My group finished the campaign today. It took a little over a year. We started with three players and that slowely grew to five as more people we know became interested and wanted to play. I had to home brew a lot of the campaign since it was my first time and I quickly found that Dragon of Icespire Peak was too simple and I had also over powered my player characters rather quickly. Key points in the campaign were of course the beginning which I started with two of the characters in a tavern, a gnomish bard and a drow ranger. The third, a dwarven druid stumbled into town injured and poisoned. Drow had attacked her family, stealing a gem relic from her home and panned to use it to change the dragon into a black dragon. Later I had to home brew a seige and dragon attack on lailon. It went off without a hitch and was the turning point for my players. They went from kinda into it to completely invested. By the end of the campaign I had to buff everything and redesign the final battle. Drow and kobold had started a necromantic ritual on the rooftop of Icespire hold. The goal was for them to bring back ebondeath using the white Dragon, the gem and a spell book. My players went against a horde of kobolds, a group of drow cultists and two drow elites. All homebrewed. My players had the help of a matomated barrel crab, a master druid and a manticore. I learned so much through this campaign my prep work started with somewhere around 10-18 hours of work per session to 3-5 by the last session. For a simple campaign I enjoyed how it tested us as well as introduced us all to D&D 5e.
I do tihink it's an excellent introductory adventure. It shows you the ropes and gives you space to develop your own characters as you desired. I prefer it to Lost Mine of Phandelver.
It is, as you said, quite barebones. It is designed for beginners and is focused on just letting everyone learn how things work. There isn't really a plot to speak of. I don't have much experience of them, but the published adventures seem to do much better (at the cost of not being quite so easy to do well at while learning the mechanics). I'm playing Rime of the Frostmaiden, and the beginning is very free form but builds into the plot. You may want to have a look at that soon.
It wasn't perfect by any means, but it was pretty good. I'd recommend it to any beginners, and do. It's a little simple so it's probably one that I won't go back to, or rarely of I do, but it's a solid starter.
I'm glad you enjoyed it. You certainly homebrewed more into it than I did. Maybe you'd enjoy homebrewing your adventures rather than using published ones?
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My group finished the campaign today. It took a little over a year. We started with three players and that slowely grew to five as more people we know became interested and wanted to play. I had to home brew a lot of the campaign since it was my first time and I quickly found that Dragon of Icespire Peak was too simple and I had also over powered my player characters rather quickly. Key points in the campaign were of course the beginning which I started with two of the characters in a tavern, a gnomish bard and a drow ranger. The third, a dwarven druid stumbled into town injured and poisoned. Drow had attacked her family, stealing a gem relic from her home and panned to use it to change the dragon into a black dragon. Later I had to home brew a seige and dragon attack on lailon. It went off without a hitch and was the turning point for my players. They went from kinda into it to completely invested. By the end of the campaign I had to buff everything and redesign the final battle. Drow and kobold had started a necromantic ritual on the rooftop of Icespire hold. The goal was for them to bring back ebondeath using the white Dragon, the gem and a spell book. My players went against a horde of kobolds, a group of drow cultists and two drow elites. All homebrewed. My players had the help of a matomated barrel crab, a master druid and a manticore. I learned so much through this campaign my prep work started with somewhere around 10-18 hours of work per session to 3-5 by the last session. For a simple campaign I enjoyed how it tested us as well as introduced us all to D&D 5e.
Sounds like it all went great and everyone had fun.
Congratulations.
I do tihink it's an excellent introductory adventure. It shows you the ropes and gives you space to develop your own characters as you desired. I prefer it to Lost Mine of Phandelver.
It is, as you said, quite barebones. It is designed for beginners and is focused on just letting everyone learn how things work. There isn't really a plot to speak of. I don't have much experience of them, but the published adventures seem to do much better (at the cost of not being quite so easy to do well at while learning the mechanics). I'm playing Rime of the Frostmaiden, and the beginning is very free form but builds into the plot. You may want to have a look at that soon.
It wasn't perfect by any means, but it was pretty good. I'd recommend it to any beginners, and do. It's a little simple so it's probably one that I won't go back to, or rarely of I do, but it's a solid starter.
I'm glad you enjoyed it. You certainly homebrewed more into it than I did. Maybe you'd enjoy homebrewing your adventures rather than using published ones?
If you're not willing or able to to discuss in good faith, then don't be surprised if I don't respond, there are better things in life for me to do than humour you. This signature is that response.