Princes of the Apocalypse

My longest game that I GM'ed, and the best one yet. But i owe it to my players. They made the game super fun to play and im ever so thankful to have gm'ed for them.

PotA Gist

Princes of the Apocalypse is a Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) 5th edition adventure set in the world of Faerûn. The story revolves around a group of adventurers who uncover a cult-driven elemental menace that threatens the region. They must explore various elemental temples, battle cultists, and ultimately confront the four princes of elemental evil. With a rich combination of combat encounters, exploration, and intricate storytelling, Princes of the Apocalypse offers a challenging and immersive experience for players as they strive to save the world from elemental devastation.

How I Ran The Module

I took all of the lessons I learned from my previous campaigns and chose my players carefully. I wanted mature players who are very comfortable with the system, particularly forever DMs. I focused on communication, making very clear of my intentions and goals for running this campaign. I wanted to run all of the maps, so we agreed to level up after clearing each "dungeon" map. The players also wanted to get really close with completing all of the content in the campaign, so we ran almost all of the side missions. I used factions to drive the main storyline, which didn't work out too well. More will be detailed in the next section.

I homebrewed the end, as I wanted to change things up after grinding through all maps. I made it so that the devastation orb detonated in front of the players, killing them. They were taken to Kelemvor, who offered them the task of reclaiming their souls that were scattered to their respective domains. At the end, the group helped their deities re-seal Tharzidun.

Commentary

This game is poorly written, and it makes it even harder for the GM. Compared to DoIP or RotFM, I feel like I had to put in so much more effort in areas I didn't think I needed to. It was particularily difficult to motivate the players to pursue the main storyline. I tried to utilize the factions, like how the module suggests, but I ended up abandoning it halfway. I think utilizing gods or deities to motivate the overarching plot would have been more meaningful instead of factions hiring low-tier members.

What I Learned

I learned that I should let the PC motivations drive the story forward, even if there is a clear plot line. Let the players create, drive, and play the story they want.

Although communication was my focus, I need to keep maintaining it. I didn't realize just how important communication is to maintaining relationships, even player-GM. I genuinely had a great time GMing the whole 2 years.

Lastly, I learned that if I'm going to use factions, I need to use them well. I didn't have a good grasp of how to use factions. Also, I should limit the number of factions I include. Too many factions will overwhelm me and make the plot too convoluting.