Lost Mines of Phandelver Session 1: Companion wolf guide, Location cards, Klarg's note
Added 2020-08-07 04:46:11 +0000 UTCHey everyone! These are the handouts for our next Lost Mines guide which takes us through the Cragmaw Hideout. PDFs attached.
Rather than clutter the feed with separate posts, I think it's easier to collate this stuff to session-centric collections. So if you're running the Cragmaw Hideout and following my guide, this is everything you need all in one spot.
Companion wolf guide
If the players try to befriend the wolves and succeed, it can be fun to have one tag along with the party for a while. These are the rules I use to make that little doggy helpful in combat without stepping on the toes of the Ranger too much.
Location cards
I don't like to use maps when I run dungeons — little cards like these help me delineate the layout so I can make changes on the fly. Whenever you decide a room "exists" in your version of this dungeon and the players visit it, put the card on the table. It can also be useful to track which players are in which room by placing their tokens on their respective location cards. The image is just a few of the cards, but the PDF has everything you'll need and some blank cards if necessary.
Klarg's note
I posted this earlier, but I deleted the previous version to clear up clutter. This is loot after the first fight on the road. This is meant to prod the players into pursuing Klarg and the Cragmaw Hideout by 100% confirming the goblins have it out for our mate Gundren.
You can find all the LMoP video guides here.
You can find all the other MPDM Patreon posts about LMoP here.
Comments
Ran my first session about two weeks ago. I have 7 players so balancing was an issue. I ran the session with as many enemies as suggested in the videos, but I tripled Klarg's HP, doubled his wolf's, and gave him two goblins, and he hardly had time to give exposition. Yeemik didn't even get to parley because they cast healing word on Sildar, and all rolled higher initiative (after this session I'm going to stop rolling initiative for my monsters I think because I can just use 10+Dex modifier or something to get a constant and not roll last in a group of 7) and they just wiped the floor with the room. Sildar didn't need to give them anything, so didn't but was able to be an ally with RAD features. They ignored the wolves at the beginning, and are going to try to befriend them after. They befriended Ripper after killing the goblins and Klarg. I got my Paladin to 3 HP, but my Wildshaping Druid to a brown bear was rough. We ended the session before they looted him. They know about the Black Spider and that Klarg was hired by them. They "encountered" her from a distance in Phandalin when they were heading back out back to the goblin trail because they didn't want to leave the cart behind. In town, they went to Barthen first to deliver the cart and get paid. They loved him immediately but didn't pry about his injuries. They loved the cat a lot and the gnome rogue can speak with animals so they had a full conversation that was a bit unintelligible due to him being a cat but I basically transferred all of Molly's dialogue to the cat, both curious things around town. I also made Molly, Qelline's daughter because I included Qelline earlier than when I watched the videos. I'm also including Daran Edermanth as a good Drow, because I have a male Drow barbarian in the party as well. I'm thinking he gives him some sunglasses or something lol. They were interested in the shrine in town as well so they went there. There, they met Sister Garele and a Redbrand, and his dead friend. My c leric kind of put together that the Redbrand was killed by Bart, which I never thought about but ran with. "Half-orc fist sized bruises". Sister Garele wasn't able to speak to dead and was scorned by the Redbrand for it and he stormed out. The players hate the Redbrands and are suspicious of Sister Garele due to her being nice to everyone, being the town graveskeeper, healer, spiritural leader, and vet. They suspect she's a necromancer. I had her tell them she usually can commune with the dead but she's been having trouble since she went and tried to parley with a powerful spirit in the woods to find the spellbook from a wizard named Bowgentle. They aren't too interested in any of the sidequests atm because they just came to town to deliver the supplies they were hired to deliver. This is also when I had them get the mysterious puzzle box, because I forgot earlier so I had Bart just tell them it was to be given to trustworthy folk. My main concern is that they love Gundren so much that when they loot Klarg's room and find where the castle is, they'll just run there. Which gives me pause in planning because now I'm worried the party of 7 will just steamroll again, but with initiative being static instead of rolled maybe that will be mitigated a bit, and when they get to the end it starts a countdown to getting to the Forge of Spells and ending the campaign without doing any sidequests? Maybe if they don't do the sidequests now they can do them after the forge? They want to do another campaign that links to this one but they don't know what yet so that could work. The only thing my players haven't enjoyed so far: "Spaghetti? In a western?" So, the menu is gonna get changed too lol.
Dale Robinson
2024-03-28 17:25:48 +0000 UTCThe location cards only have the names written on them as far as I can tell? What is the purpose of those? I thought it would be similiar to the Wave Echo Cave where they show the rooms, kinda like a puzzle one puts together. Please info on that. Besides that, I love the content! Subscribed because I felt like I owed it after the amazing YouTube Series haha
Goodfeller
2023-11-29 18:53:08 +0000 UTC
