I haven’t played rpgs for about 20 years so I’m quite rusty as a DM. After awakening the interest for rpg in my MTG group, we started out with the Phandelver story and now we’re almost finished, but where do we go next?
I like the prewritten adventures, but which do I choose? My players will be at level 5 when we’re done, but many adventures start at level 1. I guess we could make new characters but that feels somewhat unrewarding after finishing the last campaign.
I took my players from Phandelver to Hoard of the Dragon Queen. Depending on how the Thundertree encounter went, they've already been introduced to the cult and a dragon. I also considered using Storm King's Thunder because of Triboar's proximity to Phandalen.
It's not too difficult to scale up the encounters, or to narratively skip a chapter or two to get caught up to the appropriate level, but it does take planning. I basically had another session zero before we started and told them that the first few chapters would be at a quicker pace, and some things might be narrated instead of played. (Narrating goes down a little easier than rail-roading in my experience) They were ok with it.
The main pitfall I hit in Hoard was the army. Level 1 PCs would be extremely unlikely to try and fight the army, but level 5 PCs start to think they can. Smart players know they have no shot at hundreds of enemies, but that's more experience than anything. I also narratively skipped the road travel and the roadhouse. By the time they got to the castle they were close enough to the right level.
At the end of the day, you can use any module with a little bit of effort to get the first few chapters done quickly. Beware of milestone though...putting 5th level PCs into a 1st level start module means they won't milestone for quite a few sessions. They'll be stuck at 5th level and might start grumbling. (Hence the need to be a little upfront about what's happening)
Yes, I was thinking about Hoard of the Dragon Queen. Been hearing that it’s quite linear and that what I think my players need since they can’t decide what to do. They go chasing every ball and Phandelver has taken forever.
I’ll tell them what to expect about leveling and let them get into it. Since they’re just three players maybe I just throw them in and see how it fits level wise before making any modifications.
My players have enjoyed it so far. We just shifted to Rise of Tiamat on our last session. The linear aspect of Hoard and a hefty amount of errata gets it on a lot of people's bad list, but it's a decent adventure. One way I kept it from feeling too linear was adding in a time crunch feel to it. After the shock and awe of chapter 1, it's all about scrambling to follow the money. It slows a bit on the caravan ride, but then picks back up from the roadhouse to the fortress. If you make sure your NPCs (Leosin/Ontharr) stress the need to not let the treasure out of their sight it will feel slightly less linear to the players.
We went straight into HotDQ. I changed up some of the baddies they came up against in the first episode so it was a little more challenging for us. We started at I think L4 when we started HotDQ. I combined episodes 2 & 3 into one and changed it up some. (This was partly based on the fact that I knew the PCs would be wanting to take a long rest after the fight with Lennithon.) Now we're in episode 4 and I'm adding in my own dungeon instead of doing all the slog of things the module gives you to throw at the adventurers. (This is largely due to the fact that I DM for my brother and his kids. The kids aren't big into the RP stuff in D&D (which is why my brother and I are also looking for a group to play with that doesn't include his kids) and prefer to hack and slash.)
Even at L5, the fight in the dragon hatchery with Cyanwrath, Mondath, and the two berserkers nearly wiped the party. There were some lucky rolls in that fight. The party bypassed most of that dungeon and basically went straight to the boss fight.
The most common thing I did in the encounters was to change out the various Dragon-whatevers in the cult and change out ambush drakes for guard drakes (or whichever way toughens the enemy). I'd also usually go for max HP on the baddies rather than the average. (Though I had average HP on Cyanwrath, Mondath, and the berserkers in the dragon hatchery.) Your party may be better balanced than ours is. We have 2 rangers, 1 paladin, and a rogue (who is my NPC/PC that I run because I don't know enough to be able to scale the encounters down for 3 players). Had they not bypassed most of that dungeon they would have come up against all iterations of kobolds (kobold, kobold scale sorcerer, etc.) in addition to various and sundry humans.
My group is in the last chapter of LMoP, and after they liberate Wave Echo Cave, I'm giving them 6 months of downtime to ingratiate themselves into Phandalin more. I'm giving them Tresendar Manor to live in, and after 6 months I'm beginning HotDQ. I'm having the cult attack Phandalin and kill off a few key NPCs for emotional effect (because I'm evil), and then we're going right into the rest of the adventure. A couple other tweaks were needed, but for the most part, I can run it as written. As a little present for me, I'm integrating the C Team into the beginning of the adventure for the fun of it.
I went to Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle after Phandelver, but that was to work towards tying up one of my PC's backstories. All of my planning revolves around back story. I plan how each players back story is going to be resolved and then I use modules that are close(ish) and then tweak them so they fit. And then I add hooks for further adventures that will resolve or expand other backstory plots.
Well, that's eerie. Dragonspear Castle is what I'm adding in to the road north to keep it interesting for my PCs (two of them are kids under the age of 13 who are more accustomed to video games). We'll be headed there next time we play. Are you keeping it exactly as is? Or are you populating the castle with cultists instead of the vampires? I'm adding in a dungeon labyrinth pulled from one of the other Dragonspear adventures the FR wiki mentioned on the Dragonspear Castle page and some puzzles into that dungeon to mix it up from the usual dungeon crawl.
I actually dumped Dragonspear Castle entirely. Hahahahaha. I only wanted that campaign for the Mount Illefearn angle and the Red Wizards. One of my PC's was an Ironeater and the Ironaxe clan was the perfect foil for his backstory, and the Red Wizards were perfect for someone else, so we ended up there. Going to Dragonspear castle served no real purpose, and my PC's didn't move that way. Since then, I've repurposed Against the Cult of the Reptile God as a Devilish Cult instead for something else I'm working towards.
Nice. I'm using Dragonspear as a way of adding in another dungeon where there isn't one int he module I'm running. The boys are more hack & slash so I'm trying to add in some puzzles to mix it up while still keeping some combat. I'm changing some things up in the module I'm running to try to tie in what bits of character backstory I actually have for the PCs. we're going through hoard of the dragon queen and the three PCs all have dragons in their backstories. I'm going to run Dragonspear Castle as though the other adventures actually did happen (Isteval shows up as an NPC in the modules I'm running now) so they'll see some evidence of previous adventurers as they go.
I see a link with PotA as they are near the Dessarin Valley. Simple enough to get them over to Red Larch. Or, they could move on to Waterdeep where I see Dragon Heist and Mad Mage to run. Or the could go north toward Silverymoon where I see Stormking to run.
I have created a business concern in which they are interns/apprentices with franchises in Neverwinter, Waterdeep, Red Larch, Goldenfields, and Silverymoon that provides me a vehicle with plausible plot hooks regardless which direction they choose to go. I would prefer they move to the Dessarin Valley and Red Larch next as the primary plot background for the exploration and acquisitions business is based there, to which they were introduced in Neverwinter to kickoff our LMOP adventure. It gives me an ongoing plot hook to thread any and all content together in a plausible way.
At least, that is my plan. ...
So, a mega-campaign using as much or as little material, or pieces of it as things demand or dictate.
I haven’t played rpgs for about 20 years so I’m quite rusty as a DM. After awakening the interest for rpg in my MTG group, we started out with the Phandelver story and now we’re almost finished, but where do we go next?
I like the prewritten adventures, but which do I choose? My players will be at level 5 when we’re done, but many adventures start at level 1. I guess we could make new characters but that feels somewhat unrewarding after finishing the last campaign.
Any advice?
I took my players from Phandelver to Hoard of the Dragon Queen. Depending on how the Thundertree encounter went, they've already been introduced to the cult and a dragon. I also considered using Storm King's Thunder because of Triboar's proximity to Phandalen.
It's not too difficult to scale up the encounters, or to narratively skip a chapter or two to get caught up to the appropriate level, but it does take planning. I basically had another session zero before we started and told them that the first few chapters would be at a quicker pace, and some things might be narrated instead of played. (Narrating goes down a little easier than rail-roading in my experience) They were ok with it.
The main pitfall I hit in Hoard was the army. Level 1 PCs would be extremely unlikely to try and fight the army, but level 5 PCs start to think they can. Smart players know they have no shot at hundreds of enemies, but that's more experience than anything. I also narratively skipped the road travel and the roadhouse. By the time they got to the castle they were close enough to the right level.
At the end of the day, you can use any module with a little bit of effort to get the first few chapters done quickly. Beware of milestone though...putting 5th level PCs into a 1st level start module means they won't milestone for quite a few sessions. They'll be stuck at 5th level and might start grumbling. (Hence the need to be a little upfront about what's happening)
Yes, I was thinking about Hoard of the Dragon Queen. Been hearing that it’s quite linear and that what I think my players need since they can’t decide what to do. They go chasing every ball and Phandelver has taken forever.
I’ll tell them what to expect about leveling and let them get into it. Since they’re just three players maybe I just throw them in and see how it fits level wise before making any modifications.
My players have enjoyed it so far. We just shifted to Rise of Tiamat on our last session. The linear aspect of Hoard and a hefty amount of errata gets it on a lot of people's bad list, but it's a decent adventure. One way I kept it from feeling too linear was adding in a time crunch feel to it. After the shock and awe of chapter 1, it's all about scrambling to follow the money. It slows a bit on the caravan ride, but then picks back up from the roadhouse to the fortress. If you make sure your NPCs (Leosin/Ontharr) stress the need to not let the treasure out of their sight it will feel slightly less linear to the players.
We went straight into HotDQ. I changed up some of the baddies they came up against in the first episode so it was a little more challenging for us. We started at I think L4 when we started HotDQ. I combined episodes 2 & 3 into one and changed it up some. (This was partly based on the fact that I knew the PCs would be wanting to take a long rest after the fight with Lennithon.) Now we're in episode 4 and I'm adding in my own dungeon instead of doing all the slog of things the module gives you to throw at the adventurers. (This is largely due to the fact that I DM for my brother and his kids. The kids aren't big into the RP stuff in D&D (which is why my brother and I are also looking for a group to play with that doesn't include his kids) and prefer to hack and slash.)
Even at L5, the fight in the dragon hatchery with Cyanwrath, Mondath, and the two berserkers nearly wiped the party. There were some lucky rolls in that fight. The party bypassed most of that dungeon and basically went straight to the boss fight.
The most common thing I did in the encounters was to change out the various Dragon-whatevers in the cult and change out ambush drakes for guard drakes (or whichever way toughens the enemy). I'd also usually go for max HP on the baddies rather than the average. (Though I had average HP on Cyanwrath, Mondath, and the berserkers in the dragon hatchery.) Your party may be better balanced than ours is. We have 2 rangers, 1 paladin, and a rogue (who is my NPC/PC that I run because I don't know enough to be able to scale the encounters down for 3 players). Had they not bypassed most of that dungeon they would have come up against all iterations of kobolds (kobold, kobold scale sorcerer, etc.) in addition to various and sundry humans.
My Homebrew Backgrounds | Feats | Magic Items | Monsters | Races | Subclasses
My group is in the last chapter of LMoP, and after they liberate Wave Echo Cave, I'm giving them 6 months of downtime to ingratiate themselves into Phandalin more. I'm giving them Tresendar Manor to live in, and after 6 months I'm beginning HotDQ. I'm having the cult attack Phandalin and kill off a few key NPCs for emotional effect (because I'm evil), and then we're going right into the rest of the adventure. A couple other tweaks were needed, but for the most part, I can run it as written. As a little present for me, I'm integrating the C Team into the beginning of the adventure for the fun of it.
I went to Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle after Phandelver, but that was to work towards tying up one of my PC's backstories. All of my planning revolves around back story. I plan how each players back story is going to be resolved and then I use modules that are close(ish) and then tweak them so they fit. And then I add hooks for further adventures that will resolve or expand other backstory plots.
Well, that's eerie. Dragonspear Castle is what I'm adding in to the road north to keep it interesting for my PCs (two of them are kids under the age of 13 who are more accustomed to video games). We'll be headed there next time we play. Are you keeping it exactly as is? Or are you populating the castle with cultists instead of the vampires? I'm adding in a dungeon labyrinth pulled from one of the other Dragonspear adventures the FR wiki mentioned on the Dragonspear Castle page and some puzzles into that dungeon to mix it up from the usual dungeon crawl.
My Homebrew Backgrounds | Feats | Magic Items | Monsters | Races | Subclasses
I actually dumped Dragonspear Castle entirely. Hahahahaha. I only wanted that campaign for the Mount Illefearn angle and the Red Wizards. One of my PC's was an Ironeater and the Ironaxe clan was the perfect foil for his backstory, and the Red Wizards were perfect for someone else, so we ended up there. Going to Dragonspear castle served no real purpose, and my PC's didn't move that way. Since then, I've repurposed Against the Cult of the Reptile God as a Devilish Cult instead for something else I'm working towards.
Nice. I'm using Dragonspear as a way of adding in another dungeon where there isn't one int he module I'm running. The boys are more hack & slash so I'm trying to add in some puzzles to mix it up while still keeping some combat. I'm changing some things up in the module I'm running to try to tie in what bits of character backstory I actually have for the PCs. we're going through hoard of the dragon queen and the three PCs all have dragons in their backstories. I'm going to run Dragonspear Castle as though the other adventures actually did happen (Isteval shows up as an NPC in the modules I'm running now) so they'll see some evidence of previous adventurers as they go.
My Homebrew Backgrounds | Feats | Magic Items | Monsters | Races | Subclasses
I see a link with PotA as they are near the Dessarin Valley. Simple enough to get them over to Red Larch. Or, they could move on to Waterdeep where I see Dragon Heist and Mad Mage to run. Or the could go north toward Silverymoon where I see Stormking to run.
I have created a business concern in which they are interns/apprentices with franchises in Neverwinter, Waterdeep, Red Larch, Goldenfields, and Silverymoon that provides me a vehicle with plausible plot hooks regardless which direction they choose to go. I would prefer they move to the Dessarin Valley and Red Larch next as the primary plot background for the exploration and acquisitions business is based there, to which they were introduced in Neverwinter to kickoff our LMOP adventure. It gives me an ongoing plot hook to thread any and all content together in a plausible way.
At least, that is my plan. ...
So, a mega-campaign using as much or as little material, or pieces of it as things demand or dictate.
Gray Mouser
I am new to D&D Beyond. Played nearly 40 years ago. Where do you find the description of the adventures and their location?
https://www.dndbeyond.com/sources#Adventures
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