I picked up the D&D Starter Set over the holidays to use as a launching point to re-introduce myself to the game and introduce my players to it. That campaign hasn’t actually started yet, mainly because I’m incapable of leaving it alone and just playing it as initially presented.
My players are new to actually playing D&D, but are familiar enough with it (and have played enough various character types in MMOs) that the pre-rolled, basic characters included in the set don’t really excite them. So I ended up ordering both a Players’ Handbook and Xanathar’s Guide to provide enough variety for even the most discerning of newbies. (So much for frugality on this one!)
It looks like instead of some combination of the traditional fighter/wizard/cleric/rogue mix, the party tackling the Lost Mine of Phandelver will consist of a sorceress, a paladin, a druid, and a barbarian. While they won’t have a full-blown cleric around, the sorceress took Divine Soul as her sorcerous background (meaning she can pick up some cleric spells), so between her, the druid, and the paladin, healing should be covered well enough. I’m considering adding an NPC to travel with them, a rogue or a ranger to fill in potential skill gaps in the main party. I’m not sure they’ll really need him, but I really want to create a half-orc named V’nee Frummbronks – a name which will sound familiar to anyone who’s read entries from my Mighty Protectors campaign. (Poor Vinny might end up becoming the Dibbler of my game worlds…) I’m also going to have to look at the backgrounds of the pre-built characters and make suggestions to the players as to ways to weave their own backgrounds together to give them personal connections to the events that unfold as the adventure progresses.
Possible minor spoilers from here on out!
I’ve read through the adventure book and for the most part I like it a lot. The text of the adventure is interspersed with advice for running NPCs, guidelines for a multitude of different ways to move the plot along, and a fairly fleshed-out small town as a base of operations for the characters with a number of sandbox-y side quests. It’s been well-received for the most part, but there are always those who want to tweak it. (That would include me.)
I’ve come across a wide variety of advice on running this adventure, including suggestions for improving the villains and making Thundertree more compelling. There’s also a big hints and tips thread on RPG.net with lots of advice. I’ve read through a fair number of these and am not sure yet how many of these changes I’ll put to use – it will likely depend on how the overall adventure is going when we get to the point of some of these encounters.
I do have a few quibbles of my own:
- The maps included in the module are all marked with everything the DM needs to see, but there’s nothing suitable to present to the players. Mike Schley, the artist who created the maps, sells a digital download featuring both the maps from the manual and a “clean” set that hides information the players shouldn’t see, like undiscovered locations or secret doors. I spent the 10 bucks on these and will be printing them as needed, but it seems like something that should have been included in some form. (I’m told that the Roll20 package for this adventure also includes the player-friendly maps.)
- Several of the dungeon maps are designed at a scale of 1 square = 10 feet instead of the standard 1:5. Slightly annoying as I intend to print them to scale as battle maps and will have to either draw in extra gridlines or tell my players to just pretend they’re there. Easy enough to address either way, but it seems like the scale should be more consistent.
- There are a couple of minor quest areas for which maps aren’t provided at all. Not really a big deal, but I like me some maps. Fortunately the community has filled in the need; in addition to many custom variations of the included maps, I’ve found ones for Wyvern Tor and Old Owl Well, as well as a map for the area of the initial encounter when the party finds their friend’s horses.
- There are a number of organizations that exist in the background in the Forgotten Realms setting where this adventure takes place, and in the town of Phandalin there are representatives of each of them who will try to recruit one or more players to join their organization. Having so many seems forced and repetitive; I’m not sure if I’m going to just pick one or two, or ignore them altogether.
Hopefully we’ll get chance to finally start this thing by the end of the month!