Stool became everyone's friend! My Out of the Abyss DM experience was awesome! My group ran to Bligdenstone(i know I spelled it wrong) essentially and fought the pudding kind (the barbarian in my group wanted to eat the "pudding") and when they got back, they met all the characters from the recent HoTDQ we finished awhile ago.(my paladin became a chose of Torm and sprouted wings from one of many boons I gave him as well as current leader in my head-cannon of the Order of the Gauntlet) My one player became possessed by Graz'zt and became a warlock, then played against the group to get the crystal making everyone crazy (forgot the name) and Graz'zt used this player to suck up all the rest of the Demon Lords as the group fought them, which at the end, Orcus was taken out by Demogorgon and Graz'zt possessed wizard took the Wand of Orcus and became full Demon Lord and took out Demogorgon, then that player became the BBEG for that campaign!
For those planning on running this adventure, check out the following PDFs: A Guide to Out of the Abyss - Helps the DM with the flow of the adventure. Journey Through the Center of the Underdark - fleshed out encounters to add variety to the traveling random encounters. And either D&D Denizens: Drow & Driders (Mentioned in the video) or Drow Expansion Pack (free)
McGovern's guide is great. The others are very good for fleshing out the early portions of the game, and the monster manual expansions will definitely give your encounters some variety. Also check out the D&D Denizens: Duergar.
I'm so happy to be a part of this community that's now 10k strong! I've been binge watching Web DM this week because I'm DM-ing tomorrow night for the very first time. Wish me luck!
Just finished! Quick update; I had a great time. The guys were rowdy, and my plans for the adventure didn't exactly work out. But everyone (including me) had a super fun time!
Corbyn Snodgrass Always remember that no plan survives contact with the party. I'm glad to hear it went well! As long as everyone had fun then you did your job.
Oh my god a long Web DM episode. I'm so excited. Congratulations on 10k subscribers! You guys certainly deserve it since the work here is top notch, and extremely informative. Keep it up!
My 5E DM ran our party through part of Out of the Abyss, now we have got back to the surface and have to go after the 3 Demonlords that escaped through a drow portal along with an ex pc cleric that converted over to Jubilex with his army. Congratz on 10k, it is well deserved.
in my freshman I made friends due to dnd and now I'm a sophomore even if I'm not at the same country even I'll still have those memories thanks to dnd and you helping me all the way through you're the best❤❤😢
First, a heartfelt congrats on the 10K subs. You guys have earned every single one. We wish you TEN times that amount. Second, currently playing OotA. The campaign book, according to our DM, is less of an adventure and more of a sourcebook with some adventure ideas. I know he's altered some events, and plays the Underdark societies less as cartoonish self-destructive concepts (as they were portrayed in 2E), and inserted politics, intrigue, and pragmatism. Gracklestugh became very interesting after that. The campaign has given us great chances for character development and story progression. We're really enjoying it, especially in comparison to Princes of The Apocalypse. (Aka Whack-A-Mole).
Glad you're enjoying it! And yes, I'd describe the campaign book in similar terms as your DM - lots of work to fill in the blanks, especially in the latter half.
James Davis The Underdark was always my favorite setting. My DM will confirm that I hounded him for months to abandon the hack-kneed EE storyline and begin the Underdark campaign. It became an almost comedic "who's on first" routine. We've finally gotten to see legitimate Drow and Svirfneblin PCs, dealt with Duergar, made friend with Myconids (yes, Stool has become our "adopted child" too) and so on. Loving it. Oddly, though, before any new campaign book is released, I tend to make characters that should be in the NEXT one. When playing EE, and before OotA was released, I played a Half-Elf (Drow) Draconic (Red) Sorcerer. He would have fit right in here. When we started OotA, I rolled a Half-Ogre Barbarian (Based on the Goliath. Swap the environmental survival for Darkvision), who would have been in his glory in STK. Sadly, Gutwrench has fallen. Like your campaign, our group isn't necessarily good. but it isn't evil either. I would call it "morally flexible". I hope that our campaign rises close to your success level. I look forward to your ongoing series. Perhaps should you choose to do Storm King's Thunder, maybe create edited game play videos with the highlights. Again, congrats. Keep doing that voodoo, that you do so well.
I purchased out of the abyss and have read some of it because my experiences are with hordes of the underdark expansion to neverwinter nights... pretty excited to watch this video
You have no idea how grateful i am for this video, iv been running OOTA for about a year and a half now and i didn't realise how desperately i needed some perspective. You touched on almost every major concern or stress iv had running this book(especially the time between encounters) and i cant thank you enough. I can't see the links for those NPC resources you mentioned Jim, could you link them for me pretty please? :)
The links, or at least the references, are forthcoming. For the encounters while traveling, one thing I forgot to mention in the vid is that I considered using the Gritty Realism rules for resting while traveling between settlements to simulate the grueling nature of Underdark travel and to help balance encounters. Ultimately, I went the opposite direction and went with pure narrative travel after bout 6th level or so.
Oh that’s so awesome. Our group just finished tyranny of dragons with a different DM who is now a player in my OotA campaign. In ours Tiamat was one year ago. WD was partially destroyed. And the old characters all made cameos in this campaign. I’m glad to see that others did this same thing. :)
Yep this is exactly how I ran HotDQ and how I am running RoT. I literally just go check the book for stuff every couple of sessions. Otherwise I am doing my own thing which 90% of the time is related to the characters in some way.
Bout over a year ago, this module was my first experience of D&D. I made a Dragonborn Dragon Sorcerer who died on my second session. My first session had us encounter the Demogorgon, when our other Sorcerer used a saved action on the firebolt and attacked it reactively. Fun times. We barely escaped can't remember if he died or not (probably). I then switched to the other DM at the shop who was running the Storm Giants module. School prevented me from finishing, but I went through most of the adventure as another Dragonborn Sorcerer as I got used to his spell casting. Took a break and played Pathfinder for a bit (have a lvl 12 Summoner an Kali Eidolon build saved cause I didn't get to use him much). Right now I'm in a campaign as a Gnome Wizard who unwittingly freed and hired an Evil Elven (Drow? Forget off the top of my head) Ranger from prison as my bodyguard who doesn't speak common (all but one party member can speak one of her other languages, and it's the barbarian). W are currently trying to stop the killings of a demonic squirrel cult ran by the Mayor, the head Merchant (who owns a Walmart-esque superstore) and the now-dead captain of the guard.
I just wanna voice my support to the videos you guys make. Just found this channel and hope you guys get lots of subscription. Kudos to the quality of the videos also.
Damn 10k! It's a little bittersweet like other people finding this cool band that I have loved for a while:p Congrats guys- you deserve it! Keep the good stuff coming!
Congrats guys! Love your channel and content and i legit look forward to seeing what you guys have in store for us every week. I'd love to see a show about unique monsters, items and traps you guys have created and played with. Keep up the good work fellas!
Congrats on the 10k, but you guys deserve it :). I'm running OotA and it's fun to hear other people's perspectives and what other groups have done. You guys sound like you had a blast! :) A couple of community guides or modules supplementing it that I found useful (and wish I'd known about when I was starting) were "A Guide to Out of the Abyss" by Sean McGovern (a summary of the adventure) and "Journey through the Centre of the Underdark" and "The Darklake Strikes Back" by Tony Petrecca (additional encounters). Also, the Adventurer's League Player's Guide to "Rage of Demons" has some ideas for interesting faction abilities that could be useful even if you're not using factions, and a clear explanation of the madness rules, all on page 9. I strongly endorse the idea of "gritty realism" for rest, at least as long as the party is "living rough" and camping in the Underdark wilderness. It helps a lot with the balance issues caused when the party can "nova" every encounter. Then, as DM, you can use the regular rest rules when the party rests in "safe places", such as a settlement of allies they've made, or at one of the outposts from p.147, or where a random terrain encounter says they've found an exceptionally safe space to rest. One of the toughest chapters to DM, I found, was chapter 8, where the party goes to Gauntlegrym and has the opportunity to meet faction NPC'sand to gain a couple of dozen low-level henchmen. I was nonplussed by this, as low level henchmen travelling with a party of this level through the Underdark (of all places!) are more of a logistical headache and a liability that the good PCs need to keep safe than anything else, but, I thought, there must be a reason for these henchmen in the upcoming chapters?? - it turned out, not so. With hindsight, if I were running this module again, I'd heavily rewrite this chapter to have tie-ins and in-character rewards for each of my PC's.
All of those are great suggestions, especially McGovern's guide. I never ended up using the two adventures (or any of the side treks in OotA for that matter) as I wanted a faster-paced campaign.
I'm going to be doing this campaign as the DM next month. First time as a DM. Friend bought the campaign book. Reading Salvatore to try and get some background info. This is a crazy book to start with, but it has a lot of great content. Glad to see you guys put out a video on it! I'm on pt 6 of the Coven of Razel-Sinn to watch some live games. I'm sure it's a logistical pain to do those videos, but compared to other games on UA-cam, yours is my favorite aside from Acquisitions Inc. Lots of other campaigns have players that are hard to understand/hear or the campaign isn't very interesting. Keep up the good work!
Congrats on 10k you guys deserve it! I'd love to see an episode on the sladdi, I have no idea where they would fit best but they seem really cool, hope you guys could do an episode on that and keep up the good work!
Slaad are tricky in that class hey don't have an overall agenda or goal, unlike most extarplanar creatures. I tend to use them as mercenary types or magically bound guardians for wizards. I can also see a death slaad being the focus of a cult of lunatics or tricking some idiot mages into thinking its a powerful demon or something just for the fun of it
My group is about a game away from finishing the Out of the Abyss adventure, and for the most part, we're not really having all that much fun with it. I think an issue we've had is that we've gone with a mixture of good and evil alignments. At the start, we were either good or neutral, but the warlock went lawful evil after becoming afflicted with wererat lycanthrophy. After we'd gotten to the surface, we had a couple players join the group when a friend and his fiancee moved back to the area. They ended up going with a lawful evil duergar and his dwarven slave to fit in with the story. It was at this point when we'd gotten to the surface that my character left the group. I was playing a halberd fighter that was a knight of Calimshan. After going through the Underdark and really only running into horrible people with the occasional person, my character saw no point in going back down to save them. Instead, it made much more sense for her to desire to return to Calimshan to prepare for when the Underdark was overrun. She'd seen the people down there, and didn't believe for a moment they could work together long enough to save themselves let along fight back the demon horde. She also didn't feel safe in the group anymore with a wererat that refused to have her curse removed and a duergar that insisted we come deal with their "dragon problem." So duty took over, and my character returned to Calimshan to shore up their defenses. I rolled a demon hunting ranger to have a character with some motivation to delve into the Underdark, but I just never felt motivated myself given I didn't find much enjoyment with the adventure. I think what your group did making native Underdark dwellers if probably the best way to get through this campaign. The characters really need more motivation to want to save the Underdark, and with it being their home, I'd see that as working out. I probably would have enjoyed it more if we were a group of native denizens, and I'd suggest anyone wanting to run it try out that aspect. If not, I think the adventure will take a lot of work to either keep the players down there until campaign completion and not let them get to the surface mid-campaign as the book suggested or find some other reason to get them to go back instead of returning home to protect their families or peoples. Overall, I'd rate the adventure as it's presented in the book a "meh."
The audio seemed a bit quieter than normal. Other than that, loved the video! You should consider more of these longer videos, it's nice hearing you guys get more into the nitty gritty of your campaigns and whatnot.
Hey guys, congrats to your 10k subscribers! Keep up the good work, really enjoy your videos (some helped me with my homebrew evil campaign I'm running at the moment). Greetings from Germany
Congrats on 10K subs! I've been enjoying your content and look forward to more. Question: If you could ask WotC for new 5E supplements, what would be the first ones on your minds?
A monster manual with higher CR creatures, more variety of creature types, and optional abilities to include if your party uses multi classing and/or feats. Maybe Volo's guide in November will have this, maybe not.
Sounds good to me! I generally miss both interesting bottom and top tier CR beasties in the current MM. I love the redesign of the oldschool demon baddies, but we need moar monstar diversity, I agree!
you guys need to do more taped playthroughs! Id love to have seen this campaign. you can do the Thunder King campaign. I loved the liveplay you did before. Doesnt need to be super professional. just put a camara on while you play.
Wow...took all of quarantine/covid ...most of 2020 but I finished ALL your library execpt for 3 short vids and 2 of the non-dnd gameplay videos , which I’m gonna watch in a bit BUT stopped to comment on this video, because it’s the 10k sub video...belated congratulations...love your content...and yeah...3 more and then I’m caught up on all videos 😅🤘🏽🤘🏽🤘🏽🤓
I have been watching Web DM for awhile now and I was wondering something the hosts reference being able to watch their d&d games, where would I be able to watch them?
Hey Guys, I'm pretty new to D&D so this channel has been beyond helpful. Also in one of the campaigns I'm in, I play as a Rogue Swashbuckler any chances you guys could talk about that, help someone new like me better understand his class. Or just even hit on the Sword Coast's Adventurer's Guide? Thanks!
"THANK YOU to all of our awesome fans for getting us to 10 Subscribers!" "10 Subscribers!" Guys, I think you have to aim a little higher, your channel is top notch don't settle for so little lol. Good work fellas, love your content. Planning on eventually making a "most memorable moments" with everyone in the group? I've always felt that those tabletop stories are the most wonderful thing to hear about. I mean, we always hear snippets here and there but a full episode about it would be awesome!.
I've been binge watching all your vids since I came across your channel a couple weeks back. Just was wondering if you had anymore "Liveplays" planned for the future?
Yay! Another Web DM video! I'm thinking of running Out of the Abyss for my first time as a DM. How did you guys work the other prisoners? Did you have the players control them? Or DM control them? and what stats did you use for them?
Ah yes, the prisoners. In our game, Ront killed the drow while they were still in the cells. Surprisingly, no one died in the initial escape attempt, so the group was something like 13 strong when they set out for the Darklake. The drow caught up with them on day 2 and ended up recapturing or killing everyone but the party, Stool, Ront, Topsy/Turvy, and Buppido. I used the stats suggested in the adventure for each one and wrote them down on index cards. The players each took one card and I played the rest. If I remember correctly, they chose Ront, Eldeth, Derendil, and T/T. By the time they reached Gracklestugh only Stool remained. Buppido was killed by the vampire necromancer while out foraging, Ront was slain during a fit of madness when Demogorgon showed up in Sloopidoop, and T/T abandoned the party once they knew how evil everyone was.
Lolth was such a powerfu Godl in the 4th edition that you would think that she could easily ward off any of the Demon Lords if they were a threat to Menzoberranzan.
Good run down of OOTA. I'm currently running my players through. They are on their way to Gracklstugh and you have given me a lot of great ideas on what to plan for. I can't wait to see how my players react to that city. I'm going to need to check that UA-cam Open Space Studio out when I visit Austin in a few weeks. Are you guys based in Austin?
Gracklestugh was my favorite part of the adventure. It's worth fleshing out and spending some time getting involved in all the different power groups in the city. Fair warning though, the chapter layout/organization is confusing. I recommend creating your own cheat sheet of the factions, NPCs, and plots to keep it all organized. As for the studio, I'll let our producer answer that. As the talent, I just showed up and rambled at Pruitt.
I love your show! Keep it up because you're so helpful for new DMs! I have a question which can be a suggestion of a topic for a show and it's about items and magic items. When to let the players buy them in the campaing, how to create them and make them not overpowered but still slighty useful... Also, when to let them have long rests, how to roleplay long journeys... I'm always struggling with those topics and I don't know how to hanle those situations when my players reach those points :(
Those are a lot of questions! For long journeys I mostly use the narrative method: "you walk through twisting tunnels for X days (describe notable terrain features)" then ask the party what they do during that time. I might roll a random encounter or choose an interesting one. If I were running it again, I would use the gritty realism resting variant from the DMG to simulate the grueling nature of traveling underground, and only let them use the normal resting rules in a settlement. I find the narrative method keep the game from bogging down when faced with multiple long journeys like in OotA, but it does mean that certain class features, notably Ranger's, are less valuable. For long rests, every group is different. Too many and combat encounters will be a pushover for the group. Too few and the game will become a grind and you risk trivial combats becoming very deadly. In general, I follow a 1-2 long rests per game session paradigm unless it makes sense from an in-game perspective to have more. Magic items are very group dependent, but I would recommend starting at the lower end of the scale and adding them slowly. The basic game assumes no/ very few magic items, so anything more than zero is a bonus. I'm hesitant to allow the sale or purchase of items as a regular occurrence in most of my games. Buying magic items should be like buying fine art - rare, a bit of a hassle, and fraught with adventure. Creating items should be handled in a similar manner. Make an adventure out of it. Requirng rare ingredients, special tools, locations of power to craft the item, or times of magical significance are all ways to make an adventure out of item creation. For example, to create a magic wand perhaps a Mage needs the shin bone of a magical creature (oni or hag), shaped by specially attuned tools, and bathed with oils made from a rare flower that only blooms once per year.
So I see you change alot of the original modules and let players drive the story and that is amazing! But could you provide so advise on how to encourage the player to take control of the story? I have DMd Lost Mines of Phandelver has my first time as DM and I struggled a bit in getting the players actually interested in finding the mines. I found myself almost forcing the module on players sometimes. I tried getting them each personal goals and history, some tied to the mine and they kind of lost interest. Should I just drop it? or is anything I can do to revive this? Anyway great videos as always!
Keep it up guys. BUT don't forget to have fun first, help people second & continue to grow as wonderful as a great D&D content providers. Thank you & your crew too ! T.Rust Monster \oo/
I'm really glad I could help you guys get to ten whole subscribers! (Check the description) But seriously, congratulations on the success, and I can't wait to see more!
We moved at an accelerated pace, skipping Bligdenstone and heading straight from DeVir's tower to Menzo without collecting the materials for the ritual (NPC minions helped with that). I'd say we spent 20-25 sessions. Hard to tell as we played it mostly every other week, alternating with Pru's Spelljammer game.
Thanks for the info, Jim! Our random encounters keep turning into multiple session long adventures. Keep up the great content on the show. The 10k is much deserved.
Hey Is a video about owning strongholds or keeps or forts or whatever on your list of vids to make?if so just wandering what it may entail and when might it be out? currently got a 1on1 session where he owns a stronghold and he doesn't wanna do a lot of busy work, so I thought maybe he could hire an accountant to sort balancing things out or would that be to easy on him and should I push him to progress for it?love your stuff guys congrats on 10k.glad I can be apart of it.
Also what may be some good quest ideas for maintaining or to do with a fort or keep like maybe there attacked by another army that wants to take over or something very unique like that.Any ideas would be welcome thanks.
A majordomo or seneschal (medieval accountant) is a good way to keep the day-to-day bookkeeping of owning a keep in the background. Let all that happen "off-screen" and only involve the player in the big stuff. As for quests - rampaging humanoid tribes, household staff intrigue, spies sent by rivals, and clearing the surrounding countryside of threats are good mid-level challenges. For higher level quests, try forging/maintaining alliances, building up a warband or army, or dealing with politics are all appropriate for stronghold-based adventures.
It's a beast, and not for the faint of heart, but the uniqueness of the environment and power groups the party interacts with makes it worthwhile. It is work though, especially providing sufficient encounters in the latter half of the adventure.
We pretty much made a feat progression where as she progressed in levels she got access to increasingly more powerful abilities and gradual stat increases. By the time she hit 20th she was a full fledged vampire which at that level isn't unbalanced with other party members who used their ASIs on feats.
James Davis Could you share that by chance? I'm making an evil campaign pretty soon and I would really appreciate something like that. Also I love you guy's videos! Congratulations!
So I did! If only I could quit my job and UA-cam fill time! I think for the most part MCing in 5e is fairly balanced. In most cases you're trading overall power for versatility (with some exceptions) and while I initially thought to tie ASIs to character level, I've decided against that and go with ASIs being class features that you will have to give up if you MC. As a player I really like the options that MCing opens up. My longest running character is Rog9/Wiz2/Brd3 and every other character idea I've considered has been a MC character. As for general advice, start with the class that will give you the saves and profs that you want. If that's not your "main class" then switch to it at lvl 2 and stick with it for 4-5 levels (ASI/extra attack/3rd lvl spells) so you're not too far behind the single class characters. From there it's a matter of determining which class features are essential.
Wow, thank you so much for the answer Jim! I think you brought up a lot of good points. for example, im having to jugle the ASI's vs. feats in early levels of MCing. I'm playing a swashbuckler Rogue atm and hoping to go 5 Rog/5 Fighter. thanks again for the great reply, love the videos, Cheers!
so I'm playing a saucy Air Genasi pirate for this character. I took two - weapon fighting (to take advantage of fancy footwork - from swashbuckler arch.). Lvl3 BM, and I grabbed maneuvers such as distracting strike, riposte and trip atk. DS will help my teammates line up big hits or spells when needed. with fancy footwork I plan to dance away after my flurry of atks so I picked riposte (bcz I will have less AofO) and trip atk for when I get extra atk at lvl 5 Fighter. (first atk to the ground, second right back at him). your videos have actually inspired me to try out magic caster's for the first time, so I would like to see magic eventually in this character. So I told my DM one of my character goals is to meet my father in his respective plane, and maybe he will imbue me with elemental power (aka I'll MC in wizard then).
Thanks for watching! Want more Web DM in your life? Get our podcast here: www.patreon.com/webdm
Stool became everyone's friend!
My Out of the Abyss DM experience was awesome! My group ran to Bligdenstone(i know I spelled it wrong) essentially and fought the pudding kind (the barbarian in my group wanted to eat the "pudding") and when they got back, they met all the characters from the recent HoTDQ we finished awhile ago.(my paladin became a chose of Torm and sprouted wings from one of many boons I gave him as well as current leader in my head-cannon of the Order of the Gauntlet)
My one player became possessed by Graz'zt and became a warlock, then played against the group to get the crystal making everyone crazy (forgot the name) and Graz'zt used this player to suck up all the rest of the Demon Lords as the group fought them, which at the end, Orcus was taken out by Demogorgon and Graz'zt possessed wizard took the Wand of Orcus and became full Demon Lord and took out Demogorgon, then that player became the BBEG for that campaign!
Now that sounds like an epic campaign!
For those planning on running this adventure, check out the following PDFs:
A Guide to Out of the Abyss - Helps the DM with the flow of the adventure.
Journey Through the Center of the Underdark - fleshed out encounters to add variety to the traveling random encounters.
And either D&D Denizens: Drow & Driders (Mentioned in the video) or Drow Expansion Pack (free)
McGovern's guide is great. The others are very good for fleshing out the early portions of the game, and the monster manual expansions will definitely give your encounters some variety. Also check out the D&D Denizens: Duergar.
I'm so happy to be a part of this community that's now 10k strong! I've been binge watching Web DM this week because I'm DM-ing tomorrow night for the very first time. Wish me luck!
Good luck!!!!!
You can do it!
Just finished! Quick update; I had a great time. The guys were rowdy, and my plans for the adventure didn't exactly work out. But everyone (including me) had a super fun time!
Nice! If you plan on DMing more often then count on your adventures going ways you won't expect. It's part of the beauty of the game!
Corbyn Snodgrass Always remember that no plan survives contact with the party. I'm glad to hear it went well! As long as everyone had fun then you did your job.
Oh my god a long Web DM episode. I'm so excited.
Congratulations on 10k subscribers! You guys certainly deserve it since the work here is top notch, and extremely informative. Keep it up!
Joel Scott Thank you for those kind words and your support!
My 5E DM ran our party through part of Out of the Abyss, now we have got back to the surface and have to go after the 3 Demonlords that escaped through a drow portal along with an ex pc cleric that converted over to Jubilex with his army.
Congratz on 10k, it is well deserved.
in my freshman I made friends due to dnd and now I'm a sophomore even if I'm not at the same country even I'll still have those memories thanks to dnd and you helping me all the way through you're the best❤❤😢
Love how this popped up in my feed when Web DM is nearly at 100k SUBSCRIBERS XD
all in all...it sounds like it was...Abyss-mal....oh man, i crack me up
First, a heartfelt congrats on the 10K subs. You guys have earned every single one. We wish you TEN times that amount.
Second, currently playing OotA. The campaign book, according to our DM, is less of an adventure and more of a sourcebook with some adventure ideas.
I know he's altered some events, and plays the Underdark societies less as cartoonish self-destructive concepts (as they were portrayed in 2E), and inserted politics, intrigue, and pragmatism. Gracklestugh became very interesting after that.
The campaign has given us great chances for character development and story progression.
We're really enjoying it, especially in comparison to Princes of The Apocalypse. (Aka Whack-A-Mole).
Glad you're enjoying it! And yes, I'd describe the campaign book in similar terms as your DM - lots of work to fill in the blanks, especially in the latter half.
James Davis The Underdark was always my favorite setting. My DM will confirm that I hounded him for months to abandon the hack-kneed EE storyline and begin the Underdark campaign. It became an almost comedic "who's on first" routine. We've finally gotten to see legitimate Drow and Svirfneblin PCs, dealt with Duergar, made friend with Myconids (yes, Stool has become our "adopted child" too) and so on. Loving it.
Oddly, though, before any new campaign book is released, I tend to make characters that should be in the NEXT one. When playing EE, and before OotA was released, I played a Half-Elf (Drow) Draconic (Red) Sorcerer. He would have fit right in here. When we started OotA, I rolled a Half-Ogre Barbarian (Based on the Goliath. Swap the environmental survival for Darkvision), who would have been in his glory in STK. Sadly, Gutwrench has fallen.
Like your campaign, our group isn't necessarily good. but it isn't evil either. I would call it "morally flexible". I hope that our campaign rises close to your success level. I look forward to your ongoing series. Perhaps should you choose to do Storm King's Thunder, maybe create edited game play videos with the highlights.
Again, congrats. Keep doing that voodoo, that you do so well.
I love you guys! Running my first game next weekend and you guys have been a huge help!
I purchased out of the abyss and have read some of it because my experiences are with hordes of the underdark expansion to neverwinter nights... pretty excited to watch this video
Hope you enjoy it and find something useful!
You have no idea how grateful i am for this video, iv been running OOTA for about a year and a half now and i didn't realise how desperately i needed some perspective. You touched on almost every major concern or stress iv had running this book(especially the time between encounters) and i cant thank you enough. I can't see the links for those NPC resources you mentioned Jim, could you link them for me pretty please? :)
The links, or at least the references, are forthcoming. For the encounters while traveling, one thing I forgot to mention in the vid is that I considered using the Gritty Realism rules for resting while traveling between settlements to simulate the grueling nature of Underdark travel and to help balance encounters. Ultimately, I went the opposite direction and went with pure narrative travel after bout 6th level or so.
If you're blue, and you don't know where to go to why don't you go to where Justice sits
Puttin on the drizzt
Not even a year later and you guys got 46K subs! Congratz!
Rocking 132K as of November 1 2018
Loved the "Jim, we're from America. We just like to destabilize regions." part.
Oh that’s so awesome. Our group just finished tyranny of dragons with a different DM who is now a player in my OotA campaign. In ours Tiamat was one year ago. WD was partially destroyed. And the old characters all made cameos in this campaign. I’m glad to see that others did this same thing. :)
Yep this is exactly how I ran HotDQ and how I am running RoT. I literally just go check the book for stuff every couple of sessions. Otherwise I am doing my own thing which 90% of the time is related to the characters in some way.
Bout over a year ago, this module was my first experience of D&D. I made a Dragonborn Dragon Sorcerer who died on my second session. My first session had us encounter the Demogorgon, when our other Sorcerer used a saved action on the firebolt and attacked it reactively. Fun times. We barely escaped can't remember if he died or not (probably).
I then switched to the other DM at the shop who was running the Storm Giants module. School prevented me from finishing, but I went through most of the adventure as another Dragonborn Sorcerer as I got used to his spell casting.
Took a break and played Pathfinder for a bit (have a lvl 12 Summoner an Kali Eidolon build saved cause I didn't get to use him much).
Right now I'm in a campaign as a Gnome Wizard who unwittingly freed and hired an Evil Elven (Drow? Forget off the top of my head) Ranger from prison as my bodyguard who doesn't speak common (all but one party member can speak one of her other languages, and it's the barbarian).
W are currently trying to stop the killings of a demonic squirrel cult ran by the Mayor, the head Merchant (who owns a Walmart-esque superstore) and the now-dead captain of the guard.
What an honour watching it first
this is great guys, I love listening to you just talk about anything and everything. keep doing you.
In almost a year you guys went from roughly 10k to over 50k subs that's pretty fucking rad
congratulations on the well deserved milestone
Do you ever peek into his interior castle when he isn't looking?
Whoa! That's a question of a very intimate nature!
Thomas Middleton Oh yeah! I look at Jim's "courtyard" all the time!
How very dare you
Brondel Badbronze has entered the arena...
I said good day, sir. I SAID GOOD DAY!
I just wanna voice my support to the videos you guys make. Just found this channel and hope you guys get lots of subscription. Kudos to the quality of the videos also.
Do you guys think you could cover big parties, as in parties of 8-10 players? I don't want any of my players to feel left out or unimportant.
Damn 10k! It's a little bittersweet like other people finding this cool band that I have loved for a while:p Congrats guys- you deserve it! Keep the good stuff coming!
Congrats guys! Love your channel and content and i legit look forward to seeing what you guys have in store for us every week. I'd love to see a show about unique monsters, items and traps you guys have created and played with. Keep up the good work fellas!
Congratulations fellas! You've earned every sub you've got with your great content.
Gratz on the 10 subs (the description says 10, not 10k) I enjoy the way you discuss and analyze the adventure, breakin it down and ways to improve it.
Congrats on the 10k, but you guys deserve it :).
I'm running OotA and it's fun to hear other people's perspectives and what other groups have done. You guys sound like you had a blast! :)
A couple of community guides or modules supplementing it that I found useful (and wish I'd known about when I was starting) were "A Guide to Out of the Abyss" by Sean McGovern (a summary of the adventure) and "Journey through the Centre of the Underdark" and "The Darklake Strikes Back" by Tony Petrecca (additional encounters). Also, the Adventurer's League Player's Guide to "Rage of Demons" has some ideas for interesting faction abilities that could be useful even if you're not using factions, and a clear explanation of the madness rules, all on page 9.
I strongly endorse the idea of "gritty realism" for rest, at least as long as the party is "living rough" and camping in the Underdark wilderness. It helps a lot with the balance issues caused when the party can "nova" every encounter. Then, as DM, you can use the regular rest rules when the party rests in "safe places", such as a settlement of allies they've made, or at one of the outposts from p.147, or where a random terrain encounter says they've found an exceptionally safe space to rest.
One of the toughest chapters to DM, I found, was chapter 8, where the party goes to Gauntlegrym and has the opportunity to meet faction NPC'sand to gain a couple of dozen low-level henchmen. I was nonplussed by this, as low level henchmen travelling with a party of this level through the Underdark (of all places!) are more of a logistical headache and a liability that the good PCs need to keep safe than anything else, but, I thought, there must be a reason for these henchmen in the upcoming chapters?? - it turned out, not so. With hindsight, if I were running this module again, I'd heavily rewrite this chapter to have tie-ins and in-character rewards for each of my PC's.
All of those are great suggestions, especially McGovern's guide. I never ended up using the two adventures (or any of the side treks in OotA for that matter) as I wanted a faster-paced campaign.
Wow! Another 20k Subs in just under 5 months!
I'm going to be doing this campaign as the DM next month. First time as a DM. Friend bought the campaign book. Reading Salvatore to try and get some background info. This is a crazy book to start with, but it has a lot of great content. Glad to see you guys put out a video on it! I'm on pt 6 of the Coven of Razel-Sinn to watch some live games. I'm sure it's a logistical pain to do those videos, but compared to other games on UA-cam, yours is my favorite aside from Acquisitions Inc. Lots of other campaigns have players that are hard to understand/hear or the campaign isn't very interesting. Keep up the good work!
Thanks for the feedback and good luck With the game!
Playing this campaign currently, and also, really impressed. I'm taking a shining to 5e like I didn't think was possible.
Honestly, this has inspired my newest campaign and I'm so excited to start playing it next monday.
Congrats on 10k subs, gents! I've forced your videos on all of my friends. Thanks for all you do.
those ridiculous "jokes" at the beginning always make me smirk lol
Congrats on 10k you guys deserve it! I'd love to see an episode on the sladdi, I have no idea where they would fit best but they seem really cool, hope you guys could do an episode on that and keep up the good work!
Slaad are tricky in that class hey don't have an overall agenda or goal, unlike most extarplanar creatures. I tend to use them as mercenary types or magically bound guardians for wizards. I can also see a death slaad being the focus of a cult of lunatics or tricking some idiot mages into thinking its a powerful demon or something just for the fun of it
My group is about a game away from finishing the Out of the Abyss adventure, and for the most part, we're not really having all that much fun with it. I think an issue we've had is that we've gone with a mixture of good and evil alignments. At the start, we were either good or neutral, but the warlock went lawful evil after becoming afflicted with wererat lycanthrophy. After we'd gotten to the surface, we had a couple players join the group when a friend and his fiancee moved back to the area. They ended up going with a lawful evil duergar and his dwarven slave to fit in with the story.
It was at this point when we'd gotten to the surface that my character left the group. I was playing a halberd fighter that was a knight of Calimshan. After going through the Underdark and really only running into horrible people with the occasional person, my character saw no point in going back down to save them. Instead, it made much more sense for her to desire to return to Calimshan to prepare for when the Underdark was overrun. She'd seen the people down there, and didn't believe for a moment they could work together long enough to save themselves let along fight back the demon horde. She also didn't feel safe in the group anymore with a wererat that refused to have her curse removed and a duergar that insisted we come deal with their "dragon problem." So duty took over, and my character returned to Calimshan to shore up their defenses. I rolled a demon hunting ranger to have a character with some motivation to delve into the Underdark, but I just never felt motivated myself given I didn't find much enjoyment with the adventure.
I think what your group did making native Underdark dwellers if probably the best way to get through this campaign. The characters really need more motivation to want to save the Underdark, and with it being their home, I'd see that as working out. I probably would have enjoyed it more if we were a group of native denizens, and I'd suggest anyone wanting to run it try out that aspect. If not, I think the adventure will take a lot of work to either keep the players down there until campaign completion and not let them get to the surface mid-campaign as the book suggested or find some other reason to get them to go back instead of returning home to protect their families or peoples.
Overall, I'd rate the adventure as it's presented in the book a "meh."
Ahhh, I love you guys so much! Please don't stop making DnD videos!
You win the internet, that intro was Perfect.
Congrats on the first 10k subs! When you reach 100k I'll be here to make that kind of comment "I was a fan even before they were famous" xD
This is definitely true 😬
so 7 months ago to the day you guys only had 10k subs. good job guys, keep it up
The audio seemed a bit quieter than normal. Other than that, loved the video! You should consider more of these longer videos, it's nice hearing you guys get more into the nitty gritty of your campaigns and whatnot.
Thank you for this vid. Reading OotA rn. Want to dm and you were very helpful
Hey guys,
congrats to your 10k subscribers! Keep up the good work, really enjoy your videos (some helped me with my homebrew evil campaign I'm running at the moment).
Greetings from Germany
Congrats on 10K subs!
I've been enjoying your content and look forward to more.
Question: If you could ask WotC for new 5E supplements, what would be the first ones on your minds?
A monster manual with higher CR creatures, more variety of creature types, and optional abilities to include if your party uses multi classing and/or feats. Maybe Volo's guide in November will have this, maybe not.
I'm with Jim!
Sounds good to me! I generally miss both interesting bottom and top tier CR beasties in the current MM.
I love the redesign of the oldschool demon baddies, but we need moar monstar diversity, I agree!
That intro was AMA.....ZING!!! XD
you guys need to do more taped playthroughs! Id love to have seen this campaign. you can do the Thunder King campaign. I loved the liveplay you did before. Doesnt need to be super professional. just put a camara on while you play.
Congrats on 10k subs!
Oh boy, one can only wonder what is it gonna be for 100k subs !!
Great job good sirs
Wow...took all of quarantine/covid ...most of 2020 but I finished ALL your library execpt for 3 short vids and 2 of the non-dnd gameplay videos , which I’m gonna watch in a bit BUT stopped to comment on this video, because it’s the 10k sub video...belated congratulations...love your content...and yeah...3 more and then I’m caught up on all videos 😅🤘🏽🤘🏽🤘🏽🤓
Another great video!! Keep it up!
love these guys
I have been watching Web DM for awhile now and I was wondering something the hosts reference being able to watch their d&d games, where would I be able to watch them?
Hey Guys, I'm pretty new to D&D so this channel has been beyond helpful.
Also in one of the campaigns I'm in, I play as a Rogue Swashbuckler any chances you guys could talk about that, help someone new like me better understand his class. Or just even hit on the Sword Coast's Adventurer's Guide?
Thanks!
Chris Austin I will put it on the list! Thanks for watching and I'm glad we helped out.
What is that castle wall DM screen? That looks like EXACTLY what I want!!!
Screwhead I believe it's a Helm's Deep model. Jim will be along soon to confirm, I'm sure.
Yes, it's a Games Workshop model of Helm's Deep
Thanks! Now to find one that doesn't cost a small fortune..
"THANK YOU to all of our awesome fans for getting us to 10 Subscribers!"
"10 Subscribers!"
Guys, I think you have to aim a little higher, your channel is top notch don't settle for so little lol. Good work fellas, love your content. Planning on eventually making a "most memorable moments" with everyone in the group? I've always felt that those tabletop stories are the most wonderful thing to hear about. I mean, we always hear snippets here and there but a full episode about it would be awesome!.
I've been binge watching all your vids since I came across your channel a couple weeks back. Just was wondering if you had anymore "Liveplays" planned for the future?
Yay! Another Web DM video! I'm thinking of running Out of the Abyss for my first time as a DM. How did you guys work the other prisoners? Did you have the players control them? Or DM control them? and what stats did you use for them?
Ah yes, the prisoners. In our game, Ront killed the drow while they were still in the cells. Surprisingly, no one died in the initial escape attempt, so the group was something like 13 strong when they set out for the Darklake. The drow caught up with them on day 2 and ended up recapturing or killing everyone but the party, Stool, Ront, Topsy/Turvy, and Buppido. I used the stats suggested in the adventure for each one and wrote them down on index cards. The players each took one card and I played the rest. If I remember correctly, they chose Ront, Eldeth, Derendil, and T/T.
By the time they reached Gracklestugh only Stool remained. Buppido was killed by the vampire necromancer while out foraging, Ront was slain during a fit of madness when Demogorgon showed up in Sloopidoop, and T/T abandoned the party once they knew how evil everyone was.
Lolth was such a powerfu Godl in the 4th edition that you would think that she could easily ward off any of the Demon Lords if they were a threat to Menzoberranzan.
underdark stuff is so cool
0:21
"We slogged into the depths of *hHeGhHL*"
Idk why I find that funny.
Hey I love your videos. I was wondering if you were going to do a video on how to manage down time during play sessions. Keep up the great work.
We did an episode on Downtime Activities a few shows back.
ua-cam.com/video/0TGQzGlp-qo/v-deo.html
have my babies
10,000. that's cute.
140k and counting. well done.
I'm adding a whole section full of chitines and choldriths to spice things up. They're being led by a polymorphed Yochlol.
Please tell us you recorded the sessions! I love the idea of villainous PCs. Gratz on all the followers.
Alas, we didn't film the sessions, but you can hear about their infamous exploits in the High-Level Campaigns and Evil Campaigns episodes.
Mornin fellas
I’m about to start this.
Haha! My players took the dragon egg to blingdenstone. They want to set up blingdenstone as a pseudo-good gracklstug.
Where did Jim get his DM screen? That thing looks great.
That's Games Workshop's Battle of Helm's Deep model from their LotR minis line.
Thanks for the reply, Jim. You guys keep up the good work.
I love you nerds! :)
theos42985 And we love you! NERD!
Good run down of OOTA. I'm currently running my players through. They are on their way to Gracklstugh and you have given me a lot of great ideas on what to plan for. I can't wait to see how my players react to that city.
I'm going to need to check that UA-cam Open Space Studio out when I visit Austin in a few weeks. Are you guys based in Austin?
Gracklestugh was my favorite part of the adventure. It's worth fleshing out and spending some time getting involved in all the different power groups in the city. Fair warning though, the chapter layout/organization is confusing. I recommend creating your own cheat sheet of the factions, NPCs, and plots to keep it all organized.
As for the studio, I'll let our producer answer that. As the talent, I just showed up and rambled at Pruitt.
I love your show! Keep it up because you're so helpful for new DMs!
I have a question which can be a suggestion of a topic for a show and it's about items and magic items. When to let the players buy them in the campaing, how to create them and make them not overpowered but still slighty useful...
Also, when to let them have long rests, how to roleplay long journeys...
I'm always struggling with those topics and I don't know how to hanle those situations when my players reach those points :(
Hikumo We have done shows about some of what you're asking. We have a show on 'Magic Items', also one of our early shows is on dispensing treasure.
Oh! sorry! I though I saw them all. Damn, I look like a dumb idiot! Thanks again. Now you solved my day :)
Hikumo Cut out that negative self-talk. We a have quite a few vids to sort through. Glad I could help.
:)
Those are a lot of questions! For long journeys I mostly use the narrative method: "you walk through twisting tunnels for X days (describe notable terrain features)" then ask the party what they do during that time. I might roll a random encounter or choose an interesting one. If I were running it again, I would use the gritty realism resting variant from the DMG to simulate the grueling nature of traveling underground, and only let them use the normal resting rules in a settlement. I find the narrative method keep the game from bogging down when faced with multiple long journeys like in OotA, but it does mean that certain class features, notably Ranger's, are less valuable.
For long rests, every group is different. Too many and combat encounters will be a pushover for the group. Too few and the game will become a grind and you risk trivial combats becoming very deadly. In general, I follow a 1-2 long rests per game session paradigm unless it makes sense from an in-game perspective to have more.
Magic items are very group dependent, but I would recommend starting at the lower end of the scale and adding them slowly. The basic game assumes no/ very few magic items, so anything more than zero is a bonus. I'm hesitant to allow the sale or purchase of items as a regular occurrence in most of my games. Buying magic items should be like buying fine art - rare, a bit of a hassle, and fraught with adventure. Creating items should be handled in a similar manner. Make an adventure out of it. Requirng rare ingredients, special tools, locations of power to craft the item, or times of magical significance are all ways to make an adventure out of item creation. For example, to create a magic wand perhaps a Mage needs the shin bone of a magical creature (oni or hag), shaped by specially attuned tools, and bathed with oils made from a rare flower that only blooms once per year.
Great video! This may be a weird question, but what is the in-game time span from start to finish in this module?
So I see you change alot of the original modules and let players drive the story and that is amazing! But could you provide so advise on how to encourage the player to take control of the story? I have DMd Lost Mines of Phandelver has my first time as DM and I struggled a bit in getting the players actually interested in finding the mines. I found myself almost forcing the module on players sometimes. I tried getting them each personal goals and history, some tied to the mine and they kind of lost interest. Should I just drop it? or is anything I can do to revive this? Anyway great videos as always!
Keep it up guys. BUT don't forget to have fun first, help people second & continue to grow as wonderful as a great D&D content providers. Thank you & your crew too !
T.Rust Monster \oo/
The sub count is currently 11,999
did u by chance film your evil campaign. would love to watch that
can't seem to find the death cleric in my players handbook. I see the life domain but no death. Was it added later?
It is in the Dungeon Master's Guide along with the Oathbreaker Paladin.
And then Curse of Strahd comes out.
You know, I didn't even know Gary Gygax had died until just now... I'm sad.
how many sessions did it take? and at what rate did the characters advance?
I'm really glad I could help you guys get to ten whole subscribers! (Check the description)
But seriously, congratulations on the success, and I can't wait to see more!
it's a big number!
Do you guys broadcast these campaigns anywhere?
How many sessions did it take you to complete? My group is working through it, but we are moving at a glacial speed.
We moved at an accelerated pace, skipping Bligdenstone and heading straight from DeVir's tower to Menzo without collecting the materials for the ritual (NPC minions helped with that). I'd say we spent 20-25 sessions. Hard to tell as we played it mostly every other week, alternating with Pru's Spelljammer game.
Thanks for the info, Jim! Our random encounters keep turning into multiple session long adventures.
Keep up the great content on the show. The 10k is much deserved.
Some of the best gaming I've had came from random encounter that turned into adventures! Good luck with the the game!
Hey Is a video about owning strongholds or keeps or forts or whatever on your list of vids to make?if so just wandering what it may entail and when might it be out?
currently got a 1on1 session where he owns a stronghold and he doesn't wanna do a lot of busy work, so I thought maybe he could hire an accountant to sort balancing things out or would that be to easy on him and should I push him to progress for it?love your stuff guys congrats on 10k.glad I can be apart of it.
Also what may be some good quest ideas for maintaining or to do with a fort or keep like maybe there attacked by another army that wants to take over or something very unique like that.Any ideas would be welcome thanks.
A majordomo or seneschal (medieval accountant) is a good way to keep the day-to-day bookkeeping of owning a keep in the background. Let all that happen "off-screen" and only involve the player in the big stuff. As for quests - rampaging humanoid tribes, household staff intrigue, spies sent by rivals, and clearing the surrounding countryside of threats are good mid-level challenges. For higher level quests, try forging/maintaining alliances, building up a warband or army, or dealing with politics are all appropriate for stronghold-based adventures.
Thanks James. Keep up the awesome work you guys are doing.
As GM I feel a little overwhelmed. I'am almost afraid to continue this campaign to live up to what the book has to offer. :-(
It's a beast, and not for the faint of heart, but the uniqueness of the environment and power groups the party interacts with makes it worthwhile. It is work though, especially providing sufficient encounters in the latter half of the adventure.
How many sessions/hours long did this campaign take?
How long did it take you guys to finish the campaign?
So I don't see it anywhere, but was that a sly Rick and Morty reference there Pruitt?
The Game Detective when?
Can you do an episode on mundane weapons and properties?
can i watch this campaign anywhere
I'd love to watch but I haven't started out of the abyss yet ;__;
I really want to know how they nerfed the vampire enough to let it be used, or if they just left it with its buffs
Nemenian Jim and Auty worked it out so instead of Ability increases, she got different Vampire abilities as if they were feats.
We pretty much made a feat progression where as she progressed in levels she got access to increasingly more powerful abilities and gradual stat increases. By the time she hit 20th she was a full fledged vampire which at that level isn't unbalanced with other party members who used their ASIs on feats.
James Davis
Could you share that by chance? I'm making an evil campaign pretty soon and I would really appreciate something like that. Also I love you guy's videos! Congratulations!
I'll have to get the details from Auty. I let her plot out the progression and she would inform me of what her "feat" gave her every four levels.
Thank you guys! Your the best! Just reply here or throw it under a video, whatever works best for you.
What are you filming at the UA-cam studio?!
Jared Kirk ......something.....
What is the continent sized mushroom?
Jim! you said you wanted to talk about multiclassing 20-30 episodes ago! Can we hear your thoughts on multiclassing in 5e! :D?
So I did! If only I could quit my job and UA-cam fill time! I think for the most part MCing in 5e is fairly balanced. In most cases you're trading overall power for versatility (with some exceptions) and while I initially thought to tie ASIs to character level, I've decided against that and go with ASIs being class features that you will have to give up if you MC. As a player I really like the options that MCing opens up. My longest running character is Rog9/Wiz2/Brd3 and every other character idea I've considered has been a MC character. As for general advice, start with the class that will give you the saves and profs that you want. If that's not your "main class" then switch to it at lvl 2 and stick with it for 4-5 levels (ASI/extra attack/3rd lvl spells) so you're not too far behind the single class characters. From there it's a matter of determining which class features are essential.
Wow, thank you so much for the answer Jim! I think you brought up a lot of good points. for example, im having to jugle the ASI's vs. feats in early levels of MCing. I'm playing a swashbuckler Rogue atm and hoping to go 5 Rog/5 Fighter.
thanks again for the great reply, love the videos, Cheers!
That's a fun combo, but it does take awhile to come into its own. What fighting style/archetype did you go for with fighter?
so I'm playing a saucy Air Genasi pirate for this character. I took two - weapon fighting (to take advantage of fancy footwork - from swashbuckler arch.). Lvl3 BM, and I grabbed maneuvers such as distracting strike, riposte and trip atk. DS will help my teammates line up big hits or spells when needed. with fancy footwork I plan to dance away after my flurry of atks so I picked riposte (bcz I will have less AofO) and trip atk for when I get extra atk at lvl 5 Fighter. (first atk to the ground, second right back at him). your videos have actually inspired me to try out magic caster's for the first time, so I would like to see magic eventually in this character. So I told my DM one of my character goals is to meet my father in his respective plane, and maybe he will imbue me with elemental power (aka I'll MC in wizard then).
So where can I see these campaigns?