I'm going to be running this adventure with my group soon and this was so helpful! Letting me see and visualize the scene's before running them really helps thanks!
I'm DMing Danger at Dunwater this week with my group, and found this video (the whole series) really helpful. Great ideas to liven up the gaining of trust with the various groups of lizardfolk and the other ambassadors. I love the inclusion of a young black dragon - what party doesn't want to face a dragon?! For my merfolk trial, the swimming race, I'm going to run it as a skill challenge, with up to three players competing against two merfolk champions. They can use any skill as long as they can justify how it might help them. For instance, Athletics to swim against the current, Perception to notice and avoid an outcropping of coral, or Acrobatics to rapidly pass through a patch of seaweed. If they can't think of how a skill could be applied, they can just roll a d20 without any bonuses. They need to get three successes before three failures to beat the merfolk champions, and as long as one of them can do that, the group gains their good will. For Sauriv's trial of lore to prove that they could be helpful allies, I came up with five questions. Each member of the party (I have 7 players) can only answer one, with a DC of 12, with advantage if they have gotten information on that topic from NPC's in Saltmarsh. If one of them fails a question, someone else can try, so they have two second chances. I want to bring in an array of skills that don't always get a chance to shine. 1. Nature. What do you know about the Mere of Dead Men? (or Hool Marshes if not in Forgotten Realms.) 2. Survival. What do you know about its denizens? 3. Medicine. What do you know about medicinal plants in the marshes? 4. Religion. What do you know about the lizardfolk god Semuanya? 5. History. What do you know about Saltmarsh's government and military? Maybe someone else DMing this campaign might find these ideas useful. Thanks for your great video series. I hope you do more!
Thank you for this. I had a hard time reading this mod and I gave out the plot too early by accident, considering they already wanted to do the peaceful route. Your suggestions can actually make this a fun event for the party.
Solid changes for the alliance work. I think that it was bold of the original authors to think that murder hobos weren't going to murder hobo. If you can get them not to fight first thing, the trial set up is great. Also, as said by other UA-camrs, why in the CRAP would you get a knock off of your score by coming in by sea. GoS does a heck of a job telling you how to deal with boats and not letting you use them in the adventures.
lol right, that was my biggest worry about this module is just the adventures rolling in any trying to unlife everything that moves. You are spot on about the lack of ship use in the adventures. Luckily in the next adventure, Salvage Operation, the players get to get on a ship, lol.
Thanks for this, it's so useful! I was kinda lost DMing this to my players. Maybe I took the book too literally, but I was having trouble seeing how players are supposed to prove to each group for 3 consecutive hours that they mean well... This will give a lot more flavour for everyone involved!
You're welcome! I believe that WotC creates these adventures as frameworks or guidelines. Often they are very vague, but honestly it would be very hard for WotC to predict every possible outcome a group could come up with. I believe that you, the DM, should feel empowered to alter and adjust things to what you think would bring enjoyment to your table. 😀
I've countered the idea of the battle map triggering an idea for combat by having a ton of maps for literally everything. It now triggers the players to explore what's in the map and what they can interact with. Makes my job easier in terms of opening the scene and it let's them think roleplay first, everything else second. Now they have no idea if the map in front of them is for a battle or for just exploring.
I like that idea, it does require the DM to prep all those maps if they aren't provided, or kinda suck lol, but if you can manage it, I think you got a good idea there.
@@HoodedKobold oh yeah it's a lot more work on my end. My players all live in different timezones so online is all we have and I just like to have variety in the screens we look at. As a result, 2minutetabletop and Dungeondraft have been my best friends. For those rare occasions when we can meet in person, I usually go to Staples and print out a map as a laminated poster. Makes it easy to mark up.
What I do for Sauriv is make it a player memory test. Nothing crazy like "what year was the 3rd kingdom founded", more, "What is the queen's name?" and "What is the name of our god?". Something for the diligent note-takers.
can you expand on the idea of trial by etiquette, are the Locathe asking the party to display a dance, etc. Or does the party have to come up with something on their own. Im really like to use this just having a hard getting this trial started
The Bullywug fight just seems too fun to ignore, so even if my party chooses to travel by boat, I'll have the Bullywugs ambush them and climb on to the ship
Happy New Years!
Happy new year thanks for doing this mate it's pretty good
Do you have a twitter?
Thank you, I’m glad you liked it.
I do but I rarely use it, tbh social media in general is pretty new to me, I just need more practice lol. @HoodedKobold
As a new DM running GoS, thanks for this series!
Extremely useful video. Next session is going to be a lot more fun for my group and I than if I had only done the charisma checks. Thank you!
This was extremely useful, I really hope you did this type of breakdown for all the adventures!!
Thank you, I'm glad you liked it. In the description there are links to my guides for all the different adventures in the book.
This is the best content I could find in a whole week of research. Good job man! 👍
The series of trials is so perfect! Was trying to work on something similar but not quite getting there and this is the perfect structure.
I'm going to be running this adventure with my group soon and this was so helpful! Letting me see and visualize the scene's before running them really helps thanks!
I LOOOOVE what you propose for the negotiations.
I love your process of walking us through the major sets of the adventures and giving us options and ideas!
No problem, I’m excited to finish GoS. Then I’ll have to think about which one to tackle next.
Really wish I'd watched this before running the module, the idea of trials is so much better and exciting than just dice rolls...
The first time playing this, I was a player. We went around rolling the checks and thought the same thing, needs a little spice.
I'm DMing Danger at Dunwater this week with my group, and found this video (the whole series) really helpful. Great ideas to liven up the gaining of trust with the various groups of lizardfolk and the other ambassadors. I love the inclusion of a young black dragon - what party doesn't want to face a dragon?!
For my merfolk trial, the swimming race, I'm going to run it as a skill challenge, with up to three players competing against two merfolk champions. They can use any skill as long as they can justify how it might help them. For instance, Athletics to swim against the current, Perception to notice and avoid an outcropping of coral, or Acrobatics to rapidly pass through a patch of seaweed. If they can't think of how a skill could be applied, they can just roll a d20 without any bonuses. They need to get three successes before three failures to beat the merfolk champions, and as long as one of them can do that, the group gains their good will.
For Sauriv's trial of lore to prove that they could be helpful allies, I came up with five questions. Each member of the party (I have 7 players) can only answer one, with a DC of 12, with advantage if they have gotten information on that topic from NPC's in Saltmarsh. If one of them fails a question, someone else can try, so they have two second chances. I want to bring in an array of skills that don't always get a chance to shine.
1. Nature. What do you know about the Mere of Dead Men? (or Hool Marshes if not in Forgotten Realms.)
2. Survival. What do you know about its denizens?
3. Medicine. What do you know about medicinal plants in the marshes?
4. Religion. What do you know about the lizardfolk god Semuanya?
5. History. What do you know about Saltmarsh's government and military?
Maybe someone else DMing this campaign might find these ideas useful. Thanks for your great video series. I hope you do more!
once again, maps are INCREDIBLE supplement to the great overview of the quest. you are adding a lot to our adventures, thank you!
Thank you so much, it’s always nice to see comments like yours. If only I could clone myself to make these videos faster lol.
Hooded Kobold hoping you keep it up...your maps should be THE official maps for Saltmarsh!
Another excellently crafted video, thanks again
Pretty fun little animation at the start! Loved that!
Thank you, making this is Davinci was a huge mistake🙃 but it was pretty fun to make.
Thanks for the breakdown bud! Good video
Thank you for this. I had a hard time reading this mod and I gave out the plot too early by accident, considering they already wanted to do the peaceful route. Your suggestions can actually make this a fun event for the party.
Solid changes for the alliance work. I think that it was bold of the original authors to think that murder hobos weren't going to murder hobo. If you can get them not to fight first thing, the trial set up is great. Also, as said by other UA-camrs, why in the CRAP would you get a knock off of your score by coming in by sea. GoS does a heck of a job telling you how to deal with boats and not letting you use them in the adventures.
lol right, that was my biggest worry about this module is just the adventures rolling in any trying to unlife everything that moves. You are spot on about the lack of ship use in the adventures. Luckily in the next adventure, Salvage Operation, the players get to get on a ship, lol.
Love the video, Thank you very much for the advice
Thanks! This is a great resource (as always)!
Thank you! I'm glad its was useful.
Dude this is so helpful, thank you SO much
Thanks for this, it's so useful! I was kinda lost DMing this to my players. Maybe I took the book too literally, but I was having trouble seeing how players are supposed to prove to each group for 3 consecutive hours that they mean well... This will give a lot more flavour for everyone involved!
You're welcome! I believe that WotC creates these adventures as frameworks or guidelines. Often they are very vague, but honestly it would be very hard for WotC to predict every possible outcome a group could come up with. I believe that you, the DM, should feel empowered to alter and adjust things to what you think would bring enjoyment to your table. 😀
Sooooo helpful. Thank you!
Hey man this was really useful! I will likely use a lot of these suggestions for a much more interesting game! Thanks!
I’m glad you liked it!
Loved your video, sad that your not around anymore.
I've countered the idea of the battle map triggering an idea for combat by having a ton of maps for literally everything. It now triggers the players to explore what's in the map and what they can interact with. Makes my job easier in terms of opening the scene and it let's them think roleplay first, everything else second. Now they have no idea if the map in front of them is for a battle or for just exploring.
I like that idea, it does require the DM to prep all those maps if they aren't provided, or kinda suck lol, but if you can manage it, I think you got a good idea there.
@@HoodedKobold oh yeah it's a lot more work on my end. My players all live in different timezones so online is all we have and I just like to have variety in the screens we look at. As a result, 2minutetabletop and Dungeondraft have been my best friends. For those rare occasions when we can meet in person, I usually go to Staples and print out a map as a laminated poster. Makes it easy to mark up.
Thank you very much!
thanks for the awesome vid
I’m glad you liked it!
What I do for Sauriv is make it a player memory test. Nothing crazy like "what year was the 3rd kingdom founded", more, "What is the queen's name?" and "What is the name of our god?". Something for the diligent note-takers.
can you expand on the idea of trial by etiquette, are the Locathe asking the party to display a dance, etc. Or does the party have to come up with something on their own. Im really like to use this just having a hard getting this trial started
How I deal with the battle map trick is I give art of the area instead. I use the battle map behind the scenes.
The Bullywug fight just seems too fun to ignore, so even if my party chooses to travel by boat, I'll have the Bullywugs ambush them and climb on to the ship
RPG maker fuck yes