I've decided to run the "Dragon of Icespire Peak" adventure, but I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed about how to prep and what notes to take. This is my first time DMing, and I could use some guidance. Any experienced DMs or players out there willing to share their wisdom?
Sorry, I don't think I can be of much help on how to run a game, but I can offer you this reddit post (link below) that in my opinion makes the adventure better, as it ties the plot together rather than feeling like a bunch of useless side-quests. It is a bit lengthy to read, but IMO if you want to run the adventure, especially as a new DM, this will probably help you a lot.
With a prewritten module you don't really need to do any prep work you can just read as you go along. But it is better to read through it first. Make notes of anything you think you would need that you might forget, such as where to find random tables the adventure might use. You can use 3x5 cards to make notes of important NPCs and what they know. If you want to do voices, write down what you're using for each one so you can remember when they come up again.
Read through it. Get a sense of what this world is like for you and start with just a few notes of the kind of storylines, potential storylines, and NPCs that capture your imagination. DOIP is pretty much just a big sandbox with quests scattered about but not a lot connecting them all together. In my version, for example, Halia (being aligned with the Zhents) is both secretly a wererat, along with her family, and wants to secure trade with the gnomes so she and her husband can produce a new psychedelic drug to fuel their rise to power in the region by its sale. I want to run the Storm Lord's Wrath series after this so I've tied to Talos cult to the Big Bad Talos leader in that one by dropping a few notes encouraging recruitment of the displaced Icespire Orcs and including the Wayside Inn and its NPCs in the game.
Speak with your players about their unique backstories, and look for ways to tie those into the game. I have a player who is looking for an individual they knew as a child. They heard they might be in the area. Unbeknownst to her, her friend has been captured and shipped up to Triboar to be sold as a slave. Once the new drug hits the streets she going to become an addict and end up imprisoned up north in Revel's End, where I'll tie in the free "Prisoner 13" adventure for her. The key is that it's Thornton's secret criminal activities that are responsible.
I've also combined DOIP with the free Lost Mines of Phandelver campaign, as they both take place in the same area at about the same time and include many of the same NPCs. Since it's free, and it gives you more plotlines to play with.
Sly Flourishes 'Lazy Dungeon Master' series (two books) gives some great prep tips, and you can find some really good advice online just by searching for "Tips for running Dragon of Icespire Peak", like the following;
Been there .. This was my first game I ran as well. It's a great adventure. First, breathe. you don't have to prep every detail. Go with the flow, make up some things on the fly depending on what the players do ... that's usually where the most memorable and funny moments will happen. Also, since you're using a pre-made module, just go with the pre-made module. Stick to it your first time DMing and you'll learn a lot as you go.
Theater of the Mind vs. Mini's ... This is the big question. If you're running everything, fights and dungeons in theater of the mind, then you actually have very little to prep. you don't have to draw maps or paint minis or anything. You just have describe things really well. This is how all of my DND adventures were as a player in gradeschool. I loved it. Now, I love miniatures more, but theater of the mind can definitely be fun.
If you are doing battle maps and minis, let me make a suggestion. Don't DRAW entire dungeons or try to print out entire dungeons. The Dragon of Icespire Peak module gives you maps, but those are for you, the DM to use to describe the party's surroundings. ... have a blank dry erase battle map ready in case there is a confusing kind of location. When a fight breaks out, of course, then you'll want to use some kind of battle grid, predrawn or whatever. Here is what I've started to use, and it's been awesome! https://a.co/d/5LLe6og ... These battle map books look cool and if you buy a few you'll basically have something quick that will work for almost any location you encounter.
Mini's ... Print paper minis! ... It's the cheapest way to have decent-looking visual monsters for your game. Here is what I used for DOIP .. https://www.dmsguild.com/product/333336/Essentials-Kit-Paper-Miniatures--VTT-Dragon-of-Icespire-Peak?filters=0_0_45401_0_0_0_0_0. For my players, I tell them that if they want their own minis they can purchase them and use them. Otherwise, the link I gave you has some generic minis you can print out for them to use. And, OF COURSE, you can use anything for battles .. You can just use little meeples from board games, or pieces of paper that say "goblin" "orc", etc... Whatever works, works. Don't over think it. And don't try to be Critical Role or Dimension 20. Dnd doesn't need to be expensive unless you want it to be.
Keeping track of battles ... Ok, feel free to do this however you want .. Let me show you the best tool I've found. It's a simple website. You can pay $2 a month on patreon to save your own profile ... It's really worth it ... https://improvedinitiative.app/ This is a battle tracker that allows you to add creatures on the fly, check spells, roll iniative quickly. In a word, it is AWESOME! I know DND Beyond has tools for this stuff too, but it's too expensive and I don't like giving WotC money.
Music ... This is totally optional. Obviously, you don't have to do this at all... But, let me show you a totally free option for background music that has totally changed the way I DM. https://www.youtube.com/@bardify ... This Youtube channel has full one hour tracks of some really great background music for literally ANYTHING... Download Brave Browser so you don't have to deal with any Youtube ads and you're good to go. Great background music for the table, totally free!
Finally, be sure to take your own notes on what the party has done, what NPC's you've had to create on the fly, what things they've noticed and haven't noticed. After every session, I sit down at a word document and just journal what happened, what players enjoyed, what worked, what didn't work ... That kind of note-taking helps you to know if there's a certain direction you want to take the party .. or plot things you can throw in, or ways you can implement their backstories or decisions into the game world. ... EXAMPLE: My party has really enjoyed this escort mission where they've had to keep an eye on a bard and his ridiculous over-the-top groupie fan that follows him around everywhere. Once I saw that they were really into those two characters, I decided that at some point in the future they're going to have to rescue that bard from his crazy groupie fan ... boom... just made a little sidequest just for my party.
Sorry, I don't think I can be of much help on how to run a game, but I can offer you this reddit post (link below) that in my opinion makes the adventure better, as it ties the plot together rather than feeling like a bunch of useless side-quests. It is a bit lengthy to read, but IMO if you want to run the adventure, especially as a new DM, this will probably help you a lot.
I would second this suggestion. It makes a few changes here and there but the most important element to me was that it revised the narrative in DoIP so that more of the side quests and bits and pieces fit together into a more connected story. Highly recommended.
As far as starting to run a game, the only thing to do is jump in, have fun and do your best. It helps if you have someone in the game who knows the rules well to help you out but if you don't then just do your best and do some reading afterward so you understand it for next time. If something is quick to look up then resolve it as you play, if not, then decide how you will play it that time and go look it up afterward and change how you play it going forward if necessary. You are the DM, you get to decide but it is important to realize that you will make mistakes but they don't really matter as long as everyone is having fun. If you make a mistake, fix it later :)
The best way to "prepare" the module is to read it. However, you don't want every detail on a first reading ... you don't actually need every detail until you run the specific scene. However, you do want to know the overall theme/plot/motivations - know what the goals are for the module, who are the important NPCs, get an idea of how the writers expect the module to go and realize that most of the time that never happens :).
In DoIP, the party starts in Phandalin and there are three sets of starter questsand two sets of three followup quests. They get progressively harder and the party doesn't have to do all of them. The characters level up after each of the first two starter quests then after completing a pair of followup quests. So they will be level 3 after 2 or 3 starter quests and level 6 if they do all of the follow up quests - level 7 after the final quest.
The characters can get the quests from the job board as described in the adventure or you could have an appropriate NPC offer the quest up if it makes sense.
One tip is that some of the starting quests can be dangerous or deadly to new players with a new DM running them. The party has to choose one of the starter quests to do at level 1 and all can be deadly to some or all of the characters - especially for a new DM and new players.
1) The Dwarven Excavation quest has one or even two ochre jellies in the temple. These have a good chance of killing a 1st level character in one attack since they do 12 hit points of damage on average which is more than most 1st level characters - a critical hit has a good chance to instantly kill a first level character. However, they are also trivial to kill with ranged weapons because they only have a movement of 10'. Even if they dash, characters can easily out run them. So depending on what the characters decide to do, several characters could be killed or the party TPKed if they stick around and fight in melee or the party can probably kill them with little or no risk with ranged attacks. If the DM knows this then they can be proactive in how they handle it. The NPCs encountered could know a bit about oozes - they are slow, easy to hit but hit really hard - this might convince the characters not to attack in melee. Or the DM could have the first attacks that hit do half the usual damage and say that the oozes were just waking up, hinting that when fully awake they will be more dangerous. If the characters stick around even with that hint then some may be killed.
2) The Umbrage Hill quest has the party encounter a manticore. This is another encounter where the party is in real danger. The manticore has 3 attacks each turn - high damage on any one attack can knock out a character. Three will likely take down one character a turn, possibly two ... plus the creature flies and doesn't need to stay close to the characters. However, as noted in the book - this doesn't have to be a combat encounter but the players will have no idea there are other options unless the DM hints at it or roleplays the manticore as not immediately attacking the party. The manticore can be bribed to leave with treasure, several pounds of meat and when I ran it I had the manticore looking for a healing potion from the apothecary to heal their mate. The party might also be able to take cover in the tower and shoot ranged weapons through the arrow slits pictured on the first floor of the windmill but in this case the manticore might leave before being killed and come back later so it would be better if the party had a more permanent solution.
6) Gnomengarde has a Mimic and an Auto-loading crossbow platform operated by a very anti-social gnome. Both are real threats to level 1 characters unless the characters have some decent tactics.
None of these threats need to be a problem if the DM has assessed them in advance and figured out how they want to run them but they can be a problem if the DM just reads the section as they are running it since then there is a good chance that, if the players don't have some knowledge, they could end up not making it out. :)
Anyway, good luck :) ... it is a good module (which I have obviously run given my comments) and I would definitely recommend the revisions suggested in that article since I think it gives a much more coherent narrative for various encounters and the different groups/factions that are found in the adventure.
I own this campaign but I personally have never run it. But here's some helpful tips on general prep. Do a quick read of the first chapter summary, then pick where you're going to start and end the session. Thoroughly read the details you think would most likely occur with your party. Make notes on any details you might forget or choices your players might take. Then do a quick read of the choices your players most likely won't take because you never know. If you plan on doing some voice acting practice the voices in private. If you have a little extra time come up with some basic strategy for combat (if there is combat). This is not necessary but it helps if there is a little bit of strategy in combat.
Quote from corvus_konrad>> If you plan on doing some voice acting practice the voices in private. If you have a little extra time come up with some basic strategy for combat (if there is combat). This is not necessary but it helps if there is a little bit of strategy in combat.
Practicing voices and strategizing combat are two things I think a lot of DM's neglect. But, they can actually have a huge impact on the gameplay. I like to make notes for my voices next to character names ... (e.g. "older jewish lady - think Fran Drescher", "Surfer accent", "Forest Gump but smart"). As for combat, the biggest benefit of thinking ahead and coming up with strategies is it speeds up combat! ... like a lot!
I've decided to run the "Dragon of Icespire Peak" adventure, but I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed about how to prep and what notes to take. This is my first time DMing, and I could use some guidance. Any experienced DMs or players out there willing to share their wisdom?
Sorry, I don't think I can be of much help on how to run a game, but I can offer you this reddit post (link below) that in my opinion makes the adventure better, as it ties the plot together rather than feeling like a bunch of useless side-quests. It is a bit lengthy to read, but IMO if you want to run the adventure, especially as a new DM, this will probably help you a lot.
https://www.reddit.com/r/DMAcademy/comments/e77dmi/dragon_of_icespire_peak_revised/
Varielky
With a prewritten module you don't really need to do any prep work you can just read as you go along. But it is better to read through it first. Make notes of anything you think you would need that you might forget, such as where to find random tables the adventure might use. You can use 3x5 cards to make notes of important NPCs and what they know. If you want to do voices, write down what you're using for each one so you can remember when they come up again.
Read through it. Get a sense of what this world is like for you and start with just a few notes of the kind of storylines, potential storylines, and NPCs that capture your imagination. DOIP is pretty much just a big sandbox with quests scattered about but not a lot connecting them all together. In my version, for example, Halia (being aligned with the Zhents) is both secretly a wererat, along with her family, and wants to secure trade with the gnomes so she and her husband can produce a new psychedelic drug to fuel their rise to power in the region by its sale. I want to run the Storm Lord's Wrath series after this so I've tied to Talos cult to the Big Bad Talos leader in that one by dropping a few notes encouraging recruitment of the displaced Icespire Orcs and including the Wayside Inn and its NPCs in the game.
Speak with your players about their unique backstories, and look for ways to tie those into the game. I have a player who is looking for an individual they knew as a child. They heard they might be in the area. Unbeknownst to her, her friend has been captured and shipped up to Triboar to be sold as a slave. Once the new drug hits the streets she going to become an addict and end up imprisoned up north in Revel's End, where I'll tie in the free "Prisoner 13" adventure for her. The key is that it's Thornton's secret criminal activities that are responsible.
I've also combined DOIP with the free Lost Mines of Phandelver campaign, as they both take place in the same area at about the same time and include many of the same NPCs. Since it's free, and it gives you more plotlines to play with.
Sly Flourishes 'Lazy Dungeon Master' series (two books) gives some great prep tips, and you can find some really good advice online just by searching for "Tips for running Dragon of Icespire Peak", like the following;
Tips And Tricks For Dragon Of Icespire Peak In DND (thegamer.com)
Running Dragon of Icespire Peak from the D&D Essentials Kit: SlyFlourish.com
I'm a returning DM (after MANY years!) with a group of brand-new players. This has been a fun intro to the game for all of us so far!
Been there .. This was my first game I ran as well. It's a great adventure. First, breathe. you don't have to prep every detail. Go with the flow, make up some things on the fly depending on what the players do ... that's usually where the most memorable and funny moments will happen. Also, since you're using a pre-made module, just go with the pre-made module. Stick to it your first time DMing and you'll learn a lot as you go.
Theater of the Mind vs. Mini's ... This is the big question. If you're running everything, fights and dungeons in theater of the mind, then you actually have very little to prep. you don't have to draw maps or paint minis or anything. You just have describe things really well. This is how all of my DND adventures were as a player in gradeschool. I loved it. Now, I love miniatures more, but theater of the mind can definitely be fun.
If you are doing battle maps and minis, let me make a suggestion. Don't DRAW entire dungeons or try to print out entire dungeons. The Dragon of Icespire Peak module gives you maps, but those are for you, the DM to use to describe the party's surroundings. ... have a blank dry erase battle map ready in case there is a confusing kind of location. When a fight breaks out, of course, then you'll want to use some kind of battle grid, predrawn or whatever. Here is what I've started to use, and it's been awesome! https://a.co/d/5LLe6og ... These battle map books look cool and if you buy a few you'll basically have something quick that will work for almost any location you encounter.
Mini's ... Print paper minis! ... It's the cheapest way to have decent-looking visual monsters for your game. Here is what I used for DOIP .. https://www.dmsguild.com/product/333336/Essentials-Kit-Paper-Miniatures--VTT-Dragon-of-Icespire-Peak?filters=0_0_45401_0_0_0_0_0. For my players, I tell them that if they want their own minis they can purchase them and use them. Otherwise, the link I gave you has some generic minis you can print out for them to use. And, OF COURSE, you can use anything for battles .. You can just use little meeples from board games, or pieces of paper that say "goblin" "orc", etc... Whatever works, works. Don't over think it. And don't try to be Critical Role or Dimension 20. Dnd doesn't need to be expensive unless you want it to be.
Keeping track of battles ... Ok, feel free to do this however you want .. Let me show you the best tool I've found. It's a simple website. You can pay $2 a month on patreon to save your own profile ... It's really worth it ... https://improvedinitiative.app/ This is a battle tracker that allows you to add creatures on the fly, check spells, roll iniative quickly. In a word, it is AWESOME! I know DND Beyond has tools for this stuff too, but it's too expensive and I don't like giving WotC money.
Music ... This is totally optional. Obviously, you don't have to do this at all... But, let me show you a totally free option for background music that has totally changed the way I DM. https://www.youtube.com/@bardify ... This Youtube channel has full one hour tracks of some really great background music for literally ANYTHING... Download Brave Browser so you don't have to deal with any Youtube ads and you're good to go. Great background music for the table, totally free!
Finally, be sure to take your own notes on what the party has done, what NPC's you've had to create on the fly, what things they've noticed and haven't noticed. After every session, I sit down at a word document and just journal what happened, what players enjoyed, what worked, what didn't work ... That kind of note-taking helps you to know if there's a certain direction you want to take the party .. or plot things you can throw in, or ways you can implement their backstories or decisions into the game world. ... EXAMPLE: My party has really enjoyed this escort mission where they've had to keep an eye on a bard and his ridiculous over-the-top groupie fan that follows him around everywhere. Once I saw that they were really into those two characters, I decided that at some point in the future they're going to have to rescue that bard from his crazy groupie fan ... boom... just made a little sidequest just for my party.
Final suggestion ... I actually made a PDF revamped Enhanced version the Dragon of IceSpire Peak module. It's a little easier to navigate than DND Beyond for me. Plus, it has some extra details, items, beefed up monsters, added sidequests. I also added venders, merchants, printable item cards and more. Feel free to use it.. https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/2wauvsjekj3gypigekhfz/DOIP_EnhancedAdventure.pdf?rlkey=jghtc62jlbsnbl01034nw1030&dl=0
Happy rolling!
This stuff is ace - especially your last link to Dropbox. I started with LMoP but soooo much cool stuff in here.
Consider yourself a legend Thatcher_Tydes!
What everyone else said was cool too - but they just gave you a HEAP of advice and resources.
RPGs from '83 - 03. A fair bit of LRP. A big gap. And now DMing again. Froth.
Thanks, Chrisgoodone! ... Hope you enjoy it. let me know if you find any dead links or major typos or whatever.
I would second this suggestion. It makes a few changes here and there but the most important element to me was that it revised the narrative in DoIP so that more of the side quests and bits and pieces fit together into a more connected story. Highly recommended.
As far as starting to run a game, the only thing to do is jump in, have fun and do your best. It helps if you have someone in the game who knows the rules well to help you out but if you don't then just do your best and do some reading afterward so you understand it for next time. If something is quick to look up then resolve it as you play, if not, then decide how you will play it that time and go look it up afterward and change how you play it going forward if necessary. You are the DM, you get to decide but it is important to realize that you will make mistakes but they don't really matter as long as everyone is having fun. If you make a mistake, fix it later :)
The best way to "prepare" the module is to read it. However, you don't want every detail on a first reading ... you don't actually need every detail until you run the specific scene. However, you do want to know the overall theme/plot/motivations - know what the goals are for the module, who are the important NPCs, get an idea of how the writers expect the module to go and realize that most of the time that never happens :).
In DoIP, the party starts in Phandalin and there are three sets of starter questsand two sets of three followup quests. They get progressively harder and the party doesn't have to do all of them. The characters level up after each of the first two starter quests then after completing a pair of followup quests. So they will be level 3 after 2 or 3 starter quests and level 6 if they do all of the follow up quests - level 7 after the final quest.
The characters can get the quests from the job board as described in the adventure or you could have an appropriate NPC offer the quest up if it makes sense.
One tip is that some of the starting quests can be dangerous or deadly to new players with a new DM running them. The party has to choose one of the starter quests to do at level 1 and all can be deadly to some or all of the characters - especially for a new DM and new players.
1) The Dwarven Excavation quest has one or even two ochre jellies in the temple. These have a good chance of killing a 1st level character in one attack since they do 12 hit points of damage on average which is more than most 1st level characters - a critical hit has a good chance to instantly kill a first level character. However, they are also trivial to kill with ranged weapons because they only have a movement of 10'. Even if they dash, characters can easily out run them. So depending on what the characters decide to do, several characters could be killed or the party TPKed if they stick around and fight in melee or the party can probably kill them with little or no risk with ranged attacks. If the DM knows this then they can be proactive in how they handle it. The NPCs encountered could know a bit about oozes - they are slow, easy to hit but hit really hard - this might convince the characters not to attack in melee. Or the DM could have the first attacks that hit do half the usual damage and say that the oozes were just waking up, hinting that when fully awake they will be more dangerous. If the characters stick around even with that hint then some may be killed.
2) The Umbrage Hill quest has the party encounter a manticore. This is another encounter where the party is in real danger. The manticore has 3 attacks each turn - high damage on any one attack can knock out a character. Three will likely take down one character a turn, possibly two ... plus the creature flies and doesn't need to stay close to the characters. However, as noted in the book - this doesn't have to be a combat encounter but the players will have no idea there are other options unless the DM hints at it or roleplays the manticore as not immediately attacking the party. The manticore can be bribed to leave with treasure, several pounds of meat and when I ran it I had the manticore looking for a healing potion from the apothecary to heal their mate. The party might also be able to take cover in the tower and shoot ranged weapons through the arrow slits pictured on the first floor of the windmill but in this case the manticore might leave before being killed and come back later so it would be better if the party had a more permanent solution.
6) Gnomengarde has a Mimic and an Auto-loading crossbow platform operated by a very anti-social gnome. Both are real threats to level 1 characters unless the characters have some decent tactics.
None of these threats need to be a problem if the DM has assessed them in advance and figured out how they want to run them but they can be a problem if the DM just reads the section as they are running it since then there is a good chance that, if the players don't have some knowledge, they could end up not making it out. :)
Anyway, good luck :) ... it is a good module (which I have obviously run given my comments) and I would definitely recommend the revisions suggested in that article since I think it gives a much more coherent narrative for various encounters and the different groups/factions that are found in the adventure.
I own this campaign but I personally have never run it. But here's some helpful tips on general prep. Do a quick read of the first chapter summary, then pick where you're going to start and end the session. Thoroughly read the details you think would most likely occur with your party. Make notes on any details you might forget or choices your players might take. Then do a quick read of the choices your players most likely won't take because you never know. If you plan on doing some voice acting practice the voices in private. If you have a little extra time come up with some basic strategy for combat (if there is combat). This is not necessary but it helps if there is a little bit of strategy in combat.
Practicing voices and strategizing combat are two things I think a lot of DM's neglect. But, they can actually have a huge impact on the gameplay. I like to make notes for my voices next to character names ... (e.g. "older jewish lady - think Fran Drescher", "Surfer accent", "Forest Gump but smart").
As for combat, the biggest benefit of thinking ahead and coming up with strategies is it speeds up combat! ... like a lot!
I am also going to DM for the first time with this set. Anything I should know?