The Unseen Servant forums

I've been inspired by dmw71's 5e game, and been poking around at some of the other 5e modules, thinking about running one.

I think I would like to run a game of Rage of Demons, Out of the Abyss. This is a fairly long adventure, which runs from lvl 1 up to lvl 15, and involves the Underdark, lots of Demons, Drow, Duergar, Koa-Toa, etc. You would be underground. Does this sound like fun? Let me know if you'd like to play in this.

Dare to descend into the Underdark in this adventure for the world’s greatest roleplaying game!

The Underdark is a subterranean wonderland, a vast and twisted labyrinth where fear reigns. It is the home of horrific monsters that have never seen the light of day. It is here that the dark elf Gromph Baenre, Archmage of Menzoberranzan, casts a foul spell meant to ignite a magical energy that suffuses the Underdark and tears open portals to the demonic Abyss. What steps through surprises even him, and from that moment on, the insanity that pervades the Underdark escalates and threatens to shake the Forgotten Realms to its foundations. Stop the madness before it consumes you!

This would be my first foray into running a 5e game, though I've run various old school games here in the past. I would like to run a game with player turns every 1-2 days to keep things moving along. At the moment, I am not up to speed on the digital tools like Roll20, so until/unless I got rolling with those, we would use "theater of the mind" for combat, though I do hope to get that figured out one of these days.

I like to tinker with the rules of the games I play...

For this game, I want to include a few house rules, including:

• Journey rules from Adventures in Middle Earth (to handle wandering the underdark. One element of this is limitations on long rests)
• Corruption from Adventures in Middle Earth (to handle alignment, and the influence of the demons)
• Fast/Slow Initiative from Shadow of the Demon Lord (adapted to 5e)
• Some other stuff like Dungeon Grappling, etc

Wait List:
dmw71

I'd be into it!

Also, I'm curious about these Dungeon Grappling houserules. What's the source?

I am interested as well.

Cool!

Dungeon grappling is a 3rd party supplement that adds a bunch of meat to the grappling world... extra conditions, and a control point mechanic that is pretty similar to hp (your grapple hits, and does 5 points of control, the opponent is now "grabbed", etc). It's pretty cool

http://methodsetmadness.blogspot.com/20 ... t.html?m=1

https://dungeonfantastic.blogspot.com/2 ... g.html?m=1

I would be interested.

Super! Nice to see you, kalstone

The Fast/Slow initiative system will be a variant of side initiative... sides take turns. By giving up either your move or your action for the round, you go "fast", so:

Roll side initiative, then:
Winners fast actions
Losers fast actions
Winners slow actions
Losers slow actions

Stuff like the alert feat, advantage on init rolls, etc, will bump actions up to faster speed, but dex bonus does not any more.

drpete wrote:Dungeon grappling is a 3rd party supplement that adds a bunch of meat to the grappling world... extra conditions, and a control point mechanic that is pretty similar to hp (your grapple hits, and does 5 points of control, the opponent is now "grabbed", etc). It's pretty cool

Oh! I'm familiar with Douglas Cole's work from several years ago. I'll have to pick this up and see how his system has developed since then.

I’m interested if you have some room.

Ravenn, you're welcome to join.

My plan is to not include "alignment" in the game. Instead, we will use the "shadow" mechanic from adventures in middle earth.

As you adventure, you accumulate "shadow points". These represent grief, doubt, weariness and self interest that come to rest in your heart and mind. If you gain too much shadow, you will become miserable, and your heart will harden. If it hardens too much, you will become an npc.

You gain shadow points from: anguish (experiencing horrible stuff), travel in blighted lands, misdeeds (murder, cowardice, etc), and tainted treasure (from ancient tombs and dragons lairs). Your primary defense to keep from accumulating these points are wisdom saving throws.

If you're still looking for players, I am interested.

I'm always up for another 5e game, especially another hardcover adventure. I'm not too sure about the initiative rules, however. Guess I'll have to see how that works out. That could have a serious negative effect on some classes, like Rogues, who rely on their high initiative bonuses from DEX to go early in the round, and ability to move in, attack, then disengage and move away to get in, hit hard, and get out of danger. But, we'll see. Maybe it's something that as we get used to isn't that big a deal.

Sure, welcome aboard, folks!

Given that we've reached a critical mass, I'm put in a request for a forum, which would last us get started!

The journey rules abstract travel into three parts:

• An embarkation roll that sets the overall tone of the journey
• A series of events, sort of like random encounters, but including terrain obstacles and various other scenarios to deal with, that are somewhat abstracted. They are often handled by a few rolls, by characters acting in a specific role.
• An arrival roll, to see if you arrive with empty bellies or full of enthusiasm.

On the journeys, characters each take on a role helping out the trip:

• Guide (1 char): In charge of route, rest and supplies (Wisdom + Survival)
• Scout (1+ chars): in charge of setting up camp + owning new trails (Stealth+Investigation)
• Hunter (1+ chars): in charge of finding food (Survival)
• Look-Out (1+ chars): in charge of keeping watch (Perception)

While you are free to create the characters you would like to play, it would be useful to consider making yourself useful on a journey, as they will be a significant part of this campaign...

Hi Scott,

I'd be open to tweaking it to....
Compute init mod, including speed factors (+2 for light weapons, etc.) Divide total by 5, rounding down. Character gets bumped up/down by this many phases.

This would help speed up rogues but slow down heavy weapons fighters...?

It's definitely an experimental house rule... I'm not convinced that regular 5e initiative really "matters" beyond the first round. Am I wrong?

One thing I will mention, is that it will be a huge help to everyone involved if you set up the campaign in D&D Beyond. The character sheets on the Servant aren't really much use for 5e. Creating characters in Beyond will walk players through the process and do all the calculations for them. Without spending money, you are able to use the PHB and Elemental Evil Players Companion (which is available as a free download on DMs Guild) so there will be all the standard character options as well as a few additional races and some extra spells. Any books the DM purchases are available to all the players in the campaign, but I am not advocating you purchase any additional material unless you wish to do so. We can play through this adventure just fine with the free character options- in fact, those were all that was available when the hardcover was released.

Sounds good!

drpete wrote:Hi Scott,

I'd be open to tweaking it to....
Compute init mod, including speed factors (+2 for light weapons, etc.) Divide total by 5, rounding down. Character gets bumped up/down by this many phases.

This would help speed up rogues but slow down heavy weapons fighters...?

It's definitely an experimental house rule... I'm not convinced that regular 5e initiative really "matters" beyond the first round. Am I wrong?

That's why I said we'd see how things play out. It's not a big deal to give it a shot and tweak as you go along. If it really does become game breaking, well, then we can reevaluate. You are correct, initiative doesn't really matter beyond the first round as the order does not change round to round. It becomes critically important in that first round, however, for some classes. The Assassin archetype attacks with advantage on an opponent who hasn't acted yet in combat. Gloomstalkers get an initiative bonus, additional movement distance on their first turn, and if they attack that turn, a bonus attack which does additional damage. That one in particular could really be impacted by changes to initiative, and there may be other archetypes that would be affected. Now, these archetypes don't come into play until 3rd level, so there would be time to get used to the rules before we get to that point. Some classes gain archetypes at 1st or 2nd level, but I'm not sure if any of them are going to be too terribly affected. The Gloomstalker is in a different book, so if we just use the basic class options it is irrelevant anyway.

Looking at your tweak...I'm not sure it would really make any difference. A character with a DEX of 20, generally the highest a character can get, has a bonus of +5. Add to that a +2 for a light weapon, and it is a +7, which would be a 1 when divided by five and rounded down. Someone with an 8 DEX gets a -1 to initiative. Equip them with a light weapon, and they are at 1, which divided by 5 and rounded down becomes a 0. Even without that light weapon bonus, they are still only at -1, even if they use a weapon that gives them a -2 penalty.

Man, this filled up fast!

I didn't even know this was a thing until I just now saw the notification about the admin request to set the forum up. I am super intrigued by Out of the Abyss (I was seriously debating it instead of Hoard of the Dragon Queen for my own game), so I'll be sure to check in on it occasionally.


Excited to see more 5e love here on the boards!

I can back out if you want in, Dave. I was also surprised how quickly a 5e game filled. I know it is really popular in the wild- I believe Adventurer's League games accounted for more than 10% of total seats at Gary Con- but this board does definitely skew old school. I guess I really shouldn't be too surprised, as you ended up with enough players to run two sessions of Dragon Queen, so there is definitely interest.

Scott308 wrote:I can back out if you want in, Dave. I was also surprised how quickly a 5e game filled. I know it is really popular in the wild- I believe Adventurer's League games accounted for more than 10% of total seats at Gary Con- but this board does definitely skew old school. I guess I really shouldn't be too surprised, as you ended up with enough players to run two sessions of Dragon Queen, so there is definitely interest.

No, no need for anyone to back out. I do appreciate the offer, though.

I have been waiting for an opportunity to join a game as a player (5e or 1e/2e) but there really hasn't been that opening. Figures, the first one comes on the tail end of an insane week/weekend for me and totally miss the proverbial boat. No worries, the fact that I've been out of touch for so long (it's crazy when 2-3 days is considered 'out of touch') is a sign that I probably already have too much going on.

Assuming there is one, I'm fine to start this one on a waitlist.

Scott308 wrote:I was also surprised how quickly a 5e game filled.

As the resident cranky grognard I’m not surprised. 5E has a definite old school feel to it. I’m almost not aggravated that my two oldest (17yo and soon to be 15yo) are playing and DMing it, after playing 1E for all those years - rebelling I guess
If I was a 1E tends toward 2E guy (instead of tend towards OD&D), I think I’d enjoy 5E a lot more - as it is I’ve enjoyed the few 5E games I’ve played in.

Now where are those spoiler tags that block Dave from seeing this post.