Realm-Weavers

In my quest to return to TTRPG storytelling, I jumped into running Tomb of Annihilation on Roll20  without really knowing the DnD system rules or the mechanics of the VT system. I lost two excellent players while doing this due to my inexperience and ignorance. 

I’m really really grateful for the players that continued, they’ve taught me so much.

Instead of filling in the many information gaps in the campaign, especially regarding the jungle trek, I bought numerous TOA supplements from DMs Guild. 

I really wanted a fully flushed out Chult.

But when I buy lots of stuff, I want to run it.

It was there that I made a mistake. I leveled everybody up too quickly, and we did far too much before even setting out into the jungle.

The jungle is usually geared toward level s 3-5,  we were at level three when we left, and I pretty much played encounters on a daily basis. Since DnD is a crunchy system, my players wanted to level up so they could get new feats, special abilities, and spells. Since I was leveling up due to accomplishments or sessions, the party became disproportionately powerful, finding most jungle encounters easy to manage. I’ve had to scale battles, yet the problem remains.

I realize you pros already know this, but for this resurrected storyteller, it’s important not to fall into this trap. 

Once again, I’m reminded less can be more. 

– Jeff Johnson