I'm a first time DM and new to D&D generally. I have experience with GMing Call of Cthulhu, so I'm hoping this won't be totally alien to me.
In LMoP, at Cragmaw Hideout, there is a room with a secret passage that leads straight to the bugbear. Without the use of maps, how do I determine whether the players see something like this? Do I describe the room and hint at the presence of something at the back, or should I wait for one of them to roll for perception or something?
I'd really like to use the maps in this game but I'm unsure how to do this and still keep everything secret. I thought about using Roll20 and buying the fog of war feature, but as I've already bought the starter set, I don't really want to spend even more buying the maps. I suppose another option is drawing the room layouts as they are discovered, but I'm concerned that drawing would break up the flow of the game.
Finally, do you have any tips for a first time GM?
I am just rapping up DMing LMoP and would happy to offer some input.
First things first...you mention a room with a 'secret passage' in the Cragmaw Hideout. I can only assume you mean the fissure at the back of area 3. This is not a secret passage but rather a natural chimney that King Klarg and the goblins use to throw garbage to the wolves in area 3. You should describe it just as it is described in the module 'The cave narrows to a steep fissure at the far end, and is filled with the stench of animals.'
If the players kill the wolves and decide to investigate the fissure then allow the players to find the chimney and describe it as lined with grease and trash and going up about 30ft. It's a DC 10 Athletics check to climb so I doubt the players will have someone willing to risk it. Especially at 1st level. If they do climb it I would give Klarg, Ripper and the goblins in area 8 chances to hear the climbing PC.
As for maps...back in the day we drew things out on graph paper. As you went through a dungeon the DM (or Players) drew out one room at a time as they were discovered. That is still a valid technique although I would recommend a graph mat with some erasable markers now a days. Going digital is fine but you might play a few games with plain old pen and paper before you make the investment.
For advice...I suppose carefully reading the adventure ahead of time is a good idea. Give the whole module a quick read and then, before the first game, reread very carefully the part your players will likely make it through. If the players run riot through the module don't be afraid to call for a short break to read ahead and refresh. If your players seem to get lost on what to do then don't be afraid to have a helpful NPC show up to give them a helping hand but always try to encourage the players to come up with their own ideas.
Below is a link to a post I made a few months back about King Klarg and the Cragmaw Hideout. Maybe it will help give you an idea on how the first encounter might go.
Having been running LMOP for the last couple of months, don’t sweat too much with regards to the map, there are easy ways to find it and trace it out using a tablet and blank paper.
I had the map printed out beforehand and just put other papers on top of it to "mimic" a fog of war. Just have enough papers that are large enough to cover the sections you need (not necessarily to the shape of the room). Something that I'm trying with Cragmaw Castle is not flipping the page that has a portion of the map until the party sees into at least a portion of it. They approached from the East, so I had the 3 pages that represented the east side of the castle flipped early. They still haven't seen anything to flip the 2 bottom right pages yet, (they saw the top right portion from the outside as they decided to enter from the north by climbing into area 6 and saw the profile of the castle.) They can still see what the rooms look like, but I don't populate the rooms until they see inside. Since the Grick in area 8 was hidden up among the statues at the top of the room and the party didn't spend any time trying to see if anything was up there, it was able to surprise them once all but one member left the room and while they were engaged with the 8 goblins in area 7, the 3 goblins in area 4, and the 2 goblins in area 3 (the southern end). A few of those goblins had already fallen by that time, but the party decided to retreat with one goblin having retreated towards area 12, one retreating to area 10 and one still restrained in area 7 by an entangle spell that the druid had cast (she didn't have a weapon out at the time of the attack an was content to draw her bow to make attacks). Since the majority of the 6 member party is only level two, their resources weren't quite as high. The paladin took two crits and the life cleric took a tentacle crit/bite hit multiattack from the grick that one shotted him.
Playing LMoP at the moment. Returning DM and new players. A lot of fun.
Re maps I found a lot if stuff online, printed a copy and then just cut out the bits they discovered and gave them a slice at a time.
For Cragmaw castle I found a grid squared outline I can give them and then just plan to draw on internal rooms as they explore.
For the fissure in the wolf cave in Cragmaw hideout I just read the room description and they decided to investigate. They set up a pretty smart surprise attack using that.
If you're planning on running Lost Mines of Phandelver from the Starter Set again (or for the first time), Arcknight has a Kickstarter with maps and minis just for this campaign :-)
Hi guys,
I'm a first time DM and new to D&D generally. I have experience with GMing Call of Cthulhu, so I'm hoping this won't be totally alien to me.
In LMoP, at Cragmaw Hideout, there is a room with a secret passage that leads straight to the bugbear. Without the use of maps, how do I determine whether the players see something like this? Do I describe the room and hint at the presence of something at the back, or should I wait for one of them to roll for perception or something?
I'd really like to use the maps in this game but I'm unsure how to do this and still keep everything secret. I thought about using Roll20 and buying the fog of war feature, but as I've already bought the starter set, I don't really want to spend even more buying the maps. I suppose another option is drawing the room layouts as they are discovered, but I'm concerned that drawing would break up the flow of the game.
Finally, do you have any tips for a first time GM?
Thank you!
I am just rapping up DMing LMoP and would happy to offer some input.
First things first...you mention a room with a 'secret passage' in the Cragmaw Hideout. I can only assume you mean the fissure at the back of area 3. This is not a secret passage but rather a natural chimney that King Klarg and the goblins use to throw garbage to the wolves in area 3. You should describe it just as it is described in the module 'The cave narrows to a steep fissure at the far end, and is filled with the stench of animals.'
If the players kill the wolves and decide to investigate the fissure then allow the players to find the chimney and describe it as lined with grease and trash and going up about 30ft. It's a DC 10 Athletics check to climb so I doubt the players will have someone willing to risk it. Especially at 1st level. If they do climb it I would give Klarg, Ripper and the goblins in area 8 chances to hear the climbing PC.
As for maps...back in the day we drew things out on graph paper. As you went through a dungeon the DM (or Players) drew out one room at a time as they were discovered. That is still a valid technique although I would recommend a graph mat with some erasable markers now a days. Going digital is fine but you might play a few games with plain old pen and paper before you make the investment.
For advice...I suppose carefully reading the adventure ahead of time is a good idea. Give the whole module a quick read and then, before the first game, reread very carefully the part your players will likely make it through. If the players run riot through the module don't be afraid to call for a short break to read ahead and refresh. If your players seem to get lost on what to do then don't be afraid to have a helpful NPC show up to give them a helping hand but always try to encourage the players to come up with their own ideas.
Below is a link to a post I made a few months back about King Klarg and the Cragmaw Hideout. Maybe it will help give you an idea on how the first encounter might go.
https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/dungeons-dragons-discussion/dungeon-masters-only/25121-lost-mines-of-phandelver-advice-about-king-klarg#c13
Current Characters I am playing: Dr Konstantin van Wulf | Taegen Willowrun | Mad Magnar
Check out my homebrew: Items | Monsters | Spells | Subclasses | Feats
Having been running LMOP for the last couple of months, don’t sweat too much with regards to the map, there are easy ways to find it and trace it out using a tablet and blank paper.
I had the map printed out beforehand and just put other papers on top of it to "mimic" a fog of war. Just have enough papers that are large enough to cover the sections you need (not necessarily to the shape of the room). Something that I'm trying with Cragmaw Castle is not flipping the page that has a portion of the map until the party sees into at least a portion of it. They approached from the East, so I had the 3 pages that represented the east side of the castle flipped early. They still haven't seen anything to flip the 2 bottom right pages yet, (they saw the top right portion from the outside as they decided to enter from the north by climbing into area 6 and saw the profile of the castle.) They can still see what the rooms look like, but I don't populate the rooms until they see inside. Since the Grick in area 8 was hidden up among the statues at the top of the room and the party didn't spend any time trying to see if anything was up there, it was able to surprise them once all but one member left the room and while they were engaged with the 8 goblins in area 7, the 3 goblins in area 4, and the 2 goblins in area 3 (the southern end). A few of those goblins had already fallen by that time, but the party decided to retreat with one goblin having retreated towards area 12, one retreating to area 10 and one still restrained in area 7 by an entangle spell that the druid had cast (she didn't have a weapon out at the time of the attack an was content to draw her bow to make attacks). Since the majority of the 6 member party is only level two, their resources weren't quite as high. The paladin took two crits and the life cleric took a tentacle crit/bite hit multiattack from the grick that one shotted him.
Playing LMoP at the moment. Returning DM and new players. A lot of fun.
Re maps I found a lot if stuff online, printed a copy and then just cut out the bits they discovered and gave them a slice at a time.
For Cragmaw castle I found a grid squared outline I can give them and then just plan to draw on internal rooms as they explore.
For the fissure in the wolf cave in Cragmaw hideout I just read the room description and they decided to investigate. They set up a pretty smart surprise attack using that.
If you're planning on running Lost Mines of Phandelver from the Starter Set again (or for the first time), Arcknight has a Kickstarter with maps and minis just for this campaign :-)
They look promising > https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/arcknight/hardbound-support-5e-starter-set-lmop/description