I am first time DM for a group of 3 (first time D&D players too), and we are currently running LMoP I'm stitching together the entire campaign as following:
Run LMoP to around level 4-5 Run Hoard of The Dragon Queen, hold off on XP and end it around level 8 Run Rise of Tiamat!
However i need some help on how to connect the things! LMoP is in the Neverwinter region, and HotDQ is around Baldurs Gate (in the Far south). I have made some personal quests which should make the players decide to venture to Baldurs Gate! But since there is about 1000 miles from NW to BG it seems a bit odd that they're going through that ride without any bumps, plus they are heading through Waterdeep! So at least a few things of interest is bound to happen!
Do you guys have any ideas on how to manage this? I'm thinking about adding a few encounters, but i dont think the entire travel process should take en entire session (around 5 hours).. So here i am again, asking for help :)
1- This one will invovle scaling the encounters for L5. Run HotDQ but flip everything around. Instead of the opening chapter happening in Greenest, have it happen in Phandalin. (Honestly, this episode will go pretty straightforward even for L5 players.) If your PCs didn't go to Thundertree, you could have that be where the cult's camp is where they have to go to save Leosin and they find the hatchery there. Then have the caravan going south out of Neverwinter instead of north out of Baldur's Gate.
2- Have Leosin and Onthar have heard of the PCs from their exploits around the region and seek out the PCs to track Cult activity in the region, sending the PCs to the Mere of Dead Men to investigate. (This effectively skips the first 4 episodes though you could do a truncated version of episode 4 with the caravan coming out of Neverwinter.)
As to the specifics of getting them south, I gave my PCs a scroll of teleportation and fudged how it's supposed to work, teleporting them down to the greenlands in the south. But I wish I had just flipped the geography and had the cult attack Phandalin instead and set the PCs going south for the rest of the journey. It just felt too contrived to get them to the south.
I think I would just relocate the adventure to Phandalin but another suggestion might be to have Gundren Rockseeker ask the players to deliver to Greenest a package of magical ore newly mined from Wave Echo Cave. Either way would work I think.
As for travel encounters...if you aren't looking at having a bunch of encounter's than why bother? Just 'travel the red line' and have the PC's arrive in Greenest after a uneventful month. This way you can start right off with the attack on the town. Grinding through a bunch of random encounters on the road can be boring and also unrealistic. Players might wonder how any commerce gets done when ravenous trolls, packs of ghouls, and bands of orcs are constantly lying in wait on the edge of every road.
The problem you will run into with travel encounters lies with balance. A random encounter during the trip will likely just get mowed over by the PC's since it will be the only encounter between long rests. And I wouldn't schedule a group of encounters in one day unless you had a purpose for it. Possibly the PC's could run into a Inn controlled by Dragon Cultist on the way? If you insisted on doing something. Then they would be a little familiar with the cult for the rest of the module.
Or you could just have them arrive in Greenest and not bother.
It's great to have a plan, creating a structure to your world and how you want your game to flow. There's a lot to get a handle on, so, (a) relax (b) fly casually :)
A lot of us are probably going to give you more advice than you want, and it may be overwhelming... that's ok.. just ignore us at that point. After you've run a few sessions, your perspective may change :) but we're here to try to help. You are in charge of your game, not us.
Preamble aside, I would recommend just mapping out a bit. you can connect to the Hoard by using either venomfang, or the cultists. You also have the option of using the Red Wizard (in case the party goes there instead).
Some ideas to help you connect things to help bridge the journey:
add a plot hook that leads from the end of the lost mine to Waterdeep (ie an ancient artifact for a waterdavian noble house)
You could add a dragon (in disguise) in Phandolin, who hopes to secure the mine for their own purposes. The party could then gain an ally and a boon perhaps.
Perhaps the red wizards have their own teleportation areas, and the one they could encounter has this information and can get them to baldurs gate one time.
A higher power (older dragon, wizard, devil, w/e) could add themselves at the end of the Lost Mine and after securing the mine for this entity .
All the above aside, I recommend trying to NOT plan everything out. Try to create the beats of what's going on in your universe, but let your characters should shape/create the story. I like to provide a bit of direction early on (to get folks on a path/establish a tone), but then slowly go more free-form -- you don't have to start that from the beginning, just when you see opportunities in what your PCs do, make some notes and then start working those stories in to your greater structure. It's your world, but their story ultimately.
(apologies if that was preachy :)
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"An' things ha' come to a pretty pass, ye ken, if people are going to leave stuff like that aroound where innocent people could accidentally smash the door doon and lever the bars aside and take the big chain off'f the cupboard and pick the lock and drink it!"
What I'm doing is pretty much skipping the whole first part of the trip. I'm going to give them the choice to do a version the Forge of Fury and heading south towards a more robust Secomber as the "Greenest" stand in as they head to Waterdeep then go back north to Neverwinter.
Thank you all for your great feedback!! Genious! :) I will change the geography and make Phandalin the attacked town instead of Greenest! Thanks a bunch! :)
The "blank" map in Wave Echo Cave (Location 14) leaves you an easy hook to anything else. Perhaps the map could contain a link to an adventure in Waterdeep which gives them an artifact that opens something or somewhere in Balder's Gate.
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"Shadow Hide You..."
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Hello Everyone!
I am first time DM for a group of 3 (first time D&D players too), and we are currently running LMoP
I'm stitching together the entire campaign as following:
Run LMoP to around level 4-5
Run Hoard of The Dragon Queen, hold off on XP and end it around level 8
Run Rise of Tiamat!
However i need some help on how to connect the things!
LMoP is in the Neverwinter region, and HotDQ is around Baldurs Gate (in the Far south). I have made some personal quests which should make the players decide to venture to Baldurs Gate!
But since there is about 1000 miles from NW to BG it seems a bit odd that they're going through that ride without any bumps, plus they are heading through Waterdeep! So at least a few things of interest is bound to happen!
Do you guys have any ideas on how to manage this? I'm thinking about adding a few encounters, but i dont think the entire travel process should take en entire session (around 5 hours).. So here i am again, asking for help :)
Maybe they spend a few sessions helping out an NPC party with a particularly tricky bit of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist.
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both" -- allegedly Benjamin Franklin
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Two options off the top of my head:
1- This one will invovle scaling the encounters for L5. Run HotDQ but flip everything around. Instead of the opening chapter happening in Greenest, have it happen in Phandalin. (Honestly, this episode will go pretty straightforward even for L5 players.) If your PCs didn't go to Thundertree, you could have that be where the cult's camp is where they have to go to save Leosin and they find the hatchery there. Then have the caravan going south out of Neverwinter instead of north out of Baldur's Gate.
2- Have Leosin and Onthar have heard of the PCs from their exploits around the region and seek out the PCs to track Cult activity in the region, sending the PCs to the Mere of Dead Men to investigate. (This effectively skips the first 4 episodes though you could do a truncated version of episode 4 with the caravan coming out of Neverwinter.)
My Homebrew Backgrounds | Feats | Magic Items | Monsters | Races | Subclasses
As to the specifics of getting them south, I gave my PCs a scroll of teleportation and fudged how it's supposed to work, teleporting them down to the greenlands in the south. But I wish I had just flipped the geography and had the cult attack Phandalin instead and set the PCs going south for the rest of the journey. It just felt too contrived to get them to the south.
My Homebrew Backgrounds | Feats | Magic Items | Monsters | Races | Subclasses
I think I would just relocate the adventure to Phandalin but another suggestion might be to have Gundren Rockseeker ask the players to deliver to Greenest a package of magical ore newly mined from Wave Echo Cave. Either way would work I think.
As for travel encounters...if you aren't looking at having a bunch of encounter's than why bother? Just 'travel the red line' and have the PC's arrive in Greenest after a uneventful month. This way you can start right off with the attack on the town. Grinding through a bunch of random encounters on the road can be boring and also unrealistic. Players might wonder how any commerce gets done when ravenous trolls, packs of ghouls, and bands of orcs are constantly lying in wait on the edge of every road.
The problem you will run into with travel encounters lies with balance. A random encounter during the trip will likely just get mowed over by the PC's since it will be the only encounter between long rests. And I wouldn't schedule a group of encounters in one day unless you had a purpose for it. Possibly the PC's could run into a Inn controlled by Dragon Cultist on the way? If you insisted on doing something. Then they would be a little familiar with the cult for the rest of the module.
Or you could just have them arrive in Greenest and not bother.
Current Characters I am playing: Dr Konstantin van Wulf | Taegen Willowrun | Mad Magnar
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Welcome to DMing !
It's great to have a plan, creating a structure to your world and how you want your game to flow. There's a lot to get a handle on, so, (a) relax (b) fly casually :)
A lot of us are probably going to give you more advice than you want, and it may be overwhelming... that's ok.. just ignore us at that point. After you've run a few sessions, your perspective may change :) but we're here to try to help. You are in charge of your game, not us.
Preamble aside, I would recommend just mapping out a bit. you can connect to the Hoard by using either venomfang, or the cultists. You also have the option of using the Red Wizard (in case the party goes there instead).
Some ideas to help you connect things to help bridge the journey:
All the above aside, I recommend trying to NOT plan everything out. Try to create the beats of what's going on in your universe, but let your characters should shape/create the story. I like to provide a bit of direction early on (to get folks on a path/establish a tone), but then slowly go more free-form -- you don't have to start that from the beginning, just when you see opportunities in what your PCs do, make some notes and then start working those stories in to your greater structure. It's your world, but their story ultimately.
(apologies if that was preachy :)
"An' things ha' come to a pretty pass, ye ken, if people are going to leave stuff like that aroound where innocent people could accidentally smash the door doon and lever the bars aside and take the big chain off'f the cupboard and pick the lock and drink it!"
What I'm doing is pretty much skipping the whole first part of the trip. I'm going to give them the choice to do a version the Forge of Fury and heading south towards a more robust Secomber as the "Greenest" stand in as they head to Waterdeep then go back north to Neverwinter.
Thank you all for your great feedback!! Genious! :) I will change the geography and make Phandalin the attacked town instead of Greenest! Thanks a bunch! :)
The "blank" map in Wave Echo Cave (Location 14) leaves you an easy hook to anything else. Perhaps the map could contain a link to an adventure in Waterdeep which gives them an artifact that opens something or somewhere in Balder's Gate.
"Shadow Hide You..."