Is ToA Useful as a Setting (Rather than as a Module)

[RedGeomancer]

Running a campaign in which the yuan ti are emerging as the big baddies. (Was therefore extremely happy with the additional material in Volo's which I have.) Lo and behold, the yuan ti are also a significant part of Tomb of Annihilation. I've read that ToA is sandboxy, so I think it might be useful to pull out pieces to use in my campaign without playing through the whole module. I have no interest in the whole Soulmonger storyline, and might not even use the final tomb, but I'm interested in the Forbidden City, yuan ti, and other jungle-based side encounters.

How well does this module work for being sliced and diced and having repurposed to other stories? Answers from either personal experience if you have done so, or ideas based on your familiarity with the module.

Other info:

1. Players are currently 6th level, but expect to get them to somewhere in the range of 9-11 by the time they get to the not-Chult jungle.
2. Possibly going to implement this in Roll20. Therefore, if you have used ToA in Roll20 and have any remarks they will be appreciated.

[Theodoxus]

I just started running ToA, with a group of 5th level players. From my limited experience, I think you could easily translate it into vignettes of semi-related quests. Yeah, the Soulmonger is the overarching "timed dungeon crawl" metaplot - so you might need some other kind of motivation to keep your players interested...

[SirGraystone]

ToA is divided in 5 chapters, trying not to spoils anything major, they are:

The first is Port Nyanzaru, the only large city of Chult. The city is well describe and give you a good place to start a campaign and return for rest and resupply between adventures.

The 2nd chapter is full of encounters, small dungeons, ruins, rivers, spread all over Chult, more then a group doing the "normal" campaign will be able to visit. That's what will probably be the most helpful to you. There's a dragon, pirates, giants, large sea creatures, horde of undead and a lot more.

3rd chapter is the forbidden city itself, link to the 4th chapter and the yuan-ti.

The 5th and last is the Tomb.

So yes, ToA can be use as a setting, you have a major city, description of most of the locations in Chult. Then the forbidden city of the Yuan-ti. The tomb is extra. There's if I'm not mistaken 7 factions the players can join, and a few more to oppose them.

[Scathain]

If you’re interested in other stuff set in Chult, check out DMsguild material! There’s quite a few quests and additional resources that could help fill out a Chult campaign. My personal favorite is one called “Ruins of Hisari”.

[RedGeomancer]

ToA is divided in 5 chapters, trying not to spoils anything major, they are:

<snip>

So yes, ToA can be use as a setting, you have a major city, description of most of the locations in Chult. Then the forbidden city of the Yuan-ti. The tomb is extra. There's if I'm not mistaken 7 factions the players can join, and a few more to oppose them.

Thanks for the breakdown. This will be helpful to focus in on the parts that are easy to extract and repurpose.


If you’re interested in other stuff set in Chult, check out DMsguild material! There’s quite a few quests and additional resources that could help fill out a Chult campaign. My personal favorite is one called “Ruins of Hisari”.

Thanks for the pointer. I haven't used DMsguild, but I'll start checking it out.