Red Hand of Doom: Conversion to 5e and Playthrough

[Zippdementia]

Red Hand of Doom Conversion to 5e

This is the continuing chronicles of my Dungeon and Dragon adventures, which started in this thread (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?503985-Campaign-Journal-(Red-Hand-of-Doom-sort-ve)-session-by-session).

The reason I began a new thread is because Red Hand of Doom is an extremely popular module and I know people have wanted to see it converted and playtested for 5e. The benefit and difference between this thread and others is that you’ll see my decisions get playtested and get my direct feedback on whether it worked or not as intended. Hopefully this information will be useful to others seeking to run the module in fifth edition.

Note: This run is optimized for three players starting at level eight, though it should work equally well for four characters at level 6 or 7, or five at level 6.

I figured to make it easier to find this info, I'd post this in a new thread, separate from the earlier Tomb of Haggemoth (http://zippdementia.tumblr.com/post/152098620670/s201-journey-log-red-hand-of-doom-preamble) and Tomb of Horrors (http://zippdementia.tumblr.com/post/149539814045/s101-journey-log-tomb-of-horrors-preamble) conversion campaign journals. Also different is that this time I'll be posting stats for the monster conversions I did.

I'll continue to edit this post, updating it with links to each new tumblr post.

Chapter 1: Discovering the Horde
Part 1: Marauder Attack (http://zippdementia.tumblr.com/post/170527089235/s301-journey-log-red-hand-of-doom-marauder)
Part 2: Drellin's Ferry and the Wytchwood (http://zippdementia.tumblr.com/post/171021899330/s302-journey-log-red-hand-of-doom-drellins)
Part 3: Jorr’s Cabin and the Causeway. (http://zippdementia.tumblr.com/post/171299298040/s303-journey-log-red-hand-of-doom-jorrs-cabin)
Part 4: Vraath Keep (http://zippdementia.tumblr.com/post/172185165720/s304-journey-log-red-hand-of-doom-vraath-keep)
Part 5: Return to Drellin's Ferry (http://zippdementia.tumblr.com/post/172447519720/s305-journey-log-red-hand-of-doom-the-council-at)
Part 6: Skull Gorge Bridge (http://zippdementia.tumblr.com/post/172905670035/s306-journey-log-red-hand-of-doom-skull-gorge)
Part 7: Concluding Chapter 1 (http://zippdementia.tumblr.com/post/173210341245/s307-journey-log-red-hand-of-doom-concluding)
Part 8: Lady Dagger Side Quest (part 1) (http://zippdementia.tumblr.com/post/173599217215/s308-journey-log-red-hand-of-doom-lady-dagger)
Part 9: Lady Dagger Side Quest (part 2) (http://zippdementia.tumblr.com/post/173913211160/s309-journey-log-red-hand-of-doom-lady-dagger)

Chapter 2: Give it a Rhest
Part 10: Converting to Evil Sidebar (http://zippdementia.tumblr.com/post/174021386280/s310-journey-log-red-hand-of-doom-good-being)
Part 11: The Long Journey to Rhest and the Razorfiend (http://zippdementia.tumblr.com/post/174422105365/s311-journey-log-red-hand-of-doom-the-long)
Part 12: Elfin Encampment. (http://zippdementia.tumblr.com/post/174565823240/s312-journey-log-the-red-hand-of-doom-elfin)
Part 13: Dragon in the Water (http://zippdementia.tumblr.com/post/174698239655/s313-journey-log-red-hand-of-doom-dragon-in-the)
Part 14: Changing Rhest Part 1 (http://zippdementia.tumblr.com/post/175053275395/s314-journey-log-red-hand-of-doom-changing-the)
Part 15: Changing Rhest Part 2 (http://zippdementia.tumblr.com/post/175296538270/s315-journey-log-red-hand-of-doom-changing-rhest)
Part 16: From Chapter 2 to 3 (http://zippdementia.tumblr.com/post/175463605140/s316-journey-log-red-hand-of-doom-transitioning)

Chapter 3: The Lion, the Lich, and the Horde Rogue
Part 17: How to Handle Leftover Dragons (http://zippdementia.tumblr.com/post/175885352260/s317-journey-log-red-hand-of-doom-what-to-do)
Part 18: Entering the Ghost Lord's Lair (http://zippdementia.tumblr.com/post/176793248930/s318-journey-log-red-hand-of-doom-entering-the)
Part 19: The Ghost Lord and Stormbringer Ulwai (http://zippdementia.tumblr.com/post/177507084245/s319-journey-log-red-hand-of-doom-meeting-the)
Part 20: Interlude and Putting in a Side Quest (http://zippdementia.tumblr.com/post/177976052775/s320-journey-log-red-hand-of-doom-interlude-and)
Part 21: White Plume Mountain and the Loss of a Friendship
(http://zippdementia.tumblr.com/post/178586157710/s321-journey-log-red-hand-of-doom-white-plume)
Chapter 4: Bringing it to Brindol
Part 22: Beginning a Battle (http://zippdementia.tumblr.com/post/179556152805/s322-journey-log-red-hand-of-doom-beginning-a)
Part 23: The Five C's of RPGS and The Battle of Brindol (http://zippdementia.tumblr.com/post/180688951105/s323-journey-log-red-hand-of-doom-the-five-cs)
Part 24: The End (and a beginning) (http://zippdementia.tumblr.com/post/182358849440/s324-journey-log-red-hand-of-doom-finished-with)

[Zippdementia]

Part Two is posted. Shorter than last time: this time covers the basics of Drellin's Ferry and an idea of how to use a side quest hinted at in the Campaign.

[Zippdementia]

Part 3 is up: this deals with my interpretation of Jorr and how I handled the Causeway. Jorr is pretty much as stated in the book, though I’ve added in a catch that will develop more in later posts...

[rchiossi]

I'm just starting RHoD with my group of 3 players tomorrow and your notes were very helpful with the preparation! Thanks for sharing them! :)

[Zippdementia]

My computer was down for a couple weeks for repairs, but now I've gotten up part 4, the first major battle scene of the campaign. Part 5 should be up in a couple of days.

[Zippdementia]

Part 5 is up! This is a shorter post, dealing with "what happens next?" and how to keep the game moving. It also sets up Skull Gorge Bridge to be a different kind of encounter.

[Zippdementia]

Part 6 is live! This is one of the more epic moments I've had in my GMing experience. Explosions and Dragons and possible tpk... I'll let you read instead of spoiling it.

[CoffeeIncluded]

Ooh, thanks for posting this! I finished a 3.5 play through of Red Hand a few months ago and it was a blast. I also modified it quite a bit for this world, mostly in terms of some character builds and roleplaying. Especially Ulwai. Are you planning to change any of the characters or their motivations?

[Zippdementia]

Ooh, thanks for posting this! I finished a 3.5 play through of Red Hand a few months ago and it was a blast. I also modified it quite a bit for this world, mostly in terms of some character builds and roleplaying. Especially Ulwai. Are you planning to change any of the characters or their motivations?

Glad you had fun! I am changing a few characters and motivations. My next post (hopefully up today) will go into detail about how I changed Jorr Natherson to open up a side quest, and much much much later I'll reveal the special twist I put in for the leader of the horde (since I, like many others, don't like the final dungeon and intend to do something else with it).

How did you adjust Ulwai?

[Zippdementia]

Part 7 is up, which goes into detail about how to conclude the first chapter of the adventure and also gives some suggestions for side quests (more side quest suggestions next post).

[Zippdementia]

Part 8 is up. We've left the main material to develop a side quest inspired by the Lady Dagger plotline this session, but we will be returning to it shortly. In the meantime, this may give some inspiration on how to develop and run the Lady Dagger story.

[Aleister VII]

Awesome, I'm applying with a character to play this in play by post and having this as a guide is really helpful.
The battle against the hobgoblins turns out to be harder than what I expected, not sure how I'll deal with it yet but I'm betting my money into blasting them with a fireball (my PC is a tiefling dragon blood sorcerer BTW) at the start of the fight to decimate the archers and then stick to firebolt and scorching ray while leaving my party (who I still don't know what classes they'll be) do the job and blasting any reinforces with another fireball and transform my sorcery points in more spell slots to cast more fireballs, apart from my pyromaniac tactic I have shield if get into melee for whatever reason and hellish rebuke if a weekend enemy reach me.
I would also like to pull out some shenanigans with suggestion but I doubt I've the chance to do it.

Hopefully I won't be a drag to my party in that battle and above all don't die x.x

[Zippdementia]

Awesome, I'm applying with a character to play this in play by post and having this as a guide is really helpful.
The battle against the hobgoblins turns out to be harder than what I expected, not sure how I'll deal with it yet but I'm betting my money into blasting them with a fireball (my PC is a tiefling dragon blood sorcerer BTW) at the start of the fight to decimate the archers and then stick to firebolt and scorching ray while leaving my party (who I still don't know what classes they'll be) do the job and blasting any reinforces with another fireball and transform my sorcery points in more spell slots to cast more fireballs, apart from my pyromaniac tactic I have shield if get into melee for whatever reason and hellish rebuke if a weekend enemy reach me.
I would also like to pull out some shenanigans with suggestion but I doubt I've the chance to do it.

Hopefully I won't be a drag to my party in that battle and above all don't die x.x

Fun! Is it a fifth edition conversion you'll be playing in, then?

Of course, it is difficult to give tactical advice since every table will be different depending on the players and (even more so) on the DM. But most encounters in Red Hand of Doom are set up to have a boss monster or two supported by a number of weaker underlings who are there to support those bosses and generally get in the way of killing them (sometimes, by physically placing themselves as a barrier). Killing the boss monsters, therefore, should be the party's main goal. If you have a three person group like I do, then you have to do a bit of focus fire to get this done and use abilities and clever tactics to get past the flesh wall of lesser enemies. But if you are in a four person group, then your role as a sorcerer could be uniquely positioned to take out those lesser foes with a couple solid spells and let your heavy hitters get to the then-unprotected bosses.

Don't write off spells like Suggestion! A good DM is needed to allow those charisma spells to reach their full potential, but they can be game changing in the right moment, cast on the right enemy. Thinking outside of the box has always been (and will always be) the players' greatest weapon :)

[Aleister VII]

xD yeah it's going to be a 5e convert with some tweaks as far as I know.

As you say my main concern will be blast away the minions and reinforces before they can become annoying and I'm not giving up suggestion, it's plainly the most broken spell IMO, I'll try to use it in one of the bosses as the minions aren't worth the spell slot, what I will suggest is quite dependant of how the battle is going but I'll most likely wait until be safe enough and suggest something hilarious or stupid that will waste my enemy's turn and then leave my party crush it xD

[Zippdementia]

xD yeah it's going to be a 5e convert with some tweaks as far as I know.

As you say my main concern will be blast away the minions and reinforces before they can become annoying and I'm not giving up suggestion, it's plainly the most broken spell IMO, I'll try to use it in one of the bosses as the minions aren't worth the spell slot, what I will suggest is quite dependant of how the battle is going but I'll most likely wait until be safe enough and suggest something hilarious or stupid that will waste my enemy's turn and then leave my party crush it xD

re: suggestion Just remember a few things!

One, (quoted from PHB): "The suggestion must be worded in such a manner as to make the course of action sound reasonable. Asking the creature to stab itself, throw itself onto a spear, immolate itself, or do some other obviously harmful act ends the spell." Depending on the DM, a harmful act may include attacking his allies, so that may be out! Asking a creature to flee from battle may also not work great, as the DM could rule that as soon as he's fled, he fulfills the requirements of suggestion and can come back. So you have to be a little more clever with it.

Secondly, if the enemy is attacked by you or your allies, suggestion ends. So beware of that! And concentration... it is a concentration spell, so you are limited in what else you can cast while it is active and if you take damage you have to make a concentration check to maintain the spell.

Third, a lot of people forget this little trick of suggestion: "You can also specify conditions that will trigger a special activity during the duration. For example, you might suggest that a knight give her warhorse to the first beggar she meets. If the condition isn’t met before the spell expires, the activity isn’t performed." This can be used for a lot of cool effects. Like, suggest that the enemy spy on the horde's position and intentions and sends you a carrier pigeon later with the details, or leaves a letter for you in a specific place. Then let the enemy survive the combat and go carry out your suggestion. Or tell the enemy that after combat, he will order his troops to go fight the monsters of the Wytchwood, or take down the blockade surrounding the Rhest highway. Lots of fun you can have.

[Aleister VII]

I actually always forget the third one in favor of a more immediate effect xD

Planting a suggestion with a trigger is quite awesome.

[Zippdementia]

Part nine is up, finishing up my homebrew side quest (next post will get us back on track as we enter chapter 2 and go to Rhest). This post makes quite the change in our game! Special stats are included for Lady Dagger, re-envisioned as a cult leader.

[Zippdementia]

My group has become evil! The latest post talks about how to handle this and shows how to pull it off without rewriting the campaign (in fact, while changing very little). Next time, we are truly back on track with the original campaign :)

[Zippdementia]

Back on track, this post is LONG. It takes my party through the journey to the blackfens and their first encounter with the Greenspawn Razorfiend. My take on the beast is pretty vicious, stats are included.

[parryhotter]

Download the FULL conversion guide in pdf format here:
https://mapmagic.box.com/s/2hys5dnmvs0vdh5b2qtk5amrtfbvqmq2

[Zippdementia]

Download the FULL conversion guide in pdf format here:
https://mapmagic.box.com/s/2hys5dnmvs0vdh5b2qtk5amrtfbvqmq2

Very cool document! My players are quite a bit higher level than the ones suggested here (level 9 now) so I'll continue to have to use my own conversion, but this is a great document to have around for reference! Is it your own?

[MintyNinja]

This was a very enjoyable read. One of the top Campaign Journals I think I've ever read. Looking forward to more.

[Moradin]

Very cool document! My players are quite a bit higher level than the ones suggested here (level 9 now) so I'll continue to have to use my own conversion, but this is a great document to have around for reference! Is it your own?
It's not his. It's from Daniel Pryor, who recently launched a kickstarter to convert RHoD to 5e, maps included.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mapmage/red-hand-of-doom-5th-edition-conversion-guide-and

Your playthrough is very entertaining, and enjoyable to read. Lots of ideas for my ongoing campaign. Keep up the good work!

[Zippdementia]

Thank you for the positive feedback! One of the players has her own Twitch channel for gaming and we are going to start live streaming one of our other games this weekend, a solo game running through Joe Dever's Lone Wolf. We may add this to the streaming roster as well. I'll drop links as they come together!


It's not his. It's from Daniel Pryor, who recently launched a kickstarter to convert RHoD to 5e, maps included.

Oh cool! I remember when that launched but I lost track of it and forgot to back it. It's awesome that it made its goal and came out. Good for him. He did a good job.

In other news, the next post is up. This one is quite a bit shorter, covering just some notes and thoughts on the elves and stating out Trellara as an NPC.

[Zippdementia]

Alrite, another post up. This one deals with the popular suggestion that GMs use Regiarix as a JAWS style encounter in the sunken city of Rhest. I also break to talk about "fixing" broken abilities in DND 5 (basically I say don't do it) and of course the post pushes us forward in our story a bit. Next post should conclude the Rhest adventure and push us onto the next Chapter, which I've been looking forward to for AGES.

[Zippdementia]

New post is up! I enjoyed this session quite a bit and I loved making some big adjustments to Rhest. It put us in a much more interesting situation than what is written in the module. Hope you find some inspiration here!

[Zippdementia]

Next post has been, er, posted! It covers the transition from 2 into 3. This week we'll play through the start of the chapter I've been waiting for since first reading Red Hand of Doom. I don't know what it is about undead, but I love me some classic undead campaigning.

[Kadesh]

Just started reading from Chapter 1 on a lunch break, this is really good! Reminiscent of the feelings of Silverclaw Shift Campaigns that got me to this site!

[Zippdementia]

Just started reading from Chapter 1 on a lunch break, this is really good! Reminiscent of the feelings of Silverclaw Shift Campaigns that got me to this site!

I'm glad you are enjoying them! Things get crazy round abouts chapter 2 :)

[ciarannihill]

I'm gonna bookmark this as a potential follow-up game for players after a 1-7 campaign. Thanks for the great resource, I hope converting the rest goes smoothly.

[Zippdementia]

I'm gonna bookmark this as a potential follow-up game for players after a 1-7 campaign. Thanks for the great resource, I hope converting the rest goes smoothly.

So far so good! I’ve really enjoyed adding in the extra element of having an evil party. Definitely you can still use the conversion with a good party, it doesn’t change the conversion at all, but it forced me to really examine the plot and pacing of the adventure and that showed me some things that could be cut and some places where things could be added. I hope that is useful, too!

[Zippdementia]

Part 17 is up! This pushes forward our story in a rather dark way, while also going into a discussion about dragons.

http://zippdementia.tumblr.com/post/175885352260/s317-journey-log-red-hand-of-doom-what-to-do

[Zippdementia]

Part 18 is up! We are getting far in the campaign, now! This deals with the first foray into the Ghost Lord's lair and has a new enemy stated out as well as two new items. Enjoy!

[Zippdementia]

Alrite, this one took me quite a while. A lot of new stats and a lot of discussion. I had a lot to say about this chapter! I also feel like my stat building is getting better, more consistent, and more in tune with what 5th edition tries to accomplish. As such, I'll go back at the end of the campaign and make a post with just stats, so that everyone not only has easy access to the nitty-gritty of the redesign, but also so I can touch up some of my previous conversions to incorporate everything I've learned over the course of playing this adventure.

We're getting close to the end, now. Next post will take us on one last side mission, and then we will rocket into the finale.

http://zippdementia.tumblr.com/post/177507084245/s319-journey-log-red-hand-of-doom-meeting-the

[Doomeye56]

planning on running my own 5e conversion of RHOD this will be helpful, thx.

[Zippdementia]

planning on running my own 5e conversion of RHOD this will be helpful, thx.

I'd love to hear how it goes! I'll write a review at the end of all of this, but for now I will say it's a tough adventure to convert. Even in its original form it required a lot of changes to challenge players. And it takes place at the weird gateway of levels between 6-10 where player builds can vary drastically in terms of power. In other words, it's hard to predict how tough your players will be and which encounters will be challenging for them. Overall I would say the encounters I've created here should work out well for most campaigns, but don't be afraid to change things on the fly (especially in terms of the Horde leaders) to make things easier or harder.

When I've completed it, I'll make a post with updated stats reflecting what I learned during the playtest. We're getting close to that now...

[Zippdementia]

Next post is up! I've been focusing for a little bit on just DMing, as well as my conversion for Carrion Crown and the Lone Wolf game, so I've been writing a little slower on the blog. But this and the next post should catch us up! Here I talk about one more side quest, as well as reminiscing a bit on some of the inherent problems of Red Hand of Doom and some of the other advice that's been given to running the adventure over the years.

Next time we'll delve into White Plume Mountain as a side quest. I'm not going to spend a lot of time discussing each and every character movement throughout the dungeon. I'll do an overview of the story and talk about some changes that I made to make the dungeon more accessible to a modern audience. Then we'll be at the final battle at Brindol and very close to the end of this campaign.

http://zippdementia.tumblr.com/post/177976052775/s320-journey-log-red-hand-of-doom-interlude-and

[Zippdementia]

The latest post is up. I'm proud of this one: it was an unexpectedly difficult one to write as we unexpectedly stopped playing with one of our group members, and that's never an easy thing to write about. Hopefully my words on it provide some insight to other DMs and players who have had friendships fall apart mid game.

Next post will detail a couple of sessions at Brindol. We are getting very very close to the end now.

http://zippdementia.tumblr.com/post/178586157710/s321-journey-log-red-hand-of-doom-white-plume

[Zippdementia]

Latest post is up! A shorter one this time, it covers the battle council and shares my thoughts on how this is no longer really useful as a conversion guide, haha, at least not as far as monster stats are concerned. As far as adjusting the scenarios and situations I believe (and hope) it has been very helpful to GMs!

http://zippdementia.tumblr.com/post/179556152805/s322-journey-log-red-hand-of-doom-beginning-a

[Zippdementia]

This one was long delayed because I wanted to capture the whole Battle of Brindol in one post. Considering it took us four sessions to play throguh the Battle, that explains the wait.

http://zippdementia.tumblr.com/post/180688951105/s323-journey-log-red-hand-of-doom-the-five-cs

[Zippdementia]

This post marks the end of our Red Hand adventures. I will be continuing the blog for those who wish to read it, and for my own enjoyment (it is great being able to look back and have an accurate record of our adventures), but this will mark the end of this thread.

Thanks for reading!

http://zippdementia.tumblr.com/post/182358849440/s324-journey-log-red-hand-of-doom-finished-with