I've just started my first D&D group (I've DM'd about 4 sessions previously for one-shots and the first few session of LMoP), and we are planning for it to be an ongoing campaign. Since I've never written a campaign before, my plan has been to use LMoP for levels 1-5, but weave the story I am developing for the rest of the campaign into the LMoP plot. We had our first session the other night and it went really well. The players all have great backstories that I can use for the rest of the campaign. The hang up is, 3 of the 5 have listened to the Adventure Zone podcast, albeit not recently. In that podcast they play through the central quest of LMoP; I am currently listening to it to see how closely they follow it.
The way I see it, I have 3 options:
1. Change LMoP pretty significantly so it doesn't feel like something they've heard before, using elements of their backstories and strands of the plot we are working toward.
2. Use a different pre-written starter campaign.
3. Try to write my own and start the plot in earnest now instead of at level 5.
Would love to hear your thoughts. I have a pretty demanding job and a newborn on the way, so the 3rd option doesn't really feel like a real possibility to me, but then I've never tried it before.
Option 1 will help ease you into option 3, and will give you time to do it in stages. The big advantage you have is that they listened to a podcast. So they haven't actually seen the maps. Change the names of the different areas and swap out monsters. They might not even be able to realize that the Thundertree they listened to is now the town of Arborfest and is overrun by fiends or aberrations instead of undead. Same with Black Spider. He can be a backstory bad guy. Echo Cave can become Crystal Cave known from crystal formations that glitter in low light throughout the cave. (And drop the wave sound features)
Great advice, thank you! I had planned to change some of the NPC names but hadn't thought about changing the location names, etc. I don't think the podcast goes through all of the side areas either, so it would be an opportunity to keep the interesting bits and take the more useless side-quests and loop them into the main campaign.
Great point about the podcast; we are doing primarily map based battles and exploration; it would feel very different.
Depending on back stories, LMoP is actually a pretty good module to adjust. The mine can be a nice source of income as well as a future magical laboratory for spellcasters, the manor could be a long lost hereditary land (prior to the Tresandors) and be a future base of operations. (It's centrally located on the Sword Coast, has a decent dungeon, and potential allies to serve as wards until the adventurers return.) All the factions are represented if you want to make those part of your campaign. (Plenty of quests/hooks)
There are enough toggles that you can put into the story that wouldn't require significant changes, particularly if the podcast doesn't mention all of the locations. The changes could be something as simple as moving the location of things within the existing framework, perhaps move Gundren to the Cragmaw hideout but have his map locked in a chest that is magically locked so that only one key can open it. Sildar could potentially have the key because he picked up the wrong satchel or something. If Gundren is at Cragmaw, where is Sildar? The location of the Forge of Spells could be moved to a different location, though probably still in Wave Echo Cave. Chests can be moved around as well. Just because the players are familiar with the story and the locations doesn't mean that they are familiar with your version of the story. Even running it verbatim from the adventure, there are enough details that are left to the DM to narrate and the players to interact with that no two LMoP will be the same. If the players are doing less of the "What I know the PC knows, and what I don't know, the PC knows" and more of the "What would the PC know here and how would they react to the situation" there is even less of a problem. I would say to feel free to move things around a bit, change out a few goblins for a Nilbog, perhaps have Grol or Klarg sucking up to the Nilbog a bit so that it will behave a bit more... something along those veins to help keep it fresh.
The good thing about Phandelver is that you can easily link it around other things quite easily, it builds a nice little sandbox. I've gone through it before multiple times and sometimes players have played through it more than once. It became almost a go to for me as a way to give players a few levels of getting to know each others characters and group dynamics before heading onwards to whatever adventure (whether homebrew or published depending on time) it leads on to. I've been lucky that I've not had any metagamers who've gone based on prior knowledge and they've reacted according to what they think their characters would do, maybe your group will be the same in that respect.
If it's something that you're wary of and want to make sure this doesn't happen changing a few names around and enemies is a good choice. If you have any idea where you're going with your story enhance those elements and creatures in the plot points. As an example, I had a couple of players with characters with a simple "dragon attacked my town I escaped" backstory and so it made sense to me to run it into Tyranny of Dragons. I played up the concern of the cultists and Thundertree dragon and got especially lucky with a party member first, making a lot of noise in the town attracting it and then while it was searching for them in the woods on the way home lighting a campfire that guided the dragon to Phandalin. It made launching an attack from cultists and so on a lot easier to implement, especially when the party made sorting out the dragon cult a priority. I mean, it was much later the party finally remembered there was a dwarf they were meant to try rescuing but it was certainly a different twist!
Take their backstories and start weaving away and working towards it. For a pre-written tutorial module I've always found LMoP to be a pretty good sandbox with lots of little hooks your players might bite into and options to play with that the book itself doesn't really expand with, a lot of the little side quests for example have hooks but very little to expand as written. You've had a couple of sessions so hopefully you've got some inspiration from actions and player back stories to work with and start sprinking into. A couple of name and location changes and I think you're away! Good luck.
The Adventure Zone really didn't stick to the story of LMoP very much and made Gundren the villain. I'm sure if you ran it as written, there'd be enough of a difference for those who heard the podcast.
The Adventure Zone really didn't stick to the story of LMoP very much and made Gundren the villain. I'm sure if you ran it as written, there'd be enough of a difference for those who heard the podcast.
The adventure is open enough to have Gundren be the villain, but it's certainly not scripted precisely that way. I'm working on a campaign that starts with LMoP and the patron that is funding Gundren's expedition will be the main villain. Gundren is just excited to find the Forge of Spells because it should help make him rich.
Hmm.... maybe I'll have to go "the Hobbit" and have the Rockseekers be one of the families that had a great claim in the the Lost Mine of Phandelver but they were away when the mine was attacked. Perhaps an enchantment was placed on the area to protect the area from further invaders that confused people for centuries. Since the current inhabitants of the cave were all killed, the enchantment remained until it finally lost power within the last few years. Now to make me a halfling rogue as an NPC.
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I've just started my first D&D group (I've DM'd about 4 sessions previously for one-shots and the first few session of LMoP), and we are planning for it to be an ongoing campaign. Since I've never written a campaign before, my plan has been to use LMoP for levels 1-5, but weave the story I am developing for the rest of the campaign into the LMoP plot. We had our first session the other night and it went really well. The players all have great backstories that I can use for the rest of the campaign. The hang up is, 3 of the 5 have listened to the Adventure Zone podcast, albeit not recently. In that podcast they play through the central quest of LMoP; I am currently listening to it to see how closely they follow it.
The way I see it, I have 3 options:
1. Change LMoP pretty significantly so it doesn't feel like something they've heard before, using elements of their backstories and strands of the plot we are working toward.
2. Use a different pre-written starter campaign.
3. Try to write my own and start the plot in earnest now instead of at level 5.
Would love to hear your thoughts. I have a pretty demanding job and a newborn on the way, so the 3rd option doesn't really feel like a real possibility to me, but then I've never tried it before.
Option 1 will help ease you into option 3, and will give you time to do it in stages. The big advantage you have is that they listened to a podcast. So they haven't actually seen the maps. Change the names of the different areas and swap out monsters. They might not even be able to realize that the Thundertree they listened to is now the town of Arborfest and is overrun by fiends or aberrations instead of undead. Same with Black Spider. He can be a backstory bad guy. Echo Cave can become Crystal Cave known from crystal formations that glitter in low light throughout the cave. (And drop the wave sound features)
Great advice, thank you! I had planned to change some of the NPC names but hadn't thought about changing the location names, etc. I don't think the podcast goes through all of the side areas either, so it would be an opportunity to keep the interesting bits and take the more useless side-quests and loop them into the main campaign.
Great point about the podcast; we are doing primarily map based battles and exploration; it would feel very different.
Thanks, I'm really encouraged by the advice!
Depending on back stories, LMoP is actually a pretty good module to adjust. The mine can be a nice source of income as well as a future magical laboratory for spellcasters, the manor could be a long lost hereditary land (prior to the Tresandors) and be a future base of operations. (It's centrally located on the Sword Coast, has a decent dungeon, and potential allies to serve as wards until the adventurers return.) All the factions are represented if you want to make those part of your campaign. (Plenty of quests/hooks)
Good luck, and have fun.
There are enough toggles that you can put into the story that wouldn't require significant changes, particularly if the podcast doesn't mention all of the locations. The changes could be something as simple as moving the location of things within the existing framework, perhaps move Gundren to the Cragmaw hideout but have his map locked in a chest that is magically locked so that only one key can open it. Sildar could potentially have the key because he picked up the wrong satchel or something. If Gundren is at Cragmaw, where is Sildar? The location of the Forge of Spells could be moved to a different location, though probably still in Wave Echo Cave. Chests can be moved around as well. Just because the players are familiar with the story and the locations doesn't mean that they are familiar with your version of the story. Even running it verbatim from the adventure, there are enough details that are left to the DM to narrate and the players to interact with that no two LMoP will be the same. If the players are doing less of the "What I know the PC knows, and what I don't know, the PC knows" and more of the "What would the PC know here and how would they react to the situation" there is even less of a problem. I would say to feel free to move things around a bit, change out a few goblins for a Nilbog, perhaps have Grol or Klarg sucking up to the Nilbog a bit so that it will behave a bit more... something along those veins to help keep it fresh.
The good thing about Phandelver is that you can easily link it around other things quite easily, it builds a nice little sandbox. I've gone through it before multiple times and sometimes players have played through it more than once. It became almost a go to for me as a way to give players a few levels of getting to know each others characters and group dynamics before heading onwards to whatever adventure (whether homebrew or published depending on time) it leads on to. I've been lucky that I've not had any metagamers who've gone based on prior knowledge and they've reacted according to what they think their characters would do, maybe your group will be the same in that respect.
If it's something that you're wary of and want to make sure this doesn't happen changing a few names around and enemies is a good choice. If you have any idea where you're going with your story enhance those elements and creatures in the plot points. As an example, I had a couple of players with characters with a simple "dragon attacked my town I escaped" backstory and so it made sense to me to run it into Tyranny of Dragons. I played up the concern of the cultists and Thundertree dragon and got especially lucky with a party member first, making a lot of noise in the town attracting it and then while it was searching for them in the woods on the way home lighting a campfire that guided the dragon to Phandalin. It made launching an attack from cultists and so on a lot easier to implement, especially when the party made sorting out the dragon cult a priority. I mean, it was much later the party finally remembered there was a dwarf they were meant to try rescuing but it was certainly a different twist!
Take their backstories and start weaving away and working towards it. For a pre-written tutorial module I've always found LMoP to be a pretty good sandbox with lots of little hooks your players might bite into and options to play with that the book itself doesn't really expand with, a lot of the little side quests for example have hooks but very little to expand as written. You've had a couple of sessions so hopefully you've got some inspiration from actions and player back stories to work with and start sprinking into. A couple of name and location changes and I think you're away! Good luck.
Thanks everyone! I'm going to use all of this.
The Adventure Zone really didn't stick to the story of LMoP very much and made Gundren the villain. I'm sure if you ran it as written, there'd be enough of a difference for those who heard the podcast.
The adventure is open enough to have Gundren be the villain, but it's certainly not scripted precisely that way. I'm working on a campaign that starts with LMoP and the patron that is funding Gundren's expedition will be the main villain. Gundren is just excited to find the Forge of Spells because it should help make him rich.
Hmm.... maybe I'll have to go "the Hobbit" and have the Rockseekers be one of the families that had a great claim in the the Lost Mine of Phandelver but they were away when the mine was attacked. Perhaps an enchantment was placed on the area to protect the area from further invaders that confused people for centuries. Since the current inhabitants of the cave were all killed, the enchantment remained until it finally lost power within the last few years. Now to make me a halfling rogue as an NPC.