I was in the same boat as you when i saw Coville's adventure recap. I would love to run it myself some day and seeing you were able to convert and run the game to completion really inspires me. Also great point saying to set the expectations for the game for the players before they commit to the game.
Dear author, you have no idea how much I have listened the video. This is the source of inspiration and courage to run one of the greatest adventure of all time. Thank you very much. Going to run the whole campaign in two weeks, hope I have as much the DM endurance as you to make it from scratch. Wish me luck)
Hey, super useful video, thanks! I'm actually still running and playing 3.5e with one of my parties and this is probably the first time I'm considering anything different than a purely homebrew campaign. Everyone seems to think this is one of the best adventure paths ever written so I'll give it a go. I'll have to reskin and rename literally everything but at least I won't have to convert to a newer edition :) Thanks again, your video helped me with my decision a lot!
Thanks so much for this super useful overview. Just about to start this campaign (tying it to Lost Mine of Phandelver), and love the frank discussion of what worked and what didn't. For the timeline, I'm planning on making my own version of the goblinoid map with no dates. I'll keep a calendar with a rough timeline but will be able to fudge it more to match how things are going with the party. My hook for the characters is one of them has been infected by a necromantic ritual from a necromancer that hailed from Rhest way-back-when, and so they are trying to return to Rhest to figure out how to dispell the infection. They are just learning that the city's been abandoned, I'm planning to hide some clues in the flooded city, have the Ghostlord be familiar with the ritual (but can you trust him...), and/or stash some info in a library in Brindol about it (and maybe use something out of Candlekeep for that research sidequest). Super pumped to weave that all into this epic story. Not totally sold on the final dungeon of the adventure, since it feels sorta tacked-on (or maybe a little too "standard D&D"?)... but I figure I have a lot of time to think about the right wrap-up during this saga. Thanks again for all the work put in here!
I've recently started my own 5e version of RHoD and thus far my players (a party of 6) are enjoying it as much as I did when I played in 3.5e. I'll be honest I was thinking along the same lines as you in regards to how wimpy dragons are in 5e and will likely be taking some inspiration from your homebrew for my own. Though then again I'm also taking a few hints from other campaign journals and the like I've found to throw in a little more interesting stuff in comparison to the original material. Thanks for the video, glad to know its a worthwhile adventure to update despite some of the trouble that comes with it.
Glad it was helpful. I recently got into the Giffyglyph homebrew rules and they has a tool for building monsters that is very interesting. I definitely intend to use it for most if not all of my boss battles in the future. th-cam.com/video/2CNBPqvnD8Y/w-d-xo.html
Gonna run Red Hand for some friends of mine. First few levels will be Against the Reptile God, then have it tie in. Super nervous because I've never really attempted such an elaborate and detailed module, but it should be fun.
I love Reptile God. I used that dungeon in season one of Paradise Vale. It's an excellent early level threat to tie the players to Drellin's Ferry and set up for RHoD. Matt Colville has guided you well!
Why cant i like this video more then once ? This is one of the best pen and paper rpg videos ive ever seen. I just watched a whole campaign unfold and learned from the mistakes the gm did without wasting 100 of hours watching a lets play. This video ia great. And is this Divinity Original sin music in the background ? I love it. Currently watching in crappy quality on mobile. I have to skip through this video when im home again to appreviate your maps.
Listening to this campaign is like taking a hit high fantasy bath salts straight to the dome. This adventure sounds PERFECT! Epic villains, monsters, and sandbox high action campaign. This is bad ass, and I’m recklessly smashing those like and subscribe buttons! 🐉
Your channel is a damn gold mine. Don't know if it's in your plans but i would love a post mortem video like this one on rime of the frostmaiden. Keep up the good work you're doing an amazing job.
I skipped the dragon at the entrance. Ran the final room as is. 2 players were playing 2 characters...so in total between the party and npcs they had 9 characters (one was a planar ally). They elf with the luck blade used his wish to put the party back to full. She dropped 2 people right off the bat. Frightful presence was killing them.
Can't believe you play(ed) so much D&D and never heard of RHOD :D It is my most played and DM'ed campaign over the decade or 2. Gonna start binge watching your entire playthrough. Always fun to see what other groups do and possibly improv. Just finished a 6 year lvl 1 to 20 campaign with RHOD being at its core with Sunless Citadel, Forge and some other adventures to flesh it out with tons of homebrew, The gadzeteer setup for each village in the Elsir Vale is also great with hooks to create and improv small quests if the players want to. After finishing RHOD we then went into another arc from lvl 12 to 20 with Spiderqueen as the base on which I then expanded. Taking the players into the Underdark with drow, myconids, mindflayers. Which then led into lots of homebrew stuff that took the party into limbo and other realms. Letting them run into Slaads, Gith and then moving towards Vlaakith/Tiamat. Where they would fight Tiamat again after dealing with her aspect at the end of RHOD to tie it all in. A nice campaign tour to introduce these new players to all the stuff that is D&D. For this campaign my players were completely new to D&D so wanted to start at lvl 1 as well. And Sunless Citadel over the decades has shown to be a great introduction adventure. Starting with NPC interaction and players running around town doing some CSI stuff. In the Citadel learn about combat and dungeon exploration. Afterwards overworld travel to the next thing. In short its perfect to gradually introduce the many different aspects of the game without overwhelming newcomers. 1. Drellin's Ferry. To get my players invested in it I used the gnome they had rescued from Sunless Citadel. The gnome left to go there "back home" while the players were on the road to Brindol as lvl 3's. So when they came back as lvl 6's they had a bit of a nice npc welcoming them. And by then they had been dealing and finding hints about something going on. Building relationships with the council of Brindol. As a homebrew side quest they learned that the female spymaster was actually kidnapped and locked away in an abondened warehouse within Brindol. While a shapeshifting Oni had taken her place. Led to some investigating and correlating info to find it all out. This really helped cement that something big was going on before truly starting the RHOD module itself. Since the Oni escaped I could have it be a recurring baddie. Use it as the serial killer in Drellin's Ferry. Or some random encounter on the road. But because they had been fighting basic enemies quite a bit for 6 levels already it was important to modify things. Goblins riding giant spiders, Albino Goblins with bloodshot eyes and more aggressive....whatever it takes to change stuff up.
At 26:35, that definitely isn't the map of Vraath keep from the book I have, that is way cooler. Where did you find that? It looks like a published DnD style map EDIT: I found it, the castle is called Starhaunt, from an adventure of the same name written for Dungeon Magazine #207 =
This is all great. I am planning much the same, Lvl1-5 adventures into RHoD (But starting in Elsircross). This is a very inspiring vid with many many great ideas (I like the reskin of Hellhounds) Do you have any of your notes on a change that you could share (I understand it represents a lot of work)?
Whew. For starters, learn all about hobgoblins, they are the driving force of plot in this adventure: th-cam.com/video/No1i0Z1lUy8/w-d-xo.html this thread was incredibly useful: forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?540370-Red-Hand-of-Doom-5e-Conversion-Guide-Spoilers-WIP-PEACH I will confess to pimping out each of the dragons, though at the moment the notes of that are scattered across my google drive.
This is great! Looking to run this for my group, in 5e on roll20. I'm trying to figure out how to get my players invested and familiar with the people of Drellin's Ferry. I'm going to start at level 5, and I think I'll have them investigate a couple things. Brother Derny might have an ancient church for them to check out, which ends up being haunted. This will make them more likely to believe the rumors of Vraath Keep being haunted. When they return is when I will run the Marauder attack encounter, which I've heavily spiced up. I think showing the different tribes of goblins is a good way to break up the monotony of "you encounter several hobgoblins and X other ogres/goblins/bigger hobbos." The first encounter with the red hand will play up the "fire" theme, goblin alchemists in pathfinder could play a specific kind of alchemist that was resistant to fire. Koth's faction is going to be all about the fire. Fire-resistant fanatic goblins with fire-bombs and fire magic. Hellhounds, and of course, a few regular hobbos and bugbears to fill out the ranks. I'm planning on them getting to lvl 6 before Skull Gorge Bridge. That way I can just run a young green dragon and some rank-and-file without overwhelming them. Ozzy was actually quite weak in 3.5, and hellhounds were significantly weaker. I will also be dropping hints about the murder, because interviewing NPCs is a great way to get familiar with the locals.
Most of my maps for this series were from Heroic Maps: www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/5371/Heroic-Maps Or the Witcher 3: www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/5hbfjz/you_guys_liked_my_first_post_of_witcher_3_maps_so/
Thank you for your videos they have been so helpful. Subscribed and liked. Just a quick question, do you remember where you got the lizardfolk town map from?
Hey, just found this as I'm half way through this campaign. Love the idea for the party to help with the siege preparation. Any chance you can share your mass combat unity spreadsheet? Thanks! Cheers!
here is the link. Looking at it years later, it sort of makes sense? But was useful at the time. docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1r-xRjPVSYadCVPq2_Sp0kScmB7_z4m0TUdTZupQyqT0/
Nice overview and campaign recap. I'm debating running this or Age of Worms for my group when we finish up Rappan Athuk. Can I ask what leads and side quests you used for the intro part of the campaign prior to the actual beginning of Red Hand of Doom? Was this sourced material or all home brew?
Both worms and RHoD represent the waning golden age of 3.5 Worms is more open sandbox than RHoD imo. For levels 1-5 i just ran some homebrew stuff. investigate a graveyard, find a missing kid who wandered into feywild woods, stop some bandits
Very nice review! Sure sound like you had a blast and work a lot on that! I have been able to guess right about the lizardfolk vilage map and the sun temple on rpg drive trough but you have a lot of unique looking maps, any chance you share their source? Anyway thank again very intresting!
In RHoD i used a lot of maps that were screen grabs from witcher 3 and world of warcraft. www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/5hbfjz/you_guys_liked_my_first_post_of_witcher_3_maps_so/
Late reply. Was on break. My advise it to keep everything from RHoD and simply overlay it onto Tyranny. Whenever possible swap out tyranny content with RHOD, NPCs, location details (but to maintain the realms setting, keep the locations themselves), etc. Tyranny is not a particularly strong campaign and would definitely benefit from adding/overlaying RHoD. Hope it goes well for you!
Hit me up on Discord for the older materials. Sign up for Patreon to get all the new stuff. New stuff? Yup. I am running this again right now! th-cam.com/play/PLaMDrDIHMitIFHmGfdAi-s22FQjvZeX5X.html
This recap was gold for me. So much insight in your setup and the lessons you learned! Used your recap as inspiration, for my own recap here: th-cam.com/video/2Ojsjb6Wye8/w-d-xo.html (not sure if this is OK with you sharing it here, I'll happily remove it)
Just wanted to come back to this vid and say this is the one that got me hooked on ur channel! Love the roll20 tutorials as well
Awesome, thank you! RHod & SoW was an epic journey. I definitely learned a lot from them.
I was in the same boat as you when i saw Coville's adventure recap. I would love to run it myself some day and seeing you were able to convert and run the game to completion really inspires me. Also great point saying to set the expectations for the game for the players before they commit to the game.
It's a great campaign. I would certainly run it again, though not the Scales of War part, just the Red Hand of Doom.
Dear author, you have no idea how much I have listened the video. This is the source of inspiration and courage to run one of the greatest adventure of all time.
Thank you very much. Going to run the whole campaign in two weeks, hope I have as much the DM endurance as you to make it from scratch. Wish me luck)
Wow, thank you! Good luck with your campaign! It is a great adventure.
Hey, super useful video, thanks! I'm actually still running and playing 3.5e with one of my parties and this is probably the first time I'm considering anything different than a purely homebrew campaign. Everyone seems to think this is one of the best adventure paths ever written so I'll give it a go. I'll have to reskin and rename literally everything but at least I won't have to convert to a newer edition :) Thanks again, your video helped me with my decision a lot!
Glad it was helpful!
Thanks so much for this super useful overview. Just about to start this campaign (tying it to Lost Mine of Phandelver), and love the frank discussion of what worked and what didn't. For the timeline, I'm planning on making my own version of the goblinoid map with no dates. I'll keep a calendar with a rough timeline but will be able to fudge it more to match how things are going with the party.
My hook for the characters is one of them has been infected by a necromantic ritual from a necromancer that hailed from Rhest way-back-when, and so they are trying to return to Rhest to figure out how to dispell the infection. They are just learning that the city's been abandoned, I'm planning to hide some clues in the flooded city, have the Ghostlord be familiar with the ritual (but can you trust him...), and/or stash some info in a library in Brindol about it (and maybe use something out of Candlekeep for that research sidequest). Super pumped to weave that all into this epic story.
Not totally sold on the final dungeon of the adventure, since it feels sorta tacked-on (or maybe a little too "standard D&D"?)... but I figure I have a lot of time to think about the right wrap-up during this saga. Thanks again for all the work put in here!
I had the same feels and that's why I had to bullshit a big plot reason for going there.
I've recently started my own 5e version of RHoD and thus far my players (a party of 6) are enjoying it as much as I did when I played in 3.5e. I'll be honest I was thinking along the same lines as you in regards to how wimpy dragons are in 5e and will likely be taking some inspiration from your homebrew for my own. Though then again I'm also taking a few hints from other campaign journals and the like I've found to throw in a little more interesting stuff in comparison to the original material. Thanks for the video, glad to know its a worthwhile adventure to update despite some of the trouble that comes with it.
Glad it was helpful. I recently got into the Giffyglyph homebrew rules and they has a tool for building monsters that is very interesting. I definitely intend to use it for most if not all of my boss battles in the future. th-cam.com/video/2CNBPqvnD8Y/w-d-xo.html
Gonna run Red Hand for some friends of mine. First few levels will be Against the Reptile God, then have it tie in. Super nervous because I've never really attempted such an elaborate and detailed module, but it should be fun.
I love Reptile God. I used that dungeon in season one of Paradise Vale. It's an excellent early level threat to tie the players to Drellin's Ferry and set up for RHoD. Matt Colville has guided you well!
Why cant i like this video more then once ?
This is one of the best pen and paper rpg videos ive ever seen. I just watched a whole campaign unfold and learned from the mistakes the gm did without wasting 100 of hours watching a lets play. This video ia great.
And is this Divinity Original sin music in the background ? I love it.
Currently watching in crappy quality on mobile. I have to skip through this video when im home again to appreviate your maps.
Appreciate the kind words. postmortems like this really help me learn and improve. I will be making one for Storm King's Thunder this Friday 08/07/20.
Listening to this campaign is like taking a hit high fantasy bath salts straight to the dome. This adventure sounds PERFECT! Epic villains, monsters, and sandbox high action campaign. This is bad ass, and I’m recklessly smashing those like and subscribe buttons! 🐉
Welcome aboard. RHoD is a fantastic campaign.
Your channel is a damn gold mine. Don't know if it's in your plans but i would love a post mortem video like this one on rime of the frostmaiden.
Keep up the good work you're doing an amazing job.
Thank you. We did a wrap party for Rime.
th-cam.com/video/lWckp-hvL98/w-d-xo.html
I skipped the dragon at the entrance. Ran the final room as is. 2 players were playing 2 characters...so in total between the party and npcs they had 9 characters (one was a planar ally). They elf with the luck blade used his wish to put the party back to full. She dropped 2 people right off the bat. Frightful presence was killing them.
Tiamat is never a joke. She was a great boss in RHoD and again in her two appearances in my SoW game.
Can't believe you play(ed) so much D&D and never heard of RHOD :D
It is my most played and DM'ed campaign over the decade or 2. Gonna start binge watching your entire playthrough. Always fun to see what other groups do and possibly improv.
Just finished a 6 year lvl 1 to 20 campaign with RHOD being at its core with Sunless Citadel, Forge and some other adventures to flesh it out with tons of homebrew,
The gadzeteer setup for each village in the Elsir Vale is also great with hooks to create and improv small quests if the players want to.
After finishing RHOD we then went into another arc from lvl 12 to 20 with Spiderqueen as the base on which I then expanded. Taking the players into the Underdark with drow, myconids, mindflayers. Which then led into lots of homebrew stuff that took the party into limbo and other realms. Letting them run into Slaads, Gith and then moving towards Vlaakith/Tiamat. Where they would fight Tiamat again after dealing with her aspect at the end of RHOD to tie it all in. A nice campaign tour to introduce these new players to all the stuff that is D&D.
For this campaign my players were completely new to D&D so wanted to start at lvl 1 as well. And Sunless Citadel over the decades has shown to be a great introduction adventure. Starting with NPC interaction and players running around town doing some CSI stuff. In the Citadel learn about combat and dungeon exploration. Afterwards overworld travel to the next thing. In short its perfect to gradually introduce the many different aspects of the game without overwhelming newcomers.
1. Drellin's Ferry. To get my players invested in it I used the gnome they had rescued from Sunless Citadel. The gnome left to go there "back home" while the players were on the road to Brindol as lvl 3's. So when they came back as lvl 6's they had a bit of a nice npc welcoming them. And by then they had been dealing and finding hints about something going on. Building relationships with the council of Brindol. As a homebrew side quest they learned that the female spymaster was actually kidnapped and locked away in an abondened warehouse within Brindol. While a shapeshifting Oni had taken her place. Led to some investigating and correlating info to find it all out. This really helped cement that something big was going on before truly starting the RHOD module itself.
Since the Oni escaped I could have it be a recurring baddie. Use it as the serial killer in Drellin's Ferry. Or some random encounter on the road. But because they had been fighting basic enemies quite a bit for 6 levels already it was important to modify things. Goblins riding giant spiders, Albino Goblins with bloodshot eyes and more aggressive....whatever it takes to change stuff up.
Nice. I have run this twice now. The first time was more traditional, the second was a complete reboot themed to Feywild rather than Tiamat.
At 26:35, that definitely isn't the map of Vraath keep from the book I have, that is way cooler.
Where did you find that? It looks like a published DnD style map
EDIT: I found it, the castle is called Starhaunt, from an adventure of the same name written for Dungeon Magazine #207
=
Yes, by Mike Schley: prints.mikeschley.com/p996068422/h360F2748#h360f2748
It blows my mind you run 5 campaigns! I don't think I could run more than two different campaigns at once!
Blew my mind too. Nowadays I am only running 3 weekly campaigns and playing in a fourth.
This is all great. I am planning much the same, Lvl1-5 adventures into RHoD (But starting in Elsircross). This is a very inspiring vid with many many great ideas (I like the reskin of Hellhounds) Do you have any of your notes on a change that you could share (I understand it represents a lot of work)?
Whew. For starters, learn all about hobgoblins, they are the driving force of plot in this adventure:
th-cam.com/video/No1i0Z1lUy8/w-d-xo.html
this thread was incredibly useful:
forums.giantitp.com/showthread.php?540370-Red-Hand-of-Doom-5e-Conversion-Guide-Spoilers-WIP-PEACH
I will confess to pimping out each of the dragons, though at the moment the notes of that are scattered across my google drive.
This is great! Looking to run this for my group, in 5e on roll20. I'm trying to figure out how to get my players invested and familiar with the people of Drellin's Ferry. I'm going to start at level 5, and I think I'll have them investigate a couple things. Brother Derny might have an ancient church for them to check out, which ends up being haunted. This will make them more likely to believe the rumors of Vraath Keep being haunted. When they return is when I will run the Marauder attack encounter, which I've heavily spiced up. I think showing the different tribes of goblins is a good way to break up the monotony of "you encounter several hobgoblins and X other ogres/goblins/bigger hobbos." The first encounter with the red hand will play up the "fire" theme, goblin alchemists in pathfinder could play a specific kind of alchemist that was resistant to fire. Koth's faction is going to be all about the fire. Fire-resistant fanatic goblins with fire-bombs and fire magic. Hellhounds, and of course, a few regular hobbos and bugbears to fill out the ranks. I'm planning on them getting to lvl 6 before Skull Gorge Bridge. That way I can just run a young green dragon and some rank-and-file without overwhelming them. Ozzy was actually quite weak in 3.5, and hellhounds were significantly weaker. I will also be dropping hints about the murder, because interviewing NPCs is a great way to get familiar with the locals.
Ahhhh poor Ozzy. He put the some legit fear into my group but man when they rematched him... it was a rough time. lol.
@@CrashGem oh so he escaped eh? THey faced him down again at the Fane?
I would love to know where you got some of the maps :) just started RHoD last Sunday :)
Most of my maps for this series were from Heroic Maps:
www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/5371/Heroic-Maps
Or the Witcher 3:
www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/5hbfjz/you_guys_liked_my_first_post_of_witcher_3_maps_so/
Great video!! Where can one find the “super high quality” version of the Elsir Vale map that you mentioned?
I found it here.
redhandofdoomblog.wordpress.com/2017/04/01/the-elsir-vale/
Apologies, didn't see this comment ill today.
The bridge map is incredible! Is there any chance you uploaded online somewhere?? Thanks!
It is from Witcher 3. Check this reddit post: www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/5hbfjz/you_guys_liked_my_first_post_of_witcher_3_maps_so/
Thank you for your videos they have been so helpful. Subscribed and liked. Just a quick question, do you remember where you got the lizardfolk town map from?
Heroic Maps: www.drivethrurpg.com/product/244892/Heroic-Maps--Silt-River-Tribal-Village
@@CrashGem Amazing, Thank you!
What is the Heroic Maps map called what you used as the "Final Battle" (Fane of Tiamat)?
Got it: Hall of Portals
Yup Hall of Portals. AND it’s on sale right now!
www.drivethrurpg.com/product/236779/Heroic-Maps--The-Hall-of-Portals
Hey, just found this as I'm half way through this campaign. Love the idea for the party to help with the siege preparation. Any chance you can share your mass combat unity spreadsheet? Thanks! Cheers!
here is the link. Looking at it years later, it sort of makes sense? But was useful at the time. docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1r-xRjPVSYadCVPq2_Sp0kScmB7_z4m0TUdTZupQyqT0/
@@CrashGem Thanks so much bro!! Didn't expect a reply. Much appreciated!
Nice overview and campaign recap. I'm debating running this or Age of Worms for my group when we finish up Rappan Athuk. Can I ask what leads and side quests you used for the intro part of the campaign prior to the actual beginning of Red Hand of Doom? Was this sourced material or all home brew?
Both worms and RHoD represent the waning golden age of 3.5
Worms is more open sandbox than RHoD imo.
For levels 1-5 i just ran some homebrew stuff. investigate a graveyard, find a missing kid who wandered into feywild woods, stop some bandits
@@CrashGem Perfect, thanks much. I will work something up for my group.
Very nice review! Sure sound like you had a blast and work a lot on that! I have been able to guess right about the lizardfolk vilage map and the sun temple on rpg drive trough but you have a lot of unique looking maps, any chance you share their source? Anyway thank again very intresting!
In RHoD i used a lot of maps that were screen grabs from witcher 3 and world of warcraft. www.reddit.com/r/battlemaps/comments/5hbfjz/you_guys_liked_my_first_post_of_witcher_3_maps_so/
@@CrashGem thank you so much!
@@CrashGem what about the elven map?
@@CrashGem That thread is a gold mine!
@@landremon lemme see the elven maps (this comment got lost in notifications. Heroic maps early stuff:
www.heroicmaps.com/faewood-loft/
I'm considering supplementing my tyranny of dragons campaign with this one. Are you willing to impart some wisdom?
Late reply. Was on break. My advise it to keep everything from RHoD and simply overlay it onto Tyranny. Whenever possible swap out tyranny content with RHOD, NPCs, location details (but to maintain the realms setting, keep the locations themselves), etc.
Tyranny is not a particularly strong campaign and would definitely benefit from adding/overlaying RHoD. Hope it goes well for you!
Do you have any of your maps or roll20 you would be willing to share for a new dm?
Hit me up on Discord for the older materials. Sign up for Patreon to get all the new stuff. New stuff? Yup. I am running this again right now! th-cam.com/play/PLaMDrDIHMitIFHmGfdAi-s22FQjvZeX5X.html
@@CrashGem added you on discord
Is there any possibilty that you can show your google sheets calender. Im currently trying to create my own calendar solution but i need inspiration.
this is the RHoD calendar, but no guarantees on how messy it is. docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Hu5WHKucFa0kWBHd97SgUV14ZmQOa4p0A71qrFvlZg4/
This recap was gold for me. So much insight in your setup and the lessons you learned! Used your recap as inspiration, for my own recap here: th-cam.com/video/2Ojsjb6Wye8/w-d-xo.html (not sure if this is OK with you sharing it here, I'll happily remove it)