Notes Credits This material is based on articles from my blog, Power Score RPG. Author: Sean McGovern Thank You! I want to thank everybody who has ei- Art: ther sent me a kind word, given me a like on twitter, or bought one of my other pdfs on the DMs Guild. Cover: Homage to 1e back cover: Vasiart (pg 5) Sorcerer having a drink at the Yawning Portal: Emirikol’s Guide to Devils. I am right now polish- Kagurachi ing up a gigantic DMs Guild pdf that I’ve been work- ing on for 5 months. It is Emirikol’s Guide to Devils, a (pg 9) Belak the Druid: Kagurachi devil guide that has stats for about 40 monsters, a (pg 16) Nightscale emerging from the lake: Kagurachi chapter full of magic items converted from old edi- (pg 25) Tloques-Popolocas (Room 7, pg 67) pulling his tions, and of course my stab at statting out the Lords berserker axe out of the wall: Vasiart of the Nine, the archdevil rulers of hell. (pg 40) Jumping in the geysers and chains room Being a Dungeon Master. If you are reading this, (Room 7, page 100): Kagurachi you are probably at the very least considering being a Dungeon Master. Being a DM is hard! When a ses- (pg 45) Tarul Var: Vasiart sion doesn’t go well, it feels terrible. (pg 69) King Snurre wearing his white dragon cloak: Remember, every single one of us goes through this. Vasiart Often, the sessions you think weren’t so great were (pg 89) Acererak: Vasiart loved by the players. Don’t get discouraged, just keep an open mind and try not to be too critical of your- self! Sample file I. It’s a good dungeon for new players and DMs, be- How to Run Tales cause it was designed for them. It starts out a bit From the Yawning basic, and grows in complexity as you go on. You begin by entering a dungeon that’s inhabited Portal by feuding kobolds and goblins. At the bottom of n this guide, we are going to take a look at the place is a druid and a tree tainted by the blood Tales From the Yawning Portal and do our of a vampire. Ibest to prepare it. Preparing an Adventure We’re going to start off with going over the basics, If this is the first adventure you’ve ever run, you in case this is one of your first times DMing. Then, should know that you need to read the whole chap- we’ll go chapter by chapter and prepare this thing. ter. The most important thing to keep in mind is There is a lot of work to be done as a DM, and I that you need to look up monsters and stuff before- tried my best to do it for you. hand. If you look up everything at the table, every- At the end, I’ve included a sample outline of a body will get bored. It is important to be prepared. campaign to show how you could connect all of You want people have fun, not fall asleep or wan- these adventures together. der away. Cheat Sheet Adventure Anthology You might want to get a piece of paper or some- This book is a collection of 7 adventures that were thing and write down stats for a kobold, goblin, originally made for previous editions (with differ- and a twig blight. Also, write down what some ent rules). These have all been updated to the 5th spells that are in the adventure do. That way, when edition rules. you’re running the game, all you have to do is look at that sheet and you can just keep right on going Legendary Adventures Sample withfile no break in the pacing. Some of these adventures are very famous in D&D circles. White Plume Mountain is known as a “fun- on’t Worry Also remember that every DM makes mistakes ev- house” dungeon, a place full of weird and wacky ery single session. It’s no big deal. Just roll with it. rooms. The Tomb of Horrors is a dungeon full of It doesn’t matter, all that matters is that everyone traps (and almost no monsters at all) designed to has fun. kill almost anyone. Gary Gygax himself made this dungeon and it is meant to be the ultimate chal- "eeping the Game Moving lenge. If your players are new, certain things can slow the game down. Make sure everybody knows their Begin With the Sunless Citadel plus to hit, how much damage they do, their spell If you are going to start a group, you’ll want to use attack bonus and the DC for their spells. It gets real the Sunless Citadel first. That’s for brand new, 1st old when the same player keeps having to figure level characters. This adventure came out right out their bonus to hit and it drags the game down. when 3rd edition was released. 3rd edition was re- Also, I think people running casters should, at the ally popular at the time, and a lot of people played very least, write down the page number each of it. their spells is on. Not for resale. Permission granted to print or photocopy this document for personal use only. CHAPTER 1: HOW TO RUN YAWNING PORTAL 1 Setting up the Adventure Pacing This is a big dungeon. It might get boring. Do not Check out the hooks on page 10. You might want be afraid to junk rooms or move things along. If to talk with your players before the game to see if exploring a certain section is becoming a drag, they have any ideas as far as their character’s back- make some of the rooms empty and get to the end story. The missing adventurers could be relatives of it. There’s no “right” way to run a dungeon. The or mentors to a character. A character might need authors expect you to change it, so don’t feel like the magic apple to heal a sick loved one who is go- you’re doing it wrong. It’s impossible to do it ing to die soon without it. wrong. You can change it however you like. %ampires If there’s a player that is into vampires, you could Forge o' Fury play up the story of Gulthias and work that in. Let’s say you’ve been running your group through What might be cool is to say that if you make a a bit of Phandelver from the boxed set, or maybe stake out of the wood of the Gulthias Tree, maybe you’ve just been making stuff up on your own. The it does special things to vampires. Normally a group is 3rd level and you want to run the Forge of stake paralyzes them, maybe this obliterates them Fury. or turns them into petrified wood or something. Or If you can, set it up a bit in advance. While you’re maybe a character knew Gulthias and through the running whatever you’re running before forge, slip tree they can get something from Gulthias that they in some mentions of the legendary black dragon need, like a drop of blood or the answer to a riddle, Nightscale, have someone find one of those ancient or the location of a lost family heirloom/magic dwarven weapons crated by Durgeddin. Maybe item. you can have the group go to Oakhurst and fight $eepo some orc raiders who actually came from the forge. On page 16, there is an NPC named Meepo, who is It’s always good to plant seeds ahead of time if something of a famous character. Most people who possible. If the group has been hearing about play this adventure have some weird or funny Sample file Nightscale the dragon and how terrifying she is, Meepo story to tell. Sometimes Meepo joins the they will be much more pumped up when they ac- group and goes on many future adventures with tually realize that they are going to have to fight them. her at the end. Your Style. Meepo is an opportunity for you to Warn the Players showcase your style – your brand of D&D. Every I also recommend telling your players before they DM does something different. Sometimes he’s a start that the monsters in this place don’t act like traitor, sometimes he’s a coward, sometimes he’s a monsters in a video game. The whole dungeon will brave but weak ally. You might want to put some attack them at once if the group isn’t careful. We thought into how you want to run Meepo. That’s are specifically telling them this because the very the cool thing about being a DM, you’re like a di- beginning part of this dungeon has a very involved rector of a movie. Tim Burton would portray encounter with the orcs, who have a detailed strat- Meepo very differently than Quentin Tarantino or egy on how they handle intruders. If the group is Michael Bay. You get to to do whatever you want. not careful, they are going to get their asses kicked. Not for resale. Permission granted to print or photocopy this document for personal use only. CHAPTER 1: HOW TO RUN YAWNING PORTAL 2 That beginning part is not easy. They’ll need to be White Plume Mountain quiet, cautious and smart. They probably won’t This is just an epic adventure.