I like your idea of splitting up the stone of Golorr, because that amnesia mechanic in the game was crap, & kind of punishes the players for doing something smart & getting their hands on it early in-game
I burrowed (from the Alexandrian Remix) the idea of the eyes being removed from the stone, so you have the stone and 3 eyes, without eye it's inert, with one eye it give you some ideas about whats going on so it can help push the PC in the right direction, with the second eye it know where to find the 3rd eye.
My players got super invested in the inn and tavern they received and spent a long time on it. Eventually we just ignored the storyline and it became a business simulator for them. I have never seen someone so excited to go over inventory and order supplies.
One of the unwritten rules of being a DM is don't introduce your players to economy unless you're prepared for that to be the entire game. The one thing they love more than destroying your plans is stonks.
Brother I'm there right now. One my players is a banker and this is her first campaign. As soon as they got back to town she wanted to buy STOCK! I had to invent stocks on the fly (thank god I run Eberron which already has megacorporations in the lore). Then next adventure she wanted to buy LIFE INSURANCE for her character (I ruled that adventurers are uninsurable lol). And now I had to invent a bunch of real estate options so that they could diversify their portfolio haha
"The villain of this premade adventure wants to do X. You figure out what that means" really is the quintessential 5e DM guidance. Bare bones instructions, you do the heavy lifting
To be fair, a lot of modules from earlier editions are even more bare-bones, with nameless NPCs and "caves" on the map which were literally "create your own dungeon here."
@@johnnaylor7031 I would give them that benefit, yes... If Pathfinder (at least the 1e) didn't had the Adventure Paths being MUCH better than anything that came out of 5e by a good margin (at most, i'd say i'm still pissed about Iomedae appearance in WotR, but that's a rather small issue to how much of a beating that horse keeps getting way beyond death) Edit: And to be clear, my point here is that we have had alternative approaches to premade adventures for a long while now and i just don't see how WotC's approach with 5e is good or justifiable when we're talking premade adventures
I can work with both directions, barebones or detailed, but I struggle with the inbetween. When the module gives just enough info's to be confusion it often becomes difficult to differentiate the important parts from the flavor.
Honestly, I normally heavily modify every module I run anyway, so I don’t mind it being “bare”. Strixhaven got completely upheavaled, changed the end villain, added stuff etc
I hope this means we'll eventually get the long-form version of dragon Heist like we did for curse of strahd. I know there's slim hope of that considering it's been so long since curse of strahd but long-form content from you is a lot of fun.
@@theviking1359 I know, on the video he posted before this one, I mentioned that him saying that all his stories required him to tell other stories for context means that he needs to make MORE videos. It's hard to recommend this Channel that I love so much to other people if he's just going to disappear for months at a time after each one. I'm pretty sure he only posted four or five times last year. I understand real life is a thing but he's such a good storyteller that it sucks having to wait so long for more content.
4:50: "My players ended up losing almost all of the fights in that one. I think of the six fights we did early on, they either lost, TPK'd, or ran away in four of them." I waaaaaarned youuuu!
This part reminded me of when i ran ToA. I think everyone died at least once through the campaign, the record was 5 deaths for one player from start to finish. I really shouldve tweaked it more than i did lol
What I don't get is that 5e explicitly has a mechanism to balance fights, and at least in my experience it works out pretty well, with fights being tough but winnable. Did he just ignore that and throw anything he felt like at the players? Because that's bad DMing.
I remember running Waterdeep for a treasured friend and an older newbie. They came to adore the Tavern they were given and cared more for that than the treasure hunt. When it came to the chase for the Stone, I just let them catch the guy as he fled the Skeleton basement, let them keep the gold since they weren't going on to do Dungeon of the Mad Mage, and after looking at the Xanathar finale...I just didn't run it...
When I ran Waterdeep, I stopped caring around the investigation part (I think it was chapter 3). Not because it was boring, but because my players were "more interested in dungeon crawling", so they missed all the clues they were supposed to follow. So I improvised a courtroom plot (they were very chaotic criminal), gave them the detective NPC they liked so much to help clean their names, gave them the "crystal", and jumped all the way to final chapter. It worked great :)
Breaking up the stone into pieces was BRILLIANT. Excellent idea! This is especially timely because I'm going to be starting a Waterdeep game TODAY. Like, in a few hours. Thanks for the tips. ;)
I made a really simple change that made the stone chase work for my group: If they managed to get the stone before then end, then... it actually works and they can keep it. My players caught up in step 5 of 7 IIRC, and were quite pleased with themselves.
Love that you’re uploading again, puffin! My players are currently going through this module and I decided to share some funny moments in our story: Mild spoilers for WD:DH In the beginning of the game after the troll fight and they tossed the thing back down the undermountain (bad troll saves) the bard walked up to Threestrings and convinced him to give him his lute for a second. He then proceeded to cut the rest of his strings except one. Understandably Threestrings was very angry, but the bard just kept saying to me, “play it.” I rolled performance and Nat 20’ed so that day Threestrings was no more and the hit rock artist “G-String” was born. Later on when after fighting the kenkus and the cops showed up, two of the players were upstairs looting everything that wasn’t nailed down. One of them was downstairs talking to a cop they saw earlier that day. The cop was like “there’s no one else here? I thought I remember seeing you in a group.” “No sir, just me.” (Stealth check) (crash) “what was that?” (A bunch of rats from a minor illusion spell go down the stairs). “Damn rats. I hate the dock ward.” Some conversation later and another stealth check after forgetting that they busted the door upstairs before they entered and another cop posted by that door comes down and alerts the cop talking to the player downstairs that someone’s inside. (Minor illusion a singular monstrous sized rat and succeeds) and the cop just goes “I’m getting too old for this. I’m going to ask to be reassigned.” Another one of my players is an adopted pirate from a former infamous pirate family so he and his mouse sister are being shadowed/monitored by Bregan D’aerthe. Haven’t explored that yet but I had to basically make another faction dedicated to his backstory where I gave everyone else an NPC to be and said to just bully his character or be friendly to his character. We’ve had some funny interactions so far with that. The players are currently about to enter the sewers and find Floon. That session will be next week probably. That’ll be fun.
I remember when playing this module we ended up chasing some of the villains on a rooftop and one of my friends thought it would be a great idea to use wildshape to move faster, what he didn't realize is that turn into a warhorse was probably not the best idea when standing on the roof of a building.
I just realized how good you are in compressing a story. If I had to retell something from my campagns I couldnt refrain from all the little details and technicalities.
Mine's not a ghost at all; they just think it's a ghost. People say it's haunted. A hobgoblin lives under the rim of the portal to the undermountain and comes out to steal socks and shit. One of the bartenders is an alcoholic so there are windows for his antics.
My multi-year homebrew started as Dragon Heist before my players asked to completely derail things and I let them. That made this video a super interesting read for me in particular, because Waterdeep is still the party's home base to this day, so I'm still making decisions about Waterdeep and referencing its book to this day.
Do you know that child in the aftermath of the fireball? The party adopted them, asked about their parents, and went on a quest to reunite the kid with the family (in the interest of humouring this became a continent-spanning quest). Later, they encountered the 3 street urchin kids, and immediately took them in. I wanted to have the kids not trust this, but the party already had one kid & the charisma rolls went well, so. Anyway those 4 are now backup PCs for when we want to take a short break from the main campaign to do something related but low stakes.
Aloha from Hawaii Puffin!! I started playing D&D this past year and love your channel. I have watched all of your old videos & really appreciate and enjoy them. I think your content is really fantastic & I hope you keep making videos. Mahalo for all the hard work you do!!
Commenting early after a few minutes, because you are very right! I'm running Princes of the Apocalypse module for my friends, and it's really frustrating how events are just not tied together and I'm supposed to make up for it. Things like "When characters are in this village, and when listening to rumors, they get this and that information", or "If they talk to this person, they say this or that". Sometimes it's easy, but other times I'm wondering how them going to another village leads them to this important enemy hideout that no one knows. Rant over, continuing the video now. Missed you!
my favorite princes of the apocalypse thing was how several of the out the in open cults just don't have a great reason for the players to care. ohh these rich noble are sorta jerks and love flying mounts....ok... you sure you don't want to break into there tower at the strike of midnight, go to the roof and discover the sacrifice people to recharge there magic parashoots? or hey look a small monastery seemingly worshiping a earth diety, the acolyte at the door told us the monks have sworn oaths of poverty and silence and live apart from the world, we are welcome to stay in the court yard for the night and they even offered to bring us some of the simple stew they have for dinner but outsiders are forbidden from entering the monastery. well I guess we better murder the monks incase they are evil.
Yeah its why i switched to Pathfinder 2e Adventure paths. Its a bit of work if my players want to play 5e but the story is so well organized and put together that its less work on the fly I just put in some d&d stat blocks.
@@valwenventureco9285 Princes works best as modular content for a B plot in another story imo. The cults, dungeons, and custom cultists are all super cool in my opinion and can fit independently into most worlds with very little effort. The flying dudes inspired my imagination and I had them be pirates as an airship encounter. If they follow the sky bandits back to their lair they get to do the cool dungeon in reverse.
I made changes to Waterdeep Dragon Heist as well. My biggest story changes were these. I used ALL the villains and I had the stone of Golorr be blinded and they would have to get the main body and it’s three eyes to get the entire story and with eye they found a key of the vault. Chapter 1 I ran as written pretty much RAW because it’s honestly flawless. They rescue Renaer Neverember and Floon and Volo gives them the mansion. But Xanathar took an eye from a secret compartment in a locker Renaer owned that he had no knowledge existing, that’s the only thing I changed. Chapter 2 I introduced all the factions and had them run through the first missions they would offer but I used a player wanting to fight in the field of triumph, to have Xanathar put an intellect in a gladiator the fighter was going to compete against and that caused the players to realise they were being watched. Plus I left clues to the drow at the Sea Maiden’s Faire. Plus Renaer as thanks gave them the gold they needed to renovate the manor and get it up and running, with the only issue is they have a flaky chef called JB Nevercott who doesn’t show up for loads of shifts. Chapter 3 I had Dalakhar meet Renaer nearby the players but they were jumped by the Zhentarim and the fireball went off and Urstul Floxin survived and Renaer survived but was badly burned. Floxin then stabbed him in the throat and he died. They found the gralhunds and went through that but learned Manshoon was in control of the Zhentarim. I also had the Cassalanters have one of the eyes and promise to give it to the players if they have them the gold and had them lie about the damnation of their children being at Victoro’s father’s hands and that he damned his grandchildren. Amazingly my players didn’t insight check him. The chase I made sure that the stone was infront of the players at all times and they just needed to play their cards right to get it. Chapter 4 the players have the stone with an eye in it and the eye they own but they find that one of the keys is Manshoon’s mask and that Xanathar owns the last eye. They need to heist both of them.when they heist Xanathar and attune the eye to the stone they find that his fish is the last key. This all leads to a giant four way battle between the players, Xanathar, Manshoon and Jarlaxle (who has been spying from the shadows as JB Nevercott). They then gave the gold to the Cassalanters and got a 10% finders fee. At the founders day celebrations however. They were lumped in with the 99 souls for the ritual to trade their children’s souls for theirs. They broke out and were able to expose the Cassalanters for their acts but they bought their way out of trouble. When their children’s souls were taken, a shrill piercing cry of anguish from a woman was heard and felt everywhere.
I'm just going to tell myself that re-watching PF's playlist for the umpteenth time as I played video games is what motivated him to upload another video. Please continue on the worst stories series.
We're about to finish running Waterderp: Dargon Horst and I made the insane decision to include all four antagonists pitted against each other and the party. My party was also level 10 at this point, so it truly felt like they could play against the other villains as an influential force of their own in the city. Titanic to coordinate behind the screen, but my players had a blast.🎉
if you're into heavy lifting on the DM part, i suggest Out of the Abyss. Possibly the best module for capable DMs, just very (VERY) difficult to manage the large number of NPCs, factions, locations, villains, complex travel mechanics, out-of order sequencing... a lot of work to do, but very high quality campaign in and of itself.
I've replayed your videos as background comfort more times then I'll say and want you to know how much I love them. All of them except the scary cthulu one with the sled dogs. Hope you keep making more for a long time.
In the Alexandrian Remix it's set up fir the party to successfully get the Stone from the Gralhund Villa part, but the three eyes are each possessed in different villains' lairs.
Here’s how I would fix chapter 4: It’s an actual chase scene. The players find out who has the stone on them and find them. The NPC tries to run, but the players are able to beat them up and take the stone. Then someone swings down from a rope, grabs the stone and runs away with it. The players now have to chase down this guy. As they do, more and more enemies come out and are trying to either defend or beat the guy with the stone. In this chapter, they basically have to outrun everyone and hide. They may even use some NPCs from earlier for help. They could even have to go into the villain’s lair to get it back if the guy who has it gets away. The win condition would likely be just finding a safe place to stay before using the stone to find the treasure.
I'm so glad the dm of our game missed that text box about the stone of Golorr giving the player amnesia if they get it early. We were lucky to grab it at the windmill after my character Obi-Wan Kenobied out the window onto the spined devil that held it.
My favorite version of this was in the introductory module Lost Mines of Phandelver, the module holds your hand throughout all of it except for the BBEG's motivation so I had to rewrite the boss encounter
Dragon Heist was the first ttrpg campaign I ever played in. It was an online group and I knew noone there, but we hit it off really well immediately so it was quite fun playing - however we wiped twice on the same encounter. We ended up playing heavily homebrew characters, if only to get ourselves actually having fun with the rest of it, and had some great moments in the end, but honestly I couldn't even tell you what the point of the module was - I just remember my lizardfolk healer got drunk and had a one night stand at some point.
As someone who is currently running Waterdeep dragon heist, there was very little I would consider a spoiler in this video lol. I also scrapped the four seasons things and am running the four villains, though Manshoon is definitely taking a more minor role. And I’ve actually some how managed to make it so of my party of 5 players, 4 of them have some backstory or goal that makes them directly opposed to or on a collision course with a different one of the villains.
So, is the 5th player a total wildcard, or invested in some other aspect of the setting or story that doesn't bring them into any direct conflict other than running alongside the rest of the party that are?
I played through waterdeep. I honestly dont know what happened but by the end we owned a tavern that we convinced a ghost and a family of halflings to run for us. Also so happy for a new video. You are my introduction into the dnd world. Have been playing and running many games for over 2 years now. Appreciate you!
Currently running Waterdeep Dragon Heist, and one of the major changes I plan on making (haven’t gotten to it yet) is giving the Dragon Staff to the Cassalanters. Then when they get into the vault the Dragon will let them take the Gold if they get him the staff. Bada bing bada boom, now they have to go on heist for the staff. And it brings both the Cassalanters and Jarlaxle (he is stated multiple times to be after the staff explicitly) into the story. Or fight a dragon, but that’s also pretty epic.
Honestly thank you puffin from saving me from ever running a DND module I switched to PF2e roughly six months ago and am running a Adventure oath and was thinking of running a DND module to see if that makes DND better again, but seeing all the very good work you had to put in to make it interesting or not stupid I can comfortably decide to never touch any of them. This sounds really horrible I run these modules/APs so I have as little as possible to do so I can relax more in the week and don't have to worry about preparing everything, but this sounds like the DND modules are like a chain that only drags you down. So good work on you what you did with the module sounds fun a ND thanks for saving me the work!
I love dragon heist so much, but I agree, the story as is written benefits a lot from handmade fixes. I remember this campaign offered us the opportunity to play a very artifact based game, switching the original fireball detonator with a grey hand who was tracking Neverember's stolen treasure with an arsenal of stuff that made it really difficult to understand who he was and what he could do. We had such a blast!
I prefer doing things more "homebrew" for some of the reasons listed. I like the idea of coming up with all the stuff and not feeling as stuck on-rails.
I usually give the characters a visit from Lord Cassalanter offering a discounted loan to help them set up the tavern while the Zhentarim and other loan sharks charge to much or menace the players. And i added other stores around Trollskull alley like a pet shop, a dress shop run by a hidden lord of Waterdeep, an instrument shop, and a boarding house with a kindly granny dwarf who wants the characters tavern or business to succeed and bakes them cookies (also feeds them in the early parts of the story because the don’t usually have a lot of money)
So this is odd but your videos make me pass out immediately when I need to go to sleep lol. Love your stuff Ben and always happy to see your videos pop up into my feed.
I had great fun running the "Alexandrian Remix" version of Waterdeep Dragon Heist. Ran at a higher level, starting at 5th, and they got to fight all 4 big bad stories over about 30 sessions. Good times.
Splitting the Stone of Galorr into pieces is tbh a stroke of genius that i wish the game offered, because I ran into the issue that they picked it up early, I didnt wanna do the dumb mind whipe thing, and then we skipped the whole chase chapter that i wanted to use to set up Manshoon a bit more xD
@@InsanoRider777 Nice! Unfortunately (For the DM i guess, idk) our group was more invested with the Bar than anything with the plot, so the cannon ending for that party was starting a business I hope your group was either invested with the actual plot, or also content with retiring early like ours was 😊
The last time I ran this I made the decision ahead of time to run this with *every* villain faction active, and even the good guys a bit tempted by the amount of gold and power in play, and it was honestly one of the greatest campaigns I've ever run.
This is why I love their anthology books (although I can only speak for ghosts of saltmarsh and yawning portal). You only need to read a chapter at a time if you want. Fun way to flesh out your game and acts of spring boards but also acts as most of the information you need if it to. and finally if it doesnt go ahead you read much less.
I really love Dragon Heist for the potential it has. It's definitely my favorite module. When I approach a module, I do so as half and half pre-made setting, NPCs, quests, and the like and the other half being inspiration to play it by ear. I try to get the best possible understanding of characters and motivations so when the module does something stupid and nonsensical, I can decide whether it fits or not and improvise from there. I also hand draw out maps and such on grid paper so I have an idea of what I'm doing when I put it up on the big map, what's important, what isn't, where NPCs are and where the important loot is. Then I use the back of the page to write out all the important events and whatnot by room. Doing that also engages my memory, so it's part cheat sheet and part familiarization. Also, knowing Waterdeep like the back of my hand has led to some cool moments of exploration, even in other people's games. I've got friends that have run games set in Faerun and we've ended up in Waterdeep from time to time. They know that I know the town well, and they have often handed control over to me for party stuff like "is there a good armorer in town?" "Where can I get riggity riggity wrecked?" "I'm looking for a dark corner to make some 'friends.'" It's a lot of fun, and gives the DM time to plan their next move while I get to run the show for a minute or two.
Literally starting this next week, great timing! Definitely splitting the stone/ multiple stones maybe of different powerful creatures each. Keep the aboleth then maybe a Modron for neutral and unicorn for good
That hand-holding dragging you off a cliff is why I don’t run modules xD It’s waaaaaay easier for me to to build stuff myself because that way I already know everything and can adjust to my players crazy decisions. Like giving the super magic weapon to the bbeg (No it was NOT supposed to be him tricking them, the pcs just listened to his villain monologue and went “well…he has a point he’s trained to be king, he should be ruler of the world!”)
Hell yeah dude love the dnd stories lol. Started playing again with my old group recently and I'm glad to see another one of these. Always cracks me up. 😂😂
Waterderp Dragon Hoist sounds like an epic adventure about saving a dragon from some kind of lake dungeon it got trapped in while on a drunken bender or something.
My fiance and I immediately clicked on this video!!! We miss your stories! She especially likes the cute abolith!
Whimsy! Such a precious cinnamon roll, he must be protected
Whimsy is perfect
Cute Abolith is a Puffin fan favorite Lol
I missed his stories so much too.
I am hoping that he does another series like Curse of Strad(?)
I like your idea of splitting up the stone of Golorr, because that amnesia mechanic in the game was crap, & kind of punishes the players for doing something smart & getting their hands on it early in-game
I burrowed (from the Alexandrian Remix) the idea of the eyes being removed from the stone, so you have the stone and 3 eyes, without eye it's inert, with one eye it give you some ideas about whats going on so it can help push the PC in the right direction, with the second eye it know where to find the 3rd eye.
@@KasperLorentzen nice!
@@KasperLorentzen My GM did that, and gave each of the eyes to one of the different villains
I was told by a wise old GM to never make your players look like idiots (unless they have it coming). Sound advice.
@@KasperLorentzen really good idea
My players got super invested in the inn and tavern they received and spent a long time on it. Eventually we just ignored the storyline and it became a business simulator for them. I have never seen someone so excited to go over inventory and order supplies.
Me and my Pathfinder 1E group have had similar scenarios where we would get distracted by trying to run a business.
One of the unwritten rules of being a DM is don't introduce your players to economy unless you're prepared for that to be the entire game. The one thing they love more than destroying your plans is stonks.
As someone whose group has started several kingdoms, I can attest to this. Strangely enough, Kingmaker still is not our favorite campaign.
Brother I'm there right now. One my players is a banker and this is her first campaign. As soon as they got back to town she wanted to buy STOCK! I had to invent stocks on the fly (thank god I run Eberron which already has megacorporations in the lore). Then next adventure she wanted to buy LIFE INSURANCE for her character (I ruled that adventurers are uninsurable lol). And now I had to invent a bunch of real estate options so that they could diversify their portfolio haha
Yep. Building the business was a massive hit lol
"The villain of this premade adventure wants to do X. You figure out what that means" really is the quintessential 5e DM guidance. Bare bones instructions, you do the heavy lifting
To be fair, a lot of modules from earlier editions are even more bare-bones, with nameless NPCs and "caves" on the map which were literally "create your own dungeon here."
@@johnnaylor7031 I would give them that benefit, yes...
If Pathfinder (at least the 1e) didn't had the Adventure Paths being MUCH better than anything that came out of 5e by a good margin (at most, i'd say i'm still pissed about Iomedae appearance in WotR, but that's a rather small issue to how much of a beating that horse keeps getting way beyond death)
Edit: And to be clear, my point here is that we have had alternative approaches to premade adventures for a long while now and i just don't see how WotC's approach with 5e is good or justifiable when we're talking premade adventures
I can work with both directions, barebones or detailed, but I struggle with the inbetween. When the module gives just enough info's to be confusion it often becomes difficult to differentiate the important parts from the flavor.
Honestly, I normally heavily modify every module I run anyway, so I don’t mind it being “bare”. Strixhaven got completely upheavaled, changed the end villain, added stuff etc
Convenient how the DM has to do a lot of the work, and the company gets to rake in the money. Equivalent exchange at its best.
I hope this means we'll eventually get the long-form version of dragon Heist like we did for curse of strahd. I know there's slim hope of that considering it's been so long since curse of strahd but long-form content from you is a lot of fun.
Boost.
I hope so too the curse of strahd was such a fun series to look forward to every week
@@stevebreedlove9760 To the moon! We can do this!
I’m still waiting for the story on what happened to the group samurai over two years ago when they broke into a school ….
@@theviking1359 I know, on the video he posted before this one, I mentioned that him saying that all his stories required him to tell other stories for context means that he needs to make MORE videos. It's hard to recommend this Channel that I love so much to other people if he's just going to disappear for months at a time after each one. I'm pretty sure he only posted four or five times last year. I understand real life is a thing but he's such a good storyteller that it sucks having to wait so long for more content.
Petition to make Waterderp: Drogon Hoist the new name of this module. 😂
Ermagerd!
It wasn't even drogon. I heard drgon.
9:31 in case anyone missed it
@@SymbioteMullet Ehrmergerd! It's a dhergun!
Britain 100
4:50: "My players ended up losing almost all of the fights in that one. I think of the six fights we did early on, they either lost, TPK'd, or ran away in four of them."
I waaaaaarned youuuu!
This part reminded me of when i ran ToA. I think everyone died at least once through the campaign, the record was 5 deaths for one player from start to finish. I really shouldve tweaked it more than i did lol
Puffin and overtuned fights, name a more iconic duo.
What I don't get is that 5e explicitly has a mechanism to balance fights, and at least in my experience it works out pretty well, with fights being tough but winnable. Did he just ignore that and throw anything he felt like at the players? Because that's bad DMing.
@@stevejakab274 Nooo, would Puffin ever do that? That's *ABSERD!*
@@stevejakab274 haha... wait, are you serious?
I remember running Waterdeep for a treasured friend and an older newbie. They came to adore the Tavern they were given and cared more for that than the treasure hunt. When it came to the chase for the Stone, I just let them catch the guy as he fled the Skeleton basement, let them keep the gold since they weren't going on to do Dungeon of the Mad Mage, and after looking at the Xanathar finale...I just didn't run it...
When I ran Waterdeep, I stopped caring around the investigation part (I think it was chapter 3). Not because it was boring, but because my players were "more interested in dungeon crawling", so they missed all the clues they were supposed to follow. So I improvised a courtroom plot (they were very chaotic criminal), gave them the detective NPC they liked so much to help clean their names, gave them the "crystal", and jumped all the way to final chapter. It worked great :)
Breaking up the stone into pieces was BRILLIANT. Excellent idea! This is especially timely because I'm going to be starting a Waterdeep game TODAY. Like, in a few hours. Thanks for the tips. ;)
I made a really simple change that made the stone chase work for my group: If they managed to get the stone before then end, then... it actually works and they can keep it. My players caught up in step 5 of 7 IIRC, and were quite pleased with themselves.
Love that you’re uploading again, puffin! My players are currently going through this module and I decided to share some funny moments in our story:
Mild spoilers for WD:DH
In the beginning of the game after the troll fight and they tossed the thing back down the undermountain (bad troll saves) the bard walked up to Threestrings and convinced him to give him his lute for a second. He then proceeded to cut the rest of his strings except one. Understandably Threestrings was very angry, but the bard just kept saying to me, “play it.” I rolled performance and Nat 20’ed so that day Threestrings was no more and the hit rock artist “G-String” was born.
Later on when after fighting the kenkus and the cops showed up, two of the players were upstairs looting everything that wasn’t nailed down. One of them was downstairs talking to a cop they saw earlier that day. The cop was like “there’s no one else here? I thought I remember seeing you in a group.” “No sir, just me.” (Stealth check) (crash) “what was that?” (A bunch of rats from a minor illusion spell go down the stairs). “Damn rats. I hate the dock ward.” Some conversation later and another stealth check after forgetting that they busted the door upstairs before they entered and another cop posted by that door comes down and alerts the cop talking to the player downstairs that someone’s inside. (Minor illusion a singular monstrous sized rat and succeeds) and the cop just goes “I’m getting too old for this. I’m going to ask to be reassigned.”
Another one of my players is an adopted pirate from a former infamous pirate family so he and his mouse sister are being shadowed/monitored by Bregan D’aerthe. Haven’t explored that yet but I had to basically make another faction dedicated to his backstory where I gave everyone else an NPC to be and said to just bully his character or be friendly to his character. We’ve had some funny interactions so far with that.
The players are currently about to enter the sewers and find Floon. That session will be next week probably. That’ll be fun.
I remember when playing this module we ended up chasing some of the villains on a rooftop and one of my friends thought it would be a great idea to use wildshape to move faster, what he didn't realize is that turn into a warhorse was probably not the best idea when standing on the roof of a building.
9:31 "Waterderp: Drogon Hoist" 😂😂😂 never change, Ben.
Until he said this I didt grok that he was avoiding copyright when he called him Lord Neveremember
I also found out today that my autocorrect actually knows “grok”!
I just realized how good you are in compressing a story. If I had to retell something from my campagns I couldnt refrain from all the little details and technicalities.
The Ghost in our version of it turned into an attraction, would help with serving drinks and the like.
You've gotta have the ghost bartender. The Trollskull just ain't right without them serving customers.
My group is doing the same thing. He's just chilling and we're fine with that
Mine's not a ghost at all; they just think it's a ghost. People say it's haunted. A hobgoblin lives under the rim of the portal to the undermountain and comes out to steal socks and shit. One of the bartenders is an alcoholic so there are windows for his antics.
When the world needed him most, he returned!
My multi-year homebrew started as Dragon Heist before my players asked to completely derail things and I let them.
That made this video a super interesting read for me in particular, because Waterdeep is still the party's home base to this day, so I'm still making decisions about Waterdeep and referencing its book to this day.
Do you know that child in the aftermath of the fireball?
The party adopted them, asked about their parents, and went on a quest to reunite the kid with the family (in the interest of humouring this became a continent-spanning quest).
Later, they encountered the 3 street urchin kids, and immediately took them in.
I wanted to have the kids not trust this, but the party already had one kid & the charisma rolls went well, so.
Anyway those 4 are now backup PCs for when we want to take a short break from the main campaign to do something related but low stakes.
It feels like it's been forever since the last video. I'm so happy now.
happy happy joy joy! :)
Least then between the ladt and the one before
Aloha from Hawaii Puffin!! I started playing D&D this past year and love your channel. I have watched all of your old videos & really appreciate and enjoy them. I think your content is really fantastic & I hope you keep making videos. Mahalo for all the hard work you do!!
Commenting early after a few minutes, because you are very right! I'm running Princes of the Apocalypse module for my friends, and it's really frustrating how events are just not tied together and I'm supposed to make up for it. Things like "When characters are in this village, and when listening to rumors, they get this and that information", or "If they talk to this person, they say this or that". Sometimes it's easy, but other times I'm wondering how them going to another village leads them to this important enemy hideout that no one knows.
Rant over, continuing the video now. Missed you!
my favorite princes of the apocalypse thing was how several of the out the in open cults just don't have a great reason for the players to care. ohh these rich noble are sorta jerks and love flying mounts....ok... you sure you don't want to break into there tower at the strike of midnight, go to the roof and discover the sacrifice people to recharge there magic parashoots? or hey look a small monastery seemingly worshiping a earth diety, the acolyte at the door told us the monks have sworn oaths of poverty and silence and live apart from the world, we are welcome to stay in the court yard for the night and they even offered to bring us some of the simple stew they have for dinner but outsiders are forbidden from entering the monastery. well I guess we better murder the monks incase they are evil.
@@valwenventureco9285 Exactly! I've never felt more like a QA tester than I have with this module.
Yeah its why i switched to Pathfinder 2e Adventure paths. Its a bit of work if my players want to play 5e but the story is so well organized and put together that its less work on the fly I just put in some d&d stat blocks.
@@valwenventureco9285 Princes works best as modular content for a B plot in another story imo. The cults, dungeons, and custom cultists are all super cool in my opinion and can fit independently into most worlds with very little effort. The flying dudes inspired my imagination and I had them be pirates as an airship encounter. If they follow the sky bandits back to their lair they get to do the cool dungeon in reverse.
I made changes to Waterdeep Dragon Heist as well.
My biggest story changes were these. I used ALL the villains and I had the stone of Golorr be blinded and they would have to get the main body and it’s three eyes to get the entire story and with eye they found a key of the vault.
Chapter 1 I ran as written pretty much RAW because it’s honestly flawless. They rescue Renaer Neverember and Floon and Volo gives them the mansion. But Xanathar took an eye from a secret compartment in a locker Renaer owned that he had no knowledge existing, that’s the only thing I changed.
Chapter 2 I introduced all the factions and had them run through the first missions they would offer but I used a player wanting to fight in the field of triumph, to have Xanathar put an intellect in a gladiator the fighter was going to compete against and that caused the players to realise they were being watched. Plus I left clues to the drow at the Sea Maiden’s Faire. Plus Renaer as thanks gave them the gold they needed to renovate the manor and get it up and running, with the only issue is they have a flaky chef called JB Nevercott who doesn’t show up for loads of shifts.
Chapter 3 I had Dalakhar meet Renaer nearby the players but they were jumped by the Zhentarim and the fireball went off and Urstul Floxin survived and Renaer survived but was badly burned. Floxin then stabbed him in the throat and he died. They found the gralhunds and went through that but learned Manshoon was in control of the Zhentarim. I also had the Cassalanters have one of the eyes and promise to give it to the players if they have them the gold and had them lie about the damnation of their children being at Victoro’s father’s hands and that he damned his grandchildren. Amazingly my players didn’t insight check him. The chase I made sure that the stone was infront of the players at all times and they just needed to play their cards right to get it.
Chapter 4 the players have the stone with an eye in it and the eye they own but they find that one of the keys is Manshoon’s mask and that Xanathar owns the last eye. They need to heist both of them.when they heist Xanathar and attune the eye to the stone they find that his fish is the last key.
This all leads to a giant four way battle between the players, Xanathar, Manshoon and Jarlaxle (who has been spying from the shadows as JB Nevercott). They then gave the gold to the Cassalanters and got a 10% finders fee. At the founders day celebrations however. They were lumped in with the 99 souls for the ritual to trade their children’s souls for theirs. They broke out and were able to expose the Cassalanters for their acts but they bought their way out of trouble. When their children’s souls were taken, a shrill piercing cry of anguish from a woman was heard and felt everywhere.
No way! You're still alive?
Good! We need more stories! I'm still waiting for that job interview video that went worse. :)
I will stop whatever I’m doing to watch your videos when they come out. Thanks for your incredible content! Hope you are well! 🙏
A Puffin vid after only 2 months! He's back! And he is magnificent!
my party turned the poltergeist into our bartender. we called our bar "the dancing spirit".
I'm just going to tell myself that re-watching PF's playlist for the umpteenth time as I played video games is what motivated him to upload another video. Please continue on the worst stories series.
We're about to finish running Waterderp: Dargon Horst and I made the insane decision to include all four antagonists pitted against each other and the party. My party was also level 10 at this point, so it truly felt like they could play against the other villains as an influential force of their own in the city. Titanic to coordinate behind the screen, but my players had a blast.🎉
That's the toll that must be paid for good mid to high level play, I suppose.
I'm doing this now, but my players are between 12-15. We're 5 modules deep.
if you're into heavy lifting on the DM part, i suggest Out of the Abyss. Possibly the best module for capable DMs, just very (VERY) difficult to manage the large number of NPCs, factions, locations, villains, complex travel mechanics, out-of order sequencing...
a lot of work to do, but very high quality campaign in and of itself.
Lol this is so wild I'm actually DMing this campaign and are first session is on Monday. Thank you so much for the advice and tips!
Look up a blog called the alexandrian for their detailed remix of the module. I highly recommend it.
@@ultralight9625 thanks for the advice 😃
I've replayed your videos as background comfort more times then I'll say and want you to know how much I love them. All of them except the scary cthulu one with the sled dogs.
Hope you keep making more for a long time.
We love you Puffin!!! Post more videos when you find the time and topics. Always love hearing your stories.
In the Alexandrian Remix it's set up fir the party to successfully get the Stone from the Gralhund Villa part, but the three eyes are each possessed in different villains' lairs.
I feel the first minute and a half on a spiritual level. I feel this with *every official module*
I don’t play D&D games, but it’s fun living that life through your videos.
If you want to play and dont know anyone interested, ask in your local game shop. They usually help bring groups together.
As a new DM who is hosting her first DND session using Waterdeep, I thank you for making this video.
I'm so happy that you're making new content. Love it!
Nice to see some stories on this channel again.
Here’s how I would fix chapter 4: It’s an actual chase scene.
The players find out who has the stone on them and find them. The NPC tries to run, but the players are able to beat them up and take the stone. Then someone swings down from a rope, grabs the stone and runs away with it.
The players now have to chase down this guy. As they do, more and more enemies come out and are trying to either defend or beat the guy with the stone.
In this chapter, they basically have to outrun everyone and hide. They may even use some NPCs from earlier for help. They could even have to go into the villain’s lair to get it back if the guy who has it gets away. The win condition would likely be just finding a safe place to stay before using the stone to find the treasure.
missed your videos so much glad to see you are back
I'm so glad the dm of our game missed that text box about the stone of Golorr giving the player amnesia if they get it early. We were lucky to grab it at the windmill after my character Obi-Wan Kenobied out the window onto the spined devil that held it.
My favorite version of this was in the introductory module Lost Mines of Phandelver, the module holds your hand throughout all of it except for the BBEG's motivation
so I had to rewrite the boss encounter
Dragon Heist was the first ttrpg campaign I ever played in. It was an online group and I knew noone there, but we hit it off really well immediately so it was quite fun playing - however we wiped twice on the same encounter. We ended up playing heavily homebrew characters, if only to get ourselves actually having fun with the rest of it, and had some great moments in the end, but honestly I couldn't even tell you what the point of the module was - I just remember my lizardfolk healer got drunk and had a one night stand at some point.
I get ridiculously happy when I see new stuff from you. I hope all is well, and thank you for the content :)
Yay more D&D stories! I've missed your work on D&D.
Yay! New puffin video. Always a highlight.
As someone who is currently running Waterdeep dragon heist, there was very little I would consider a spoiler in this video lol.
I also scrapped the four seasons things and am running the four villains, though Manshoon is definitely taking a more minor role. And I’ve actually some how managed to make it so of my party of 5 players, 4 of them have some backstory or goal that makes them directly opposed to or on a collision course with a different one of the villains.
So, is the 5th player a total wildcard, or invested in some other aspect of the setting or story that doesn't bring them into any direct conflict other than running alongside the rest of the party that are?
I played through waterdeep. I honestly dont know what happened but by the end we owned a tavern that we convinced a ghost and a family of halflings to run for us. Also so happy for a new video. You are my introduction into the dnd world. Have been playing and running many games for over 2 years now. Appreciate you!
Puffin is one of my FAVORITE creators! SUPER happy he is making videos again. thanks so much!
Currently running Waterdeep Dragon Heist, and one of the major changes I plan on making (haven’t gotten to it yet) is giving the Dragon Staff to the Cassalanters. Then when they get into the vault the Dragon will let them take the Gold if they get him the staff. Bada bing bada boom, now they have to go on heist for the staff. And it brings both the Cassalanters and Jarlaxle (he is stated multiple times to be after the staff explicitly) into the story.
Or fight a dragon, but that’s also pretty epic.
Honestly thank you puffin from saving me from ever running a DND module I switched to PF2e roughly six months ago and am running a Adventure oath and was thinking of running a DND module to see if that makes DND better again, but seeing all the very good work you had to put in to make it interesting or not stupid I can comfortably decide to never touch any of them. This sounds really horrible I run these modules/APs so I have as little as possible to do so I can relax more in the week and don't have to worry about preparing everything, but this sounds like the DND modules are like a chain that only drags you down.
So good work on you what you did with the module sounds fun a ND thanks for saving me the work!
It's always a good day when Puffin makes a new video
I love dragon heist so much, but I agree, the story as is written benefits a lot from handmade fixes.
I remember this campaign offered us the opportunity to play a very artifact based game, switching the original fireball detonator with a grey hand who was tracking Neverember's stolen treasure with an arsenal of stuff that made it really difficult to understand who he was and what he could do. We had such a blast!
I have played this campaign and am currently running it. It's been interesting so far.
Puffin your videos are like the drug I can never get enough of but when they're around I'll take that shit right away
It's really good to see new content from you. I always looked forward to seeing new videos, and really missed seeing anything new.
Hurray! Thank you so much for all of your videos.
I'm really glad to see your stuff again, best of luck to you Puffin!
Still one of my favourite dnd youtubers! Your channel remains so awesome 😆
I prefer doing things more "homebrew" for some of the reasons listed. I like the idea of coming up with all the stuff and not feeling as stuck on-rails.
Good to see you making videos again. Man I struggled running this module
I usually give the characters a visit from Lord Cassalanter offering a discounted loan to help them set up the tavern while the Zhentarim and other loan sharks charge to much or menace the players. And i added other stores around Trollskull alley like a pet shop, a dress shop run by a hidden lord of Waterdeep, an instrument shop, and a boarding house with a kindly granny dwarf who wants the characters tavern or business to succeed and bakes them cookies (also feeds them in the early parts of the story because the don’t usually have a lot of money)
I might steal the Casssalanter idea
So this is odd but your videos make me pass out immediately when I need to go to sleep lol. Love your stuff Ben and always happy to see your videos pop up into my feed.
A day is always a good day when Puffin Forest publishes a video!
I had great fun running the "Alexandrian Remix" version of Waterdeep Dragon Heist. Ran at a higher level, starting at 5th, and they got to fight all 4 big bad stories over about 30 sessions. Good times.
Bro I need more of your videos in my life.
wow what luck I just caught this at the right moment. Love the content glad to see it keeping up.
Huzzah!! Puffin posts to YT and the world seems bright again after a very long and cold 🥶 winter.
So happy to hear your voice again puffin. I'd kill for another series like curse of strahd
great to see another video, love your animations and stories!
Miss your vids so much! Hope you're doing well man. More DnD!!
My day is always made when Puffin Forest uploads =)
Splitting the Stone of Galorr into pieces is tbh a stroke of genius that i wish the game offered, because I ran into the issue that they picked it up early, I didnt wanna do the dumb mind whipe thing, and then we skipped the whole chase chapter that i wanted to use to set up Manshoon a bit more xD
Ah, a new Puffin video always brightens my weekend!
Good to see him back
Third time watching and still enjoying learning how to adapt and react and still have fun. I wish I could be a fighter in one of your d&d games :)
Will we ever get another campaign series? I love the Curse of Strahd one so much!
OMG Puffin is back. Thanks for the new story. Clicked immediately.
Been waiting for a new post 🙏thank you!
My table also kept the house haunted.
We chose to set up a bar there and used the ghost as an attraction - The House of Boos.
I think mine did that too except he was the bartender, so we had a ghost serving drinks lmao.
@@InsanoRider777 Nice! Unfortunately (For the DM i guess, idk) our group was more invested with the Bar than anything with the plot, so the cannon ending for that party was starting a business
I hope your group was either invested with the actual plot, or also content with retiring early like ours was 😊
So happy you're putting up videos again
The last time I ran this I made the decision ahead of time to run this with *every* villain faction active, and even the good guys a bit tempted by the amount of gold and power in play, and it was honestly one of the greatest campaigns I've ever run.
Me being shocked to finally have a story of you😮
Been waiting on your videos!!! Thank you for making interesting and fun videos 😊...keep up the great work
This is why I love their anthology books (although I can only speak for ghosts of saltmarsh and yawning portal). You only need to read a chapter at a time if you want. Fun way to flesh out your game and acts of spring boards but also acts as most of the information you need if it to. and finally if it doesnt go ahead you read much less.
I love you vids!! Keep on making them!!
Love your videos. Thanks for making them.
A surprise, but a welcome one for sure.
LOVE SEEING YOU BACK!
I really love Dragon Heist for the potential it has. It's definitely my favorite module. When I approach a module, I do so as half and half pre-made setting, NPCs, quests, and the like and the other half being inspiration to play it by ear. I try to get the best possible understanding of characters and motivations so when the module does something stupid and nonsensical, I can decide whether it fits or not and improvise from there. I also hand draw out maps and such on grid paper so I have an idea of what I'm doing when I put it up on the big map, what's important, what isn't, where NPCs are and where the important loot is. Then I use the back of the page to write out all the important events and whatnot by room. Doing that also engages my memory, so it's part cheat sheet and part familiarization.
Also, knowing Waterdeep like the back of my hand has led to some cool moments of exploration, even in other people's games. I've got friends that have run games set in Faerun and we've ended up in Waterdeep from time to time. They know that I know the town well, and they have often handed control over to me for party stuff like "is there a good armorer in town?" "Where can I get riggity riggity wrecked?" "I'm looking for a dark corner to make some 'friends.'" It's a lot of fun, and gives the DM time to plan their next move while I get to run the show for a minute or two.
This is the content we want, leave people always wanting more
Fun video! Always enjoy your party’s adventures!
Literally starting this next week, great timing! Definitely splitting the stone/ multiple stones maybe of different powerful creatures each. Keep the aboleth then maybe a Modron for neutral and unicorn for good
That hand-holding dragging you off a cliff is why I don’t run modules xD
It’s waaaaaay easier for me to to build stuff myself because that way I already know everything and can adjust to my players crazy decisions.
Like giving the super magic weapon to the bbeg (No it was NOT supposed to be him tricking them, the pcs just listened to his villain monologue and went “well…he has a point he’s trained to be king, he should be ruler of the world!”)
Making the changes necessary are really good. Adapting modules to the needs of you and the party.
He is back! Whenever I think, RUclips is getting boring or stupid, Puffin returns and saves me.
Really, thank you!
Boy i am running one tonight its such a good game.
Hell yeah dude love the dnd stories lol. Started playing again with my old group recently and I'm glad to see another one of these. Always cracks me up. 😂😂
Waterderp Dragon Hoist sounds like an epic adventure about saving a dragon from some kind of lake dungeon it got trapped in while on a drunken bender or something.
Both WaterDeep books are my favorite since they were my first modules I bought and DMed.
I missed you so much! Please upload more even if it's not animated. Love listening to your voices. :)