Princes of the Apocalypse DM aid?

[PsychoPif]

Hi, I've been running Princes of the Apocalypse for 5 sessions now. The player are about to begin exploring the temples, but I've already experienced the mess that is this module. While the content is fantastic, I have a really hard time find the info I need. I have to go from onw story to another looking for a clue or a NPC name I forgot.

Does any of you DMed PotA and created aid for things like faction NPC, quest givers, clues, etc. I'm playing it full sandbox style so I never know where the players will go next...

I hate having to pause the roleplaying because I can't find the stuff I know is somewhere in there. I'm about to create charts and stuff to help, but I was wondering if someone had already done some DMing aid.

Thanks

[rob2e]

Playing it, DMing it, it's a mess. It's A LOT of fun sandbox style, but other than reading the entire book TWICE, I don't know there's much you can do unless you pigeon hole your PCs into following a certain order.

There are a couple of flow charts and suggested aids out there, they're all different, just google it and you'll see.

[Redemption77]

https://thecampaign20xx.blogspot.com/2015/04/elemental-evil-guide-to-princes-of.html

This should be helpful. I ran the adventure 3 times now and while it seems like a mess to look at, its actually quite playable AS LONG AS, you are prepared and know whats upcoming in the adventure so you can steer the players towards the proper dungeon temple for their level

[midas]

I agree with Redemption77. I've known/heard of DMs that are like, "I'll just read the book as we go" and Princes of the Apocalypse is an adventure that will make your life pretty hard if that's your DMing style. Being a sandbox adventure players have the option of going in a number of different directions so you need to either be prepared to tweak stuff (if you want to allow your players freedom) or subtly steer them in a particular direction (if you'd rather not have them roam wherever).

[Zacchaeus]

Yes, preparation is the key - and make it feel like a sandbox but actually channel the players where you want them to be. Whilst it is possible to wander all over the place your players will get into trouble very quickly if they don't have the level for a particular area. You might also find this (https://thecampaign20xx.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/elemental-evil-guide-to-princes-of.html?m=1) useful.

[PsychoPif]

Thanks, I've found those links and they are indeed helpful.

I guess I'll have to improve upon it myself.

Thanks anyway!

[PsychoPif]

I made Daniel Davis' reference sheet as a note in FG with links to area and NPCs. Is there a way I could export it so it can be shared here? I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who could use that.

[rob2e]

Yes exporting notes would be great. At the very least it would be awesome to cut and paste that as a plain text file and share it here.

[Zacchaeus]

I made Daniel Davis' reference sheet as a note in FG with links to area and NPCs. Is there a way I could export it so it can be shared here? I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who could use that.

No you can't export notes, only story entries. And I would be careful of any copyright infringement if you did distribute something like that. It might have to be so bland as to be fairly useless.

[DMZeff]

Hi PsychoPif,

Here's my strategy that has worked very well for running all the 5e modules. Get two piece of paper. The first piece of paper is going to be split in half. Make a list of all the NPCs that you will be RPing. On the left column you make a very brief list of physical characteristics to what they look like and what's around them and on the right column you write their behaviors.

Baron Vargas Vallkovich
-Always has 2 mastiffs
-Rapier
-Wears breastplate

+Everyone is beneath me
+Wont engage w/ out upper hand
+Believes he's a good leader
+Believes he's genetically superior

The second sheet of paper should be a web of connections. So you might have Red Larch being the central hub and then things branching out from there. This helps me remember where people learned which piece of information from. Also the writing process itself helps make it more memorable.

[PsychoPif]

No you can't export notes, only story entries. And I would be careful of any copyright infringement if you did distribute something like that. It might have to be so bland as to be fairly useless.

Well right now it's pretty bland. It's only a list of NPC and quest name with link to the module entry. It would be completely useless without the PotA module.

I don't want to replace the content. It's just that even after reading through it a couple of time, I can't remember who give what and where are the story hook.


I've search a bit more and stumbled upon this page: https://www.reddit.com/r/dndnext/comments/36vwdy/princes_of_the_apocalypse_resources/?

Haven't had the time to check it all up, but it seems full of goodies.

[Zacchaeus]

Indeed, that is a good site. The flowchart especially is very handy.

[LordEntrails]

What I've done it to go through the FG module in my campaign and edit most all of the location entries to include links to all of the other places that the location is referenced in. I haven't done this completely, but try to do what I can as part of prepping for each session.

Maybe a master story entry as Index could be created and shared as a module? Not sure if that would work... anyone know?

[Zacchaeus]

What I've done it to go through the FG module in my campaign and edit most all of the location entries to include links to all of the other places that the location is referenced in. I haven't done this completely, but try to do what I can as part of prepping for each session.

Maybe a master story entry as Index could be created and shared as a module? Not sure if that would work... anyone know?

Not sure if that would work either; but I have to say TASAgent did a pretty good job of linkage. The problem is that everyone will have a different route through the adventure so your story will be different from everyone else's one. The best advice really is for DM's to do a complete preparation and, if necessary, do their own linked story flow.

[gqwebb]

Hi PsychoPif,

Here's my strategy that has worked very well for running all the 5e modules. Get two piece of paper. The first piece of paper is going to be split in half. Make a list of all the NPCs that you will be RPing. On the left column you make a very brief list of physical characteristics to what they look like and what's around them and on the right column you write their behaviors.

Baron Vargas Vallkovich
-Always has 2 mastiffs
-Rapier
-Wears breastplate

+Everyone is beneath me
+Wont engage w/ out upper hand
+Believes he's a good leader
+Believes he's genetically superior

The second sheet of paper should be a web of connections. So you might have Red Larch being the central hub and then things branching out from there. This helps me remember where people learned which piece of information from. Also the writing process itself helps make it more memorable.

I like that idea. Thanks I am gonna give it a go.