Dungeons & Dragons - Encounters in Port Nyanzaru

You can get this book right here.

The DM Guild has this new "adept" program where 10 DM Guild creators were grouped together and tasked with making products linked to the Tomb of Annihilation. I bought them all! We'll go through them one by one.

The art is a mix of new and old stuff. I recognize at least one artist as someone who created art for 4e. There is one map, which is pretty high quality stuff.

A Little Too Fancy

We start off with a scenario where the heroes end up being unable to pay for their stay at Kaya's House of Repose. The use of bullet points in this helps me tremendously. This is all set up so that the group can do a performance in front of a crowd. There are rules and guidelines for the performance, pretty fun stuff.

It might be a bit tricky to set this one up and get the group to go through with it, but this will be handy in any campaign where the group has to perform, and I think almost every group does that at least once.

City Chase

A chase! These are so hard to pull off. We get four possible ways for a chase to commence and then we get a list of complications. My favorite one is where someone drops a bag of gold coins and you can use your action to scoop up a cool 3d10 gp. Good stuff!

Crate Number Seven

The group agrees to pick up a shipment. It is one crate... crate number seven. Getting the crate is more of a challenge than expected. Can the group resist the urge to open the crate?! What's in there?! Very amusing! I like this one.

Crime & Punishment

This one covers what happens if the group gets arrested. They are thrown in a fighting pit and have to take on some dinosaurs. 

Intrigue & Suspicion in Port

This one gives us rules for handling "suspicion." If the heroes are in disguise or bluffing their way into or out of something, you can apply these rules to help figure out when the jig is up.

Anything that uses percentile dice gets a thumbs up from me. We get two hooks to use these rules in, both of which are pretty great. The author did all of this on one page, with room left to spare!

Otyugh's Wish

Pock-Marked Po is in this! You might remember him from the Adventurer's League modules. He wants the heroes to look into the disappearance of some kids who were last seen near a refuse pit.

OK, this one cracks me up. I'd use this as an NPC/location in my game. I don't want to spoil it. There's a monster involved (possibly an otyugh) and a really great NPC name: Morrowick Telescype. The best NPC name I've ever read is "Barlton Stimble." Out of the Abyss had some top-tier names as well. Telescype is pretty dang good.

On top of that, the group can obtain an insanely epic magic item in this. The author did all of this in 4 paragraphs. Tremendous!

Plague Boat

A riverboat shows up waving a flag that indicates that the people on board are suffering from the "shivering sickness", a new disease from the Tomb of Annihilation book. There is more going on, and if the PCs MEDDLE then they are going to have their hands full. There's a crate on the ship that contains very interesting cargo. I like this idea.

Right Place, Wrong Time

I like the idea here, too. Someone is trying to rig the odds for the next dinosaur race. A battle likely breaks out amidst dinosaurs gone berserk. You could do a lot of fun stuff with this.

The Smell of Death

This one involves the Merchant Prince Kwayothe, which is perfect because I used her in my first session of Tomb of Annihilation. She has a servant named Nestique, which is another great NPC name.

The group is hired to clear out some vermin, but the vermin are not what is expected and they have to deal with a hilarious and seemingly deadly encounter.

Snuffed Out

Pirates! At a light house. They want to snuff out the light so that a nearby ship will sink and they can steal its cargo. The heroes need to get up there and re-light the beacon while dealing with the pirates before it is too late. This is a great one! A fully-realized scenario on a single page.

Spa Day

An adventure in the public bathhouse! I'm sold already. This place has rules that must be followed. No arms or armor. No running! That made me laugh out loud.

We get a list of the different baths and what they do: There's a salt bath, a herbal bath, etc. Each bath has a very powerful effect such as healing d4 hit points and gaining the effect of a bless spell.

There's a monster in here and we have ourselves a very unique battle. I love this one. Love it!

Undeserved Punishment

This involves Executioner's Run, a place where criminals are tried. There is likely to be a battle with some kamadans. The set-up on this one is a little tricky, as it involves the group knowing an NPC and having something very specific happen to him, something the group might be able to prevent. The art here is really, really good.

Yuan-Ti Ambush

The title says it all. This is set in Malar's Throat, a very cool section of the city. It's got one of my favorite things - a battle on a rope bridge.

The rest of the book is full of pages and pages of monster stats. Monster include: A cursed water elemental, a kamadan, a troodon, and a utahraptor

Overall

This is a good book partly because so much material is packed into just 25 pages. I am pretty sure that any DM could find stuff in here to use.

I think it is extremely handy to have for when you have to run a game on short notice or if your group suddenly goes off in an unexpected direction. These only take a second to read and it's very easy to flesh them out.

Off to a good start! We'll be looking at more of these as I begin the Guide to Tomb of Annihilation over the next few days.