This post was nearly titled “shit they don’t tell you in the D&D rulebooks”. Like other posts it’s based on a Matt Colville video.

In the DMG they tell you how to reskin/reuse an existing monster (I’ve done that for two major characters in my campaign). They tell you how to create a new monster from scratch using a couple of methods. But what they don’t tell you is how to take an existing monster and adjust it so that it is suitable to go up against your party.

The example given in the video (link above) is adjusting a medusa so it can be used against a third level party. But you might want to go the opposite direction also.

Why would you want to do this? Why not? Ok that’s not an answer. It opens up more options for you the DM for starters. More variety. It allows you to surprise players, especially those that “know it all”. I’ll expand on that. If a player knows the Monster Manual, and the CR rating stuff, they might be expecting only certain creatures will be used for the level the group is at for encounters. Imagine their surprise when all of a sudden a monster that has a much higher CR rating suddenly appears. Something they would only expect once their party reaches an appropriate level.

Admittedly you could still do that without adjusting the stats of the creature. But only if you wanted to murder the whole party. It’d be a bit unfair and one sided.

So in the rest of this post I’m going to summarise what Colville says in his video. Now I hope people don’t mind me doing this. This is basically me making notes for myself to refer back to, and sharing them with you. Hopefully others will find this useful as well.

Adjusting Down

In the mentioned video the medusa was used as an example. But it’s the process that is important not the creature. (I think that sums up Colville’s main reason for the video.)

So below in bullet points I present my understanding of what to look at.

• AC – This could be adjusted down to make easier to hit based on player modifiers to hit. This all falls in with a previous post about being outnumbered and in more danger than you think.
• HP – Naturally this can be reduced. Couple of ways to achieve this. Either on the fly or the old hit die times const formula based on the level you want the creature at.
• Saving throws – adjust the saving throw. In the Medusa example the target number to avoid being petrified was lowered. But you also may want to adjust the saving throws that the monster does as well.
• Attack modifiers – give it the same/similar attack modifiers to those of your party.
• Provide good intel! Make sure that you sign post, drop clues that they are about to face a nasty monster. Using the example Colville gives maybe have a garden of life like statues leading to the Medusa’s lair. This means that the players are not going in blind, can prepare, make tactics or run away.
• Possibly adjust the amount of damage an attack does if successful.

I think that sums up what to look at from the video. If I’ve missed something out, or not explained it properly, or totally missed the point let me know please.

Adjusting Up

This one is the easier to do, taking a lower level monster and making things more challenging for a party that is a higher level.

• Increase the AC of the creature! Give it armour, or better armour.
• Give the creature allies
• Add +1 or +2 to its constitution modifier
• More hit dice
• Maybe increase the DC saving throw (17 maximum)
• Make the creature legendary and all that entails

And that’s it. See you in the next post.

In this post I’m going to look at the apps I’m using to prep for the D&D campaign.

SPOILER ALERT TO MY ADVENTURERS! The following post contains spoilers for the up and coming campaign. You may want to avoid this post and join me in a future one.

My main device for anything is my iPad Pro. I can’t remember when I last fired up a desktop or laptop at home. The nearest I’ve come is using a Raspberry Pi a couple of times. Apart from coding and some fringe cases I can do everything I need to on an iPad.

When it comes to preparing for the campaign I’m using three main apps. Well I say three but in reality you could argue that it is really two.

I’m including the rather good WordPress app in this workflow because I’m including this post, and my other posts about my progress and such as part of my prep for the campaign.

Yes this blog is a diary. It’s not incite full, it doesn’t look deep into the human condition. It fails as a boardgaming blog. There are not reviews on here, when I play a new game I talk about what I liked and didn’t like about it. But what I say is no way as in-depth as the reviews others put out. These days I talk about Magic the Gathering, D&D and other RPGs, and gaming sessions. Stuff that interests me.

I use the prep posts particularly as notes, reminders, even just thinking aloud, milling over ideas. Which I think is an important thing to do. Hopefully some-one will find my sharing, seeing my thought process helpful. It is for me.

Ok onto the next app in my workflow.

That app is Scrivener.

Scrivener is aimed at people who write a lot of manuscripts, particularly screen writes, authors, etc. It has none of the bells and whistles of like Word. It aims to help writers focus on the writing without the distractions.

I’m using Scrivener to write the session notes. Stuff like room and character descriptions, encounters notes, etc.

I particularly like the cork board view. It allows me to play around with the structure of a session. It has some other nice features too, like keeping research notes with the project.

The nice thing for me also is I can control what gets generated as the final version of the adventure for the session.

The final app in the workflow is Good Notes.

Good Notes is a note taking app. A digital note book.

There are a lot of notebook apps for the iPad. It’s a natural thing for it to be used for. Especially with an Apple Pencil.

I particularly like this app. It has a presentation mode (useful for my day job). Plus I like being able to have custom page templates. So my notebooks in the app can be made up from several different page types. For example graph paper for some, plain for others, A3 pages instead of A4, landscape and even character sheets.

I’m using Good Notes as a digital DM’s folder. Which will be holding more than my actual DM’s folder. The physical version will have some of the pages printed, like maps, encounter stats. Basically stuff I need for the session.

In previous posts about the campaign pitch and the player sheet that introduces the campaign I did use a couple of other apps that fall under the honourable mention section if I were to have one. For the two documents just mentioned I used Word on the iPad. Word I don’t think needs any explanation. Plus the images used in those documents I edited in my go to image editor on the iPad Pixelmator.

I do intend to at the end of each session write a reflective blog post about how I thought the session went. And with those posts include the current version of the DM’s folder, and the adventure session notes.

What a great way to start off a D&D session. Naturally and this won’t surprise you is how the living legend Matt Colville starts off his D&D games. It signals to the players we are starting, stop that chitter chatter.

Mr Colville then gets one of the players to recap what happened in the previous session. He uses it a diagnostic tool, what did the players think happened etc.

The video he talks about this is the DM Screen one. I’m not going to embed that here again. Just look at yesterday’s post where I embedded it for another reason.

Guess what? Yep I’m going to borrow this for my own games. Which we are still negotiating dates for our session one! One DM and five players. So that’s six calendars to sync. Ok two of us have no life and can make any date (well 99% of any suggested date) whilst the others have outside commitments/relationships that need to be looked after. What is it with these people and having a life?

As of this morning we may (touch wood, cross fingers, and any other unfounded superstition that may help) not only have found a date for session one but also session two also!

Honestly though I think negotiating Brexit is easier than finding a date we can all agree on.

But I do like that opening line. I think I will nick it for the title of the write ups of our sessions on here. The write ups will be my post mortem of the session. I suppose similar in format to the videos Colville does for his D&D Live plays The Chain. So I’ll have a brief plot summary of what happened in the session, followed by my thoughts on how the session went. What worked, what didn’t, that sort of stuff.

Would there be any interest in me sharing my notes for the campaign/session? It’d be in pdf format, and change a lot. I could use Google drive to keep it and share it with the world. If you are interested in this let me know in the comments below.

Let’s finish with a selfie of Loki and me.

Thursday saw Ghosts of Saltmarsh hit the shelves of your FLGS in the UK (thanks to a small delay of a couple of days with the distributor) and elsewhere round the globe.

I have seen the odd comment online that copies of the book have been damaged somewhere down the line. Not sure if this damage is from the printing process, packing or transportation. But whatever the cause of the damage, my copy was damage free. So I was happy to avoid that issue.

As an incentive to buy your copy of the book from your FLGS and not from an online retailer WotC have produced an exclusive alternate cover art version of the book, that is only available from an FLGS.

Before I look any further at this fine tome, let me state for the record this is not a review. It’s a first impressions look at the book. A written unboxing almost. I’ve also not played the adventures in the book.

Disclaimer over let’s get on with it.

Ghosts of Saltmarsh is the latest campaign source book from WotC. A tome that consists of 256 pages, made up of background info, updated classic adventures and appendices and expanded mechanics.

The actual D&D realm that they place Saltmarsh and it’s related adventures is Greyhawk. Although with the aid of something I mention below you can use them with any setting.

Here is how the chapters breakdown.

• Introduction
• Saltmarsh – background information on the town itself.
• The Sinister Secret Of Saltmarsh – 1st Level characters U1 (1981)
• Danger at Dunwater – 3rd Level characters U2 (1982)
• Salvage Operation – 4th Level characters Dungeon 123 (2005)
• Isle of the Abbey – 5th Level characters Dungeon 34 (1992)
• The Final Enemy – 7th Level characters U3 (1983)
• Tammeraut’s Fate – 9th Level characters Dungeon 106 (2004)
• The Styes – 11th Level characters Dungeon 121 (2005)
• Appendix A: Of Ships and the Sea
• Appendix B: Magic Items
• Appendix C: Monsters and NPCs

The great thing about these updated adventures is that there is a small breakout box with that at best can be described a paragraph about the original adventure. There are also larger breakout boxes that give ideas for how to integrate the adventure into Eberron, Forgotten Realms and Mystara.

I also like that in the introduction they credit the giants whose shoulders they stood on to create this book.

If you use this as a campaign it will take your characters from level 1 through to 12.

I love the Saltmarsh chapter, it covers the town, major NPCs, politics/factions, the local area. Gives you adventure hooks, and linking the adventures included with those from the Tales from the Yawning Portal campaign book. You get new background information to use with player characters or NPCs.

The Appendix A is “everything” you need to use boats/ships with your campaign. From stat blocks, deck plans etc for a handful of common ships. To some upgrades that can be purchased for the ships. There are expanded rules for ships in combat, travel at sea. Lots of tables for various types of aquatic hazards, encounters, generating random ships, creating mysterious islands. Plus some example underwater locations to use in campaigns.

I think the titles of the remaining appendices describe what they are adequately.

For me this book looks fantastic, and has already sparked off ideas for my campaign that hasn’t started yet. Plus once the party gets to suitable levels of experience some side adventures that I can plug straight into the campaign.

I’ll close this post off with an image of a third party product by Gale Force 9 (who by the way are rather poor at putting information on their website, I couldn’t find anything about this on there for starters!) that comes out in June I believe. If I’m lucky I’ll be able to pick a copy up at UKGE.

There is also a world map coming out at the same time I believe.