"less likley to be jerks to a little kid" I wish that was true with my players

@RdotDoyle

4 ай бұрын

Hahaha, Sorry

Last session, my group went in, fought the three Redbrands in section 2, then said "screw this", and left the hideout. So, now I'm having all of the Red Brands go into town to take them out. *shrug*

@RdotDoyle

10 ай бұрын

Perfect. Redbrands are set up to easily come cause trouble in town, for the players and for NPCs they care about (or at least are trying to get things from)

So yesterday my group arrived in Phandalin. After talking to different NPCs were reluctant on going after the Redbrands. Wanted to pursue other leads. So I had the Redbrands crawling into their rooms at night, taking the Half-Orc's necklace with Goblin ears (never understood that issue with Barbs but anyway) and had it stabbed on the wall with the Rogue's dagger. Below was a message about leaving Phandalin for their own sake. Obviously the party got pissed but not that much. So they went downstairs to have a breakfast and found out that all their money, gems, the jade figure was stolen. Needless to say they went head on to the Manor! So funny how you get to "manipulate" things! I love it!

@RdotDoyle

8 ай бұрын

Oh yeah, sometimes DMing is just lighting fires! Sounds like you guys are having a great time

This is such a great guide I’m getting so much inspiration. I ran this encounter and the PCs ended up hanging one of the bandits in room 8 and they just left them there. So Of course the bandit came back for revenge now calling themselves “The Hanged Assassin” oooooo

@RdotDoyle

Жыл бұрын

Like hanging hanging? Yikes. I'd be mad too. Maybe make him a Revenant

@atomicnectar

Жыл бұрын

@@RdotDoyle that’s a good suggestion I did wanna make them come back as undead that’ll tie back into the main bad guy 🤐

@atomicnectar

Жыл бұрын

@@RdotDoyle yah my PCs are wild you should see what they did to the mayor XD rip 🪦

I have YET to meet a table that does not sing "SECRET TUNNEL" every time they find a Secret Tunnel.

@RdotDoyle

14 күн бұрын

Yes! Love if

When I was playing through this campaign, one of the other players was running a tiefling rogue and snuck into glass staffs room through the secret door, then snuck up behind him and gagged him with a beaver pelt, then proceeded to grapple him and stab him repeatedly, we were all astounded every time glass staff failed a strength check

@RdotDoyle

9 ай бұрын

Clever use of those beaver pelts! Famously, the first time I ran this the halfling rogue snuck into the secret door and stole the glass staff from Glasstaff by rolling a natural twenty. It was epic.

Great series, helped a ton! Was building up courage to finally start DMing and introduce some of my friends to dnd and ended up having 2 separate parties! The first one snuck into the Sleeping Giant and started a fire, got one Redbrand and Grista as prisoners and killed all the rest. They barged into poor Qelline's house to hide the hostages and take a short rest. After that they split and half the party went into the hideout. They kept ignoring Nothic's constant charisma checks (I didn't want to engage them in a fight so I don't kill them by accident), so I let them sneak into Iarno's room through room 11 (they were careful not to alert anyone else). Of course Iarno was long gone by that time, so they looted his bedroom, started a fire (again), bumped into the Nothic on their way back (he started attacking them by Iarno's orders) and ran the hell back to Qelline's farm. So now they have a fire in Phandalin, a fire in Redbrand Hideout and two prisoners in Qelline's house. They did not like Harbin at all, soo maybe a bunch of angry Redbrands are coming to look for him in the next session :) - yoinked that idea from this comment section Also this party was merciless to each goblin they met - so I tried some of the advice from your guide to goblins and now the pc who was carrying around a bag of goblin heads has a goblin sidekick! They kept him as a prisoner at first (they really like prisoners and fires) but eventually kitted him out in the best equipment they could buy! The second party never left Neverwinter after session 0 and 1, because they started a fight in a tavern with a group of swindlers and I accidentally gave them a story hook about a guild of thieves which these swindlers were members of. Are there any adventures I could adapt if they decide to not leave Neverwinter (lvl 1 to 5)? Is it a good idea to rebalance LMoP for post lvl 5 characters? Or should I jump straight to Phandelver and Below? I like the idea to merge the two parties if enough people would like to keep playing their characters post lvl 5 Thanks again, much love

Im combining this campaign with the one from Spelljammer, mostly because it said its a good take off point. This series has already given me so many ideas and a lot of inspiration. Thank you for helping out this new DM.

This step by step guide is very helpful. Just about to start my first 'real' GM role, and have 6 x PC's to deal with so hopefully I can handle it all!!

@RdotDoyle

Жыл бұрын

Glad this series is a help, hope you all had a great time!

@interghost

Жыл бұрын

@@RdotDoyle Yeah we are really enjoyinjg it. Being DM is harder than I thought. Also, I find it really hard to run Phandalin, as soooo much info to try and get across, and Im not great at acting stuff out, so trying not to just list off places to go!

You had me at "secret tunnel" :'] Great show, great guide, great video :) thank you

@RdotDoyle

Жыл бұрын

I really thought that would get more traction when I made this 😆 Glad you enjoyed it

Aside of the insane guide and lovely video, the "secret tunnel" song won you my like and subscribe xD

I'm gonna be DMing this dungeon as my first time DMing a campaign, kind of anxious about it but your videos helped a lot, you earned a regular! I'll post updates of how it goes :D

@RdotDoyle

Жыл бұрын

Awesome, happy to help! You’re starting with Redbrands though or doing Cragmaw first?

@magnusleo_

Жыл бұрын

@@RdotDoyle going through the whole thing and gonna try to steer my players away from thunder tree at first like you suggested, was thinking of maybe leaving that big dragon out of part 3 to be done after wave echo cave somehow, I'll see what I can come up with when the time comes, we're gonna have our session 0 as soon as my players are done setting up, I gave them the pre built sheets as reference/inspiration for creating something, one of them wants to play a Chronurgy wizard who failed to make a time travel spell and got back in time at level 1 with no memories of his past life, I was thinking about inserting his backstory on a context in where the rockseeker brothers find him knocked out in some field and help him get on his feet offering him food and a place to rest... Kind of going with your "make your players attached to gundren asap" idea

@RdotDoyle

Жыл бұрын

Sounds great, you all should have a lot of fun. We were just talking about using venomfang as kind of an encore at the end of the story over on our discord. I obviously don’t know the details of the backstory but if your time traveling wizard was from the past then they might know little nuggets of information. Maybe they were from Tresendar Manor or Cragmaw Castle or something

Great guide man

@RdotDoyle

Жыл бұрын

Thanks!

This dungeon is a ton of fun, my only complaint is the room with 3 bugbears. They feel out of place and absolutely eclipse everything else in the dungeon in terms of difficulty. The Glass Staff fight feels almost trivial after that.

I have that shirt too!! Also these videos are fantastic. Thank you!

@RdotDoyle

9 ай бұрын

Ha! I had to go back and see what I was wearing in this one. Space is the Place baby! Glad you are enjoy the videos

As the DM I feel like I enjoy the adventure more than the players, knowing all the possibilities and the cool scenarios this campaign can end. Every time I read the book to prepare for the next session I feel like I am the party and discover the things I can do.

@RdotDoyle

8 ай бұрын

Exactly! I love this take. DM's get to play more D&D

@Good_guy__

8 ай бұрын

@@RdotDoyle thank you for all you educational videos on DnD, your videos are straight forward and easy to understand! I wish you the best! :D

You said you like the updates, so I'll tell you what happened tonight, more comments on your videos is always good, right? ✨ Engagement!✨ So, last session the party had snuck into the Red Brands hideout and fought the bugbears and the two guards guarding the captives pens and dismantled the deactivated skeletons (Droop led them and gave them the password). The bugbears took a lot out of them, so they decided that they needed to go back to town to do a long rest. Before they managed to finish a full long rest, a villager ran in and said the Red Brands came into town and decided to make example of Harbin (They presumed Harbin had sent people in to attack them, or at least had not prevented people from attacking them) Sildar had done his best to fight them off, but was once again, seriously injured 😂 The 6 RBs stabbed Harbin (who the party hadn't actually met yet) in front of the small crowd of villagers as the party arrived on the scene. The party took down the RBs with a bit of help from Sister G and attempted help from Sildar and the farmer Narth (who picked up the artificer's dropped crossbow) and vigorous cheering from Freda the weaver.

@Tadlette

2 жыл бұрын

Then they rallied a few villagers and a couple of their goblin refugees (who had been hiding out at Alderleaf Farm, I have Quelline as a devout follower of Cyrollale, halfling goddess of hospitality, who was an important god in another campaign) came along to make a good impression and they stormed the RB Hideout, killing the mere 3 guards I left there (maybe I should've put a few more for mob satisfaction, but 3 is what I planned) but Iarno very much made a clean escape, so hopefully I'll come up with a good way for him to recur, perhaps aside the Black Spider, like you suggested

@RdotDoyle

2 жыл бұрын

Ha! I do enjoy the stories but yes, I hope the algorithm does as well. Thanks. It sounds like you’re having a great time at your table and I do think it’s instructive for new DMs to see how others have adapted things to their taste and to the players’ choices. I have definitely visited the blowback of the PC’s actions on innocent NPCs in the past, usually to great effect. I was never a big fan of Harbin anyway, between LMoP and DOIP, plus there’s enough NPCs to keep track of already so hooray, kill him off 😆 I like Iarno boosting the Black Spider scene but until then he’s always there if you need. Need to throw a combat at the party because everyone’s check out and on their phones? Iarno. Need to stop them from messing with Venomfang? Iarno and a bunch of bandits get blasted by a breath weapon. Need a big bad in ten levels? Guess who’s level up his arcana and is maybe a lich now? Iarno. Have fun with it. Or keep having fun with it, because clearing you already are

@RdotDoyle

2 жыл бұрын

@@Tadlette Did your table get into the Spider's Web yet? Or are you taking things in a different direction?

@Tadlette

2 жыл бұрын

@@RdotDoyle We've got some players traveling, so we've been on hiatus. Next Saturday will be our next session. We definitely have some wrap up in Phandalin. Some stuff to take care of: - make sure the Redbrands are gone (I'm pretty sure they are... Unless...), - get their Goblin refugees established (helps that a couple joined the mob to route the Rbs) - NPCs set up the new town council now that Harbin is dead - NPCs probably throwing faction invites and quest hooks at the players - checking on the wood carver's family - deciding what to do with Iarno's documents, Sildar was with the party and wants them all as evidence, but Halia previously offered money for them. The party had the idea to copy them and give them to both, I'm not sure how to run that, lol

@RdotDoyle

2 жыл бұрын

@@Tadlette Love it! These are fun for me and I think it's useful for new DMs out there too to see how you've adapted things. It always seemed natural that the manor would become a home to a party member, but it never occurred to me that it could be a home for reformed goblins. There are forgery kits out there, it's not a perfect maybe but could be just the thing. Have fun next weekend!

I love your channel, and often re watch it to remember all the details. It's a neat treasure. There's one personal nitpick, opinion. I know it's optional but... you suggested putting a letter from Sildar/Lord's alliance in Iarno's getaway bag. To me, this doesn't make any sense if I was Iarno. He ditched all connections to his past life, wouldn't he get rid of old evidence, and how would the letter help him in getaway plan? I am instead planning to give players DC 10/15 investigation check so characters can safely assume that this is someone's getaway bag, and whoever put it here, must be nearby. Thanks! Keep up with videos :)

@RdotDoyle

Жыл бұрын

Thank you, that’s very nice of you to say! I hear you, your opinion makes sense. In my head Iarno is kind of keeping his options open to slide back into his old life, like a double agent having multiple passports/identities squirreled away. I like giving a lot of options because even if you disagree it might spark your imagination to come up with alternatives that could be even better for your table

@Tyris1013

Жыл бұрын

@@RdotDoyle nah, not that I disagree, it just didn't click with me at first. Yours about double agent also makes sense to keep his options open. Nice touch, that's why the videos and comments like these are golden 👌

What level would you recommend my players to be at to run the manor? There are 4 of them. Seems like level 2 would be too low? There's like 9 redbrands, some bugbears AND a wizard to deal with (and potentially the monster too). Should I level them up to 3 after they deal with a few redbrands in town first? Cheers!

@RdotDoyle

Жыл бұрын

It’s built for level two so they should be ok if they’re strategic about things. They’ll probably look to take a long rest in there at some point, and you get to tell them they’ve got to be careful about where they decide to sleep, like maybe not in the enemies’ house

@tippytess

Жыл бұрын

@@RdotDoyle cheers mate

@RdotDoyle

Жыл бұрын

You got it, did that help?

@tippytess

Жыл бұрын

@@RdotDoyle well I'll be running it on Sunday! I'll let ya know if they make it out alive!

@RdotDoyle

Жыл бұрын

Ha! Good luck. Out of everything I’d say the bugbears are the scariest thing in there and they’ve already met one so they should know that

My group asked the townsmaster after they defeat the ruffains, if they could have the Sleeping Giant as a way of payment... Now they have build there own Inn and underground ''harper ish"' spy network 😂😂

@RdotDoyle

8 ай бұрын

Oh sweet. I insert children NPCs in my games a lot, you never know when they'll prove useful to drive the action. And a lot of the time the players will (at least attempt) to turn them into a spy network

@patrickhoutzager4540

7 ай бұрын

a nice! they are now trying to get the inn as a forward operating base for Sister Garaele and her harper friends and Garaele is playing de inn master 😂@@RdotDoyle

Easiest way: tell your pc's what NOT to do. Guess which way they're going. Seldom fails to get your pc's wherever you want them to be. Like in a tavern 😉

Carp? What a garbage name. These writers really went the distance.

@RdotDoyle

4 ай бұрын

He's become Crap at many tables, I'm sure