on, these ‘funny spells’ as Barb refers to them, became more frequent, with the magic persona taking skillful control, while the non-magic persona became increasingly vague and confused. One day, Barb woke up on the back of a Horizonback Turtle, with no clear idea of how she got there, and nothing on her person, but a bit of gold and a set of bizarre measuring spoons that she didn’t remember owning. Barb had lost all memory of who she was, where she was from, but she knew one thing- she could do with a nice cup of tea.
TL;DR- A senile, but surprisingly powerful sorcerer who loves a cup of tea.
Very cool. It’s easy to read and comprehend and seems perfectly balanced. I also like the formatting, in particular the levels of the features listed the way they are.
Lemmy is not very active in the homebrew department, but just to let you know, there is a dedicated DnD homebrew community:
You might have better luck on a discord, r/lfg on reddit, or somewhere like your local gaming store if at all possible. Sorry you got downvoted but none of the d&d communities view this type of thing as a legitimate post that’s within the bounds of the rules.
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