Currently running LMoP as a first-time DM with first time players. We're almost approaching the final Act and after our latest session I thought to myself "Huh, well what happens after this?". I know that there are a few good follow up campaigns to this starter but I really don't know which one to go for right now (heard of some options like OOTA can link well but unsure). Ideally, I'd want to maybe leave tiny breadcrumbs or hints towards the next campaign's hook within our current campaign but as a complete noob with zero other campaign knowledge, I don't know if this is even feasible or necessary.
I know that all campaigns would have an adventure hook that's perfectly fine, would just be cool to somehow link it to what's going on now. So I guess my question is: Should I decide on the next campaign asap (any suggestions?) or just focus on finishing LMoP then see how it goes?
Honestly, it mostly depends on what you want to do next. For example, the Waterdeep books (Dragon Heist and Dungeon of the Mad Mage) would be a good follow-up if you wanted your players to experience adventuring life in the "big city" and also maybe wanted to help them establish some sort of "home base" from which to work out of. If you wanted more of a change of pace that felt like a wilderness excursion, maybe having your players hop a boat to Chult and doing Tomb of Annihilation is the right call. Maybe you're looking for a bit of D&D horror, and while they are traveling to their next destination, they get lost in the fog and end up in Barovia dealing with the Curse of Strahd adventure.....and the list can go on.
Mostly, just sort of let this adventure play out and see what your players want to do next. Does your next game even have to be a continuation with the same characters or a whole new campaign?
Are you planning to continue running with the same group of player characters? If so, the easiest thing would probably be to run the Leilon Trilogy. These modules are set in the same region as Phandalin, and are designed as sequels. They are Storm Lord’s Wrath (level 7-8), Sleeping Dragon’s Wake (level 9-10) and Divine Contention (level 11-12).
You can also use 'The Woodland Manse' encounter in LMoP to lead to 'Circle of Thunder' and 'Icespire Hold' (in that order) from Dragon of Icespire Peak. Doing this could also help get player characters from around level 5 (where they usually are at the end of LMoP) up to level 7. In addition, Dragon of Icespire Peak can serve as a good resource for a new DM.
I hope this helps. It is something I considered doing myself if I were running in the Forgotten Realms and not in my own crazy homebrew world.
I'd say this is the type of conversation you need to have with your players. Any of the published campaigns can work. Some will work better and easier than others, but any could work. Check with the rest of the group and see what they're interested in before you invest time and money in the book.
And, as metamongoose, said, make sure they even want to continue. Could be they're ready to try out some new characters.
Are you planning to continue running with the same group of player characters? If so, the easiest thing would probably be to run the Leilon Trilogy. These modules are set in the same region as Phandalin, and are designed as sequels. They are Storm Lord’s Wrath (level 7-8), Sleeping Dragon’s Wake (level 9-10) and Divine Contention (level 11-12).
You can also use 'The Woodland Manse' encounter in LMoP to lead to 'Circle of Thunder' and 'Icespire Hold' (in that order) from Dragon of Icespire Peak. Doing this could also help get player characters from around level 5 (where they usually are at the end of LMoP) up to level 7. In addition, Dragon of Icespire Peak can serve as a good resource for a new DM.
I hope this helps. It is something I considered doing myself if I were running in the Forgotten Realms and not in my own crazy homebrew world.
I agree that this is a good option if you want to continue the campaign and want to run a module. I do think though that the cult of talos needs to have it’s power shown to the players, which should make for a good intro for the players. Perhaps have them attack phandalin with the results being:
-If the players do well, the cult retreats to the manse and circle of thunder back into neverwinter wood.
-If the players do alright, then phandalin takes heavy damages but the anchorites are driven back. Some people migrate to neverwinter/lelion where it is more fortified, but others stay at phandalin. Phandalin becomes more fortified with fortifications being built.
-If the players do very badly in fighting off the anchorites, have the people of phandalin all have to migrate over to axeholm and assume the fortress has already been emptied, or have the people of phandalin set up camp near axeholm and make the player characters clear it out. (Note that axeholm is surprisingly hard, so if your players aren’t the best at combat then maybe tone the encounters down a bit). Then once the people are safe inside the fortress of axeholm away from the anchorites, have them move to lelion.
Perhaps look at the big battle at the end of Divine Contention to see how you could run a battle at Phandalin.
This may result in the players wishing to counterattack the cult of talos due to the players putting so much work into helping out phandalin and the players not wanting it to all go to waste. This would give an opportunity to run woodland manse and then circle of thunder.
This is just an idea.
The most important thing NachoNabz is that it’s you and your player’s games so run it how you please. Perhaps homebrew stuff a little. I recently finished DOIP but I decided to only take elements from the sequel trilogy and put my own big spin on things.
First time DM as well. Been running a homebrew campaign for over a year now. Players are getting close to the end of the campaign. But what they don't know is that I've already had events that will lead into the next main story. They let someone very powerful go and that person will eventually come into play next campaign.
There will still be a good month off to chill and relax though. But having already planted the seed into the next story helps a bunch.
I ran LMOP as my introduction into D&D, and from there I based my campaign selection on modules I could manipulate to follow my players backstories. So it really depends. What are your players backstories?
I'm doing a mix of Homebrew adventures along with adventures from TALES FROM THE YAWNING PORTAL and GHOSTS OF SALTMARSH. Both of these have a great selection of adventures for different levels and it worth checking out. I also agree with the Phandalin sequel adventures listed above are also a good choice.
I am 99.9% sure the players will want to continue with their characters past the end of this campaign but I will definitely double check that and talk with them about what they'd like. The Leilon Trilogy and whole Phandalin sequence sounds very cool, I will look into that.
Character backstories (summary):
Elven rogue on the run from her former thieves guild for botching a job
Halfling monk from the far east in search of a religious artifact/symbol
Tiefling druid in search for her family, separated as a child when attacked by a strange group
Human fighter hunting the bandits who murdered her mentor
First time DM as well. Been running a homebrew campaign for over a year now. Players are getting close to the end of the campaign. But what they don't know is that I've already had events that will lead into the next main story. They let someone very powerful go and that person will eventually come into play next campaign.
There will still be a good month off to chill and relax though. But having already planted the seed into the next story helps a bunch.
This is the dream, epic string pulling from behind the curtains. I actually considered trying homebrew for the next campaign but realised I'm already pretty overwhelmed in running a pre-made module haha. Maybe in the future when I'm a Level 2 DM.
I am 99.9% sure the players will want to continue with their characters past the end of this campaign but I will definitely double check that and talk with them about what they'd like. The Leilon Trilogy and whole Phandalin sequence sounds very cool, I will look into that.
Character backstories (summary):
Elven rogue on the run from her former thieves guild for botching a job
Halfling monk from the far east in search of a religious artifact/symbol
Tiefling druid in search for her family, separated as a child when attacked by a strange group
Human fighter hunting the bandits who murdered her mentor
Some ideas for backstory incorporation into your next campaign if you are doing the Lelion trilogy.
-I do recall an NPC in dragon of icespire peak being a member of a thieves guild. Maybe that NPC could have do do with the rogue’s backstory.
- The artifact depending on origin may be hard to write into the story. Is the monk on a quest to uncover and find it, or is the artifact’s origin from that of the Far East but was taken westward? Or did the monk have some form of a vision that said that there was an artifact westward and that he/she needed to find it?
-Was the group in the druid’s backstory specified to have certain traits by the Druid? Or was it just said that there was a strange group attacking? It would make most sense for the group to have some form of reason to try to harm the family.
-For the fighter’s backstory, I do recall a group of bandits in the Lelion trilogy called the chimera crew in a mission. Maybe they could be adjusted to fit the fighter’s backstory.
Also, if you buy a paper copy of icespire peak from the starter set, you can get a code to redeem on D&D beyond to have the Lelion trilogy for free.
Some ideas for backstory incorporation into your next campaign if you are doing the Lelion trilogy.
-I do recall an NPC in dragon of icespire peak being a member of a thieves guild. Maybe that NPC could have do do with the rogue’s backstory.
- The artifact depending on origin may be hard to write into the story. Is the monk on a quest to uncover and find it, or is the artifact’s origin from that of the Far East but was taken westward? Or did the monk have some form of a vision that said that there was an artifact westward and that he/she needed to find it?
-Was the group in the druid’s backstory specified to have certain traits by the Druid? Or was it just said that there was a strange group attacking? It would make most sense for the group to have some form of reason to try to harm the family.
-For the fighter’s backstory, I do recall a group of bandits in the Lelion trilogy called the chimera crew in a mission. Maybe they could be adjusted to fit the fighter’s backstory.
Also, if you buy a paper copy of icespire peak from the starter set, you can get a code to redeem on D&D beyond to have the Lelion trilogy for free.
Great ideas! That free trilogy with DOIP would be a steal, is that offer only available with the paper copy? Sounds like the way to go.
Some ideas for backstory incorporation into your next campaign if you are doing the Lelion trilogy.
-I do recall an NPC in dragon of icespire peak being a member of a thieves guild. Maybe that NPC could have do do with the rogue’s backstory.
- The artifact depending on origin may be hard to write into the story. Is the monk on a quest to uncover and find it, or is the artifact’s origin from that of the Far East but was taken westward? Or did the monk have some form of a vision that said that there was an artifact westward and that he/she needed to find it?
-Was the group in the druid’s backstory specified to have certain traits by the Druid? Or was it just said that there was a strange group attacking? It would make most sense for the group to have some form of reason to try to harm the family.
-For the fighter’s backstory, I do recall a group of bandits in the Lelion trilogy called the chimera crew in a mission. Maybe they could be adjusted to fit the fighter’s backstory.
Also, if you buy a paper copy of icespire peak from the starter set, you can get a code to redeem on D&D beyond to have the Lelion trilogy for free.
Great ideas! That free trilogy with DOIP would be a steal, is that offer only available with the paper copy? Sounds like the way to go.
Also, apologies for the necro.
Yeah, this is a cross-marketing offer with Wizards and Fandom (D&D Beyond) it's rare to see a physical copy give you access to the digital so this is definitely a nice perk.
Some ideas for backstory incorporation into your next campaign if you are doing the Lelion trilogy.
-I do recall an NPC in dragon of icespire peak being a member of a thieves guild. Maybe that NPC could have do do with the rogue’s backstory.
- The artifact depending on origin may be hard to write into the story. Is the monk on a quest to uncover and find it, or is the artifact’s origin from that of the Far East but was taken westward? Or did the monk have some form of a vision that said that there was an artifact westward and that he/she needed to find it?
-Was the group in the druid’s backstory specified to have certain traits by the Druid? Or was it just said that there was a strange group attacking? It would make most sense for the group to have some form of reason to try to harm the family.
-For the fighter’s backstory, I do recall a group of bandits in the Lelion trilogy called the chimera crew in a mission. Maybe they could be adjusted to fit the fighter’s backstory.
Also, if you buy a paper copy of icespire peak from the starter set, you can get a code to redeem on D&D beyond to have the Lelion trilogy for free.
Great ideas! That free trilogy with DOIP would be a steal, is that offer only available with the paper copy? Sounds like the way to go.
Hello all, Level 1 DM here,
Currently running LMoP as a first-time DM with first time players. We're almost approaching the final Act and after our latest session I thought to myself "Huh, well what happens after this?". I know that there are a few good follow up campaigns to this starter but I really don't know which one to go for right now (heard of some options like OOTA can link well but unsure). Ideally, I'd want to maybe leave tiny breadcrumbs or hints towards the next campaign's hook within our current campaign but as a complete noob with zero other campaign knowledge, I don't know if this is even feasible or necessary.
I know that all campaigns would have an adventure hook that's perfectly fine, would just be cool to somehow link it to what's going on now. So I guess my question is: Should I decide on the next campaign asap (any suggestions?) or just focus on finishing LMoP then see how it goes?
Thanks in advance!
Honestly, it mostly depends on what you want to do next. For example, the Waterdeep books (Dragon Heist and Dungeon of the Mad Mage) would be a good follow-up if you wanted your players to experience adventuring life in the "big city" and also maybe wanted to help them establish some sort of "home base" from which to work out of. If you wanted more of a change of pace that felt like a wilderness excursion, maybe having your players hop a boat to Chult and doing Tomb of Annihilation is the right call. Maybe you're looking for a bit of D&D horror, and while they are traveling to their next destination, they get lost in the fog and end up in Barovia dealing with the Curse of Strahd adventure.....and the list can go on.
Mostly, just sort of let this adventure play out and see what your players want to do next. Does your next game even have to be a continuation with the same characters or a whole new campaign?
Are you planning to continue running with the same group of player characters? If so, the easiest thing would probably be to run the Leilon Trilogy. These modules are set in the same region as Phandalin, and are designed as sequels. They are Storm Lord’s Wrath (level 7-8), Sleeping Dragon’s Wake (level 9-10) and Divine Contention (level 11-12).
You can also use 'The Woodland Manse' encounter in LMoP to lead to 'Circle of Thunder' and 'Icespire Hold' (in that order) from Dragon of Icespire Peak. Doing this could also help get player characters from around level 5 (where they usually are at the end of LMoP) up to level 7. In addition, Dragon of Icespire Peak can serve as a good resource for a new DM.
I hope this helps. It is something I considered doing myself if I were running in the Forgotten Realms and not in my own crazy homebrew world.
Consider Ghosts of Saltmarsh as a decent jump point to nautical adventure. Skip the initial low level adventure and use the followup ones.
Mad Mage is good but it depends on your party. It is literally a dungeon crawl from 5-20.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
I'd say this is the type of conversation you need to have with your players. Any of the published campaigns can work. Some will work better and easier than others, but any could work. Check with the rest of the group and see what they're interested in before you invest time and money in the book.
And, as metamongoose, said, make sure they even want to continue. Could be they're ready to try out some new characters.
I agree that this is a good option if you want to continue the campaign and want to run a module. I do think though that the cult of talos needs to have it’s power shown to the players, which should make for a good intro for the players. Perhaps have them attack phandalin with the results being:
-If the players do well, the cult retreats to the manse and circle of thunder back into neverwinter wood.
-If the players do alright, then phandalin takes heavy damages but the anchorites are driven back. Some people migrate to neverwinter/lelion where it is more fortified, but others stay at phandalin. Phandalin becomes more fortified with fortifications being built.
-If the players do very badly in fighting off the anchorites, have the people of phandalin all have to migrate over to axeholm and assume the fortress has already been emptied, or have the people of phandalin set up camp near axeholm and make the player characters clear it out. (Note that axeholm is surprisingly hard, so if your players aren’t the best at combat then maybe tone the encounters down a bit). Then once the people are safe inside the fortress of axeholm away from the anchorites, have them move to lelion.
Perhaps look at the big battle at the end of Divine Contention to see how you could run a battle at Phandalin.
This may result in the players wishing to counterattack the cult of talos due to the players putting so much work into helping out phandalin and the players not wanting it to all go to waste. This would give an opportunity to run woodland manse and then circle of thunder.
This is just an idea.
The most important thing NachoNabz is that it’s you and your player’s games so run it how you please. Perhaps homebrew stuff a little. I recently finished DOIP but I decided to only take elements from the sequel trilogy and put my own big spin on things.
First time DM as well. Been running a homebrew campaign for over a year now. Players are getting close to the end of the campaign. But what they don't know is that I've already had events that will lead into the next main story. They let someone very powerful go and that person will eventually come into play next campaign.
There will still be a good month off to chill and relax though. But having already planted the seed into the next story helps a bunch.
I ran LMOP as my introduction into D&D, and from there I based my campaign selection on modules I could manipulate to follow my players backstories. So it really depends. What are your players backstories?
I'm doing a mix of Homebrew adventures along with adventures from TALES FROM THE YAWNING PORTAL and GHOSTS OF SALTMARSH. Both of these have a great selection of adventures for different levels and it worth checking out. I also agree with the Phandalin sequel adventures listed above are also a good choice.
Thank you all for the input!
I am 99.9% sure the players will want to continue with their characters past the end of this campaign but I will definitely double check that and talk with them about what they'd like. The Leilon Trilogy and whole Phandalin sequence sounds very cool, I will look into that.
Character backstories (summary):
This is the dream, epic string pulling from behind the curtains. I actually considered trying homebrew for the next campaign but realised I'm already pretty overwhelmed in running a pre-made module haha. Maybe in the future when I'm a Level 2 DM.
Anyways, hats off to you!
Some ideas for backstory incorporation into your next campaign if you are doing the Lelion trilogy.
-I do recall an NPC in dragon of icespire peak being a member of a thieves guild. Maybe that NPC could have do do with the rogue’s backstory.
- The artifact depending on origin may be hard to write into the story. Is the monk on a quest to uncover and find it, or is the artifact’s origin from that of the Far East but was taken westward? Or did the monk have some form of a vision that said that there was an artifact westward and that he/she needed to find it?
-Was the group in the druid’s backstory specified to have certain traits by the Druid? Or was it just said that there was a strange group attacking? It would make most sense for the group to have some form of reason to try to harm the family.
-For the fighter’s backstory, I do recall a group of bandits in the Lelion trilogy called the chimera crew in a mission. Maybe they could be adjusted to fit the fighter’s backstory.
Also, if you buy a paper copy of icespire peak from the starter set, you can get a code to redeem on D&D beyond to have the Lelion trilogy for free.
Great ideas! That free trilogy with DOIP would be a steal, is that offer only available with the paper copy? Sounds like the way to go.
Also, apologies for the necro.
Yeah, this is a cross-marketing offer with Wizards and Fandom (D&D Beyond) it's rare to see a physical copy give you access to the digital so this is definitely a nice perk.
It’s only available with the paper copy I think