D&D Starter Set Reddit Bonus Episode - Lost Mine Of Phandelver Dungeon Master Guide for Beginner DMs
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 5 ก.ค. 2024
- I went to Reddit asking the question "What Do You Wish You Knew When You First Ran Lost Mine of Phandelver?" and got some great responses. The top comment addressed something we didn't talk about yet in this series on the Dungeons and Dragons Starter Set, and others added new layers to topics we did look at. Plenty of Links in this descriptions to some great resources for Dungeon Masters, beginner or experienced.
❤️Patreon: / verdigristable
💬Discord: / discord
📚DMsGuild: bit.ly/dmgvtrd
🌎Website: verdigristable.com/
🐉Starter Set: amzn.to/3KZpVDf
🗻Essentials Kit: amzn.to/380CmjC
📕Players Handbook: amzn.to/3858ORN
🧙Dungeon Masters Guide: amzn.to/3OfWAGG
👾Monster Manual: amzn.to/3uTGpqS
🌐 LMoP subreddit: / lostminesofphandelver
🌐 Neverwinter Guide: www.inchoatethoughts.com/dung...
➡️Sly Flourish on LMoP: slyflourish.com/running_phand...
➡️How to D&D on LMoP: • Lost Mine of Phandelve...
➡️Cros.Land on LMoP: cros.land/a-dms-guide-to-lost...
➡️Matthew Perkins on LMoP: • How to run LMoP - D&D ...
▶️ My Full LMoP Prep Playlist: • Lost Mine Of Phandelve...
Index
00:00 - Bonus Episode! Reddit Edition
00:56 - Top Comment: Dungeon Master's Guide to Neverwinter
02:49 - Most Frequent: The Gundren Conundrum
06:35 - Goblin Arrows and Cragmaw Hideout
07:34 - 2nd Most Frequent: Phandalin NPCs
11:18 - Thundertree & The Dragon
13:27 - Dragon of Icespire Peak & The Essentials Kit
15:20 - Doppelgangers: Double Trouble
17:02 - Nezznar the Black Spider
18:07 - Other Resources
19:52 - Make it your own
Some of the above are affiliate links and I will earn a small commission at no extra cost to you when you make a purchase using them.
#Dnd #DM #StarterSet #LMoP - เกม
![เจอประจำ ตอน เปิดเทอมวันแรก [EP.29]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/eFK-B836i60/mqdefault.jpg)
▶ My Full LMoP Prep Playlist: th-cam.com/play/PL_1gLniRsbW5YrLp9qd_qA1JDK-Hg-SL0.html
🌐 LMoP subreddit: www.reddit.com/r/LostMinesOfPhandelver/
The 'make them care for gundren' bit here lead into the most organic session 0 ive ever run. Meeting Gundren before hand instead of just asking the new players to introduce their characters at the start, I had GUNDREN do it in character! He sat down at the table, smiling and laughing shaking hands,
"My nefew here has told me a bit about you lot. You all show a bit of promise, say are you the one he said was strong as an ox? Tell me a bit about yourself."
"So you must be the brains of this here group, eh? Well, where'd you learn to do all that magic stuff? Bet yer good with runes and the like, eh? Might have some extra work for you when we make it to Phandalin."
"Nice bow you got there, hunter by trade before this or were you a military man?"
"Ahh that glint in your eye I bet you could bullseye a kobold 200 leagues off. Those are hawks eyes in you boy, glad to have you." Etc.
Had him not just buy rounds for them all but get to know them, show an interest in them each in turn, even had a drinking contest with the dwarf. When he went missing they were READY to hunt him down, all new players. Fantastic advice, thank you!
Oh awesome, love to hear it. I’m about to run this again as I’m taking a table from level one through shattered obelisk, looking forward to doing a little Gundren sesh again
I am a long time veteran of D&D both as DM and Player and I love your video especially since I am about to run this adventure for the first time with at least two brand new to the game players. One of your strengths is clear and concise commentary. You don't waste the viewers time without a lot of useless drawn out detail. New subscriber.
Thank you, I appreciate that. I do put a lot of effort into valuing people's time. I like my examples and get excited sometimes, but I do my best in the edits. Hope you and your players have a lot of fun with this one, feel free to ask me (or the subreddit) if questions come up
The guide to Neverwinter in here is fantastic, the shop cards and key location cards are very helpful. By the way, the man who made this guide ALSO did some free supplementary stuff for LMOP, including shop cards for all the shops in Phandelver. Very helpful stuff.
Awesome, I love resource sharing. Thanks for all the positivity
First off, I thought you played a great role of the agent in the Alvin & the chipmunks movie.
Brand new to this and want to play it with my wife & kids. I got a bit put off by the amount of Information so just kept it to one side. After finding your videos I'm all energised for trying again so a big thanks for these videos.
I'll probably read through the instructions again and then give it another go. 👍
Do I have to watch Alvin and the Chipmunks now? I'm afraid lol.
Just remember that you don't have to know everything, plus you can always look stuff up and make stuff up. I tried really hard to lay out this playlist in a way to make it all digestible and keep folks from getting too far ahead of themselves. I definitely hope you get out there and run this one for your family, it's a ton of fun and could lead to some great memories
@@RdotDoyle, Look up the actor David Cross. He could be your brother. LOL!
No you did it all perfectly & helped me to understand. Going to start this weekend, so I'll let you know how it went.
Thanks again. 👍
@@andrewrobertsmith7367 oh nice, I love David Cross! I'll take it.
Glad you'll be running, let us know how it goes
My PCs were strangely uninterested in the Redbrands and the threat they posed to Phandalin. I introduced a prevalent character (a PC’s ex-husband) and had them take over the Alderleaf Farm spot. We took time to touch on their history and allowed them to reach some peace with each other. His new spouse and adopted son were then kidnapped by the Redbrands overnight and that definitely helped create a more personal vendetta for my PCs against the Redbrands and Glasstaff
This is the way! Adapt, make it personal for the characters, I love to hear it
I think the thing that was just weird to me is just how inconsequential the Redbrands are. When you first read about Phandalin they seem super important and cool but once you beat their dungeon they stop existing outside of the party choosing to keep their cloaks. In my game the Party found out the Redbrands were about to sell a family into slavery and immediately took a long rest before fighting their way through the dungeon and eliminating the threat. The Redbrands ended up being just a weird blip on the radar that would have been forgotten completely if the Wizard didn’t take up the glass staff for himself.
If you want another for Neverwinter, the D&D 4e book is *fantastic*. I've basically only ever run LMoP in the 4th edition setting, as I think Neverwinter (in that edition) is an absolutely amazing setting.
The only risk is that I've had parties who didn't want to leave haha
Great advice! This was one of the main resources I found when I first ran this, before that guide was available.
I've told a couple people in this process that if the PCs head for Neverwinter and you're not trying to run an urban campaign you can just have it be taverns and shops but no real adventure. It's nice to have a gold sink and some players are going to love shopping or having access to magic items, but when the adventure is out there on the frontier eventually they'll head back to Phandalin.
I found that Neverwinter guide just in time as well. It was while I was running Dragon of Icespire Peak and the characters hinted at going there a few times so I had to find something. It turned out that the rogue and a sidekick companion were the only ones to take the journey attempting to get some help from the Lord's Alliance while the rest of the party tracked the Stone Cold Reavers back to Icespire Hold.
Anyway it was a great resource to have and made the city feel real for the visit.
Definitely, I wish it was around when I started. I've been thinking about doing a series on DoIP prep and building up the Reavers would certainly be on my list of suggestions, sounds like you did so to great effect
I’m so glad I found this channel! I recently started to get into D&D and DMing and you, my friend, talk so eloquently and easy to understand for new players. It’s amazing! Hehe I’ve binge watched all your LmoP content. Keep up the awesome content 🙏🏼
Fantastic, welcome to the hobby. Happy to help you get rolling
I ran my first session as a DM the other day, with your tips and i must say they helped me no end. I did a tavern brawl as an opening quest which helped my new to dnd players learn the ropes and leveled them up showing how their characters develop as well as letting gundren see a capable team to hire. Thank you for all the work and i would love to see you run the 1st chapter of other modules!
Oh that's a really fun idea, thanks for sharing that. I've done a few other series like this you can find under playlists in the channel. Just started the new starter set as well
Thankfully one of my players is a legitimate archaeologist and is determined to save a fellow rock nerd 😂 lucked out with that
Oh that’s awesome, plot hooks that tie into the player’s background are even better than the character’s
I consider myself a veteran of dnd. started from 2nd edition back then and now its time I take up the role of DM and will start with LMOP! Have watched your videos several times and I feel much more comfortable on running this. Amazing series of videos. Keep it up!
Oh heck yeah, love to hear stuff like this! Thanks for the comment, hope your whole table has a blast
This was a great idea for a video and well executed. Thank you!
Thank you, I gotta give credit to the great LMoP community on Reddit as well
I personally would love for you to do a video series on combining LMOP with DOIP.
Good to hear, thanks! It’s coming, I’ve got a lot of plates spinning but that is on the list and I’ve got big ideas
Put Hew in the shambling mound, with the handle protruding out
This is a fantastic idea!
Thanks for taking the time to make these videos keep it up
Glad you got something out of it! Thanks for the comment
Great DM guide, I have already ran LMOP twice, yet i came here for inspiration as I'm gonna run this a third time. Thank you very much! :)
Oh that's great to hear! I try to keep things beginner friendly while packing in details for experienced DMs as well, not always easy to know if I'm pulling it off though
Yes please! I was looking for your consolidation guide between LMOP and DOIP
I took a pause from the DoIP series and then the OGL mess kept me away, but I plan to return to Phandalin soon. The silver lining is the combo might include the upcoming adventure as well
Your videos are so well made! I am so surprised you don't have more subscribers because you certainly deserve it. You deliver info clearly and intricately and for someone who is yet to DM or play DnD, you make me more excited the closer I am to meeting with my friends to play. Your guides are a huge help :D
Thank you very much! I'm putting the work in and hopefully proving myself to the algorithm overlords, we'll see😆 I am glad you're feeling excited and prepared to run the game, that's always the goal. When are you starting?
@@RdotDoyle Yes!! It will be worth it for the day the algorithm pushes you forward! It's kind of a long while from now, but about a month from now when we all gather up again at university :D
That guy that suggested to use other resources seems like a good guy... =) Seriously though, nice job in running the comments into a coherent video. See you on the sub (even if we don't talk about it).
Definitely a great suggestion, wherever that Jon came from
Thank you for such a useful video. Will be improving my game a ton.
Glad you found value in it
Awesome series, I keep returning to this playlist for advice running my campaign, I can't wait to introduce Venomfang as the 'big bad' and then later introduce Cryovain as his rival.
Thanks! That sounds pretty epic, hope you have a blast!
The problem with taking Sildar back to Neverwinter is that the adventure is basically over. He would return with 100 knights and the PCs would not matter.
Played Advanced D&D in the 80's and into second edition before our group split-up to start their professional careers. During COVID my family started playing 5e rules while on lockdown and I DM'd the village of Homlett and some smaller one-offs from my dusty collection of Greyhawk modules adapting it to 5e. After the world opened back up we stopped playing but the seeds of adventure may be bearing fruit again. I purchased both box sets and would love to see how you connect them as a larger sandbox. I am going to attempt to start our campaign back up with these adventures from the starter kit and the essentials kit. I am going to attempt to shoehorn in the Keep on the Borderlands, village of Hommlett, Cult of the Reptile God, and the Temple of Elemental Evil. Have not decided if I'm going to substitute these with the sites Cragmaw castle, wyverns tor, thundertree, etc. or just plant them to the east extending past the triboar trail east of the woods into the hills.
I like how you covered the starter kit and have subscribed to help me prepare to DM my new group. Thanks for sharing your talent.
Oh awesome. Sounds like a great time and I’m happy to be a small part of that journey. I think the key with putting that much tier 1 content in a sandbox is a light touch and let the players steer the direction. My gut is you might have a little too much going on and they won’t know which way to turn, but that depends on the players really. I like three solid options, it avoids analysis paralysis and keeps prep from getting too crazy. I love leaving them wondering about the road not taken, but having four roads not taken can get overwhelming. If you’ve got that stuff locked and loaded any because you know it well already, different story. Still, I’d prioritize two or three paths and hold onto the other hooks for if they go exploring and start turning over rocks
"I like reddit"
Everyone respected that
I still like Reddit, but Reddit didn’t respect the last time I tried to share a video
I just started lost mines as my first time DMing, all my players are new. I split the party and told them to come up with a background that connects them, e.g. long life friends, a father and son or whatever. then we met to do a sort of intro with just two players so they could get more coaching from me with game mechanics. they got hired to clear out two oozes from a manor basement.
it also helped to get them doing a bit more role play. the next two players i will have on a ship in route to neverwinter and will need to deal with a dangerous stowaway. both parties will then be adventuring before they meet the adventure hook.
This is a great strategy, build up those intercharacter connections. I did something similar when I ran Ghosts of Saltmarsh, but you've built in the added benefit of making it a training scenario as well. And it's definitely not a bad thing to send the PCs into the goblins' path leveled up.
I'm getting ready to DM for the first time (so what better way to start). Seems like I have 4 players (we've been playing together for over a year) so everyone gets a free feat/ASI at level 1. With a bump to stats and a homebrew bag of jelly beans that range from all the effects of a long rest, to dealing damage to who consumes it.
Verdigris Table - Ryan Doyle
Oh nice, congrats! That bonus feat/ASI should make the beginning a little less deadly but as things progress don't be afraid to pump enemy HP or throw in an extra goblin here and there if the balance starts to feel off
Appreciate these
And I appreciate these comments
Great video. There are so many D&D creators but your delivery is awesome. The topic is great and I like how detailed you were. So many creators are a bit down energy and dry, some put me to sleep (sorry dungeon dudes).
Thanks so much! I get a little self-critical on my delivery sometimes, but I just do my best to be myself and be real with it. It is really nice to hear it's well received. And people who find it too much can always slow down the playback
Your delivery is great. Love the combination of enthusiasm and expertise.
Thank you, that’s very kind of you to say
Great video
Thanks!
This is Excellent!! I've been waiting to throw my girls into this. And never actually played this, I'm excited for this adventure. Thanks!
Oh nice! This is a great way to start
Was about to run lost mines and wanted to incorporate icespire before I start. You really should make that vid
You came back and discovered me at the perfect time, because that is exactly what I'm working on now. Depending on when you start you might get ahead of me though, because it takes a while to make these videos, so any questions let me know
Question about downtime: While Gundren is captive, taking downtime (let alone some sidequests) feel like they make little narrative sense ("We need to get Gundren back! But let's first take a week to train up..."). Any thoughts on how to reconcile this dilemma? I'd especially like to use downtime to make leveling up make sense from an in-game perspective.
Yeah, there's definitely a conflict there. In my video talking about rest mechanics I put up two weeks ago I go into some options to slow things down a bit and build in down time. I particularly like my safe haven homebrew hack but gritty realism in the DMG can get you there too. It could sap the tension out of things though, so I'm not sure I'd go with it here. If you really wanted to you could get Gundren out and have his map still there, or maybe he saw the Black Spider there (though it could have been a doppleganger.)
Have you made any videos about combining Icespire? I am having my session zero for my campaign this Saturday.
I have this big idea of of helping folks make a mega, openworld sandbox. The first two Tales from the Yawning Portal adventures and the tables and adventures I've been making for the DM's Guild are part of that, and Dragon of Icespire Peak is on the list, but it is all still very much a work in progress.
Quick advice, If I were to do it I wouldn't be shooting for 50/50, I'd have one main storyline be the focus and pull my favorite parts of the other. So I'd probably run the Gundren story arc and replace the Spider Web's stuff with Dragon Barrow, Gnomengarde, and maybe the orc elements so I could lead into the follow-up adventures. Then just pepper in dragon rumors and spotings, personally I'd put Cryovain on the random encounter tables too.
@@RdotDoyle I was thinking Lost mine will be main, but then add the dragons as followup for after. Have them showup a little, but they know they can't handle yet so they hold off fighting.
Maybe give them the quest for the dragon fighting sword and the cool dead dragon map, showing off the size of a dragon.
@@RdotDoyle Thinking about the idea of the Dad DM (who incorporated Venomfang as a "villanous patron" to their children) and combining DOIP and LMOP, maybe Venomfang could be up to set a new deal with the Party, but this time for them to take care of Cryovain... In some sort of way, it solves the problem with Venomfang outshining Nezznar, with the possible TPK in Thundertree and with the territorial fights between a green and a white young dragon
@@kanthus12345 I like this angle. It hinges on the party going along with Venomfang, but ties things together nicely and tees up the double cross the evil patron moment
19:58 I’m DMing for my friends via roll20 and I sent them letters in the mail to connect them to Gundren pre session 1- also attached a dwarven luck token to one and an elven token of gratitude to another. Can’t wait to have their tokens give them random perks (single surprise usage) 😂
That’s really cool, actual irl letters? That’s above and beyond. Always nice to get something in the mailbox
@@RdotDoyle yeah IRL letters 😁 written on parchment paper with gold ink and tied with twine 🤣 I’m a little extra haha
That’s great, your players must have flipped out when they showed up
@@RdotDoyle they loved them for sure!
So did this mega sandbox adventure thing ever happen? For a couple of weeks I’ve been working on mixing in content from LMoP, DoSP, and considered trying to bridge in some of the content of Phandalin found in Acquisitions Incorporated. As well as two other bits of content I found online called Essential Phandalin and Return to Phandalin. One which is supposed to take place during DoIP and one that takes place a couple months after the events of LMoP.
So I can’t elaborate enough ie much I’d love to see videos on this subject.
I talk a bit about options to combining the two Phandalin adventures early in my DoIP series. The plan was to finish all of those chapters then talk about different ways of combining everything, but the OGL fiasco made me feel a little weird about promoting WoTC products so hard. Now that the situation has resolved in the best possible way I think I’ll finish DoIP, then build the sandbox with you all.
In the meantime it sounds like you’ve got plenty of material to go with, but in the process of making these series a few people have recommended A Tale of Two Dragons on the DMsGuild. Haven’t gone through it myself but it seems geared towards scaling all the chapters, could be a good asset
Also, you did not talk about the forge, it seems a little let down for it to not work really. Do you making any changes or do anything to help explain?
It also seems if it is not working then what are we stopping the big bad from?
I regret not addressing this and am kind of surprised it didn't come up int the Reddit conversations, but yes, the Forge of Spells is definitely a dud. I believe that is due to the fact that handing over a magic item maker could wreck the game balance. My personal take on it is that the Forge of Spells has degraded over time, which is how the players find it, but over time it could be restored to it's former power. Otherwise, it's exactly as you say, if the heroes never intervene the Black Spider achieves nothing anyway.
Crafting is definitely a weak point in 5E, but we do get some rules in Xanathar's and the biggest take away is that everything takes a long time, especially compared to the typical adventure timelines at most tables. So once the forge is fixed I see it as a source of income more than something the player characters use themselves or directly benefit from. I could also imagine using it to explain the characters leveling up and gaining abilities.
I hope these ramblings helped
@@RdotDoyle I was thinking maybe Blackspider could have been sent by Loth and she had some God power to bringing it make to life and make it a threat.
Loth could also have been brought in on transforming black spider to make him a bigger fight.
Would want to drop some documents about that plan to show that they stopped it. Maybe it involved some sacrifices to Loth that make it something stopping the players from that higher power.
How easy will be the black arrow if my 5 player are level 2 we are new to the game? thx for the answer
Player strategy and the dice are always a factor, but they’ll be going in with twice the HP and more capabilities so I’d bet they’ll be fine
Curse of Strahd next?
I’m trying to stick to things I’ve run but you’re not the first to ask about CoS so I might take a look at changing that approach. After I finish DOIP I’m doing a little series on an open world Sandbox/West Marches/Open Table approach I’ve been doing for the past year or so combing published with homebrew and my integrated tables
I just bought DOIP to run after LMOP (after watching this video) and I’m confused on how that adventure takes you to lvl 12. In the book it says it only goes to lvl 6.
There are three adventures on Dnd Beyond that tie in, the first one is called “Storm Lords Wrath”
Mine is “How to deal with a TPK?”
I gave some ideas on this earlier in the series while talking about Venomfang in Thundertree: th-cam.com/video/q8rtklpIS9g/w-d-xo.html
@@RdotDoyle my LMoP campaign ended more than a year ago, and it end with a tpk, even though the group remains friends since, but we never play dnd together anymore, so i think if i did a better job dealing with that TPK, we would still be playing now
Oh man, I'm sorry to hear that. My LMoP ended with a near TPK as well and it was definitely heart-wrenching. I obviously don't know the specifics at your table, put with a year passed it might be time to try again. You could make a fresh start, or you could consider how the old PCs actions shaped the world. Maybe their heroic sacrifice saved Phandolin, but now there are new threats and run Dragon of IceSpire Peak from the Essentials Kit. Alternatively, maybe the Black Spider won and these new heroes have to deal with the aftermath of that. Maybe the drow raided Phandolin and that's an introduction to Out of the Abyss.
The advice in that link I shared may still be helpful, but I'll also say letting your players know death is a force in D&D right up front is key. If things are going sideways you can straight up tell the players "things are not looking good here, you might want to run or negotiate." Encouraging players to make a back up character is also a good way to lessen the sting.
Maybe there's a D&D Death video in the future, until then let me know if I can help you out with more specifics. I hope you get your game going again, reach out to your friends, see how they're feeling about it.
I'm dming for the first time, and I'm running LMOP, but I'm running it with a group that I've been playing as a player with for a while, and we have a pretty good dynamic. For one thing we recognize that we're telling a story together, so if the DM wants the story to go a certain way they can just tell the players that and we can collaborate to figure out how we can go there or what alternatives we can do.
Like, "Ok, you guys can hang out and never winter for a while, but I don't have a lot of content for there, the story is really expecting you to follow this hook to Phandalin, can we figure out a way that your character would care about that? Or what stories are we looking to have in Neverwinter?"
The problem I have is that my group keeps leaving dungeons half done and then going back to them and I have to figure out how to reset them based on what happened the first time the players were there 😂
So when they circled back to The Cragmaw hideout to get the lionshield coster goods after killing Klarg but not many of the other goblins, they found that killing Klarg had left a power vacuum and the goblins had divided into three factions. One group of led by Yeemik that wanted to seize the opportunity to just be independent bandits, one that wanted to stay under King Grol, and "the runts" who weren't great at fighting and didn't really want to keep being bandits at all.
The party killed or scattered most of the first two factions except for one goblin who they took captive and then they left until the captive wound up telling them about the runts, who would be subjugated again when the survivors returned, so the group went back to rescue them and have them hiding out at the Alderleaf Farm until the party can get rid of the Redbrands and set their goblin refugees up with a home and small business 😂
But yeah, tomorrow I have to figure out how the Redbrand Hideout is reset after the party went in through Carp's intel, fought the bugbears, rescued Droop, fed the bugbears to the nothic, and then had Droop lead them to rescue the Dendrars, killing the two prisoner guards (and throwing their corpses to the nothic too)
Will I have the Redbrands come to town looking for the infiltrators? Just post better (and soberer) guards around? Tbd
I'm loving all of this! Two key points here worth highlighting for the next new DM who comes along.
1) The social contract. It is not only ok but often good and proper to just do what you're talking about here: to come out and say "Hey folks, the adventures over here" or "what are we looking for in this area." Sometimes we're afraid to engage in above the table talk because we feel it will break immersion, but it can actually do the opposite and ensure we're all in it together like with your group here.
2) The world is the DMs character and we often play them off screen outside of game time. Restocking the dungeon, reacting to the party's moves, this is at the heart of DMing. It's sounds like you're a natural at it. You crafted a more complex and likely more interesting situation than what was written here. I'm getting all sorts of ideas from this conversation but factions with their own goals and interests are a huge part of this process. Thinking about what the "bad guys" want makes it way easier to decide what they would do next.
I actually really love the idea of nezznar being nezzra and a woman. Gives a Sylvanas windrunner vibe. Night elf / dark elf (drow) gawd in a nerd
We're all nerds here baby, embrace it! Gender bending is always an option, there's some Drow lore that stopped me from doing it but there's no reason to follow canon if you like something better, this is your world
I thought most of the NPCs in town were boring, so I gave them a bit of backstory, nothing crazy. My players really latched onto Mrs. Thornton (zhentarim member running the miners exchange) and wanted to run her out of town and eventually take down the entire organization. It’s been really great watching them find ways to passive aggressively thwart political schemes, plot heists to steal magic items and sus out key figures to interrogate/assassinate.
Oh awesome, sounds like you’re having a great time with it