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adachimerica · 7 years ago

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ok hi everyone i finally slept and have a day to actually rest!!!!! the past two days have been super fun w/ my cbus trip and then the ToA dnd marathon but they were both two completely full days so i am very much looking forward to not having to Do anything today.

anyways so we played through the beginning of the new tomb of annihilation module yesterday for the dnd marathon and hooooo boy do i have some feelings about this one.

i wont say that it’s a Bad module because theres some parts of it that are really good? everything in Port Nyanzaru was really fun and that was a great setting, probably one of my favorite cities and towns i’ve encountered in the forgotten realms setting. but jesus christ the difficulty setting once you get out of Port Nyanzaru is craaaazy bad.

the module can accommodate different starting levels but i mean, if you’re going to allow level 1 characters into that area where they’re straight-up guaranteed to die in each encounter? navigating the jungle area (and literally all of chult is considered jungle the second you step out of town, theres no easing into it) is incredibly difficult - we spent hours irl going out into the wilderness with our guide, only to have them get turned around 2 hexes outside of town and have them lead us right back... and then you can just run into a CR 8 fight literally on the doorstep to Port Nyanzaru and die!!! again!!! i literally had to play SIX characters in the 12-hour session, because they kept getting killed, and it wasnt like they were deaths of any meaning - it was just, Oh Sorry this module’s difficulty is throwing literally CR 8 encounters at your lvl 2 ass and now you’re Dead in one hit. by the end of the session our team morale was Crazy Low, because whats the point in playing a game where you’re literally thrown to the dogs the second you try to do Anything

related to that: i hhhhhhhate it when a game tries to punish you for exploring the world of the game. as a player my favorite thing is exploring the module and seeing what the creators designed - and when they’ve designed a literal death trap to PUNISH players curiosity, welp. by my last character i straight up didnt care anymore and was about to walk out 2 hours from the end, because its like... i cant DO anything. if i fight i die, if i explore i Die, if i breathe i die, my only option is to turn tale and run from everything which, im sorry, im not interested in doing?? ughhh

and a final note and very general but applies to last nights session in particular: i truly believe a TPK is not a sign of a great dm like so many dms believe, but rather a sign of a dm’s failing. because here’s the thing, the DM has the entire deck of cards at their disposal - they can throw literally anything at their players. the challenge of a good dm then, is to create a difficult and challenging encounter That The Players Can Win! as a player i want to enjoy playing my character, and as a storyteller i get very attached to them - so i want them to win, and thats where the fun of dnd lies! (for me at least) but like, if a dm throws an encounter at the players that absolutely obliterates them, well... then that wasn’t good... that was a bad encounter.

im not saying the dm shouldnt get to knock down a few players, and of course there’s always the chance the party is going to make a stupid decision and fuck up, but like.... last night we had a tpk of our lvl 2 chars and i was just like, this is stupid? like what sort of victory do you get for killing our no-strategy no-health lvl 2 flesh babies???

anyways yyyyyyeah thats mories long thoughts about dnd due to the tomb of annihilation, which, by the by, we never actually got anywhere near the tomb itself sssoooooooooooooooo (shrugs into space)

#mori plays d&d #tomb of annihilation

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