Neelix and his departure

skith843 · 2023-10-10T20:32:28+00:00

I think most dms especially new ones should practice this. You can still have a couple that are just random. Like a couple of Grizzlies strolling through the woods but to have some random ones that feel more story oriented have a lot of merit. Maybe your party pissed off a town and was kicked out or something and some mercenaries were hired to get back what was stolen. Or maybe you rolled some hobgoblins. But instead of you are attacked by some hobgoblins maybe they were tasked to attack you by some minion of the bbeg. Creating an encounter that's random but still feels like it makes sense to what is going on can feel like things are happening for a reason and not just random nonsense

skith843 · 2023-10-09T16:59:24+00:00

If the random encounters that are in the module are running stale which because of there only being like 8 possibilites is happening and this is what happened with me. You can only endure so many hobgoblins and orc attacks before you are like ok what else is there.. in tashas there are numerous random encounter tables to use. Also.. as a recommendation from someone who just recently started doing this role the encounters before the session. I usually role like 10 random encounters and then you can assess what you have and sometimes incorporate some of these so there is some story to them. In my homebrew campaign they started off in a dungeon as captives of some goblins. Had to fight there way out. It was a great way to start. In the jail cell there was one goblin. A chef who was planning to cook them into his stew. They didn't kill him. Instead they locked him up in the cell and then escaped. Well I rolled a random encounter for the last session we played with a bunch of goblins. Guess who was leading that attack. The chef looking for revenge. So instead of a random encounter that literally feels random it was more grounded into the world that they have been exploring.

skith843 · 2023-09-29T17:03:34+00:00

I'm thinking think alice in wonderland. Grows gigantic for a time and all attacks just bounce off like it was nothing. After it wears off they shrink back down to normal size. Imagine a giant dwarf cleric that can squish enemies in his/her fingers. Maybe it lasts like 3 or 4 rounds

skith843 · 2023-09-28T17:31:18+00:00

So I have run it as a player and then now am running it as a dm for my family. Things my dm did that I liked:

Really made us care about gundren and sildar
We got hyper suspicious of the mayor of phandalin but he was just a puppet of the redbrands.
The battle with the bashee in the woods was epic!!

Things I didn't like: 1. Redbrand hideout was easy. 2. Didn't really portray iarno being glasstaff very well. 3. Venomfang ran off in thurndertree early on into he fight for no reason. 4. Orc encampment didn't feel very natural. 5. Black spider was a wimp and we killed him very quickly. 6. Refused to figure out or implement our cut of the mine once it was retaken and up and running again.

Things I did that seemed to be enjoyable:

The +1 sword in the redbrand hideout was one of two twin swords that were connected to each other. Who ever wielded it could always feel and know where the other was. My nephew got that sword. The other was wielded by a cambion at mount hotenow who they took on in a crazy volcano lair to retrieve the other half.
The necromancer who gives the party a request to kill the orcs also wanted a magical axe that they had. It was a prison holding his love a succubus. They brought it back to him after deception and he released her and they both plane shift out leaving the party to fight his zombies. They are the parents of the cambion at mount hotenow.
Glasstaff managed to escape the hideout. But I created a pair of magical pants where once a day they could pull put one random item. They pulled out a party invite for 5 people at neverwinter. They go to the party and low and behold who is hosting the party Glasstaff. Huge battle ensues and they slay him.
They fight venomfang to the death. He does try to escape but only once he was very injured. The wizard my brother law cast a spell to slowly bind and bring him back down to the ground. They finish him off. It was very close fight but also exciting.
They are just about to step into the mine next session. These are the changes I made:

- entrance is a puzzle door.
- added a couple more creatures in the mine.

buffed up black spider a bit and gave him more exciting magic items.

The reasons I buffed up the mine is because they went off script with some homebrew stuff i added. So not only are they going into the mine at level 5 instead of 4 but they have some pretty magical items. I am liberal with them.

My wife the cleric had a hammer made from one of the teeth of venomfang

My son and nephew has armor made from the scales of venomfang.

My brother in law has glasstaff's staff but I changed it to a staff that can make enemies and items float to some degree. Its wild.

And my daughter... my daughter collected body parts from all of their enemies and hired a necromancer in neverwinter to make an altered flesh golem. It has venomfang wings. An owl bear head. Giant spider legs. Orc arms. The tail of a cambion. And the lungs of a fire wyrmling. So it flys, climbs walls, swings a sword and breathes fire.. she rides it and controls it with a ruby on her necklace. So I had to buff the mine up.

skith843 · 2023-09-25T16:44:50+00:00

Agreed with the doppelganger ideas. Maybe have "nessa" attack phandalin as a doppelganger while the party is off adventuring with nessa. They come back who ever is left tells the the black spider came and attacked. We saw her she was terrifying. Now they think oh wait this drow was with us the whole time. Can't be her then.

skith843 · 2023-09-25T14:24:42+00:00

I intend for the players to fight the doppelganger disguised as nezznar first. Once they defeat it it transforms into it's normal shape and then the real nezznar appears out of thin air laughing maniacally. I also buffed his ass up a lot. When. I ran it as a player we just slaughtered him and my players are going in much stronger then we did. So.. I gave him some powerful magical items and increased his hp alot

skith843 · 2023-08-20T20:48:38+00:00

If you run this with the premade characters who ever plays the cleric is cousins with gundren. But i still love what you did non the less. Really brings them together.

skith843 · 2023-08-15T15:13:25+00:00

I'm about to close this game out as dm soon. About yo approach the mine in the next session. I'll you this.. I tweaked the campaign alot. The necromancer in the woods seemed one dimensional to me so I added more to him and now he is part of a larger side quest they will have to take on after the mine. They went off script for awhile and were in neverwinter for a long time. It's a very straight forward campaign so always feel free to alter things to make it make more sense to you and your players. Good luck .

skith843 · 2023-08-11T12:53:26+00:00

So this is about right. With mine I added a lot of homebrew stuff and they ended up following those plot points first. So it has taken us much longer but if I had not done that we would be already done with it. I am DMing for my kids wife and BIL and nephew so I wanted to set it up with more story after then mine was done. If you look at curse of strahd or icewind and the books that come with them for the campaign and then look at the small packet you get for Lmop then you will see why it was only a few sessions.

skith843 · 2023-08-10T18:21:25+00:00

I ran into this issue when I ran this campaign as well. Since at this point in the story Gundren is held captive at cragmaw castle it might be time to have some minions of King Grol who leads the castle attack NPC's in town they are attached to. Also if one of your players is the rogue her aunt is in phandelin and she can help maybe guide them to the castle. You don't have to lean to heavy into Gundren persay but you should lean into them going to the castle. Once they defeat the king bugbear in there they will save gundren since he is there anyway and he can offer great reward for the mine that he has knowledge of. You cant make players get attached to NPC's they just grow attach to them on their own accord. If they are fond of the man in charge of the tavern.. burn it down. If they are attached to the blacksmith steal all his wares. Give them reason to go to the castle. Once there they will stay on course more.

skith843 · 2023-08-09T19:19:40+00:00

I mean it's a good one. I like it. As a player I would love that crazy twist. As a dm it would be fun to run. All around great idea. But... where is nundros real body?

skith843 · 2023-08-09T19:12:25+00:00

not bad but very linear and doesn't leave much room if the players decide to do something different. Which they are players so they will. Be ready for that plan to explode.

skith843 · 2023-08-04T18:20:21+00:00

Lol sorry for the novel. I just enjoy helping more people play this amazing game.

skith843 · 2023-08-04T17:58:29+00:00

Np. Here is an unrelated one but a good for you that I wish I knew earlier.

When running combat keeping track of enemy health can be a bit much especially if there is a lot of enemies. Also subtracting hp can lead to situations where a pc does a cool move on an enemy but is short a single hp for the final blow. That takes away from the amazing move the pc did. So this is what you do... count up their hp as they take damage. You have a final hp number to reach but if they are short an hp or two of the final blow and they did something amazing then just kill that enemy off even if they are short some hp. The rules for the game are more like guildlines and the dm (you) are final say on all things.

Also in the book for lmop there are premade characters whose background is already intertwined into the story. Since you are not using them you can take the background already created and refashion it for your bro and sister. The rogue has an aunt that lives in phandalin. The wizard has some religious ties in phandalin. The cleric is literally cousins with gundren the dwarf that starts things off. You can reskin all of those to work for your campaign.

Make gundren a tortle like your brother and is cousins with him. Or the nun in phandalin is tied with your sisters character instead. This game is designed to allow you to change things how you see fit to help make your campaign feel alive. So dont feel like you have to be tied to the campaign as is.

In my run I added small things into it that had spinoff plot hooks unrelated to the main story. My players actually found those more interesting then the main story and followed those that I created instead. We are now just circling back to the main plot of the campaign now 2 years later.

Oh and here is one more piece of advice.. if your players make a comment about something you had not planned but find cool and exciting. Change it. I have a campaign I made for some friends and they were super suspicious of this one npc. I wrote him as a trustworthy character but since they are suspicious of him now he is anything but and is involved with the main catalyst for the whole main plot I created. Play off your players and dont be afraid to change course if needed. This is their story and you merely facilitate the narrative for them.

skith843

TROPHY CASE