Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 Maine Dec 13, 2014 17:26:51	My players are 1 to 2 sessions from finishing Lost Mines of Phandelver.  They have rescued Gundren and are ready to go to Wave Echo Cave; they have done all of the other side quests except Thundertree (only knowing of it from rescuing the Redbrand's captives, so it isn't a strong lead for them).  I expect them to be level 5, or close to it, by the time they finish (5 PCs - Cleric, Monk, Rogue, Warlock, Wizard).   I'm undecided where to go next with them, and I have a few options.  I have a decent back-catalog of material I've collected over the past 25 years.  I'm just not up to writing a full standalone campaign for them at this time.   What I am currently picking from (but not limited to; I'm willing to buy things off DnDClassics, and have access to other printed material):   - Tyranny of Dragons (don't have these books yet) - Isle of Dread [now in Elemental Plane of Water] (or the Savage Tides adventure path, starting in Waterdeep) - Night Below: Underdark Campaign - Tale of the Comet - Shackled City (re-theming it or introducing it as a new city) - Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil - Something else?  My group has some interest in the Underdark, the rogue is an exiled Drow who wants to return and cause trouble...   The game is set in the Forgotten Realms, but many things are flexible.   What I'm wondering most is if anyone has tried converting any of the above (except Tyranny of Dragons, of course) to 5E?   Tyranny of Dragons feels like the easy way to go, since no conversion effort required, but I'd really like to run some of my older material.  It's a tough call.
#2 Ath-kethin Dec 13, 2014 21:51:40	It depends. Do you (and your players) want a story that will take a long time to tell, or do you prefer a bunch of shorter stories? Night Below, Tyranny of Dragons, and Shackled City are all designed to be full campaigns, and take characters from low levels to very high levels. If you are interested in a series of shorter, loosely collected adventures, I would shy away from the big ones. That said, the Shackled City can be broken up and chapters run as dusconnected modules, and its base city of Cauldron is pretty cool as a hometown.
#3 THEMNGMNT Dec 13, 2014 22:40:11	How connected to Phandalin and its NPCs are your players? Do they want to stick around? Or are they ready to move on?
#4 Imaculata Dec 14, 2014 3:30:14	It would seem to me that any adventure involving the underdark and/or dragons, is generally a bit more high level material. I'd say, stick with short adventures with opponents that fit the current level of your players.
#5 Maine Dec 14, 2014 15:09:12	Excepting Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil, and Isle of Dread (but not Savage Tides), most of these are built to start at or around level 1, although I can adapt for starting at/around 5.   The group is not attached to Phandalin, or any particular playstyle.  The group just wants to play and have fun.   My initial query was more in regards to if anyone has tried adapting these to 5th?   Ath-Kethin's points about Shackled City are very helpful; I haven't really read through much of it.
#6 Kentus Dec 14, 2014 16:27:09	In my campaign, I make the group (due ones bound) the new governors of Phandalin by the Lorad Alliance. If one of your players joined them, it's quite easy, Sildar work him into the job in about 3 tendays and afterwards the character and the party runs the city. While they can let someone else (like the former town master) actually do the bureaucracy and such, they decide the next steps. Like if they want to mobilize a militia in this month or rather seek financial support by getting other trading posts into the settlement. Or if they want to 'invite' a new patron deity into Phandalin by building a shrine to it.   I use some basic ideas of the PF-campaign-module Kingmaker, even though it's much easier. They pretty much have one action per month per character and the number options are normally 2-3 times the number of characters. But you can pretty much drop any numberal work by only making them decide within the flow and concentrate more on the actual plot: To keep this settlement safe!   You can widen any storyarc of LMoP, like the orcs of Wyvern Tor. These were only scouts, so maybe a bigger group is incoming and they might be renegads of the Many-arrows, which got involved with a tiefling warlock, who made herself the new leader. But since they still have the Many-arrow's signs, the party might decide after a first attack at the traders/miners, that it's time to speak with the chieftain, Obould, at the grate of the world. Then Obould will tell them (after weighting his own plots), that these are renegades and the truce is still there. Or maybe they send a runner instead, who conceys this message. And from there, the story writes itself.   I think (especially if your players use the pre-made characters) it makes a lot of sense to use this fleshed out settlement to make a home and do adventures around it or in its interest. If the Tarrasque is found sleeping somewhere there, the party might travel farways to seek ways to get rid of it. Maybe because investigations tells about a magic bell, which will wake the Tarrasque and call it to the point it was rang. But to get that item, they'll go long ways with several quests in this and other planes to get that item and maybe wants to destroy it after calling the Tarrasque into the depth of a deadly desert, which might bring another quest. And all only because it'll be better for Phandalin. ;)
#7 iserith Dec 15, 2014 6:58:51	Maine wrote:
#8 SterlingRat Dec 15, 2014 8:18:53	Okay.... here is what my players have done since finishing the lost mines:   1) a map and a note were found on one of the zombies, giving instructions on when, where and how to summon forth a magically hidden wizard's keep from it's demiplane. First, they had to visit Rediroth in Thundertree to get the 600 year-old map updated to modern times (and deal with the green dragon they skipped when playing LMOP). Then they had to go to Waterdeep to visit the libraries there to translate the ancient script into a modern dialect (they could have gone to Silverymoon or Candlekeep, but Waterdeep was closer and they decided to try it first before going on the long trip). Once they had the map and instructions, they went to a certain part of the Mire of Dead Men and camped until 2 hours after sunset, and while they were waiting, a group of Imps with a captured Pegasus approached, apparently intent on taking the captured and de-winged beast through the portal. Eventually opening the portal, they discovered that the wizard's tower had been adapted after the death of the previous owner. That owner was not a very nice man, and had summoned and bound a succubus. His death occured while she was "with child" and the plane didn't collapse as it normally would have... the Cambion child became the owner, and was using the demiplane (once he figured out how to open the door) as a factory. Transforming captured Pegasi into Nightmares, training Hellhounds for service, trading use of his second floor torture chambers to demonic nasties that (for whatever reason) weren't free to use their home plane for their sport, and trading for magic items, which were drained of enchantment to create Helmed Horrors and sold off to amass yet more wealth and power. They managed to capture the cambion and drag him back to reality, where they traded him to the Lizardfolk (who killed him) for a hefty bounty.   2) They returned to Phandalin, where they had to defent the town from the remnants of the Cragmaws... and those remnants had gotten mixed up with some werewolves. They rallied the town, tricked the cragmaw into assaulting the mine (where Gundren collapsed the entrance on them, delaying them until reinforcements from town could come to the rescue), and made a bunch of silver arrows and defeated in furry bastiches.   3) After defeating the werewolves, they were digging out the entrance to Wave Echo Cave and were assaulted by animated boulders - guardian elementals who had been awakened when the collapsing tunnels had revealed a second cave network in the mountain that hid the mine. Exploring the cave has brought them in contact with a few mind flayers and their Grimlock servants.     Next, I'm going to give them another cave leading out of the Mind Flayer enclave. I want to give them some way to fix the Forge of Spells so they can make their own enchantments - they are way more creative than me and though there is a lot in the DMG, players always want something new and different. I am going to let them decide how the forge can be fixed, though...   If they want to do another dungeon crawl, then they will find another tunnell away from the Mind Flayers which leads to an imprisoned Dao genie guarded by those fire elemental things I can't remember the name of. The true purpose of the forge was to constantly drain the magic away from the genie and prevent it from escaping. Unfortunately, the long period of neglect has allowed the Genie to recoup some portion of it's power, and it's fighting against the forge's influence. They will have to jump through some hoops and retrieve some magic maguffin to fix the forge and reset the prison.   Otherwise, they can do it with roleplaying. There are several teams of wizards that want access to the forge and think they can fix it... Silverymood, Waterdeep and Baldur's Gate all have a team of theorists and researchers that want to study and fix the problem. One of the elder's from Candlekeep, as a neutral party, is here to mediate the dispute. So.... add an assassination, some thayan infiltrators, and maybe a betrayal or three and let them have some fun.
#9 Tac0man Dec 15, 2014 13:48:14	Last week in my campaign my players fought the spider who had moved to the wave room of the mine. He threw a magical amulet into the waves opening the portal to the elemental plane of water. Out rushes a villager from the isle of dread, ( quick back story and character for a new player), located in the plane of water. This new portal will require investigation by the party and it was a module given to playtesters.
#10 BRJN Dec 16, 2014 13:13:41	The 4e Neverwinter Campaign Guide may give you some ideas of what to do next; it's right in the neighborhood. You may want to copy wholesale the section about the dwarven magical forge which is tied to the volcano, for the one the players found.  Also the scene in Hobbit 2 where Thorin figures out how to light the forges underneath the Lonely Mountain, should be a good story.