Any tips?
Anything you changed in the adventure?
Pretty excited to be running DCC for the first time. Hope I don't screw it up...
Running Sailors of the Starless Sea for the first time...
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Ravenheart87
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Re: Running Sailors of the Starless Sea for the first time..
Don't worry about screwing up. Let the players replenish their losses from the beastmen's prisoners. Don't be afraid to let characters die. It's a pretty straightforward adventure.
Vorpal Mace: a humble rpg blog with some DCC-related stuff.
Re: Running Sailors of the Starless Sea for the first time..
1.) You're going to do great.
2.) In the hidden tomb encounter (the frozen chamber), my players had an easy time of going in and trying to pry loose the armor, because every time they failed the FORT saves and passed out, they would send someone in to drag them out. What I failed to take into account is that the entire chamber is covered in ice and therefore super slippery, so they should have been making constant agility checks not to fall prone. Just keep that in mind.
I actually had a question myself regarding the Chaos Chapel with the demon frog statue: How did people handle the movement of the ooze? I decided that it was bound to the fountain, so it couldn't slither around, but I also gave it 10 ft reach, so essentially the only safe spots were the corners of the room (aka where the treasure wasnt).
2.) In the hidden tomb encounter (the frozen chamber), my players had an easy time of going in and trying to pry loose the armor, because every time they failed the FORT saves and passed out, they would send someone in to drag them out. What I failed to take into account is that the entire chamber is covered in ice and therefore super slippery, so they should have been making constant agility checks not to fall prone. Just keep that in mind.
I actually had a question myself regarding the Chaos Chapel with the demon frog statue: How did people handle the movement of the ooze? I decided that it was bound to the fountain, so it couldn't slither around, but I also gave it 10 ft reach, so essentially the only safe spots were the corners of the room (aka where the treasure wasnt).
My d10 goes to 11.
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Blutimate
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Re: Running Sailors of the Starless Sea for the first time..
The module is very adaptable to the players. Just make sure that your players understand your expectations for them. Sailors thrives on creativity and dies when players roll dice to "search the room". Don't let them get away with this. Do your best to describe the room and don't be afraid to add a little extra flavor to each room.
The burnt chapel in the courtyard is an example of this for me. I broke down the room into sectors in my head and as they explained to me what they had done, I explained what they saw in that area and gave them a handful of things to look at and gave them options (how do you investigate the skull? Do you pick it up or do you poke it? How do you do that?). In later areas, I didn't have to do this because they explored every corner of the rooms and explained what their characters were doing (although they were really too afraid at that point to poke or pick up anything
).
If things are running slow, feel free to send in some beastmen and go off script. My group started to try to over-analyze every situation and things slowed to a crawl. If I had to do it again, I would have removed some of the rooms before the starless sea and after the combat encounter. Those handful of rooms took my party almost an hour to get through, even with no traps or combat encounters (because they were expecting terrible, terrible things)! I had to rush through the starless sea and would likely not have regretted removing those rooms to speed things up. Their run was almost 6 hours long and most of it was analysis paralysis! I still had fun.
Have a great time. Don't stress and make sure to read the module again the same day as the game and you'll do great.
David Rose
P.S.-In regards to Epoch's question, I let the ooze move. It is not the most difficult monster to defeat, so I didn't give it any disadvantages other than those supplied from its statistics (so, full movement, etc.). My group were afraid but almost instantly killed it (it missed on its only attack). Remember, this module is supposed to be deadly. I wouldn't allow anyone to shoot it at a distance unless it is awakened and two characters just happened to get in range of the statue's eyes to take them out...
The burnt chapel in the courtyard is an example of this for me. I broke down the room into sectors in my head and as they explained to me what they had done, I explained what they saw in that area and gave them a handful of things to look at and gave them options (how do you investigate the skull? Do you pick it up or do you poke it? How do you do that?). In later areas, I didn't have to do this because they explored every corner of the rooms and explained what their characters were doing (although they were really too afraid at that point to poke or pick up anything
).If things are running slow, feel free to send in some beastmen and go off script. My group started to try to over-analyze every situation and things slowed to a crawl. If I had to do it again, I would have removed some of the rooms before the starless sea and after the combat encounter. Those handful of rooms took my party almost an hour to get through, even with no traps or combat encounters (because they were expecting terrible, terrible things)! I had to rush through the starless sea and would likely not have regretted removing those rooms to speed things up. Their run was almost 6 hours long and most of it was analysis paralysis! I still had fun.
Have a great time. Don't stress and make sure to read the module again the same day as the game and you'll do great.
David Rose
P.S.-In regards to Epoch's question, I let the ooze move. It is not the most difficult monster to defeat, so I didn't give it any disadvantages other than those supplied from its statistics (so, full movement, etc.). My group were afraid but almost instantly killed it (it missed on its only attack). Remember, this module is supposed to be deadly. I wouldn't allow anyone to shoot it at a distance unless it is awakened and two characters just happened to get in range of the statue's eyes to take them out...