Looking for advice for running Tomb of Annhil. in FG

[merkvah]

Heya, all.

I'm running Tomb of Annihilation on Fantasy Grounds and I'm just overwhelmed by all the options. Chapter 1 is "Welcome to Port Nyanzaru!" but what do my players do there? Do they pick up the first quest available and then leave town? Why does the module recommend they stay in town a week? And why are there so few encounters in town?

I'm beating my head against this module... the story seems exciting, but there's no directional flow. I know the layout of the slums of Nyanzaru, and I know how they get their water, but all of that seems somewhat pointless in terms of progressing the story.

I'm not trying to complain... the module is huge and fascinating, but I guess I'm just looking for advice on how to get my players moving. I've looked at some of the quests in the "Side quests" section, and some of them take the players to areas they probably shouldn't be going... anyway, any advice would be sincerely appreciated.

Many thanks.

[Shoestring]

Heya, all.

I'm running Tomb of Annihilation on Fantasy Grounds and I'm just overwhelmed by all the options. Chapter 1 is "Welcome to Port Nyanzaru!" but what do my players do there? Do they pick up the first quest available and then leave town? Why does the module recommend they stay in town a week? And why are there so few encounters in town?

I'm beating my head against this module... the story seems exciting, but there's no directional flow. I know the layout of the slums of Nyanzaru, and I know how they get their water, but all of that seems somewhat pointless in terms of progressing the story.

I'm not trying to complain... the module is huge and fascinating, but I guess I'm just looking for advice on how to get my players moving. I've looked at some of the quests in the "Side quests" section, and some of them take the players to areas they probably shouldn't be going... anyway, any advice would be sincerely appreciated.

Many thanks.

This $5 Guide could give you some help getting started

https://www.dmsguild.com/product/225854/Tomb-of-Annihilation-Companion?src=hottest_filtered&filters=45469

[LordEntrails]

I haven't run it yet, but Merric does a good job so I would probably start with his series on prepping for it; https://merricb.com/2017/09/27/preparing-for-tomb-of-annihilation/

GITP often has intelligent discussions, this one might help; https://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?543111-New-DM-starting-Tomb-of-Annihilation-seeking-advice-(SPOILERS!)

Google will give you a bunh more blogs and discussions, but don't have any idea which might be good.

[Zacchaeus]

Tomb of Annihilation is a sandbox adventure which means that the players could potentially go anywhere, so it can be difficult for the DM to control. The first thing you need to do is read the whole adventure through at least twice so that you have a good idea of what there is to do in Chult and where the main dangers are. You, as DM, will need to guide the players away from the really dangerous places and take them to where their level suggests they should be. You can do this via some of the NPCs they meet, such as the guides detailed in the 'Finding a Guide' chapter. The starting location has a number of activities as well as some side quests (see the 'Side Quests' chapter). There is a lot of role-playing opportunities here rather than combat and so you probably want to use the milestone method of levelling up the characters. I'd suggest that they be at least level 3 before they leave the Port. This part of the adventure is where the players get to know and develop their characters before the more combat intensive regions outside the Port. You will need to plan things a little more than a straight in media res type adventure start.

[Nickademus]

** Spoilers **
My advice is to start the adventure before the death curse. If the players know they are on a race against the clock they won't want to do most of the quests (understandably so). Get them to Chult first, let them explore Port Nyanzaru. Give them xp awards for exploring things to get them to 2nd-level before they even think about leaving town. Remove the guides that are immune to physical damage in the beginning (have them currently out with an expedition). Remove Xandala and her quest (she is nothing but a crutch for the PCs until she turns into a tpk). Have their patron require them to get a charter from Fort Beluarian, since the trek up to the Fort is less dangerous than going south and provides more guides and quests. Don't expect to use all the jungle material; by the time the party gets to a level where they can survive the jungle, the adventure expects them to move on to Omu.

All in all, this adventure is horribly designed. Forcing PCs to rush through a CR 1-10 wilderness to do level 3-7 quests at first level is silly. Try to scale encounters to the party because the adventure as written will just slaughter PC after PC, regardless of if you are using meatgrinder mode.

Alternately, you could just use a different beginning such as this one from the Guild Adept program (https://www.dmsguild.com/product/220608/Return-of-the-Lizard-King?filters=45680_0_0_0_0_0_0_0).

[merkvah]

Hey, thanks so much for all your advice, guys. I really appreciate it. Our next session is Saturday, so I've got a lot of reading ahead of me before then! thanks!

[leozelig]

If you need to scale encounters, I highly recommend kobold fight club!

kobold.club/fight

[hawkwind]

if you need to lead your players through Port N you could try using these adventure league mods https://www.dmsguild.com/product/222716/DDAL0703-A-Day-at-the-Races-5e?src=newest&filters=0_45682_0_0_0_0_0_0 the links takes you to the first of three linked adventures

[Morik]

I'm currently running this. One of the things I did was to 'slow down' the Death Curse. When we started, the DC had been around for about 2 months. They knew this because no one had been able to be Raised for that amount of time. The wasting part of the curse was just becoming apparent (or had just been linked to the curse). This took a bit of the time crunch off. This way, they didn't feel pressured to dive right into the jungle. They took time in the port to learn everything they could about the jungle and various guides. I also let them plan their own trip into the jungle while talking to guides. One of the guides (the one they actually wound up with) had a bit of a talk with them about how under prepared they were. They had no idea how travel could be slowed by the frequent torrential downpours and wrecked boats and such. They didn't even consider hiring porters and the like before talking to the guides. They never though about rain catchers or how much extra water they would need (or about how deadly the local, untreated water could be... Throat Leeches.. mmm). Armor and dehydration wasn't apparent to them at first (our most heavily armored character currently wears Leather armor). Give them all this info in bits and pieces around town. It should make them want to stay and learn more before heading out and dying due to lack of preperation. I also ran several of the 'in town' adventures (which added several party members, including Volo, a gladiator, and a few others) and had fun dinosaur racing. Our four person party turned into a 12 man expedition (currently down to 10 after a girillon attack while camping for the night).

There is sooo much to do in the port. Just get familiar with it so that you can encourage exploration and role-playing. Also, get very familiar with the exploration chapter (chapter 2, I think). This will allow you to play the guides (and explain why you need a guide). A good portion of this adventure will be filled in with random encounters. Get familiar with the different areas of the jungle and the encounter tables for each. The jungle is really a character of its own. The more you know about it, the more you can role-play the knowledgeable npcs in Port Nyanzaru. Have fun with the dinosaurs in town. Don't bother calling them by name if you can help it. None of the characters have (probably) heard of, let alone seen, a dinosaur before. Play up the weirdness of everything. Port Nyanzaru should really be an 'alien environment' for most characters. Their's more color here than (probably) anywhere they've ever seen. Everything should sound different: the language, the sounds, the names... There should be plenty of reason to stay in town for a while.

[Morik]

Also, if you're starting the adventure as suggested, they will teleport to the docks in Port Nyanzaru. The person hiring them will be staying in a specific section of the city, while they will be staying on the other side of the city. This will allow them to explore three major areas of the city before bedding down for the night (assuming they escort 'what's her name' to where she'll be staying). Playing up the 'alienness' of the city and it's different sections, should hint to the players how little they know about the area they're about to explore. Hopefully, this will make them want to learn as much as possible about Chult, thereby giving them a reason to stay in town longer.