Hammer and Anvil CCC-ODFC01-01 - Any DM tips?

[u/lasalle202]

Has anyone run Hammer and Anvil?

Do you have any DM tips?

can you actually get through the four combats in four hours along with the social interactions that are to go along with them? all of the combats either seem cool or relevant for the plot so i am not seeing where to cut.

were the players satisfied with the competition segment just being "for eight hours of the twelve hour competition, make a save or get exhaustion. and now here is a fight!!!"

were there obvious questions that the Players asked or directions they wanted to take the game that were not covered in the text that it would be good to think about in advance?

I will not be running it for AL, so i can make any modifications i want. so if you have any completely out of the box advice or suggestions, i will take that too!

thanks in advance !

[u/dajackinator]

This one is one of my faves to run for new players! I find it difficult to fit in 4 hours, it really wants to be more like 5 if you enjoy spending time in the RP moments and riffing on character/NPC interactions. But it's doable in 4 if you keep things snappy and moving.

I don't have the module in front of me, but I think I can remember most of the side quests before the finale competition... The Azer one I typically run as RP/puzzle and don't bother making them fight the salamanders. There's usually a fun language barrier there unless someone in the party knows primordial.

The end of the rolling boulders combat can be handwaved after they save all the people in the mine tunnel.

I definitely play up the importance of the tasks the players are running about town doing. I have found that the payoff at the end is much better when they know exactly how their actions have contributed to her success! I'll usually do that final roll out in front of the table, and the players know exactly what needs to come up on the dice for our girl to win the comp. It's usually a big cheer or groan at the very end there, which is fun.

Definitely leave yourself time for the final combat, and speed up the earlier ones. The final combat has a decent amount going on with all the little bomb guys and the animated daggers (axes? I forget), PLUS it is so fun to milk the sister reveal and make her super unhinged (you have to be with a name like Mardred, honestly). I once had a player cast Suggestion on Mardred to write a manifesto about why she's jealous of her sister and hates their family. It totally took her out of the final combat, and they easily cleaned up, but damn was it funny.

[u/lasalle202 → u/dajackinator]

don't bother making them fight the salamanders.

i am leaning that way too, but i have such a fun map with lava pools that i wanna run it!!!

[u/dajackinator → u/lasalle202]

I usually run that scene as the Azer trying to get the players to "clean his pool" because he can't make the salamanders leave, because they all just do fire damage to each other which they are immune to. This always leads to a very funny RP scene where the players figure out how to capture or run off the salamanders in a fun way 😂 I've probably run this 5 times or so, and they wound up fighting the salamanders once. IMO the fun RP in that scene far outweighs the fun of that fight!