Wild Beyond: Thither

Well, it has been a while since my group went through Thither, but My group had, probably too much, fun frolicking through the forests. I ensured that my players felt like they could explore as much as possible in the woods. I wanted to give them some wiggle room to make this campaign their own.

That’s when the party decided they wanted to become drug makers and dealers. 

This took the campaign on a bit of a mysterious side quest. Their drug was named Patch, a hallucinogenic that allowed them to also talk to creatures. The unfortunate demise of Zarak was being a test subject for the different batches they made after going through the Wayward Pool. Fusions of the Goblin Candy were also added to the testing, and Zarak was pleasantly lost in another dimension of his mind with being carted around through Thither.

Juniper reappeared during this section and having loved the owlbear when the characters were children hadn’t diminished when they grew to adulthood. This brought a new task that the party had to remember: keeping the adult owlbear fed. I found this wonderfully thought-out fishing game by Saffy Penrose on Reddit for my players to be entertained during a session (link below). A lasting moment was when the fairy held the halfling over the river to get closer to the fish.

I found the forests of Hither to be a lot of fun for my players. They gained a lot of companions, which came with their own challenges, before gaining even more in Yon. Though, I will save talking about that when I write about Yon.

Tips and Tricks

Hunting Tips: Survival checks to track, stealth to sneak up on the animal, then an attack roll, with an advantage on a successful stealth attempt. If it’s hit but not killed, it runs, and they must track it again.

Let Them Eat Cake: Letting my players add in some chaos made them connect more with the campaign. They had a lot more fun with it, but there were moments when I had to bring them back to the main story and move forward.

Links

Hunting Document:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1q4Vk376JNQKeOqX9HxZYlIyGEW4kLXnq/view?usp=sharing

Music:

Thither DM Document:

Thither_DMDownload

Gabby Bangert4 Comments

New Format: Wild Beyond the Witchlight

Let’s hope I can keep up with the weekly work. I’m really excited to share the updated format for the Wild Beyond the Witchlight. I’m working on more making a checklist for Dungeon Masters rather than a cheat sheet. I realized that sticking to just a single page for a whole chapter… is rough. Dungeon Masters need more than that. The focus is on more keeping track of the main points of each encounter and what the party has already accomplished.

These can be printed in full page sized or in booklet size to save on paper. I personally print them in booklet and place them in an A5 binder that I keep all of my Dungeon Master.

Here is the file for the new format and I would love any feedback!

WBTW_DM_Ch.1Download

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Hither Cheat Sheet and Inn at the End of the Road

(No Password Needed as of 12/9/22)

So, it’s been long awaited. I really should stop putting down timelines for these documents because they always take longer than I expect.

Hither is such an interesting place for your party to venture through. The swamps hold many things that can draw in the players and develop their characters more through many encounters.

The encounters in Hither are split between The Soggy Court/Bavlorna’s Hut and everything else. I’ve written two documents that you can find later in this post. Next post will include everything for The Soggy Court and Bavlorna’s Hut.

The Inn at the End of the Road is something that I had a lot of fun with! I would love any feedback that anyone has to make it more polished.

Featured Image for this post is by jamesrpgart. They do amazing paintings of locations and I would definitely reccomend checking out their patreon: https://www.patreon.com/jamesrpgart

As Always, Happy Adventuring!

Hither-1pgDownload
Inn-at-the-End-of-the-RoadDownload

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Wild Beyond: Hither

We made it through the swamp. We definitely didn’t drain it, but we might’ve added more. My players had quite the trip through the area from the Haregon bandits, Jingle Jangle, the O-well, will-o-wisps, to the Bullywugs of the soggy court. I will say, Hither took a bit longer than what I anticipated.

Map of Hither, Wizards of the Coast

Playing this section over the holiday season made scheduling a bit difficult. Though, we were finally able to go through everything that Hither has to offer, Kind of… My players are just some really nice folks in the game and decided to not look around Bavlorna’s Cottage at all. They left on good terms and that was that.

My Players had some fun with Agdon Longscarf as they bagged him up and carried him through to Bavlorna. They decided that he need to face justice and took him right to the source. They also dyed his fur pink to add to the shame of stealing things from others.

One of my mistakes was not making Bavlorna’s Home more enticing to explore for the group. I thought that it would be obvious that the group would want to see what’s happening, but I was very wrong. The party brought Bavlorna’s book and the crate of dead animals right to Bavlorna’s feet in the dim moist sitting room of the cottage. The last thing on the list was to unclog the pool.

I also need to lean more into The Three Rules of Conduct. This is such an important part of the adventure through Prismeer. I’m planning on bringing these rule out more with the guides that the group gains. Clapperclaw is going to not just talk with the group about it more, but also demonstrate the rules with encounters that the party goes through. Here’s a little blurb to read as Clapperclaw (or any of the Prismeer guides).

Before these lands have changed, folks around here interacted with each other differently. Conduct was more important to inhabitants and the ones that turned their noses were punished, often gone without a trace. So, it is important to to always be hospitable to friend or foe. It’s important to not take things that don’t belong to you. And lastly, it’s important to always give something in kind in return. This is how peace flew through our lands. This is what we all miss.

The Encounters in Hither are great! I really loved having them so if I could only do a short session with only a couple of people then I would just throw out one of these encounters. I had some of them meet the Will-o-wisps while others were resting at Telemy hill. Now they call themselves the sparkle gang after receiving a magic boon from them in the form of a small tattoo in the space of a sparkle.

I wasn’t able to have the group visit the Inn at the End of the Road, but I’m going to include something special regarding that encounter when I release the documents for Hither. There will be a one page for Hither and a one page for Bavlorna’s Cottage. These will be coming soon!

I found this awesome list of some fun Fey magic items table! You should definitely check it out!: https://www.tribality.com/2016/05/19/treasures-of-the-fey-market/

Playlist for Hither:

Gabby Bangert2 Comments

Mist Hunters: Session Zero

Grab your fog machine, grab your Victorian candles, and find that creepy horror background music! It’s time for session zero to get started for your Ravenloft Mist Hunters Session. During this session, your players are going to build their character together and get to know each other in a calm setting.

DM Note
When making characters together, I found that the group is more tightly knit because it’s a shared experience in the party. The party’s first impression aren’t from a backstory given by the player. This is something that, as a DM, I’m going to be implementing for all of my future games.

The session zero guided narrative is titled, The Long, Dark Tea-Time of the Soul. Before heading into this narrative, your players will really only need a name and a race/lineage.

Changes

I did make some changes to this character creation. The Long, Dark Tea-Time of the Soul was written by Wizards of the Coast for Adventure League Play. I tweaked the following things:

  • The Tarroka Deck. I changed it to be the same set up that you would find in Curse of Strahd to be able to have more access to resources to be able to do this reading.
  • The Order. I changed the order in which that the character is created. This is because the last order was a bit jumbled from how someone would typically make a character.
  • Ability Scores. The different arrays can be found in the original document, but this is set up for a group that is not playing through Adventure League. This is up to the DM’s discretion

Doing the Reading

I’m going to describe how to do this is two different ways, both in person and virtually. It’s important that there’s options for both nowadays. I’ve been loving running sessions virtually, but I’m going to be heading back into in person sessions over the next couple of months for some of my games.

So lets start with virtually, I’m going to be using discord as a main way of doing this. There is a couple different ways that we can go. So that you don’t have players sitting around for their turn for a reading, have each player open up the tarroka online deck (found at https://tarokka.com). This allows for each player to have their cards ready for you to be able to do the reading in steps. You can also just do one character at a time and screen share the tarroka deck to everyone. This will take significantly more time, but if time is not an issue, go ahead!

When it comes to in person, you may still use the digital Tarroka deck or purchase one for the reading. The physical cards really do bring the immersion effect to the players. Have everyone sit around the table and go through the reading together. You have a couple options for this. First, everyone builds characters from the same reading or you draw a card for each player. There’s enough the deck to do many readings, this also means that your players will have some different things come from the reading.

As The DM

Since this is a session zero, as a DM it’s great to start building connections between the characters. The PCs may have some connections between them, especially if they come from the same domain. Though, these connections are not necessary. They could all just meet in the teahouse and be assigned to the task through the Order of the Guardians.

As a DM, if you find that your player is having a hard time with saying the story, Don’t be afraid of asking some more questions that might help develop the character even more. It’s important to make sure that the player has full authority over what their character is to start. If they need some time to think, give them the space that they may need.

Setting the environment is going to be very important for the characters. If you’re in person, have some tea set up for them with some little snacks in the middle of the table. Dim the lights and create that mood. Draw your players in on every sense that you can.

Music & Resources

Documents

RMH-PrimerDownload
The-Long-Dark-Tea-Time-of-the-Soul-1Download
domainsDownload

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Ravenloft Mist Hunters

Let’s take a journey into the Mists of the Domains of Dread. Our players will venture through different kind of horrors of each encounter that they face. With the release of Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft, Wizards of the Coast updated information for 5e on the domains of dread from previously described areas.

Kindred Denial MtG Art from Alchemy: Innistrad by Justyna Gil

Some History of Ravenloft

The name of Ravenloft is known to many players as the castle that is ruled by famous vampire, Strahd von Zarovich. Ravenloft was originally created by Tracy and Laura Hickman in 1982 as a 32 page AD&D adventure that was designed to fit into any campaign. It has been present through all of the evolutions of Dungeons and Dragons as well as some books and video games.

In 2016, The fifth edition adventure module, Curse of Strahd was released opening the reimagined gates to Ravenloft (and The Domains of Dread) once again.

Ravenloft is just beginning of the Domains of Dread. What lies in the Domains of Dread are doomed places of of darkness locked away within the mists. Each Domain is a prison for it’s residents. The mists that surround the domain appear to be an everyday fog to the naked eye, but it is far from normal. This mist is known to appear anywhere and transport unwilling travelers to different domains.

It used to be that only the Vistani people were able to travel the mists, but now there are Mist Walkers, i.e. Kabe Whippoorwill, that can lead people through the mists. Or Someone with a mist talisman can travel to certain domains with that talisman.

What is Ravenloft Mist Hunters?

Ravenloft Mist Hunters is a series 14 adventures going through the Domains of Dread that have been written for Adventure League. Ravenloft Mist Hunter is more heavy on the roleplaying than the combat with characters that originate from the domains themselves. Each adventure should run about 2-4 hours and has been labeled with estimated timing for each section.

I have been using them as a module for a campaign that I run once a month for some friends. There’s a couple things I do to twist the gameplay to be more cohesive as the party isn’t a new group every time that I run it. I make sure to inform my players of the content warnings that are included with the adventure to make sure my players can have a conversation with me before a troublesome topic to find a better solution or option.

Currently, the adventures are still being released. Though, my group is only on the second adventure as of right now. So, so we have plenty of content to go through.

Castle Dracula MtG Art from Innistrad: Crimson Vow by Cliff Childs

I’m going to be doing a series on Ravenloft Mist Hunters as my players complete each section. This will include tools for DMs (Documents, Music, Photos, etc) as I have been doing for the Wild Beyond the Witchlight. So subscribe to my newsletter to let you know when new posts are out!

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Witchlight Carnival Cheat Sheet

(Update as of 7/10/22: This is no longer password protected)

Well, I thought I would be able to get this finished a little sooner than what I thought, but it’s finished now so I’ll move on. My group is still running through Hither and I’m hoping as a DM I’ll be able to get them through to Thither by February.

Now on to the exciting things, the cheat sheet for the Witchlight Carnival is completed and can be downloaded below. This is intended to be used with the book and only to be used as a quick look as part of the chapter. Thank you so much to the people that have subscribed to my little posts. I’m gears up to start posting more, but I hope to not be a nuisance.

Here’s to 2022 and let all the dice roll!

WBW-Carnival-DM-ToolDownload

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Wild Beyond The Witchlight: The Witchlight Carnival

Warning! Spoilers ahead for the Wild Beyond the Witchlight. Proceed with caution.

16 years later, our heroes rejoined in their village, Barreltongue, that they all grew up in. A couple of the childhood friends remained in the village, while others went out into the world to do various things. They all felt the hole that was left by the item that they lost so long ago at the carnival. They’ve gathered back with news of the Witchlight Carnival returning. With hope in their hearts, they search for their lost items.

Connecting the session zero and session one was a little different for consistency. I have players that wanted to be able to play different ages than what would match up with the other players from session zero. I told them that they would need to create a backstory that would give a reason as to why they aged differently from the others. My players came up with some really creative means of retelling these backstories. One of my favorites, the halfling found a spellbook that made him age significantly when he attuned to it. He also believes that he’s a wizard, but really is a sorcerer.

I leaned a bit on my players for connecting the timeline. I was really thinking about how Stephen King’s It brings the group back together after so many years apart. Though, instead of a weird killer clown, we have the carnival that stole something from each of the players. I gave them the choice to decide how long it has been since they were last at the carnival (as long as it was a multiple of eight). From there, they all met up as a group at a local tavern and reconnected with each other before heading to the carnival.

Highlights

Ellywick Tumblestrum by Anna Steinbauer

The Witchlight Carnival was such a fun place to have my players explore. I learned a lot about the characters that their playing and how they’re going to act to different situations. They did stray away from looking for their lost things for the first half of the carnival, but by the end they went to the carousel and found out where each of their items are located, who took them, and a secret about each of the hags.

I did make a change to how the players interacted with Mister Witch and Mister Light. I personally didn’t want my players to have to manipulate the owners into giving them information. After the party performed at the Big Top, The owners invited them to the staff area to have a conversation. One of my players rolled a Nat 20 while they we’re talking with the owners. They got the whole story about the carnival and about Witch and Light. They told the players to go about the carnival until the crowning of the Witchlight Monarch. Once the Monarch would be crowned, they would meet them at the hall of illusions.

An animated portal that I created for the end of the chapter.

Need to Improve

As a DM, I messed up during the carousel. I was so excited about them getting to learn about where their missing items went that I just jump right into them trying to figure out the puzzles… without the background of why. The lesson I learned is to breathe and read the section again quick before going to the middle.

Tips and Tricks

  • Keeping track of the Map. As a virtual DM, I use an app called EncounterPlus. Through this app, I’m able to have the map displayed to all of my players, while still having markers up for me to be able to reference what each area does in the carnival. This was such a help since I wasn’t constantly trying to find the information on everything that was going on for each section. EncounterPlus is available for Apple products. The link can be found below! But if you don’t have access to the app (or something like it) maybe a printout of the map with the page number or small note that gives a little background of each area.
  • Tracking Time in the Witchlight Carnival. Since there are Timed events, you need to keep track of how much time your players are spending in the carnival. I basically moved the time tracker forward one every time the players participated in a larger carnival event. Anything that was small or just a stall, I didn’t move the tracker forward.

Carnival Background Music Playlist:

EncounterPlus App: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/encounterplus-for-d-d-5e/id1170693487
The Portal Animation: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pMmwIoAr_k-V07QNJr7zmBMDwc80i8md/view?usp=sharing

Gabby Bangert3 Comments

Lost Things Cheat Sheet

(Edit: As of January 2022, You no longer need a password.)

First off, thank you so much for subscribing to my email list. This is the first of many exclusive posts to be coming for folks that are invested in what I’m working on. I wouldn’t be able to keep working on projects without readers like you!

While I was running the Lost Things session, I felt like I forgot some things or felt like I was flipping through the pages. It would’ve been nice to have a tool to lend me a hand quickly if I needed it.

So, I’ve created a small tool that I would hope would help with that. I won’t be able to use it with my current group, but I want to give back to the community what I have received. There have been so much supportive documents that I’ve been able to find. Plus many other things that make running a session for my tables more enjoyable than when I first started as a DM.

This is the first in the line-up for the documents that I’m creating for Wild Beyond the Witchlight.

lost-things-1pgDownload

Gabby Bangert1 Comment