*How to roleplay Lord Aidron* When the party meet Lord Aidron, he is injured and recouping in some secret location on the island. You can play this off as a kind of false-scare, by leading with the sound of this scary creature in a cave, then pop the tension by revealing the friendly Lord Aidron. Personality: - Headstrong - Brash - Sean Connery What he knows: - He's happy to recount his battle with Sparkrender - He knows Sparkrender is planning some kind of ritual to coincide with the King Killer star, trying to harness the power of dead dragons - He knows that dragon bones are a component in the ritual - He knows the history of the island, including Sharruth's tomb - He knows the names, locations and cause of death of the major dragons on the island (you should make this up and write it down) - He knows the plight of the Myconids and the threat of the Harpy, but he doesn't care because he has a more heroic purpose: defeating Sparkrender Points to hit during the encounter: - Make him likeable - Make it clear that he's injured - If the players decide to heal him in a way that spends resources, he's genuinely grateful. Give that player inspiration. - Whatever reason the players have to be searching for him, he agrees to help them, but first... - Make it clear that he intends to battle Sparkrender again once he's well. Even if the party convince him to wait for them to help him in the battle, or if they convince him to go to Dragons Rest, he will instead be foolhardy and go fight Sparkrender. - If the players return to this site later, Lord Aidron is gone. - The ideal time for the players to SEE the fight between Lord Aidron and Sparkrender is when they're on their way home from their second side-quest. __________ ❤ Support the Channel ❤ __________ 💚 Patreon: matthewperkins.net/patreon 💚 Donate: matthewperkins.net/donate 💚 Store: matthewperkins.net/store 💚 DM Guild: matthewperkins.net/dmsguild 💜 Twitch: matthewperkins.net/twitch 💜 TikTok: matthewperkins.net/tiktok 🧡 Discord: matthewperkins.net/discord 🧡 Facebook: matthewperkins.net/facebook 🧡 Twitter: matthewperkins.net/twitter 🧡 Instagram: matthewperkins.net/instagram 🧡 Reddit: matthewperkins.net/reddit ✏ Blog: matthewperkins.net/blog 📧 For marketing/business/sponsorship inquiries, email: mperkins.dm@gmail.com
@@Striggly I'd originally recorded most of this info in the video, but it's so directly focussed on DOSI, I figured any punters would skip it and it would tank my video's stats and TH-cam would punish the channel. Better to separate it off into its own little write-up for people who are interested!
This video really helped me navigate the Stormwreck isle campaign and understand how I can control the pacing as a DM. Thank you. Notably, I decided I wanted Sparkrender to display his power and evil schemes earlier in the campaign so that the players had a glimpse of what they would be facing later (foreshadowing). I found doing this earlier super helpful as the party was literally too weak to stop him at that point in the campaign. My players went to compass rose first, so when they got back to dragon’s rest Sparkrender and his army of minions attacked dragon’s rest to obtain a dragon bone hidden in the dragon statue. The fallout of the battle was that an NPC was critically injured and they needed to get the Ruby morel mushroom from Seagrow caves so that they could save the NPC.
Some cool ideas for random encounter tables, I like that they arnt all just combat encounters and that you suggest that we can use random encounters to provide the players with more lore/information about the DMs campaign story.
I was going to ditch random encounters entirely on our next sessions. They’re usually just a boring waste of time. But these are awesome. I’m currently writing a d6 table for LMOP. With the Nexromancer’s zombies (including Tharden) as the 1 on the table. Any other ideas for that campaign?
About Random Encounters, I would only use them if I have no idea what to do next. If I read about additional or random encounters and I like them, I want them. I will plan to use them. I have a party of 3 players and I like the idea to give them the owlbear. So they have little help in combat. At least if the owlbear is in the mood. But only if the players like it, too.
Cool, I'm here early! This video showed up on my feed like a totally relevant random encounter on my quest for DM knowledge. Thanks for everything you do, Matty P!
Hi Matthew, and many thanks for all the effort you put in making the DMing way easier and the stories more engaging for our players! After running the adventure with your advises in mind and my adjustments to it, I’d like to share some thoughts on the relevant encounters: I love the system behind and plan to use it further on though my adventures. It makes a lot of sense to fill the gaps between locations like this, this way I’m sure I won’t engage my players with filler content unless it’s an official hot springs special episode with an owlbear. What I feel to be a bit less ready to go is a line-up of encounters themselves, it’s not agile enough for my taste: 1. owlbear feat. hot springs encounter can happen at any moment and is the most versatile among them, while also pacing-wise it makes more sense to have it after the first dungeon (so the party is a bit beaten up to need some rest in hot springs) or after shipwreck itself. But at least one encounter before the evening in Dragon Rest, because hot springs, at least for my players, is a 100% roleplay trigger to fool around with romance hints / nudity jokes / general reflection of a previous events, and dinner at Dragon Rest is specifically designed to be exactly the same thing. And having two roleplay-oriented scenes one by one may feel like you don’t have a dozen outcomes prepared for your players and want to fill time with them entertaining themselves for the whole session. 2. spore cloud - a bit too short to my taste compared to the rest of the encounters, but perfectly valid until your players completed the Caves. after that point you don’t have any value in providing the info on how the gas works since players do know that and solved the issue already. which also mean if seagrow caves are the first area your players explore, you only have one chance to use this encounter properly. 3. the harpy encounter - pretty much the same applies here, but for the compass rose. be especially careful with using this one after your players defeated the harpy, since that may set them up for a completely justified course of actions which you don’t have anything fun prepared for. what I did here was merging 2 and 3 to the alternate outcomes of the 2, depending on where / from where players were moving, while also replacing num 3 with Alietha’s husbands grave where something personal for my necromancer wizard player were supposed to happen. 4. kobolds - perfectly fine encounter, except for you want it to happen (if at all) before your second dungeon, as otherwise it shows way less preparation than you actually put into it (if it’s the last pre-observatory encounter, you’re teasing the fight literally scene before starting the fight which doesn’t provide enough time for them to cook). 5. scare them with Sparkrenderer - does serve the very good purpose but doesn’t do it good enough in my opinion: we don’t want them to engage yet, and if they do not, it’s just a big bird flying around somewhere far away. What I chose to use instead was a scene where massacre of the circus happened few month ago, done by Sparkrender for no particular reason. there I also planted a teasing for the next adventure, which synergies quite well: a bit of foreshadowing to make an area non-filler while also providing glimpse of main villain’s cruelty to check out friendly negotiations out of the solution list. 6. second best in terms of versatility encounter, nothing to add on my side.
THANK YOU for putting so much thought into my silly little system here. I'm running The Shattered Obelisk at the moment, and I'm trying to make these encounter tables for each leg of the adventure. I'll take your feedback onboard as I'm exploring the system further :)
About the myconids, I prefer that they have no children. I like the idea that they grow out of other creatures corpses. So they will see 2 undead kobolds covered in mushrooms and they will look more and more like myconids over the next few weeks. So no kids!
Great vid, Matty, love it. I will say though, anytime I have ever tried a 'skill challenge' that in any way used a creature asthe adversary, that 'skill challenge' immediately becomes a combat as the 'what do you want to attempt for your first skill roll?' is answered with 'I cast hold monster' or 'I shoot it with my bow'.
This is exactly what i appreciated about Wild Beyond the Witchlight. Almost every single random encounter is either foreshadowing something, giving the players more info on the big bads or presents a means to travel this specific realm. Some of them are even pretty vital for the plot or play into another encounter in the module that isn't a random encounter. Like, spoilers ahead but----- the little puppet-show story recap ending with the puppets all standing around that very same puppet-show and then handing the players invitations for an audience with Endelyn is wonderful both narratively and for setting the tone. As are the Inn at the End of the Road, the Stream of Visions, the Grandfather tree, the Jabberwock's trail and the Cyclops Beekeeper. All 6 almost seem like they shouldn't even be random encounters. Similarly, the raft and the chariot in Hither and Thither both feel like something the players should definitely get a hold of at some point in their travels. To make backtracking easier if nothing else. Personally i just picked out which of the random encounters would happen on the way to which location and tried to space them out so there's one less and one more important encounter on the way, skipping those that are just kinda uninteresting entirely. For example, my Hither encounters were: Marsh gas on the way to Slanty Tower, just to introduce that mechanic. Gushing O'Wells and Waterlogged Battlefield on the way to Telemy Hill, to introduce the water-level mechanic. Stream of Visions, Abandoned Raft and Stilt walkers on the way to Briggands Tollway, for some foreshadowing and exposition as well as giving them a way to alleviate the water-level changes. Then after Briggand's Tollway i have the Inn at the End of the Road offer to bring them the rest of the way to Downfall, giving them a well deserved long rest and giving me the chance to bring them some much needed exposition and clarification on a few key facets of the adventure.
Oh that's great! I've meaning to read that module for months. But I was so underwhelmed by the Strixhaven campaign that I keep putting it off. Maybe I should cover it later this year?
@@heyitsMattyP That would be great actually. The module has a pretty vibrant community on both reddit and discord with tons on ideas for tweaks and there are a few sections of the adventure that can be a bit daunting for newer DMs. Especially the first and last chapters. Perfect for your "How to run X"-style content.
I have a prepared list of encounters, all of which point or redirect the PCs back to the plot story. Rather than choosing one from the list at random, I choose the most appropriate one for the current situation. Such encounters can either harm or help the PCs. Additional villains might show up or additional allies. Creatures known to inhabit an area might be encountered but only to leave an additional clue. The bottom line is that ALL apparently random encounters are used to move the plot forward and NO random encounters are there for no reason. If you don't do it this way, the PCs will inevitably believe that the random encounter is super important and get off track and pursue a wild goose chase that leads nowhere or worse, creates a serious logical disruption to the plot line. You're railroading, you say. Yep, I guess that I am. I have several interconnected rail lines all of which lead to the same conclusions. PCs get to choose the paths to the destination but they don't get to choose any path to any destination. If you want them to do that, that's up to you but that's a sandbox game. I ran a sandbox game one time. I let the PCs do whatever they wanted and just went with it. This led to plenty of weird and whacky and admittedly fun adventures but Eventually the response of the world to the PCs actions and vise versa morphed the game back into a railroad game. So since it ends up a railroad game anyway why not set it up that way and be able to deliver well thought out and compelling adventures.
Great content. I love the OGL references without making yet another video rehashing the same speculation… I am going to start using this for my naval campaign, but it can be difficult to come up with ideas for trap encounters on the open water or skill challenges besides weather events. A ship can only run into so many storms before you start questioning the navigator…
You can also pull and stretch time for this stuff! So it doesn't need to be an IMMEDIATE trap or challenge. It could be, "Over the next week, rats have spoiled the food. Let's to a skill challenge to solve the issue." Or for a trap, you could have a fire break out, or some kind of disrepair hit the ship.
I added a relevant zombie encounter where one of them has Alethia’s name partially carved on their arm. It’s one of the pulsing zombies and he’s just banging his head on a rock until they show up. After they try to read the name or get close enough, the zombie screams, charges them, and explodes.
@@heyitsMattyP yeah, your pulsating zombie from your better zombie PDF!! Necrotic damage all around for 15 feet, I think. It’s my grossest exposition yet. lol
Hi! I’m about done with LMoP and used so much of your advice. I love all the people helping people jump into this hobby. What a cool space and time to play in. That being said, I’m new to DMing and my very small party is new to playing. Getting them/me to RP and interact as the characters outside of combat is tricky. I’m curious if there is some sort of list of topics or random (relevant?) conversation starters or some tool for RP. I’ve got the mechanics down, I’m needing help making it feel less like a game and more like we’re telling a story together. Any and all suggestions appreciated.
Hmm, I'm not sure! I think a good start would be: you should ask the players how their characters feel, or what their characters are thinking in certain moments, just to get them used tot eh idea that their character is a separate person to themselves. But you'll all learn over time and find a style of play that works for you!
You've breathed more life into these starter sets than I imagined they could carry, thanks! Ever thought of branching out and bringing us your own (um, system-agnostic) "Mattyverse"?
Haha maybe not a full universe, but I HAVE bought the starter sets for Pathfinder 2E, Warhammer 4E, Numenara and Call of Cthulu, so we'll see if any of those spark joy
Relevant Encounters are my jam! However, I genuinely need to ease up on dealing excessive damage during encounters as the protagonists have so far reached their destinations battered, bruised, and aching for a short rest and some hit dice healing. The Hot Springs encounter is a great opportunity to show the myconid corruption as mushrooms are present in the scene. It also foreshadows the presence of fume drakes in the nearby caverns. The drakes can mutter several ominous things about Sharruth and the Blue Usurper in Draconic for the Wizard to nerd about. And any Arcana checks on these fume drakes can then lead to relevant information for the boss area in the caves. The healing powers of the spring come from the remains of Runara's mentor as this is where he met his doom. In the caves, in the waterfall area near the myconid farm I've 'hidden' a bottle with a gold coin and a shoddy looking map. In my version, Rix found the hoard of Runara's mentor (as Runara is not a dragon) and drew a rough outline of the island with an X where it is. With the promise of a dragon's hoard, the protagonists are quite likely to travel there and they will find that the younger Bronze Dragon has taken refuge in that exact cave to heal after his initial clash with Sparkrender While travelling by rowboat from the caves back to the hub, they protagonists come across a much older shipwreck that had glimmering items visible on the beach. As they came to shore, they realized that the long dead and drowned sailors were now raising to meet them. But since I didn't want them to go through combat, instead Sparkrender happened to be flying by and as he saw 'activity' happening on the small islet he decided to cleanse everything and unleashed a torrent of lightning that forced the protagonists into some Dexterity Saves as lightning came at them from the sky and then massive spikes of glass inadvertently attempted to impale everything in their way. The zombies were dealt with in the aftermath and the protagonists were given one more grudge against Sparkrender. I like the idea of having another harpy encounter on their way to the Compass Rose. I'll definitely have something like that. I'll also have Varrnoth mention the long gone circus when the protagonists are in the hub before they go to the Compass Rose. On their way back from the shipwreck they'll be meeting the blue kobolds and the owlbear in a semi-cinematic encounter. I don't want to make the owlbear a combat encounter per se, more like an actual adorable dancing bear (which will turm grumpy and hostile after a few hours if the players don't leave it be). The plan is for the kobolds to drop the flamethrower which Myla can then identify as her tinkered burner which she uses to forge small magical trinkets and baubles. Once returned, she'll be able to use it to make some stuff for the players, demanding any precious gems and coins for her own personal 'hoard'. For the final area, as the astronomical event is getting near, the players will be bombarded with Draconic whispers of Sharruth demanding to be released so she can cleanse the whole world in her 'sacred' fire. I plan to use this as foreshadowing and exposition for the campaign that will come following DOSI.
Would you recommend perhaps fudging some of the rolls so it makes sense, narratively? For example, you would want the Myconid trap to come before the PC's complete the seagrow caves mission. So if they happen to head to seagrow caves on first, would you fudge the encounter result so the deal with the trap on the way?
Hey Trav! I already replied on Patreon, but I'll copy my answer here for posterity in case anyone else has the same question: - Nah, I wouldn't fudge the encounters. If they landed on a result that foreshadows an element of the adventure they weren't immediately focussed on, that's OK! That just means we're foreshadowing. But on the opposite end, if they had already resolved the myconid threat and then they rolled the creeping spore cloud trap, I would reflavour the encounter so it poses no threat (because the players have already dealt with the problem we're trying to give exposition about), and communicate to the players that they've bypassed this threat because of their actions with the myconids. "Good job, players!" I think it's a good way to give the players a W :)
Before i watch the video: I don't do random encounters. If the module has a table for random encounters, i just read the options in it, and then i just pick from those to create the encounters i would enjoy as a player.
Hey Matthew, thanks so much for your content ! I plan to DM LMoP soon, do you have any advise for relevant encounters for this campaign ? I was thinking : 1 a gobelin raiding party going back to Cragmaw castle (that the party can try to follow to find the castle), 2 a traveling doppelgänger hunter hinting on the fact that the Black Spider has one as an ally, 3 the corpse of one of the Rockseeker brother. Any other ideas ?
Those are three very good ones. You could add: - A roleplaying encounter of Redbrands shaking down a trader. - A lone zombie wandering around, minding its own business.
sounds interesting. I use something similiar, but i don't use run off a table. I just look at the scenarios going on in the region that they are going to and if it's they're first time going trhough an area where there is an ongoing scenario, i find something that is affected by the senario that they could encounter.
I love all the content for DoSI! There's no info on how to role play Lord Aidron in the NPC video you mention, though. It only covers the members of Dragon's Rest. Can we find this info somewhere else?
All you need for a skill challenge is a situation (he harpy is lifting their buddy off the ground) and players who have ideas. Players might try to intimidate the harpy. They might try to lasso the harpy. They might try to leap from a tree to grab their friend. They might even try just attacking the harpy. It's all fine!
Or just throw it all out, then get and play the ultimate ttrpg solution game system called D100 Dungeon that answers all DCC, D&D, Dungeon World and 4AD rules into 1 game system. I LOVE D100 DUNGEON!
I wish! I actually started doing this kind of stuff because I saw a job posting from WotC, and I didn't have any of the skills needed for the position, so I wanted to get some practice :)
I'm a big fan of random encounters not being story related, but world building related. Again not all encounters need to be combat (and shouldn't be). Yes they should give information, but maybe about how dangerous/corrupted the terrain itself is in the area, a shrine denoting a faith in the land they had not yet heard of, a drop off point for a fence trading illicit goods, or just meeting other travelers and swap stories about where they are going or have come from. Sometimes I use them to give the characters a chance to purchase goods they have not yet been exposed to from a traveling merchant or start a side quest not related to the main story, at least not without work from the PCs bringing them in (say, making allies who owe you one after you went above and beyond for the side quest objective). This obviously doesn't gel well with tightly run modules, but then I tend not to run them that tightly when I do.
Sooo why not just impart the six pieces of information? I'm not seeing how this needs to be rolled. Especially as, presumably, the players will get all six eventually. This seems like an unnecessary randomisation of what the DM would normally do anyway. I mean, good luck with your Patreon, but I don't think I need to spend $5 to know how to set up an adventure with six bits of information.🫣
*How to roleplay Lord Aidron*
When the party meet Lord Aidron, he is injured and recouping in some secret location on the island. You can play this off as a kind of false-scare, by leading with the sound of this scary creature in a cave, then pop the tension by revealing the friendly Lord Aidron.
Personality:
- Headstrong
- Brash
- Sean Connery
What he knows:
- He's happy to recount his battle with Sparkrender
- He knows Sparkrender is planning some kind of ritual to coincide with the King Killer star, trying to harness the power of dead dragons
- He knows that dragon bones are a component in the ritual
- He knows the history of the island, including Sharruth's tomb
- He knows the names, locations and cause of death of the major dragons on the island (you should make this up and write it down)
- He knows the plight of the Myconids and the threat of the Harpy, but he doesn't care because he has a more heroic purpose: defeating Sparkrender
Points to hit during the encounter:
- Make him likeable
- Make it clear that he's injured
- If the players decide to heal him in a way that spends resources, he's genuinely grateful. Give that player inspiration.
- Whatever reason the players have to be searching for him, he agrees to help them, but first...
- Make it clear that he intends to battle Sparkrender again once he's well. Even if the party convince him to wait for them to help him in the battle, or if they convince him to go to Dragons Rest, he will instead be foolhardy and go fight Sparkrender.
- If the players return to this site later, Lord Aidron is gone.
- The ideal time for the players to SEE the fight between Lord Aidron and Sparkrender is when they're on their way home from their second side-quest.
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Thanks, this was the part I felt was missing.
@@Striggly I'd originally recorded most of this info in the video, but it's so directly focussed on DOSI, I figured any punters would skip it and it would tank my video's stats and TH-cam would punish the channel. Better to separate it off into its own little write-up for people who are interested!
This is awesome, I'm running the final session of DOSI tomorrow, so this is helpful. Wish me luck
Glad to see some good ol' content that's not focused on the OGL fiasco
Dang, you ruined it by bringing it up
(that was a joke I mean no offense)
I feel the OGL fatigue just like everyone else, for sure!
Dang, you ruined it by bringing it up.
(This is not a joke. I hope you are offended.)
@@jtjames79 Shhh... that's what I was going for
@@jtjames79 Great name, I love the forlarren!
This video really helped me navigate the Stormwreck isle campaign and understand how I can control the pacing as a DM. Thank you.
Notably, I decided I wanted Sparkrender to display his power and evil schemes earlier in the campaign so that the players had a glimpse of what they would be facing later (foreshadowing). I found doing this earlier super helpful as the party was literally too weak to stop him at that point in the campaign.
My players went to compass rose first, so when they got back to dragon’s rest Sparkrender and his army of minions attacked dragon’s rest to obtain a dragon bone hidden in the dragon statue. The fallout of the battle was that an NPC was critically injured and they needed to get the Ruby morel mushroom from Seagrow caves so that they could save the NPC.
That is perfect dungeon mastering. Well done.
Some cool ideas for random encounter tables, I like that they arnt all just combat encounters and that you suggest that we can use random encounters to provide the players with more lore/information about the DMs campaign story.
Cheers Strigg!
I was going to ditch random encounters entirely on our next sessions. They’re usually just a boring waste of time. But these are awesome. I’m currently writing a d6 table for LMOP. With the Nexromancer’s zombies (including Tharden) as the 1 on the table. Any other ideas for that campaign?
Miss these "Oh, I'm a player, I can't tell the difference between an encounter and a scene" moments :D
Thanks for the great content again)
Me too! But it's better for everyone if I just get to the content ASAP in these videos, so I leave all the silly stuff for Twitch streams :)
About Random Encounters, I would only use them if I have no idea what to do next. If I read about additional or random encounters and I like them, I want them. I will plan to use them. I have a party of 3 players and I like the idea to give them the owlbear. So they have little help in combat. At least if the owlbear is in the mood. But only if the players like it, too.
Cool, I'm here early! This video showed up on my feed like a totally relevant random encounter on my quest for DM knowledge. Thanks for everything you do, Matty P!
Good.... good... just as planned
This video is so great becase it's both for DOSI and usable in all games.
That's the goal! I can't make every DOSI guide broadly applicable, but where I can, it's like two videos in one.
Hi Matthew, and many thanks for all the effort you put in making the DMing way easier and the stories more engaging for our players!
After running the adventure with your advises in mind and my adjustments to it, I’d like to share some thoughts on the relevant encounters:
I love the system behind and plan to use it further on though my adventures. It makes a lot of sense to fill the gaps between locations like this, this way I’m sure I won’t engage my players with filler content unless it’s an official hot springs special episode with an owlbear.
What I feel to be a bit less ready to go is a line-up of encounters themselves, it’s not agile enough for my taste:
1. owlbear feat. hot springs encounter can happen at any moment and is the most versatile among them, while also pacing-wise it makes more sense to have it after the first dungeon (so the party is a bit beaten up to need some rest in hot springs) or after shipwreck itself. But at least one encounter before the evening in Dragon Rest, because hot springs, at least for my players, is a 100% roleplay trigger to fool around with romance hints / nudity jokes / general reflection of a previous events, and dinner at Dragon Rest is specifically designed to be exactly the same thing. And having two roleplay-oriented scenes one by one may feel like you don’t have a dozen outcomes prepared for your players and want to fill time with them entertaining themselves for the whole session.
2. spore cloud - a bit too short to my taste compared to the rest of the encounters, but perfectly valid until your players completed the Caves. after that point you don’t have any value in providing the info on how the gas works since players do know that and solved the issue already. which also mean if seagrow caves are the first area your players explore, you only have one chance to use this encounter properly.
3. the harpy encounter - pretty much the same applies here, but for the compass rose. be especially careful with using this one after your players defeated the harpy, since that may set them up for a completely justified course of actions which you don’t have anything fun prepared for. what I did here was merging 2 and 3 to the alternate outcomes of the 2, depending on where / from where players were moving, while also replacing num 3 with Alietha’s husbands grave where something personal for my necromancer wizard player were supposed to happen.
4. kobolds - perfectly fine encounter, except for you want it to happen (if at all) before your second dungeon, as otherwise it shows way less preparation than you actually put into it (if it’s the last pre-observatory encounter, you’re teasing the fight literally scene before starting the fight which doesn’t provide enough time for them to cook).
5. scare them with Sparkrenderer - does serve the very good purpose but doesn’t do it good enough in my opinion: we don’t want them to engage yet, and if they do not, it’s just a big bird flying around somewhere far away. What I chose to use instead was a scene where massacre of the circus happened few month ago, done by Sparkrender for no particular reason. there I also planted a teasing for the next adventure, which synergies quite well: a bit of foreshadowing to make an area non-filler while also providing glimpse of main villain’s cruelty to check out friendly negotiations out of the solution list.
6. second best in terms of versatility encounter, nothing to add on my side.
THANK YOU for putting so much thought into my silly little system here. I'm running The Shattered Obelisk at the moment, and I'm trying to make these encounter tables for each leg of the adventure. I'll take your feedback onboard as I'm exploring the system further :)
Sure is a treat to find out I'm not alone in my thoughts on these topics. Great video!
Thank you!
I am 100% going to try this out, such a great way to make travel and random encounters more interesting for both players and DM.
Good luck! I'm still experimenting with it
About the myconids, I prefer that they have no children. I like the idea that they grow out of other creatures corpses. So they will see 2 undead kobolds covered in mushrooms and they will look more and more like myconids over the next few weeks. So no kids!
I loved the slow transition from chuckle to sobbing 😂
Thankfully it all worked out well!
I'm liking on title alone! Is this something we fully agree on for once?! I'm going to enjoy finding out.
Great vid, Matty, love it. I will say though, anytime I have ever tried a 'skill challenge' that in any way used a creature asthe adversary, that 'skill challenge' immediately becomes a combat as the 'what do you want to attempt for your first skill roll?' is answered with 'I cast hold monster' or 'I shoot it with my bow'.
Likewise, your example of a trap encounter, the dragon swooping down, breath weaponing, then flying away, that strikes me as combat, not trap.
Here's something we disagree on then haha: I reckon combat only starts when you roll for initiative
@@heyitsMattyP Ah, normalcy has resumed. Good.
This is exactly what i appreciated about Wild Beyond the Witchlight. Almost every single random encounter is either foreshadowing something, giving the players more info on the big bads or presents a means to travel this specific realm. Some of them are even pretty vital for the plot or play into another encounter in the module that isn't a random encounter.
Like, spoilers ahead but-----
the little puppet-show story recap ending with the puppets all standing around that very same puppet-show and then handing the players invitations for an audience with Endelyn is wonderful both narratively and for setting the tone. As are the Inn at the End of the Road, the Stream of Visions, the Grandfather tree, the Jabberwock's trail and the Cyclops Beekeeper. All 6 almost seem like they shouldn't even be random encounters. Similarly, the raft and the chariot in Hither and Thither both feel like something the players should definitely get a hold of at some point in their travels. To make backtracking easier if nothing else.
Personally i just picked out which of the random encounters would happen on the way to which location and tried to space them out so there's one less and one more important encounter on the way, skipping those that are just kinda uninteresting entirely. For example, my Hither encounters were:
Marsh gas on the way to Slanty Tower, just to introduce that mechanic.
Gushing O'Wells and Waterlogged Battlefield on the way to Telemy Hill, to introduce the water-level mechanic.
Stream of Visions, Abandoned Raft and Stilt walkers on the way to Briggands Tollway, for some foreshadowing and exposition as well as giving them a way to alleviate the water-level changes. Then after Briggand's Tollway i have the Inn at the End of the Road offer to bring them the rest of the way to Downfall, giving them a well deserved long rest and giving me the chance to bring them some much needed exposition and clarification on a few key facets of the adventure.
Oh that's great! I've meaning to read that module for months. But I was so underwhelmed by the Strixhaven campaign that I keep putting it off. Maybe I should cover it later this year?
@@heyitsMattyP That would be great actually. The module has a pretty vibrant community on both reddit and discord with tons on ideas for tweaks and there are a few sections of the adventure that can be a bit daunting for newer DMs. Especially the first and last chapters. Perfect for your "How to run X"-style content.
this is correct, thank you for saying it
it is important to sometimes let the players decide (detect) to have the encounter. if they are alert, they can surprise and or avoid the encounter
Cheers!
I have a prepared list of encounters, all of which point or redirect the PCs back to the plot story. Rather than choosing one from the list at random, I choose the most appropriate one for the current situation. Such encounters can either harm or help the PCs. Additional villains might show up or additional allies. Creatures known to inhabit an area might be encountered but only to leave an additional clue. The bottom line is that ALL apparently random encounters are used to move the plot forward and NO random encounters are there for no reason. If you don't do it this way, the PCs will inevitably believe that the random encounter is super important and get off track and pursue a wild goose chase that leads nowhere or worse, creates a serious logical disruption to the plot line. You're railroading, you say. Yep, I guess that I am. I have several interconnected rail lines all of which lead to the same conclusions. PCs get to choose the paths to the destination but they don't get to choose any path to any destination. If you want them to do that, that's up to you but that's a sandbox game. I ran a sandbox game one time. I let the PCs do whatever they wanted and just went with it. This led to plenty of weird and whacky and admittedly fun adventures but Eventually the response of the world to the PCs actions and vise versa morphed the game back into a railroad game. So since it ends up a railroad game anyway why not set it up that way and be able to deliver well thought out and compelling adventures.
It's a shame how railroading became a dirty word somehow. Because I personally hate the sandbox!
Great content. I love the OGL references without making yet another video rehashing the same speculation…
I am going to start using this for my naval campaign, but it can be difficult to come up with ideas for trap encounters on the open water or skill challenges besides weather events. A ship can only run into so many storms before you start questioning the navigator…
You can also pull and stretch time for this stuff! So it doesn't need to be an IMMEDIATE trap or challenge. It could be, "Over the next week, rats have spoiled the food. Let's to a skill challenge to solve the issue." Or for a trap, you could have a fire break out, or some kind of disrepair hit the ship.
@@heyitsMattyP I was going to mention something about what appears to be a small rogue iceberg... :D
I added a relevant zombie encounter where one of them has Alethia’s name partially carved on their arm. It’s one of the pulsing zombies and he’s just banging his head on a rock until they show up. After they try to read the name or get close enough, the zombie screams, charges them, and explodes.
EXPLODES!? love it
@@heyitsMattyP yeah, your pulsating zombie from your better zombie PDF!! Necrotic damage all around for 15 feet, I think. It’s my grossest exposition yet. lol
This is an interesting system! Not sure if I'll use it but it's neat.
neat is good enough for me :) ty
"I can't finish this rhyme..." LOL
Ha ha, we sure do like to joke around here, ha ha. Oh us!
8:18 Another golden moment
Great video! Really needed this as my party are about to head to the Eye of The All Father and need some "random" fights along the way.
Oh cool! I'll be finishing my series about SKT after these DOSI videos wrap up :)
Absolutely love this and can't wait to give it a try!
Cheers!
Hi! I’m about done with LMoP and used so much of your advice. I love all the people helping people jump into this hobby. What a cool space and time to play in.
That being said, I’m new to DMing and my very small party is new to playing. Getting them/me to RP and interact as the characters outside of combat is tricky. I’m curious if there is some sort of list of topics or random (relevant?) conversation starters or some tool for RP. I’ve got the mechanics down, I’m needing help making it feel less like a game and more like we’re telling a story together.
Any and all suggestions appreciated.
Hmm, I'm not sure! I think a good start would be: you should ask the players how their characters feel, or what their characters are thinking in certain moments, just to get them used tot eh idea that their character is a separate person to themselves. But you'll all learn over time and find a style of play that works for you!
You've breathed more life into these starter sets than I imagined they could carry, thanks!
Ever thought of branching out and bringing us your own (um, system-agnostic) "Mattyverse"?
Haha maybe not a full universe, but I HAVE bought the starter sets for Pathfinder 2E, Warhammer 4E, Numenara and Call of Cthulu, so we'll see if any of those spark joy
Relevant Encounters are my jam! However, I genuinely need to ease up on dealing excessive damage during encounters as the protagonists have so far reached their destinations battered, bruised, and aching for a short rest and some hit dice healing.
The Hot Springs encounter is a great opportunity to show the myconid corruption as mushrooms are present in the scene. It also foreshadows the presence of fume drakes in the nearby caverns. The drakes can mutter several ominous things about Sharruth and the Blue Usurper in Draconic for the Wizard to nerd about. And any Arcana checks on these fume drakes can then lead to relevant information for the boss area in the caves. The healing powers of the spring come from the remains of Runara's mentor as this is where he met his doom.
In the caves, in the waterfall area near the myconid farm I've 'hidden' a bottle with a gold coin and a shoddy looking map. In my version, Rix found the hoard of Runara's mentor (as Runara is not a dragon) and drew a rough outline of the island with an X where it is. With the promise of a dragon's hoard, the protagonists are quite likely to travel there and they will find that the younger Bronze Dragon has taken refuge in that exact cave to heal after his initial clash with Sparkrender
While travelling by rowboat from the caves back to the hub, they protagonists come across a much older shipwreck that had glimmering items visible on the beach. As they came to shore, they realized that the long dead and drowned sailors were now raising to meet them. But since I didn't want them to go through combat, instead Sparkrender happened to be flying by and as he saw 'activity' happening on the small islet he decided to cleanse everything and unleashed a torrent of lightning that forced the protagonists into some Dexterity Saves as lightning came at them from the sky and then massive spikes of glass inadvertently attempted to impale everything in their way. The zombies were dealt with in the aftermath and the protagonists were given one more grudge against Sparkrender.
I like the idea of having another harpy encounter on their way to the Compass Rose. I'll definitely have something like that.
I'll also have Varrnoth mention the long gone circus when the protagonists are in the hub before they go to the Compass Rose. On their way back from the shipwreck they'll be meeting the blue kobolds and the owlbear in a semi-cinematic encounter. I don't want to make the owlbear a combat encounter per se, more like an actual adorable dancing bear (which will turm grumpy and hostile after a few hours if the players don't leave it be). The plan is for the kobolds to drop the flamethrower which Myla can then identify as her tinkered burner which she uses to forge small magical trinkets and baubles. Once returned, she'll be able to use it to make some stuff for the players, demanding any precious gems and coins for her own personal 'hoard'.
For the final area, as the astronomical event is getting near, the players will be bombarded with Draconic whispers of Sharruth demanding to be released so she can cleanse the whole world in her 'sacred' fire. I plan to use this as foreshadowing and exposition for the campaign that will come following DOSI.
Ooooh yeah, your encounters sound good! I should have considered some kind of astronomical sighting in my table.
I like it when my players know what the results of the die roll are before they roll. They're reaction is pure. 1 means a white dragon shows up. 😳
I'm a big fan of known stakes for any roll :) Context is where the drama is!
Would you recommend perhaps fudging some of the rolls so it makes sense, narratively? For example, you would want the Myconid trap to come before the PC's complete the seagrow caves mission. So if they happen to head to seagrow caves on first, would you fudge the encounter result so the deal with the trap on the way?
Hey Trav! I already replied on Patreon, but I'll copy my answer here for posterity in case anyone else has the same question:
- Nah, I wouldn't fudge the encounters. If they landed on a result that foreshadows an element of the adventure they weren't immediately focussed on, that's OK! That just means we're foreshadowing.
But on the opposite end, if they had already resolved the myconid threat and then they rolled the creeping spore cloud trap, I would reflavour the encounter so it poses no threat (because the players have already dealt with the problem we're trying to give exposition about), and communicate to the players that they've bypassed this threat because of their actions with the myconids. "Good job, players!" I think it's a good way to give the players a W :)
I would, it worked well in lmop and doip
Relevant over random anyday!
Cheers Sun!
Ooh, I like these mechanics. And they are, appropriately, for the current environment, system neutral
no dungeons or &s or dragons were harmed in the making of this system-neutral template
Before i watch the video: I don't do random encounters. If the module has a table for random encounters, i just read the options in it, and then i just pick from those to create the encounters i would enjoy as a player.
hey fair enough
Hey Matthew, thanks so much for your content ! I plan to DM LMoP soon, do you have any advise for relevant encounters for this campaign ? I was thinking : 1 a gobelin raiding party going back to Cragmaw castle (that the party can try to follow to find the castle), 2 a traveling doppelgänger hunter hinting on the fact that the Black Spider has one as an ally, 3 the corpse of one of the Rockseeker brother. Any other ideas ?
Those are three very good ones.
You could add:
- A roleplaying encounter of Redbrands shaking down a trader.
- A lone zombie wandering around, minding its own business.
sounds interesting. I use something similiar, but i don't use run off a table. I just look at the scenarios going on in the region that they are going to and if it's they're first time going trhough an area where there is an ongoing scenario, i find something that is affected by the senario that they could encounter.
Yeah that sounds fair! I just like the drama of rolling on a table sometimes :)
I love all the content for DoSI! There's no info on how to role play Lord Aidron in the NPC video you mention, though. It only covers the members of Dragon's Rest. Can we find this info somewhere else?
Oh bugger! Sorry - I'll do that now
OK! Done now and pinned
3:07 I literally laughed out loud at this!
got 'em
I woul d do it with 2d6 instead of 1, with the more important in the 2 and 12 zones and the least important in the 6, 7, 8 slots
So you would stack thing things you least want to happen in the slots most likely to strike?
Hi, and thanks for all tour work.
I'm running LMOP with all the great work you made for it.
What revelant encounters can i prepare ?
Glad it's been useful! I'm not sure. I might make a proper video about it sometime.
Matty what skill challenge would you run for the players as the harpy is lifting their buddy off the ground?
All you need for a skill challenge is a situation (he harpy is lifting their buddy off the ground) and players who have ideas.
Players might try to intimidate the harpy. They might try to lasso the harpy. They might try to leap from a tree to grab their friend. They might even try just attacking the harpy. It's all fine!
That’s some good juice.
You're some good juice
Or just throw it all out, then get and play the ultimate ttrpg solution game system called D100 Dungeon that answers all DCC, D&D, Dungeon World and 4AD rules into 1 game system.
I LOVE D100 DUNGEON!
I've just ordered the DCC core rulebook! I'm excited to give it a go :)
I wish I had seen these videos before I started running this game for randoms on roll 20.....yoy should work for wotc
I wish! I actually started doing this kind of stuff because I saw a job posting from WotC, and I didn't have any of the skills needed for the position, so I wanted to get some practice :)
Ok 💖🔆🤪
I'm a big fan of random encounters not being story related, but world building related. Again not all encounters need to be combat (and shouldn't be). Yes they should give information, but maybe about how dangerous/corrupted the terrain itself is in the area, a shrine denoting a faith in the land they had not yet heard of, a drop off point for a fence trading illicit goods, or just meeting other travelers and swap stories about where they are going or have come from. Sometimes I use them to give the characters a chance to purchase goods they have not yet been exposed to from a traveling merchant or start a side quest not related to the main story, at least not without work from the PCs bringing them in (say, making allies who owe you one after you went above and beyond for the side quest objective). This obviously doesn't gel well with tightly run modules, but then I tend not to run them that tightly when I do.
World-building is still exposition! This has my absolute endorsement :)
Personally victimized by Matty P's joke about being Random UwU Rawr!
XD
Sooo why not just impart the six pieces of information? I'm not seeing how this needs to be rolled. Especially as, presumably, the players will get all six eventually. This seems like an unnecessary randomisation of what the DM would normally do anyway.
I mean, good luck with your Patreon, but I don't think I need to spend $5 to know how to set up an adventure with six bits of information.🫣
Some people like random encounters. For clarity: $5 is for the last three years of PDFs.