YMMV / Odyssey of the Dragonlords

• Fanon: The Odyssey community has created a lot of extra advice & content for the campaign, mostly collected on the Discord server and the "DM's Guide" document. Some notable ones include:
  • The Exile Epic Path. Essentially the Fallen Princess trope, it focuses on the player character being the rightful heir to the Amazonian throne and having escaped The Coup that ousted their mother. This is done to encourage a visit to Themis (since in the module, few Epic Paths have a reason to go there), and also makes the Lady of Coins more nuanced than she is in the book by making her the one responsible for the Exile's survival. As part of this, details of Themis and the Amazon's culture are often adjusted, since some of the details in the module make the Amazon's look very villainous even before The Coup, so adjusting details such as the presence of slavery makes the Exile more heroic.
  • As mentioned previously, another is for the DM to adjust the motivations and backstory of the Lady of Coins (Moxena), even if not using the Exile Epic Path. In the module, Moxena is written as an evil character who wants to take control of Themis, and will try to kill the player characters if they don't support her, making it hard to justify any morally decent party to engage with her. Instead some have her rewritten to be a Tragic Villain, either playing up her guilt in overthrowing the Amazonian queen, or her being backstabbed by her sisters and wanting revenge.
  • The Timeless One Epic Path. It focuses on the player character being the child of the Titan of prophecy, Versi the first, who is suddenly thrusted into the modern age after having been in a Year Outside, Hour Inside situation. They must find out what happened to the older titans, and also get revenge on Sydon and Lutheria for what they did. This Epic Path was made to allow for more exploration of the other Titans, who in the original module are generally treated as The Ghost, and use some of the locations the module doesn't really have a lot of plot reasons to go to, such as Fire Island.
  • A common change is to remove the whole Demonic Possession part of dealing with Estor aboard the Ultros, and instead make him a real fight. This is because the module seems to think all the players will just accept the ghost of Estor hanging around, and don't really present him as a boss, so making him a fight instead resolves Estor's role in the story better.
  • Another is to make the other children of the Sydon and Lutheria more involved in the story. Several of them don't play major roles and only seem to exist to be boss like enemies (especially if attacking Praxis), so some suggest adjusting them to be more involved by either having them interact with the heroes outside of battle, or setting them up as almost rivals to the heroes. In particular, playing up the connections they may have to characters in the party, such as Yala if one of the player's is an Amazon, or if one of the player characters is descended from one of the Titans, as it allows them to be given more focus.
  • Due to Aresia being something of an after-thought in the module since it was added as a stretch goal for the kickstarter, some dungeon masters adjust the story of the module to have Aresia be involved more instead of being relegated to side content.
  • Most dungeon masters are advised to remove the Timed Mission aspect of the module and instead use milestone moments to indicate how much time is left before the Oath of Peace ends. This is because the Timed Mission part of the module can make exploring the setting harder, and make players forego plot-hooks due to the fear of not being ready for the final battle. As part of this, some dungeon masters tend to also make traveling between islands quick and avoid combat unless it fits while at sea to avoid worrying about mechanics such as navel combat.
• Scrappy Mechanic: The Timed Mission part of the module is something both players and dungeon masters alike tend to dislike. On paper it seems like a generous amount of time, and a good way of raising the stakes, but in practice it severely limits the freedom for all involved to explore the setting. Players may feel like they can't explore because they have to focus on the Oath of Peace, and dungeon masters can end up feeling like they are railroading the players because of it. Most tables tend to play fast and loose with it to avoid this issue.
• That One Boss: The Great Boar's gimmick is that it's very powerful but will die in six rounds due to pre-existing wounds. The trouble is that most battles in D&D are shorter than six rounds... especially when the boar deals an average of 12 damage per attack while most level 1 PCs don't even have that much HP. The two NPC allies that join in the fight are more likely to be valiant meat shields than anything else.
• That One Level: Praxis, though obviously meant to be really hard given it's Sydon's base, is an incredibly hard dungeon that can come across as way too difficult to even attempt to run. With so many floors, players will run into so many enemies and hazards that it can be almost impossible to actually survive running it. Not only are there so many combat encounters, but very few chances to rest, and if the players do attack, they potentially have to fight Sydon, his children, and his allies, all without rest. While not mandatory outright, some Epic Paths need to go there to finish up their story, which makes going to Praxis basically a suicide mission.