One of my players, a druid, shapeshifted into a dinosaur and entered into the race pretending to be a real dino. Another player posed as her trainer, and another player bet on her. We roleplayed the whole thing and the player actually won! I think it was the most hype thing we've done in the campaign.
This entire series has been incredibly useful and insightful. Neither myself nor my players have ever cracked the spine on Tomb of Annihilation previously and moving into 2021, it might be time to do so. As a DM, the overviews and discussions regarding each segment of the adventure are excellent for grasping for the content and getting the ball rolling on game preparations. Huge amount of labor to create this series - and well worth the watch. Thanks.
Really appreciate what you're doing with this video. I was reading through my paper copy of TOA and saw on page 5 under "story overview" that Syndra got her intelligence from the Harpers who were tipped off by a Lich. Interesting connotations considering the Lich could be Acererak.
Thank you for this information. My players have been traveling on boat as slaves to fight in great arena when failed a quest in "Descent into Avernus" and got soul brands. Now in this land where the soul must be delivered to the infant god, the devils are also here to fight for the pray. Hope this idea will be interersting for others. It does not cancel the "Descent into Avernus" ;-)
So, My hook was essentially tying Descent into Avernus plot elements (Since Syndra starts in Baldur's Gate) sending them to Elturel after getting the flavor of the gate set up. Setting up Elturel as a city to get supplies (foreshadowing gathering supplies in Chult for expiditions) and setting the players off on a sea voyage. Got them to do 4 sessions out at sea. First they got accustomed to the ship and RP'd with the crew(gambling, chatting, etc), second fought off Kuo-Toa that attempted to ransack their supplies with a giant octopus, third they faced one of the pirate lords of cult that was out and about (setting up for a purpose to undertake the warf master's request), and 4th was meeting the dragon turtle before landing in the Port. So far so good. Wasnt a fan of the pre-built method
Thank you very much for this and for your other videos. I was having a hard time getting started on TOA but your ideas have inspired me and gotten me excited about running it. :-)
I love this adventure. It was the first published book I played. My only issue is the time crunch that the Soul Monger imposes. When I played the players ignored every side quest which is a real shame because the jungle has so many interesting places and characters within. So now that I’m running this module I’m changing the hook to being just about finding the treasure and lost lore of Omu
Slight spoilers I intend to "nerf" the curse not to remove 1max hp daily but doing so every 3 days this way the time crunch is still existent, but not as harsh
I read a suggestion for limiting the time crunch aspect, where as long as a soul is on consecrated grounds, the soulmonger curse is limited. I’m planning to make it lessen the hp drain to a charisma save that rises 1/day from 10 until losing the hp, and then resets.
Hey man, I'm running toa in about a month or so and the party consists of a human, an aasimar, a shardmind and a minotaur. How would you let the people of port nyanzaru react to them. I feel like minotaurs are known to be violent and the PC already stated that he wants to disguise himself as a cow or something. Seeing a pile of Crystals is also a strange sight, as well as him being worth a Fortune, I feel like he could be about to get kidnapped by thugs. The aasimar should not be too weird, yeah he is glowing a bit but nothing too extraordinary. Roleplaying in port nyanzaru is going to be weird I feel. I would be glad to hear what you think about this. Also if you have any experience with shardminds please share them, those things should not take damage from arrows for example haha Other than that, you do wonders for me with your videos!
You could either lean into the Gonzo side of the world, and say that there is plenty of weird races, maybe even more strange than them, or you could lean into the party being a walking clown fiesta. If the party is seen as strange, maybe they will have to work dirrectly for the merchant Princes in order to be given protection! there is plenty of fun side quests that can be given out that way!
hey ty, i'm from italy , i started one month ago running this module, we are having a thrill! 4 sessions already, the players are about to participate in the dino race in port nyanzaru , after some shady figures kidnapped volo , the patron for one of my players , so he returned to the others waiting in wakanga's villa and told them, they are planning to go speak zindar after they heard they caught a spy in the city that helped the undercover pirates to sneak in and out the port . i introduced them Xandala and Summerwise as one of my players is an Archeologist and Kobold that heard about the saurian who is accompaning Artus Cimber , all players loved Summerwise , i kept him repeat not so much loud " ohh...this is a bad ideaaa " .... but they don't know he is speaking about xendala XD i decided with my players to start the " clock " of the curse at lvl 3 , like it activates...so they can live a bit the city and understand the flavor and mechanics of the module..and it is working , after 3 sessions they already got caught up in the politics of Port Nyanzaru and they fear the jungle XD your videos helped me a loooot , thank you so much !
You got my sub with the scardy-cat joke you made and then admitting it was terrible haha :) I'm running this next for my players, love your insights so far! Thanks!
I changed the original hook and didn’t use Syndra at all. My players were members of the Gauntlet and they had gotten info from the Chult that it seemed the curse originated from there. Camp Vengeance sent the intel and characters had a mission to escort Undril (one of the Nyanzaru side quest NPCs) from Baldur’s Gate to Camp Vengeance. In this way players had clear mission and objective to go to Chult and investigate things for the Gauntlet.
i dig it, getting them deep into the jungles early with a clear goal in mind helps with them not getting lost. also meeting npcs helps with making the place feel worthwhile saving!
Thank you so much for this it helps so much! As a first time DM its helped me pull together the story a little bit more. Do you have some tips for a first time DM to help keep the energy going?
thank you so much! The important thing to consider as a new DM is that you should allow for the players to make this campaign their own, and run the kind of game they want to play in! Get a feedback loop of asking them what kind of game they want to play, then run that game, and run it some more!
This is suuuuper useful.. Im starting the module soon and this easy explanation is what I need. I read the book already, some parts 2x, but honestly this type of easy to listen to summary sticks in my brain more than reading. :D
I used merchant prince's villa as a battlemap, (inspired by Neverwinter mmo): the prize of the final dino race is there and it contains a magical artifact which allows to know the exact location of Omu and how to get into. Valindra and thayans raid the place to get it.... (and that's how the players learn about this artifact, but they have to win the race to use it, cause they're loyal and Wakanga cannot just let them use it without winning the race)
Just for future I’m running this right now and I believe she got the info that the soil monger was located in chult by working closely with the Harper’s
Was looking for a video on Port Nyanzaru for a while. This is one of the best descriptive and informative videos I have ever seen. Props to you my dude. And thank you
I get that they can do whatever they want and go wherever they want, but if they're level one and get duped into a dragon lair... I understand that death is pretty inevitable in this adventure but that doesn't sound playable. How did you handle the level suggestion side bar?
level is always just a suggestion, it really comes down to the group you have, if you have a larger party, then lower level groups can tackle somehing a smaller but higher level group cant. In regards of getting duped to go to the dragon lair, they should be leveling up before they even arrive. hopefully they are leveled high enough to deal with the problems there, or are smart enough to negotiate or smart enough to run away haha. For levels overall in this campaign, I would say the party is low level in the jungle, then hits lvl 5-7 in Omu. Once in Omu, levels can creep up a little quicker, and then once they are the level you desire, they descend into the Tomb!
@@NoFunAllowed thanks for the reply that'sa big help. I plan to watch your entire guide series on this adventure. I'm honestly a little overwhelmed by the scope of it. There's a lot to know. Only other prefab I've ran is SKT, which was still sandbox, but linear enough to feel structured and therefore manageable on my end.
@@jaredlocke4300 thank you! and for sure, this module is just one big old sand box with lots to consider. Its a shame I made this series before I knew how to edit and before I got my good mike haha. I will go back and give this module the justice it deserves one day!
"This game is not linear" WHOOOOOOLLY MOLY that part took my group 2 runs of this to understand (They died the first time to a T-rex). Honestly in the second run right now and I don't think they quite get that.
I have my session 1 on Friday, I think Syndra will tell them her contact using sending informed her they don’t have much time, they were under attack by Red Wizards of Thay, curse is from the soulmonger somewhere in Chult. She fears her friend is gone.
I'm starting toa in like a month (session 0 next week!) and my idiot friends decided they all wanted to play tabaxis. I have it so that they were born in chult and have some family members scattered throughout, but they moved to BG as kittens, so they only have little to no memory of chult and have zero clue of the political motives and such. I'm a new DM with a habit of undersharing information, so hopefully with a better grasp of the information (your videos help!) I'll be able to tell the story better!
Thank you for this. I am newer dm for module running thus this is helpful. I have mostly improved stuff On homebrew ones, and i wanto learn thow to run these. Tysm
@@NoFunAllowed we went through it while our Storm Kings Thunder dm had to deal with personal stuff so it was nice to still have a game. Our DM for Tomb though. First time DM too. Blew my mind that he was so good.
Veeery useful, thx a lot. I especially like the later videos with Fish in this series. Everbody needs to check those, they are at the end of the Playlist.
Thank you very much for this video; I plan on watching your others as well. I have been very inspired by what you have to say and your advice is quite fruitful!
Great video. It has a good balance between the adventure general idea along with details where it matters. The whole series is great on ToA is great! Good job!
@@NoFunAllowed after one of those guides betrayed my character I would say, "You'd never make it in Waterdeep with THAT attitude! The Tomb of Annihilation is too good for you!"
I plan on running this campaign in the future and set out to watch your guide as preparation. You said the map the PC's receive at the beginning is supposed to be something a lot of people want to get their hands on but I don't find the reason in the book why that would be the case. (I admit that I did not fully read the book yet.) Could you explain a bit, please?
1) because no other such map exists 2) because other people want to plunder the jungles 3) because some people are looking for the soulmonger in any case, this map is literally worth killing for for many npcs and factions haha!
@@NoFunAllowed Is it stated somewhere that no such map exists? I would assume the trade princes and/or flaming fist would be trying to chart the jungles too and make such maps?
I've played this campaign twice as a player and I can't get over the amount of money it expects you to spend before even setting out. Before you're even invested and hooked as a player, you're blowing all your gold on Charters and guides? Really? Why?
@@NoFunAllowed but this campaign isn't about making money? Aren't we supposed to be focussed on getting rid of the death curse and if we waste time doing other things our npc friend will die?
@@NoFunAllowed so if we need supplies, why are we spending nearly all the parties starting gold on a guide and the permission slip just to be allowed to go into the jungle? It seems set up to make the party not want to do either, increasing the chances they just die on their first foray into the jungle
i havent had any complaints from the several grous that ive ran this adventure for haha. I think it really just comes down to if you want to run this as the players adventure where they overcome the challenges from the start, or the story that gets fed to the players guiding them along!
haha true, but how do the harpers know? All it says is that a lich tipped them off. So how does this lich know? thats why i like the idea of the harpers doing a sketchy death ritual to triangulate the location of the Soulmonger.
@@NoFunAllowed there is a great adventure from DMs Guild called Cellar of Death that brings the characters together and aid the Harpers in getting the info about the death curse
@@boxerboss5284 I almost made a video in it haha. But I wanted to stick to the original content on the first go. I will be touching back up on ToA soon and it will get a spotlight!
