D&D Risks, Evolution and Witchlight - Chris Perkins

I am continuing my somewhat exhaustive research of all things related to The Wild Beyond the Witchlight, as I've finished the guide to it (will be posted soon). 

This article contains some spoilers for the adventure, so please skip it if you are planning on being a player.

Watching these youtube videos has been extremely helpful in helping me understand the tone of the book and the mindset of the DM preparing to run the adventure.

• You can watch this video here.
• You can buy The Wild Beyond the Witchlight here.
• You can buy the D&D Beyond version here.
• You can buy the Wild Beyond the Witchlight Dice Set here.

How has designing adventures evolved? Chris says that he is learning as he goes. He says that he has designed/edited 5,000 adventures.

Chris talks about how they did a little more hand-holding for the DM in the beginning of this adventure. "Some adventures need flow charts."

Flow charts never worked for me. I just don't process information in that way. I need to know the broad outline, really, and then have the option of zooming in on smaller details.

With this adventure, he first started with the image of the cauldron with 8 eyes, 8 bats, 8 cats, 8 snakes, 8 feet, and 8 toes. This is Iggwilv's cauldron and a very cool idea. Being a big Iggwilv fan, I am really happy that they added to the lore.

I'm a bit torn on what they did with Iggwilv. While I love that they added another name/persona/guise to her list, I am not 100% on board with her as a fairy godmother type. 

I do love that they have moved her to middle age, complete with white hair, and have shown that she may become a hag-like entity in the future. I should read up on how hags become hags. Maybe we could cook up a story on how Iggwilv becomes a hag, and whether or not the other hags are on board with her joining their ranks.

Chris says that this adventure plays with the theme of time. Not time travel, he thinks it is a nightmare to run. I've tried it. We've probably all tried it, right? I've never made it work, but I feel like it could be done in a fun way.

Chris feels like he's getting to the end of his professional tenure, and time is more important to him. He tried to make the theme subtle. The code name for this adventure was "Hourglass."

He wanted to pull things from the past of D&D, and also look to the future. There are things in this adventure that foreshadows events to come. Honestly all of that went right over my head. Very little stuck out to me. Except, I guess, the inclusion of Ellywick Tumblestrum, a planeswalker from Magic: The Gathering. But that's not something I am into.

Grazz't's agents were creeping around. Maybe we're getting a Grazz't adventure in the future?

Chris is taking more risks. We're deep into the line of 5th edition. They can explore some elements of the D&D multiverse that they haven't been able to get around to.

Chris says that this adventure easily imports into your campaign world. The carnival links to another realm. Chris says that, generally, players don't know anything about the Feywild so the DM is free to indulge their wackiest instincts.

Almost everything in this adventure can be handled without combat. It's true! I think you'd need to tell the players this in some fashion, though, as many groups are in combat-default mode.

This adventure plays to Chris's predilictions. Chris is a big fan of Halloween, and this is the most Halloween-y thing he's ever made.

I guess it is halloween-y. I do love the idea of a horror-based D&D adventure, though. Zombies, especially. A D&D zombie apocalypse, from outbreak to 'cure', is definitely on my bucket list of campaigns to run.

Thanks for reading!

The Wild Beyond the Witchlight for D&D Dungeon Masters

Today we are going to go through another video about The Wild Beyond the Witchlight. This one involves Chris Perkins giving advice to DMs who plan on running this adventure.

• You can watch this video here.
• You can buy The Wild Beyond the Witchlight here.
• You can buy the D&D Beyond version here.
• You can buy the Wild Beyond the Witchlight Dice Set here.

Setting Up Your Campaign: Chris talks about how the book has a section on what type of information the DM shares with players, and what type you don't. 

Chris says that he realized that the DM's Guide doesn't really cover this topic, so the team decided to put some guidance in the beginning of this book.

"Do I tell the players how many hit points the monster has?"

Flipping through the Wild Beyond the Witchlight, I see that Chris is referring to the 'Tips for New Dungeon Masters' section on pages 6-7. There, they write a bit about whether or not to roll dice in front of the players, and what information the monsters know. 

Also, there is a large section on whether or not you tell the players what a creature's AC is, how many hit points it has, that kind of thing.

Here's the thing about all of this. Chris seems to indicate that not including this info in the DMG was an oversight. But the truth is... I think there are a lot of DMs who don't read the DMG cover to cover. And even if they do, they're not going to remember everything. Every time I flip through the DMG, there are things in there that I either never realized were in there, or that I forgot existed.

The DMG is a great book. But it's huge. And this is a hobby for a lot of people who may simply not have the time to truly study the Dungeon Master's Guide.

Adventure Structure: Chris says that the Witchlight Carnival (the first section of The Wild Beyond the Witchlight) is a sort of romper room before the adventure really starts. 

I think that the most important part of each of these adventures is the first chapter. The first sessions. Because everyone is going to play them. The beginning needs to be really good to propel the group's interest, to motivate them to play the whole thing through.

I still feel like most campaigns don't make it to the end. Maybe that's changed in the past few years, but that is something I observed during my time as a game store DM. Most campaigns fizzle out, and it is almost always due to an interpersonal issue - usually a problem player, or a DM who isn't in tune with what the players want.

Location-based Scenarios: Chris says that there is more to D&D than the one pillar of combat. There's three pillars: Exploration, role-playing, and combat. 

In this adventure, the group can solve almost every problem without getting into a combat. That used to be something of a bragging point for D&D groups - "We played a whole session without ever rolling a die."

That's actually really fun, and in my opinion the sign of a group that is firing on all cylinders. 

One question I have when it comes to the Wild Beyond the Witchlight is whether groups will want to play it. If you tell players 'This is an adventure where combat is optional," will take that as a good thing? 

When I look on reddit, all I see are posts about builds and stats and what subclasses are "broken." It seems like a lot of players are still very into the combat side of things.

New Tables for DM's: Ari Levitch talks about the Fey Trinkets table. That's on pages 8-9 of the book. 

New Monsters: The book has a few new monsters, which are briefly discussed in this video.

• Brigganocks: Fey miners whose souls live outside their bodies as balls of light. They have an interesting role in this adventure, being rivals to a clan of korreds.
  
• Glasswork Golem: A very cool addition to 5e, reminding me of the 'stained glass' golems of past editions.
  
• Campestris: This is a Dungeon Magazine deep cut, a favorite of mine solely due to the art of Tony DiTerlizzi from way back when.
• The Jabberwock: While I'm not a fan of just pulling fairy tale creatures out and plopping them into a D&D adventure without a re-skinning, the art of the Jabberwock in this book sold me on it completely.

Role Playing Cards: In the back of the adventure book are cards containing cards with roleplaying info for many NPCs. Chris says that the cards are meant to be cut out and assembled, to help reduce page-flipping.

Two thoughts spring to mind. The first is that I very much appreciate the effort to reduce page-flipping. The second is.. who is going to actually cut these things out of the book?

There has to be a pdf of these out there right? Let me look. Apparently, the Domains of Delight pdf has a printable version of the cards, and a few other things from the book.

Story Tracker: We are told that you shouldn't feel like you have to rush through the carnival. It is meant to be a playground.

I can see the carnival being very fun, but for some reason I just feel very wary about running it. There are so many little bits in all these different places. Info on certain things, especially Mr. Witch and Mr. Light, are scattered throughout the chapter. 

If I ran the carnival, I'm not sure I could keep everything cohesive, even with a map and a tracker in front of me. Right now, I could not tell you the effects of the carnival's mood when it is at its peak or at its lowest.

Similarly, I was almost shocked when I was flipping through the book after completing the guide when I saw that, in Prismeer, when you die, you roll on a special chart. I completely forgot about that. That's a major thing. But there's so many little details that you have to carry with you when running this adventure, it kills me to think I'd forget something that would have added a lot to the fun of the campaign.

Lots more Witchlight stuff to come. Thanks for reading!

The Wild Beyond the Witchlight - Everything You Need to Know

This is just a quick post wherein I attempt to familiarize myself with everything Witchlight.

• You can watch this video here.
• You can buy The Wild Beyond the Witchlight here.
• You can buy the D&D Beyond version here.
• You can buy the Wild Beyond the Witchlight Dice Set here.

I have spent the last few months putting together a guide to The Wild Beyond the Witchlight, a 5e adventure that came out fairly recently.

Usually I post these guides piecemeal, adding and updating the guide until it is complete. But I felt like this time, I should just wait until the whole guide was done before presenting it to the D&D public at large.

I finished the guide a few days ago, and now I want to see what other Witchlight content is out there (videos, Dragon+ content, DMs Guild, etc) before posting it.

I decided to start off by looking for videos and... wow. There are a lot. D&D youtube has kind of blown up in the past few years, huh?

Let's start with The Wild Beyond the Witchlight: Everything You Need to Know by Todd Kenreck.

Things we learn:

Chris Perkins has wanted to do a Feywild adventure for 11 years.

Todd discusses the premise of the owners of a Feywild carnival and a Shadowfell carnival deciding to switch ownership. It's funny, I knew this, but I never really thought about it. Mister Witch and Mister Light are from the Shadowfell, and this is why they're a bit creepy.

Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes has a character named Mr. Dark, who apparently is quite like Mr. Witch in this adventure. The phrase "Something Wicked This Way Comes" is actually on the back cover of this adventure. I should probably watch the movie based on this book.

I found it. It's on youtube. It looks really good, so I'll probably watch it and write about it.

Todd points out the art of Little Oak, the treant with the house on its back, which I never really stopped to appreciate. 

I'm already glad I watched this video, because I was so busy grinding out the guide that I didn't really stop to think about or appreciate the concepts.

Todd speculates that, because the roller coaster from the D&D cartoon is in this carnival, that this may be how the characters from the cartoon got to "The Realm." I don't know if that is true, but it's fun to think about and it's really cool that the roller coaster is here at all.

Todd actually has a Kelek action figure mint on card. Amazing. I have a friend who always used to say, "The unicorn horn is mine!" just like Kelek did.

Quick video, really helped me step back and digest the adventure and see it in a clear light. I got so lost in the page numbers and all that stuff that I feel like I never had sight of the tone of the adventure. But now I am starting to get it.

My over-riding feeling about this book so far is that it would be impossible for me to run at a level that is satisfactory. There is no way at all I could juggle all of the things going on. 

The carnival in particular feels impossible, but each hag realm is also difficult for me because you have no idea going in exactly how it is going to play out. I just don't feel like I could possibly be ready to roll with all of the things the heroes might do.

I guess my feeling right now is, even though I went through every single page of this adventure and sorted it to the best of my ability, I still don't have a grasp on even the basics. The motivation of the heroes in particular is a sticking point.

I'll get into that more when I write a review of this adventure. It is possible that all of these videos and articles that I'll be going through will help me to better digest the story.

Thanks for reading!

The Legend of Vox Machina Ep. 12

You can watch this episode right here.

Here we go! Final episode of season 1. Is Keyleth dead? Vex uses an elixir on her. Doesn't seem to work.

Delila is still alive. Percy has his gun pointed at her head.

The group realizes that the hovering orb is blocking their magic, so they leave the ziggurat.

Grog spots Silas's sword and keeps it.

They end up back in the acid trap room. Magic is working, now... but they have no more elixirs to heal Keyleth with.

Vax grabs her components and Scanlan casts some kind of aid spell. This does seem to keep her from dying.

Delila, despondent, can't believe the Whispered One abandoned her. She wants to die. As smoke spews from his body, Percy plans to torture Delila. Keyleth awakens... and points out that Percy is possessed by a demon.

Vex stands between Delila and Percy. She helps him partly snap out of it. The demon leaves his body for a moment.

Hallucinating, Percy attacks his allies.

Percy slowly realizes he had made a deal with the demon - aid in building and empowering the gun, in exchange for souls to feast upon.

After a lot of struggling, Percy shoots himself in the hand and rejects the demon.

Delila gives a big evil speech as she prepares to teleport away, but then Cassandra kills her. They throw Delila's body in a pool of acid just to be sure.

Scanlan throws Percy's gun in the acid, too.

So what happens now? The people of Whitestone are cleaning up. Percy convinces Cassandra to take over as ruler.

What about the spinning orb? Holy men investigated it.. one touched it and was sucked inside it.

Keyleth opens a portal in the sun tree.

We get a nice shot of the group's keep:

Percy is building a new gun. The twins are reuniting with their bear. Scanlan has written a song about their adventure.

The group has been summoned to the cloudtop. We get a great shot:

Sovereign Uriel makes a proclamation.  He has decided that he is stepping down, and that the council will rule Tal'Dorei.

Vex's dragon sense goes off. In the sky.. is a dragon. Wait... four dragons. That's the end!

Thoughts

It's funny.. this literally felt like a mop-up session after a major battle in a campaign. They dealt with some stuff the DM couldn't squeeze into the last session, which went long. 

D&D is interesting in that you end up with characters whose style don't exactly mesh. Percy literally feels like he's from some other campaign, with the guns and the gothic clothing.

The Legend of Vox Machina Ep. 11

You can watch this episode right here. 

At the ziggurat, Delila notes that the celestial alignment is almost complete. She chants, and the place begins to glow.

The adventurers approach the ziggurat. Scanlan realizes that the tome was an "instruction book" related to the Whispered One - an undead creature who seeks the power to return to our plane.

The solstice is the time that the barrier between the planes is weakest. So... the Briarwoods are trying to summon... Vecna?!

Anna Ripley ditches the group. Percy is torn on shooting her - as doing so would alert the Briarwoods. He is nearly overcome by the black smoke/energy.

Instead he ascends the steps and challenges Silas. Vex, still under the control of the villains, attacks his sister.

Cassandra fights Percy, who points out that Percy abandoned her.

Pike battles Silas, while Scanlan is getting hurt badly by Delila. She cast silence on him, and he's just screwed. Pike jumps in to save him.

Silas drops Percy. We see that Cassandra is under the magical influence of Silas, as is Vax.

Keyleth, wounded, notices the roots of the sun tree. She channels its energy, which snaps Vax out of it. It also cancels the silence spell.

Grog and Silas face off. Silas tries to take control of Grog.. but Grog closes his eyes and keeps fighting. That's so good.

Grog holds Silas in a bear hug (grapple), and Keyleth channels the energy of the sun tree. Delila tries to help, but Scanlan casts silence on her.

Keyleth blasts Silas with radiant energy, wounding Grog but reducing Silas to dust. Silas's name disappears from the gun.

With Silas gone, his control over Cassandra is gone.

Delila seals herself into a vast, evil chamber at the top of the ziggurat.

She enacts the ritual. The adventurers bust into the chamber as a portal opens.

Vex fires an arrow into Delila's back. Delila casts a spell back at Vex, but Keyleth dives in the way and takes the hit.

A robed figure steps through the portal. It is "The Whispered One." He vanishes, apparently abandoning Delila to her fate. Is that a sphere of annihilation hovering there where he was standing?

Percy shoots her in the back twice.

Pike goes to heal Keyleth, but her "astral form" comes apart.

We close in on the hovering sphere to end the episode.

Thoughts

I really appreciate that there were no "lowly minions" on the side of the bad guys. They added in Vax and Cassandra, which helps include the other characters, to keep it from feeling like this is all only about Percy.

A really epic episode, I am really curious about how this finishes.

The Legend of Vox Machina Ep. 10

You can watch this episode right here.   

We start off with some backstory on why Percy wants to shoot this woman. It turns out she was an ally of the Briarwoods who tortured him when he was young, and threatened to do the same to his sister.

In the present, Percy shoots but doesn't kill her. Dr. Anna Ripley is her name.

The adventurers have noticed that Percy has been emitting weird smoke at certain times. Pike senses that something is clouding Percy's soul. Percy says he'll sort it out once the Briarwoods would be dealt with.

The group interrogates the doctor, who explains that the Briarwoods are planning on enacting a ritual on the ziggurat that the group saw mention of in the tome.

Anna says she can take the group there.

When he retrieving Anna's bag, Percy sees she has a half-built gun. He dumps it on the floor.

Elsewhere in Whitestone, the rebels (wielding weapons enchanted by Pike) attack the palace.

Back in the dungeon, Anna leads the group through a tunnel that leads to a massive cavern. They pass into a crypt containing dead members of the De Rolo family... who are now zombies.

Pike turns one zombie, causing it to explode. The group wipes out the zombies, and enters a secret passage.

They come upon a chamber that is used to make residuum.

Percy sees that a new name has appeared on the barrel of his gun - Cassandra De Rolo. Uh oh... She goes to seal herself behind a glass wall, but Vax slides in after her. The Briarwoods are there. Silas immediately takes magical control of Vax.

It turns out that Cassandra is one of the Briarwoods now.

The room starts filling with acid. Keyleth uses her go-to spell, wall of thorns, to attempt to shut down the acid-spewing tube, but it backfires. Scanlan summons the floating hand and the group climbs on. 

In the base of the pool of acid is a drain and a lever that opens it. Grog... dives into the acid... and swims down. This show is so fun.

Pike starts hitting him with healing spells.

The plan actually works.

As the episode ends, we get a look at the ziggurat.

Thoughts

What can I say? Another great episode. Did they do a long series of sessions based on each character's backstory? 

I am wondering what Critical Role fans think of this show. I imagine a TON of stuff had to be trimmed out of the sessions to fit this format (each episode of this animated show is about 25 minutes long). 

All I can say is that, as someone who is largely unfamiliar with the story as it played out on Critical Role, I really like this a lot.

The Legend of Vox Machina Ep. 9

 

You can watch this episode right here. 

We start off with the origin of the Briarwoods. Silas is on his deathbed. Delila runs into a ruined library and retrieves an evil tome with a skull on its cover. Bringing the tome back to the castle, she uses a ritual from the book that awakens and heals Silas. He's a vampire now.

Back in the present, those corpses hanging from the sun tree actually awaken as zombies.

The city of Whitestone is seemingly over-run with zombies. The group has no choice but to run. Keyleth uses her trusty wall of thorns to block many of them off. The heroes seek refuge in a hideout of the rebels.

The zombies start smashing through the walls, and Scanlan is bitten.

The group climbs up onto the roof. A couple of NPC rebels don't make it up there, and are devoured.

Scanlan will likely lose his arm within the hour.

Here comes the undead giant. Percy breaks out what looks like an arcane shotgun. He actually drops the giant with one shot, but his gun is damaged ("It's still a work in progress"). The guy with golden arms is still alive, and he brings more undead giants with him.

As the battle unfolds, Archie is cut in half. The group runs. When a horde of zombies blocks their path, Keyleth casts... wall of ice? Freezes them.

The surviving NPCs and the group meet up at the sun tree. Percy's sister urges him to rally everyone. Percy gives a rousing speech.

The zombies and giants advance. There's just way too many of them, and the heroes accept that this might be the end. In a beam of golden light, Pike arrives and heals Scanlan's arm. Pike is glowing - this is an astral projection of her, as her real body is back in the temple.

She starts firing off spells that devastate the undead. I assume she is turning them. I am actually interested in comparing this to the real life game to see what abilities are actually being used.

The group takes down two more giants in an extremely gory fashion.

Percy takes down the guy with golden arms.

Pike enchants... everyone's weapons at once. Good god.

The heroes enter the dungeons of the Briarwoods home. There they encounter a prisoner who offers to guide the group, but Percy puts a gun to her head.

Thoughts

Another awesome episode. It just gets better and better. I was not really sold on this storyline in the beginning, but they've won me over.