Behind the Screen - Campaign Planning and Initial Impressions

Hello and Welcome!

In this campaign, Rime of the Frostmaiden, Adam and I have swapped roles and so in this adventure, I get to call the shots. And just like in Tyranny of Dragons, I want to check in from time to time and offer a little insight from Behind the Screen and give some thoughts from the DM and so this is the first one now that we are a few sessions in and making our way through Chapter 1.

Why this campaign? Well, this is always a tough question when a group decides to run through any published campaign. Its a classic for one and it is more survival horror based. But not Curse of Strahd survival horror, more like John Carpenter's The Thing meets D&D survival horror. Its set in the cold, dark, unforgiving area of Icewind Dale and so the setting provides a unique locale with focused enemies and mechanics to try out. 

And to be fair, we both researched it a little, just like we did for Tyranny of Dragons. Because it is important for both the player/s and the DM to enjoy the story. Whichever side of the DM Screen you are on, you want to have fun and be engaged in the adventure (that is one of the key pillars of playing D&D of course). So, Rime of the Frostmaiden was a good contrast storyline in our other game so it would be good fit as we swap seats so to speak.

Right, we've selected an adventure, now what. Well, read and research. Then read it again And reread one more time, check some research again. Then read it again and double check the research, etc. You get the idea. When you are telling a story, you have to know the material so that you can make it unfold in as smooth of a way as possible. Sure, there will be some plot holes along the way (which story doesn't ...) but if you are familiar with the general outline of the story and how the different quests and side quests feed into the overall main arc, it will help when the inevitable unplanned events occur.

Unplanned events? Surely you can't be serious. Ha ha - well, yes, indeed, and this is the beauty of the game. As a DM, my objective is not to TPK the party (unless of course the story arc / mechanic requires it ....) because that is no fun for anyone. You want to go through the adventure and reach a conclusion. Not everyone character will survive necessarily, but that's ok as that helps add dynamism and reality to the storyline. Plus, it can give way to new arcs. And don't forget, all the Party needs is to find a good Cleric and enough Gold and voila, restored! 

So, yes, if the objective is not to "WIN" at D&D as the DM, then what is the objective? Well, its to get through the story as noted above and to help the story evolve in the way that the Party drives it. Naturally as the DM you want to give certain guidance to ensure that the story is progressing but you have to let the Party do what it will and adapt the story to it.

Anyway, that out of the way, when I first read Rime of the Frostmaiden adventure book, I liked it. It is actually a good story with several twists and turns. Then I was ready to start to plan out how the sessions would go.

Oh - let me just interject here that part of this initial planning was identifying all the minis I needed to print and get those jobs going in amongst everything else. Got to have the minis!

Right, so planning. Chapter 1 the way it is written in the story offers suggestions on how to drive the players to the different areas in the Ten Towns. If the party is a group of New Players then this can be helpful to break the ice so to speak (yes, sorry, could not resist ...) and take more control of the story. But I found that would be far more tricky to keep the story engaging and some of the encounters in the different quests varied quite wildly (at least from my initial assessment of them) in terms of difficulty. 

So I had a think of what would be a more cohesive way to get things started. And this is where interacting with Adam as the player helped greatly. And why not? Of course, he will be playing the main protagonists of the story (4 of them to be exact) so let's see how they fit into the story I want to tell.

Thankfully, Adam was also doing his own research. But not into the adventure itself, more so about the themes and area and background and things that characters going on such an adventure would know. And why are these Heroes going on this Adventure anyway? Not everything has to start by meeting in a Tavern ...

He told me his plans for his characters and their main incentive to go on this adventure and then I had a Eureka moment. Two of the Heroes would be from the region and the other two would be coming up to investigate the eternal cold and rumours of what the Arcane Brotherhood are up to (things characters would generally know about). One of the locals would be their guide. 

This then was the corner stone then of putting the initial sessions together. We pieced together the opening where the two "out of towners" (Shayde and Aldrick) were travelling to meet their guide, Grom. So the reason to adventure was set, the location to meet was set, great. 

Then we had to get the adventure to start and I had to find a clever way to introduce the 4th character (Tor) who was also a local. Luckily, the Adventure has two starting quests to help get the party together and incentivised to adventure. This is where the Chwingas came into mix as they were the main theme in one of the starting quests.

I'd not used Chwingas before but let me just say that they are a fun little device to have some fun and mischief and get into some role playing to get the characters to start to open up and get comfortable with each other. Plus it was fun to get the characters to interact in a fun way, at least initially because things would be getting very dark very quickly. Plus it was fun to have a Tiefling Rogue playfully throw some snowballs at the Human Wizard. And it helped introduce the Goliath Druid to the party and have her join up.

With things started then I needed a way to do some clever guidance. And this is where the local "Dwarf About Town" came in super handy. Being of the region, and known to many potential NPC,s Grom effectively became a perfect vehicle for story exposition and side quest guidance. This way I could be more direct in the story guidance and let the various arcs unfold in a more focused way as opposed to random or by player choice. Plus it felt more natural by having some of his clansmen meet in the Tavern or get ambushed by the Yeti's, etc.

And to make this effective, it goes back to understanding the overall story arc and how the quests fit into it and how the encounters are structured. Well, encounters need constant measuring and tweaking anyway, but some were obviously harder than others. 

So this way we could follow a more structure story and get the characters levelled up and develop several different plot lines to then make the story unfold in a more fun and less random way. Now that the Heroes have gone a few rounds so to speak, they can make more choices going through the story.

Coming back to the unplanned, yes, characters and players will do that and so even within this approach I've already had to make several adjustments to certain specifics to fit with what is actually happening based on decisions and rolls while still sticking with the overall spirit of the Adventure. Again, this is the beauty of D&D. 

The other beauty of D&D are the various fun mechanics we get to use to aide our story telling. Other than the fun Chwingas (and we've not fully used them to their full potential - all in good time!), we have had great fun with Avalanches and Exhaustion.

I think Exhaustion is a great aspect of the survival horror and it causes a great special circumstance that really gives a challenge to the characters. With a -2, -4, or -6 suddenly the penalty really adds up and with movement decreased, a simple combat gets much more challenging.

And how can you have a wintery adventure without including an avalanche? (Blizzards will be coming soon!) It was quite enjoyable to see the reaction of Adam realising when he had to roll initiative against snow rolling down the mountain. Plus I had extra fun with it as I played some avalanche background sound effect on our speakers. It added just that added extra bit of umph and an added dimension. The Adventure book describes the mechanic but you can adjust to best fit the specifics of the scenario. And its always fun to present new and dynamic challenges to the players. One mechanic we tried to utilise but the dice weren't having it was fishing out on the frozen lake. I'll craft another scenario like that because it was another bit of whimsy.

That brings me to the topic of challenges in general, namely encounters. Its always a challenge to balance them just right. Its tricky at lower levels because one or two round of bad rolls and its back to TPK territory. We do use the D&D Beyond Event Builder which is quite handy I have to say and try to adjust it as needed My ideal encounter is something that is tough and challenging and fun. If a few death saves are made but they can overcome them, even better. A good battle is another puzzle to present to the players where they have to employ strategy and planning to resolve the issue in the best way. Maybe push them to try a few different things or take a risk or two they may normally not. And of course, a spot of luck and benevolent dice rolls help as well. A battle where the heroes just move to the next monster and roll to hit and splat them in one hit over and over again is not so exciting.

In summary I would say that planning around the main story arc and adjusting along the way is working for us. I really enjoy having an exposition device which just so happens to also carry a battle axe. It really helps sort out the odd niggle that crops up if you follow the Adventure book literally. To be fair, this one is written quite well. There are a few places where its slightly vague, but I guess that's for us DM's to sort out. 

We're off to a good start and in future posts I'll get into more specifics about different quests and tweaks I've done deliberately or have had to do because of unexpected events. I just don't want to spoil the stuff coming up in the next few sessions.

And I'll try to start posting better pictures of the painted items - Adam has been a Beast in his painting studio - items have been coming out amazingly well. I'm excited to show of all the different minis I've printed - such a great variety of monsters needed for it and I've selected items from all the different artists I support in the shop.

Until next time - happy continued painting and gaming!

-Pete (and Mitz & Simz or are the real Masters around here!)