My Thoughts on 2024 5e So Far

 So my group has been playing 2024 5e for a few months now, and I have run a variety of monsters from the new Monster Manual, and I've got to say, its okay.

After the OGL Crisis my group jumped the WotC ship and began playing a variety of other games. We played everything from AD&D 1e to Pathfinder 2e. We played many games and many campaigns. Most of the memorable moments for me came from clever play tactics from my even more clever players. We've had many awesome boss fights and cool stories. But you know what I don't remember? Looking at a stat block. I also don't remember any class features. I don't remember builds, even when they are my characters.

I remember players being on their last torch finding their way out of the dungeon. I remember clever tactics in combat and shield walls. I remember players befriending the hobgoblins in the Chaotic Caves because they knew they couldn't fight them. 

As I reflect over past games and even take a pulse check on my current game (which has been an absolute blast), I really have tried to nail down why they were fun. I think my biggest two strengths as a DM are exploration and set piece battles. I really enjoy hexcrawls and dungeons using old school games because not only is there a procedure to it, but there were resources attached. I made a hexmap for my current game and we've done a few dungeons so far, and they have pretty quickly devolved back to what I found in 2014 5e, just me narrating room to room or hex to hex, then when players come across an enemy they mop the floor with them and repeat.

I could definitely add systems like tracking rounds and resources, but I think it elegantly works in old-school games because the other systems that are there are so fast and easy to resolve. Combat is basically the only thing heavily supported in 5e and it is anything but fast and easy to resolve. So tacking on another system to an already pretty complicated system just sounds like book keeping overload.

Another solution of the lack of tension in exploration would be to add random encounter checks. However, as previously mentioned, combat takes a while, so coming across one or two random encounters and there goes 50% of the session. It works in old-school games because combat is just as easily resolved as searching a room. 

When it comes to combat, I really do like set piece battles. I am a sucker for a boss room, specific boss battle music, a big mini and MMO style mechanics on a raid boss. 5e does this pretty well. They fought a manticore-like beast recently in a toxic alchemical wasteland and it was a really fun. He was flying around, doing manticore things. They also fought some bandits a few times, and it was kind of just a slog. No fault of any of the players. They were being clever, commanding the Ogre to run away, positioning well, doing all the things. But as the DM it was just roll, 3 damage, move a little, hide in cover, repeat.

The advice here is give alternative goals or environmental things. For every combat? That just honestly feels like more to track, which ultimately doesn't change much. I distinctly remember a boss battle in Shadowdark that took place as the party and their allies were storming a hill that was controlled by an Orc chieftain and a necromancer. Both statblocks combined probably fit on an index card. But the party was in a shield wall, slowly advancing on the enemy. Then when the wall broke they swung around and took the "bosses" on in a more 1v1 battle. It was awesome. It was also insanely easy to run. The game got out of the way, I barely referenced the stats because the actual in fiction actions of the enemies were much more important, because of their lack of "mechanics". Hell, we spend a chunk of combat just looking up and referencing the rules.

 I am definitely not dissatisfied with the campaign. I love the characters, the story, the world, the bad guys, everything. I don't know if I'll come back to 5e however. For now, I'll stick to cool story beats, focusing on the character's individual stories, and boss battles to the Doom soundtrack.

Session 6 Recap

 The party awoke suspended in rainbow colored water with a huge cavernous roof above them. On the shore stood Feathertip, perched on a rock, sitting next to a hulking King Kong sized furry beast. The party swam over to the shore and met their friend and his scary companion. 

However, this was no scary beast at all, but the gentle hearted overseer of these Waters of Life, the Beast Lord Draffut. This dog-like hulking beast presides over these waters keeping them safe from intruders and evil doers. Feathertip told them all about what happened in the three months that had passed while they were being nursed back to life. Rolnar took what happened as an act of war and lay siege to Tradetown, starving them out until they gave up. He sacked the city and claimed it for his own. 

Draffut, understanding their peril, gave them some gifts that he had been given over the thousands of years he has been alive, yay magic items! He also told them of some Beast-men to the south that might be of assistance. The party now found themselves some 50 miles west of Tradetown in the Black Mountains.

They learned that these beast-men were suffering from a demonic incursion. Demon spirits coming out of the Dunes of Zapernoth, the Demon Lord to the west were being summoned to the Tower of Onyx, a spire that sits on top of one of the mountains, which was lit with a purple flame. 

With newfound purpose, the paladin took up a new oath, an Oath of the Ancients. The party headed south looking for these new friends. They came across two of them fighting off some demons, they helped them and these beast-men showed them the rest of the way to their town of Coalfell. 

Coalfell sits between two closely positioned mountain faces, a town suspended in mid-air by rope. Think an Ewok town, but in the mountains instead of trees. They met Burlock, the bear-man leader of these people. He filled them in and enlisted their help. With a guide, they made their way to the Tower of Onyx where found where dead beast-men were being possessed by demonic spirits and being turned into Gnolls. They came across Golden Idols depicting Zapernoth - the left hand of Orcus, the Eternal Sovereign - the right hand of Orcus, and Orcus himself. At the top of the spire they also found another blue skinned mage who had IV's all over him that were hooked up to the same canisters of purified magical essence that the party found back at the Toxic Alchemical Sump!

Rightfully scared, they high tailed it back to Coalfell and next time will devise a plan to put a stop to this mage.

Sessions 5 Recap

 We began the session 5 as the party is meeting with the Fellowship leaders, devising a plan to take down Rolnar Ironjaw once and for all. Here is what they know; the Ironjaw raiders are magically juicing and creating super soldiers, they have a way point on the main road south out of trade town and taxing everyone who comes by for "protection", and they have a keep on the side of a mountain. So the party decided to attack the way point and cut off their main source of funds.

This part of the mission went off without a hitch. They Trojan Horsed some guys in the back of a cart, blasted the way point leader away and broke the morale of many soldiers. One surrendered and told them that Rolnar has an evil mage, Taznak the Vile, who speaks the tongue of demon-binding and has been doing all of the super soldier experiments. 

Back in Tradetown,Yosper the druid, told the party of the Silent People (anyone who has read Fred Saberhagen's Empire of the East should be familiar with these guys!). They are huge friendly feathered people who are friends of the Fellowship and mortal enemies of the Leather Wings. The Silent People only come out at night, when the Leather Wings are sleeping. He also gave them a little flute and taught them the summoning tune. 

Given the general direction they headed out to meet the Silent People in the hopes of getting some aerial support or at least recon. After a short trek into the mountains nearby they came across two 6-ft tall owls, Strijeef and Feathertip. They said any friend of Yosper is a friend of theirs. The party asked if they would do a fly over and gather some intel for them, so each with a party member in their claws, they flew them over the castle in the mountains to see what was going on with the Ironjaw raiders. 

As they got closer they saw a three level keep jutting out from the side of the mountain with some 2000 ft drop below. (It would take about 11 seconds to splat. We had to do the math, it'll come in handy later). They flew around the upper levels, looking in windows to see what they could find. In the 3rd level of the main part of the keep they saw a hulking blue skinned bald headed man with an iron jaw sharpening his bone axe. Rolnar. Rightfully spooked, they kept flying around and went to the 3rd level of the castle's spire and found a similarly blue skinned man but this was dressed in Mage's attire and experimenting on a poor stranger. 

They landed on the roof of the 2nd level and peering in the window cast mage hand and knocked on the window to get his attention. The mage summoned a demon to go open the window and with the opportunity afoot the party's wizard cast sleep. He failed his save! (Turns out these Thool are immune, but we didn't realize that until a few rounds later.), the party jumped in and grabbed him, hoping to throw him off the side of the keep. However, he succeeded his second save (2025 5e sleep is weird). He immediately Misty Stepped out of the room and onto the second floor roof, then cast Fireball. (The party is 2 3rd level characters. This is a CR 6 Mage. Oops!). They wiped. But thank the gods for Relentless Endurance and the Orc having Lay on Hands. They are back!!

The wizard cast Gust of Wind hoping to knock the mage off the side. He succeeded his save. The paladin jumped out the window and tackled the mage off the side! They are both in free fall. The wizard jumped after them, Feather Fall ready to go. The mage then Misty Stepped out of his grip and cast Fly. Our wizard immediately cast Feather Fall so the party wouldn't splat. Then cast a 2nd level Magic Missile, knocking the concentration away causing the Mage's fly to fail! He also was plummeting! They did it!!! Plummeting, just as the party was in range, mid air, the mage cast his last Fireball. They in fact, did not do it. TPK.