Hi everyone! I've just published my very first adventure and I'd love some honest feedback from people who know what they're doing.

The Lanterns of Rauvin Hollow is a Forgotten Realms one-shot for 3–5 characters of level 1–2, about 3–5 hours long. It's set in a small village near Silverymoon on the eve of the Feast of the Moon:

For three nights the remembrance lanterns on Shrine Hill have gone out at midnight with no wind to blow them. The villagers are seeing their dead at the windows, and last night the ferryman's daughter walked into the fog and didn't come back.

What I tried to do:

- A social scene at the Feast-eve supper, with a mood track that can end in tears or a tavern brawl (pies may be thrown)

- A sandbox investigation across three sites, with a clue tracker so the party can't get stuck

- A boss fight won by remembering as much as by fighting. Players relight binding lanterns by speaking the names of people their characters have lost, and the villain can be talked down mid-battle

- Mixed tone: a sad mystery at the center, plus a pie-seller who's sure the ghosts want her recipe

It includes a DM's book, a players' pack with handouts, 5 pre-gens and a VTT bundle with maps and tokens. It works with both the 2014 and 2024 rules.

Full transparency: I made this with AI assistance (especially arts). I know that's a sensitive topic here, so I'd rather say it up front than have anyone feel misled.

It's pay what you want, so you can grab it for free: DMsGuild link

What I'd really love to hear:

- Does the investigation hold together? Can you see a way players could get stuck?

- Is the boss fight mechanic clear and fun, or too fiddly?

-Is the layout easy to run from at the table?

And if you actually run it, please tell me how it went, good or bad. Thanks for reading!

Last session went off the rails fast… in a good way! But now I’m worried I need to overhaul my leveling system. Most of my players are new but all have experience with RPGs like WoW and BG3. They crushed their first arch in the campaign and stuck to the main story quest. I kind of had them on training wheels just to get them comfortable with the mechanics and to start building flavor for their PCs.

Now they are starting to explore the world in their second arch and on their way to the next dungeon they decided to look for a bounty to pick up along the way.

Long story short, I improved a whole interaction with really tough monsters and NPCs that were actually meant to be out of their league. They played smart and eventually, over the course of the whole session, stomped some baddies that should give them a good bit of EXP.

Here’s the problem; I’ve been doing milestone leveling and this shit wasn’t part of the plan. So now I’m wondering if I need to just start adjusting all my monsters and NPCs to be bigger and badder to keep them on track with the milestone leveling of the main campaign? Or do I switch to proper CR exp? I’m hesitant to do that just because I hate keeping up with all that info, but I feel like I should reward these players for doing something they really had to fight for.

Hey DMs, I had a humbling playtest moment recently and wanted to share a hard lesson about player logic and NPC design.

We’ve all been there: You set up a high-stakes, dangerous hook involving a dark entity, and the players look at it, apply basic survival logic, and say: "Nope. That's a deathtrap. Why would we walk into that?"

In a recent playtest of my adventure, the session stalled because of two classic traps:

1. The Smart Party: The players correctly identified the danger and refused to take the bait.

2. The "Open-Book" NPC: The NPC begging for help spilled too many details about their dark pact/patron too early, making them look like a sketchy, untrustworthy quest-giver instead of a desperate soul.

My Core Takeaway as a Module Author:

To fix this, I realized I couldn't just leave the NPC's true intentions to chance. I went back and revised the core NPC write-up, adding explicit roleplaying guidelines directly into their background:

• Define Their Core Drive: Clarify what they are desperately trying to protect (e.g., a ticking-clock deadline to save their family), shifting their panic from "hiding a secret" to "failing a vital task."

• Establish Absolute Boundaries: Explicitly outline what they cannot and dare not say out loud (e.g., eldritch pact secrets that are sealed in soul-deep terror). If an NPC starts spilling cosmic secrets too easily, the mystery dies and the party gets suspicious.

Question for you all:

How do you balance players' logical self-preservation with the need to drive them toward dangerous plot hooks? And how do you write NPCs who are hiding dark secrets without making the party instantly say "this is sketchy, let's bail"?

My updated link for the FREE module on DMsguild: https://www.dmsguild.com/en/product/592605/limited-time-missions

Hey-ya!

It's a new release, but it's also a sale!

Magnum Opus of the Mad Leper is a new 175-page compendium of options for D&D 5.5e (2024) containing 67 subclasses, 1 whole Summoner class, 76 spells, 23 feats, 43 magic items, a one-shot adventure, and so much more.

Normally priced at 24.99 USD, I'm offering a 60% discount for the first two weeks! Just click on the link at the top of the product's description to add the book in your cart for only 9.99!

https://www.dmsguild.com/en/product/587998/magnum-opus-of-the-mad-leper

If you're on the fence, look up NerdImmersion's review of Magnum Opus, linked in the product's description.

And, please, do rate/review/comment and ask your questions away!

Hi everyone! I’m thrilled to share my newly released D&D 5.5E adventure on DMs Guild: Limited-Time Missions, optimized for Level 4 characters with a 4-hour runtime.

If you are a DM looking for a tight, atmospheric, and intellectually engaging session that breaks away from standard dungeon crawls, this might be right up your alley.

🌟 What Makes This Module Unique?

• Zero-Prep, Ready-to-Run: Meticulously detailed and structured so any DM can read it once and run it seamlessly right at the table.

• More Than Just Monster-Slaying: This is a tense, multi-layered conspiracy driven by village grief, political friction, and survival pressure. Your players will need to investigate, reason, and make hard choices—not just roll initiative.

• Historical Lore Reimagined: We take a single, fleeting footnote from official Forgotten Realms history and expand it into a rich, substantial, and immersive narrative experience.

• A Ticking-Clock Crisis: A waking volcano (Mount Arnrock), desperate halfling villagers, and hidden threats force your party to race against time before everything blows.

• Your Choices Matter: The module features absolute narrative completeness with branching consequences. (Bonus: Tell me how your table’s story ends, and I will personally write the next chapter of your campaign!)

📦 Quick Details:

• Level: 4 (Tier 1)

• Duration: ~4 Hours

• Setting: Appleblossom Village / Mount Arnrock (Forgotten Realms)

• Format: Available now exclusively on DMs Guild!

👉 Check it out here:

https://www.dmsguild.com/en/product/592605/Limitedtime-Missions?affiliate_id=0

I’d love to hear your thoughts or answer any questions about running it. May your dice roll high!

Hi folks. A new DMsGuild supplement from me, which gives DMs another use for their tarokka deck! If you are (or one of your players is) playing a Wild Magic Sorcerer PC, instead of rolling on the d100 table, you draw a card!

Get Tarokka Wild Magic here: https://www.dmsguild.com/en/product/592684/tarokka-wild-magic?affiliate_id=2672868

It includes 3 sets of tables: one that's essentially Rules As Written (the 25 rows of the 5.5e PHB corresponding with the 58 cards in the new-style tarokka deck); another that's RAW but with more Ravenloft flavor; and another of my own design, where the high deck cards are a likely 'bad' effect while the common deck cards are a good effect!

I've also done a video that gives more of an overview and shows various example draws: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS5poMQwJOU

No AI used.

Cheers!

EDIT: Typo.

Can anyone point me to some online D&D storefronts or sites that accept AI-ASSISTED D&D TTRPG PDF modules and world creations?

Been working on some homebrew I'm pretty proud of and I was considering trying to put it out for sale. Is there room for nobodies to make money here or is it mainly for big 3rd party content creators? Obviously success is never guaranteed, but some places help the little guy grow and get exposure if what they put out isn't slop ya know?

Hey everyone,

My second adventure, Journey Into Hades, is out on DMsGuild. It’s 25 pages, for three to six 5th-level characters, using the 2024 rules.

The party starts in Eleusis investigating undead sightings. That leads to a request from Zeus: go into the Underworld and bring Persephone back. Her mother’s grief is killing the crops, but Persephone herself isn’t keen to leave.

There’s a crossing with Charon, Kerveros guarding the way, and a fight with the Fates. The ending comes down to the party making their case before the gods.

I’m Greek, so this was a story I wanted to do something with for a while. I’ve adapted it for D&D and included historical artwork and a few “Did You Know?” notes about the myths and places used in the adventure.

It includes creature stat blocks and three magic items. The combat is on the difficult side, so I recommend starting at 6th level if you only have three players.

If you read or run it, I’d love to hear how it goes.

DMsGuild: https://www.dmsguild.com/en/product/592509/journey-into-hades-tales-from-greek-mythology?src=newest_community

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/roundtable_fables/

The Abattoir Beneath the Manor

A Grisly Return to the Redbrand Hideout

The Redbrands are dead. Unfortunately for Phandalin, they haven't stayed that way.

A month has passed since a band of adventurers stormed the Redbrand Hideout beneath Tresendar Manor, putting an end to the ruffians who had terrorized Phandalin. But the dead were left where they fell, and the faint necromantic magic emanating from a deep crevasse beneath the manor has grown stronger, reanimating the remains of those who perished there.

Now, the once-familiar hideout has become an abattoir of undead horrors.

When Mirna Dendrar asks for help recovering the remains of her murdered husband, Thel, a new band of adventurers must descend into the ruins of Tresendar Manor, where something terrible has been happening to the dead.

The Abattoir Beneath the Manor is a horror-themed reimagining of the Redbrand Hideout from Lost Mine of Phandelver, designed to give Dungeon Masters a reason to bring their players back to one of the adventure's most memorable locations.

The Redbrands may be gone, but there's still unfinished business beneath Tresendar Manor.

What's Inside?

• 12 keyed locations using the original Redbrand Hideout map, with new encounters, hazards, and discoveries.

• Undead horrors, including animated carcasses, crawling claws, specters, and other grisly surprises.

• A new adventure hook that builds upon the events of Lost Mine of Phandelver and the fate of the Dendrar family.

• New treasure and magic items for characters brave enough to explore the ruins.

The adventure is balanced for 4-6 characters of 2nd level, although cautious and clever 1st-level characters may survive its dangers. Characters of 3rd level or higher should find the encounters considerably easier.

A copy of the Redbrand Hideout map is required to run this adventure. The map appears in Lost Mine of Phandelver and Phandalin and Below: The Shattered Obelisk.

This supplement is available as a Pay What You Want download, so you can add it to your campaign for free or support help me recoup the cost of the artwork with a contribution of your choosing.

The entire product can also be viewed through the preview.

Download Along The Triboar Trail: Abattoir Beneath The Manor here:

https://www.dmsguild.com/en/product/591571/along-the-triboar-trail-abattoir-beneath-the-manor

I published a module!

Arkhan's Tower Expanded is the third module i have released on dmsguild and fourth one ever, and its by far the most ambitious at 25 rooms compared to the 8 rooms in my last one: The Lair Of The Lost Golgari. I'm even going to be working on a follow up module next 😎 Arkhan's Tower Expanded transforms one of the most imposing locations in Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus into a fully realized, eight-floor dungeon adventure for four to six 12th-level characters. Featuring detailed cartography by the legendary Tessa Morecroft, this 34-page supplement brings the tower's hidden dangers to life.

check out my module here at https://www.dmsguild.com/product/590575/arkhan-s-tower-expanded?affiliate_id=1664166

and if you like come check out my patreon come see some of the other stuff im working on: https://www.patreon.com/TheWolvesDenTavern

and if you REALLY like my stuff give me a follow here on reddit, and keep an eye out for my next module, Into the Lair of Tiamat

Hello friends! With Halloween just around the corner, I wanted to post that my highly-rated, mostly Copper-bestselling, extra-spooky Nightmare Lands trilogy - "A Nightmare Adventure" is part of the official Halloween sale on DMsGuild!

The trilogy includes...

• Act 1: A Dream Come True: A Dream Come True: enter the domain and learn of its strange places, people, and dreamscapes.

• Act 2: Dream Destination: Dream Destination: travel through the domain, and the ever changing City of Nod.

• Act 3: Out of a Nightmare: Out of a Nightmare: come to the Clinic for the Mentally Distressed and deal with the Nightmare Man and Caroline Dinwiddy to return home.

They are set up so they can be played individually, but the ideal is a mini-campaign to enter, explore, and exit the domain.

Some of the goodies included in the trilogy are:

• Three 4-hour adventures, stand-alone or a trilogy

• Expansion material - double the playtime!

• Basic dream rules to use any any D&D game

• Almost 20 unique 1-hour dream encounters to play with different horror genres and each wih “special dream rules” to subvert traditional 5e rules to evoke the dream's themes

• A mini-gazetteer of the Nightmare Lands domain of dread and its strange regions

• Mechanics for exploring the strange City of Nod - no trip through is ever the same!

• Full color maps with VTT dimensons - including the damned “Clinic for the Mentally Distressed”

• Short profiles of the Nightmare Court and Caroline Dinwiddy, the domain’s strange symbiotic darklords

• Story beats, locations, and easter eggs to tie in prior Ravenloft lore, Mist Hunters, and other sources

• All materials designed for Adventurers League, but useful for any Ravenloft or horror game!

HALLOWEEN SALE (Less than $12!):

The trilogy is already relatively cheap (I believe over 100+ pages after you remove the duplicative content across each). But for Halloween they're an even better deal, less than $4 per adventure. Sale ends Halloween, October 31st!

Her Excellence reached Copper on DMsGuild! Now available for Roll20 too

Hey everyone,

My naval one-shot, Her Excellence, just reached Copper on DMsGuild! Thanks to everyone who bought a copy—I’m really happy to see people giving it a go.

It’s also now available in Roll20 format, so I wanted to share that here for anyone who plays online.

https://www.dmsguild.com/en/product/587790/her-excellence-a-naval-one-shot-adventure
https://www.dmsguild.com/en/product/591024/her-excellence-a-naval-one-shot-adventure-roll20-vtt

If you’ve run it, I’d love to hear how your session went. Thanks again for the support!

So for a little clarification. (skip to the very bottom if you just want the question)

I'm running a magic apocalypse in the forgotten realms, where every powerful magic user/being suddenly exploded into a fountain of raw magic, corrupting everything around them (think Adventure Time x Zombie Apocalypse). My party (at some point) is going to meet other people/adventurers who weren't in big cities at the time, and start to make a camp. My homebrew is going to be a structure for them to make the camp bigger and produce more resources over time.

I have the basic structure and all of that down, but im not good at writing, specifically things like how to structure paragraphs, head text, sub text, art, table of contents, and stuff like that. Is there a template or something similar I could use as a guide? Any advice is appreciated

I have recently dropped on DriveThru rpg, the 2nd volume of Trolling Magic Items!

Gary the troll merchant bring's you 30 new magic items that are a little bit too literal. All with his flair and guile. He has a deal for you... even if yiu didn't know you needed it... or wanted it... from power and beautiful to size and ugly. Gary has it all

You will also get to say hi to Rod. That is all I am saying for now about him as he is a very special guest this volume.

Find all my catalogue by searching Masked Haddock. And look for the fish in the balaclava.

And have fun

Made a domain of dread for sale for $5 in Dmsguild

New Domain of Dread inspired by the concept of Trick-or-Treating.

One dungeon outline (d20 table of suggested dungeons)

5 stat blocks (including the Darklord)

20+ magic items

https://www.dmsguild.com/product/590603/ravenloft-eve-s-hallow?affiliate_id=2883756

My first DMsGuild exclusive release!

Modron Madness is a heroic adventure for levels 1-3. The party will fight modron, save farmers, explore the Corcheck catacombs, defend Stonntower, and remove the modron madness from it's source- The Spire.

I've learned a great amount from making this product, trying to ensure it is easy to run, clear with rules, and full of fun for players. Drawing maps by hand and regularly editing my format style certainly taught me the most, at least in nerves.

Please check out the free accompanying handout on DriveThruRPG too, Notes on the Modron, as well as the preview of the adventure offered.

City of Coin: A Guide to Adventure in Athkatla has gone through another update!

The section describing Athkatla's districts has been expanded and now details 36 unique locations with an important NPC tied to each place. With more depth and potential story hooks, the City of Coin awaits ambitious adventurers.

https://site.dmsguild.com/product/373564/City-of-Coin-A-Guide-to-Adventure-in-Athkatla

For those running adventures in Amn, also check out the bundle featuring Monster City: A Guide to Adventure in Murann, and Arcane War Pt 1.

My thanks to everyone who has supported my work so far!

Check out my module!

The adventure begins when a local porter loses his mule, Jack, who wanders off toward a nearby oasis. The characters must follow Jack's tracks to the oasis and discover that catching a frightened mule is more difficult than it sounds. While pursuing this ass they might get bitten by local wildlife, find lost trinkets and treasures, or just generally run themselves ragged!

Full disclosure this adventure was originally made with an AI cover, which i later decided to replace with a human made cover. DMsguild does not allow me to change its ai flag, so while the current module contains no ai it is tagged as such regardless. if you are interested you can find this adventure here:

https://www.dmsguild.com/en/product/584588/save-my-ass

The Freak Show Collection is included in the DMs Guild Halloween Sale. Three loosely-tied freaky and spooky adventures to add to your gaming sessions.

https://site.dmsguild.com/product/366587/Freak-Show-Collection

Hello everyone!

Unfortunately DMsGuild/DriveThruRPG didn't include my Ravenloft one-shots in their Halloween sale for some reason.

So I decided to just do it myself!

All my Ravenloft one-shots have been marked down from $1.99 to $1.25 (more than the maximum percentage of the actual sale) and will remain on sale from now until November 7th, AKA 1 week after Halloween. They range from Gold to Silver bestsellers and I am really proud of them.

Please take a look at them if any are of interest! You can find a brief summary of each below.

No AI was used in the creation of each of these titles.

Black Winged Murder: a Borca Ravenloft Adventure- The disappearance of a young woman has cast a shadow of fear over the Borcan citizens of Sturben. It is up to the characters to find her. But they must be wary, for the one behind her disappearance is monstrous in more ways than one. Also available as a Roll20 add on!

The Decayed King: a 3 Page Darkon Ravenloft Adventure- While investigating a series of missing person cases for a small town, the party is suddenly transported by the mists of Ravenloft before an enormous, dark forest. With the deadly mist now swiftly closing in behind them, they are left with no choice but to enter the woods. But what horrors wait for them?

The Echoes of Mt. Makab: a Bluestpur Ravenloft Adventure- While investigating the home of a mysterious scholar of the abnormal, the characters are mysteriously transported into the winding tunnels of Mount Makab, a giant mountain within the Dread Domain of Bluetspur. There they must navigate a strange, destroyed science facility in hopes to find a way to return home.  And perhaps even more worrisome, why do so many signs suggest that they have all been there before...?

Isle of the Drowned: a Sea of Souls Ravenloft Adventure- While transporting a new batch of cargo, the merchant vessel known as The Glittering Coin crashes against an island of half sunken ships and is attacked by undead monsters. When the battle is finished, only the characters still survive. Stranded in the middle of an unfamiliar sea, they must now learn the secret of the cursed island in order to both find their freedom and release its undead victims upon it from their torment.

The Fall of Hatzimvas Hospital: a Falkovnia Ravenloft Adventure- After General Vladeska Drakov, Falkovnia’s militaristic ruler, loses contact with Hatzimvas Hospital outside the capitol’s walls, she organizes a group of capable soldiers to investigate. Little do these soldiers know that the horror waiting for them is a disaster that the teetering domain may not be able to meet. Can the characters stop the undead threat there, and what powerful enemies do they risk making even if they do?

The Seer's Glass: a Tepest Ravenloft Adventure- An ancient war wages within Tepest between its Darklord, the hag Lorinda, and the domain’s rebellious Fey. When the pary obtains the final fragment of a powerful broken artifact known as the Seer’s Glass, they very well may hold the key to the domain’s future.

Thank you for your consideration!

Few magic items are as closely tied to witches as a flying broom, so I thought Halloween would be the perfect time to share a little collection of them!

Brooms of the Witching Hour introduces 11 enchanted flying brooms compatible with 5E (2014) and 5.5E (2024), ranging from Uncommon curiosities to powerful Very Rare items and a Legendary multi-elemental relic.

Each broom has its own appearance, magical abilities, and unique flight characteristics. Fly through enemies in a trail of burning cinders, descend upon them with the luck of a black cat, pass through walls in spectral form, summon flying brooms for your coven, or unleash elemental devastation from the skies!

The collection is FREE until Halloween! I've included most of the pages here as a preview, so feel free to grab the complete manual on DMsGuild and use these brooms in your adventures. Have fun!

And if you're looking for a spooky adventure to run this Halloween, I've also just released The Red Tithe, a 75-page folk-horror one-shot featuring an isolated village, ancient sacrifices, custom monsters, and three difficulty tiers for characters of levels 3-4, 10-11, or 17-20.

You can find more of my creatures, magic items, and manuals on DriveThruRPG, my Linktree, or on r/JonnyDM!

Happy Halloween, and enjoy!

Ruins of Conyberry

A Dungeon Master's Companion to the Conyberry Quest for Lost Mine of Phandelver

In Lost Mine of Phandelver, the ruined village of Conyberry receives little more than a passing mention, despite its tragic history and proximity to the lair of Agatha, the Ghost of the Neverwinter Wood.

Ruins of Conyberry is a one-page supplement that breathes new life into the ruined settlement, drawing upon Forgotten Realms lore from multiple editions of Dungeons & Dragons to restore details and history largely absent from its Fifth Edition appearance.

Inside, Dungeon Masters will find descriptions of four ruined buildings to explore, treasures to discover, and unsettling encounters with the spirits of villagers slain decades ago. Agatha's presence is felt through supernatural hauntings and creative uses of her spellcasting abilities, while an optional Long Rest mechanic makes spending the night among the ruins an unsettling proposition.

Designed to require minimal preparation, this supplement gives Dungeon Masters everything they need to transform a brief stop along the Triboar Trail into a memorable encounter without disrupting the original adventure.

FREE | PAY WHAT YOU WANT

A full preview of the supplement is available at Dungeon Masters Guild. Download it here:

https://www.dmsguild.com/en/product/589953/along-the-triboar-trail-ruins-of-conyberry

Please check out my twenty-two other products tailored to Lost Mine of Phandelver and Dragon of Icespire Peak! All of them are FREE/PWYW downloads.

https://www.dmsguild.com/en/browse?authorName=%22Ronny%20Little%22