Hi, my family and I have recently started playing DnD(we are doing the Lost Mine of Phandelver, so there will be some spoilers for that in the post), and I(the DM) have also never played before this, so this is a quite a learning experience. Things are going well, and we're all enjoying it immensely, but I've run into a bit of a problem, that my players don't know about.

They are so focused on finding the missing dwarf brothers, that they are skipping over areas and quests that should be explored and dealt with beforehand(Thundertree, much of Cragmaw castle, etc.), and heading straight for the area that contains the big boss and many other powerful monsters(Wave Echo Cave). They don't really realize this though, and seem to think that the young dragon is the big boss, and are avoiding it(both because of that and the fact that they want to find the dwarves first), despite my trying to steer them in that direction without being overly obvious.  Given the things they've skipped, they are not a high enough level to take on what is in Wave Echo Cave, and I'm afraid they will get themselves killed.

I've already had to re-work a few things in the campaign, since the guide seems to assume they'll be doing things in the order listed, and not skipping much of anything. If this wasn't our first campaign, I would let them risk it I think.....if their characters are killed, that sucks, but it's not the end of the world. But due to the fact that I want the first campaign to go at least moderately well, and that two of the players are my little siblings, who are quite young and emotionally attached to their characters(they were distressed when they couldn't save Gundren, and when the goblin they've been dragging along almost died), I'd rather not have our first campaign end in tragedy.

I'm a little unsure of what to do now.........should I continue trying to steer them towards Thundertree and the dragon(and if so, any tips on how to do that?), or should I let them enter Wave Echo Cave, and just hope that they retreat when they realize they're outmatched? Or is there another option? Any help is appreciated!

BTW, sorry if I sound like a complete and total noob at this.....I definitely am. I just want everyone to be able to enjoy the game, and feel satisfied at the end.

Quote from Firetear>>

Hi, my family and I have recently started playing DnD(we are doing the Lost Mine of Phandelver, so there will be some spoilers for that in the post), and I(the DM) have also never played before this, so this is a quite a learning experience.

Welcome! LMOP is a great introduction.

Things are going well, and we're all enjoying it immensely,

Excellent start!

but I've run into a bit of a problem, that my players don't know about.

They are so focused on finding the missing dwarf brothers, that they are skipping over areas and quests that should be explored and dealt with beforehand(Thundertree, much of Cragmaw castle, etc.),

This approach is pretty normal for players, to be honest. There was another thread on it recently. Players are often goal-oriented and aim straight for the target.

and heading straight for the area that contains the big boss and many other powerful monsters(Wave Echo Cave). They don't really realize this though, and seem to think that the young dragon is the big boss, and are avoiding it(both because of that and the fact that they want to find the dwarves first), despite my trying to steer them in that direction without being overly obvious.  Given the things they've skipped, they are not a high enough level to take on what is in Wave Echo Cave, and I'm afraid they will get themselves killed.

I've already had to re-work a few things in the campaign, since the guide seems to assume they'll be doing things in the order listed, and not skipping much of anything. If this wasn't our first campaign, I would let them risk it I think.....if their characters are killed, that sucks, but it's not the end of the world. But due to the fact that I want the first campaign to go at least moderately well, and that two of the players are my little siblings, who are quite young and emotionally attached to their characters(they were distressed when they couldn't save Gundren, and when the goblin they've been dragging along almost died), I'd rather not have our first campaign end in tragedy.

I'm a little unsure of what to do now.........should I continue trying to steer them towards Thundertree and the dragon(and if so, any tips on how to do that?), or should I let them enter Wave Echo Cave, and just hope that they retreat when they realize they're outmatched? Or is there another option? Any help is appreciated!

BTW, sorry if I sound like a complete and total noob at this.....I definitely am. I just want everyone to be able to enjoy the game, and feel satisfied at the end.

Isn't one of the dwarves in Cragmaw Castle and not Wave Echo cave, anyway?

One reasonable option is to steer them towards sidequests by making them required. E.g. maybe the players don't know the location of Wave Echo Cave, and need to get it from Cragmaw Castle or Thundertree. I thought this was how LMoP was set up, but I could be misremembering. This doesn't work if they're already on the way to the cave and know where it is and think they can do it now.

Or if they already know where the cave is but haven't really investigated the castle, mash the locations together. E.g. they get to Wave Echo Cave - the entrance to the cave is somewhere in this castle, currently held by goblins and a bugbear!

Another reasonable option is to just scale down Wave Echo Cave to be level-appropriate for when they get there. That's fine too. If the players want the dragon to be the big bad of this adventure - well, rejigger it so that he is! Scale down the cave, scale up Thundertree, while the players are in the cave have the dragon do some more caravan-raiding or maybe even attack the town to build him up as a threat.

Don't go the route of making Wave Echo Cave difficult and expecting the players to know they have to retreat. This is metagame logic that will not be natural to lots of people - going somewhere else and doing sidequests to level up is a video game kind of thing, feels very weird in D&D, nobody does it.

If the players are already on the way there but you want to redirect them, make the players work for it so it doesn't feel like a lot of travel for nothing. E.g. put the Old Owl Well encounter where they think the cave is, have the necromancer have info about how he was also searching for the cave but the maps are all somehow deliberately misleading, and how his next thoughts are to try to ask the Banshee in Thundertree or something.

Thank you so much for the advice! 

To answer your question about the other dwarf, yes, he was in Cragmaw castle, which they did visit(although a lot was left undone), but they were unable to save him unfortunately, which I think is why they are so desperate to get to the other two brothers. They also retrieved the map from there, so they know where the cave is now. I like your idea of making the dragon the real big bad instead, and since one of the characters' goals is to take down the dragon and restore Thundertree to its past glory, having the dragon be the real threat might make a lot of sense too. The only thing that makes me a little uncertain about doing that is that I'll have to re-work stats and story to really make it believable, and since this my first game I don't have a lot of experience in that,  but I guess that'll be good practice for me. I only hope I don't ruin the story for them!

Thanks for bringing that up about the side quests by the way! That does seem a bit too video-gamish now that I think about it. 

I don't have any advice to particularly to pass on in relation to your original question, however it really hit home for me. Last year my family began our own D&D party. My dad's folks played back in the 70-80s and it's as tribute to them that we took up the game ourselves. My brother ran a small quest with us (though it took a year no more than we were able to get together) as a crash course lesson for us. This year we have decided to reboot and I am DMing for the first time, also running LMOP with brand new characters. 

I will however pass on that I have spent the past few months binge watching Critical Role and can tell a difference in our own game just as a result of things I've gathered from watching their sessions. The best advice I've been given is now kept as a sticky note on my DM screen ... "If in doubt ... Make It Up"! Most of DMing seems to be flying by the seat of your pants making things up as you go since the party is going to just do thier own thing anyway.  As a co-noob here's to great family times and learning to be better DMs in the process!

Talk with your players or at least the most mature one about your concern.  

You could add a few random encounters/ scouts before they reach the cave to boost their exp.

When you roll your weapon/spell dammage only roll a d6 instead of a d8 or roll the damage, but cap it at the average damage provided in the manual.

Split the enemies in smaller parties, it is easier to fight 2 goblins twice, instead of 4 goblins once.

I would "follow" the players. Having them doing "unnecessary" side quests just to level up isn't funny. Like ftl said, it was discussed a little in this thread not long ago (https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/dungeons-dragons-discussion/dungeon-masters-only/61279-new-dm-struggling-with-party-aka-my-players-have#c16).

You and your players are telling a story together, and now "feels" like the right moment for them to go somewhere. It feels urgent, it feels important - what are you waiting for, let them go there!

You should not however just have them run into a certain death, so I would have done one out of two:

1. Have them level up to an appropriate level (either by just giving them the XP, or run an encounter or two on the way there, they can't decide not to do (like an ambush or something).

2. Scale down the Cave (ftl wrote very good about this).

I'm not very used to running prewritten adventures, but what you are experiencing is an "issue" you can encounter in quite a lot of them. There are ways to "slow" down the players (like ftl wrote), but it sounds that's too late for you now.  Don't mind! Follow the best story, it perhaps feels like walking on a little uncertain ground for you, but you are now walking into the most funny part of being a DM - actually creating things, and not just recreate them from a book! This will be you and your family's very unique version of the adventure.

Welcome to RPG :-)

This is pretty much a form of no plan survives player contact. If they wont go where they should because they are hyper focusing on saving the dwarves then let them.

As suggested modify Wave Echo Cave to make it challenging but beatable for their level. Make it so the Dragon is in fact the BBEG for this campaign. I wont go into details as you have a lot of good advice already.

The life of a DM is adjusting to all the crazy stuff your players decide to do. Have fun with it. Even if you don't adjust everything just right it can be fun. Listen to Adventure Zone, they skipped pretty much everything in LMoP and the DM forgot to adjust for the fact that they were such a lower level. It made it very interesting when players started going down but they still managed.

If it's me, new players and all, I'm gonna scale down the upcoming part of the adventure. I'm not going to force side quests, and I'm not going to wipe a new party.

I might find ways to let them know that they are in over their heads, if possible. But if they are bee-lining the thing to save the lives of others, that is a noble cause and it is in character and I would not let them suffer (much) for it. (A little suffering is always good for any party, as all evil DMs know... MUH-hahahah... j/k.)

- If they are going to "wrong" place scale down monsters of the location. It is quite easy to scale encounters once you understand how challenge rating is calculated.

- If they are going to "wrong" place to look for missing dwarves you can just modify things so that one of the dwarves is found from there or they find someone who knows right location of the dwarves.

 Thanks for the advice everyone! And thank you for being patient with me. I feel more confident in handling this now. I'm also beginning to understand why some people don't like the pre-written adventures haha. But hey, it might be kinda fun having to improvise a bit. We have a game session coming up tonight, as long as everybody feels up to it, so hopefully that will go well:-)

Oh, and thanks for linking that thread GodrickGreat, it was pretty helpful to read.  And yeah, I'm really proud of their wanting to save people, BioWizard, I just felt a little panicked at first because the guidebook for some reason did not seem to anticipate that at all, and since I'm new I'm not terribly confident yet when it comes to making changes in the story. But now I feel a bit more prepared, so I'm looking forward to our next session!

Have fun with your game Khairunisa!  I've watched some Critical Role too, and that's helped me out a bit. And that's great advice! I might have to stick that on my DM screen too, just as a reminder. Thankfully I've been able to improvise and make things up this far, and my party seems satisfied with how the game's going, so I hope I'm doing things okay.

Quote from Firetear >>

And yeah, I'm really proud of their wanting to save people, BioWizard, I just felt a little panicked at first because the guidebook for some reason did not seem to anticipate that at all. 

IMO, this is really unforgivable, especially in a published adventure for not just 1st level players but, quite often, "first level" DMs. This is where the adventure text needs to say, "If the PCs try to skip this part, here is how to handle it..." with options. "Here's how to scale down the next set of encounters," and "here's an NPC you can use to point them in the right direction," or "Here's a way you can block their path so they have to go the other way and experience the parts of the adventure we've got prepped for you." To just assume the PCs are going to follow the path that the adventure writer set out for them leaves the inexperienced DM holding the bag. 

Heck even writing my own adventures for my own party of 4 people, 3 of whom I know really well and can fairly easily predict their characters' probable behavior, I still write out contingencies for myself (it's also easier to wing your own adventure since you wrote it... but I am not the best at winging things and like to write down the options). And that's just me making notes to myself. If I were writing my adventure for other people to run with unknown and possibly newbie players (new players often make choices or try to do things experienced players wouldn't, because of unfamiliarity with the game), I would have lots of text explaining what to do if the PCs pull rabbits out of the hat on you. And in some cases you might even want a flow chart or something. Again, I feel that a published adventure for new DMs not having such contingency options written out is completely unforgivable.

I haven't read many of the D&D published adventures but I have a paper copy of Lost Mines (came with the starter set one of my friends gave me as a gift last year that got me started down this whole D&D road). As someone who has played and run lots of RPG adventures, not only D&D, I have to tell you, I flipped through it, read a little bit, and said, "This is WAY too complicated for a first adventure," and never looked at it again.

I think a lot of the D&D adventures are like this -- too big, too complex, too much going on. I prefer short, modular adventures -- and that is how I write them. Doing it that way, if the PCs go somewhere I didn't expect, I can just pull out a different module, rather than being like "Oh crap, now 12 pages of text is being skipped..."

Quote from Firetear >>

[...] I just felt a little panicked at first because the guidebook for some reason did not seem to anticipate that at all [...]

 Just as a warning: My experience is that this is the case with almost all prewritten adventures. Certainly some ones are better than others at offer options as Biowizard pointed out, but in the end, no prewritten adventure can cover all the options your clever players might discover. The only good solution is to adapt. Trust me, it won't be so "scary" next time :-)

And just to say it, I'm running a prewritten campaign for the first time in years, and I've run into the same issue as you several times. Just try to have in mind what the players need to know, have or do before the "next stage". You can always adjust difficulties, but it's not very funny to discover that you forgot to give the players some key information. That's when you have to turn to "you have a vision" or stuff like that. Yes, I've been there :-) Save the story, make it work, make it fun. If you do that, you're doing a good job. Remember: The moment you started the campaign it is yours, not whoever wrote it. It is YOURS to do whatever you want with!