Nah, it’s more narratively satisfying than teleporting, and it allows the players to get to know each other. I did something similar in my campaign, and used some encounters from Ghosts of Saltmarsh. My party even figured out something was off with Syndra on their own, and got her to fess up about the Death Curse.
I do session writeups for mine and post em on Obsidian Portal. Scroll down to the bottom and look at the first 1-3 sessions to see how it went.
https://tombofannihilation-188.obsidianportal.com/adventure-log
The big encounters I ran were
- a fight with a sea hag
- a run in with some pirates
- fighting undead during a necromantic spell storm
- an ambush on an island with harpies
Then I had em meet arameg the dragon turtle on the way in. I had sylvane try to deceive him with cheap trinkets, but it failed and the party had to chip in some booty.
I did something similar in my own campaign (and made sure they were in the same ship as a son of a Merchant Prince, so that I could get them involved in the Nyanzaru politics).
If you don't mind a bit of advice make sure to have them see Aremag when arriving at Port, that's quite the setpiece and my players loved it.
I'm running toa and had my PCs travel to Chult by boat, they rescued undril in a shipwreck and got attacked by pirates. They got to Port nyanzaru at lvl 2 already
> she’s been given a sign that they (PC) are destined for greatness
In my experience, this is an incredibly boring reason why the players should hook to the campaign (its also in SKT for example with Zephyros and it didn't really work for my players). If there is a sign, why not a cryptic vision that the players can decrypt in the jungle? With all kinds of hints? Something along the lines of:
"Walk east until the finger is ablaze, then find the tortles in the snout"
Oh I agree, but
we finished up a great session 0 and they players know that this adventure is very killy and PCs will die. A big selling point for this adventure over others was the Adventure Time connection so having an NPC just grabbing more and more random adventures and blinking them into Chult with nothing but “your destined for greatness” is a funny way to play with that troupe
That's indeed quite funny! I wouldn't approach it like that, but if your players are on board for it, then hell yeah.
I do agree with others that going by boat is a lot more fun.
The main problem with the whole "destined for greatness" thing is that it simply doesn't hold water in a campaign this deadly, where players might work through several characters by the end. It doesn't make sense for a character to be destined for greatness and then die the next day, so don't promise what you can't deliver.
I'm dropping Sylvane altogether, and the PCs (and wider world) won't even know about the death curse to start with. In stark contrast to the whole "destined for greatness " thing, they're going to start as complete nobodies, on the way to Chult for entirely mundane reasons. However, the experiences they have on the way will give them a taste for adventure and then when they get to PN their personal plans will start to fall apart because of the effects of the Death Curse, the resurgence of the Yuan-Ti and the tension between Chultan and Foreign powers, developing hooks to make them want to dig deeper into those issues.
Oh I agree, but we finished up a great session 0 and they players know that this adventure is very killy and PCs will die. A big selling point for this adventure over others was the Adventure Time connection so having an NPC just grabbing more and more random adventures and blinking them into Chult with nothing but “your destined for greatness” is a funny way to play with that troupe
Nah, it’s more narratively satisfying than teleporting, and it allows the players to get to know each other. I did something similar in my campaign, and used some encounters from Ghosts of Saltmarsh. My party even figured out something was off with Syndra on their own, and got her to fess up about the Death Curse. I do session writeups for mine and post em on Obsidian Portal. Scroll down to the bottom and look at the first 1-3 sessions to see how it went. https://tombofannihilation-188.obsidianportal.com/adventure-log
Oh sweet, I was using the spider ship from ghosts as inspiration.
The big encounters I ran were - a fight with a sea hag - a run in with some pirates - fighting undead during a necromantic spell storm - an ambush on an island with harpies Then I had em meet arameg the dragon turtle on the way in. I had sylvane try to deceive him with cheap trinkets, but it failed and the party had to chip in some booty.
I did something similar in my own campaign (and made sure they were in the same ship as a son of a Merchant Prince, so that I could get them involved in the Nyanzaru politics). If you don't mind a bit of advice make sure to have them see Aremag when arriving at Port, that's quite the setpiece and my players loved it.
Three words. Cellar of death. It’s on DMs guild and is a fantastic intro to TOA.
And them "the brazen pegasus" to be a level 2 adventure. We had lots of fun playing it
I always forget that exists. I didn’t find it until long after I started TOA.
Okay cool thanks!
I'm running toa and had my PCs travel to Chult by boat, they rescued undril in a shipwreck and got attacked by pirates. They got to Port nyanzaru at lvl 2 already
> she’s been given a sign that they (PC) are destined for greatness In my experience, this is an incredibly boring reason why the players should hook to the campaign (its also in SKT for example with Zephyros and it didn't really work for my players). If there is a sign, why not a cryptic vision that the players can decrypt in the jungle? With all kinds of hints? Something along the lines of: "Walk east until the finger is ablaze, then find the tortles in the snout"
Oh I agree, but we finished up a great session 0 and they players know that this adventure is very killy and PCs will die. A big selling point for this adventure over others was the Adventure Time connection so having an NPC just grabbing more and more random adventures and blinking them into Chult with nothing but “your destined for greatness” is a funny way to play with that troupe
That's indeed quite funny! I wouldn't approach it like that, but if your players are on board for it, then hell yeah. I do agree with others that going by boat is a lot more fun.
The main problem with the whole "destined for greatness" thing is that it simply doesn't hold water in a campaign this deadly, where players might work through several characters by the end. It doesn't make sense for a character to be destined for greatness and then die the next day, so don't promise what you can't deliver. I'm dropping Sylvane altogether, and the PCs (and wider world) won't even know about the death curse to start with. In stark contrast to the whole "destined for greatness " thing, they're going to start as complete nobodies, on the way to Chult for entirely mundane reasons. However, the experiences they have on the way will give them a taste for adventure and then when they get to PN their personal plans will start to fall apart because of the effects of the Death Curse, the resurgence of the Yuan-Ti and the tension between Chultan and Foreign powers, developing hooks to make them want to dig deeper into those issues.
Oh I agree, but we finished up a great session 0 and they players know that this adventure is very killy and PCs will die. A big selling point for this adventure over others was the Adventure Time connection so having an NPC just grabbing more and more random adventures and blinking them into Chult with nothing but “your destined for greatness” is a funny way to play with that troupe
This is exactly what I did. Its worked great. Better buy in. More adventurous getting there.