Davvy: "Both of them (The backgrounds) are basically going to only be used in this book." Me, who has Fae stuff in basically every single adventure I run: "Haha, no"
Alternate story hooks: Your parents made a deal with a fae and to reclaim what was lost now that you are of age, you have to go get it. A fae tricked you into giving up something in exchange for something else you needed at the time. One of your ancestors was a fae and to be a real boy you have to go find your family's connection to the wild through a family heirloom.
I got the book, and I like the backgrounds. Well, Feylost specifically. It is a good way to add fey stuff into your campaign if you were not intending to do so before. Perhaps a half elven Feylock who made a deal with an archfey to get out, only to be given a nearly impossible task they do not know about and power to complete said task after growing up from childhood to adulthood in the feywild for whatever reason, and the archfey who whisked you from the prime materiel is your patron.
Now that the harengon are out I’m gonna reflavour mine as a Kangaroo, give him a boomerang, and give him the performer background so as to have a didgeridoo to become the single most Australian PC possible.
A simple change I would make to fix that backstory problem is that they all went there in their dreams when they were kids. Nobody would pay in their sleep especially if it's always the plan to draw the kids in to punish them and take something they hold dear. Then it draws them back some years after to collect what it is they've lost. Might not be perfect but I think it gives a lot more room for freedom.
Well they also have the hourglass coven, why not just skip it being a result of them going there as kids and instead have it be something that could be a consequence of the players going to the carnival as adults? Maybe the Hags are kidnapping children from the carnival to use as slaves in prismeere, and if the players interfere with this activity the Hags decide to combine their powers to curse them by opening a rift in time to steal shit they held dear as children... Because that's how Hags roll and these ones specialize in messing with time. (So basically the curse isn't something they always suffered but now that they are cursed they know that this isn't how the timeline should be so now they have to beat the hags and figure out how to fix their altered pasts....)
@@minnion2871 it could also be reverse, instead of going to the carnival and losing something, the carnival could be stealing items of great importance to children and using those items to lore children in. Maybe the party were children who were lured in but managed to escape and they voted to join together and a)get their stuff back, b) stop the carnival, c) save a kid who was with them and didn't escape This way it can follow the plot as written however the kids can have all different personalities and backgrounds instead of them all being bad they were all just in town that night the carnival came through or even have the carnival be a bit of a pocket dimension with multiple openings so it can access multiple towns nearby towns at once. Children and drunkards waking up miles from home but not so far away that it would draw strong suspension, just far enough that they could have walked there
I guess it was supposed to be a joke, but Lewis Carroll's books Alice's adventures in Wonderland and through the looking glass are in the public domain.
There's an old AD&D (maybe 2e) module where you do indeed go to wonderland. . . and fight the Mad Hatter who's like an 18th level monk and his friends at the tea party are similarly ridiculously powerful.
I really liked the Faerie's UA ability 'Faerie Passage', where you can squeeze into any space larger than 1 inch, I just love the idea of the Fae just ignoring the laws of physics and geometry and going wherever they want because they said so.
How I thought about it in my mind is that basically the fairy turns into that little orb of light form like the Legend of Zelda Fairies and it can slip through things easier.
@@reidmoore8754 I think that's how it was meant to be, but I prefer the explanation of 'faeries elect to ignore the laws of physics because nobody has arrested them for it yet'
I actually disagree that both of the backgrounds are likely to be exclusive to this campaign - the Feylost background in particular is one I would have used on my first character, if this book had existed at the time; I used Courtier in its place because Fey Courts. The Witchlight Hand, conversely, is basically a worse Entertainer if you aren't picking it for the campaign-specific bonuses it comes with.
They Fairy UA was better for what she had in mind since they were size tiny, the Whichlight fairies are just small and cant fit through openings one inch or more
I actually really like the idea of making the story hook the fact that you were in the Carnival as a kid and you return now to get back what you lost. Is a very fairytale-esque logic, plus it sounds like something Stephen King would put in his most successful books, so you can really use this plot hook to exploit the weird and tug on the heartstrings.
I went the curse of shroud route where you can’t leave till you do what you need to do. So, the party is trapped there rather than being there by choice which is a good way to break up a long running campaign.
I think they mention a DMsGuild thing in the book, which acts as an actually pretty good setting guide. If that's what you're looking for, that's an option
On the topic of the story hooks, I feel like if you are playing with a group of friends instead of running it with a group of randos found online or at your local game store they become WAY less restrictive. I’ve come to find that when people play together long enough it’s inevitable that they start making characters that at least some of them know each other before the game even starts and that helps a LOT. For example, only one party member would need to take the background where they snuck in and had their inspiration stolen. The rest of the party would then be allowed to have their own reasons for coming along from just wanting to help their friend to being taken by the sense of adventure at the idea of traveling the feywild to even just wanting to take a magical Disney weekend trip, lol. You can even have another player have the hook of being sent by the “magic man” on a quest with or without the rest of the party knowing about it for extra intrigue. It’s not as bad a problem as you make it out to be is all I’m saying.
I like the "This is a reference only Runesmith will get" part of the ad, it makes me think all youtubers put funny inside jokes in their videos for each other and we'll never know
Honestly I wasn't too thrilled it was an adventure because I just want feywild content. Like please give as a sourcebook. There is only so many you can do about the material plane and 5e desperately needs more planar content because outside of the nine hells and the abyss there isn't much and that is such a let down.
@@stevenc4982 you are kind of right, they realist a think on the DM-guild That was connected to this book, the Spider reading a book has stats in That expansion, But it is sadly about domain of Delight and have barely any info about the Feywild or existing Archfey. So we still are laking any true Feywild matiral
I guess I can see why some people might not like the first story hook But part of the fun of creating a character is creating a character for a world and not just any character using that story hook me in my fellow players I’ve created extremely interesting and somatically fitting characters that we’re excited to play IN this world. Sure we’d be able to play the same characters anywhere else just like any other character been in this world is especially exciting where is if I were playing just any other character that would be just any other world
My dm got this book and plans on using it as a feywild sourcebook, which from your review sounds like the best route. I'm excited to see what happens :)
Well, the hooks of characters sneaking into the carnival as kids and getting something stolen doesn't have to be the principal thing in it. You can still build a completely independent BG and incorporate this small detail in it so you have the story hook. Can't you ? From my point of view, I've done SO many characters from the ground up, with intricate backgrounds worthy of being books, that working with or being given a direction at the beginning to start with as an inspiration for the character does not feel restrictive at all. It's actually a breath of fresh air. You know like when you first start traveling, you wanna choose your destinations with your gut and decide every step of the way. but once you've seen the world around, it's actually quite interesting to be thrown into a direction and just expand creatively on it. So I'd say give your players the information of having visited the carnival as kids and having lost something in it before they create their characters. Then let em build a background around it, and then you start the game with the fortuitous possibility to go get it back. Just my 2 cents
I had my players do exactly that and gave them wiggle room on what they were ok having stolen that would fit their characters and it's glorious! I'm loving the campaign so much and one of my players tonight told me she was looking forward to playing all day
Having a roleplay heavy campaign sounds really neat! I especially would like it if the game also incentives players to use their skills and abilities in out of the box ways. Idk if they do that, but it would be cool, and fits the fey theme really well.
The elves are small.. Tolkiens wondering if anyone read "On Fairy Stories" Also I can think of 4-6 different reasons why a child would sneak into a carnival, maybe it's worse than it's being described
My brother (partially) ran this one as part of our longer campaign. My bard ended up making a deal with Tasha at the end to end her curse to be an old person (think, Howl’s Moving Castle) in exchange for becoming her warlock. It’s been pretty sick so far
CW: Spoilers. ... In my own group one of my players worked in the carnival and had bring them there one by one where-ever they were. They could socialize inside the cart and talk smack before they would arrive. Ask questions if they came from other planes and even buy stuff. Then I assigned the carnival attendee player with rules, but more access to carneval while player had to buy tickets etc. This way the hook was more personal and was with the backstory.
If anyone and/or Davvy comes up with a good fix/merge/substitute for the adventure hooks please PLEASE reply to this. I found them really interesting and would honestly love to incorporate both, but I have no idea of how to do that and still leave the freedom to create backgrounds and the mystery surrounding the game.
Taken from another commentor here 'Jaded Pony': Alternate story hooks: Your parents made a deal with a fae and to reclaim what was lost now that you are of age, you have to go get it. A fae tricked you into giving up something in exchange for something else you needed at the time. One of your ancestors was a fae and to be a real boy you have to go find your family's connection to the wild through a family heirloom.
I honestly don't see why it can't be a mix of both. Let each person have their own reason for visiting the carnival. One person wants to reclaim what they lost, one person is sent by the warlock to investigate, one is a fey race who wants to visit the carnival, one is looking for someone who went missing at the last carnival/went missing in the fey realm, as that's one of the things that can happen in the carnival, and one is one of the witch light carnival workers who gets the message from the mysterious benefactor that is presented in the chapter about the carnival who tells them to gather these people together, helping give these level 1 strangers a reason to come together and be an adventuring party. It might be fun this way too because instead of solving one mystery, they are trying to solve what looks to be several that in the end are all tied into one.
I think the carnival opening isn’t actually to restrictive. What I like to say is that my players visited the carnival at some point while it was in a city that they and/or their family was in at the time, so maybe their family was traveling like merchants or nobility or this could just be the place where their family lived. Also I’d say there’s plenty of excuses for a child sneaking into a carnival, whether they could have been peer pressured into doing it, they forgot their money at home but still wanted to be with friends, or for someone like a druid/ranger raised away from civilization just didnt have the money and background to respect an idea like paying for a ticket to visit a carnival in the first place Although my players are kinda breezing over that detail too lol
Wow they Lewis carroll'd D&D?? Also am going to make ether a rabbitfolk necromancer or beats soul barbarian and go watership down on my enemies what fun
Glad I'm not the only one who finds the two plot hooks presented a bit limiting. I wish they had kept to the format of Frostmaiden or Tomb of Annihilation and offered more background-based plot hooks.
Yo, does the model have different mechanics for social interactions? I kinda got exited when i heard about the "pacifist" Route but i think it would not be that interesting if you're just not having interesting challenges. I Like roleplaying as much as the next guy, but i think 5e kinda lacks the potencial to do a COMPLETE adventure without a single punch being thrown. Either that or just really well constructed social encounters that take on account the martial classes as well.
I still need to get the book, but from what you've said I'd consider having the adventure start with the PCs as children at the carnival and RP the loss of their items. Then pick up the rp a few years later as adults.
I like more non-violent solutions. In fact, they tend to be OP in my campaigns I have even once had my players all tell me they liked the villain of my story and just joined him. It was supposed to be one of those "Nobody is actually evil" stories but honestly, the villain was more of an asshole but far more moral. His plan involved fewer people being killed though likely more people would die, they would just not die violently and die more or less voluntarily. So they joined him and made my life hard. Here is a scenario, your friend took some drugs out in the woods. They overdosed and will die but you can get them to a hospital to save them. This sadly also means the police will find them and put them in jail for life. They ask you not to save them, do you do it anyway? My players said no if he wants to die here in the woods you dig a grave and move on.
As a former player of 2nd Edition AD&D I am now convinced Thaco is the villain and if I ever run this adventure I may rewrite it so that Thaco *is most definitely* the villain
In my games I replace thee ability score bonuses of the fairy and harengon with more traditional, PHB ASIs. Harengons: +2 Dex, +1 Wis Fairy: +2 Cha, +1 Dex
The reason we dont get any Sourcebooks for Feywild or Shadowfell or any other upper or lower planes is because they want to avoid breaking down intricacies of these theoretically infinite planes so that DM's are encouraged to make these realms their own. Thats why any source book for a non-material plane will pretty much always be a pocket dimension or a very specific part/location of said realm (Avernus for example). By not releasing sourcebooks (i totally agree that we could use more feywild and shadowfell content, just maybe not full source books) they are encouraging the DM's of 5e to get creative with how those realms appear in their campaigns. I agree we need more fey/fell content, but I also fully understand why we dont get sourcebooks and am okay with that. Obviously a good way of fixing this is just give us a specifically Sword Coast feywild counterpart and fill it with shit. Other material planes can be different but it would give them an opportunity to give examples for dms to use.
Raven loft isn't the shadow fell. It's a domain of dread. The only reason I bring it up because I'm play slot of Shadar' Kai so I'm very familiar with the shadow fell.
So the campaign in this expansion is basically the Darkmoon Faire from WoW, but with the creepy carnival stuff dialed up to 11? Also, before this book came out, I was actually working on a rabbitfolk race with a "bounding leap" bonus action ability XD
I think the party arriving at a fey carnival is more reasonable and works better with various character backgrounds than the games I’ve played which consisted of... Being pulled off the street to enter some guy’s dreams. Being prison slaves to drow in the underdark. And just suddenly appear in a town that’s on fire. I don’t think the dm knew how to do set ups for campaigns, but they were still fun. Point is, no matter how an adventure starts, just roll with it and make it work.
I'm trying to prep this for a group, I think both hooks are great, and I think it'd be cool to use both, but obviously not with everyone else at the table. I'd break the group up into two initially distinct groups, those that want to have a backstory involving the carnival and those that don't. Obviously I'd work with them to flesh that out a bit, both categories are pretty broad and vague. But once the group gets together, everyone has their own individual goal that they can work with the others to achieve, rather than just feel like a troupe being tourist trapped to the locations and destinations. As this is very much a less combat heavy project, I want to encourage my party members to split up, especially at the beginning. Who knows, maybe even some players will completely split off from the party to explore Hither while others go to Thither, and then meet up to explore more of one or the other. Idk I'm still reading it but I like the concept of the whole thing
It still bugs me that faery race doenst get magic resistance or resistance to charms and fear effects (taking on acount how common those effects are in the feywild), or that they arent tiny. It comes with downsides of not having acess to some items or being able to use certain weapons but it opens the door to other options.
@@andresalvarado2019 the issue here is that flight is already a super.... controversial ability on races, so the probably didn't wanna push it with the fearie race.
There's a DM's Guild Session 0 module created by some people who worked on this. It makes it easier to make it make sense why kids broke the rules. TLDR, they didn't mean to.
Those of us who know Thaco from this module: *Virgin* Those of us who know Thaco from a funny-to-cringy webcomic: *Chad* Those of us who know Thaco from actually using it: *gigaChad* I'm the 2nd one. =/
"Eight years ago, you all attended the Witchlight Carnival. It was a grand time, none of the performers cared where you came from... rich, poor, young, old... to them, you were a customer, an attendee, someone to put a smile on. But something happened, there's an empty spot in your memory of the Carnival where you know that something... or some*one* should be... During your questing, you've heard that there will be another Witchlight Carnival this year, in a few weeks actually. Now armed with the skills and knowledge of a tested Adventurer, you seek the Carnival with your comrades in arms and try to recover what was lost to you." I think that this would probably be a great way to mix the two hooks into one that isn't as intrusive on how the characters were, but gives the DM/GM something to work with if the player lets their DM know what it is they believe their character lost. Was it just the memories of that night? Was it the memories of that item or person? Does your character realize what they lost or do they still not know and are just drawn to the carnival to find out what it was that they did lose?
I really hope we get a source book for the shadow fell and not just the ravenloft book. There is so much more to the shadow fell than ravenloft. I also want feywild and elemental planes source books
probably because they were pretty much just filler to make the UA seem more of a substantial addition than it was. plus if you look at how long a book takes to make, they knew it wasn't making it in. they released the UA for this back in march. thats only 4 months ago. by that time they were probably already finalizing the book if it wasnt already being printed. the fey hobgoblin like many things of the fey, twas nothing but an illusion.
@@companyoflosers it was an exaggeration. i like to use them some times. but i played a fey hobgobling in our game for one day and got oneshot by a dragon, by accident, so I would express, that i would love to actually use the features one day I only played with this group so i dont have any horror storries, sorry i didnt mean to trigger bad memories also sorry for my shitty english xD
@@das_LKL My sincerest apologies for my earlier comment and I fully admit to being in the wrong. Upon reflection, you seem like a delightful person and I regret my earlier comment. I hope you get your chance to play as a fey hobgoblin.
I can't think of a single person happy with the pixie that I've ever talked to. The UA was way better and actually made you feel like a pixie! Where as now they're just a half-baked halflings with wings and a Halloween costume.
Notice me Chappy Papi! Can we get a Davvy opinion/guide to the Deck of Many things? When to put it in a game, is it worth putting in a game, will it ruin friendships, will it ruin campaigns, will it give my dog diarrhea, how to plan for it, is it even füken worth it?!
The Wild Beyond the Witchlight is great, my only issue is that Wizards made yet another low level campaign book. A good DM could easily scale the campaign to match for higher level players but I feel that is more work for the DM. I can understand that they're made low level to avoid overpowered player builds and be new player friendly. Some classes however, are more fun at higher levels when you can multi class, get better feats, get unique weapons or pickup more useful spells.
I am very new to dnd, I have played a few different campaigns (currently playing Curse of Strahd) but I have never properly ran one. My bf is getting me this one for Christmas. Does ANYONE have any recommendations on anything? Because I really want it to go well :)
Well the easy middle ground could be something like.... Rather than the players sneaking in as children as their background they are first tasked with gaining entrance into the carnival by someone who hires them to find a missing child.... unfortunately for the players the tickets are all sold out so now the players have to devise a way to get into the carnival in the present if they want to find the missing kid.... (With it turning out that the Hags have been kidnapping children from the carnival and whisking them off to the feywild... Assuming the players try to stop the latest such kidnapping the Hags being the Hourglass Covern use their knowledge of time manipulation and the feywild to mess with the player characters pasts by going back in time and steeling things from their childhoods.... With the shared background hook being a consequence of messing with a coven of Hags who specialize in messing with the flow of time in the present...?)
It's my first time watching your content. You were atop the search results for "Wild Beyond the Witchlight Review". You also have a new subscriber who hit all of your bells. Thank you for your workmanlike review. I was considering running a short campaign for a very good friend who recently passed on to his next big adventure. As a result, his widow and players no longer have a DM for theirs. I and my players decided it would be appropriate to invite them for a one-shot, or perhaps a short, but fresh campaign. As it turns out, my friend had pre-ordered *this* campaign on Amazon before he died. It arrived, emblazoned with his name, at their home about a week after his services. When his wife told me about its arrival, I instantly knew what must be done. The Universe had dictated that I run this campaign. And so, run it I shall. Please don't be sad about this tale. Just do me this favor. When you're playing your games and telling your stories, remember to recognize the moments of great joy and heroic sacrifice. When they happen, just stop time for as long as you can. Take care to savor every nuance. And when you finally must allow the moment to pass, cherish the memory of it for all your days. For this is the greatest loot you will ever plunder. I promise you that. Be excellent.
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I completely forgot about the running gag of 4/10
Pity it's not 4/20
Wait I’m lost what’s the gag?
@@martinpat94 DavyChapy gives every adventure, source book etc. the rating of 4/10.
Every
Single
Book
Oh wow I just thought he genuinely didn't like the book
@@chrisvelo2595 Nah he ranks all books 4/10 and he does have a history of not liking Fae
Davvy: "Both of them (The backgrounds) are basically going to only be used in this book."
Me, who has Fae stuff in basically every single adventure I run: "Haha, no"
God you are just asking for Davvy to downvote your comment
If my party hasn't been screwed by sprites, d!cked with by dryads or f@cked over by fae, did I even master the dungeon?
Alternate story hooks:
Your parents made a deal with a fae and to reclaim what was lost now that you are of age, you have to go get it.
A fae tricked you into giving up something in exchange for something else you needed at the time.
One of your ancestors was a fae and to be a real boy you have to go find your family's connection to the wild through a family heirloom.
I got the book, and I like the backgrounds. Well, Feylost specifically. It is a good way to add fey stuff into your campaign if you were not intending to do so before. Perhaps a half elven Feylock who made a deal with an archfey to get out, only to be given a nearly impossible task they do not know about and power to complete said task after growing up from childhood to adulthood in the feywild for whatever reason, and the archfey who whisked you from the prime materiel is your patron.
Sadly, way to pricy for just some flavor elements for your own, more fun, adventure.
Now that the harengon are out I’m gonna reflavour mine as a Kangaroo, give him a boomerang, and give him the performer background so as to have a didgeridoo to become the single most Australian PC possible.
THIS, this is what I live for.
Bonzer!
Only if he's also a ranger whose animal companion is a croco... er, I meaan "freshie". Crikey, that character's a real beaut!
@@HeavyTopspin and a Fiend Warlock who's patron is a Drop Bear.
Aye look, it's Jackie Legs!
A simple change I would make to fix that backstory problem is that they all went there in their dreams when they were kids. Nobody would pay in their sleep especially if it's always the plan to draw the kids in to punish them and take something they hold dear. Then it draws them back some years after to collect what it is they've lost. Might not be perfect but I think it gives a lot more room for freedom.
Well they also have the hourglass coven, why not just skip it being a result of them going there as kids and instead have it be something that could be a consequence of the players going to the carnival as adults? Maybe the Hags are kidnapping children from the carnival to use as slaves in prismeere, and if the players interfere with this activity the Hags decide to combine their powers to curse them by opening a rift in time to steal shit they held dear as children... Because that's how Hags roll and these ones specialize in messing with time. (So basically the curse isn't something they always suffered but now that they are cursed they know that this isn't how the timeline should be so now they have to beat the hags and figure out how to fix their altered pasts....)
@@minnion2871 it could also be reverse, instead of going to the carnival and losing something, the carnival could be stealing items of great importance to children and using those items to lore children in. Maybe the party were children who were lured in but managed to escape and they voted to join together and a)get their stuff back, b) stop the carnival, c) save a kid who was with them and didn't escape
This way it can follow the plot as written however the kids can have all different personalities and backgrounds instead of them all being bad they were all just in town that night the carnival came through or even have the carnival be a bit of a pocket dimension with multiple openings so it can access multiple towns nearby towns at once. Children and drunkards waking up miles from home but not so far away that it would draw strong suspension, just far enough that they could have walked there
I guess it was supposed to be a joke, but Lewis Carroll's books Alice's adventures in Wonderland and through the looking glass are in the public domain.
There's an old AD&D (maybe 2e) module where you do indeed go to wonderland. . . and fight the Mad Hatter who's like an 18th level monk and his friends at the tea party are similarly ridiculously powerful.
@@halifaxsteppenwulf7980 oooh I want to play that adventure!
@@timelessadventurer dungeonland, I shudder at my memories of the caterpillar.
I'm pretty sure Harengon is a play on obviously "hare" but also "here and gone"
I really liked the Faerie's UA ability 'Faerie Passage', where you can squeeze into any space larger than 1 inch, I just love the idea of the Fae just ignoring the laws of physics and geometry and going wherever they want because they said so.
Cats are fae confirmed
rip that it got removed though
How I thought about it in my mind is that basically the fairy turns into that little orb of light form like the Legend of Zelda Fairies and it can slip through things easier.
@@reidmoore8754 I think that's how it was meant to be, but I prefer the explanation of 'faeries elect to ignore the laws of physics because nobody has arrested them for it yet'
@@Neutral_Tired honestly that’s as fae as it gets.
"I know your a pervert under there" ".....yeah" - the hellva boss scene reference is great
I actually disagree that both of the backgrounds are likely to be exclusive to this campaign - the Feylost background in particular is one I would have used on my first character, if this book had existed at the time; I used Courtier in its place because Fey Courts.
The Witchlight Hand, conversely, is basically a worse Entertainer if you aren't picking it for the campaign-specific bonuses it comes with.
*Rubs hands together evilly, knowing full well that Davvy fucking hates the Fae and excited to see him pop off*
You wanna share the disappointment?
You know that's an act, right? We all know Davvy is a Fae lord who tries to masquerade as a fae hating human.
"I can deny it no longer!....I am small"
Best reference of the video
Just an fyi, Wizards released a mini Van Rictens style guide on DMS guild called Domains of Delight
Is it free?
@@marmato9332 Nope. Fork over your £8
@@tomjack1000000 dammit
@@marmato9332 but all the money goes to charity
@@mewboo3606 That's more worth it then
So there is now an official version for faeries. Emirichu will be pleased
They Fairy UA was better for what she had in mind since they were size tiny, the Whichlight fairies are just small and cant fit through openings one inch or more
@@albinocyclopse9952 Yeahhhhh that still bugs me so much but luckily DMs don't seem to care that a fairy is tiny.
I actually really like the idea of making the story hook the fact that you were in the Carnival as a kid and you return now to get back what you lost. Is a very fairytale-esque logic, plus it sounds like something Stephen King would put in his most successful books, so you can really use this plot hook to exploit the weird and tug on the heartstrings.
exactly, as much as i enjoyed wild beyond the witchlight, I really want a proper feywild sourcebook like van richtens.
sounds like it could be run entirely in the theater of the mind very easily as well
I went the curse of shroud route where you can’t leave till you do what you need to do. So, the party is trapped there rather than being there by choice which is a good way to break up a long running campaign.
I am surprised Davvy didn’t say “fuck fey” at any point in the video and I congratulate him on his restraint
which is why we know he be fake.
I think they mention a DMsGuild thing in the book, which acts as an actually pretty good setting guide. If that's what you're looking for, that's an option
On the topic of the story hooks, I feel like if you are playing with a group of friends instead of running it with a group of randos found online or at your local game store they become WAY less restrictive. I’ve come to find that when people play together long enough it’s inevitable that they start making characters that at least some of them know each other before the game even starts and that helps a LOT. For example, only one party member would need to take the background where they snuck in and had their inspiration stolen. The rest of the party would then be allowed to have their own reasons for coming along from just wanting to help their friend to being taken by the sense of adventure at the idea of traveling the feywild to even just wanting to take a magical Disney weekend trip, lol. You can even have another player have the hook of being sent by the “magic man” on a quest with or without the rest of the party knowing about it for extra intrigue. It’s not as bad a problem as you make it out to be is all I’m saying.
I like the "This is a reference only Runesmith will get" part of the ad, it makes me think all youtubers put funny inside jokes in their videos for each other and we'll never know
Honestly I wasn't too thrilled it was an adventure because I just want feywild content. Like please give as a sourcebook. There is only so many you can do about the material plane and 5e desperately needs more planar content because outside of the nine hells and the abyss there isn't much and that is such a let down.
i think they did actually release some extra content along with it? don't quote me on that though
Even the Abyss isn't much talked on in 5e
@@stevenc4982 you are kind of right, they realist a think on the DM-guild That was connected to this book, the Spider reading a book has stats in That expansion, But it is sadly about domain of Delight and have barely any info about the Feywild or existing Archfey. So we still are laking any true Feywild matiral
@@Princessshamanarta There's more than the feywild, but that doesn't say much.
I guess I can see why some people might not like the first story hook But part of the fun of creating a character is creating a character for a world and not just any character using that story hook me in my fellow players I’ve created extremely interesting and somatically fitting characters that we’re excited to play IN this world. Sure we’d be able to play the same characters anywhere else just like any other character been in this world is especially exciting where is if I were playing just any other character that would be just any other world
My dm got this book and plans on using it as a feywild sourcebook, which from your review sounds like the best route. I'm excited to see what happens :)
Well, the hooks of characters sneaking into the carnival as kids and getting something stolen doesn't have to be the principal thing in it. You can still build a completely independent BG and incorporate this small detail in it so you have the story hook. Can't you ?
From my point of view, I've done SO many characters from the ground up, with intricate backgrounds worthy of being books, that working with or being given a direction at the beginning to start with as an inspiration for the character does not feel restrictive at all. It's actually a breath of fresh air.
You know like when you first start traveling, you wanna choose your destinations with your gut and decide every step of the way. but once you've seen the world around, it's actually quite interesting to be thrown into a direction and just expand creatively on it.
So I'd say give your players the information of having visited the carnival as kids and having lost something in it before they create their characters. Then let em build a background around it, and then you start the game with the fortuitous possibility to go get it back.
Just my 2 cents
I had my players do exactly that and gave them wiggle room on what they were ok having stolen that would fit their characters and it's glorious! I'm loving the campaign so much and one of my players tonight told me she was looking forward to playing all day
@@PersephoneDarling28 Nice, good job :) I wish you a very meaningful, prosperous, and existentially purposeful time playing DnD!
Having a roleplay heavy campaign sounds really neat! I especially would like it if the game also incentives players to use their skills and abilities in out of the box ways. Idk if they do that, but it would be cool, and fits the fey theme really well.
do you now know if the book has that?
Harengon ranger, take the Fey Wanderer, select antlers and evolve your rabbitfolk into a jackalopeople.
Fairy being Fey are immune to spell that target humanoid
The elves are small.. Tolkiens wondering if anyone read "On Fairy Stories"
Also I can think of 4-6 different reasons why a child would sneak into a carnival, maybe it's worse than it's being described
Think the Fayries in the book are supposed to be like Pixies. Think hags for example can be large, so D&D still has big fae.
5:09
Hellova YES
My brother (partially) ran this one as part of our longer campaign. My bard ended up making a deal with Tasha at the end to end her curse to be an old person (think, Howl’s Moving Castle) in exchange for becoming her warlock. It’s been pretty sick so far
Loved the Helluva Boss reference!!
I'm totally going to use the feylost in other campaigns too
CW: Spoilers.
...
In my own group one of my players worked in the carnival and had bring them there one by one where-ever they were. They could socialize inside the cart and talk smack before they would arrive. Ask questions if they came from other planes and even buy stuff. Then I assigned the carnival attendee player with rules, but more access to carneval while player had to buy tickets etc. This way the hook was more personal and was with the backstory.
I love the Helluva Boss reference.
THAC0 being a clown is pretty funny, also kinda accurate tho.
HEY THATS ME AGAIN 2:53 !!! Hope to see you again this next pax!
Well guess I'll be a Rune knight fairy now lol
No joke, I had no idea that this was an adventure I thought this WAS a source book for Feywild.
yeah, same. something about the way it was introduced/shown felt like it was implying it was.
If anyone and/or Davvy comes up with a good fix/merge/substitute for the adventure hooks please PLEASE reply to this.
I found them really interesting and would honestly love to incorporate both, but I have no idea of how to do that and still leave the freedom to create backgrounds and the mystery surrounding the game.
Taken from another commentor here 'Jaded Pony':
Alternate story hooks:
Your parents made a deal with a fae and to reclaim what was lost now that you are of age, you have to go get it.
A fae tricked you into giving up something in exchange for something else you needed at the time.
One of your ancestors was a fae and to be a real boy you have to go find your family's connection to the wild through a family heirloom.
I honestly don't see why it can't be a mix of both. Let each person have their own reason for visiting the carnival. One person wants to reclaim what they lost, one person is sent by the warlock to investigate, one is a fey race who wants to visit the carnival, one is looking for someone who went missing at the last carnival/went missing in the fey realm, as that's one of the things that can happen in the carnival, and one is one of the witch light carnival workers who gets the message from the mysterious benefactor that is presented in the chapter about the carnival who tells them to gather these people together, helping give these level 1 strangers a reason to come together and be an adventuring party. It might be fun this way too because instead of solving one mystery, they are trying to solve what looks to be several that in the end are all tied into one.
I think the carnival opening isn’t actually to restrictive. What I like to say is that my players visited the carnival at some point while it was in a city that they and/or their family was in at the time, so maybe their family was traveling like merchants or nobility or this could just be the place where their family lived.
Also I’d say there’s plenty of excuses for a child sneaking into a carnival, whether they could have been peer pressured into doing it, they forgot their money at home but still wanted to be with friends, or for someone like a druid/ranger raised away from civilization just didnt have the money and background to respect an idea like paying for a ticket to visit a carnival in the first place
Although my players are kinda breezing over that detail too lol
Helluva Boss shout-out appreciated
I usually do not like modules much but this one seems interesting.
Wow they Lewis carroll'd D&D??
Also am going to make ether a rabbitfolk necromancer or beats soul barbarian and go watership down on my enemies what fun
I wish I could give this comment a love.
No copyright violation for Alice in Wonderland; it’s public domain.
Glad I'm not the only one who finds the two plot hooks presented a bit limiting. I wish they had kept to the format of Frostmaiden or Tomb of Annihilation and offered more background-based plot hooks.
Yo, does the model have different mechanics for social interactions? I kinda got exited when i heard about the "pacifist" Route but i think it would not be that interesting if you're just not having interesting challenges. I Like roleplaying as much as the next guy, but i think 5e kinda lacks the potencial to do a COMPLETE adventure without a single punch being thrown. Either that or just really well constructed social encounters that take on account the martial classes as well.
a lot of the characters have stat blocks, my favourite being the Jabberwock Dragon which seems like a really interesting set of encounters
I still need to get the book, but from what you've said I'd consider having the adventure start with the PCs as children at the carnival and RP the loss of their items. Then pick up the rp a few years later as adults.
I like more non-violent solutions. In fact, they tend to be OP in my campaigns I have even once had my players all tell me they liked the villain of my story and just joined him. It was supposed to be one of those "Nobody is actually evil" stories but honestly, the villain was more of an asshole but far more moral. His plan involved fewer people being killed though likely more people would die, they would just not die violently and die more or less voluntarily. So they joined him and made my life hard.
Here is a scenario, your friend took some drugs out in the woods. They overdosed and will die but you can get them to a hospital to save them. This sadly also means the police will find them and put them in jail for life. They ask you not to save them, do you do it anyway? My players said no if he wants to die here in the woods you dig a grave and move on.
There's a sourcebook on the DMs guild written by Ed Greenwood. The profits are donated to charity.
"Howdy hows it's going" ahhhh seratonin
As a former player of 2nd Edition AD&D I am now convinced Thaco is the villain and if I ever run this adventure I may rewrite it so that Thaco *is most definitely* the villain
Im likewise a person who started with 2nd AD&D .Thaco the villain appeals . Did you run this and how did Thaco affect the plot ?
In my games I replace thee ability score bonuses of the fairy and harengon with more traditional, PHB ASIs. Harengons: +2 Dex, +1 Wis
Fairy: +2 Cha, +1 Dex
Fond memories of the 4:23 camel race game. Didn't expect a dutch carnival reference.
The reason we dont get any Sourcebooks for Feywild or Shadowfell or any other upper or lower planes is because they want to avoid breaking down intricacies of these theoretically infinite planes so that DM's are encouraged to make these realms their own. Thats why any source book for a non-material plane will pretty much always be a pocket dimension or a very specific part/location of said realm (Avernus for example).
By not releasing sourcebooks (i totally agree that we could use more feywild and shadowfell content, just maybe not full source books) they are encouraging the DM's of 5e to get creative with how those realms appear in their campaigns.
I agree we need more fey/fell content, but I also fully understand why we dont get sourcebooks and am okay with that. Obviously a good way of fixing this is just give us a specifically Sword Coast feywild counterpart and fill it with shit. Other material planes can be different but it would give them an opportunity to give examples for dms to use.
Raven loft isn't the shadow fell. It's a domain of dread. The only reason I bring it up because I'm play slot of Shadar' Kai so I'm very familiar with the shadow fell.
I just paid for Davvy’s onlyfeys and it was worth every gold piece
I saw THAC0 the clown too and thought it was hilarious
So the campaign in this expansion is basically the Darkmoon Faire from WoW, but with the creepy carnival stuff dialed up to 11? Also, before this book came out, I was actually working on a rabbitfolk race with a "bounding leap" bonus action ability XD
I think the party arriving at a fey carnival is more reasonable and works better with various character backgrounds than the games I’ve played which consisted of...
Being pulled off the street to enter some guy’s dreams.
Being prison slaves to drow in the underdark.
And just suddenly appear in a town that’s on fire.
I don’t think the dm knew how to do set ups for campaigns, but they were still fun. Point is, no matter how an adventure starts, just roll with it and make it work.
I'm trying to prep this for a group, I think both hooks are great, and I think it'd be cool to use both, but obviously not with everyone else at the table.
I'd break the group up into two initially distinct groups, those that want to have a backstory involving the carnival and those that don't.
Obviously I'd work with them to flesh that out a bit, both categories are pretty broad and vague.
But once the group gets together, everyone has their own individual goal that they can work with the others to achieve, rather than just feel like a troupe being tourist trapped to the locations and destinations.
As this is very much a less combat heavy project, I want to encourage my party members to split up, especially at the beginning. Who knows, maybe even some players will completely split off from the party to explore Hither while others go to Thither, and then meet up to explore more of one or the other.
Idk I'm still reading it but I like the concept of the whole thing
It still bugs me that faery race doenst get magic resistance or resistance to charms and fear effects (taking on acount how common those effects are in the feywild), or that they arent tiny.
It comes with downsides of not having acess to some items or being able to use certain weapons but it opens the door to other options.
especially when you have other races that have it.
Do you want that as well as flight and spell casting and immunity to spells that target humanoids?
@@nicka3697 Satyrs have all that except flight😩💔
@@andresalvarado2019 the issue here is that flight is already a super.... controversial ability on races, so the probably didn't wanna push it with the fearie race.
I prefer that they don't. Magic resistance is a really strong ability for a player race, especially paired with flying
There's a DM's Guild Session 0 module created by some people who worked on this. It makes it easier to make it make sense why kids broke the rules. TLDR, they didn't mean to.
Those of us who know Thaco from this module: *Virgin*
Those of us who know Thaco from a funny-to-cringy webcomic: *Chad*
Those of us who know Thaco from actually using it: *gigaChad*
I'm the 2nd one. =/
"Eight years ago, you all attended the Witchlight Carnival. It was a grand time, none of the performers cared where you came from... rich, poor, young, old... to them, you were a customer, an attendee, someone to put a smile on. But something happened, there's an empty spot in your memory of the Carnival where you know that something... or some*one* should be...
During your questing, you've heard that there will be another Witchlight Carnival this year, in a few weeks actually. Now armed with the skills and knowledge of a tested Adventurer, you seek the Carnival with your comrades in arms and try to recover what was lost to you."
I think that this would probably be a great way to mix the two hooks into one that isn't as intrusive on how the characters were, but gives the DM/GM something to work with if the player lets their DM know what it is they believe their character lost. Was it just the memories of that night? Was it the memories of that item or person? Does your character realize what they lost or do they still not know and are just drawn to the carnival to find out what it was that they did lose?
I really hope we get a source book for the shadow fell and not just the ravenloft book. There is so much more to the shadow fell than ravenloft. I also want feywild and elemental planes source books
did the hobgoblins of the fey wild not get released ? D: I loved them so much, will they ever be in a book
probably because they were pretty much just filler to make the UA seem more of a substantial addition than it was. plus if you look at how long a book takes to make, they knew it wasn't making it in. they released the UA for this back in march. thats only 4 months ago. by that time they were probably already finalizing the book if it wasnt already being printed. the fey hobgoblin like many things of the fey, twas nothing but an illusion.
makes sense@@companyoflosers I will still force my dm to let me play them
@@companyoflosers it was an exaggeration. i like to use them some times. but i played a fey hobgobling in our game for one day and got oneshot by a dragon, by accident, so I would express, that i would love to actually use the features one day
I only played with this group so i dont have any horror storries, sorry i didnt mean to trigger bad memories
also sorry for my shitty english xD
its by far the most interesting race for me, bc i love support, couldnt have brought myself to playing the same race 2 times in a row
@@das_LKL My sincerest apologies for my earlier comment and I fully admit to being in the wrong. Upon reflection, you seem like a delightful person and I regret my earlier comment. I hope you get your chance to play as a fey hobgoblin.
Very dope and great book 4/10
Let’s just be honest, this is the Undertale/Deltarune of dnd
I would love a guide about the feywild as well! Does anyone have any tips on reading material to expand how this plane works?
Did you also review Descent into Avernus and Candlekeep Mysteries?
Four of Ten? Very rare. High praise indeed.
If they make a guide to the feywild!!! *gasp** **puts on Fry voice** Shut up and take my money!!!
"I can't wait to play it! 4/10" ...wat
fairy sized Small instead of Tiny ruins them
I'm just imagining a guy who hasn't seen any of Davy's videos and gets really confused about the 4/10 punctuation
Hare Trigger is my favorite racial feature.
I just realized that this book is sorta like the D&D equivalent to Undertale.
I’m curious how you would run/what you would change for this adventure
hey hey! I just bought this "module".... "adventure"? What else do I need to play?
Or you could be a planeswalker trying to get home and get hooked into the adventure since you're afraid of coming home.
Honestly I’ve had so much playing this campgain
Time for some Viera jokes
I can't think of a single person happy with the pixie that I've ever talked to. The UA was way better and actually made you feel like a pixie! Where as now they're just a half-baked halflings with wings and a Halloween costume.
Lol, I can see you playing a bard fairy
Notice me Chappy Papi!
Can we get a Davvy opinion/guide to the Deck of Many things? When to put it in a game, is it worth putting in a game, will it ruin friendships, will it ruin campaigns, will it give my dog diarrhea, how to plan for it, is it even füken worth it?!
They did with the Domains of delight dlc pdf
Hey could you review some of the creator made things (stibbles, the tavern one, whatever else) im having trouble deciding if they're worth it tbh
8:23 the clown on the right. is... is that matpat from game theory/film theory/food theory?
I can tell that Davvy is going to hate this, I haven't even seen the video yet
The Wild Beyond the Witchlight is great, my only issue is that Wizards made yet another low level campaign book. A good DM could easily scale the campaign to match for higher level players but I feel that is more work for the DM. I can understand that they're made low level to avoid overpowered player builds and be new player friendly. Some classes however, are more fun at higher levels when you can multi class, get better feats, get unique weapons or pickup more useful spells.
5$ hot-dog. Me: my good this is so fucking cheap.
3:50
I have a player in my game, that does not use this book at all, who uses one of these backgrounds.
I am very new to dnd, I have played a few different campaigns (currently playing Curse of Strahd) but I have never properly ran one. My bf is getting me this one for Christmas. Does ANYONE have any recommendations on anything? Because I really want it to go well :)
I’ve never played DnD before so I can’t help much but I hope it goes great and yall have fun
@@mangohub3252 thank you!! :))
I will never tire of the rating joke.
5:20 Yeah this video is cool and all but DISPLACER KITTY!!!!
Well the easy middle ground could be something like.... Rather than the players sneaking in as children as their background they are first tasked with gaining entrance into the carnival by someone who hires them to find a missing child.... unfortunately for the players the tickets are all sold out so now the players have to devise a way to get into the carnival in the present if they want to find the missing kid.... (With it turning out that the Hags have been kidnapping children from the carnival and whisking them off to the feywild... Assuming the players try to stop the latest such kidnapping the Hags being the Hourglass Covern use their knowledge of time manipulation and the feywild to mess with the player characters pasts by going back in time and steeling things from their childhoods.... With the shared background hook being a consequence of messing with a coven of Hags who specialize in messing with the flow of time in the present...?)
It's my first time watching your content. You were atop the search results for "Wild Beyond the Witchlight Review". You also have a new subscriber who hit all of your bells. Thank you for your workmanlike review.
I was considering running a short campaign for a very good friend who recently passed on to his next big adventure. As a result, his widow and players no longer have a DM for theirs. I and my players decided it would be appropriate to invite them for a one-shot, or perhaps a short, but fresh campaign. As it turns out, my friend had pre-ordered *this* campaign on Amazon before he died. It arrived, emblazoned with his name, at their home about a week after his services. When his wife told me about its arrival, I instantly knew what must be done. The Universe had dictated that I run this campaign. And so, run it I shall.
Please don't be sad about this tale. Just do me this favor. When you're playing your games and telling your stories, remember to recognize the moments of great joy and heroic sacrifice. When they happen, just stop time for as long as you can. Take care to savor every nuance. And when you finally must allow the moment to pass, cherish the memory of it for all your days. For this is the greatest loot you will ever plunder. I promise you that.
Be excellent.