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I've DM'd Goblin Arrows many, many times as a training exercise for new players. My latest group was torn as to whether to follow the goblin trail or move the horses and push the cart on to Phandalin. They worried if they left the cart it would get pillaged. Their solution was to write "CURSED" in horse blood on every inch of the surface of the cart in every language they knew. I'm so excited for them to haul it back to Phandalin!
Just ran the hideout with my group of 6. I had them level up after the ambush and buffed the encounters in the hideout. The druid wildshaped into a spider and started exploring the cave, relaying the location of everything, unfortunately for her she rolled a nat1 on stealth and some Gobbos spotted the spider and attempted target practice on the spider in the ceiling. I had the Gobbo roll at disadvantage since he was aiming at fast spoder but he got a nat20 and a nat18 so he sniped the spoder reverting the druid back to herself, alone, in the deepest part of the hideout (by the pools). She entered combat by herself, Klarg got allerted and joined the fight, but miraculusly, the Gobbos missed 5 attacks in a row, so she managed to wildshape into a falcon and fly the fuck out of there. I love D&D :)
@@raccoon3164 A lot. We actually turned the campaign into Waterdeep: Dragonheist (An extended version with all villains from level 5 - 14) after they finished LMoP. We have played every other week for over two years and we have about 4-5 sessions remaining of it. One of the final boss battles today actually
Hey that's cool, hope everything turned out chaotic good! I actually had the same idea as you about leading into Waterdeep : Dragonheist just cause it sounds fucking cool, even though we just barely started Lost Mines. From one GM to another, any tips on how you segwayed from LMoP to Dragonheist would be super appreciated dude!@@reinpogo4601
Love the tutorial, but I disagree with cutting a lot out. This may be the first time for many players. The Traps for example, can be used to teach mechanics players may not think of on their own. Ex. Passive Perception to investigation to disarm trap. How to safely get free using team work, how to avoid a pit after sprung, looting a disarmed trap, luring enemies into trap etc.
That ending bow and foreshadowing section was awesome I'm stealing that for my own games going forward! I ran this a few years ago as my first time DMing and I wish I had seen these back then some great tweaks!!
Oh rad Butcher! It's a real handy trick to keep all the crucial information compartmentalized and stoke the players' interest for next session. Also it's super fun doing an over-the-top narrator thing :D If you're subscribed, keep an eye out for the rest of the series because I've just crossed the halfway point -- I'm writing about the Redbrands right now! Hopefully it's helpful if you decide to run Lost Mines again
Yeah keep it up man! enjoying the content! Found your channel when I was working out cool ways to run chase scenes and now im just binging your full catalogue in the background when doing prep
I'm running my first campaign as a DM tomorrow and these videos have been suuuuper helpful. I saw this cave and was like ummm I'm not super confident they're gonna get through all of this hahaha. Great videos!!
been a player for years and just recently decided to DM for a group of my friends that have always wanted to play. this has been SUUUPER helpful. thank you!
so many great ideas in this series! running my first campaign as a DM and this has helped me a lot and gave me many ideas of my own. one of my players is a female drow sorcerer who is deathly afraid of spiders (also summons a spider randomly when casting spells) and ik she'll be freaking out when i bring up the black spider earlier than usual, cant wait for her to find out the black spider is also a female drow, i might even make her the reason she got cursed in the first place 🤔
Oh nice! Quick question: the CHARACTER is scared of spiders, not the PLAYER, right? Because if your player is scared of spiders, you should replace the Black Spider with the Black Caterpillar or something haha
My favorite thing about your videos is how quick you jump into the good stuff. Really helpful ideas to help struggling dms prioritize and organize scenes
Hi Matthew! Here is a recap of my first session of LMoP written by a party member. Most of us are not english native speakers but we play the module in english cause we got one party member from Portland. At a cold but sunny late summer morning the band of noobs started their adventure by escorting a cart to Phandalin as an assignment for Gundran Rockseeker, when Anton spotted some dead horses in the morning mist. As the band of noobs started to investigate the carcasses, they found an empty map case with Gundran's name on it. Soon they were attacked by three goblins, two of them almost immediatly lost their lives to Anton's and Pyroxenia's rage about this ambush, but the third one could be captured while he attempted to flee. Under the pressure of Funan's forceful Darth-Vader-style interrogation he told that Gundran and his componion were captured by goblins and brought to Klarg, a dubious mobster with an reputation for ambushes of all sorts. Strengthened by their successful first encounter, the band of noobs hid the cart in the bushes and made their way to the cave where Klarg and his entourage was hiding. The group managed to enter the cave unseen and met three very unhappy and mistreated goblins holding Gundrans companion Zilda hostage, but also willing to raise a mutiny against their oppressor Klarg. A deal was made - death of Klarg against the freedom of Zilda. They went to war against Klarg with Zilda at their side - a long and dangerous battle with almost everyone looking death in the face. Finally Klarg was defeated dying in the knowledge of his misbehaviour leaving a treasure of 600 copper, 120 silver, two healing potions and a mystic frog sculpture behind. Thankfully for the death of their bully the goblins gave them some prey of their ambushes and letting them spend a well-deserved and restful night in the cave.
Awesome stuff! Been looking forward to this video for a week now. I just finished my session zero. The players got to create their own prologue for how they got the magic box. Then the session ended with a collective dream the night before setting out for Phandalin, where a dark figure (the black spider) realized the box had slipped from his grasp. Very excited to run session 1 with most of these recommendations soon!
@@heyitsMattyP Long wall of text incoming: Following your advice from the first video, each character had a connection to Gundren. He called them together and explained that he had been tracking down this artifact that contains a magical secret to unlocking "an important opportunity." Recently he learned that it would be up for auction by a woman with no clue what it really was. Gundren sent the party to the auction with twice the gold they would need, but were outbid nonetheless by a bored nobleman. The wizard's familiar and the Ranger kept eyes on the nobleman. Meanwhile, the rest scrambled to create a replica box, utilizing the fighter's proficiency in Jeweler's Tools to affix the large emerald (which they paid for with the money left to them by Gundren). The wizard then magically sealed it in a manner similar to the original (I made the box be sealed so that I didn't have to deal with them eventually opening it). At night, the Rogue went sneaky-sneak to swap the boxes while the nobleman, who looked less ornate than before, slept at his campsite. (Rightfully, the players wondered why a rich guy would camp out instead of buying lodging.) The party returned safely to Neverwinter with the box and instructions to deliver the wagon to Barthen's Provisions in Phandalin where they would meet up with Gundren. BUT that night they all had a dream of the nobleman walking through a cave with the box. As the nobleman went deeper, his features melted until he was a feature-less mass of black muscle and skin. The creature presented the box to a figure obscured by shadow (the Black Spider), who magically unlocked the box, then screamed in rage as the party's remaining gold pieces tumbled out. TLDR; The party lost an auction, so they made a replica box and swapped it with the real thing. The man with the fake ended up being the doppelganger, whose master was enraged at having been conned.
@@heyitsMattyP I haven't thought much about that. Off the top of my head, probably a fighter. He's the one who trained our fighter in the ways of the warhammer.
This is great! I think it's the best guide on Lmop and I've seen many. Love the way you tweak stuff, for example how to make the hideout a one session lenght dungeon to keep a good pace. How you describe teasing Phandalin in the end was an amazing cliffhanger I definitely will use that in my own campaign. Keep up the good work! :)
Agnar that's such a kind thing to say - thank you! If this series became the go-to guide for Lost Mines, I'd be stoked. I haven't seen the competition though, so I'll take you at your word and make sure the later episodes keep the standard high :)
BTW, I can't say enough about how much I like/appreciate the chapters! Every time I have a question I go to the chapter I need. ...I watch these videos a LOT 🙂
Um. Omg. Yesterday I dmd my first game- I was feeling super stressed about it and have been spending weeks looking at different videos and reading up how to run it and just how to do the whole terrifying dm thing. Yesterday morning as a last minute desperate attempt to figure out all out I searched goblin arrows on RUclips and found your series on lmop. Holy crapballs you saved my game! I was totally overthinking everything and just having you talk about it all so simply and the ideas for swapping things up and removing stuff was such a frigging relief! I actually had fun and I think the players did too!!! Thank you sooooooo much, I can't wait to watch all the whole series and continue the adventure!!!!!!!!!! 🙏🙏🙏🙏
My party freed the wolves and then climbed the chimney. My bard then charmed Klarg and through a series of checks and saves got the VIP tour through the hideout and walked out with Slidar...
Gotta say, I wish this was out 4 years ago when I ran LMoP for my players. Very helpful content, have been watching it over the past few days. Finally subscribed. Please keep up the good work and make the same style videos about other adventures, Wizards' or otherwise.
When I started the campaign, I hadn’t come across your videos until the party was at the Cragmaw hideout, so I wasn’t able to start the group with the puzzle box at the beginning. I set it up so that the sentry goblin on the drawbridge post was not paying attention, as he was sitting down in the middle of the bridge fiddling with this unassuming wooden box, trying to open it. When the party crossed the bridge, they surprised the goblin and took the box. It’s been so great to integrate this as the cornerstone to the campaign!
Late to the party, but I just wanted to share my appreciation for this video. I'm a relatively new DM and this guide has helped me to find that right balance between a pre-written campaign and homebrew. My players are loving the experience and I know its because the story is compelling and they feel a part of it. Plus the pre-written stuff (and these videos) make prep minimal.
I'm about to start running my first ever game with the starter set and I'm a bit nervous. I'm over-analyzing and I love that you keep pointing out things that I noticed after my first read-through of the book. I'm going to be sure to watch as many of these videos as I can!
Cheers Chris! The general consensus I've gotten from people about this videos is something like, "Even if I don't agree with every suggestion, the videos kept me calm about running D&D." I'd recommend banging out the whole lot of videos before acting on my advice, because I there are some bits of information I forgot to front-load and it all makes better sense in context. You're gonna love LMOP! It's great :)
Again, thanks so much for this! I just DM'd my 2nd ever proper session (1st was a bastardisation of Matt Colville's Delian Tomb) and it went really well (by that I mean nothing went to plan and I had to learn to improv very early on, but I think it went well!). The guys all loved it though and gave me awesome feedback, which made all my prep (of which there was way too much) worth it. The party chased the fleeing Gobbo from the ambush site (and had a cool chase scene thanks to your alternative chase rules) and interrogated him. All but 1 one the party felt sorry for him, as he was such a grunt of a Gobbo, he didn't have a name, so they named him Steef (was Steve, but when I asked them to spell it, this is what it turned into!). Steef led the party to the Cragmaw hideout and told them about Yeemik's desire to over-throw Klarg. After the Ranger tamed one of the wolves on the way in, Steef took the party directly to Yeemik's den. Yeekmik, not happy with Steef for bringing outsiders in,, shot and downed Steef, to the parties anguish. They then tried to bargain with Yeemik, but a bad persuasion roll led to a fight. Ranger went first targeting Yeemik and rolled a Nat 20 on his animal handling for the wolf, so I let the wolf give advantage AND attack for 1d4 +1 piercing damage with a bite and the Ranger also hit hard, so Yeemik was forced to call a truce super quick. He offered to let Sildar go, in exchange for Klarg's head. The party accepted this. Yeemik, now not wanting the burden of a Gobbo he believes to be insubordinate, let the party heal Steef and accompany them. They struggled in the Twin Pools fight, with the Rogue being downed twice and ending the fight stable, but unconscious. We ran out of time there, so the party, with no spells left, no healing pots, have dragged the Rogue's body under the bridge and are going to attempt to rest and recoup for the battle against Klarg. Not sure how happy Yeemik is going to be with this, as he is impatient, so I may have to let out a cry or some noise that Steef knows signifies a sacrifice has begun in Yeemik's den (e.g. they are about to eat Sildar) and then the party will have to go deal with that first. I can give them a level up after that to lvl 2 and then they can go and try and beat Klarg, his Worg, 2 hidden Gobos, but with a pretty strong party of 4 PC's, Steef, a wolf (yet un-named) and an injured Sildar! I have said that after each session, the players vote the MVP and that person gets inspiration at the beginning of the next session and I've also used an alternative inspiration spending system (lots of cool options to choose from), so they can at least get buffed a little from that, even if they don't manage to get a full rest in, so with that and hitting lvl 2, they should hopefully be well equipped to defeat Klarg! 1 month between sessions to plan the next one! Wish me luck!
This video is so helpful - I've only ran these encounters once and it felt really long winded in parts, but would never have considered getting rid of the traps or making the wolves encounter less combat focussed. Really great stuff and entertaining to boot :)
Matt, my dude... you are SO right. The Goblin Arrows is surprisingly lethal. Everyone thinks, "Oh, Goblins... they're not hard, right?" Wrong. They can, and often DO, kill 1st and 2nd level characters. And there are a LOT of them in this scene. And don't forget the Bugbear!
I am planning on running my youngest daughter and a few sidekicks through this very soon. We are both so very excited! Thank you so much for making this video series helping to break down the key moments and give new DM's pointers for these adventures. The module isn't always so clear cut as you explain things to be. I appreciate your work with all of your module guides. I can't wait to pour through them and get to adventuring!
I cannot tell you how much I enjoy your style. There are a large number of great content creators teaching this adventure, but I love your approach. I am a new DM and I feel you have given me the tools to run this module the way the author intended, while leaving me the flexibility to maximize my players' enjoyment. I am planning on running my first session one on one with my girlfriends Rouge and her Wizard sidekick tongiht! Thanks for all your hard work.
Oh wow, thanks! My gameplay style hasn't changed since making these videos, but my video and presentation style has changed quite a bit as I've gotten more practice. I'm about to dip back into LMOP content this month though, so hopefully the new videos are helpful too!
Hi Matt, just wanted to thank you so much for these videos, I ran my first ever session as a DM last night and used several of your tips and they really gave me confidence and the whole thing went over so well! In particular the players loved the little prologue before starting the adventure. Really useful for a brand new DM! Thank you!
Thank you so much for this series! I think for my campaign, I'm gonna turn the little teasers at the end of the session into prophetic dreams for our Paladin? I did something similiar in the previous campaign and the players got really hyped about it.
I'm getting ready to dm this adventure after a hiatus of, oh, hmm 40 years (Advanced Ediltion)? I've watched a number of other videos covering this adventure, and while some are quite good, man, yours are the best. I love your ideas, and personality. I do see how these would take a lot of work. Good luck man! I'll be looking for more from you
First time DM here. Love this series! I've been using a lot of your ideas as well as a few of my own and my players love it. Figured you might appreciate a quick story from our run through Cragmaw Hideout: One of my players calmed the wolves in the kennel with Animal Handling and the group explored the chimney on the other side. One of my dumber fighter players climbed up the chimney and saw Klarg sitting in his office. He decided that right then, with his head peeking out of the chimney, was the best time to strike up a casual conversation with Klarg. Klarg, obviously alarmed by the intruders, later ended up fighting them in the twin pools room, which led to some really interesting combat theatrics. Our wizard ran distraction and used minor illusion to distract Klarg while the Rogue hid behind one of the larger stalactites in the room. Klarg landed a critical hit on our fighter and dropped him to 0 HP, but the Rogue answered with a nat 20 sneak attack of his own, decapitating a weakened Klarg. I'm so excited for Yeemick to rise to power in Cragmaw Castle, and to potentially being back the tamed wolves in a street fight with the Redbrands in Phandalin! Thank you so much for all of the great content.
Woof! Love that clutch crit after the fighter drops. Thanks for sharing! My last group had a different no-name goblin they ended up convincing to believe in himself and let him leave the Cragmaw Hideout,. He ended up becoming Job the Goblin King. They fought him as he rode an owlbear in the second-last session at the Cragmaw Castle.
Hey Matt! Just finished this video and your first on LMoP. I’m about to start DMing for the first time for my nephew and a couple of his friends. They’re excited to play and I’m excited to DM. These videos have been great! I was feeling nervous about running and now I am utterly inspired. Thank you for your work and your approach to describing the scenes and options for modifications. Can’t wait to watch more :)
I've got six players and they absolutely STEAMROLLED the whole hideout and the battle with Klarg, but haven't gotten to the Yeemik room yet. I'm thinking about adding a hobgoblin attempting to make a deal with Yeemik. Only by teaming up can the hobs and gobs defeat the Bugbears. But the hobs plan to subjugate the goblins when the bugbears are out of the way, and vice versa. Only the players can tip the balance...
I play a lot of board games with my now teenage daughters, they mainly go for worker placement Euro-games like Agricola. We were researching what game to get this Christmas and with nothing grabbing us they asked ‘What did you mostly play when you were our age’…. ‘D&D’ said I. Golly they got excited once I’d explained it a bit. So 45 years since I last painted up a mini here I am. I’m certainly going to play the wolves as potential pets and cut out most of the traps. Really liking your ideas, having a ‘cipher’ treasure box that they’ll really want to solve- that’s genius. Also going for a rogue widowed wife Bugbear somewhere in the plot later on…. I’m actually getting a tad excited.
I love the point you made about asking the players how their character is feeling. I have tried to present spots where the characters could talk to each other and waste some time. This might be a good way to do it.
This adaptation of the encounter was so helpful, we just ran it today - the encounters were balanced and all my players had a blast, and I had so much fun running it. Thanks for all your work and advice, it’s been a huge help for this first time DM!
I love the idea of playing Klarg as an evil Seth Rogen 😂 Great series on how to run this module. I used your session 0 tips last night, and my players loved the addition of the puzzle box! They decided it was going to be like the puzzle box in Hellraiser, which was great because I love when the players add their own ideas into the mix and make the thing their own.
I'm a seasoned GM in other systems, but I just ran my first D&D session... For my 11yo daughter a group of her friends. It was absolutely nuts. The players were unruly and loud but in the eve we had a great time. Fantastic advice in this video. I was already worried that Grundrin Rockseeker needed to be more of a sympathetic character and i liked your advice. I basically set him up as friend to the party, gave them a MacGuffin and had him explain that they were all going to be made soon... He'd explain more when they were safely in Phandalin, because of Reasons. Great advice about trimming the fat from the encounters, too. Pushed for time, we jumped more or less straight from the wolves to an encounter with Klarg, his wolf and a could of surviving goblins he was bullying from his throne in the water pools cave. Mage was smart enough to put the wolf to sleep, taking it straight out of action. Players got excellent rolls all session and my only regret is that they didn't get challenged enough. Not that it matters: they had fun 😊
Thank you for this amazing series! Lost Mines is my first stint as a DM, and apart from the great tone, pacing and production in your videos, I'd like to commend you on your approach to sharing your knowledge. It feels similar to the cooking channels that have really helped me improve my kitchen skills - not only do they show you how to achieve a great end result - they also unpack the reasoning for applying a certain method or concept. To share a story: Having tied up Yeemik and a handful of goblins in the Den, my party backed by Sildar cleared the Twin Caves without triggering the dams. They then ambushed Klarg, and after a few rounds of fighting he barely managed to escape down the chute (after plenty of missed attacks) with two HP left. The party monk, heavily injured, summoned his last strength to sprint out into the Twin Dam room and release the flood - failing the dex save on the second dam and knocking himself unconscious. The flood roared down the cave, and I rolled for Klarg in secret. I let the players stabilize the monk and loot Klarg's room. Nearing the cave exit, the players heard Goblin cheers of "Yeemik, Yeemik". As they turned the corner, they encountered Klargs dead body, head broken in after being pushed by the force of the flood. On top of him stood Yeemik, scimitar firmly planted in Klargs back. He thanked the players for "being good subjects to the new king of the cave" by breaking lose Klargs' three gold teeth, and handing them to the players. Yeemik will return later. Klarg had failed his secret dex save and had taken enough damage to kill him, and Yeemik + friends had enough time to wrestle free from their ropes.
Thanks for the kind comment! My next focus for future campaign guides is packaging the information a bit more sequentially, because a few times in these LMOP guides I've had to backtrack slightly and clarify old information. The series I'm writing now is about Storm King's Thunder. I like your goblin story too :)
@@heyitsMattyP looking forward to Storm of the Thunder King - that is the one I’m lining up. Thinking about how they connect - is Nezza actually preparing to do good (and make profits) by delivering weapons to defend against giants? (Villian with a noble motive). Do the party Open a port that connect Them to the giants?
I’m glad you posted these videos about LMoP. I was a DM for the first time 3 days ago and I picked LMoP at an Adventure League gaming event that is done every week. Only three players: a fighter, a wizard, and a barbarian. Due to lack of healers I decided to have Gundren give them all a health potion as a “prepay bonus.” Was a good thing too or they would’ve been TPK during the goblin ambush. My favorite part was when they entered the cragmaw cavern and were stealthing their way in. They were passing all their checks and the goblins were failing so badly that they managed to go under the bridge without the goblin on the bridge noticing them, or the goblin by the water trap noticing them. They then looped around and got onto the bridge, and sneakily pushed the goblin on the bridge and into the water. A low intelligence check and dexterity check later on my end resulted in a really funny moment; The goblin by the water trap thought the goblin falling off the bridge was a signal to set off the trap, but also fell into the water as he set off the trap! As a result both goblins got flushed out of the cavern!!
I like to throw in an intro adventure before Goblin Ambush ... Sacrifice of Innocence is a great one. I have the players leave Neverwinter with Gundren, Sildar and one of Gundren's bros. They travel together a couple of days and get to know the group, then they part ways at the beginning of the Sacrifice of Innocence scene saying they'll catch up. That way when they get to the dead horse (and dying brother!) they have built a relationship and really want to save Sildar and Gundren. The dying brother is also my first spot to give a fun magic item to one of the party -- a family heirloom or something, like a bag of holding or something like that.
Good advice all around and with a great sense of humour. I can't stres enough what you said about Room 6. Five goblins and Yeemik are far too many for four 1st lvl characters if you want to run this dungeon without the group having to stop for a long rest and drag the whole session down.
Your videos have been so useful for running the LMoP. After seeing this video I decided to keep the traps that the goblins set but instead setting them as part of the ambush. On one side a snare trap hauls the captured player up by the foot, but weight of armour meant that the player ended up dangling inches off the ground and still able to take some part in proceedings. On the other side, a pit sent a player tumbling down the embankment to the trail for minimal damage and an incentive to get even. It worked for my group of first time players. With a slightly larger party of five players, having the traps allowed me to avoid making the encounter more deadly.
I've played LMoP as a player and as a DM, and let me tell you, the new approach you gave us on the "script" and the change on the NPC's, and mostly, the keys to twist and change the story is actually priceless. Thank you. (Subscribed and liked)
Gotta say my dude, loving this series of videos. Soooooo much useful info and the format that you use to break it up and extract the "Point" of each part of the adventure can be used for literally any published adventure. Keep up the hard work mang!!!
I took your advice and had the wolves be fearful and I made it clear they were malnourished and it worked out really well. The party set them free. One of the wolves stopped to smell the wizards hand, and then ran off. Later, when they would long rest they would hear something stalking them in the bushes. My plan was to have the wolf join later or show up to save the day. Well we had another buddy want to join us, so now we have a lycanthrope in the party, and only he and I know it.
I discovered your videos 2 sessions into LMoP…and have been binging and craving the next session ever since! I’m excited to alter some of the pre-written info now that you’ve given “permission” to go rogue. Haha. My first session was a doozy, I misunderstood the “charm” spell and let the players take a Goblin friend who through a series of. AMAZING persuasion checks, became their friend. This goblin (Jeff) was later instated as the new leader of Cragmaw cavern as a thanks for his help in battle. Session 2, one of the players insisted on buying a goat, and because the image is so funny, I am allowing the goat to be large enough/the dwarf to be small enough that they ride the goat in battle. Hahahaha
About to run session 1 of this on Tuesday with my friends. Looking forward to seeing if anyone misses a beat as I put in these changes. Brilliant stuff
@@heyitsMattyP everyone is hypothesizing on what the shifter is… no one seems to be interested in the lady with the Spider staff :/ oooh! The ArcKnight set has a Drider mini for The Spider, so whilst we slowly progress towards that fight I’m doing some balancing for the combat, have the changeling fight them as a Lolth wizard, then have her descend from the ceiling when they hit half health. So many ideas!
Personally, I've ran a session 1 where the players try to get the Puzzle Box but cultists prevent them from getting it, capturing them instead. By escaping the cultist hideout and defeating the head cultist, the players gain access to the Puzzle Box and venture forward into Goblin Arrows. I did this so my players had a better incentive to hit level 2 before they arrived at Goblin Arrows, while obtaining more basic knowledge about the game. It made it easier for me as DM to play around with the Goblins' and Klarg's power level.
Roger, it's a banger :) PLUS, because so many people have played Starter Set, it shifts your experiences closer to the centre of the D&D venn diagram of shared D&D memories so you can compare stories with practically any D&D fan
Yes, you should! You'll love it. My group is mid-module and we're having a complete blast. It dove-tailed nicely into my homebrew that's going to culminate in "Rise of Tiamat"... with a twist. :) Next after this (which will easily take use another 6 months) is Strahd. After that... either Icewind or Underdark. Or ... more homebrew. I'm not a bad writer! :D
My first LToP goblin cave experience as DM: 1) The players surprise, kill, then revive one of the goblin sentries, roll Nat 20 and he joins their side. He is called Dugg. 2) Nat 20 animal handling check on wolves. The party now has wolves… 3) The Cleric (using the chr sheet that CAME WITH THE BOOK) rolls Nat 20 on a Guiding Bolt and 1 hit kills Klarg the bugbear leader. 4) After rescuing Sildar and being warned by Dugg that more goblins are on the way back to the cave (I needed more enemies at this point…), the party Home Alones the cave. 5) The one goblin that escaped to tell the tail of their victory is felled by a trap the party set rolling yet another Nat 20. I gave them my dice.
Picked up this mod to introduce my boys to they game. I havent since 3.5 and never really dm'ed before. Thanks for the review and all the RP ideas along the breakdown! Great work!
I forgot to post in the last video how excited I am for this series. Ive also run it many times, but starting out with some new players and will wait til the end of this series.
Thanks for making this Matthew! I'm gonna run this adventure for a group of complete noobies next week, this video and the first of the series have been super helpful, I'm gonna have a hard time not watching the rest of your videos on this module.
Oh rad! Please let me know how the session goes Scott. I'd totally recommend binging the series before your first session -- it should give you a complete image of the adventure's ecosystem and how everything is connected :)
Hey there, I found your guide while preparing this as my first D&D campaign. I've always only played The Dark Eye, coming from Germany, so this is my first toe-dipping here - Thanks for the invaluable resources! My players (First time PnP-players, my Wife and 3 kids, 12-15) have deceived Yeemik into thinking they're supposed to get the hostage for King Grol, which he didn't really buy, but he struck a deal with them to dispose of Klarg. Then they deceived Klarg into believing them as well. Unfortunately, he went with them to Yeemik, to get the hostage, so he was pissed to see Klarg alive. Klarg knew, Yeemik was up to no good, so the boss fight of this cave was Klarg and the Players against Yeemik an his cronies. Not quite as I had planned, but funny nonetheless. They nearly managed to talk themselves out of everything, really good for first time players.
Oh wow! They smooth-talked their way into an impossible situation haha :) Well done! Also: since you're from Germany, you may like this free combat cheat sheet my community translated into Deutsch - www.patreon.com/posts/5e-combat-cheat-37395490
oh my gosh. OH MY GOSH. oh my gosh. Thank you Matthew, thank you for making these! This is the first video of yours I've seen! I'm trying to put together this campaign as a noob DM and DANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNG. Thankfully none of our crew have ever played DnD so they won't notice when I use every single suggestion here. THANK YOU
I just dm'd my very first session ever using this campaign. Thanks for the tips, they were helpful! On the way to the hideout, I improvised that the fleeing goblin from the ambush would fall into the pit and die because I thought it'd be funny lol
So i made some tweaks like you said. The goblin holding sildar talked to save his hide and that of his friends after watching one get instantly killed. Told the party about klog and 2 party members downed by him and 3rd ran away to catch up with sildar and the 4th party member that was away. Both members down by klog rolled nat 20 death saves. Klog didn't like the dearf but tiefling he liked and agreed to spare their lives and take them to the castle to meet the king as lvl2. Im going to use the black spider story hook to entice the 2 free party members she can get their compaions free for a price. Will do a mini session with 2 players to try and make the regular session all 4 at one place.
This DM has a very different style to me, and obviously enjoys different aspects of the game. So, while I don't use most of the advice he gives, it's still very helpful to get a different perspective and there are always a couple good ideas I never would have though of.
Wow. This is really good. Our players are about to enter the cave. Perfect timing. I like your npc breakdown... what they know etc. Good! I like your style and presentation. Really makes for an informative and engaging video. Thanks Oi oi oi
You know one thing you can do: Play with pronunciation of names. Rather than saying it as "klarg" extend it. "My name is 'Klaaaaaaarg'" "Klaarg?" "No, not 'klarg' 'KLAAaaaarg.' 'Klaarg' means strong, and I am more than strong, I am 'KLAAAAARG!'" It can give an NPC some personality, especially a strong, dumb enemy.
I have my very first session of goblin ambush, at the start I linked everyone's backstory to the plot hook, I also gave each player a buff as they are level 1 and I know how grueling this module can get. Excited to run session 2 and I love this video, lays out more information 👍
Good idea! There are only five real danger areas balance-wise - the first goblin encounter, the encounter with Yeemik if the players are still level 1, the zombie encounter with the necromancer, the stirges in WEC, and the green dragon. Everything else hits OK :)
(It’s fun to see people commenting so recently, and Matthew responding to them! Hello! Looking forward to the new Lost Mines content) Your Lost Mines series is a huge boon! I’ve only ever run one-or-two-shots, but I’m going to run this campaign for my little siblings and their friend, all new to the game. Found your Thundertree video during my prep last week, decided to rework Venomfang as BBEG, and watched the rest of your series. As I was warned, doing a major rework along with standard PC Backstory Integration is more challenging than I guessed! My usual prep method left me overwhelmed, but it’s been much better since I (read the module and) started over using the “What’s the Point?” system. It’s clean and effective - Purpose, RP, Know. The most important bits, presented in the forms you’ll actually use in-game! Why didn’t I think of that?! So yeah, this series showed me a better way to prioritize and organize a game’s characters, plot beats, and player-induced chaos. Can’t wait to create wacky, incidentally dramatic stories with my little siblings and their friend. Thanks!
Hey that's great! You'll have a blast. When playing with kids though: just remember to remind them at the start that 1) they're playing the heroes and 2) they're all on the same team. I've absolutely got a function-first approach to storytelling, and I'm actually too hardline when it comes to cutting content and streamlining, but I'm happy to be the opposite extreme of the official modules' fluff and let people find their happy middleground.
Funny you mention that! We played a short “practice session” last week, and there were two instances of pickpocketing each other and one of punching each other’s face lol. The Golden Rule is in place and shall be strictly enforced But there were no innocent NPCs in the practice, so I’ll definitely remind them of their hero status. Two of the three players are rogues with the flaw “I habitually steal…” They can be the best players and they can be the worst - so imaginative and fun-loving, but kids can be meean. …I say, as if adults are much different!:P Just a different balance of traits
My first time running this it was my first time DMing. First thing my players did (after getting washed out of the cave) was face the wolves and climb the shoot taking Klarg by surprise. I was so worried they were going to skip/miss Sildar entirely 😂
Running this adventure the second time with a new group and have found your videos awesome! I tell my players that the d8 is 2 Pyramids butt to butt....
My important NPC was Yiimik, that goblin that put the knife to Sildars throat. While I'm rather mildly advanced GM, Phandalver was, and still is my first tryout with DnD. I had no idea for making my own campaign, so I took lost mines. Also I lacked creativity, when planning this campaign. My party changing players like daily (realities of playing online with random people, some may not like your style, your lack of experience with the system, and some life may change plans). So I watched ton of videos, although I only recently discovered yours. Anyway, to cut out the chit chat, I made goblins stronger. My players started at level 2 (they begged me for level 4), and initial group (not current one) had all players prejudiced towards goblins, like Di Caprio in Django toward afroamericans. So I made goblins... not exactly stronger or smarter, but more shrewd. They were forest goblins (goblin variation) they lived they whole life in swords coast forest. They knew how to climb and hide. Basicaly partizant army. Additionaly they had poisoned arrows (basic poison variation). They were clearly fighting tactically, but weren't smart enough to make such hide and seek tactics. The man behind it, and the traps on a way to hideout was none other than Yiimik. Yes, I wanted to challange players a little, change their perspective on one of my favorite dnd races (asides from thieflings, kobolds, and drow), and put a little moral dilema for them. Even if goblins weren't their fav enemy, like with original squad, this can work out. So, our little intelligent rogue Yiimik was born with more intellect than his brethern, but position of king was already taken. Despite being rised with this whole Maglubiyet culture, he wasn't necesserly evil, but still wanted to help his tribe, and wanted to be prised. After struggling with his stupid lot, he devised simple tactics, poison, and traps, tha even stupidest greenheads could understand. He was a leader of hideout for some time before Klarg came in and beaten him to pulp. Disheartened, and full of spite, Yiimik's goal now is to get his revange on Klarg, and Sildar is a perfect bait. Yiimik knows someone will be looking for him, so he devised a plan to use his ex tribe members to lure adventurers to the hideout, and use Sildar, as hostage/reward for players, and a moment to convince/check adventurers intentions. He will be sincere hoping to convince the party to let him go. If they decide tho help him, and he will deem them trustworthy (insight check or use DM knowlege), he will offer his cave as a safe place to rest, and will reward the party with poison, goblin knowledge, or even heal Sildar, give him stolem piece of his equipement, and go with them to begin his new life in Phandalin. If the party will try to decieve him, and he will feel it, he will still offer a place to rest, so they could beat Klarg, but won't be friendly, and when they will go, he will leave Sildar, a note, and he will go to the secret booby trapped exit (like a vent shaft) he made for himself. In the note will be written a request "Don't hurt the children". Ambiguos right? But he will mean goblin children rised up in ragmaw Castle or some nearby area. He will leave towards Neverwinter to begin his new life in their underworld (or some other town, use one from party history, to make it more personal. I used backstory of player rogue who love belonged ones to thief's guild in Neverwinter. In Klarg cave I put a body of fellow thief, that Klarg captured, left Yiimik to interrogate, since he couldn't be bothered, and then mutiliated. Of course Yiimik used this ocasion to learn about the world and become sort of rogue himself). Yiimik will use Sildars body as cover if he won't trust the party (3/4 cover, or nearly complete cover, so players woud have to have 18+ on pure d20 to even hit him, and not Sildar). In case of chosing direct approach Yiimik is small boss in himself using smoke bombs, poisoned scimitars and crossbow he had already pointed at players thanks to contraption he made to better utilize Sildar as a shield (basically let the players roll perception to see sickly green metalic shine between Sildars legs, which is poisoned bolt head). The truth is, Yiimik don't hold the knife near Sildars throat, primitive contraption is, and it can be spotted, and contraption easily disarmed. However Yiimik don't want to fight and die. When team will see through his plans, and choose direct approach, and contraption or players will fail at killing Sildar, he will push sildar on players, use smoke bomb, and dash toward his secret exit, hoping run away as quickly as possible. Smoke bomb puts another threat for players, for there is a pool of poison from rotten goblin corpses, and poison mushroom and herbs between exit, and them. Invisible form lower camp part, where the party killed goblins. Yiimik and Sildar were on verge of higher camp part, and Yiimik knows about the pool location. He made it himself. So it's additional trap for players chasing after Yiimik. Unfortuante player can experience scene like that from Batman movies, when Joker fell into barrel of acid... but less lethal, since it's a poison and rot, not acid this time. If players will get to Yiimik before he reaches the shaft, Yiimik will fight, but still hope for opening, or other chance of winning, or saving his skin. The goal was to give players a little bit of chalange, but not too much (I assumed goblin ambushers are bad at math, and used most of their arrows on Gundren, Sildar, and their horses, leaving them four poisoned per goblin arrows at best). I also want to play to players prejudices, history, and general view of goblins as weaklings that needs to be ridden of. Also wanted to put little moral dilema. And flesh out Yiimik more, since Klarg hasn't stroke me as smart enough to put traps no a trail to hideout. I also like to trope of more intelligent than leader right-hand man. That was the part I put most of my creativity in. Now players are in Phandalin, and finally, after two sessions they will be heading to Redbrand Hideout. And what do you think about my approach to goblins, hideout, and most importantly... Yiimik?
Seems like you've put a lot of thought into your characters! But if your players are changing every session, that might not worthwhile, because as players cycle in they will miss any earlier context.
@@heyitsMattyP unfortunatelly :( At least now it’s stabilized. I plan on including Thundertree, but as an element of Black Spider Conspiracy (or The Web as I started to call it). I even created reason, that makes Black Spider more impressive. Will give long explanation after sleep. Short one = mind control and use the cult.
Mr. Perkins, I presume? Hey Matt, just wanted to thank you SO much for this series of vids you've created on the LMoP! I've never DM'd before, but am very excited to do so for my buds. So I've been searching on "how to's" and stumbled across your channel. Let me tell you, you've got another subscriber, my dude! These vids are well done and I am excited to make similar changes to this starter set, to make my first time DM'ing a sure success!
Zach! That's rad - you gotta let me know how you go. All these changes have worked really well for me, and I'd encourage you to make even further changes if you reckon it would work for your group
@@heyitsMattyP Will do! I am currently running two different campaigns - both in homebrew settings - so it may be awhile! BTW - I loved your Wild Sheep Chase video and pulled it out for our group when we were missing some players and I could tell we just needed a fun one-shot to break up the intensity of the campaign - we all had a blast :-D Thank you for the content you are creating for the community!
Took a page of notes on your first video. Thank you so much for putting these on! Currently searching/scamming/conning/threatening players to run this. I’ll post our journey here.
The puzzle box is a macguffin I added into the campaign as an excuse to introduce the villain early. This video is the second video in the series - I think I talk about the puzzlebox in the first video.
@@heyitsMattyP ahh, yeah i listened a little more and realized that! This is my first time DM’ing and I just thought I missed some big thing! I am really enjoying your videos though!!
Thanks for this I'm running this campaign and you are really helping me create a better picture. I've been running games since 3E and this is my first premade.
The first time I ran the Klarg encounter I had a small trap created. The fire pit is built on a metal shield that covers a hole in the ground large enough for Klarg to crawl in from a vantage point away from the door. If he is warned he will climb under the fire pit and wait for the party to walk close enough and get a surprise round where he explodes out from under the pit wielding the red hot shield showering the room with embers, and utilizing his bugbear sneak attack damage ability.
Keep *CLAP* it *CLAP* UP! *CLAP* I started running this campaign this week with one group and will be using your videos for another group. It'll be a fun experiment.
Great video series! Your little jokes about the players and the game show-esque music with "What's the point of ?" got a laugh out of me. More importantly, these are super helpful for a new DM like me. Thank you!!
@@heyitsMattyP iIt went perfect. Played the whole weekend. And the players (two first time players) where super exited and cant wait to play again. Thank you so much again. :)
In 2 day, I start LMoP for a group of 4 new players (bard, fighter, rogue, ranger) + 1 experienced player (warlock). I've played it and run it before. I'm onboard for your tweaks and I'll let you know how it goes. I should probably watch the rest of the series first. We played The Delian Tomb last week as their first one-shot. They loved it. I let them level up to 2 and gave some fun magic loot. They should be able to get past the first encounter alive.
Ran the session today with 3 new players and 2 experienced players. It went very well. Before the session, I asked all the PCs to think about their relationship with Gundren. Got some great stuff. The cut scene with the doppelganger and the Black Spider looking for the box was a hit. They really enjoyed the chase with your suggested mechanics. They did some fun stuff with the dogs. The new bard had great moments with Sleep in the goblin den and Charm Person later with Klaarg. Many times they heard about how Klaarg was the biggest, baddest, toughest they'd ever seen. One of the experienced players went down after a wolf + Klaarg attack. Klaarg offered them a chance to leave. They refused and he whomped the unconscious player. A failed death save later, he was gone. The player will rejoin as a different character, but the new players learned to think tactically. All in all, a wonderful session. Thanks for the great advice. One question - one PC defined her relationship to Gundren as having a secret crush on him. This fighter has a real romantic streak. How to have this play out? Gundren alive later?
For context, my party is new to dnd, and so am I, I'm a first time Dm. We're all freshemn in high-school. So my party decides to go to Cragmaw Cave after skipping it and going straight to Phandlin. They make their way brutally killing Yeemic and reach their way to the water holding area. The Druid decided to use mold earth to try and capture the goblins in that room. 1 of them is captured and the other two escape but are then killed by the claric and Rouge. After this they try to befriend the one that they did capture. They end up making friends with her and she is now the party wizzard. They then stormed clargs room with their goblin friend. I explane how clarg was smoking before I could explane further my party cut me off and in unison exclaimed that they wanted to smoke with him. I asked them to roll persuasion and they all rolled below the DC, but then the bard asks if their goblin friend can roll. I sad yes, and then watched in awe as the goblin friend rolled a Nat 20. They ended up smoking with him and hotboxing the whole cave.
I runned a one-shot named "Sacrifice of Innocence to my 7 PC where they had to rescue the kidnapped girl of a smith on their way to Phandalin. They fought some Cragmaw goblins but I didn't got the opportunity to make them appreciate more Gundren and Sildar so I'm afraid rescuing them won't be their priority. Anyway thanks for your advices !
Great advice. Really loving this series great tips! Funny story. My group when finding the wolf den tried and succeeded in taming the beasts. Though, in order to try and disguise herself our Rogue halfway disguised as a goblin at this point with the entryway goblins clothes. Who by the way would not fool anyone unbeknownst to her because she failed her disguise roll. I told her she's kind of got a fake goblin ear hanging off. Decided that in order to complete her goblin outfit she would smear the wolf's poop all over her face and body. When I quit laughing I was like well YEP, that should work. I gave her advantage on fooling the other goblins for the rest of the cave XD needless to say, there were a lot of surprise assassinations going down.
Cheers mate! The series has been a lot of work but it's really galvanised the channel and helped find a bit of focus content-wise. Love the story too :) I'd go advantage on stealth, disadvantage on anything to do with Charisma haha
If you like this kind of content, please let me know by liking, subscribing, commenting! Watching this video without feeding the algorithm is illegal, and you WILL be arrested. Also: please share this with your players after the campaign finishes :)
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My wife can't tell the difference between any of the dice. She just knows she HATES the d4.
@@lashwrithe01 Remember the simpler days when every dice was a cube? Cubes all the way down, like it should be.
@@heyitsMattyP YAHTZEE!
Yahtzee.
Is the western style Fandlynn Map by Gaston on your Patreon?
I've DM'd Goblin Arrows many, many times as a training exercise for new players. My latest group was torn as to whether to follow the goblin trail or move the horses and push the cart on to Phandalin. They worried if they left the cart it would get pillaged. Their solution was to write "CURSED" in horse blood on every inch of the surface of the cart in every language they knew. I'm so excited for them to haul it back to Phandalin!
Horse blood!? Oh man, that's actually brutal!
How did this turn out?
@@jenoneonone The townsfolk were understandably wary of the cart once the sun rose, but by then so much else had happened that it was a non-issue, lol
@@benvoliothefirst Haha thanks for the update!
I love this that they’re smart enough to do this to ward of goblins but not smart enough to know it’s gonna be horrifying for the towns people
Just ran the hideout with my group of 6. I had them level up after the ambush and buffed the encounters in the hideout. The druid wildshaped into a spider and started exploring the cave, relaying the location of everything, unfortunately for her she rolled a nat1 on stealth and some Gobbos spotted the spider and attempted target practice on the spider in the ceiling. I had the Gobbo roll at disadvantage since he was aiming at fast spoder but he got a nat20 and a nat18 so he sniped the spoder reverting the druid back to herself, alone, in the deepest part of the hideout (by the pools). She entered combat by herself, Klarg got allerted and joined the fight, but miraculusly, the Gobbos missed 5 attacks in a row, so she managed to wildshape into a falcon and fly the fuck out of there. I love D&D :)
Scouting missions often end up being combat missions - classic D&D :)
It's been a long time but what happened next !?
@@raccoon3164 A lot. We actually turned the campaign into Waterdeep: Dragonheist (An extended version with all villains from level 5 - 14) after they finished LMoP. We have played every other week for over two years and we have about 4-5 sessions remaining of it. One of the final boss battles today actually
Hey that's cool, hope everything turned out chaotic good! I actually had the same idea as you about leading into Waterdeep : Dragonheist just cause it sounds fucking cool, even though we just barely started Lost Mines. From one GM to another, any tips on how you segwayed from LMoP to Dragonheist would be super appreciated dude!@@reinpogo4601
Love the tutorial, but I disagree with cutting a lot out. This may be the first time for many players. The Traps for example, can be used to teach mechanics players may not think of on their own. Ex. Passive Perception to investigation to disarm trap. How to safely get free using team work, how to avoid a pit after sprung, looting a disarmed trap, luring enemies into trap etc.
Including a section with RP tips is a great idea! Great presentation, Matt :)
Cheers Bob!
That ending bow and foreshadowing section was awesome I'm stealing that for my own games going forward! I ran this a few years ago as my first time DMing and I wish I had seen these back then some great tweaks!!
Oh rad Butcher! It's a real handy trick to keep all the crucial information compartmentalized and stoke the players' interest for next session. Also it's super fun doing an over-the-top narrator thing :D If you're subscribed, keep an eye out for the rest of the series because I've just crossed the halfway point -- I'm writing about the Redbrands right now! Hopefully it's helpful if you decide to run Lost Mines again
Yeah keep it up man! enjoying the content! Found your channel when I was working out cool ways to run chase scenes and now im just binging your full catalogue in the background when doing prep
I'm running my first campaign as a DM tomorrow and these videos have been suuuuper helpful. I saw this cave and was like ummm I'm not super confident they're gonna get through all of this hahaha. Great videos!!
been a player for years and just recently decided to DM for a group of my friends that have always wanted to play. this has been SUUUPER helpful. thank you!
Glad to help! Bet your players loved it :)
Prepping to DM LMOP for my friends right now! Can't say how much I appreciate having you as a resource
Oh wow! I appreciate you inviting my ideas to your table :) Hope you and your mates have a rad time!
so many great ideas in this series! running my first campaign as a DM and this has helped me a lot and gave me many ideas of my own. one of my players is a female drow sorcerer who is deathly afraid of spiders (also summons a spider randomly when casting spells) and ik she'll be freaking out when i bring up the black spider earlier than usual, cant wait for her to find out the black spider is also a female drow, i might even make her the reason she got cursed in the first place 🤔
Oh nice! Quick question: the CHARACTER is scared of spiders, not the PLAYER, right? Because if your player is scared of spiders, you should replace the Black Spider with the Black Caterpillar or something haha
@@heyitsMattyP no its the character haha and hopefully she overcomes that fear before fighting her lol
My favorite thing about your videos is how quick you jump into the good stuff. Really helpful ideas to help struggling dms prioritize and organize scenes
Hi Matthew! Here is a recap of my first session of LMoP written by a party member. Most of us are not english native speakers but we play the module in english cause we got one party member from Portland.
At a cold but sunny late summer morning the band of noobs started their adventure by escorting a cart to Phandalin as an assignment for Gundran Rockseeker, when Anton spotted some dead horses in the morning mist. As the band of noobs started to investigate the carcasses, they found an empty map case with Gundran's name on it. Soon they were attacked by three goblins, two of them almost immediatly lost their lives to Anton's and Pyroxenia's rage about this ambush, but the third one could be captured while he attempted to flee. Under the pressure of Funan's forceful Darth-Vader-style interrogation he told that Gundran and his componion were captured by goblins and brought to Klarg, a dubious mobster with an reputation for ambushes of all sorts. Strengthened by their successful first encounter, the band of noobs hid the cart in the bushes and made their way to the cave where Klarg and his entourage was hiding. The group managed to enter the cave unseen and met three very unhappy and mistreated goblins holding Gundrans companion Zilda hostage, but also willing to raise a mutiny against their oppressor Klarg. A deal was made - death of Klarg against the freedom of Zilda. They went to war against Klarg with Zilda at their side - a long and dangerous battle with almost everyone looking death in the face. Finally Klarg was defeated dying in the knowledge of his misbehaviour leaving a treasure of 600 copper, 120 silver, two healing potions and a mystic frog sculpture behind. Thankfully for the death of their bully the goblins gave them some prey of their ambushes and letting them spend a well-deserved and restful night in the cave.
Thanks for sharing Marius! I like how the goblins let the party rest in the cave after they defeated Klarg :)
Awesome stuff! Been looking forward to this video for a week now. I just finished my session zero. The players got to create their own prologue for how they got the magic box. Then the session ended with a collective dream the night before setting out for Phandalin, where a dark figure (the black spider) realized the box had slipped from his grasp.
Very excited to run session 1 with most of these recommendations soon!
Jamie that's awesome! Super stoked this video series is chugging along at the same pace as your game :)
What was the prologue your party concocted?
@@heyitsMattyP Long wall of text incoming: Following your advice from the first video, each character had a connection to Gundren. He called them together and explained that he had been tracking down this artifact that contains a magical secret to unlocking "an important opportunity." Recently he learned that it would be up for auction by a woman with no clue what it really was. Gundren sent the party to the auction with twice the gold they would need, but were outbid nonetheless by a bored nobleman.
The wizard's familiar and the Ranger kept eyes on the nobleman. Meanwhile, the rest scrambled to create a replica box, utilizing the fighter's proficiency in Jeweler's Tools to affix the large emerald (which they paid for with the money left to them by Gundren). The wizard then magically sealed it in a manner similar to the original (I made the box be sealed so that I didn't have to deal with them eventually opening it).
At night, the Rogue went sneaky-sneak to swap the boxes while the nobleman, who looked less ornate than before, slept at his campsite. (Rightfully, the players wondered why a rich guy would camp out instead of buying lodging.) The party returned safely to Neverwinter with the box and instructions to deliver the wagon to Barthen's Provisions in Phandalin where they would meet up with Gundren.
BUT that night they all had a dream of the nobleman walking through a cave with the box. As the nobleman went deeper, his features melted until he was a feature-less mass of black muscle and skin. The creature presented the box to a figure obscured by shadow (the Black Spider), who magically unlocked the box, then screamed in rage as the party's remaining gold pieces tumbled out.
TLDR; The party lost an auction, so they made a replica box and swapped it with the real thing. The man with the fake ended up being the doppelganger, whose master was enraged at having been conned.
That's rad! Well done :)
What class do you think your Gundren is?
@@heyitsMattyP I haven't thought much about that. Off the top of my head, probably a fighter. He's the one who trained our fighter in the ways of the warhammer.
This is great! I think it's the best guide on Lmop and I've seen many. Love the way you tweak stuff, for example how to make the hideout a one session lenght dungeon to keep a good pace. How you describe teasing Phandalin in the end was an amazing cliffhanger I definitely will use that in my own campaign. Keep up the good work! :)
Agnar that's such a kind thing to say - thank you! If this series became the go-to guide for Lost Mines, I'd be stoked. I haven't seen the competition though, so I'll take you at your word and make sure the later episodes keep the standard high :)
BTW, I can't say enough about how much I like/appreciate the chapters! Every time I have a question I go to the chapter I need. ...I watch these videos a LOT 🙂
Yeah it's a great feature! I'm a big fan. For some reason it stopped working in my browser, but I'm glad it's displaying properly for other people.
Um. Omg. Yesterday I dmd my first game- I was feeling super stressed about it and have been spending weeks looking at different videos and reading up how to run it and just how to do the whole terrifying dm thing. Yesterday morning as a last minute desperate attempt to figure out all out I searched goblin arrows on RUclips and found your series on lmop. Holy crapballs you saved my game! I was totally overthinking everything and just having you talk about it all so simply and the ideas for swapping things up and removing stuff was such a frigging relief! I actually had fun and I think the players did too!!! Thank you sooooooo much, I can't wait to watch all the whole series and continue the adventure!!!!!!!!!! 🙏🙏🙏🙏
My party freed the wolves and then climbed the chimney. My bard then charmed Klarg and through a series of checks and saves got the VIP tour through the hideout and walked out with Slidar...
That ending tale you told, made me excited to see what was going to happen in Phandelin! Well done good sir!
I wish I had seen this before running it. Fully agree with all the removals.
Gotta say, I wish this was out 4 years ago when I ran LMoP for my players. Very helpful content, have been watching it over the past few days. Finally subscribed. Please keep up the good work and make the same style videos about other adventures, Wizards' or otherwise.
Man. Super love how you break down missions and add/delete portions. Well done, super excited to run this! 👏
Mate! Glad you're keen - I love cutting content haha
When I started the campaign, I hadn’t come across your videos until the party was at the Cragmaw hideout, so I wasn’t able to start the group with the puzzle box at the beginning.
I set it up so that the sentry goblin on the drawbridge post was not paying attention, as he was sitting down in the middle of the bridge fiddling with this unassuming wooden box, trying to open it. When the party crossed the bridge, they surprised the goblin and took the box. It’s been so great to integrate this as the cornerstone to the campaign!
Late to the party, but I just wanted to share my appreciation for this video. I'm a relatively new DM and this guide has helped me to find that right balance between a pre-written campaign and homebrew. My players are loving the experience and I know its because the story is compelling and they feel a part of it. Plus the pre-written stuff (and these videos) make prep minimal.
I'm about to start running my first ever game with the starter set and I'm a bit nervous. I'm over-analyzing and I love that you keep pointing out things that I noticed after my first read-through of the book. I'm going to be sure to watch as many of these videos as I can!
Cheers Chris! The general consensus I've gotten from people about this videos is something like, "Even if I don't agree with every suggestion, the videos kept me calm about running D&D." I'd recommend banging out the whole lot of videos before acting on my advice, because I there are some bits of information I forgot to front-load and it all makes better sense in context.
You're gonna love LMOP! It's great :)
Again, thanks so much for this! I just DM'd my 2nd ever proper session (1st was a bastardisation of Matt Colville's Delian Tomb) and it went really well (by that I mean nothing went to plan and I had to learn to improv very early on, but I think it went well!). The guys all loved it though and gave me awesome feedback, which made all my prep (of which there was way too much) worth it.
The party chased the fleeing Gobbo from the ambush site (and had a cool chase scene thanks to your alternative chase rules) and interrogated him. All but 1 one the party felt sorry for him, as he was such a grunt of a Gobbo, he didn't have a name, so they named him Steef (was Steve, but when I asked them to spell it, this is what it turned into!). Steef led the party to the Cragmaw hideout and told them about Yeemik's desire to over-throw Klarg.
After the Ranger tamed one of the wolves on the way in, Steef took the party directly to Yeemik's den. Yeekmik, not happy with Steef for bringing outsiders in,, shot and downed Steef, to the parties anguish. They then tried to bargain with Yeemik, but a bad persuasion roll led to a fight.
Ranger went first targeting Yeemik and rolled a Nat 20 on his animal handling for the wolf, so I let the wolf give advantage AND attack for 1d4 +1 piercing damage with a bite and the Ranger also hit hard, so Yeemik was forced to call a truce super quick. He offered to let Sildar go, in exchange for Klarg's head. The party accepted this. Yeemik, now not wanting the burden of a Gobbo he believes to be insubordinate, let the party heal Steef and accompany them.
They struggled in the Twin Pools fight, with the Rogue being downed twice and ending the fight stable, but unconscious.
We ran out of time there, so the party, with no spells left, no healing pots, have dragged the Rogue's body under the bridge and are going to attempt to rest and recoup for the battle against Klarg.
Not sure how happy Yeemik is going to be with this, as he is impatient, so I may have to let out a cry or some noise that Steef knows signifies a sacrifice has begun in Yeemik's den (e.g. they are about to eat Sildar) and then the party will have to go deal with that first. I can give them a level up after that to lvl 2 and then they can go and try and beat Klarg, his Worg, 2 hidden Gobos, but with a pretty strong party of 4 PC's, Steef, a wolf (yet un-named) and an injured Sildar!
I have said that after each session, the players vote the MVP and that person gets inspiration at the beginning of the next session and I've also used an alternative inspiration spending system (lots of cool options to choose from), so they can at least get buffed a little from that, even if they don't manage to get a full rest in, so with that and hitting lvl 2, they should hopefully be well equipped to defeat Klarg!
1 month between sessions to plan the next one! Wish me luck!
Very well done! Glad it's going well :)
Our party also decided to interrogate a goblin, I wish I had thought of the interrogated goblin giving info on Yeemik's schemes!
Great idea!
@@stephaniesheen6405 Thanks! How's your campaign going?
This video is so helpful - I've only ran these encounters once and it felt really long winded in parts, but would never have considered getting rid of the traps or making the wolves encounter less combat focussed. Really great stuff and entertaining to boot :)
Matt, my dude... you are SO right. The Goblin Arrows is surprisingly lethal. Everyone thinks, "Oh, Goblins... they're not hard, right?"
Wrong.
They can, and often DO, kill 1st and 2nd level characters. And there are a LOT of them in this scene. And don't forget the Bugbear!
I've had to fudge a couple rolls in the first dungeon for sure! Especially if the Bugbear manages to get a surprise round
I am planning on running my youngest daughter and a few sidekicks through this very soon. We are both so very excited! Thank you so much for making this video series helping to break down the key moments and give new DM's pointers for these adventures. The module isn't always so clear cut as you explain things to be. I appreciate your work with all of your module guides. I can't wait to pour through them and get to adventuring!
Eric! Happy to help! Hope your campaign goes well :)
I cannot tell you how much I enjoy your style. There are a large number of great content creators teaching this adventure, but I love your approach. I am a new DM and I feel you have given me the tools to run this module the way the author intended, while leaving me the flexibility to maximize my players' enjoyment. I am planning on running my first session one on one with my girlfriends Rouge and her Wizard sidekick tongiht! Thanks for all your hard work.
Oh wow, thanks! My gameplay style hasn't changed since making these videos, but my video and presentation style has changed quite a bit as I've gotten more practice. I'm about to dip back into LMOP content this month though, so hopefully the new videos are helpful too!
Hi Matt, just wanted to thank you so much for these videos, I ran my first ever session as a DM last night and used several of your tips and they really gave me confidence and the whole thing went over so well! In particular the players loved the little prologue before starting the adventure. Really useful for a brand new DM! Thank you!
Thank you so much for this series!
I think for my campaign, I'm gonna turn the little teasers at the end of the session into prophetic dreams for our Paladin?
I did something similiar in the previous campaign and the players got really hyped about it.
I'm getting ready to dm this adventure after a hiatus of, oh, hmm 40 years (Advanced Ediltion)? I've watched a number of other videos covering this adventure, and while some are quite good, man, yours are the best. I love your ideas, and personality. I do see how these would take a lot of work. Good luck man! I'll be looking for more from you
First time DM here. Love this series! I've been using a lot of your ideas as well as a few of my own and my players love it. Figured you might appreciate a quick story from our run through Cragmaw Hideout:
One of my players calmed the wolves in the kennel with Animal Handling and the group explored the chimney on the other side. One of my dumber fighter players climbed up the chimney and saw Klarg sitting in his office. He decided that right then, with his head peeking out of the chimney, was the best time to strike up a casual conversation with Klarg. Klarg, obviously alarmed by the intruders, later ended up fighting them in the twin pools room, which led to some really interesting combat theatrics.
Our wizard ran distraction and used minor illusion to distract Klarg while the Rogue hid behind one of the larger stalactites in the room. Klarg landed a critical hit on our fighter and dropped him to 0 HP, but the Rogue answered with a nat 20 sneak attack of his own, decapitating a weakened Klarg.
I'm so excited for Yeemick to rise to power in Cragmaw Castle, and to potentially being back the tamed wolves in a street fight with the Redbrands in Phandalin! Thank you so much for all of the great content.
Woof! Love that clutch crit after the fighter drops. Thanks for sharing! My last group had a different no-name goblin they ended up convincing to believe in himself and let him leave the Cragmaw Hideout,. He ended up becoming Job the Goblin King. They fought him as he rode an owlbear in the second-last session at the Cragmaw Castle.
@@heyitsMattyP "Job" like the loser in wrestling, or "Job" like the biblical figure? :)
You feed me with ideas and therefore I'll feed the algorithm. Big thank you for making this series.
Hey Matt! Just finished this video and your first on LMoP. I’m about to start DMing for the first time for my nephew and a couple of his friends. They’re excited to play and I’m excited to DM. These videos have been great! I was feeling nervous about running and now I am utterly inspired. Thank you for your work and your approach to describing the scenes and options for modifications. Can’t wait to watch more :)
Mate, you legend! You're gonna have a blast - kids are natural roleplayers. Thanks very much for your kind words :)
I've got six players and they absolutely STEAMROLLED the whole hideout and the battle with Klarg, but haven't gotten to the Yeemik room yet. I'm thinking about adding a hobgoblin attempting to make a deal with Yeemik. Only by teaming up can the hobs and gobs defeat the Bugbears. But the hobs plan to subjugate the goblins when the bugbears are out of the way, and vice versa. Only the players can tip the balance...
I like in this situation the goblins don't know the players have already defeated Klarg.
"We need to team up to defeat Klarg!"
"Yeah about that..."
I play a lot of board games with my now teenage daughters, they mainly go for worker placement Euro-games like Agricola. We were researching what game to get this Christmas and with nothing grabbing us they asked ‘What did you mostly play when you were our age’…. ‘D&D’ said I. Golly they got excited once I’d explained it a bit. So 45 years since I last painted up a mini here I am. I’m certainly going to play the wolves as potential pets and cut out most of the traps. Really liking your ideas, having a ‘cipher’ treasure box that they’ll really want to solve- that’s genius. Also going for a rogue widowed wife Bugbear somewhere in the plot later on…. I’m actually getting a tad excited.
Sounds great Ian! I do love those euro games though haha
I love the point you made about asking the players how their character is feeling. I have tried to present spots where the characters could talk to each other and waste some time. This might be a good way to do it.
This adaptation of the encounter was so helpful, we just ran it today - the encounters were balanced and all my players had a blast, and I had so much fun running it. Thanks for all your work and advice, it’s been a huge help for this first time DM!
Happy to help! Cheers Amber!
I love the idea of playing Klarg as an evil Seth Rogen 😂 Great series on how to run this module. I used your session 0 tips last night, and my players loved the addition of the puzzle box! They decided it was going to be like the puzzle box in Hellraiser, which was great because I love when the players add their own ideas into the mix and make the thing their own.
Nice one! You'll be happy to know Hellraiser is EXACTLY what I was imagining when I first used the puzzle box in my game
I'm a seasoned GM in other systems, but I just ran my first D&D session... For my 11yo daughter a group of her friends. It was absolutely nuts. The players were unruly and loud but in the eve we had a great time.
Fantastic advice in this video. I was already worried that Grundrin Rockseeker needed to be more of a sympathetic character and i liked your advice.
I basically set him up as friend to the party, gave them a MacGuffin and had him explain that they were all going to be made soon... He'd explain more when they were safely in Phandalin, because of Reasons.
Great advice about trimming the fat from the encounters, too. Pushed for time, we jumped more or less straight from the wolves to an encounter with Klarg, his wolf and a could of surviving goblins he was bullying from his throne in the water pools cave.
Mage was smart enough to put the wolf to sleep, taking it straight out of action. Players got excellent rolls all session and my only regret is that they didn't get challenged enough. Not that it matters: they had fun 😊
Great job! Glad to help :)
Please never stop making videos. This was so helpful for me.
More to come! One day I hope to have most of my content be in-depth guides like these
Thank you for this amazing series! Lost Mines is my first stint as a DM, and apart from the great tone, pacing and production in your videos, I'd like to commend you on your approach to sharing your knowledge. It feels similar to the cooking channels that have really helped me improve my kitchen skills - not only do they show you how to achieve a great end result - they also unpack the reasoning for applying a certain method or concept.
To share a story: Having tied up Yeemik and a handful of goblins in the Den, my party backed by Sildar cleared the Twin Caves without triggering the dams. They then ambushed Klarg, and after a few rounds of fighting he barely managed to escape down the chute (after plenty of missed attacks) with two HP left. The party monk, heavily injured, summoned his last strength to sprint out into the Twin Dam room and release the flood - failing the dex save on the second dam and knocking himself unconscious. The flood roared down the cave, and I rolled for Klarg in secret. I let the players stabilize the monk and loot Klarg's room.
Nearing the cave exit, the players heard Goblin cheers of "Yeemik, Yeemik". As they turned the corner, they encountered Klargs dead body, head broken in after being pushed by the force of the flood. On top of him stood Yeemik, scimitar firmly planted in Klargs back. He thanked the players for "being good subjects to the new king of the cave" by breaking lose Klargs' three gold teeth, and handing them to the players. Yeemik will return later.
Klarg had failed his secret dex save and had taken enough damage to kill him, and Yeemik + friends had enough time to wrestle free from their ropes.
Thanks for the kind comment! My next focus for future campaign guides is packaging the information a bit more sequentially, because a few times in these LMOP guides I've had to backtrack slightly and clarify old information. The series I'm writing now is about Storm King's Thunder.
I like your goblin story too :)
@@heyitsMattyP looking forward to Storm of the Thunder King - that is the one I’m lining up. Thinking about how they connect - is Nezza actually preparing to do good (and make profits) by delivering weapons to defend against giants? (Villian with a noble motive). Do the party Open a port that connect Them to the giants?
I’m glad you posted these videos about LMoP. I was a DM for the first time 3 days ago and I picked LMoP at an Adventure League gaming event that is done every week.
Only three players: a fighter, a wizard, and a barbarian. Due to lack of healers I decided to have Gundren give them all a health potion as a “prepay bonus.” Was a good thing too or they would’ve been TPK during the goblin ambush.
My favorite part was when they entered the cragmaw cavern and were stealthing their way in. They were passing all their checks and the goblins were failing so badly that they managed to go under the bridge without the goblin on the bridge noticing them, or the goblin by the water trap noticing them. They then looped around and got onto the bridge, and sneakily pushed the goblin on the bridge and into the water. A low intelligence check and dexterity check later on my end resulted in a really funny moment;
The goblin by the water trap thought the goblin falling off the bridge was a signal to set off the trap, but also fell into the water as he set off the trap! As a result both goblins got flushed out of the cavern!!
That first encounter man! I still maintain I bet the Goblin Ambush encounter has killed more characters than any other official 5E content
An excellent video that I am using to help me prepare for my first campaign as a DM
Sick mate! Hope you're not too worried: you'll smash it, and your friends will have a blast
I like to throw in an intro adventure before Goblin Ambush ... Sacrifice of Innocence is a great one. I have the players leave Neverwinter with Gundren, Sildar and one of Gundren's bros. They travel together a couple of days and get to know the group, then they part ways at the beginning of the Sacrifice of Innocence scene saying they'll catch up. That way when they get to the dead horse (and dying brother!) they have built a relationship and really want to save Sildar and Gundren. The dying brother is also my first spot to give a fun magic item to one of the party -- a family heirloom or something, like a bag of holding or something like that.
Oh nice! I've got something in the works for a prologue quest too :) It's all written, but I'm still commissioning art
Good advice all around and with a great sense of humour. I can't stres enough what you said about Room 6. Five goblins and Yeemik are far too many for four 1st lvl characters if you want to run this dungeon without the group having to stop for a long rest and drag the whole session down.
Your videos have been so useful for running the LMoP. After seeing this video I decided to keep the traps that the goblins set but instead setting them as part of the ambush. On one side a snare trap hauls the captured player up by the foot, but weight of armour meant that the player ended up dangling inches off the ground and still able to take some part in proceedings. On the other side, a pit sent a player tumbling down the embankment to the trail for minimal damage and an incentive to get even. It worked for my group of first time players. With a slightly larger party of five players, having the traps allowed me to avoid making the encounter more deadly.
Yeah cool! That's a good idea to roll those traps into the combat to make it a bit more dramatic.
I've played LMoP as a player and as a DM, and let me tell you, the new approach you gave us on the "script" and the change on the NPC's, and mostly, the keys to twist and change the story is actually priceless.
Thank you.
(Subscribed and liked)
Glad to help :)
Gotta say my dude, loving this series of videos. Soooooo much useful info and the format that you use to break it up and extract the "Point" of each part of the adventure can be used for literally any published adventure. Keep up the hard work mang!!!
I took your advice and had the wolves be fearful and I made it clear they were malnourished and it worked out really well. The party set them free. One of the wolves stopped to smell the wizards hand, and then ran off. Later, when they would long rest they would hear something stalking them in the bushes. My plan was to have the wolf join later or show up to save the day. Well we had another buddy want to join us, so now we have a lycanthrope in the party, and only he and I know it.
Oh great! I'm always happy to hear the party choosing to save animals :)
I discovered your videos 2 sessions into LMoP…and have been binging and craving the next session ever since! I’m excited to alter some of the pre-written info now that you’ve given “permission” to go rogue. Haha. My first session was a doozy, I misunderstood the “charm” spell and let the players take a Goblin friend who through a series of. AMAZING persuasion checks, became their friend. This goblin (Jeff) was later instated as the new leader of Cragmaw cavern as a thanks for his help in battle. Session 2, one of the players insisted on buying a goat, and because the image is so funny, I am allowing the goat to be large enough/the dwarf to be small enough that they ride the goat in battle. Hahahaha
About to run session 1 of this on Tuesday with my friends. Looking forward to seeing if anyone misses a beat as I put in these changes. Brilliant stuff
:O How did it go?? I hope they like the little cutaway scene at the end :)
@@heyitsMattyP everyone is hypothesizing on what the shifter is… no one seems to be interested in the lady with the Spider staff :/ oooh! The ArcKnight set has a Drider mini for The Spider, so whilst we slowly progress towards that fight I’m doing some balancing for the combat, have the changeling fight them as a Lolth wizard, then have her descend from the ceiling when they hit half health. So many ideas!
Personally, I've ran a session 1 where the players try to get the Puzzle Box but cultists prevent them from getting it, capturing them instead. By escaping the cultist hideout and defeating the head cultist, the players gain access to the Puzzle Box and venture forward into Goblin Arrows. I did this so my players had a better incentive to hit level 2 before they arrived at Goblin Arrows, while obtaining more basic knowledge about the game. It made it easier for me as DM to play around with the Goblins' and Klarg's power level.
I’ve never played this set, admittedly. I really should!
Roger, it's a banger :)
PLUS, because so many people have played Starter Set, it shifts your experiences closer to the centre of the D&D venn diagram of shared D&D memories so you can compare stories with practically any D&D fan
Yes, you should! You'll love it.
My group is mid-module and we're having a complete blast. It dove-tailed nicely into my homebrew that's going to culminate in "Rise of Tiamat"... with a twist. :)
Next after this (which will easily take use another 6 months) is Strahd.
After that... either Icewind or Underdark. Or ... more homebrew. I'm not a bad writer! :D
My first LToP goblin cave experience as DM:
1) The players surprise, kill, then revive one of the goblin sentries, roll Nat 20 and he joins their side. He is called Dugg.
2) Nat 20 animal handling check on wolves. The party now has wolves…
3) The Cleric (using the chr sheet that CAME WITH THE BOOK) rolls Nat 20 on a Guiding Bolt and 1 hit kills Klarg the bugbear leader.
4) After rescuing Sildar and being warned by Dugg that more goblins are on the way back to the cave (I needed more enemies at this point…), the party Home Alones the cave.
5) The one goblin that escaped to tell the tail of their victory is felled by a trap the party set rolling yet another Nat 20.
I gave them my dice.
Hah! You've got a swat team on your hands
My players would pay cash money for those dice!
Picked up this mod to introduce my boys to they game. I havent since 3.5 and never really dm'ed before. Thanks for the review and all the RP ideas along the breakdown! Great work!
Cheers Michael! Hope you and your boys have a great time :)
I forgot to post in the last video how excited I am for this series. Ive also run it many times, but starting out with some new players and will wait til the end of this series.
I'm excited too! There are a couple of people running the module alongside this series -- I'm looking forward to hearing everyone's stories at the end
Thanks for making this Matthew! I'm gonna run this adventure for a group of complete noobies next week, this video and the first of the series have been super helpful, I'm gonna have a hard time not watching the rest of your videos on this module.
Oh rad! Please let me know how the session goes Scott. I'd totally recommend binging the series before your first session -- it should give you a complete image of the adventure's ecosystem and how everything is connected :)
Hey there, I found your guide while preparing this as my first D&D campaign. I've always only played The Dark Eye, coming from Germany, so this is my first toe-dipping here - Thanks for the invaluable resources!
My players (First time PnP-players, my Wife and 3 kids, 12-15) have deceived Yeemik into thinking they're supposed to get the hostage for King Grol, which he didn't really buy, but he struck a deal with them to dispose of Klarg. Then they deceived Klarg into believing them as well. Unfortunately, he went with them to Yeemik, to get the hostage, so he was pissed to see Klarg alive. Klarg knew, Yeemik was up to no good, so the boss fight of this cave was Klarg and the Players against Yeemik an his cronies. Not quite as I had planned, but funny nonetheless. They nearly managed to talk themselves out of everything, really good for first time players.
Oh wow! They smooth-talked their way into an impossible situation haha :) Well done!
Also: since you're from Germany, you may like this free combat cheat sheet my community translated into Deutsch - www.patreon.com/posts/5e-combat-cheat-37395490
oh my gosh. OH MY GOSH. oh my gosh. Thank you Matthew, thank you for making these! This is the first video of yours I've seen! I'm trying to put together this campaign as a noob DM and DANNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNG. Thankfully none of our crew have ever played DnD so they won't notice when I use every single suggestion here. THANK YOU
Glad to help :) Hope it's going well!
About to start Dming for the family for the first time, your videos and Patreon have been amazing help
Thanks Paul! I'm gonna work hard to keep making useful content for you :)
I just dm'd my very first session ever using this campaign. Thanks for the tips, they were helpful!
On the way to the hideout, I improvised that the fleeing goblin from the ambush would fall into the pit and die because I thought it'd be funny lol
Great job!
@@heyitsMattyP thanks!
So i made some tweaks like you said. The goblin holding sildar talked to save his hide and that of his friends after watching one get instantly killed. Told the party about klog and 2 party members downed by him and 3rd ran away to catch up with sildar and the 4th party member that was away. Both members down by klog rolled nat 20 death saves. Klog didn't like the dearf but tiefling he liked and agreed to spare their lives and take them to the castle to meet the king as lvl2. Im going to use the black spider story hook to entice the 2 free party members she can get their compaions free for a price. Will do a mini session with 2 players to try and make the regular session all 4 at one place.
Watching this has genuinely changed how I view story telling! Awesome video man, love the whole series
Glad to help :)
This DM has a very different style to me, and obviously enjoys different aspects of the game. So, while I don't use most of the advice he gives, it's still very helpful to get a different perspective and there are always a couple good ideas I never would have though of.
Wow. This is really good. Our players are about to enter the cave. Perfect timing. I like your npc breakdown... what they know etc. Good!
I like your style and presentation. Really makes for an informative and engaging video.
Thanks
Oi oi oi
My party went STRAIGHT TO KLARG! Really threw me off. lol.
You know one thing you can do: Play with pronunciation of names. Rather than saying it as "klarg" extend it.
"My name is 'Klaaaaaaarg'"
"Klaarg?"
"No, not 'klarg' 'KLAAaaaarg.' 'Klaarg' means strong, and I am more than strong, I am 'KLAAAAARG!'"
It can give an NPC some personality, especially a strong, dumb enemy.
I have my very first session of goblin ambush, at the start I linked everyone's backstory to the plot hook, I also gave each player a buff as they are level 1 and I know how grueling this module can get.
Excited to run session 2 and I love this video, lays out more information 👍
Good idea! There are only five real danger areas balance-wise - the first goblin encounter, the encounter with Yeemik if the players are still level 1, the zombie encounter with the necromancer, the stirges in WEC, and the green dragon. Everything else hits OK :)
This series is excellent, thank you for making it!
You're very welcome! Thanks for the support :)
The whole "welcome to phandalin" section impressed me so much you're a genius
lol no no no, it's just practice!
Your content is amazing- I kind of want more vids for different modules, or even your own modules!
Thank you! I'm starting my series about Storm King's Thunder next week :)
This is funny and informative. Wish I'd had this before I started running it. I'd come to some similar conclusions but yours is way better.
Thanks Dom! Maybe you can run it a second time? :D
(It’s fun to see people commenting so recently, and Matthew responding to them! Hello! Looking forward to the new Lost Mines content)
Your Lost Mines series is a huge boon! I’ve only ever run one-or-two-shots, but I’m going to run this campaign for my little siblings and their friend, all new to the game. Found your Thundertree video during my prep last week, decided to rework Venomfang as BBEG, and watched the rest of your series.
As I was warned, doing a major rework along with standard PC Backstory Integration is more challenging than I guessed! My usual prep method left me overwhelmed, but it’s been much better since I (read the module and) started over using the “What’s the Point?” system. It’s clean and effective - Purpose, RP, Know. The most important bits, presented in the forms you’ll actually use in-game! Why didn’t I think of that?!
So yeah, this series showed me a better way to prioritize and organize a game’s characters, plot beats, and player-induced chaos.
Can’t wait to create wacky, incidentally dramatic stories with my little siblings and their friend. Thanks!
Hey that's great! You'll have a blast. When playing with kids though: just remember to remind them at the start that 1) they're playing the heroes and 2) they're all on the same team.
I've absolutely got a function-first approach to storytelling, and I'm actually too hardline when it comes to cutting content and streamlining, but I'm happy to be the opposite extreme of the official modules' fluff and let people find their happy middleground.
Funny you mention that! We played a short “practice session” last week, and there were two instances of pickpocketing each other and one of punching each other’s face lol. The Golden Rule is in place and shall be strictly enforced
But there were no innocent NPCs in the practice, so I’ll definitely remind them of their hero status. Two of the three players are rogues with the flaw “I habitually steal…”
They can be the best players and they can be the worst - so imaginative and fun-loving, but kids can be meean.
…I say, as if adults are much different!:P Just a different balance of traits
And as far as notes, yeah, happy medium! I’m prone to decision paralysis, so I might end up with more Key Notes than the base What’s the Point? notes.
Excellent video. This is where our group is now.
Thank you!
This content and series is absolutely ace. Best in class. Many thanks.
My first time running this it was my first time DMing. First thing my players did (after getting washed out of the cave) was face the wolves and climb the shoot taking Klarg by surprise. I was so worried they were going to skip/miss Sildar entirely 😂
My first group did the same, but only a few made it up the chute. I think that route is meant to split the party via skill check.
Running this adventure the second time with a new group and have found your videos awesome! I tell my players that the d8 is 2 Pyramids butt to butt....
My important NPC was Yiimik, that goblin that put the knife to Sildars throat. While I'm rather mildly advanced GM, Phandalver was, and still is my first tryout with DnD. I had no idea for making my own campaign, so I took lost mines. Also I lacked creativity, when planning this campaign. My party changing players like daily (realities of playing online with random people, some may not like your style, your lack of experience with the system, and some life may change plans). So I watched ton of videos, although I only recently discovered yours. Anyway, to cut out the chit chat, I made goblins stronger. My players started at level 2 (they begged me for level 4), and initial group (not current one) had all players prejudiced towards goblins, like Di Caprio in Django toward afroamericans. So I made goblins... not exactly stronger or smarter, but more shrewd. They were forest goblins (goblin variation) they lived they whole life in swords coast forest. They knew how to climb and hide. Basicaly partizant army. Additionaly they had poisoned arrows (basic poison variation). They were clearly fighting tactically, but weren't smart enough to make such hide and seek tactics. The man behind it, and the traps on a way to hideout was none other than Yiimik. Yes, I wanted to challange players a little, change their perspective on one of my favorite dnd races (asides from thieflings, kobolds, and drow), and put a little moral dilema for them. Even if goblins weren't their fav enemy, like with original squad, this can work out. So, our little intelligent rogue Yiimik was born with more intellect than his brethern, but position of king was already taken. Despite being rised with this whole Maglubiyet culture, he wasn't necesserly evil, but still wanted to help his tribe, and wanted to be prised. After struggling with his stupid lot, he devised simple tactics, poison, and traps, tha even stupidest greenheads could understand. He was a leader of hideout for some time before Klarg came in and beaten him to pulp. Disheartened, and full of spite, Yiimik's goal now is to get his revange on Klarg, and Sildar is a perfect bait. Yiimik knows someone will be looking for him, so he devised a plan to use his ex tribe members to lure adventurers to the hideout, and use Sildar, as hostage/reward for players, and a moment to convince/check adventurers intentions. He will be sincere hoping to convince the party to let him go. If they decide tho help him, and he will deem them trustworthy (insight check or use DM knowlege), he will offer his cave as a safe place to rest, and will reward the party with poison, goblin knowledge, or even heal Sildar, give him stolem piece of his equipement, and go with them to begin his new life in Phandalin. If the party will try to decieve him, and he will feel it, he will still offer a place to rest, so they could beat Klarg, but won't be friendly, and when they will go, he will leave Sildar, a note, and he will go to the secret booby trapped exit (like a vent shaft) he made for himself. In the note will be written a request "Don't hurt the children". Ambiguos right? But he will mean goblin children rised up in ragmaw Castle or some nearby area.
He will leave towards Neverwinter to begin his new life in their underworld (or some other town, use one from party history, to make it more personal. I used backstory of player rogue who love belonged ones to thief's guild in Neverwinter. In Klarg cave I put a body of fellow thief, that Klarg captured, left Yiimik to interrogate, since he couldn't be bothered, and then mutiliated. Of course Yiimik used this ocasion to learn about the world and become sort of rogue himself). Yiimik will use Sildars body as cover if he won't trust the party (3/4 cover, or nearly complete cover, so players woud have to have 18+ on pure d20 to even hit him, and not Sildar). In case of chosing direct approach Yiimik is small boss in himself using smoke bombs, poisoned scimitars and crossbow he had already pointed at players thanks to contraption he made to better utilize Sildar as a shield (basically let the players roll perception to see sickly green metalic shine between Sildars legs, which is poisoned bolt head). The truth is, Yiimik don't hold the knife near Sildars throat, primitive contraption is, and it can be spotted, and contraption easily disarmed. However Yiimik don't want to fight and die. When team will see through his plans, and choose direct approach, and contraption or players will fail at killing Sildar, he will push sildar on players, use smoke bomb, and dash toward his secret exit, hoping run away as quickly as possible. Smoke bomb puts another threat for players, for there is a pool of poison from rotten goblin corpses, and poison mushroom and herbs between exit, and them. Invisible form lower camp part, where the party killed goblins. Yiimik and Sildar were on verge of higher camp part, and Yiimik knows about the pool location. He made it himself. So it's additional trap for players chasing after Yiimik. Unfortuante player can experience scene like that from Batman movies, when Joker fell into barrel of acid... but less lethal, since it's a poison and rot, not acid this time. If players will get to Yiimik before he reaches the shaft, Yiimik will fight, but still hope for opening, or other chance of winning, or saving his skin.
The goal was to give players a little bit of chalange, but not too much (I assumed goblin ambushers are bad at math, and used most of their arrows on Gundren, Sildar, and their horses, leaving them four poisoned per goblin arrows at best). I also want to play to players prejudices, history, and general view of goblins as weaklings that needs to be ridden of. Also wanted to put little moral dilema. And flesh out Yiimik more, since Klarg hasn't stroke me as smart enough to put traps no a trail to hideout. I also like to trope of more intelligent than leader right-hand man.
That was the part I put most of my creativity in. Now players are in Phandalin, and finally, after two sessions they will be heading to Redbrand Hideout.
And what do you think about my approach to goblins, hideout, and most importantly... Yiimik?
Seems like you've put a lot of thought into your characters! But if your players are changing every session, that might not worthwhile, because as players cycle in they will miss any earlier context.
@@heyitsMattyP unfortunatelly :(
At least now it’s stabilized. I plan on including Thundertree, but as an element of Black Spider Conspiracy (or The Web as I started to call it). I even created reason, that makes Black Spider more impressive.
Will give long explanation after sleep. Short one = mind control and use the cult.
Mr. Perkins, I presume? Hey Matt, just wanted to thank you SO much for this series of vids you've created on the LMoP! I've never DM'd before, but am very excited to do so for my buds. So I've been searching on "how to's" and stumbled across your channel. Let me tell you, you've got another subscriber, my dude! These vids are well done and I am excited to make similar changes to this starter set, to make my first time DM'ing a sure success!
Thanks mate! You'll have a blast :) It's a great module
Loving these videos! When I get the chance to run Lost Mines again I will definitely be implementing a lot of these ideas :-)
Zach! That's rad - you gotta let me know how you go. All these changes have worked really well for me, and I'd encourage you to make even further changes if you reckon it would work for your group
@@heyitsMattyP Will do! I am currently running two different campaigns - both in homebrew settings - so it may be awhile! BTW - I loved your Wild Sheep Chase video and pulled it out for our group when we were missing some players and I could tell we just needed a fun one-shot to break up the intensity of the campaign - we all had a blast :-D Thank you for the content you are creating for the community!
Took a page of notes on your first video. Thank you so much for putting these on! Currently searching/scamming/conning/threatening players to run this. I’ll post our journey here.
Running this tonight for the first time excited!
Mike! How'd the session go?
I was having problems with the hideout and your ideas are perfect! My players will absolutely love them!
The puzzle box is a macguffin I added into the campaign as an excuse to introduce the villain early. This video is the second video in the series - I think I talk about the puzzlebox in the first video.
@@heyitsMattyP ahh, yeah i listened a little more and realized that! This is my first time DM’ing and I just thought I missed some big thing! I am really enjoying your videos though!!
Thank you, this gives me hope and some confidence for this first session
Excellent! Hope it's gone well for ya :)
Absolutely love the little epilogue scenes idea, such great flavour
Honestly how do you not have more followers. This is so helpful
I wish I had actually understood how to dm when I dmed this, I accidentally ended up teleporting my characters all over the place
I messed up my first time too! Complete train wreck... But it felt really good to go back and run it again years later and knock it out of the park
teleported? how?
Thanks for this I'm running this campaign and you are really helping me create a better picture. I've been running games since 3E and this is my first premade.
The first time I ran the Klarg encounter I had a small trap created. The fire pit is built on a metal shield that covers a hole in the ground large enough for Klarg to crawl in from a vantage point away from the door. If he is warned he will climb under the fire pit and wait for the party to walk close enough and get a surprise round where he explodes out from under the pit wielding the red hot shield showering the room with embers, and utilizing his bugbear sneak attack damage ability.
This series is great, some awesome ideas. Really appreciate the effort!
Keep *CLAP* it *CLAP* UP! *CLAP* I started running this campaign this week with one group and will be using your videos for another group. It'll be a fun experiment.
Yessss! Please do - you're my favourite scientist :)
Thanks, great approach to structuring the material and nice humor! ⚔️
Thank you :)
Great video series! Your little jokes about the players and the game show-esque music with "What's the point of ?" got a laugh out of me.
More importantly, these are super helpful for a new DM like me. Thank you!!
You got me hooked at the end with your cut away. Now I definitely want to play in your game
Wish me luck. Going to DM this adventure in less than 3 hours. First time Dm here :). Your serie about lmop is fantastic
Glad to help! How did it go?
@@heyitsMattyP iIt went perfect. Played the whole weekend. And the players (two first time players) where super exited and cant wait to play again. Thank you so much again. :)
In 2 day, I start LMoP for a group of 4 new players (bard, fighter, rogue, ranger) + 1 experienced player (warlock). I've played it and run it before. I'm onboard for your tweaks and I'll let you know how it goes. I should probably watch the rest of the series first.
We played The Delian Tomb last week as their first one-shot. They loved it. I let them level up to 2 and gave some fun magic loot. They should be able to get past the first encounter alive.
Ran the session today with 3 new players and 2 experienced players. It went very well. Before the session, I asked all the PCs to think about their relationship with Gundren. Got some great stuff. The cut scene with the doppelganger and the Black Spider looking for the box was a hit. They really enjoyed the chase with your suggested mechanics. They did some fun stuff with the dogs. The new bard had great moments with Sleep in the goblin den and Charm Person later with Klaarg. Many times they heard about how Klaarg was the biggest, baddest, toughest they'd ever seen. One of the experienced players went down after a wolf + Klaarg attack. Klaarg offered them a chance to leave. They refused and he whomped the unconscious player. A failed death save later, he was gone. The player will rejoin as a different character, but the new players learned to think tactically. All in all, a wonderful session. Thanks for the great advice.
One question - one PC defined her relationship to Gundren as having a secret crush on him. This fighter has a real romantic streak. How to have this play out? Gundren alive later?
For context, my party is new to dnd, and so am I, I'm a first time Dm. We're all freshemn in high-school. So my party decides to go to Cragmaw Cave after skipping it and going straight to Phandlin. They make their way brutally killing Yeemic and reach their way to the water holding area. The Druid decided to use mold earth to try and capture the goblins in that room. 1 of them is captured and the other two escape but are then killed by the claric and Rouge. After this they try to befriend the one that they did capture. They end up making friends with her and she is now the party wizzard. They then stormed clargs room with their goblin friend. I explane how clarg was smoking before I could explane further my party cut me off and in unison exclaimed that they wanted to smoke with him. I asked them to roll persuasion and they all rolled below the DC, but then the bard asks if their goblin friend can roll. I sad yes, and then watched in awe as the goblin friend rolled a Nat 20. They ended up smoking with him and hotboxing the whole cave.
I runned a one-shot named "Sacrifice of Innocence to my 7 PC where they had to rescue the kidnapped girl of a smith on their way to Phandalin. They fought some Cragmaw goblins but I didn't got the opportunity to make them appreciate more Gundren and Sildar so I'm afraid rescuing them won't be their priority.
Anyway thanks for your advices !
Good luck!
Great advice. Really loving this series great tips!
Funny story. My group when finding the wolf den tried and succeeded in taming the beasts. Though, in order to try and disguise herself our Rogue halfway disguised as a goblin at this point with the entryway goblins clothes. Who by the way would not fool anyone unbeknownst to her because she failed her disguise roll. I told her she's kind of got a fake goblin ear hanging off. Decided that in order to complete her goblin outfit she would smear the wolf's poop all over her face and body. When I quit laughing I was like well YEP, that should work. I gave her advantage on fooling the other goblins for the rest of the cave XD needless to say, there were a lot of surprise assassinations going down.
Cheers mate! The series has been a lot of work but it's really galvanised the channel and helped find a bit of focus content-wise.
Love the story too :) I'd go advantage on stealth, disadvantage on anything to do with Charisma haha