Spoiler alerts throughout. I've played a lot of d20-based video games but this is my first time playing the actual tabletop. It is also my first time as a DM. We picked up 5e and are going through the starter campaign, Lost Mine of Phandelver. We are all very much enjoying it, but I had a few questions.
1) Iarno. Iarno "Glasstaff" Albrek's stat block is missing. This was mentioned here, but I disagree with the interpretation. LFK emphasizes that Iarno is an evil mage in the first quote, but the book never says that his stat block is the evil mage. I assumed from this wordage that Iarno had his own stat block, similar to the Black Spider. Is my interpretation due to inexperience, or is this actually a mistake?
2) Factions. Joining factions seems incredibly easy in this adventure. The Harpers, Lords' Alliance, Zhentarim, Order of the Gauntlet, some druidic order who's name I cannot recall, and even more are represented and characters can join some or all of them.
This seems incredibly unlikely for such a small town. Likewise, the "joining requirements" seem very easy. The same character could apparently join competing factions, such as Harpers and Zhentarim. Furthermore, the idea that the characters have access to so many factions in one adventure seems crazy to me, regardless of the town's size.
When I design a campaign after this, should I consider this level of faction participation normal?
3) Number of quests. When the party reaches Phandalin, they receive a half-dozen quests pretty much all at once. Given the town's size, this seems unusual. Beyond that, my players were a little disoriented and overwhelmed. It easily reminded me of a video game, where players get quests dumped on them all at once every time they visit a town.
Is this normal? Perhaps the players meet Sister Gareale on the road as she travels back to town. Maybe the orcs attack the party on the road instead of the townmaster giving them a quest. Maybe nobody really cares about anything until afer the Redbrands are dealt with, and then people come out of the woodwork with quests for the now-trusted party of adventurers. Are these kinds of interactions better?
4) Diversity. Meeting the nothic was fun for the characters. They did not, however, understand why the skeletons had been reanimated, or why the Redbrands were perfectly fine living with the undead. We haven't reached the Cave of Wonders yet (erm, I mean Wave Echo Cave), but I just know they are going to question why so many different types of creatures all cohabitate such a small area (6800 sq feet, by my very-quick count). Sure, the bugbears and other underlings of Nezznar make sense, but there are several varieties of undead (including a wraith and the flaming skull thing), a Spectator, the bat-things (skirks? forget their name)... it seems like a lot of different types of things, and that doesn't even address the random encounters. It seems more to show off the diversity of DnD than anything else.
Is this level of monster diversity normal? I kind of prefered Cragmaw Castle, where all the creatures make sense and there is one oddball, the owlbear, thrown in for fun.
5) Sister Gareale. How did she get injured? Did I miss that, or does the book not say? I can assume she was injured by undead whilst trying to reach the banshee, but I was wondering if I missed something.
Thanks for any help! The more I learn out of this starter campaign the better my a DM I will be.
Taejang wrote:
There are always mistakes in modules and seemingly bad setups. When I run a module I spend a lot of time thinking how to really make it work, compared to how it is written. I guess I never think the same way that the module writers are thinking.
Factions? This stinks of Adventure League propaganda. I left the entire faction BS out of the game I ran. Yes, it appears absolutely rediculous that all these factions would exist in this small town and be vying for the attention of these noob adventurers. But whatever.
As for quests, you are also right. The whole set up reeked of MMO garbage. I guess they figured it'd make sense to all the players weened on online games. I guess they forgot that the entire reason to play D&D is that you get to have it make sense. Anything at all you can do to find other reasons for the adventures to engage with the quests other than having random townsfolk plead for their asssistance accompandied by the glowing holographic quest giver sign over their heads will surely make the game a better experience.
All in all, you are way better off not trying to run the module as written, and interpret heavily to fit your players. This goes for most all modules. Always go in knowing you are going to need to change some things up just so it makes sense to you.
What's ridiculous or sensible will vary by group.
Use what you will. Ignore what you will.
The adventure is a toolbox of possibilities. You make those possibilities into realities at your discretion.
This is what quest handouts look like in my game. Once the players have interacted with an NPC and the NPC has made an offer or request for help, I post it in their journal so they can more easily keep track of loose threads.
If you're not using a VTT, consider some advice from this thread:
TENT YOUR QUESTS: Hopefully, potential storylines will emerge as you explore your setting. Use D&D quests to track those storylines. Whenever a goal emerges in the fiction, make it immediately tangible by writing the goal's victory condition and XP reward on an index card and put that card where everyone can see it.
MODEL QUEST CREATION TO THE PLAYERS: As soon as you mention a fictional goal -- like "Baroness Vanessa wants you to bring a ball invitation to the Master of Ogres" -- write that down as a quest tent.
PLAYER CREATED QUESTS ARE SUPER COOL: When a player declares a quest, that's an affirmation that some piece of the fiction is compelling to them. So you need to make sure that you don't lose any opportunities to create a player quest. Whenever any player suggests an intention, stop everything that you're doing and write that quest down immediately. Take this input seriously. Even if the game never follows up on the player's impulse, all that's been wasted is the minute to write the card. What matters is that you are demonstrating that you are listening for input on the game's direction.
CHALLENGE QUEST GOALS WITH D&D STUFF: Whenever a quest appears, your job is to put D&Dish challenges -- encounters, skill challenges, skill rolls, etc--between the party and the fulfillment of that quest.
IMPORT QUEST FICTION BACK INTO GAMEPLAY: Say a quest emerges that doesn't really feel like something the D&D4E mechanics cover. For example, say that Gronda the orc fighter PC declares that she wants to win the heart of Huckleberry, the parish priest NPC. This is awesome, but there's no check in D&D to make someone fall in love. So what kind of D&Dish opportunities can you provide for Gronda so that she can achieve her goal?
- Maybe some toughs are bullying Huckleberry? (an encounter)
- Maybe Huckleberry and his acolytes need an escort to a meeting with the bishop? (a whole adventure)
- Maybe Huckleberry is already in true love with someone? (encounter to kill the other love, stealth/thievery/bluff skill challenge to intercept their correspondence and fake unflattering responses, diplomacy/intimidate skill challenge to convince Huckleberry's parents to arrange a marriage with Gronda..etc)
iserith wrote:
bawylie wrote:
Taejang wrote:
iserith wrote:
autolycus wrote:
iserith wrote:
Taejang wrote:
Taejang wrote:
Sword_of_Spirit wrote:
Hamun Kost, the mage at the Old Owl Well.
(In my game his name is Jamon Toast.)
iserith wrote: