I'm still pretty newly back to D&D so I don't have a ton of experience to draw on so I'm looking for some feedback and suggestions.
I've played through LMoP and like the idea of being able to run it someday if I can wrangle some people into playing. So I bought the adventure and have been prepping it on Foundry. I've been attempting to rewrite and modify the story to some extent. So spoilers ahead.
The things I've done so far is have the Wyvern Tor Orcs kidnap the other two Rockseeker brothers at the request of Glasstaff and Thundrin is found dead there. I took out Thundertree, except as a last ditch stop at lvl 4 if they failed to save Gundren and the map and still need to fine Wave Echo Cave. I made Conyberry outside of Agatha's Lair into a ruined town with a zombie horde. Phandalin and the Redbrands play as kind of an old western. I'm fairly happy with all these but there is another change I'd like to make that I'm struggling with.
I'd like to have one of the Black Spider's dopplegangers impersonate Harbin Wester, the Phandalin townmaster. I'm having a hard time knowing how to make that happen and allow the players to discover it without getting really obvious or too complex and challenging, especially at 2nd lvl. Harbin is already written as being averse to causing trouble with the Redbrands so changing his motivation from cowardice to duplicity is easy enough. If the players capture Glasstaff, "Harbin" can help him escape, also no big deal. Where it seems to get tricky for me is after the Redbrand street fight and it becomes apparent that the players are going to go after the Redbrands, "Harbin" would try to warn them, and wouldn't be hard if the players want to take a rest. I think this could actually be fun, with the players entering the hideout only to find Glasstaff and the Redbrands waiting for them and being surrounded. Then taken prisoner and having to escape, I'm kind of at a loss on how to proceed from there. Maybe the tormented goblin Droop or the Nothic could help them escape.
Anyway I'm pretty unsure how to do intrigue well, any suggestions would be appreciated. Or even how to keep it simple while still bringing in this element of the Black Spider earlier on, so he's not just an encounter towards the end that the players don't have much connection to.
In my game the redbrands knew they were coming and so moved the bugbears into the first room to ambush them. It was great! A really tough fight straight out of the gate.
The rest of the redbrands didn't hear the fight so it didn't impact the rest of the dungeon.
The changes you have already made sound great so far! I think the source material is very malleable and designed to be played around with; its why you can run multiple different LMoPs and have completely different campaigns each time!
In terms of having someone impersonate Harbin Wester - I love the idea as I have done this before as DM. On that particular occasion Harbin was being impersonated by a doppelganger (introducing 'Vyerith' at an earlier point in the story). I built an entire murder mystery around the fact that the doppelganger was going out and 'silencing' any leads the party was getting relating to the true identity of the Black Spider; with enough hints dropped the PCs were able to figure out that the murders were being committed by something that was able to change it's appearance.
I'd advise dropping little hints (which, by merely mentioning them will appear massive) about Harbin being 'out of sorts', or 'barely recognisable'; think about issues that an impersonator would have - are they able to write in the same hand as their victim? would they know the same bits of information? how would they react to people that intimately knew their victim? If Harbin has met the party before you could always drop hints that he seems to not recognise them, or addresses them in a formal / different manner.
Rest assured that if as you say the PCs do not catch on, it can lead to all sorts of brilliant future revelations... having a major NPC actively working against the party? Fantastic! Just make sure not to derail the PCs too much (something which I am pretty prone to doing!).
As for Droop, in the campaign I ran the party helped him and treated him with respect. After they patched him up and let him go his way he did not forget their kindness. Upon nearing Cragmaw Castle a lone rider on a tired-looking donkey rocked up, covered in makeshift armour made of pots and pans, and wielding a spear and shield - if it wasn't our new-found hero Droop, come to aid the party in dealing with the evil, self-stylised 'King Grol'. I gave him a new statblock, basic knowledge of the garrison, and a passion to see his people throw off the yoke of King Grol's tyrannical leadership. Rest assured that, with the party's assistance, he was able to take Cragmaw Castle and establish all sorts of defence agreements with Phandalin - all hail King Droop, first of his name!
Finally, I think you are right to consider how to better include more signposting / fleshing out Nezznar. I think that, as written, he is a little underwhelming and can do with being a more 'real' and pressing threat; to have more impact having the party encounter more of his 'handy work' early on might be an idea. Building a villain from the get-go is always a great idea and gives the party a very tangible goal - especially if he starts actively thwarting the PC's plans. Bear in mind that the closer you get to exposing his plans the more likely there is to be increased confrontations / threats against the party - do not make him inactive.
The changes you have already made sound great so far! I think the source material is very malleable and designed to be played around with; its why you can run multiple different LMoPs and have completely different campaigns each time!
In terms of having someone impersonate Harbin Wester - I love the idea as I have done this before as DM. On that particular occasion Harbin was being impersonated by a doppelganger (introducing 'Vyerith' at an earlier point in the story). I built an entire murder mystery around the fact that the doppelganger was going out and 'silencing' any leads the party was getting relating to the true identity of the Black Spider; with enough hints dropped the PCs were able to figure out that the murders were being committed by something that was able to change it's appearance.
I'd advise dropping little hints (which, by merely mentioning them will appear massive) about Harbin being 'out of sorts', or 'barely recognisable'; think about issues that an impersonator would have - are they able to write in the same hand as their victim? would they know the same bits of information? how would they react to people that intimately knew their victim? If Harbin has met the party before you could always drop hints that he seems to not recognise them, or addresses them in a formal / different manner.
Rest assured that if as you say the PCs do not catch on, it can lead to all sorts of brilliant future revelations... having a major NPC actively working against the party? Fantastic! Just make sure not to derail the PCs too much (something which I am pretty prone to doing!).
As for Droop, in the campaign I ran the party helped him and treated him with respect. After they patched him up and let him go his way he did not forget their kindness. Upon nearing Cragmaw Castle a lone rider on a tired-looking donkey rocked up, covered in makeshift armour made of pots and pans, and wielding a spear and shield - if it wasn't our new-found hero Droop, come to aid the party in dealing with the evil, self-stylised 'King Grol'. I gave him a new statblock, basic knowledge of the garrison, and a passion to see his people throw off the yoke of King Grol's tyrannical leadership. Rest assured that, with the party's assistance, he was able to take Cragmaw Castle and establish all sorts of defence agreements with Phandalin - all hail King Droop, first of his name!
Finally, I think you are right to consider how to better include more signposting / fleshing out Nezznar. I think that, as written, he is a little underwhelming and can do with being a more 'real' and pressing threat; to have more impact having the party encounter more of his 'handy work' early on might be an idea. Building a villain from the get-go is always a great idea and gives the party a very tangible goal - especially if he starts actively thwarting the PC's plans. Bear in mind that the closer you get to exposing his plans the more likely there is to be increased confrontations / threats against the party - do not make him inactive.
Thanks for the long feedback. The suggestions about other townsfolk may notice how Harbin is off since the Redbrands arrived I think will be good and the idea of Droop helping/appearing again sounds fun. I decided that Harbin's body would be down in the crevasse but be hard to recognize for sure, the body kind of fits the same general description but is too eaten and decomposed by this time to be sure. Or maybe allow the possibility of finding some sort of clue on the body? I also have the idea that in the process of freeing Glasstaff he could attack one of the players with his ambush ability to knock them out but not before they catch a quick glimpse of him in his true form, or if there are two or more guards have him try to assassinate Glasstaff with an arrow from the shadows to silence him. And if Vhelek makes it to the end have him carrying Harbin Wester's signet ring on him when they kill him in WEC should be a nice reveal.
I'm still pretty newly back to D&D so I don't have a ton of experience to draw on so I'm looking for some feedback and suggestions.
I've played through LMoP and like the idea of being able to run it someday if I can wrangle some people into playing. So I bought the adventure and have been prepping it on Foundry. I've been attempting to rewrite and modify the story to some extent. So spoilers ahead.
The things I've done so far is have the Wyvern Tor Orcs kidnap the other two Rockseeker brothers at the request of Glasstaff and Thundrin is found dead there. I took out Thundertree, except as a last ditch stop at lvl 4 if they failed to save Gundren and the map and still need to fine Wave Echo Cave. I made Conyberry outside of Agatha's Lair into a ruined town with a zombie horde. Phandalin and the Redbrands play as kind of an old western. I'm fairly happy with all these but there is another change I'd like to make that I'm struggling with.
I'd like to have one of the Black Spider's dopplegangers impersonate Harbin Wester, the Phandalin townmaster. I'm having a hard time knowing how to make that happen and allow the players to discover it without getting really obvious or too complex and challenging, especially at 2nd lvl. Harbin is already written as being averse to causing trouble with the Redbrands so changing his motivation from cowardice to duplicity is easy enough. If the players capture Glasstaff, "Harbin" can help him escape, also no big deal. Where it seems to get tricky for me is after the Redbrand street fight and it becomes apparent that the players are going to go after the Redbrands, "Harbin" would try to warn them, and wouldn't be hard if the players want to take a rest. I think this could actually be fun, with the players entering the hideout only to find Glasstaff and the Redbrands waiting for them and being surrounded. Then taken prisoner and having to escape, I'm kind of at a loss on how to proceed from there. Maybe the tormented goblin Droop or the Nothic could help them escape.
Anyway I'm pretty unsure how to do intrigue well, any suggestions would be appreciated. Or even how to keep it simple while still bringing in this element of the Black Spider earlier on, so he's not just an encounter towards the end that the players don't have much connection to.
In my game the redbrands knew they were coming and so moved the bugbears into the first room to ambush them. It was great! A really tough fight straight out of the gate.
The rest of the redbrands didn't hear the fight so it didn't impact the rest of the dungeon.
The changes you have already made sound great so far! I think the source material is very malleable and designed to be played around with; its why you can run multiple different LMoPs and have completely different campaigns each time!
In terms of having someone impersonate Harbin Wester - I love the idea as I have done this before as DM. On that particular occasion Harbin was being impersonated by a doppelganger (introducing 'Vyerith' at an earlier point in the story). I built an entire murder mystery around the fact that the doppelganger was going out and 'silencing' any leads the party was getting relating to the true identity of the Black Spider; with enough hints dropped the PCs were able to figure out that the murders were being committed by something that was able to change it's appearance.
I'd advise dropping little hints (which, by merely mentioning them will appear massive) about Harbin being 'out of sorts', or 'barely recognisable'; think about issues that an impersonator would have - are they able to write in the same hand as their victim? would they know the same bits of information? how would they react to people that intimately knew their victim? If Harbin has met the party before you could always drop hints that he seems to not recognise them, or addresses them in a formal / different manner.
Rest assured that if as you say the PCs do not catch on, it can lead to all sorts of brilliant future revelations... having a major NPC actively working against the party? Fantastic! Just make sure not to derail the PCs too much (something which I am pretty prone to doing!).
As for Droop, in the campaign I ran the party helped him and treated him with respect. After they patched him up and let him go his way he did not forget their kindness. Upon nearing Cragmaw Castle a lone rider on a tired-looking donkey rocked up, covered in makeshift armour made of pots and pans, and wielding a spear and shield - if it wasn't our new-found hero Droop, come to aid the party in dealing with the evil, self-stylised 'King Grol'. I gave him a new statblock, basic knowledge of the garrison, and a passion to see his people throw off the yoke of King Grol's tyrannical leadership. Rest assured that, with the party's assistance, he was able to take Cragmaw Castle and establish all sorts of defence agreements with Phandalin - all hail King Droop, first of his name!
Finally, I think you are right to consider how to better include more signposting / fleshing out Nezznar. I think that, as written, he is a little underwhelming and can do with being a more 'real' and pressing threat; to have more impact having the party encounter more of his 'handy work' early on might be an idea. Building a villain from the get-go is always a great idea and gives the party a very tangible goal - especially if he starts actively thwarting the PC's plans. Bear in mind that the closer you get to exposing his plans the more likely there is to be increased confrontations / threats against the party - do not make him inactive.
DM - The Call of Strahd (CoS); Feyrealm Campaign, Chapter 0 - Bleak Prospect (BP), Chapter 1 - Destination Unknown (DU)
Thanks for the long feedback. The suggestions about other townsfolk may notice how Harbin is off since the Redbrands arrived I think will be good and the idea of Droop helping/appearing again sounds fun. I decided that Harbin's body would be down in the crevasse but be hard to recognize for sure, the body kind of fits the same general description but is too eaten and decomposed by this time to be sure. Or maybe allow the possibility of finding some sort of clue on the body? I also have the idea that in the process of freeing Glasstaff he could attack one of the players with his ambush ability to knock them out but not before they catch a quick glimpse of him in his true form, or if there are two or more guards have him try to assassinate Glasstaff with an arrow from the shadows to silence him. And if Vhelek makes it to the end have him carrying Harbin Wester's signet ring on him when they kill him in WEC should be a nice reveal.