It's madness, I tell you!

[TADHG]

So, as you may have heard, I'm running Out of the Abyss for a group of five characters. There is an effect or two that induces madness. I get that it's a WIS saving throw but the book isn't clear onwhen I should check, or the DC. I remember when checks were made by rolling under your ability score on d20, so everyone had a different target. But anyway, since we're expecting the full complement of players tomorrow, I've decided to let them check. Thought maybe a softball check of DC10 or DC12. Any guidance will be appreciated and considered.


Guidance, not "You screwed it up, it's too late now." Or "Just leave it out."

[Wynamoinen]

The save DC will vary. I don't want to give spoilers, so I'll just say that there's a big event at the end of chapter 3. On the last page of the chapter it says that if characters witness the event, they must make a DC 13 WIS save v madness. Later on, some bonkers stuff happens on page 92, and it calls for a DC 10 WIS save v madness. The save depends on what's going on, and they tell you the DC.

I thought OotA was fun to run, but (regarding your other thread about railroading), I found it took some strong GM guidance. The end of Ch 1 throws everything up in the air, but via the NPCs, I basically told the PCs "this is the best path to where we want to go". It's so open ended at the end of Ch 1 that the players can easily take some odd paths if you don't just show them the maps and travel time grid on pages 18 and 19 (which you probably shouldn't since it's full of spoilers!). If your players skipped Ch 3 and went straight to Gracklestugh (Ch 4), they missed out on some important stuff. The the adventure makes it really easy to miss it.

[TADHG]

It didn't post. Once we got into chapter 5, it told me when to roll, and what the DC was. I found oddly specific forms of madness for my players.

[TADHG]

The characters all suffered, at minimum, short term madness. The cleric spent 10 minutes praying. Which isn't too bad, but he was struck with the need to pray at an inopportune time. The fighter felt the need to polish his weapon. The myconid was struck with the need to attack one of the party members, and was killed. The barbarian found himself with a phobia regarding cave bears, ironic, since his totem animal is a bear. And he progressed through the entire gamut of madness, gaining a new flaw. "I don't like how other people judge me all the time."