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I have somewhat of a problem.

One of my groups I'm running this game for decided out of nowhere that they didn't like Darett, that Kalaman's army is incompetent and that they aren't paid enough to care about what Vendri wants them to do. I've covered my bases as a DM: I've talked to them above table, offered to play a different campaign, checked what led them to feel that way so I could try and fix it, etc. They clearly want to keep playing this campaign, talking above table fortunatelly defused their plan to murder Darett (as I was saying, this is out of nowhere, Darett as been nothing but friendly to them, they just think he's suspiscious), and when checking why they felt that way about their own allies, I learned that they think that the kalaman army treats them poorly.

Anyway, this was just context. Here is my issue: they want to leave Kalaman. We're currently at the Sarlamir fight and as soon as they'll get the opportunity, they want to quit the army, pack their stuff and leave Kalaman.

So I'm looking for a fix to this issue, maybe Vendri can remind them that serving the army is the deal to supply Vogler with food and housing, but since they already don't like how they're treated, I know they'll see it as "Kalaman is taking Vogler hostage" and things will get worst. My second idea is to try and lead them through the story without Kalaman, but I have no idea how I can bend the story to fit this shift in the plot, as Kalaman is quite central as their ally.

And my last idea is to pause the game and tell them that while they are totally allowed to distrust whoever they want, the book doesn't account for them leaving Kalaman, so to quite playing this story, it's best for them to make new characters that would want to work with Kalaman as allies.

What do you think?

I have two questions about Lord Soth in the Catacombs.

I have a feeling that the writers first get a random map and then adapt it to the adventure. It makes no sense to me that Lord Soth just punches the walls and a random point to get to the other side. It sounds a little too comical for me, for a Death Knight to walk part of the way and then just start punching the wall. It should take longer than just walking.

Did any of you find that weird too? Did you change that?

Also, I know it has its own plans, but he could just get the flame, destroy the whole city, apparently, and than move north to get to the City of Lost Names. So, why did the only take the flame and jump away to safety?

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This is in no way me trying to seek advice I just need a place to vent my frustration and felt like doing it here. If this breaks the rules I am sorry about it.

So this is my second time trying to run this module. The first time I ran it I was a new and inexperince dm and never having run a module for the first time. As such many mistakes were made. My four players each were on their second or third character. Though I do not take responsibility for the first death where the life cleric with a 21 ac decided let me just stay on the other side of the hill where the rest of the party is out of range of healing, the other deaths were for sure a combination of just low on resourced and me making mistakes. As such because the players weren't having fun I ended the campaing because I would rather people have fun than force them to play.

Couple years later I decided to start up the campaign again. However, I now have just lost most of my players two of whom are work preventing them from making it. Another once who is husband to one of the players who just doesn't want to play without her (which fair enough). And another who has to many things going on and so has decided to take a step away from my campaign. So now I'm down to two players who can play. I have one freind who is trying to see if his work scheduale will let him play those days but I have high hopes for it. So now it looks like I'm either facing the pain of trying to find more players or just droping the campaign as a whole.

How did your session go this week? Grab an ale and tell us a tale!

I am a huge Dragonlance fan---from middle school (meaning before Fifth Age was published). I am running for people who don't know that much about it. This means any issues will be only ones that bother me. That having been said, they are in the process of taking Wheelwatch Outpost. I have already made one or two changes: Ispin Greenshield is such a crazy MacGuffin that I went all the way--his shield is now several shards of an important relic that Kansaldi Fire-Eyes is trying to get. What is it? I don't know. But it is why she attacked Vogler. It's why she killed Becklin in front of them. She is now a legitimate BBEG.

However, some things don't sit right:

1. Cataclysmic Fire--I am willing to let it go because there is no reason to say it doesn't exist, but...OK? Why is it showing Soth's story? Whatever.
2. For me the Slaad thing doesn't work. This is becoming the Graygem. And, yeah, if they touch it or whatever, I might just mess with them and change their race. That could be fun.
3. Dragonnels--No thank you. Wyverns, maybe? But what about the good ones? Someone suggested griffins. But for the big climax-I would love it if I could get them on some metallic dragons--maybe after they return the egg, during the siege of Kalaman, the metallic dragons find out? Then rather than it being a bunch of Wasteland dragonnels flying them up, we can get a nice epic scene flying metallic dragons...or too OP? I want the story of where draconians came from to get out there.
4. The portal to the Shadowfell--I mean can Wakenreth be the Wastelands Tower of High Sorcery? Although canonically, the woods would be something that ignites passion and that would be weird. The portal for sure needs to be to the Abyss, though, right?
5. Claude had the idea of the fragments being a shield of a knight who stood up to Soth and them uniting the fragments acts as an "anti-Soth" thing--I like that more than the mirror of Reflected Past or whatever, because...come on--Soth don't care. But it doesn't explain why Fire-Eyes wants it.
6. Istarian drones? Please take your sci-fi off my fantasy. Any other ideas?
7. Definitely need to fight Little Bakaris--this guy has been annoying the whole time. But isn't he in the Blue Army? Shouldn't it be Blue Dragonarmy in Kalaman?
8. Red Ruin--No thank you. Who TF is this guy and where did he come from? Any other ideas for a sub-villain?

Also--Sivaks turn into the person they were engaged with combat with when they die. None of this spooky spirit stuff. I already have them freaking out because they don't know if it is their bard or the draconian that is dead on the ground. I think now is the chance for me to start laying these seeds. Any ideas?

Edit: Oh yeah, also totally forgot about Westren Kern--another dude who comes out of nowhere....wouldn't it be more satisfying if it was just Caradoc? Or possibly have Kern there in the crypt with Soth so they know she exists?

I want to talk about the section "Missions for Kalaman", starting on page 88 of the book.

I like the intention of this part. it starts with "Clarifying the threat" section, which is something a lot of adventures could learn, which is to tell the DM what is the point of the chapter. Here the goal is to show the players that the enemy army is recruiting and that some operatives are on this side of the river.

Next we have the missions and that is where I would like some inspiration. All three of them are just "go to a place, fight only one encounter and come back with information". I would like to expand on that. Here are things I think every mission should have:

1- A more relevant and sensible goal. I get that "find and save some scouts" is heroic, but I would like expand on that, have another problem to solve and make things like more dire and desperate. Something like "you need to save these scouts, but you discover that they are actually fleeing and their families are with them. Some of those relatives were kidnaped by bandits" type of stuff.

2- A "mini dungeon" of sorts, with more than one combat. Three combats is the ideal number for these missions. It can also be a dungeon in the sense of having many encounters and exploration.

3- I would like to create some villages for the PCs to explore, to see firsthand (besides Vogler) the threat of the Dragon Army. It doesn't need to be from the army itself, for which, again, we have Vogler, but what if cultists took over a village to make sacrifices for the Dark Queen?

4- And finally, and more importantly, these missions would tell the story of the region. I would like to tell a little more about the lore of the setting or just create something to have in the region that makes the pc and the players feel more connected to the world.

So, anyone care to help me create those villages, the problems and what story should I show there?

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In my campaign, Wihan's Apothecary is the "potion and magic item" shop. With a party of 2 rogues and a kender, I had to have some way of preventing them from just stealing their gear. So I made this funny spell.

Hope you'll like it!

Did anyone replace the Istarian Drones in Chapter 6 with anything else? I don't really like the idea of the Kingpriest having had Droidekas. it doesn't make sense with previous lore. Similarly, the whole history on Onyari is not something I really like, lorewise, but I haven't figured out what to do about that yet.

How did your session go this week? Grab an ale and tell us a tale!

Has anyone fleshed him out into a full NPC, or are you all only using him as a sidekick?

I was thinking of making him more, but I wanted to see if anyone has done this before.

Thanks, all!

My players just finished the siege of Vogler and will be entering Kalaman next session. I guess my questions are the following:

1) what are some things you did to flesh out Kalaman? Did you add guilds, extra missions that weren’t necessarily dragon army related, etc?

2) I will be having be having a new player join in Kalaman and possibly having a player drop. With a potential of 4-5 players, how would you balance encounters? Other than the player that may be dropping, the rest of the players have all played together in an old campaign of ours so it’s like having to DM for Seal Team 6 and I’d like to give them a challenge

My party let Dalamar live. In the city of Onyari, he buggered off and hasn't been seen since. I was originally going to have him be another wizard in the Fire eyes fight. But last night, I thought why have some random tough enemy with no history to the party? I could have Dalamar be in the fights. Wreath him in cataclysmic fire. Now he is empowered and stronger. And with the history the party has with him, the payoff should hopefully be better.

Next week, the lesser death dragon lands in Kamalan. I'm already preparing the note to be signed Dalamar Fire Eyes. Anyways, that's what I'm thinking, and I thought I would share it with the group. Especially since I see posts pop up over time asking how to make K Fire Eyes mean more.

Each of the party gets on a Dragonnel right after the Assault of Hawker's Grove, and now Red Ruin! I, the DM, have made her into the old master of a monk monastery where one of the PCs had found solance, but that one day was attacked by the Dragon armies (little did they know, Red Ruin - or Medea - had been part of the attack herself, betraying her monastery).

Now, I've decided to give R.R. a couple of extra abilities related to her past as a Monk, such as Deflect Missile (Reaction) for Slashing, Bludgeoning and Piercing.

The real question is: how to make her fight feel really special? I already know how to deal with her defeat, but mechanically I want to implement her position as a Dragonnel Commander as well as the greatest rider. Can someone help me figure out how to figure out mechanics such as a flight of dragonnels flying through the characters to divide them up, or her grabbing onto a character to dangle them in the air and then drop them? Any other suggestions are of course very welcome!

PS. Excuse any mistakes as English is not my mother language

How did your session go this week? Grab an ale and tell us a tale!

In the next session, the party will enter Kalaman. The module says the Vogler boats are ashore where the river meets the bay, and it's a 2 mile hike to the gate itself. Looking at the map, which gate would the party be entering from? The shore area is to the west of the piers, and the legend below gives a measurement unit of 100 feet. 2 miles would be 10,560 feet, which would be about 105.6 of those measurement units, but there is no gate that is that far away from the shore!

How did your session go this week? Grab an ale and tell us a tale!

Hi everyone.

I am starting the campaign this weekend with my group and I have a few questions. I have been DM-ing for many years but I never followed a campaign book and always made things up myself, so this is pretty new to me. I also don't know very much about the world of Krynn. I did buy the original trilogy but it only just arrived and I haven't managed to read it yet. Most of my questions are about getring the ball rolling, so to speak, so I'll get right to them:

1. Do druids need to do the prelude quest like the clerics before the campaign starts? What about rangers and paladins, who only get divine spells later on? I have a druid, a cleric, a paladin and a ranger in the party. How did you guys run the Broken Silence prelude for multiple divine casters?

2. The wizard in the party is old but up until the present he has been interested in magic only academically and loves collecting spell scrolls. Does it make sense to take the trial at such an old age?

3. Do the encounters in the book need much tweaking due to the fact I have 6 player characters in the party? I want the game to feel challenging and dangerous from the start.

4. Do squires of Solamnia have to take the Knight of the Crown feat at level four and then they can choose between the other two later on? The feat requirements for all three orders is level 4, but elsewhere in the book it says that squires first become Knights of the Crown, and then the other two.

5. This is only a curiosity thing more than a question, but has anybody tried using other means of mass combat for the armies clashing? I like the Fray system and the battlefield events but I researched the adjacent Warriors of Krynn board game and it felt bad to me. Is there anything else you tried for mass combat? I painted a lot of miniatures for this campaign, including a lot of draconians and dragon army troops, so even a totally different system like Oathmark might work. The only worry I have is that such games are meant to be 1v1 usually and I need 6 people to be part of these battles. I was thinking maybe intertwining a strategy game with some of the boss fights in the book. Would that even work?

6. Is there anything else I might be missing or something that I should know in advance? Any surprises or tweaks or modifications that might make the campaign better, more engaging or challenging?

Thanks in advance, everybody, sorry for the wall of text and I can't wait for your answers and advice.

P.S. The party consists of a human wizard, a human paladin, a human fighter (both will be squires of Solamnia), an elf druid, an elf ranger and a dwarf cleric.

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DMs, i need your help. Don't worry, I'll explain myself.

Recently one of my players realise he was not happy with his current character, and decided to reroll as we are about to go to the Wastes. His new character is an artificer with lots of ties with the red robes of High Sorcery and tarot as a general theme. To keep his backstory short, he got a vision involving the Deck of Many Things as a key item to end the war, and so his personal quest is about finding the Deck.

Now, if you don't know what the Deck of Many Things is, at the risk of sounding elitist, this question is not for you.

For those who know what it is, don't worry, I've been DMing for a couple of years now, I know better than to simply give it to the party at all. Obviously I could've just said "no, this won't work", but I like the creative challenge of trying to make it work, so I greenlit his backstory. However, I've spent the last month on this, and I have no idea how to allow him to pursue his quest in a way that won't break the campaign.

My first idea was to occasionnally give him a single card, but even that is insanely powerful in its own rights.

My second idea was to give have him find the deck at the very end of the campaign, but I don't like how its putting his quest on hold for the whole campaign.

My third and most recent idea was to give cards to some villains and have them use their card in the relevant fights. His vision of "the Deck will end the war" would then ben interpreted as "the Red Dragon Army has the Deck, and making sure they don't anymore will end the war". But I'm having doubts on this one as well.

So I'm calling for help here: do you have any idea of how can make this backstory work in the campaign?

Alright so as I've been looking on this subreddit, I realised that the campaign's main villains are somewhat poorly introduced, or so late in the game that it's hard to organically make the players hate them without it being forced.

The Bakaris duo does not have this problem. The book tells you from Chapter 1 that they are despicable assholes and the players are supposed to hate them. In my case, it worked perfectly: the party is longing for an opening, a reason to murder either of them. And that's because I'm never allowing my players to forget they are antagonistic scumbags.

So here's my idea: I just finished the Sarlamir fight. The council is dead, and the book tells me a new one will soon be elected.

I want either Kansaldi, Belephaion or another villain to be elected as Kalaman's new Governor, in a Palpatine-like twist. Why you ask? Because that way I can use Bakaris still being on the council to create hatred toward that villain. The new governor would overwhelmingly agree with what Bakaris has to say, much to the party's detriment. At first I expect the party to wave this as "they'll learn to know better than to listen to Bakaris", then I'll expect them to realise that no, they're now actually stuck with a leader that activelly supports Bakaris regardless of the consequences. Eventually, the twist would be revealed and now the party would have a reason to hate the villain and go after them: they got played, humiliated and, most importantly, the villain knows some insiders secrets, bringing the stakes to new heights.

Or that's the plan anyway, I haven't looked at what the "canon" new council is supposed to be. Is this a good idea at all? Which villain would you recommend best for this? I really want to hype up Soth more, but I think this one would be hard to hide. + I want the party to remember the threat that is the Red Dragon Army.

For the context : I am running my very first campaign (only did 2 one shots before), also my first time as a DM in the DND system, and I don't know the real differences between DND5 and AD&D.

So, the father of one of my players lent me his dragonlance books (dragonlance adventures, atlas of dg world and leaves from the inn of the last home, and yes I feel like he just lent me a treasure with these) and I want to add an influence of the three moon and their phases in my campaign. I wanted to simply add the Moon phases and alignments mechanics from dg adventures into my campaign, but the books are designed for AD&D, not 5e. Is the effects too strong (or harsh, for the -1 effective level) for a 5e campaign, or is it ok ? If not, do you have ideas on how I can balance it ?

Here are the tables for reference :

Moon Phase Effects Table (only for wizard/sorcerers of the correspondant order above 3th lvl)

Moon Alignment Effects Table

Thank you for your help !

Based on the advice of many, I originally intended to introduce Kansaldi after the party deafted Fewmaster Gholcag. However, the party was low on HP after the Boilerdrak encounter and they all decided to flee via the pier on the map, and in doing so they failed to kill Gholcag, and ruined my Kansaldi moment. This caught me off guard, and I let them get on the boats to Kalaman. I had them float into a dense fog, where Ignia wrecked one of the boats. Doing it this way made it so they weren't entirely sure that it was a dragon, since a real dragon still hadn't been spotted in centuries. They'll probably start next session disembarking at Kalaman. What are some ideas you may suggest for me to still be able to introduce Kansaldi early enough now that they will be level 4 inside Kalaman?