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Bob that's a really good idea about phandolin bring so close. I'm running Lost Mines of Phandelver right now for a group of new players. If I send them to Stormwreck after, do you think that the monster manual young blue dragon would still be a challenge at 7th lvl?
My best general advice for DM's is simple: Don't get married to anything you planned. I see a lot of DM's get frustruated when their players decide to ignore a key NPC, or walk right past the obvious clues pointing to your hidden treasure room, but no worries! This isn't a video game where that room is stuck behind that door forever. If your players don't see it, or don't interact with it, it wasn't actually there. Now you can put that same planned-out room, or encounter, or social interaction somewhere else. Did your NPC get killed by the splash damage from a Fireball before he could tell his tragic backstory? Now his story is tragically dying in a fireball accident, and the story you had set up for him belongs to a new NPC you can introduce next time the players are in town. Don't get frustrated when players break your world. Just save your plans for later, and maybe think through the consequences that your players NEVER do. I find they always appreciate that kind of a "comeuppance" moment.
Agreed, in my current campaign, some of the best plot left turns have come from players just doing whatever they want (within rules of course) and just rolling with it. The campaign is now infinitely more epic than it originally would’ve been.
Yall. My party did the shipwreck, found the journal and triggered the harpy. Once they made their way to the top, they somehow had talked themselves into believing the harpy was the woman in the journal whose husband was at the sanctuary. So they didn't kill her, but instead TURNED ON THE PALADIN who assumed the harpy was creating zombies and DID try to kill her. The harpy KO'd the paladin and the rest of the party let him bleed out while they tried to convince her to return to her "husband" at the sanctuary. They failed the persuasion checks and I played it as the harpy was too ashamed of who she became and what she looked like now to return and fled the shipwreck. So I had to turn the whole encounter on its head because in my opinion, that was a dope story. And this was my first time being a DM. Dnd is fun yall. Only panicked the entire time.
Very similarly, my first time DMing (or playing at all) I played with my kids, and right out of the gate they were arriving by ship to that little bay at the beginning and they decided to mutiny the ship’s captain and try to take over the shop. It was inventive so I went with it. I got them “back on track eventually by they getting knocked out cold and thrown in the brig only to wake up in the healers house on the top of the cliff, but along the way they accidentally made another dead zombie sailor that came back to get them later! Best part about playing with your kids is it’s basically stress free. It’s basically impossible to be embarrassed about DMing mistakes in front of your own kids 😊
My first DM was amazing at the ad-hoc style stuff... I was about 12 years old, had never played, and it was AD&D. I'd always come up with the most stupid ideas, but he'd always find a way to keep me happy but within the spirit of the rules... Looking back, it must have been hard work, but I think he found it fun to try and accommodate my weird prepubescent requests while sticking to the intention of the rules, so everyone was happy. A good DM really does make the game just work.
My best advice: Open with a session Zero where after character creation all your players are getting onboard the ship taking them to stormwreck isle introduce a captain who can possibly help during the first zombie encounter and will be a liason between the island inhabitants and the party. At this point each player can think of why they're going to the island and can either take from the pre-made Character sheets or make up their own backstory.... But either way end the first session/session zero right before they reach the island. That way session 1 will jump right into the story, and you won't have any of those weird bored questions of "why are we here, and what are we doing?"....
Agreed…I had my characters begin in a tavern called The Lighthouse Lounge where they lost in a drinking contest to some sailors who ferried them to Stormwreck Isle the next day. And that boat ride is when they shared backstories, etc. Worked out v. well.
I did this with a 3rd party module. Ran a session zero where they got run out of town but the rogue had stolen a deed to a house in the town the adventure starts in. So they decided to go there to hang out. If the rogue hadn't of come across the deed the bard was going to when it in a card game.
My players loved this gem of a DM hack: when players level up, I set up the first encounter as a 'rematch' against monsters they fought at their previous level. I would often add a few more to make it a 2 round fight. Typically, the players get a clear sense of how much more powerful their characters are now after mopping the floor with baddies that they had some trouble with before. This also works when players get cool new magical weapons. Letting the players experience the 'same' fight with more powerful versions of their characters resulted in much more engagement and planning for future levelling. My players snapped at every adventure hook. If feeling powerful isn't motivation for your players, the rematch scenario adds a bit of immersion and world-building: why would the characters levelling up magically make all the enemies in the area stronger? Thanks, Bob! Appreciate your work.
In the Seagrow caves, leave some barnacle encrusted zombie parts around the Plant Octopus and Violet fungi to explain they both why those defenses were added by the myconids, and why they are now so terrified they will be attacked (by more zombies). Another tip I got from enworld forum: A good motivation for the players would be for one of the residents to the deathly ill with an illness that only the ruby morel in the Seagrove caves can cure. Probably Varnath. Then when Varnath is cured she can recount the story of the ship lured onto the rocks.
Best DM tip: listen to your players. There is more to elaborate, but just start by listening to the things they are saying or aren’t saying and you’ll learn a lot about how to DM by responding to what they’re saying.
My big DM tip that I wish I knew starting out: Establish the villain immediately and make the villain do villainous things. It makes the campaign so much more engaging and satisfying at the end to have the players actually interact with the villain often and see the horrible things they do in-person. The players won’t feel compelled to defeat the “big mean man who is really mean and brings meanness to the realm” that they have heard about one time and never seen what they do.
I ran this for my sons in October. They’re experienced players, but one is in the military so we can only play face-to-face when he’s on leave. The Starter Set gave us the opportunity to play a complete adventure in a condensed timeline. I used homebrewed zombies and updated pack tactics for the bad kobolds. I punched up the number of zombie encounters a little bit, added a few hooks to get the party interested in the possibility of a red dragon living under the island and Sparkrender’s ritual. We had a lot of fun and decided to chain it into a combined LMoP and Icespire Peak adventure, which will introduce the party to the Dragon Cult, and Tyranny of Dragons, modded to bring the characters back to Stormwreck Isle and the red dragon lying dormant beneath it.
Bob you never disappoint! Wonderfully said! It amazes me how many DMs still don't understand that PLANS NEVER WORK. Think about it: the players have no plan at all. They are making it up as they go. So as a DM one must naturally be able and willing to make shit up along with the players
Hello Bob! I am in this game since 2002 (3rd edition) and a DM since 2003. I just want to express my thoughts of your work. You are a treasure to D&D community. Thank you for your great work on analyzing the starter sets of 5th edition, which for me, a 35 y.o. software engineer with limited time, is a huge life saver on how to avoid mistakes and setbacks. If you ever travel to Greece, I would love to meet you in person. I wish you best of luck and keep building ;)
I think my best advice is *"Be ready to improvise"* because things don't always go as planned; a solution you thought of, may be less favourable than the solution all your players, combined, came up with! Things won't go your plan quite often, so be ready to improvise! You can even find TH-cam videos on how to improvise better, D&D, or acting or otherwise! Although that's being said a lot, and my second-best tip is something I don't see often; *everyone has fun differently!* Some players love to get into your world and would ask you a lot about it! Others love to get nitty-gritty into combat, to the point of min-maxing, and they love it! Again, others enjoy vibing with friends around a D&D table. They might seem passive, not enjoying it, but they really do! The same goes for you; you're _playing_ as a DM, after all! Anyway, if you see other players "not having fun", you can ask them if they are! They might just be having fun differently than you would!
Have not played DnD since the 90s but my 13 year old son and his friend wanted to give it a go so mum gets to be DM for the first time ever! Its all a bit daunting but your video really helps thanks :)
General GM advice that I'd like to share is: Read the entire adventure, and become familiar with every chapter. A lot of adventures don't tell the players where to go next, and no one will be able to 100% predict where they go. Having a general idea of where the players might go will save you a LOT of headache.
Always. Read the entire adventure first. Get ideas from that. Then reread what you're going to run in that session. Adapt to changes that your players make! And it WILL happen. And that's ok.
Just a tip to buff little blue. Use max Hit points instead of an average for him. 80 hp isn`t to much, but is definitely more appropriate for a final battle.
@@BobWorldBuilder I do that all the time FYI, sometimes I'll even just add a full 50% from the base HP on the stat block. Anytime I run a creature who is supposed to be important I make sure their HP is buffed a bit if it isn't a custom stat block, and even then if it's just an additional or tweaked ability I'll also buff their HP. PC's just hit really hard in 5e.
Oh no! A Bob World Builder video I cannot watch! My youngest daughter is considering the possibility of running this as her first foray into DMing. I will definitely pass it on to her should she choose to give it a go. So glad that you made this video!
I ran this as a one-shot (we play over a whole weekend) where my party was some money hungry gremlins they grabbed every piece of gold they could, they gutted the dragon and even took the golden astrology thing. They bought a pirate ship and are now are randomly teleported to a different planet for my next campaign.
No need to "magically teleport" them though. You just need to make a whole new island/continent for the new quest and give them a means of discovering it...by doing this instead of "teleporting" them, the characters can better feel the size of the world which increases their appreciation of it, since even though these new events are across the ocean, they can still be tied in to the events and lore of what happened in Stormwreck Isle, because they had to physically traverse from one adventure to the next.
I’m starting this set with a couple of friends and we’re all new to DnD. So as a person new to not only DMing but DnD altogether- Thank You for this frankly ✨amazing✨ walkthrough!
Im here as a new dm. First campaign with my son being the only player. Hes a wizard and im a cleric for him. But its going amazing! This is an amazing starting set
Just ran the first encounter and did the mushroom fantasia quest with my 11 year old. He had a blast. I like these starter adventures because I make some really over powered characters for me and him and add a few magical items so that we can co-op these quests. Of course i do take some combat encounters out and as long as my kiddo is having fun, i did good! This really helped me as the DM because i can skim the chapter now and know what i can do and cut out. Thank you!
We got this from Wizards for review and my son (13) began his first foray into DMing using it. It's been great! My 1st level wizard only died once (so far). :)
Thanks, Bob. Grace too! I'm currently running this for a volunteer program (That I started) at our local library. I think it's really important to support your community, in particular, underserved kids. I'm not made of money, but the time that I can do. These kids make it so worth it too. Hence me being up at 5am to write encounters. This group is between 11-14 yrs. 3 players are completely new to TTRPGs. It's been an interesting group to balance, but man is it fun!
Thanks Bob! I plan to run this as my first job as a DM (that wasn’t a one-shot) and lead it into the extended Dragon of Icespire Peak. My brother and new stepdad will love it.
@@michaelthomas1916 I watched most of it both the breakdown and the playtest. I’m going to run it slightly differently since they’ll be level 3 when reaching Phandalin. Planning on starting that section with the lighthouse since they have to cross the sea to make it back to the main land and it ties nicely into the overarching theme more. I know to have some backups prepared since my brother rarely does the obvious thing lol We’re having our session zero after the new year.
I was DM'ing this for just one person, and instead of using one of the premade characters, I let her choose a Kobold to take with her everytime she went out on one of the main quests. (spoilers btw) This was dependent on how she treated the NPC's, so I incorporated little challenges for her to boost friendship. For example: -You saved Blepp's life by defeating those zombies. He wants to go with you. -Mumpo and Zark are sparring when you find them. If you can beat one of them in an arm wrestling match, you'll get a cool pebble(if the PC loses, they earn these kobold's favor anyway, because they had a fun time). -Funding Myla's shop -Helping Myla and Laylee with some tinkering -Helping any one Kobold(except Blepp with the zombies) gets Agga on your side. -Anything else you'd like to try Btw, only one kobold at a time accompanying the party. Can't have a game-breaking army, can we?
Some good advice for running a module. Read the whole book once, or at least the story bits. This tells you about your key characters, their motivations, and what happens to them throughout it. Then, once you are actually preparing to run it, only re-read the parts you will probably get to in the next session. Don't get bogged down by the massive mountain ahead of you, but do remember your landmarks.
Best advice: let the players talk and plan and role play as much as they like in Phandalin. If they're having fun at home base, trying to force them into a dungeon or to fight orcs before they're ready to leave is spoiling their fun. I had fun with my group when they first explored the town and I told them there was a basic shrine of tymora. Im not even kidding when they were telling me they were making rocks glow, doing backflips and playing lutes like Van Halen trying to gain some sort of attention of Tymora herself. It was hilarious. I gave them two bunnies come from the forest to give them a round of a-paws while standing on their hind legs and the hint of something extremely magical lured by their efforts (if someone rolled a 20 on perception, they'd have glimpsed a unicorn) but they all got goosebumps together. It was a special moment.
Thanks for making this. It was a ton of help when I ran the game. I ended up making a lot of story and character changes. One of the most significant things was getting rid of Aidron and having Runara be the one Sparkrender uses in his ritual (the players return from the last quest to find her kidnapped. That's what drives them to the observatory and the final battle). In my version, she has given up her dragon-ness entirely through magic but retains the soul of a dragon. There's more to it, but it's been working out pretty well so far.
General GM advice: You are there to have fun as well, do not tolerate people that try to rob you of that. Be polite, be fair, be firm. Having bad players is not a reflection on you as a DM, it is a reflection on them on being bad players. Have a session 0 to set expectations in both directions. What you expect the players to play and act like, and tease out of them what they expect you to do as well.
My party set out for the Seagrow caves while I forgot to give them both the sack of scraps AND the potions. They absolutely slaughtered their way through towards the Larder, then went back into the first room for a long rest because the session ended. I decided to each send them an individual text describing a dark dream they had while resting, in which they get the feeling they are not wanted here, but also that there is another feeling in them that does give them the idea their help is needed. This being influenced by the spores of the Myconids, lingering in the heavy sulfuric gasses. The combination of both made that they get the sense there is something wrong ánd something to be done about it. They then are woken up by footsteps entering the cave. Tarak ran after them to give them the sack of scraps and the potions in case of need. But as he found out they are doing mighty fine on their own, he ventures back to Dragon's Rest, mumbling about something Varnoth found on the northern cliffs of the island. First time being a DM and it's both nerve wrecking and enticing how much freedom you can take in these chapters.
I played this with a random group IRL and we did a similar thing with the obsidian egg. I played the Dwarf Cleric and the DM allowed me to use my stone cutting knowledge to chisel it away...and we then proceeded to carry it around and not use it
Baldur's Gate 3 got me into D&D again, upgraded from 3.5e to 5e. I wanted to try being a DM for the first time since 9th grade so I bought the core rulebooks, and two modules - Descent into Avernus and this D&D Starter Set. I really want to run Descent into Avernus but it's a bit long and there's a lot of stuff in it so it's a bit daunting, so I wanted a smaller one to run first to practice with some friends and I settled on this cause it looked fun and inexpensive. Still, being a DM can be daunting since you have to bring to life the world the characters interact with, and so after I read the Stormwreck Isle booklet, I wanted more info and tips on how to potentially run it and I found your video. In a word - amazing. Thank you for the helpful and friendly advice and going so in depth into the module even though its a starter one. You've made me a lot less nervous and even more excited to run this for myself. Thank you.
Keep it up! I keep praying for the power & internet to go out, because it causes automatic D&D time. This video is a great tutorial or refresher about what makes a good adventure.
This is going to be my first time as a DM and first time playing dnd in general. A bunch of my friends and I have been dying to play but had no DM. This video helped me feel a lot more prepared.
Awesome video. I really want to introduce D&D to some people and this is convinced me that the DOSI set might be the way to go. A simple, contained story!
i love the suggestions here. i was planning on running a short campaign arc AFTER DOIP and im planning to bump up the challenges within. Im glad that theres plenty of hooks that could still work for higher levels of play (looking at potentially fleshing out the story of The Compass Rose and its passengers’ connection to Orcus, exploring how the Isle would look like if the fire crystals grew unchecked, and a what-if scenario where Sparkrender was in league with bigger threats.
I'm half way through DM'ing this for my family. We're all new to D&D (I bought this box plus the essentials kit) and this video has helped me a lot. We've played through the start and the caves (where I had the myconids only communicate by feeling to make the roleplay interesting for the party) and we're doing the compass rose tomorrow.
Big change I made when running it was to play up the comet and have Sparkrender perform the ritual in d4 days when it got closest. I then had the five different dragon death locations show signs that a taloned creature had defiled it x months ago and that pieces of bone were missing from the remains. That way Sparkrender was foreshadowed way before the Observatory chapter, and made the ritual have cool components. One other change I loved was to have one of the Myconids Tarak’s dead lover transformed into a spore servant when he first came to Dragons Rest but couldn’t save her. That added a layer to why he was so desperate to return to the caves.
I just started to run this module for a few friends, two being long time dms from 3.5 and 5e. Your example is so similar to how our combat started, it is almost scary. Thank you for this guide. I have only ever ran homebrew, and this was more intimidating than I thought it was (even for a beginner module). I am still very new to being a dm. Love your vids.
Especially with new players, I will sometimes walk back their narrated action if it doesn't fit the dice, just like your example. Zombies are my excuse to let my "yes and/but" out. Narrate successful removal of about anything but the head, and it inexorably continues unphased. "I cut the zombie's legs off"...rolls a 3. "Yes, you cut it's legs off. It continues to Lt. Dan it's way after you"
Also, was surprised the set didn’t allow the kobolds / Tarak or Varnoth to become sidekicks for a smaller PC group. Way easier than “give the PCs another character to run.” Also connects them to the island as a guide. My 2 PCs (Rogue & Wizard) loved Tarak, who I made a half-orc, and wanted to know what his deal was.
I am seriously thinking about making them accompany the players to each main quest location, as in Tarak for the caves and Varnoth for the shipwrecks. My players are like.. 2. So I feel like adding a third member to their party will be a good idea
@Hero-qg9ch not a bad idea, just try to make sure the npc doesn't outshine the player characters. I've got a "expert" sidekick running with my party through Lost min3 of phandelver and Dragon of Icespire because they only number 3.
How do you get your brand new group, and their brand new characters, to even go to Stormwreck Isle (assuming you let the players roll characters and not use the pre-generated ones)? Use a McGuffin. Part of the story revolves around a comet that is going to be prominent in the sky very soon. To that end, scholars in Neverwinter have gathered funds to build a new telescope on the site of the observatory. The ship sails tomorrow, to transport the remaining pieces, most importantly, a newly designed focusing lens, that will make the telescope far more powerful than the old one. The characters are gathered in The Purple Worm, an inn and tavern near the docks, each there of their own accord. As they finish their meals, separately, a commotion is heard outside, along with cries for help. Most of the people in the tavern are dockworkers and ships crew, not adventurers. A fat balding man is in the street, wringing his hands, and calling for assistance. He sees the obvious adventurers in the gathering crowd, and presses them into service, with the promise of a sizeable purse of gold coins. Kobolds have stolen the lens, and ran into the abandoned warehouse across the street. It's up to the players to work together, defeat the enemy, and recover the lens, and safely return it to the man. Once safely recovered, he gladly pays them in his office nearby, and asks them if they would like to make more money, in exchange for escorting the final telescope pieces to the island, and up to the observatory. That's what I'll be doing this Friday, and then running most of the rest of the printed adventure slightly out of order. I'll be introducing three options for them to pursue, and flesh out my campaign for the next stage when they decide. I'm definitely looking at a Hollow World setting, though modified to not be like the printed box set. Another hook will involve an NPC from a far away land, whose ship was blown far off course, and he is the lone survivor, brought back to health under the care of Ruana. The players will have the opportunity to secure a ship, and try to find a way to return him to his homeland. The last possible hook will involve the dwarf ruins on the other side of the mountains from Phandalin. Though I MAY use that as a means to get the players into the Hollow World scenario, I haven't decided.
I just ran across this video, but it's a great walkthrough of the next module I plan to run. Overall DM advice (when thinking of the Sparkrender encounter, but applicable to any encounter you want to have weight), goes back to an old Matt Collville line, "Encounter design doesn't stop because everyone rolled initiative." If you've got a trivial to medium (or even hard) encounter just in the middle of an adventuring day and the party crushes it with good tactics or just because they had a good character build with nice dice rolls... good for them. Let them feel awesome. Enjoy it with them. If you have a climatic battle and your PCs pull out all the stops and your BBEG is going down too fast, give them extra HP. (You won't screw with the balance by overpowering the hits on your players, but you can make it last longer and have them prock a few more abilities to make things seem more dire.) Is it cheap? Absolutely. Will your players know? Normally not. Especially if you're using specific baddies to the campaign or homebrew stuff, where they can't know the statblock without metagaming. And if someone is metagaming for your specific campaign and gets upset that you're adjusting the climatic battles to give them more weight, then as a DM, I would question whether I want to play with that person. We'd definitely be having a conversation about it.
Thanks for the spore octopus tip, I ran this for the first time tonight. I think the regular spore octopus would have slaughtered one of my players before dying in a turn or two, but your modified spore octopus was able to slap them around lightly 7 times before they finally put it down. One of the players landed a crit so I decided that he chopped off one of the tentacles, thus reducing the attacks per round to 3. The martial characters got to fight out of the tentacles' grasp and the wizard got clever with his ice and lightning based cantrips. I actually let the octopus attempt to grapple multiple times without a recharge because the fight was so weighted in the players' advantage, but it failed all the grapple attempts so no harm done. In the end I probably made the fight a bit too easy but everyone had fun and we were running late anyway.
So glad to see the DM guides back !! Not a fan of this aventure, but I'm preping dragon of Icespire Peak and your playlist is great to have an overview and refresh my memory about the next aventure !
This videos actually pretty helpful, I’m an 13 year old who got the starter set for Christmas, and I want to do a journey with my parents & their friends
I’ve always wanted to play d and d but never had anyone to play it with except my friends and none of them know how to play so I know a little but not a lot so I’m the only one to be the dm so I needed something simple to start with and this is perfect 👍
My advice (and I am still rather new) is to ask your players at the end of session what they plan on doing next session. Especially if you are running a more open sand box type of game. Helps you prep what they want to do.
Great video! As a new DM I have a couple of questions I hope someone can advise on. 1) How much of the background story should I tell the players and when? Right now they have no idea what happened and why things are the way they are. 2) What are your views on whether to use theatre of the mind vs hand made maps for a starter set? My players are all new but are used to playing things like Heroquest on a detailed board with miniatures. Thanks for any info / advice!
One homerule that me and my friend has adopted to increase survivability in the early levels and just to make everyone a little bit more beefy and adventury is to give full Hit dices for the first three leves.
The advice I give to any new DM/GM is to remember you are merely the rules guru at the table. Any expectations or desires you have for your campaign and/or story will inevitably go awry. You are COLLECTIVELY telling a story with the PCs and their pilots; don't put your desires first. Remember everyone at the table wants to have fun, and it's no fun for anyone else if you're forcing a story to happen the way you want.
Thanks for the guide, I planned on introducing this as part of a campaign I’m running that it a combo of Dragon of Icespire Peak and Rise of Tiamat. Stormwreck Isle is a great place for a blue dragon cult!
About to start my journey into DND's campaigns for the first time and got this campaign recommended online. I'll be (trying) to be the DM while 3 friends will be the players/characters. This video got me really excited to read into this campaign and i wanna thank you for taking the time to make this! I'm still not sure if this will be something for me but im intrigued by the community and concept of the game. Got the idea to start learning this game due to 2 dutch streamers called Lekker Spelen ('tasty playing' litteraly translated). They play the game (and every other game) in a very non-serious way and their layedback approach to the game got me interested. We'll see where my journey ends (or never ends)
I am doing something slighting different when combining this to the Lost Mines of Phandelver and Icespire Peak. I have my players start with Stormwreck Isle with the characters provided, but told them this is because Stormwreck Isle is the prologue of the story. After Stormwreck, they experienced how to pay the game, learned about the rules, and understood better what they like and dislike. At that point, they create their own character, and we start with Lost Mines of Phandelver, slowly worked towards Icespire Peak, with the Stormwreck characters reappearing as NPCs. I get a lot of excitement from these familiar faces reappearing throughout the story. Sometimes I intertwine the Stormwreck character's goal with things happening in Phandelver and Icespire Peak, and my players would go, "So that's why Runara was saying this back then!" or "I knew this character was behind the incident at Stormwreck Isle!" Connecting all three campaigns this way is very fun.
Tip to simplify the myconid colony No stirges No violet fungi The elemental is a result of Sparkrender's rituals still evil dragom energy stuff fine to be vague a bit but explainable Also replace them with zombies (i replaced the zombies with sahuagins that serve sparkrender) better reson for the octopus to defend the myconids in my opinion Also helps occupy the octopus multiattacks more complex battle I like things being more cohesive
My group just started this, they were shipwrecked, though not by the harpy, as a starter before continuing to neverwinter for the Phandelver and below Shattered Obelisk. Since Icespire Peak is more sandbox I am using it to fill in quests so that the total campaign will allow my players to reach lvl 20. If Sparkrender escapes, I plan to use him again in the Tower of Storms quest. So far, my players are enjoying the interruption to their planned merc work. The funniest thing thus far though was on the beach. Paladin tried to force a zombie prone, got a 1 and ended up prone himself. Zombie flops on him and succeeded in it's attack, next turn, tries to push the zombie off, another 1! He had 2 hp left after the 1st encounter! The other players were untouched. Haha
DM Tip: take time before session 0 with each player to help build their character from scratch blending tutorial into making the character sheet. Talk about backstory ideas and help them discover their character's motivation. If you have more than 2 players, this can really help session 0 be more productive. You can spend more time as a group defining things like schedule and boundaries, and your players will RP way more naturally.
My best general tip is have fun ! Don’t overthink or over prep. Also depending on party size have the PC’s start off with level 2 HP. That way they are a little tougher than average.
I just had a cool thought in linking this to DoIP. This is assuming that the PCs take a ship to the mainland sword coast after the adventure ends. Easy easy..the ship crashes on the rocks beside the Tower of Storms lighthouse. The DM can run that encounter (it's lvl 3), plant a injured/stranded sailor to rescue somewhere towards the end of it or earlier on if the party needs a little help figuring out what's going on since that adventure is designed o start from the land side with the banshee. After the encounters, the sailor can ask the party to help them get safely to Phandalin. Boom! DoIP started.
New DM. Currently creating a DnD campaign with several factions of cult wizards as the campaign idea. With the party being from a thieves guild being deployed by the corrupt guilds or the non corrupt factions as pawns in the schemes for power through their magic. Currently, I've had three sessions, and the most intense was the second where they had back to back encounters in the Thieves guild with separate factions, who inadvertently asked for the same thing to be done. One faction is a group of Divination wizards, the other a small fragmented group of wizards (the Harper's), trying to promote peace and equality in the world and stop the magic cults. Currently, the party only knows of three or four factions. And then trying to decide who to align with of the two, is interesting cause they were given the same job. So seeing them decide to play the field on which side to pick is interesting. And I think I have a lot to learn with DM'ing. But here's my advice: sometimes the encounter or thing you think nothing of in the grand scheme is what your players latch onto and find intense or memorable or something else which is one of the best parts about DnD. The collaboration of how they react to the in game events is so important in the story telling. I've made mistakes when it comes to this but it definitely is reassuring to know those things are important to your players and that they are interested.
Thank you for the super helpful video! As a new dm I appreciate your easy going attitude towards everything; makes me feel less worried about running my first session :)
First time Dm (First time playing too with first time players) and a few nights ago my players decided to try to kill Tarak so I had Runara step in and protect her people by dragging them to the temple and berate them, especially the paladin, she revealed that she was a dragon only to the paladin(accidentally) and of course the rogue (in real life) heard that part so they where terrified of making her mad. She asked for an explanation and they just started babbling. blaming each other😂 it was so amazing. And after she left that’s where we ended because I wasn’t sure how to pick it back up having gone so far off of the story but all of us loved it and will definitely keep playing..
finished DoSI last week... had to tweak it too. had same questions as you.. purple fungi attack? nope dragon asleep? nope made blue dragon a hybrid between wyrmling and young adult with AC and HP. left dragon breath and physical attacks as wyrmling. also my players created characters so by lvl 3 very powerful so I added a dragonborne cleric npc to throw out bane and spiritual weapon on final fight. didn't have kobold fight either. I found adventure fun and a good starter for testing new players to know each other. going to take their characters to Decent into Avernus next.
awesome video my friend, really helped. I tried to be DM once before watching and I was absolutely totaled by all the information I had to remember and how to try to get my little brother to talk to the NPCs. Big thanks!! :)
I loved the seacave part because one of my players was convinced that the myconids could give his character top class hallucinogenic and ended up helping them and then having a party to get high together. Apparently he found enlightenment towards Bahamut 😂
Duude! Thanks! Your videos is awesome! I just got this and will try do be DM for the first time. Played as a player in my youth. Mostly Riot minds "Trudvang". Both me and my pals are psyched for this starter adventure but I feel a bit overwhelmed. I will for sure take many of your tips in this video to heart when I start prepping the adventure!
We had a zombie that just wouldn’t die on an add in ship we did for flavor and more loot for the rouge. They had stabbed a short sword through the zombie, pinning it to the deck, and it just would not die. The paladin ended up punting the zombies head off the side of the boat. Be ready for vastly fun and creative so,unions from your players. Also as a DM, don’t be afraid to create twists and turns of your own. Like adding a ghost to the compass rose to tell the story of the talisman instead of the captains note and twisting her story to be the killed lover of Tarok.
Loved your guides since Dragon Of Icespire Peak DM Guides, it was such a great source of entertainment for my partner and I, during the quarantine. I really appreciate your effort put into these videos and love your format, it's so welcoming and easy to understand. I was wondering if you have or know an all-in-one beginner player video as I would love to share that with my friends that are potentially interested in playing :) Thank you again, Bob! Love your content!
When I run stormwreck, I have the characters roll for their kobold, then have that kobold guide them to the ship/cave. Sometimes the kobold fights alongside the players. Sometimes the players throw their kobold to the octopus. It`s great.
For the violet fungus room, I increased each one's HP to 25 and increased the AC to 10 (to make them more annoying to deal with) and had one creep twards a wayward sprout in the room, one of the players passed their perception check, and stepped in between the sprout and the fungus, after the fight the myconids, attitude changed.
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Bob that's a really good idea about phandolin bring so close. I'm running Lost Mines of Phandelver right now for a group of new players. If I send them to Stormwreck after, do you think that the monster manual young blue dragon would still be a challenge at 7th lvl?
My best general advice for DM's is simple: Don't get married to anything you planned. I see a lot of DM's get frustruated when their players decide to ignore a key NPC, or walk right past the obvious clues pointing to your hidden treasure room, but no worries! This isn't a video game where that room is stuck behind that door forever. If your players don't see it, or don't interact with it, it wasn't actually there. Now you can put that same planned-out room, or encounter, or social interaction somewhere else. Did your NPC get killed by the splash damage from a Fireball before he could tell his tragic backstory? Now his story is tragically dying in a fireball accident, and the story you had set up for him belongs to a new NPC you can introduce next time the players are in town. Don't get frustrated when players break your world. Just save your plans for later, and maybe think through the consequences that your players NEVER do. I find they always appreciate that kind of a "comeuppance" moment.
This is a key piece of advice! Well said
great advice/reminder.
So true
I agree!
Agreed, in my current campaign, some of the best plot left turns have come from players just doing whatever they want (within rules of course) and just rolling with it. The campaign is now infinitely more epic than it originally would’ve been.
Yall. My party did the shipwreck, found the journal and triggered the harpy. Once they made their way to the top, they somehow had talked themselves into believing the harpy was the woman in the journal whose husband was at the sanctuary. So they didn't kill her, but instead TURNED ON THE PALADIN who assumed the harpy was creating zombies and DID try to kill her. The harpy KO'd the paladin and the rest of the party let him bleed out while they tried to convince her to return to her "husband" at the sanctuary. They failed the persuasion checks and I played it as the harpy was too ashamed of who she became and what she looked like now to return and fled the shipwreck.
So I had to turn the whole encounter on its head because in my opinion, that was a dope story. And this was my first time being a DM.
Dnd is fun yall. Only panicked the entire time.
Hahah sounds like you handled it very well!! That’s epic!
Very similarly, my first time DMing (or playing at all) I played with my kids, and right out of the gate they were arriving by ship to that little bay at the beginning and they decided to mutiny the ship’s captain and try to take over the shop. It was inventive so I went with it. I got them “back on track eventually by they getting knocked out cold and thrown in the brig only to wake up in the healers house on the top of the cliff, but along the way they accidentally made another dead zombie sailor that came back to get them later!
Best part about playing with your kids is it’s basically stress free. It’s basically impossible to be embarrassed about DMing mistakes in front of your own kids 😊
My first DM was amazing at the ad-hoc style stuff... I was about 12 years old, had never played, and it was AD&D. I'd always come up with the most stupid ideas, but he'd always find a way to keep me happy but within the spirit of the rules... Looking back, it must have been hard work, but I think he found it fun to try and accommodate my weird prepubescent requests while sticking to the intention of the rules, so everyone was happy. A good DM really does make the game just work.
My best advice: Open with a session Zero where after character creation all your players are getting onboard the ship taking them to stormwreck isle introduce a captain who can possibly help during the first zombie encounter and will be a liason between the island inhabitants and the party. At this point each player can think of why they're going to the island and can either take from the pre-made Character sheets or make up their own backstory.... But either way end the first session/session zero right before they reach the island. That way session 1 will jump right into the story, and you won't have any of those weird bored questions of "why are we here, and what are we doing?"....
Great idea for really leading them into the RP!
Agreed…I had my characters begin in a tavern called The Lighthouse Lounge where they lost in a drinking contest to some sailors who ferried them to Stormwreck Isle the next day. And that boat ride is when they shared backstories, etc. Worked out v. well.
I did this with a 3rd party module. Ran a session zero where they got run out of town but the rogue had stolen a deed to a house in the town the adventure starts in. So they decided to go there to hang out. If the rogue hadn't of come across the deed the bard was going to when it in a card game.
First time dm , followed this advice, we cannot wait for session 1! Thank you 🙏
@@younggrasshopper3531 I'm so happy to have helped so many people! 💓
My players loved this gem of a DM hack: when players level up, I set up the first encounter as a 'rematch' against monsters they fought at their previous level. I would often add a few more to make it a 2 round fight. Typically, the players get a clear sense of how much more powerful their characters are now after mopping the floor with baddies that they had some trouble with before. This also works when players get cool new magical weapons. Letting the players experience the 'same' fight with more powerful versions of their characters resulted in much more engagement and planning for future levelling. My players snapped at every adventure hook. If feeling powerful isn't motivation for your players, the rematch scenario adds a bit of immersion and world-building: why would the characters levelling up magically make all the enemies in the area stronger? Thanks, Bob! Appreciate your work.
In the Seagrow caves, leave some barnacle encrusted zombie parts around the Plant Octopus and Violet fungi to explain they both why those defenses were added by the myconids, and why they are now so terrified they will be attacked (by more zombies).
Another tip I got from enworld forum: A good motivation for the players would be for one of the residents to the deathly ill with an illness that only the ruby morel in the Seagrove caves can cure. Probably Varnath. Then when Varnath is cured she can recount the story of the ship lured onto the rocks.
Best DM tip: listen to your players. There is more to elaborate, but just start by listening to the things they are saying or aren’t saying and you’ll learn a lot about how to DM by responding to what they’re saying.
Now that's a great tip! Thanks for sharing!
My big DM tip that I wish I knew starting out: Establish the villain immediately and make the villain do villainous things. It makes the campaign so much more engaging and satisfying at the end to have the players actually interact with the villain often and see the horrible things they do in-person. The players won’t feel compelled to defeat the “big mean man who is really mean and brings meanness to the realm” that they have heard about one time and never seen what they do.
This is a cool tip that definitely takes human behavior into account
@@carpefuego thank you pluhbruh. Thank you ballincat 43
I ran this for my sons in October. They’re experienced players, but one is in the military so we can only play face-to-face when he’s on leave. The Starter Set gave us the opportunity to play a complete adventure in a condensed timeline. I used homebrewed zombies and updated pack tactics for the bad kobolds. I punched up the number of zombie encounters a little bit, added a few hooks to get the party interested in the possibility of a red dragon living under the island and Sparkrender’s ritual. We had a lot of fun and decided to chain it into a combined LMoP and Icespire Peak adventure, which will introduce the party to the Dragon Cult, and Tyranny of Dragons, modded to bring the characters back to Stormwreck Isle and the red dragon lying dormant beneath it.
Bob you never disappoint! Wonderfully said! It amazes me how many DMs still don't understand that PLANS NEVER WORK. Think about it: the players have no plan at all. They are making it up as they go. So as a DM one must naturally be able and willing to make shit up along with the players
Hello Bob!
I am in this game since 2002 (3rd edition) and a DM since 2003. I just want to express my thoughts of your work.
You are a treasure to D&D community.
Thank you for your great work on analyzing the starter sets of 5th edition, which for me, a 35 y.o. software engineer with limited time, is a huge life saver on how to avoid mistakes and setbacks.
If you ever travel to Greece, I would love to meet you in person.
I wish you best of luck and keep building ;)
I think my best advice is *"Be ready to improvise"* because things don't always go as planned; a solution you thought of, may be less favourable than the solution all your players, combined, came up with! Things won't go your plan quite often, so be ready to improvise!
You can even find TH-cam videos on how to improvise better, D&D, or acting or otherwise!
Although that's being said a lot, and my second-best tip is something I don't see often; *everyone has fun differently!*
Some players love to get into your world and would ask you a lot about it!
Others love to get nitty-gritty into combat, to the point of min-maxing, and they love it!
Again, others enjoy vibing with friends around a D&D table. They might seem passive, not enjoying it, but they really do!
The same goes for you; you're _playing_ as a DM, after all!
Anyway, if you see other players "not having fun", you can ask them if they are! They might just be having fun differently than you would!
Have not played DnD since the 90s but my 13 year old son and his friend wanted to give it a go so mum gets to be DM for the first time ever! Its all a bit daunting but your video really helps thanks :)
Dm Tip: your doing good. you got this. as long as everyone is having a good time your doing great :)
Best tip!!
General GM advice that I'd like to share is: Read the entire adventure, and become familiar with every chapter. A lot of adventures don't tell the players where to go next, and no one will be able to 100% predict where they go. Having a general idea of where the players might go will save you a LOT of headache.
True! Being at least a little familiar with the full story goes a long way to helping improv
Always. Read the entire adventure first. Get ideas from that. Then reread what you're going to run in that session. Adapt to changes that your players make! And it WILL happen. And that's ok.
Just a tip to buff little blue. Use max Hit points instead of an average for him. 80 hp isn`t to much, but is definitely more appropriate for a final battle.
That’s an awesome and simple fix! Nice!
@@BobWorldBuilder I do that all the time FYI, sometimes I'll even just add a full 50% from the base HP on the stat block. Anytime I run a creature who is supposed to be important I make sure their HP is buffed a bit if it isn't a custom stat block, and even then if it's just an additional or tweaked ability I'll also buff their HP. PC's just hit really hard in 5e.
For henchman or normal encounters, I go with average hp + 25% unless it's getting late in the session. Lieutenants and bosses get at least Max + 25%.
@@orwin5445yeah, especially if initiative goes pc sided.
Oh no! A Bob World Builder video I cannot watch! My youngest daughter is considering the possibility of running this as her first foray into DMing. I will definitely pass it on to her should she choose to give it a go. So glad that you made this video!
That’s great!! Best of luck to her!
I ran this as a one-shot (we play over a whole weekend) where my party was some money hungry gremlins they grabbed every piece of gold they could, they gutted the dragon and even took the golden astrology thing. They bought a pirate ship and are now are randomly teleported to a different planet for my next campaign.
No need to "magically teleport" them though. You just need to make a whole new island/continent for the new quest and give them a means of discovering it...by doing this instead of "teleporting" them, the characters can better feel the size of the world which increases their appreciation of it, since even though these new events are across the ocean, they can still be tied in to the events and lore of what happened in Stormwreck Isle, because they had to physically traverse from one adventure to the next.
I love it!
I’m starting this set with a couple of friends and we’re all new to DnD. So as a person new to not only DMing but DnD altogether- Thank You for this frankly ✨amazing✨ walkthrough!
Im here as a new dm. First campaign with my son being the only player. Hes a wizard and im a cleric for him. But its going amazing! This is an amazing starting set
Just ran the first encounter and did the mushroom fantasia quest with my 11 year old. He had a blast. I like these starter adventures because I make some really over powered characters for me and him and add a few magical items so that we can co-op these quests. Of course i do take some combat encounters out and as long as my kiddo is having fun, i did good! This really helped me as the DM because i can skim the chapter now and know what i can do and cut out. Thank you!
We got this from Wizards for review and my son (13) began his first foray into DMing using it. It's been great! My 1st level wizard only died once (so far). :)
Thanks, Bob. Grace too! I'm currently running this for a volunteer program (That I started) at our local library. I think it's really important to support your community, in particular, underserved kids. I'm not made of money, but the time that I can do. These kids make it so worth it too. Hence me being up at 5am to write encounters. This group is between 11-14 yrs. 3 players are completely new to TTRPGs. It's been an interesting group to balance, but man is it fun!
That's amazing! I hope this video helps you cut down on the prep time! :)
Very cool!
Thank you Bob and Grace for all of your guides and videos.
Thank you for watching and commenting! :)
Thanks Bob! I plan to run this as my first job as a DM (that wasn’t a one-shot) and lead it into the extended Dragon of Icespire Peak. My brother and new stepdad will love it.
Awesome! I hope you love running it and that they love playing it!
Ardith, Bob has a great series on running DoIP. It was a great help when I ran it for my group as my first time DMing a two years ago. Have fun!
@@michaelthomas1916 I watched most of it both the breakdown and the playtest. I’m going to run it slightly differently since they’ll be level 3 when reaching Phandalin. Planning on starting that section with the lighthouse since they have to cross the sea to make it back to the main land and it ties nicely into the overarching theme more. I know to have some backups prepared since my brother rarely does the obvious thing lol
We’re having our session zero after the new year.
@@Ardith50 great idea with using the lighthouse as a link between the two adventures.
I was DM'ing this for just one person, and instead of using one of the premade characters, I let her choose a Kobold to take with her everytime she went out on one of the main quests.
(spoilers btw)
This was dependent on how she treated the NPC's, so I incorporated little challenges for her to boost friendship. For example:
-You saved Blepp's life by defeating those zombies. He wants to go with you.
-Mumpo and Zark are sparring when you find them. If you can beat one of them in an arm wrestling match, you'll get a cool pebble(if the PC loses, they earn these kobold's favor anyway, because they had a fun time).
-Funding Myla's shop
-Helping Myla and Laylee with some tinkering
-Helping any one Kobold(except Blepp with the zombies) gets Agga on your side.
-Anything else you'd like to try
Btw, only one kobold at a time accompanying the party. Can't have a game-breaking army, can we?
Genius!
Some good advice for running a module. Read the whole book once, or at least the story bits. This tells you about your key characters, their motivations, and what happens to them throughout it. Then, once you are actually preparing to run it, only re-read the parts you will probably get to in the next session. Don't get bogged down by the massive mountain ahead of you, but do remember your landmarks.
After the sketch at 1:54, I'm jealous of the sheer romantic tension Bob has with _himself._
Posted an hour ago, and I bought the set yesterday. Good timing!
Haha awesome! Enjoy!
Best advice: let the players talk and plan and role play as much as they like in Phandalin. If they're having fun at home base, trying to force them into a dungeon or to fight orcs before they're ready to leave is spoiling their fun. I had fun with my group when they first explored the town and I told them there was a basic shrine of tymora. Im not even kidding when they were telling me they were making rocks glow, doing backflips and playing lutes like Van Halen trying to gain some sort of attention of Tymora herself. It was hilarious. I gave them two bunnies come from the forest to give them a round of a-paws while standing on their hind legs and the hint of something extremely magical lured by their efforts (if someone rolled a 20 on perception, they'd have glimpsed a unicorn) but they all got goosebumps together. It was a special moment.
Thanks for making this. It was a ton of help when I ran the game. I ended up making a lot of story and character changes. One of the most significant things was getting rid of Aidron and having Runara be the one Sparkrender uses in his ritual (the players return from the last quest to find her kidnapped. That's what drives them to the observatory and the final battle). In my version, she has given up her dragon-ness entirely through magic but retains the soul of a dragon. There's more to it, but it's been working out pretty well so far.
General GM advice:
You are there to have fun as well, do not tolerate people that try to rob you of that. Be polite, be fair, be firm.
Having bad players is not a reflection on you as a DM, it is a reflection on them on being bad players.
Have a session 0 to set expectations in both directions. What you expect the players to play and act like, and tease out of them what they expect you to do as well.
My party set out for the Seagrow caves while I forgot to give them both the sack of scraps AND the potions. They absolutely slaughtered their way through towards the Larder, then went back into the first room for a long rest because the session ended. I decided to each send them an individual text describing a dark dream they had while resting, in which they get the feeling they are not wanted here, but also that there is another feeling in them that does give them the idea their help is needed. This being influenced by the spores of the Myconids, lingering in the heavy sulfuric gasses. The combination of both made that they get the sense there is something wrong ánd something to be done about it.
They then are woken up by footsteps entering the cave. Tarak ran after them to give them the sack of scraps and the potions in case of need. But as he found out they are doing mighty fine on their own, he ventures back to Dragon's Rest, mumbling about something Varnoth found on the northern cliffs of the island.
First time being a DM and it's both nerve wrecking and enticing how much freedom you can take in these chapters.
I played this with a random group IRL and we did a similar thing with the obsidian egg. I played the Dwarf Cleric and the DM allowed me to use my stone cutting knowledge to chisel it away...and we then proceeded to carry it around and not use it
Haha very nice!
ahhh i literally finished running this yesterday. i wish this could've come out earlier...
Just find a few new players to run it for! lol Hope you had fun with it!
I cannot express with words how perfect this video is for me as a brand new GM. Thank you so much!!!
Baldur's Gate 3 got me into D&D again, upgraded from 3.5e to 5e. I wanted to try being a DM for the first time since 9th grade so I bought the core rulebooks, and two modules - Descent into Avernus and this D&D Starter Set. I really want to run Descent into Avernus but it's a bit long and there's a lot of stuff in it so it's a bit daunting, so I wanted a smaller one to run first to practice with some friends and I settled on this cause it looked fun and inexpensive.
Still, being a DM can be daunting since you have to bring to life the world the characters interact with, and so after I read the Stormwreck Isle booklet, I wanted more info and tips on how to potentially run it and I found your video. In a word - amazing. Thank you for the helpful and friendly advice and going so in depth into the module even though its a starter one. You've made me a lot less nervous and even more excited to run this for myself. Thank you.
Keep it up! I keep praying for the power & internet to go out, because it causes automatic D&D time. This video is a great tutorial or refresher about what makes a good adventure.
Thanks! And haha, D&D with the lights on is fun too!
This is going to be my first time as a DM and first time playing dnd in general. A bunch of my friends and I have been dying to play but had no DM. This video helped me feel a lot more prepared.
Awesome video. I really want to introduce D&D to some people and this is convinced me that the DOSI set might be the way to go. A simple, contained story!
i love the suggestions here. i was planning on running a short campaign arc AFTER DOIP and im planning to bump up the challenges within. Im glad that theres plenty of hooks that could still work for higher levels of play (looking at potentially fleshing out the story of The Compass Rose and its passengers’ connection to Orcus, exploring how the Isle would look like if the fire crystals grew unchecked, and a what-if scenario where Sparkrender was in league with bigger threats.
Very cool ideas!
I'm half way through DM'ing this for my family. We're all new to D&D (I bought this box plus the essentials kit) and this video has helped me a lot. We've played through the start and the caves (where I had the myconids only communicate by feeling to make the roleplay interesting for the party) and we're doing the compass rose tomorrow.
This came at the perfect time. I just got the set and have been excited to try to dm.
Big change I made when running it was to play up the comet and have Sparkrender perform the ritual in d4 days when it got closest. I then had the five different dragon death locations show signs that a taloned creature had defiled it x months ago and that pieces of bone were missing from the remains. That way Sparkrender was foreshadowed way before the Observatory chapter, and made the ritual have cool components.
One other change I loved was to have one of the Myconids Tarak’s dead lover transformed into a spore servant when he first came to Dragons Rest but couldn’t save her. That added a layer to why he was so desperate to return to the caves.
I just started to run this module for a few friends, two being long time dms from 3.5 and 5e. Your example is so similar to how our combat started, it is almost scary.
Thank you for this guide. I have only ever ran homebrew, and this was more intimidating than I thought it was (even for a beginner module). I am still very new to being a dm. Love your vids.
Especially with new players, I will sometimes walk back their narrated action if it doesn't fit the dice, just like your example. Zombies are my excuse to let my "yes and/but" out. Narrate successful removal of about anything but the head, and it inexorably continues unphased.
"I cut the zombie's legs off"...rolls a 3. "Yes, you cut it's legs off. It continues to Lt. Dan it's way after you"
Also, was surprised the set didn’t allow the kobolds / Tarak or Varnoth to become sidekicks for a smaller PC group. Way easier than “give the PCs another character to run.” Also connects them to the island as a guide. My 2 PCs (Rogue & Wizard) loved Tarak, who I made a half-orc, and wanted to know what his deal was.
I am seriously thinking about making them accompany the players to each main quest location, as in Tarak for the caves and Varnoth for the shipwrecks. My players are like.. 2. So I feel like adding a third member to their party will be a good idea
@Hero-qg9ch not a bad idea, just try to make sure the npc doesn't outshine the player characters.
I've got a "expert" sidekick running with my party through Lost min3 of phandelver and Dragon of Icespire because they only number 3.
How do you get your brand new group, and their brand new characters, to even go to Stormwreck Isle (assuming you let the players roll characters and not use the pre-generated ones)?
Use a McGuffin. Part of the story revolves around a comet that is going to be prominent in the sky very soon. To that end, scholars in Neverwinter have gathered funds to build a new telescope on the site of the observatory. The ship sails tomorrow, to transport the remaining pieces, most importantly, a newly designed focusing lens, that will make the telescope far more powerful than the old one. The characters are gathered in The Purple Worm, an inn and tavern near the docks, each there of their own accord. As they finish their meals, separately, a commotion is heard outside, along with cries for help.
Most of the people in the tavern are dockworkers and ships crew, not adventurers. A fat balding man is in the street, wringing his hands, and calling for assistance. He sees the obvious adventurers in the gathering crowd, and presses them into service, with the promise of a sizeable purse of gold coins. Kobolds have stolen the lens, and ran into the abandoned warehouse across the street. It's up to the players to work together, defeat the enemy, and recover the lens, and safely return it to the man. Once safely recovered, he gladly pays them in his office nearby, and asks them if they would like to make more money, in exchange for escorting the final telescope pieces to the island, and up to the observatory.
That's what I'll be doing this Friday, and then running most of the rest of the printed adventure slightly out of order. I'll be introducing three options for them to pursue, and flesh out my campaign for the next stage when they decide. I'm definitely looking at a Hollow World setting, though modified to not be like the printed box set. Another hook will involve an NPC from a far away land, whose ship was blown far off course, and he is the lone survivor, brought back to health under the care of Ruana. The players will have the opportunity to secure a ship, and try to find a way to return him to his homeland. The last possible hook will involve the dwarf ruins on the other side of the mountains from Phandalin. Though I MAY use that as a means to get the players into the Hollow World scenario, I haven't decided.
Thanks for sharing those ideas!
I just ran across this video, but it's a great walkthrough of the next module I plan to run. Overall DM advice (when thinking of the Sparkrender encounter, but applicable to any encounter you want to have weight), goes back to an old Matt Collville line, "Encounter design doesn't stop because everyone rolled initiative." If you've got a trivial to medium (or even hard) encounter just in the middle of an adventuring day and the party crushes it with good tactics or just because they had a good character build with nice dice rolls... good for them. Let them feel awesome. Enjoy it with them. If you have a climatic battle and your PCs pull out all the stops and your BBEG is going down too fast, give them extra HP. (You won't screw with the balance by overpowering the hits on your players, but you can make it last longer and have them prock a few more abilities to make things seem more dire.) Is it cheap? Absolutely. Will your players know? Normally not. Especially if you're using specific baddies to the campaign or homebrew stuff, where they can't know the statblock without metagaming. And if someone is metagaming for your specific campaign and gets upset that you're adjusting the climatic battles to give them more weight, then as a DM, I would question whether I want to play with that person. We'd definitely be having a conversation about it.
As a DM, YOU make the rules!!!!!!
Thanks Bob for the great vids!!!!!
Thanks for the spore octopus tip, I ran this for the first time tonight. I think the regular spore octopus would have slaughtered one of my players before dying in a turn or two, but your modified spore octopus was able to slap them around lightly 7 times before they finally put it down. One of the players landed a crit so I decided that he chopped off one of the tentacles, thus reducing the attacks per round to 3. The martial characters got to fight out of the tentacles' grasp and the wizard got clever with his ice and lightning based cantrips. I actually let the octopus attempt to grapple multiple times without a recharge because the fight was so weighted in the players' advantage, but it failed all the grapple attempts so no harm done. In the end I probably made the fight a bit too easy but everyone had fun and we were running late anyway.
I am a fan of your quest and campaign walk through’s. Keep them coming.
Thanks! I may do more play throughs and guides on my other channel Bob’s RPG Radio!
So glad to see the DM guides back !! Not a fan of this aventure, but I'm preping dragon of Icespire Peak and your playlist is great to have an overview and refresh my memory about the next aventure !
Haha yep! I packed it all into one video for this one, but along it felt nostalgic :)
W/o people like you doing this incredible work I wouldnt be starting DnD. Thank you.
Your sword cleaved the zombie in half to the waist. The zombie keeps plodding toward you with half its ribcage and an arm hanging off.
Well said!
this video helped me a ton when i played with my kids!
This videos actually pretty helpful, I’m an 13 year old who got the starter set for Christmas, and I want to do a journey with my parents & their friends
I’ve always wanted to play d and d but never had anyone to play it with except my friends and none of them know how to play so I know a little but not a lot so I’m the only one to be the dm so I needed something simple to start with and this is perfect 👍
Thanks to you, Bob for all you do.
My advice (and I am still rather new) is to ask your players at the end of session what they plan on doing next session. Especially if you are running a more open sand box type of game. Helps you prep what they want to do.
He does indeed address this in the video, but absolutely a life-saver for the DM's time and effort!
You could also use more than the average HP, roll an extra hit die per player or something.
Good tip!
Great video! As a new DM I have a couple of questions I hope someone can advise on.
1) How much of the background story should I tell the players and when? Right now they have no idea what happened and why things are the way they are.
2) What are your views on whether to use theatre of the mind vs hand made maps for a starter set? My players are all new but are used to playing things like Heroquest on a detailed board with miniatures.
Thanks for any info / advice!
One homerule that me and my friend has adopted to increase survivability in the early levels and just to make everyone a little bit more beefy and adventury is to give full Hit dices for the first three leves.
The advice I give to any new DM/GM is to remember you are merely the rules guru at the table. Any expectations or desires you have for your campaign and/or story will inevitably go awry. You are COLLECTIVELY telling a story with the PCs and their pilots; don't put your desires first. Remember everyone at the table wants to have fun, and it's no fun for anyone else if you're forcing a story to happen the way you want.
I took the white cardboard spacer that occupied half the box and turned it into origami. That was the most fun I had with this box.
Thanks for the guide, I planned on introducing this as part of a campaign I’m running that it a combo of Dragon of Icespire Peak and Rise of Tiamat. Stormwreck Isle is a great place for a blue dragon cult!
About to start my journey into DND's campaigns for the first time and got this campaign recommended online. I'll be (trying) to be the DM while 3 friends will be the players/characters. This video got me really excited to read into this campaign and i wanna thank you for taking the time to make this! I'm still not sure if this will be something for me but im intrigued by the community and concept of the game. Got the idea to start learning this game due to 2 dutch streamers called Lekker Spelen ('tasty playing' litteraly translated). They play the game (and every other game) in a very non-serious way and their layedback approach to the game got me interested. We'll see where my journey ends (or never ends)
I am doing something slighting different when combining this to the Lost Mines of Phandelver and Icespire Peak. I have my players start with Stormwreck Isle with the characters provided, but told them this is because Stormwreck Isle is the prologue of the story. After Stormwreck, they experienced how to pay the game, learned about the rules, and understood better what they like and dislike. At that point, they create their own character, and we start with Lost Mines of Phandelver, slowly worked towards Icespire Peak, with the Stormwreck characters reappearing as NPCs. I get a lot of excitement from these familiar faces reappearing throughout the story. Sometimes I intertwine the Stormwreck character's goal with things happening in Phandelver and Icespire Peak, and my players would go, "So that's why Runara was saying this back then!" or "I knew this character was behind the incident at Stormwreck Isle!" Connecting all three campaigns this way is very fun.
Tip to simplify the myconid colony
No stirges
No violet fungi
The elemental is a result of Sparkrender's rituals still evil dragom energy stuff fine to be vague a bit but explainable
Also replace them with zombies (i replaced the zombies with sahuagins that serve sparkrender) better reson for the octopus to defend the myconids in my opinion
Also helps occupy the octopus multiattacks more complex battle
I like things being more cohesive
Thanks Bob, awesome breakdown. Might have to give this one a go when introducing new players
My pleasure! Yep, for brand new players, I think it's the best box set
Thanks for the great video, Bob! I'm excited to run this at some point, probably after I'm done with Dragon of Icespire Peak.
My pleasure! Hope you enjoy it!
Running this tonight as my first ever DM session, so I appreciated the tips!
My group just started this, they were shipwrecked, though not by the harpy, as a starter before continuing to neverwinter for the Phandelver and below Shattered Obelisk. Since Icespire Peak is more sandbox I am using it to fill in quests so that the total campaign will allow my players to reach lvl 20. If Sparkrender escapes, I plan to use him again in the Tower of Storms quest.
So far, my players are enjoying the interruption to their planned merc work.
The funniest thing thus far though was on the beach. Paladin tried to force a zombie prone, got a 1 and ended up prone himself. Zombie flops on him and succeeded in it's attack, next turn, tries to push the zombie off, another 1! He had 2 hp left after the 1st encounter! The other players were untouched. Haha
Me a game dev struggling to create my own adventures I'm so taking mental notes on this one thanks!
Maybe go with the young blue but DO have him asleep. They can then sneak up on him and do a big chunk of damage.
Yep haha, I tried to really emphasize the not-sleeping part at the end of the video! So important!
I started playing it, it's fun so far.
DM Tip: take time before session 0 with each player to help build their character from scratch blending tutorial into making the character sheet. Talk about backstory ideas and help them discover their character's motivation. If you have more than 2 players, this can really help session 0 be more productive. You can spend more time as a group defining things like schedule and boundaries, and your players will RP way more naturally.
My best general tip is have fun ! Don’t overthink or over prep. Also depending on party size have the PC’s start off with level 2 HP. That way they are a little tougher than average.
I just had a cool thought in linking this to DoIP. This is assuming that the PCs take a ship to the mainland sword coast after the adventure ends. Easy easy..the ship crashes on the rocks beside the Tower of Storms lighthouse. The DM can run that encounter (it's lvl 3), plant a injured/stranded sailor to rescue somewhere towards the end of it or earlier on if the party needs a little help figuring out what's going on since that adventure is designed o start from the land side with the banshee.
After the encounters, the sailor can ask the party to help them get safely to Phandalin. Boom! DoIP started.
New DM. Currently creating a DnD campaign with several factions of cult wizards as the campaign idea. With the party being from a thieves guild being deployed by the corrupt guilds or the non corrupt factions as pawns in the schemes for power through their magic. Currently, I've had three sessions, and the most intense was the second where they had back to back encounters in the Thieves guild with separate factions, who inadvertently asked for the same thing to be done. One faction is a group of Divination wizards, the other a small fragmented group of wizards (the Harper's), trying to promote peace and equality in the world and stop the magic cults.
Currently, the party only knows of three or four factions. And then trying to decide who to align with of the two, is interesting cause they were given the same job. So seeing them decide to play the field on which side to pick is interesting. And I think I have a lot to learn with DM'ing.
But here's my advice: sometimes the encounter or thing you think nothing of in the grand scheme is what your players latch onto and find intense or memorable or something else which is one of the best parts about DnD. The collaboration of how they react to the in game events is so important in the story telling. I've made mistakes when it comes to this but it definitely is reassuring to know those things are important to your players and that they are interested.
Thank you for the super helpful video! As a new dm I appreciate your easy going attitude towards everything; makes me feel less worried about running my first session :)
Thanks Bob! Stay cool!
This helps so much cause I'm using this as my first campaign as a DM and thankyou I need this cause I felt overwhelmed
First time Dm (First time playing too with first time players) and a few nights ago my players decided to try to kill Tarak so I had Runara step in and protect her people by dragging them to the temple and berate them, especially the paladin, she revealed that she was a dragon only to the paladin(accidentally) and of course the rogue (in real life) heard that part so they where terrified of making her mad. She asked for an explanation and they just started babbling. blaming each other😂 it was so amazing. And after she left that’s where we ended because I wasn’t sure how to pick it back up having gone so far off of the story but all of us loved it and will definitely keep playing..
finished DoSI last week...
had to tweak it too.
had same questions as you..
purple fungi attack? nope
dragon asleep? nope
made blue dragon a hybrid between wyrmling and young adult with AC and HP. left dragon breath and physical attacks as wyrmling. also my players created characters so by lvl 3 very powerful so I added a dragonborne cleric npc to throw out bane and spiritual
weapon on final fight.
didn't have kobold fight either.
I found adventure fun and a good starter for testing new players to know each other.
going to take their characters to Decent into Avernus next.
Im about to run this tomorrow as my first time dming. This made me excited to start! Thank you!
awesome video my friend, really helped. I tried to be DM once before watching and I was absolutely totaled by all the information I had to remember and how to try to get my little brother to talk to the NPCs. Big thanks!! :)
I loved the seacave part because one of my players was convinced that the myconids could give his character top class hallucinogenic and ended up helping them and then having a party to get high together. Apparently he found enlightenment towards Bahamut 😂
Never DM'd a D&D game before. I've run a few campaigns for Call of Cthulhu before and I'm really excited to jump into Stormwreck Isle.
Thanks for the video.
I was just thinking that I needed a good metal set of dice. Thanks for the discount.
Duude! Thanks!
Your videos is awesome!
I just got this and will try do be DM for the first time. Played as a player in my youth. Mostly Riot minds "Trudvang".
Both me and my pals are psyched for this starter adventure but I feel a bit overwhelmed. I will for sure take many of your tips in this video to heart when I start prepping the adventure!
Bob, if only DM's watch this, it will be one of your least viewed videos! Lol. Great vid!
Yep haha, but it's worth it!
Awsome video! it came out right on time to help me running the adventure!
Love the change to the octopus!
We had a zombie that just wouldn’t die on an add in ship we did for flavor and more loot for the rouge. They had stabbed a short sword through the zombie, pinning it to the deck, and it just would not die. The paladin ended up punting the zombies head off the side of the boat. Be ready for vastly fun and creative so,unions from your players. Also as a DM, don’t be afraid to create twists and turns of your own. Like adding a ghost to the compass rose to tell the story of the talisman instead of the captains note and twisting her story to be the killed lover of Tarok.
Loved your guides since Dragon Of Icespire Peak DM Guides, it was such a great source of entertainment for my partner and I, during the quarantine. I really appreciate your effort put into these videos and love your format, it's so welcoming and easy to understand. I was wondering if you have or know an all-in-one beginner player video as I would love to share that with my friends that are potentially interested in playing :) Thank you again, Bob! Love your content!
When I run stormwreck, I have the characters roll for their kobold, then have that kobold guide them to the ship/cave. Sometimes the kobold fights alongside the players. Sometimes the players throw their kobold to the octopus. It`s great.
Oowh...now i see how it work...i never see anyone play..and i don't know how to play....thank ,it make me learn so much this video...
For the violet fungus room, I increased each one's HP to 25 and increased the AC to 10 (to make them more annoying to deal with) and had one creep twards a wayward sprout in the room, one of the players passed their perception check, and stepped in between the sprout and the fungus, after the fight the myconids, attitude changed.