In Thundertree I had Wyrmlings. Offspring of Venomfang. If the party kills them, Venomfang will attack Phaendalin after they found the Wave Echo Chamber. If they saved the little greens, Venomfang may come to their help, when they fight the dragon on Icespire Peak.
This who series is invaluable for a new DM like me. I've already run LMoP once and am trying to sort out a group to run it a second time. Between you and Mathew Perkins, I feel WAY better prepared to give my players a fun time. (I'll stop by your older videos and leave more meaningful comments, but just wanted to say a big THANK YOU here.)
Thank you! Any and all feedback is meaningful to me on here, and is always appreciated. Making the last episode in this series actually got me introduced to Matthew Perkins' work on here and he's doing some great stuff. In his latest I think he said he's got more LMOP content coming up actually, so you might be even more prepared soon
I’m prepping to run this for a new group very soon. They’ve never seen dnd or tabletop rpgs before so I’m sure expectations are low, but these videos have 100% encouraged me to believe my run will blow their f****** minds. These vids are any new DMs must watch, no lie.
I'm entering this section now with my players at level 3. I haven't been doing XP - I've been leveling up at big moments. My question is would you recommend players be at level 3 or at level 4 when doing cragmaw. Fully aware I can just edit things but I was curious what you think will make the castle fun and at an appropriate challenge level as written
I’m inputting a rival adventuring party into phandalin so they cross off the tasks the party doesn’t do, however when they eventually make it to thundertree, they’re gonna find their rivals, several party members downed, hunkered down maybe on the opposite side of town or something. Give them some backup once combat gets bad, or they can set up the threat if the green dragon even if the npcs won’t fight venomfang again
This sounds like a great idea. There is a rival adventuring party in the Essentials Kit that are very underutilized in my opinion, they might be a great fit if your looking for more inspiration
My players actually decided to let me know where they were going after the Redbrands hideout which was nice. But I knew that the new player joining us next session just escaped from cragmaw castle and can lead them back to it so next session will still be a crap shoot. I could change how they get the location of the castle but the new character's backstory tied in so damn well. Thank you so much for these videos they have been very helpful for this new DM.
Another Venomfang outcome, is: the dragon simply demands surrender, or stabilizes down (but not dead) PCs. Then demands that they serve him as vassals for their lives. If you want to make it more epic, gaes the surviving party members to not harm the dragon. Bonus points if you saved the character of a player or two who workshop handle death well, while still killing 1 or 2 whose players will be "ok" about it.
Group of friends getting back to dnd after a while and I’ve watched a bunch of LmoP. These are perfect thank you very much. Very informative and not comical over the top. Hopefully my game is over the top comical but this gives perfect groundwork prep. Thanks again! Perfect!
Thanks for that. I really tried to lay groundwork so you can make it your own. With pretty much every group I’ve been in I don’t have to plan for comedy, it comes all on its own and I need that groundwork prep to come back to. Hope you all have a blast!
We played Dragons of Stormwreck Isle first, where Aidron managed to complete his ritual and became a kind of scary hybrid young dragon combining the essences of all the dead dragon spirits used in the ritual. He flew away and turned up again in Thundertree instead of Venomfang. My players loved the connection between the two adventures.
Yeah that's a popular strategy, a lot of folks just skip it. I like to build up a bunch of encounters that further adventure, but it does take more work
I guess it really depends on the group - my group are not murder hobo's but really not very strategic in their role play - so very often fights break out with all violently inclined NPC's - this means that they endure a lot of combat willingly or not - random encounters while traveling would maybe slow their pace and make it seem as though all they have to do is fight (because even when an encounter does not necessarily have to be a fight, most of the time they get into it). So when I have a random encounter on the way to somewhere, it would be so that they could find some hidden cave entrance, or back door, or so that they can pick up an item, or find a paper with an important NPC's name or note - something like that. A random encounter just because time / distance would have passed in the real world and the world is dangerous, I don't normally do unless it would be something like Ice-wind dale where I want to show the wilderness is rugged and very dangerous (I had some encounters end in avalanches too) @@RdotDoyle
@@clarencepsaila4743 I definitely get it. I love that wilderness feel so I lean into them but combat is the default in 5E and an unimportant fight eating up a bunch of time is not great. I put a lot of effort into cooking up ways to make random encounter table entries that don't just default to combat, made a whole playlist out of it if you're interested but skipping to the next location is definitely an option
My players are kind of speed-running the campaign. After the clearing out the Redbrand hideout, they went back to the goblin cave, where they left some of them alive. They found the goblins in the middle of clearing out the last of the loot in the cave. Yeemik tried to sneak away, but they captured him, and now they are forcing him to lead them to Cragmaw Castle. Of course when they are close, Yeemik will try to get away and raise alarm, and they'll have some patrols to deal with, but they are skipping all the sandbox side quests. I'm pretty sure nobody is metagaming to get a fast solution, they are just tactical and good. I'm not concerned about XP anyway, since I set ends of chapters as milestone advancement points. Thank you for the videos, they are really good to get me into the DM mindset, and I watch the relevant parts before I start running the game just to summarize everything once more.
That sounds great! It sometimes stings a bit when the players circumvent a chunk of content you've prepped, but if it happens because they are clever and creative that's some good D&D. You can reskin and recycle that stuff later if you want, and as you say thanks to milestone leveling you won't have any balance issues in the meantime. In some ways it's probably better to keep the spotlight on Gundren and Wave Echo Cave anyway. Thanks for the kind words, glad these videos are helpful and you all are having a good time!
@@RdotDoyle I'm somewhat relieved as well, because I have school starting in the autumn, and that is limiting my time to DM. If I can wrap up sooner that is actually, a good thing. Then well continue next summer with ToA starting at lvl5. I already introduced Syndra Sylvane as an NPC. She wanted the party to find Iarno Albrek for suspected black magic.
My party skipped Thundertree, did everything else in chapter 3, and then did Cragmaw Castle, so I had them run into Reidoth outside of CC, (they caught him tailing the party, he was trying to see if they were another threat while he was on his way to check in on the goblin activity at CC) he used summoned critters to help them scout the castle, which let them have fun planning a tactical assault, but one of my players dropped out from the campaign, so I had the dragon cultists kidnap her as an offering to Venomfang, Reidoth recognized signs of the cultists and told the party to meet them in Thundertree after they were done at CC. I'm definitely intending to use the cultists and/or Venomfang to set some foreshadowing up for the next campaign, which I'm pretty sure will be Storm King's Thunder (something about Tiamat being defeated and the dragons needing to regroup to face the increased giant activity... Idk maybe Venomfang will straight up try to manipulate the party into handling something in that campaign? I'm still working on it)
Sounds like a good plan. As written it kind of doesn't make sense, but Cryovain from Dragon of Icespire Peak (which is also in and around Phandalin) is also in Storm King's Thunder
Great video! I’m prepping my first time DMing ever, and 5 of my friends first time playing DnD as well. Really good story to follow and you were very helpful smoothing things over. 🙏🏼
After reading the description of green dragons being Capricious Hunters, & Manipulative Schemers, I figured if the party drives off Venomfang that's great. If a fight goes bad for the party a creature like could corner a wounded party / or member and make a statement like you work for me now (like a Mafia boss). Since I'm running LMoP, mixed with Dragon of Icespire Peak adventure, I was going to have Venomfang send the party to defeat Cryovain. And if the party says no, Venomfang will threaten to attack the village of Phandalin. Since the epic art has the green dragon on the cover of Lost Mine of Phandelver I figured Venomfang would ultimately be one calling the shots, & Spider working for him.
New DM here. I'm still on my first 2 campaigns. I decided to make travel a part of my sand box campaigns. The first one my group spent an entire session traveling down a river. I usually break it up by days. Each day of travel need to consume food, roll 1 random encounter and move across a large map. The second campaign had my group travel by land and moved about 5 miles per day though dence woods. The random encounters were useful for gather food off the dead wolf, or seeing an elk/deer. Travel helps me keep my players from zooming across the continent before I have time to prepare. If they want to zoom it will cost them resources and time.
I love exploration so I definitely lean into sandboxy travel campaign style. One day I’ll track rations and arrows and all that, but I’ve never had players find it fun
The party I was DM'ing for ended up wanting to explore Neverwinter on the way to Thundertree and I was dumbstruck lol I had to excuse myself for a few minutes to look up interactive maps of Neverwinter to make up *some* NPCs/locations but I ended up having to basically tell them that there's nothing to be done here and that they should carry on to Thundertree
In the Reddit video in this playlist that comes up and there's a solid resource in the comments. I did not have that resource the first time I ran this though and had a very similar experience to yours lol
Thank you for this series, as it has greatly helped me run a fun campaign. I wanted to add an update :) I just ran the Venomfang encounter, they got into combat somehow and 4 PCs got downed immediately. The Half-Orc Barbarian saved the party from a TPK with his Relentless Endurance ability. Definitely didn't pull punches lol Since we're new, I allowed one of the escaped members to ask Reidoth for help, who came and cast Entangle on Venomfang, who luckily rolled a Nat 1 on the saving throw, so everyone could quickly run away
Thank you for this!!! My kids have been pressuring me to get a D&D game for them (thanks to Stranger Things) lol. So, I bought this starter set and have been struggling to learn as much as I can about the game and about DM'ing. So this video set of yours (which I've just found) is a HUGE help!!! We just finished the Redbrand Hideout and I was scratching my head on how to handle what comes next. This video in particular has been sooo helpful! I was going to take the Thundertree aspect out of the game for them, but I like the idea notion of TPK (Total Party Kill) and starting from scratch again with them making their own characters instead of using the supplied sheets. It will also teach them about caution, about scouting first, and also not every situation needs to be handled with an axe... lol Thanks again for making these videos!!! Keep it up!!!
So great you’re running the game for your kids, I love it. I’d recommend being careful actually aiming for a TPK unless you’re pretty confident they’ll enjoy starting from scratch and not get disheartened. There’s also the question of continuity in the story, but honestly that’s often more easily resolved than people imagine. Personal preference and their ages are going to be huge here, but there’s a possibility you’re best play is to actually talk to them about it outside of the game. “Hey, you guys want to make your own custom characters? Awesome, let’s finish the story with the pre-made ones in the most epic way possible.” Have fun out there and let us know how it all goes!
I’m not actually aiming for a TPK, but also want them to learn to pick themselves up when the worst happens and how to learn from it if and when it does happen. I don’t want to sour them on the game, either. Lol. I’ve picked up on all the warnings and trying to stress to them about avoiding the dragon. I’ve never played before this and trying to soak up as much of the teachings available for free on the net. I find it hard trying to stay neutral and let the players make the choices, so I’m working on that. Lol. There is also a local comic book store that hosts a D&D game every Sunday which I might try to join or watch to gain a bit more experience…
@@jessetwidale6939 @Jesse Twidale Fantastic. It's difficult with just text and no tone to be sure sometimes. I think that's a great plan. It is tough to stay neutral running for my friends, I imagine it's got to be way harder for your kids. There's a ton of great info around, in the last video in this series I reference a few different resources you could check out. @geekphilosophy is about to kick off a LMOP series as well: ru-vid.com/show-UCBiuHe1Rc0QKV9ZmvVvyA4w
Just an update for you: Last night, We just finished Agatha's Lair, the Old Owl Well, and Wyvern Tor along with a couple of forced "random" encounters. I made them fight an ogre so I could do donkey's imitation of Shrek, "I'm an Ogre! Raar!" I also made them fight a flock of stirges because they are like the Demobats in Stranger Things... My daughter was getting annoyed with bad rolls and missing the bats, so she jokingly suggested that she wanted to try and catch a stirge in one of her spell component pouches. I said, "If a bat would fit in the pouch, then a stirge should to. Roll for it and let's see!" She rolled an 18 (highest she's rolled all night) and the table erupted in laughter! Then everyone had to try to catch a stirge in a pouch and no rolled less than a 16! A couple of us had tears from laughing so hard. My daughter wound up with two captive stirges and inspiration for her idea. We are DEFINITELY having fun with this! Thanks again for the tips with these Videos!!!!!
@@jessetwidale6939 I was just thinking about you the other night, almost nudged you on this thread but figured I'd let it go. It sounds like you all are having a blast and I commend you for being flexible and rolling with creative player ideas. And now they have stirges in their inventory! That makes me super happy, can't wait to hear what they do with them. If it weren't kids I might have the fact that they're living things who only eat blood be a consideration, "you want this thing to survive so you can use it later, you're going to have to feed it"
I understand removing the dragon but that is doing your players a huge disservice! Nothing shows the players just how dangerous your world is like getting tore apart by a gassy reptile. I’ve run it three times now and have never once had a tpk. Have I had player deaths? More than a few. What I do is I have the cowardly Druid be extremely obsessed with getting rid of the dragon. To the point that he’ll even send fresh young adventurers to do it. Afterwards, sure the dragon is gone, but he’s now seen what his obsession has caused and feels extremely guilty. But he just happens to have some scrolls of Reincarnation on hand. (Not raise dead because that isn’t as fun)! Not only do the PCs get to come back to life, now they get to have a fantastic roleplaying experience. The druid can always tell them that the Forge of Spells can possibly give them back their original bodies somehow! Who knows! By the end of the adventure, the players may like their new bodies!
Heck yeah, I'm conflicted about it which is why this one became so long. I put dragons in my encounter tables and the PCs can run into one at level one. I think for new DMs though TPK is easier to stumble into and harder to fix, but you've got a great answer here for anyone else reading
Dragons are great, I put them in my encounter tables and the PCs can roll them even at level one if they go exploring. I'm just careful with newer DMs with newer players, a TPK can be hard to bounce back from and is easy to stumble into when you first get started
I made a house rule where if you can read than the PCs can use scrolls but they’re one time use and take a full action. Wands same thing except they can recharge after a day
Yeah I like that. I think the way scrolls work as written is left over from the days when wizards were a little more limited, I wonder if will see a revision in one dnd / 5.5
@@RdotDoyle hopefully they update that rule because that would encourage more people to use magic and think creatively or to even multi class into casters creating all new play styles. Btw Love the videos I’ve been rewatching this series getting loads of inspiration thanx mate
I made all those tables I put on the DMsGuild to make travel and the wilderness interesting. I've run a couple hex/point crawl campaigns and it still my be my favorite style
