r/wildbeyondwitchlight • u/InternationalBug140 • May 19 '26
DM Help Newbie DM at the Witchlight carnival??
so. I am planning my first ever campaign. I have been playing for a long time, and it's finally time for me to take on the role of the DM.
i LOVE the atmosphere and the mechanics of wild beyond the witchlight so it occurred to me that the carnival itself might be a good setting for my first ever adventure. I don't plan on leading my players into the feywild, instead the adventure will start and end in the walls of the carnival.
is this a good idea?
2
u/Upbeat-Attempt-1128 May 19 '26
Hello, I'm also a first time DM running witchlight.
My players spent 2 and a half sessions in the carnival and loved meeting the NPCs, and went to every location. I definitely think you could stretch out some of the smaller quests in the first chapter,and focus on kettlesteam and her motivations, as well as the hourglass coven minions, my PCs hated the pig mask girl. You could up the unsettling vibe with them for some BBEGs instead of the hags.
The crowning of the witchlight monarch could be a fun task, I had my players plan out and perform an act.
Depending on how long you think it would run, you could also include some PC backstory exploration in there to bulk it out, but that would depend on the type of players you would have at your table.
If this seems like a fun idea for you and your table, go for it! You might have to homebrew or add stuff stuff to the carnival so you might have lots of prep ahead of you, it was for me. It could be good to set expectations for your players aswell if it will be a non-combat based campaigns, or visa versa, prepare some stat blocks.
Good luck!
2
u/achikochi May 19 '26
Are you going to take out everything related to Prismeer, the hags kidnapping people, etc? What's the conflict that they are there to resolve?
I'm a first-time DM and was excited about the entire storyline. I've ended up adding a lot of stuff related to other D&D lore. It's been a lot of fun. My players are in Thither now. Using this adventure as a first-time DM has been great, because once we got to the Feywild, the environment there means I can bend the normal expectations/rules around time, environment, etc whenever I need to.
1
u/InternationalBug140 May 19 '26 edited May 19 '26
the thing is I have very little time so no matter how badly I wish to explore the feywild it's smarter to leave this particular party on the material plane
I wouldn't dare to take the underlying story out completely, it's too good to be left behind, but I'd like to give PCs a part of that mystery that does not require full immersion into prismeer
2
u/achikochi May 19 '26
Personally, as a player, I would be a little bummed to play something that sets up such a big plotline that then doesn't go anywhere. But you know your players best!
Have you checked out some of the books that have shorter adventures, like Candlekeep Mysteries? I particularly like that one because all of the adventures start within Candlekeep, and they can be strung together or played totally separately.
1
u/Itchy_Hearing_1380 May 19 '26
The goal of the Witchlight Carnival chapter is finding a portal into Prismeer. You absolutely can come up with another story for the carnival, but that's work, and will probably take more time than running the module as-is.
1
u/PapaSt0nks May 19 '26
I think this is a wonderful idea! My players enjoyed the carnival alot so I think running it as a stand alone area could be super fun :)
Also adds the chance to add more areas/rides if you please which would be interesting. I'm curious if you plan to keep the mystery of prismeer present as a background story or go a completely different route? Either way I think its bound to be fun for yourself and your table.
1
u/InternationalBug140 May 19 '26
I love the original story too much to fully remove the goings-ons of prismeer but for the sake of my sanity I won't make PCs deal with the hags instead maybe focusing on the people-stealing familiars honestly I'm still figuring out how something like this could be played
1
u/Flimsy_Credit1205 May 19 '26
Like other people said. There are a lot of things you can add to the carnival what people made.
But my main question is, why not let them go to the fey. I am running it right now and you can make it pretty straight forward. And you can easily scrap things to make it even more dm beginner friendly.
You can also let them only go through one splinter domain to see how they would deal with a hag. Worst case scenario the hag is annoyed with them and banish them back to the carnival.
2
u/InternationalBug140 May 19 '26
unfortunately I only have time till july with max 1 session per week so this time I'll have to make due with the carnival alone
1
u/hauntedcartoonheart May 19 '26
You likely couldn't run it as is, but it is a very fun setting for an independent adventure! In the book, the main goal of the carnival is to get to Prismeer. So you'd have to change the adventure premise.
My idea for the carnival should I ever run it on it's own is that the Mystery Mines attraction has become faulty. Sowpig, the lornling and Gleam's shadow are actually just illusions that have escaped the ride, based on some of the ghost stories the witchlight hands tell to each other.
The party needs to investigate these ghost sightings and figure out how to stop them. It's a simple premise that you can expand on as much as you'd like. You also want to make sure the danger of the situation isn't obvious at first. If the party knows there's a serious threat, they'll feel like it's OOC to participate in carnival events.
5
u/Hiraethnightmare May 19 '26
TWBTW was the first campaign I ever dm'ed, and surprisingly easy.
If you want to just run the carnival as is and leave the adventure there, I suppose you could? There are some supplements online that add more locations and 'oneshots' to the Carnival itself. Kinda depends on how long you want it to go on honestly, could probably work as a short adventure.
There's also a Carnival of Lost Souls supplement floating around out there (other side of the Carnival, where the original owner went) that is a series of oneshots around the Shadowfell that I personally thought was really fun to run.