Our First D&D 2024 Adventure – Greyhawk ’76 (Ep. 4)

Lair Of Secrets

Ken talks about lessons learned during his first Dungeons & Dragons 2024 adventure, “The Lost Coins of Cousin Ernest”, including:

• Blade Ward
• Rules guide in the 2024 Player’s Handbook
• The Thief
• Hand-drawn maps in Roll20
• Weapon Mastery

Chapters

0:00 Intro
0:35 Setting the Scene: The Treasure Mine
1:50 Rival Factions: Fairheights vs. Witherwinns
3:10 Water Weird Ambush
4:20 Rogue Abilities Shine
5:15 Hand-Drawn Maps and Retro Vibes
6:30 Lessons Learned: Rules and Mechanics
7:45 Blade Ward: Overpowered or Balanced?
8:30 Teasing the Next Session
9:10 Wrap-Up and Final Thoughts

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Show Notes

• We had our first Greyhawk ’76 session, in which the adventurers got recruited to recover a lost family treasure from an abandoned mine.
• I played on the High Ery / Erybend family rivalry subplot from the DMG:
  • Fairheights vs. Witherwinns (their client is James Fairheight, and he found deciphered a map to the family treasure).
• Started the action IN the mine, with the adventurers and their client having just discovered the treasured.
  • See the “Ignite Your Next D&D Campaign” episode of Campaigns and Coffee
• Setup is an old mine.
  • The first level has a main shaft and lots of side passages.
  • Mine tunnel collapses created a jumbled, partly flooded cave lake on the second level.
  • The treasure, gleaming in light from a ventilation shaft over head, was located in the center of the lake.
  • The bludgeoned corpses of a previous crew were on the island, having just reached the treasure.
  • The treasure was protected by a water weird (inspired by a re-read of the Dungeon of Dread “Endless Quests” book)
  • The cavern was multi-teared, with a walkable rim surrounding it, and multiple entrances.
  • At intervals, additional crews would show up to challenge the party, because James couldn’t stop humble bragging about his find.
• Goals:
  • Give each character a chance to try out class abilities in a multi-level environment.
  • Inject role-playing opportunities to help define character personalities and priorities.
  • Lean into the DMG as a campaign source book.
• The Adventure
  • It went well.
  • Water weird attacked “Predator”-style, leveraging disengage and its’ innate invisibility in the water maneuver around the cavern and threaten heroes.
  • The arrival of the Witherwinn faction delivered additional drama, as some players chose to intimidate through force, while the Trickster cleric charmed other Witherwinns to his side … and used “calm emotions” to keep them disinterested.
  • Set up the next confrontation: The Burrow Brothers, a murderous band of halfling cutthroats and their ogre allies.
• Lessons Learned
  • I’ve got a bunch, some of which will be covered in upcoming episodes.
    • The Rules Guide in the Player’s Handbook is pretty great.
      • Death Saving Throws: Work the same as they ever did (the save is a straight d20 roll, which happens at the start of your turn).
      • Finding Traps is a Wisdom (Perception) – it counts as finding a hidden object. Check the Compendium
    • The Rogue’s Thief gets a Climb speed. Handy when moving down the crumbling walls of a collapsed cave.
    • The Rogue’s Thief also gets to substitute Dexterity for Strength when Jumping
    • Hand drawn maps work well in Roll20
    • Weapons Mastery represents weapon-specific features that certain characters (rogues, fighters) can use take special actions (like “Nick” or “Vex”. More on that next time.
    • Blade Ward is a powerful cantrip. I hate it. Ok, I don’t like it. Ok, I’ll wait to pass judgement, but right now, I’m not a big fan.

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