Online Campaigns

Art by Nelson Vieira

I have been running a bunch of games - all online - for quite a while now. Each campaign has its own challenges, and it is an eternal struggle to keep each one "afloat" and healthy.

If you're a player in one of these games, please don't read any further, as I'm sure it will contain spoilers.

Online Campaigns

Art by Vaughn Distrito

Since 2008, I've gotten into something of a rhythm where I run 1-3 games per week. I made a conscious choice to prioritize D&D and RPGs in my life. This means that I don't get to play as many video games or watch as many shows/movies as other people, but for me, D&D is a social outlet.

With the addition of streaming technology, this means I can "create" a substantial body of work. I've always enjoyed cataloguing the events of my campaigns. Every session matters. Things that happened in games 10 years ago can impact what is happening now. In theory, players from different eras could interact with one another, in a weird "crossover" that, until now, only I could enjoy.

From 2017 onward, All of my games are right there on youtube. Forgot what happened in a particular session? Go watch it! Need clarification on a complicated in-game event? Go check!

I get really excited when I think about my youtube channel 3 years from now, or even 7 years from now. I will have all sorts of awesome, long-term campaigns right there on youtube neatly organized in playlists. You can watch us all age! You can see players who moved on, only to show up again 5 years later.

I will probably continue to run the published 5e adventures in these campaigns, as I get a kick out of running "official" stuff. Although I must admit that I am really losing enthusiasm for the published D&D adventures, mostly because they are dealing with areas of the D&D multiverse that I just don't care about.

Viewership

Art by Vaughn Distrito

I feel like I should mention something about viewers, both on Twitch and on youtube. I run these games because I love D&D. This is what I enjoy doing, but I'm not Matt Mercer and I'm not Chris Perkins. I don't get hundreds of people watching my stuff.

Hey, it would be nice to have piles of viewers who rabidly follow the campaign and donate bits (on Twitch, people can basically give you money through bits or donations, which is pretty great) in a large amount. I mean, how cool would it be if your campaign was popular enough that you could pay your players? Imagine making a living running D&D games! Amazing.

Looking at the youtube analytics is a lot of fun. I relish every comment, every view, and I marvel at the small but steady growth that occurs over time.

For example, my Tomb of Annihilation Episode 1 video has over 7,000 views! That's the one that sort of launches the current "Power Score Multiverse."

My current videos usually get 20-40 views on youtube, and slowly grow over time.

The idea that, if I continue to make a sustained effort to improve the presentation aspects of my games as something worth watching, it will continue to get a little more popular bit by bit, is very rewarding to me. I enjoy clawing and scraping for every subscriber, like, and view.

I think that it ultimately helps me become a better DM. If my campaign is appealing to the viewer, than presumably it is also appealing to the players.

Current Campaigns

Acquisitions Incorporated - Orrery of the Wanderer: This is the adventure in the back of the new Acquisitions Inc book. This is the one I'm having the hardest time with.

Hell's Rebels: This is a Pathfinder adventure path converted to 5e. I do intend on posting a conversion guide on this blog at some point, as I know a number of people have asked me to do so. I absolutely love this path, and it's right up there with the best stuff I've ever run.

Dungeon Academy: We have been using the 2e Rod of Seven Parts boxed set as a framework. I've placed each piece of the rod in a different D&D campaign setting/adventure.

This campaign features a group of players who had actually gotten into D&D through watching Dice, Camera, Action. It's been fun to watch them learn the game and it's also been a new challenge to try and give them situations that are engaging to them.

Future Plans

I am always thinking about the future. There's so much stuff out there to run! I know for sure that once Hell's Rebels is done, that group will pick up their Tomb of Annihilation characters ("The Shiftspice Trading Co.") and they will play through four classic Monte Cook adventures converted to 5e.

I've already done a lot of work on that campaign. Two adventures are fully converted as of this writing. One of which is the legendary Labyrinth of Madness, which I have waited 20 years to run!

Deciding what's next for the Acq Inc players has been difficult. I love the idea of running the first Pathfinder 2e adventure path, Age of Ashes, and converting it to 5e, but I've been reading that it is not especially good.

That made me think I should run Curse of the Crimson Throne, which I actually ran one session of long ago. I really love the stuff in that path. My only concern is that I don't really want to run just old material on my channel, I'd like a nice mix of old and new.

The Dungeon Academy crew is a big question mark as far as what to do after we finish the Rod of Seven Parts. The heroes will be around level 14. They do have spelljammer ships and I'd love to run some of the old 2e spelljammer modules, especially the one about the gigantic beholder ship, but I'm not sure if they'd enjoy it.

This group is more into developing their characters' personal stories. I've always been terrible at this! So I guess I'm just sort of worried about actually focusing an entire campaign on homebrewed stuff based on their backstories.

I could try to work their stories into smaller adventures - maybe high level DMs Guild adventures like Invasion From the Planet of Tarrasques. Although I'm not in any way sure how the Tarrasque would fit with anything we've done.

Acquisitions Inc Ep. 14

Art by Dylan Ramsey

This campaign is rolling along nicely now, but I was having a hard time in the beginning. My problem is that I am just totally done with these 5e Forgotten Realms adventures dealing with cities and dungeons. They're too similar to each other.

The Acq Inc book does have a lot of cool ideas in it, and I love the sense of humor in the whole thing, but I've been struggling to make myself read through the whole adventure.

There was an incident in the session before last.. There are shadows at the top of a light house, which has a lantern that spews forth a magic zone of shadow. I decided that the 4 shadows lurking up there would all attack one character. The heroes are a bit higher level than they should be, so I wanted to make sure this adventure would be a challenge.

Welp. When a shadow hits you with an attack, it drains 1d4 points of Strength from you. The shadows attacked the kobold member of the party who has a 6 Strength. He died. In a surprise round.

The way things played out, there's not really a way to bring him back to life. I felt bad about it and promised that, in the next session. I'd be "nicer".

So in the next session, I handed out stuff people almost never use - the "charms" from the DMG. I made up some BS about "Fate" blessing the party and doled out the charms, which basically replicate the effects of magic potions.

Soon after, the group triggered two encounters in a circular stairwell. At the top of the stairwell were two hell hounds. At the bottom were 4 ghouls. One character got paralyzed repeatedly and was nearly murdered.

The players took all of this in good stride. I mean, the game should be dangerous. Ultimately, I think that I feel bad because I did not describe the shadow effect on the light house adequately enough as the group approached it. I also arbitrarily decided that the shadows got a surprise round.

I felt like I didn't have a good handle on what was in the book, because I haven't really prepared it like I normally would. To be honest, right now I couldn't tell you exactly how the magic shadow effect affectsd visibility up there at the top of the light house.

Hell's Rebels Ep. 42

Art by Shauna Nakasone

I usually stick to the book and try to avoid homebrewing stuff, but this was a special case. In this part of the adventure, the group can return to Vyre, the City of Masks. The heroes had been here during book 3 and they really liked it. So did I!

I decided to whip up a storyline linked to the backstory of Fio, one of the heroes. Fio used to serve Verenestra, the Fey entity that I wrote up in this blog last week.

As far as I can tell, there are no official "nymph" stats in 5e. They are creatures who are so pretty that they blind you permanently! I made up this story about one of Verenestra's nymphs replacing one of the city's 5 rulers.

I didn't feel adequately prepared. I had created a scenario and only an outline of events and NPCs. I got through the session, but I could feel it running thin toward the end.

Next time, the heroes will go to the Feywild and I'll be using a map from this dude's patreon, which is pretty great in my opinion.

Dungeon Academy Ep. 52

Art by Aya Golender

My focus shifts quite a bit over time. Lately, this campaign has been getting a lot of my attention in the week between sessions. I finished preparing the final scenario (the rod is in the Citadel of Chaos, detailed in the boxed set). I had mapped out a "sandbox" in Avernus, utilizing a lot of the material from the DMs Guild products I reviewed last week in the blog.

I even made a new overlay I was quite proud of and picked out new music in Syrinscape.

I've gotten a bit better at shutting up during the game. This group in particular likes to roleplay and interact with NPCs. In the past, especially in 4e, I was so obsessed with making progress in the adventure, that I'd "crack the whip" and get the group to move on if there was any lull in the dialogue at all.

But in this, I was able to sit back as they divided up new magic items and decided what to do with this severed head that was attached to a demon. Basically, One of the heroes had grown a second head, which was lopped off and attached to the body of a demon. A unicorn's horn destroyed the demon's body and only the head remains.

I did interject to play Strahd von Zarovich, the legendary vampire who is traveling with the group. They helped him escape Barovia, and his beloved's soul merged with the group's cleric. So now, Strahd buys her gifts and says things in a really bad accent like "Come, my sweet, we have an empire to rebuild!" as his cape flutters in the breeze.

When planning this session, which sees the group leave Sigil and begin Descent into Avernus, that one thing was missing from Descent - A hellfire engine. The devil steamroller with a bonemelt sprayer!

So, as soon as the group stepped through the portal, what rolled over the hill? Why, a hellfire engine firing a thunder cannon. It was awesome, but I'm a bit concerned that it is too deadly for this group.

We had to stop in the middle of the battle, so I have a week to tweak it a bit and read up on whether the heroes are able to drive this thing.