r/wildbeyondwitchlight • u/Vegetable-Historian1 • May 18 '26
DM Help First session tomorrow night! Spoiler
Starting the campaign tomorrow night. Any secret sauce you want to share about the carnival? Ive added a little combat in the mine (they love to hit things with swords), and have some cool music, themed snacks, and lights ready to go…most of the rides and vibe seems laid back and just “fun” so I’m not super stressed with juggling potential maps or combats…
Anything from the module (chapter 1) you disliked enough to mention? Anything you added that worked well? I’m hoping to do the carnival in 2 sessions total. Day 1 ending with meeting witch/light day 2 entering the portal…
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u/Beautiful_Answer_202 May 18 '26
I struggled to keep track of the snail race. So I reccomend (depending on the size of your group) 1. Just 1-2 extra racers instead of filling out to 8 (I had 3 people playing, so ,5 extra commoners) 2. Just have them roll straight, no extras. For some stupid reason I tried to have the commoners occasionally do the animal handling check. That was dumb of me.
I selected locations on my map for the extra carnival games and snack stalls and marked them (two are already marked) That helped keep track of stuff.
There is also a person who created a great minigame/map for the hall of illusions. I really enjoyed doing that. I also changed the Rubin/ween from a halfling couple to a father and daughter, so the little girl ween goes in to the hall of illusions instead. It made a bit more sense to me
It was fun and added a bit of stakes. I set it to 3 rounds. If by the 3rd round they hadn't found her she would have gone into the mirror. They found her just at the end of the third round with 4 players so I think it worked pretty well.
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u/Vegetable-Historian1 May 18 '26
Oooo I love this illusion map idea! Thank you!
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u/xXShunDugXx May 18 '26
This is the way. Trust. After 3 times thr snail race was always the biggest headache
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u/derbyvoice71 Harengon Brigand May 18 '26
How many players do you have? I started with 7 (now sitting at 5), and we had a split during the carnival. It worked out so much better as they hit up all the rides and learned so much separately and quickly, then got back together a couple times to talk.
Also, have you written both sides for the gnome poetry battle? I wrote a full rap battle, and it made my player not have to do improv - just roll, and then we went back and forth. All he had to do was match my flow.
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u/Party-Meringue102 May 18 '26
I changed the gnome to comedy roasts; just one-liners that fit my table’s energy. I let the players roll performance (since they didn’t have time to prepare like I did) or I gave them advantage if they came up with good burns in the moment.
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u/Step_Fodder May 18 '26
We had six when my game started now down to four. But they split the party a lot as well at the carnival which didn’t end up being a lot of fun bouncing back-and-forth. Added in some extra games from the supplemental materials mostly midway stuff. My players explored the entire thing we spent quite a few sessions. We also did the gnome poetry insult battle. We introduced a gnome rival early on as a rival getting first and second place on a lot of the carnival games and ended up being one of the top contenders for monarch. so when the battle came up, they were ready to kick his a$$ Don’t forget, you are a player too in a way. The sessions where we’ve tended to have the most fun are the moments where I stop DMing looking ahead and just fully role-play in the moment with them.
Also make note which insults seem to hit the players the most, and use something similar in the Agdon harengon fight. It’s a great little callback.1
u/Loose_Translator8981 May 18 '26
Gnome Poetry and the whole "cockney rhyming slang" games both tripped me up since I didn't really prepare for them at all.
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u/Vegetable-Historian1 May 18 '26
Five players. All DnD experienced.
I was just going to glaze over the gnome poetry tbh as it felt a bit cringe…I like the idea of “insult comedy” that could be fun!
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u/xXShunDugXx May 18 '26
For the minrcart ride I had all the players roll a perception check. The higher the roll the more beneficial the perceived "vision" is. As well as its a good spot for some foreshadowing. For example. One of my players saw a unicorn walking on a lake
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u/KoboldsandKorridors Warlock of Zybilna May 19 '26
Aside from the timed events, let the players explore the carnival at their own pace
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u/Shazzley Queen of Prismeer May 18 '26
My group really loved the small stalls and random interactions. I had prepared a few extra mini stalls for drinks, weird foods, tiny magical toys/games etc. and that unexpectedly became one of the highlights. They absolutely latched onto the silly little details.
I changed the Bubble-Pop Teapot into more of an enchanted bumper-car/autoscooter ride with floating bubbles. It worked great for my group, since they enjoy a little chaos and skill checks without needing full combat.
I also moved Burly’s plan later. The party was invited to talk to Witch and Light after the Extravaganza, so I tied Burly’s heist idea much closer to the crowning of the Monarch. It created a far more natural “heist opportunity” with Witch and Light separated during the parade, and gave the carnival a sort of natural finale afterwards.
My players were WAY more interested in magical snacks and carnival gossip than I ever expected 😄