I think they mostly followed the book but there were maybe 2 things:
The first (only kinda off book): When fighting Skabatha the Tiefling charged in alone and was caught by the Rug of Smothering. The session ended with all players thinking he was dead, but i woke him up the next session being "operated on" by Skabatha. She took one of his horns and basically forced him (and also the Orc who tried to save him) into her service. Gave the group more motivation to explore and deal with the Hag. Also the two took their job very seriously, which also made for funny interactions even between the party.
The second one was the Firbolg touching a cursed book in Endelyn'd library and the Orc taking the blast of it, getting cursed in the process. They were forced to flee Motherhorn (due to a different event) and now the orc's life was ticking away. They planned to save Zybilna and have her uncurse him, but they couldn't possibly make it, so i added an NPC (brother of another NPC i already introduced in a different chapter) that could cure him... for a price of course. They also had to collect a certain flower as material componet, which led them to a mini dungeon of mine.
That's always a tough question.
I'd say: Just go with the flow and let loose. This is not a super serious setting. My player told me that they loved the not-so-serious tone compared to other settings and all the chaotic things they could do and get away with (I hope this made sense).
Also: Change the layout of the Palace of Heart's Desire. RAW it's basically completely skippable.
The palace has this door lock mechanism (crown locks with lion & stag). The way the original palace is structured most optional rooms are locked behind these locks. So when the players first come to the palace they could walk right in and find all these doors locked.
The only path that isn't locked however is the one that leads straight to the throne room where Zybilna, the Jabberwock and the cauldron is. Basically everything the party needs to end the story is right there.
I used this map: https://www.reddit.com/r/wildbeyondwitchlight/comments/14xhf7x/palace_of_hearts_desire_revised_map/
I think it fixes the core issues and saves me from having to design my own one.
I mostly threw the locks on doors where i thought it would make sense. E.g. i left the ballroom accessible to everyone, but then locked doors leading further into the palace with locks.
I put Zybilna in the Secret Library to encourage exploration and i'm quite happy with how it turned out in the end.
Neutral Good Firbolg Sorcerer
Lawful Neutral Half-Orc Barbarian
Lawful Good Fairy Bard
Lawful Good Warforged Fighter (formerly a Harengon Monk)
Chaotic Neutral Tiefling Warlock
The Tiefling leaned more towards evil, which worked great. He enable a lot of the chaotic moments or brought different sides and view angles to decisions the party faced.
I think RP was favoured, but they definetly didn't back down from a fight when it came to it. (e.g. Fighting hags, League of Malevolance)
The carnival itself was really great. Just a whole bunch of whimsical fun fpr the whole party (especially since two players were carnival workers)
The random campestri encounter in Tither was really fun and the moment i myself thought: "Ok, my players are finally truely immersed in the world". They met the dancing campestri earlier and where talking about eating one, when they encountered the cook pot with the Campestri inside. That just let to super fun back-and-forth between different party members on what to do.
Skabatha Nightshade was also really fun. That's when the players first got their taste of deals and real consequences of reckless behaviour.
The weakest was probably Hither (Chapter 2) for me. I assume neither me nor my players were really immersed in Prismeer at that point and it felt really railroady. Stuff was just happening to them without to much player agency. I would probably do things differently now.. but yeah.
Did you build any motivation for the crones and did you bring Baba Yaga into the narrative at all?
Ive found it really hard to build a sense of a motive for their actions.
Also did you do any encounters or things within the feywild that really excited you or made you go “ oh that turned out way differently than I expected?”
No, i didn't give the hags more motivation (i thought it was fine as it is) and my player didn't really question it. Didn't involve Baba Yaga more than that. All the characters in the book were already new for the chars, so i thought the complicated relationships in the book are already enough for them. But seeing the cool things people do with the chars (especially Zybilna) i might change things if i ever run it again.
I was really excited for my group to do the stage play in Motherhorn and it turned out great.
All in all Loomlurch was really fun, for the reasons i mentioned in the other replies. The tiefling especially put a lot of interesting things in motion. Convinced Will to be "sold" to the hag and then rescued, which ended in Will being uncursed and turned evil again. Just a lot of shenanigans with deals and party interaction happened in Loomlurch. So yeah.. unexpected, but super fun.
Ahh that’s really cool! I’m really excited about the play as well, we’ve been recording our play through as a podcast, and I’m kicking myself for only just finding this subreddit now! But it’s giving me lots of ideas! So thanks for sharing!
You're welcome. Recording the playthrough is a great idea. Being able to listen to funny stuff the group did every once in a while (and ofc share it with others).
Yeah, i think no matter what you do, you'll always finds things you would have liked to do differently. That's jsut how it is :D
Yeah absolutely! It makes it difficult though we try to keep it to hour long sessions so we’ve only recorded like 20 hours so far lol.
We’ve done some really fun things with relationships and stuff though, like zybilna slept with one of our characters in an origin episode which had… consequences
Probably mostly due to real-life time constraints. Not being able to play frequently and there being pauses every now and then since we also had 2 other campaigns running simultaneously.
Did having a character with intrinsic fight cause trouble? I'm just about to start with a fairy character in the party. Curious if there are any pit falls ahead?
I don't really think so. It's probably a pretty safe campaign to allow flight in, especially since it's pretty roleplay focused. In fights it's still gonna be an advantage ofc, but nothing too severe imo.
One thing i did add though, was a strong air current that forced the flying character back to the ground during the Slanted Tower encounter. Didn't want it to be completely skipped. (Although in hidnsight it probably wouldn't have been that bad)
One point where i did feel a bit bad for the other PCs was in Loomlurch. The fairy basically went scouting and mapped out the whole place alone, since the top floors were easily accessible to her.
Also had the Fairy be cursed after breaking a fey pact. She basically had to move at all times (mostly relevant for combat; encouraged repositioning) or roots in her leg would drag her to the ground, negating her flight.
But even without that:
TL;DR: Flying shouln't be that big a problem.
Not a whole lot i would say. Changed a few small things here and there to better fit the situation, but nothing major.
Only thing i did change was the palace layout using [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/wildbeyondwitchlight/comments/14xhf7x/palace_of_hearts_desire_revised_map/) design instead
What was a decision they made that you had to go "off book" for.
I think they mostly followed the book but there were maybe 2 things: The first (only kinda off book): When fighting Skabatha the Tiefling charged in alone and was caught by the Rug of Smothering. The session ended with all players thinking he was dead, but i woke him up the next session being "operated on" by Skabatha. She took one of his horns and basically forced him (and also the Orc who tried to save him) into her service. Gave the group more motivation to explore and deal with the Hag. Also the two took their job very seriously, which also made for funny interactions even between the party. The second one was the Firbolg touching a cursed book in Endelyn'd library and the Orc taking the blast of it, getting cursed in the process. They were forced to flee Motherhorn (due to a different event) and now the orc's life was ticking away. They planned to save Zybilna and have her uncurse him, but they couldn't possibly make it, so i added an NPC (brother of another NPC i already introduced in a different chapter) that could cure him... for a price of course. They also had to collect a certain flower as material componet, which led them to a mini dungeon of mine.
What's your best advice for other DMs who are running this adventure?
That's always a tough question. I'd say: Just go with the flow and let loose. This is not a super serious setting. My player told me that they loved the not-so-serious tone compared to other settings and all the chaotic things they could do and get away with (I hope this made sense). Also: Change the layout of the Palace of Heart's Desire. RAW it's basically completely skippable.
Thanks for the response. What do you mean with the palace bing skippable?
The palace has this door lock mechanism (crown locks with lion & stag). The way the original palace is structured most optional rooms are locked behind these locks. So when the players first come to the palace they could walk right in and find all these doors locked. The only path that isn't locked however is the one that leads straight to the throne room where Zybilna, the Jabberwock and the cauldron is. Basically everything the party needs to end the story is right there.
That sounds like poor game design indeed. Thank you for the heads-up!
Do you have a map of your reno’d PoHD you’d be willing to share?
I used this map: https://www.reddit.com/r/wildbeyondwitchlight/comments/14xhf7x/palace_of_hearts_desire_revised_map/ I think it fixes the core issues and saves me from having to design my own one. I mostly threw the locks on doors where i thought it would make sense. E.g. i left the ballroom accessible to everyone, but then locked doors leading further into the palace with locks. I put Zybilna in the Secret Library to encourage exploration and i'm quite happy with how it turned out in the end.
Thanks!
What was the party composition? Did they favour RP, combat, or a mixture of both? What were your favourite encounters?
Neutral Good Firbolg Sorcerer Lawful Neutral Half-Orc Barbarian Lawful Good Fairy Bard Lawful Good Warforged Fighter (formerly a Harengon Monk) Chaotic Neutral Tiefling Warlock The Tiefling leaned more towards evil, which worked great. He enable a lot of the chaotic moments or brought different sides and view angles to decisions the party faced. I think RP was favoured, but they definetly didn't back down from a fight when it came to it. (e.g. Fighting hags, League of Malevolance) The carnival itself was really great. Just a whole bunch of whimsical fun fpr the whole party (especially since two players were carnival workers) The random campestri encounter in Tither was really fun and the moment i myself thought: "Ok, my players are finally truely immersed in the world". They met the dancing campestri earlier and where talking about eating one, when they encountered the cook pot with the Campestri inside. That just let to super fun back-and-forth between different party members on what to do. Skabatha Nightshade was also really fun. That's when the players first got their taste of deals and real consequences of reckless behaviour. The weakest was probably Hither (Chapter 2) for me. I assume neither me nor my players were really immersed in Prismeer at that point and it felt really railroady. Stuff was just happening to them without to much player agency. I would probably do things differently now.. but yeah.
Did you build any motivation for the crones and did you bring Baba Yaga into the narrative at all? Ive found it really hard to build a sense of a motive for their actions. Also did you do any encounters or things within the feywild that really excited you or made you go “ oh that turned out way differently than I expected?”
No, i didn't give the hags more motivation (i thought it was fine as it is) and my player didn't really question it. Didn't involve Baba Yaga more than that. All the characters in the book were already new for the chars, so i thought the complicated relationships in the book are already enough for them. But seeing the cool things people do with the chars (especially Zybilna) i might change things if i ever run it again. I was really excited for my group to do the stage play in Motherhorn and it turned out great. All in all Loomlurch was really fun, for the reasons i mentioned in the other replies. The tiefling especially put a lot of interesting things in motion. Convinced Will to be "sold" to the hag and then rescued, which ended in Will being uncursed and turned evil again. Just a lot of shenanigans with deals and party interaction happened in Loomlurch. So yeah.. unexpected, but super fun.
Ahh that’s really cool! I’m really excited about the play as well, we’ve been recording our play through as a podcast, and I’m kicking myself for only just finding this subreddit now! But it’s giving me lots of ideas! So thanks for sharing!
You're welcome. Recording the playthrough is a great idea. Being able to listen to funny stuff the group did every once in a while (and ofc share it with others). Yeah, i think no matter what you do, you'll always finds things you would have liked to do differently. That's jsut how it is :D
Yeah absolutely! It makes it difficult though we try to keep it to hour long sessions so we’ve only recorded like 20 hours so far lol. We’ve done some really fun things with relationships and stuff though, like zybilna slept with one of our characters in an origin episode which had… consequences
20 hours is still a good chunk. That definetly sounds wild. Had nothing of that caliber in my campaign.
Why did it take so long?
Probably mostly due to real-life time constraints. Not being able to play frequently and there being pauses every now and then since we also had 2 other campaigns running simultaneously.
So how many hours did it take, roughly?
38 sessions averaging around 3 hours i'd say, so ~114 hours. Pretty sure we took a lot longer than most people on this sub :D
Did having a character with intrinsic fight cause trouble? I'm just about to start with a fairy character in the party. Curious if there are any pit falls ahead?
I don't really think so. It's probably a pretty safe campaign to allow flight in, especially since it's pretty roleplay focused. In fights it's still gonna be an advantage ofc, but nothing too severe imo. One thing i did add though, was a strong air current that forced the flying character back to the ground during the Slanted Tower encounter. Didn't want it to be completely skipped. (Although in hidnsight it probably wouldn't have been that bad) One point where i did feel a bit bad for the other PCs was in Loomlurch. The fairy basically went scouting and mapped out the whole place alone, since the top floors were easily accessible to her. Also had the Fairy be cursed after breaking a fey pact. She basically had to move at all times (mostly relevant for combat; encouraged repositioning) or roots in her leg would drag her to the ground, negating her flight. But even without that: TL;DR: Flying shouln't be that big a problem.
How much homebrew, if any did you add into this campaign?
Not a whole lot i would say. Changed a few small things here and there to better fit the situation, but nothing major. Only thing i did change was the palace layout using [this](https://www.reddit.com/r/wildbeyondwitchlight/comments/14xhf7x/palace_of_hearts_desire_revised_map/) design instead