Newbie DM here. (Sorta. I DMed back in the very early 90s, 1st edition.) I'm running Waterdeep with my 3 daughters, 4 nieces, and a nephew, ages 9-17.
It's insane.
They seemed to enjoy chapter 1 over our first two sessions, but now I'm worried that chapter 2 will be boring. Role-playing entrepreneurs? Factions?
There's not a lot of conflict there. I'm actually toying with using the Redbrand hideout from Lost Mine of Phandelver and saying it's in the basement of Trollskull Manor, and having them clear out "Zhentarim" bandits and baddies instead of rolling for haggling with a brewer.
So, my questions:
1) Have you folks had fun with chapter 2? If so, what makes it interesting? What's the story?
2) What do you think of importing the hideout? It's a level 2 adventure...
3) How the crap do I wrangle 8 kids? Yesterday was a mess for me. I've thought that maybe we need to separate into two groups, each heading off in a different direction in the story, and play 90 minutes each.
4) I'm worried I wasted money on Dwarven Forge terrain and miniatures. They're difficult to maneuver, slowing down the game a lot, I think. (And obviously if we go the rebuild-the-tavern route with chapter 2, there's little need for the terrain.) Anybody have luck with terrain tiles?
Any advice is appreciated. I definitely bit off more than I can chew, I'm afraid.
Well, I asked my 12 & 15yos if they'd prefer to fix up the tavern in the next session, or do more adventuring, and they were both REALLY interested in the tavern.
I swear, though, the second it gets boring, I'm letting them find a secret hatch to the Redbrand hideout from Phandelver, and calling it a Zhentarim hideout.
I think I discovered the solution to the big party problem over on a Reddit thread: dividing the party and saying "meanwhile..." JUST AS THINGS GET HAIRY.
Some quick advice, I wouldn't connect it as a basement. Maybe a sewers connection they discover after some nearby ruffians accost someone, or them.
Another interesting thing to note, and this varies by party, a lot of people can have a connection to a location that is their's. Heck as you noted you played, old dnd had high level characters taking over lands/castles and often managing them. I say give it a chance, play up the character of the place. It's a tavern and mansion that is haunted by the former owner in a relatively high income part of the city. I say let them visit and be there for a bit and drop small hints of something supernatural, give them some bait to ponder on as you introduce some of the various side objectives, introduce the factions and just every so often have a random plate fall off the counter or other various minor but notable occurrences. When I was running that section (for a group of not children) I had a few people leap to the idea of a not directly hostile but not friendly ghost.
No feelings on the whole miniature situation, since I only do online or theatre of the mind games and haven't messed with anything like that. Can always bring it up and try it out with the kids to see how much they like the alternative playstyle.
As I've been thinking about it, I realized we jumped into the game without getting to know their characters at all. Slowing down and doing the tavern-building properly - with some character by character interaction, instead of mass decisions - will let everybody get to role play properly.
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Newbie DM here. (Sorta. I DMed back in the very early 90s, 1st edition.) I'm running Waterdeep with my 3 daughters, 4 nieces, and a nephew, ages 9-17.
It's insane.
They seemed to enjoy chapter 1 over our first two sessions, but now I'm worried that chapter 2 will be boring. Role-playing entrepreneurs? Factions?
There's not a lot of conflict there. I'm actually toying with using the Redbrand hideout from Lost Mine of Phandelver and saying it's in the basement of Trollskull Manor, and having them clear out "Zhentarim" bandits and baddies instead of rolling for haggling with a brewer.
So, my questions:
1) Have you folks had fun with chapter 2? If so, what makes it interesting? What's the story?
2) What do you think of importing the hideout? It's a level 2 adventure...
3) How the crap do I wrangle 8 kids? Yesterday was a mess for me. I've thought that maybe we need to separate into two groups, each heading off in a different direction in the story, and play 90 minutes each.
4) I'm worried I wasted money on Dwarven Forge terrain and miniatures. They're difficult to maneuver, slowing down the game a lot, I think. (And obviously if we go the rebuild-the-tavern route with chapter 2, there's little need for the terrain.) Anybody have luck with terrain tiles?
Any advice is appreciated. I definitely bit off more than I can chew, I'm afraid.
Well, I asked my 12 & 15yos if they'd prefer to fix up the tavern in the next session, or do more adventuring, and they were both REALLY interested in the tavern.
I swear, though, the second it gets boring, I'm letting them find a secret hatch to the Redbrand hideout from Phandelver, and calling it a Zhentarim hideout.
I think I discovered the solution to the big party problem over on a Reddit thread: dividing the party and saying "meanwhile..." JUST AS THINGS GET HAIRY.
Some quick advice, I wouldn't connect it as a basement. Maybe a sewers connection they discover after some nearby ruffians accost someone, or them.
Another interesting thing to note, and this varies by party, a lot of people can have a connection to a location that is their's. Heck as you noted you played, old dnd had high level characters taking over lands/castles and often managing them. I say give it a chance, play up the character of the place. It's a tavern and mansion that is haunted by the former owner in a relatively high income part of the city. I say let them visit and be there for a bit and drop small hints of something supernatural, give them some bait to ponder on as you introduce some of the various side objectives, introduce the factions and just every so often have a random plate fall off the counter or other various minor but notable occurrences. When I was running that section (for a group of not children) I had a few people leap to the idea of a not directly hostile but not friendly ghost.
No feelings on the whole miniature situation, since I only do online or theatre of the mind games and haven't messed with anything like that. Can always bring it up and try it out with the kids to see how much they like the alternative playstyle.
Thank you! This is awesome advice.
As I've been thinking about it, I realized we jumped into the game without getting to know their characters at all. Slowing down and doing the tavern-building properly - with some character by character interaction, instead of mass decisions - will let everybody get to role play properly.