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Bob that's a really good idea about phandolin bring so close. I'm running Lost Mines of Phandelver right now for a group of new players. If I send them to Stormwreck after, do you think that the monster manual young blue dragon would still be a challenge at 7th lvl?
My best general advice for DM's is simple: Don't get married to anything you planned. I see a lot of DM's get frustruated when their players decide to ignore a key NPC, or walk right past the obvious clues pointing to your hidden treasure room, but no worries! This isn't a video game where that room is stuck behind that door forever. If your players don't see it, or don't interact with it, it wasn't actually there. Now you can put that same planned-out room, or encounter, or social interaction somewhere else. Did your NPC get killed by the splash damage from a Fireball before he could tell his tragic backstory? Now his story is tragically dying in a fireball accident, and the story you had set up for him belongs to a new NPC you can introduce next time the players are in town. Don't get frustrated when players break your world. Just save your plans for later, and maybe think through the consequences that your players NEVER do. I find they always appreciate that kind of a "comeuppance" moment.
Agreed, in my current campaign, some of the best plot left turns have come from players just doing whatever they want (within rules of course) and just rolling with it. The campaign is now infinitely more epic than it originally would’ve been.
Yall. My party did the shipwreck, found the journal and triggered the harpy. Once they made their way to the top, they somehow had talked themselves into believing the harpy was the woman in the journal whose husband was at the sanctuary. So they didn't kill her, but instead TURNED ON THE PALADIN who assumed the harpy was creating zombies and DID try to kill her. The harpy KO'd the paladin and the rest of the party let him bleed out while they tried to convince her to return to her "husband" at the sanctuary. They failed the persuasion checks and I played it as the harpy was too ashamed of who she became and what she looked like now to return and fled the shipwreck. So I had to turn the whole encounter on its head because in my opinion, that was a dope story. And this was my first time being a DM. Dnd is fun yall. Only panicked the entire time.
Very similarly, my first time DMing (or playing at all) I played with my kids, and right out of the gate they were arriving by ship to that little bay at the beginning and they decided to mutiny the ship’s captain and try to take over the shop. It was inventive so I went with it. I got them “back on track eventually by they getting knocked out cold and thrown in the brig only to wake up in the healers house on the top of the cliff, but along the way they accidentally made another dead zombie sailor that came back to get them later! Best part about playing with your kids is it’s basically stress free. It’s basically impossible to be embarrassed about DMing mistakes in front of your own kids 😊
Best DM tip: listen to your players. There is more to elaborate, but just start by listening to the things they are saying or aren’t saying and you’ll learn a lot about how to DM by responding to what they’re saying.
My best advice: Open with a session Zero where after character creation all your players are getting onboard the ship taking them to stormwreck isle introduce a captain who can possibly help during the first zombie encounter and will be a liason between the island inhabitants and the party. At this point each player can think of why they're going to the island and can either take from the pre-made Character sheets or make up their own backstory.... But either way end the first session/session zero right before they reach the island. That way session 1 will jump right into the story, and you won't have any of those weird bored questions of "why are we here, and what are we doing?"....
Agreed…I had my characters begin in a tavern called The Lighthouse Lounge where they lost in a drinking contest to some sailors who ferried them to Stormwreck Isle the next day. And that boat ride is when they shared backstories, etc. Worked out v. well.
I did this with a 3rd party module. Ran a session zero where they got run out of town but the rogue had stolen a deed to a house in the town the adventure starts in. So they decided to go there to hang out. If the rogue hadn't of come across the deed the bard was going to when it in a card game.
My big DM tip that I wish I knew starting out: Establish the villain immediately and make the villain do villainous things. It makes the campaign so much more engaging and satisfying at the end to have the players actually interact with the villain often and see the horrible things they do in-person. The players won’t feel compelled to defeat the “big mean man who is really mean and brings meanness to the realm” that they have heard about one time and never seen what they do.
General GM advice that I'd like to share is: Read the entire adventure, and become familiar with every chapter. A lot of adventures don't tell the players where to go next, and no one will be able to 100% predict where they go. Having a general idea of where the players might go will save you a LOT of headache.
Always. Read the entire adventure first. Get ideas from that. Then reread what you're going to run in that session. Adapt to changes that your players make! And it WILL happen. And that's ok.
I ran this as a one-shot (we play over a whole weekend) where my party was some money hungry gremlins they grabbed every piece of gold they could, they gutted the dragon and even took the golden astrology thing. They bought a pirate ship and are now are randomly teleported to a different planet for my next campaign.
No need to "magically teleport" them though. You just need to make a whole new island/continent for the new quest and give them a means of discovering it...by doing this instead of "teleporting" them, the characters can better feel the size of the world which increases their appreciation of it, since even though these new events are across the ocean, they can still be tied in to the events and lore of what happened in Stormwreck Isle, because they had to physically traverse from one adventure to the next.
Best advice: let the players talk and plan and role play as much as they like in Phandalin. If they're having fun at home base, trying to force them into a dungeon or to fight orcs before they're ready to leave is spoiling their fun. I had fun with my group when they first explored the town and I told them there was a basic shrine of tymora. Im not even kidding when they were telling me they were making rocks glow, doing backflips and playing lutes like Van Halen trying to gain some sort of attention of Tymora herself. It was hilarious. I gave them two bunnies come from the forest to give them a round of a-paws while standing on their hind legs and the hint of something extremely magical lured by their efforts (if someone rolled a 20 on perception, they'd have glimpsed a unicorn) but they all got goosebumps together. It was a special moment.
My first DM was amazing at the ad-hoc style stuff... I was about 12 years old, had never played, and it was AD&D. I'd always come up with the most stupid ideas, but he'd always find a way to keep me happy but within the spirit of the rules... Looking back, it must have been hard work, but I think he found it fun to try and accommodate my weird prepubescent requests while sticking to the intention of the rules, so everyone was happy. A good DM really does make the game just work.
In the Seagrow caves, leave some barnacle encrusted zombie parts around the Plant Octopus and Violet fungi to explain they both why those defenses were added by the myconids, and why they are now so terrified they will be attacked (by more zombies). Another tip I got from enworld forum: A good motivation for the players would be for one of the residents to the deathly ill with an illness that only the ruby morel in the Seagrove caves can cure. Probably Varnath. Then when Varnath is cured she can recount the story of the ship lured onto the rocks.
Just a tip to buff little blue. Use max Hit points instead of an average for him. 80 hp isn`t to much, but is definitely more appropriate for a final battle.
@@BobWorldBuilder I do that all the time FYI, sometimes I'll even just add a full 50% from the base HP on the stat block. Anytime I run a creature who is supposed to be important I make sure their HP is buffed a bit if it isn't a custom stat block, and even then if it's just an additional or tweaked ability I'll also buff their HP. PC's just hit really hard in 5e.
My players loved this gem of a DM hack: when players level up, I set up the first encounter as a 'rematch' against monsters they fought at their previous level. I would often add a few more to make it a 2 round fight. Typically, the players get a clear sense of how much more powerful their characters are now after mopping the floor with baddies that they had some trouble with before. This also works when players get cool new magical weapons. Letting the players experience the 'same' fight with more powerful versions of their characters resulted in much more engagement and planning for future levelling. My players snapped at every adventure hook. If feeling powerful isn't motivation for your players, the rematch scenario adds a bit of immersion and world-building: why would the characters levelling up magically make all the enemies in the area stronger? Thanks, Bob! Appreciate your work.
Oh no! A Bob World Builder video I cannot watch! My youngest daughter is considering the possibility of running this as her first foray into DMing. I will definitely pass it on to her should she choose to give it a go. So glad that you made this video!
I think my best advice is *"Be ready to improvise"* because things don't always go as planned; a solution you thought of, may be less favourable than the solution all your players, combined, came up with! Things won't go your plan quite often, so be ready to improvise! You can even find UA-cam videos on how to improvise better, D&D, or acting or otherwise! Although that's being said a lot, and my second-best tip is something I don't see often; *everyone has fun differently!* Some players love to get into your world and would ask you a lot about it! Others love to get nitty-gritty into combat, to the point of min-maxing, and they love it! Again, others enjoy vibing with friends around a D&D table. They might seem passive, not enjoying it, but they really do! The same goes for you; you're _playing_ as a DM, after all! Anyway, if you see other players "not having fun", you can ask them if they are! They might just be having fun differently than you would!
I’m starting this set with a couple of friends and we’re all new to DnD. So as a person new to not only DMing but DnD altogether- Thank You for this frankly ✨amazing✨ walkthrough!
The advice I give to any new DM/GM is to remember you are merely the rules guru at the table. Any expectations or desires you have for your campaign and/or story will inevitably go awry. You are COLLECTIVELY telling a story with the PCs and their pilots; don't put your desires first. Remember everyone at the table wants to have fun, and it's no fun for anyone else if you're forcing a story to happen the way you want.
Hello Bob! I am in this game since 2002 (3rd edition) and a DM since 2003. I just want to express my thoughts of your work. You are a treasure to D&D community. Thank you for your great work on analyzing the starter sets of 5th edition, which for me, a 35 y.o. software engineer with limited time, is a huge life saver on how to avoid mistakes and setbacks. If you ever travel to Greece, I would love to meet you in person. I wish you best of luck and keep building ;)
Have not played DnD since the 90s but my 13 year old son and his friend wanted to give it a go so mum gets to be DM for the first time ever! Its all a bit daunting but your video really helps thanks :)
Bob you never disappoint! Wonderfully said! It amazes me how many DMs still don't understand that PLANS NEVER WORK. Think about it: the players have no plan at all. They are making it up as they go. So as a DM one must naturally be able and willing to make shit up along with the players
I played this with a random group IRL and we did a similar thing with the obsidian egg. I played the Dwarf Cleric and the DM allowed me to use my stone cutting knowledge to chisel it away...and we then proceeded to carry it around and not use it
I ran this for my sons in October. They’re experienced players, but one is in the military so we can only play face-to-face when he’s on leave. The Starter Set gave us the opportunity to play a complete adventure in a condensed timeline. I used homebrewed zombies and updated pack tactics for the bad kobolds. I punched up the number of zombie encounters a little bit, added a few hooks to get the party interested in the possibility of a red dragon living under the island and Sparkrender’s ritual. We had a lot of fun and decided to chain it into a combined LMoP and Icespire Peak adventure, which will introduce the party to the Dragon Cult, and Tyranny of Dragons, modded to bring the characters back to Stormwreck Isle and the red dragon lying dormant beneath it.
Thanks, Bob. Grace too! I'm currently running this for a volunteer program (That I started) at our local library. I think it's really important to support your community, in particular, underserved kids. I'm not made of money, but the time that I can do. These kids make it so worth it too. Hence me being up at 5am to write encounters. This group is between 11-14 yrs. 3 players are completely new to TTRPGs. It's been an interesting group to balance, but man is it fun!
Thanks Bob! I plan to run this as my first job as a DM (that wasn’t a one-shot) and lead it into the extended Dragon of Icespire Peak. My brother and new stepdad will love it.
@@michaelthomas1916 I watched most of it both the breakdown and the playtest. I’m going to run it slightly differently since they’ll be level 3 when reaching Phandalin. Planning on starting that section with the lighthouse since they have to cross the sea to make it back to the main land and it ties nicely into the overarching theme more. I know to have some backups prepared since my brother rarely does the obvious thing lol We’re having our session zero after the new year.
How do you get your brand new group, and their brand new characters, to even go to Stormwreck Isle (assuming you let the players roll characters and not use the pre-generated ones)? Use a McGuffin. Part of the story revolves around a comet that is going to be prominent in the sky very soon. To that end, scholars in Neverwinter have gathered funds to build a new telescope on the site of the observatory. The ship sails tomorrow, to transport the remaining pieces, most importantly, a newly designed focusing lens, that will make the telescope far more powerful than the old one. The characters are gathered in The Purple Worm, an inn and tavern near the docks, each there of their own accord. As they finish their meals, separately, a commotion is heard outside, along with cries for help. Most of the people in the tavern are dockworkers and ships crew, not adventurers. A fat balding man is in the street, wringing his hands, and calling for assistance. He sees the obvious adventurers in the gathering crowd, and presses them into service, with the promise of a sizeable purse of gold coins. Kobolds have stolen the lens, and ran into the abandoned warehouse across the street. It's up to the players to work together, defeat the enemy, and recover the lens, and safely return it to the man. Once safely recovered, he gladly pays them in his office nearby, and asks them if they would like to make more money, in exchange for escorting the final telescope pieces to the island, and up to the observatory. That's what I'll be doing this Friday, and then running most of the rest of the printed adventure slightly out of order. I'll be introducing three options for them to pursue, and flesh out my campaign for the next stage when they decide. I'm definitely looking at a Hollow World setting, though modified to not be like the printed box set. Another hook will involve an NPC from a far away land, whose ship was blown far off course, and he is the lone survivor, brought back to health under the care of Ruana. The players will have the opportunity to secure a ship, and try to find a way to return him to his homeland. The last possible hook will involve the dwarf ruins on the other side of the mountains from Phandalin. Though I MAY use that as a means to get the players into the Hollow World scenario, I haven't decided.
Also, was surprised the set didn’t allow the kobolds / Tarak or Varnoth to become sidekicks for a smaller PC group. Way easier than “give the PCs another character to run.” Also connects them to the island as a guide. My 2 PCs (Rogue & Wizard) loved Tarak, who I made a half-orc, and wanted to know what his deal was.
I am seriously thinking about making them accompany the players to each main quest location, as in Tarak for the caves and Varnoth for the shipwrecks. My players are like.. 2. So I feel like adding a third member to their party will be a good idea
@Hero-qg9ch not a bad idea, just try to make sure the npc doesn't outshine the player characters. I've got a "expert" sidekick running with my party through Lost min3 of phandelver and Dragon of Icespire because they only number 3.
Some good advice for running a module. Read the whole book once, or at least the story bits. This tells you about your key characters, their motivations, and what happens to them throughout it. Then, once you are actually preparing to run it, only re-read the parts you will probably get to in the next session. Don't get bogged down by the massive mountain ahead of you, but do remember your landmarks.
Awesome video. I really want to introduce D&D to some people and this is convinced me that the DOSI set might be the way to go. A simple, contained story!
I have visions of a group of PCs who starts this, sees kobolds, wants to kill the kobolds at the sanctuary and Runara comes in and kills the party. Adventure is over guys.
We got this from Wizards for review and my son (13) began his first foray into DMing using it. It's been great! My 1st level wizard only died once (so far). :)
Keep it up! I keep praying for the power & internet to go out, because it causes automatic D&D time. This video is a great tutorial or refresher about what makes a good adventure.
Just ran the first encounter and did the mushroom fantasia quest with my 11 year old. He had a blast. I like these starter adventures because I make some really over powered characters for me and him and add a few magical items so that we can co-op these quests. Of course i do take some combat encounters out and as long as my kiddo is having fun, i did good! This really helped me as the DM because i can skim the chapter now and know what i can do and cut out. Thank you!
I was DM'ing this for just one person, and instead of using one of the premade characters, I let her choose a Kobold to take with her everytime she went out on one of the main quests. (spoilers btw) This was dependent on how she treated the NPC's, so I incorporated little challenges for her to boost friendship. For example: -You saved Blepp's life by defeating those zombies. He wants to go with you. -Mumpo and Zark are sparring when you find them. If you can beat one of them in an arm wrestling match, you'll get a cool pebble(if the PC loses, they earn these kobold's favor anyway, because they had a fun time). -Funding Myla's shop -Helping Myla and Laylee with some tinkering -Helping any one Kobold(except Blepp with the zombies) gets Agga on your side. -Anything else you'd like to try Btw, only one kobold at a time accompanying the party. Can't have a game-breaking army, can we?
I am doing something slighting different when combining this to the Lost Mines of Phandelver and Icespire Peak. I have my players start with Stormwreck Isle with the characters provided, but told them this is because Stormwreck Isle is the prologue of the story. After Stormwreck, they experienced how to pay the game, learned about the rules, and understood better what they like and dislike. At that point, they create their own character, and we start with Lost Mines of Phandelver, slowly worked towards Icespire Peak, with the Stormwreck characters reappearing as NPCs. I get a lot of excitement from these familiar faces reappearing throughout the story. Sometimes I intertwine the Stormwreck character's goal with things happening in Phandelver and Icespire Peak, and my players would go, "So that's why Runara was saying this back then!" or "I knew this character was behind the incident at Stormwreck Isle!" Connecting all three campaigns this way is very fun.
I just ran across this video, but it's a great walkthrough of the next module I plan to run. Overall DM advice (when thinking of the Sparkrender encounter, but applicable to any encounter you want to have weight), goes back to an old Matt Collville line, "Encounter design doesn't stop because everyone rolled initiative." If you've got a trivial to medium (or even hard) encounter just in the middle of an adventuring day and the party crushes it with good tactics or just because they had a good character build with nice dice rolls... good for them. Let them feel awesome. Enjoy it with them. If you have a climatic battle and your PCs pull out all the stops and your BBEG is going down too fast, give them extra HP. (You won't screw with the balance by overpowering the hits on your players, but you can make it last longer and have them prock a few more abilities to make things seem more dire.) Is it cheap? Absolutely. Will your players know? Normally not. Especially if you're using specific baddies to the campaign or homebrew stuff, where they can't know the statblock without metagaming. And if someone is metagaming for your specific campaign and gets upset that you're adjusting the climatic battles to give them more weight, then as a DM, I would question whether I want to play with that person. We'd definitely be having a conversation about it.
i love the suggestions here. i was planning on running a short campaign arc AFTER DOIP and im planning to bump up the challenges within. Im glad that theres plenty of hooks that could still work for higher levels of play (looking at potentially fleshing out the story of The Compass Rose and its passengers’ connection to Orcus, exploring how the Isle would look like if the fire crystals grew unchecked, and a what-if scenario where Sparkrender was in league with bigger threats.
My party set out for the Seagrow caves while I forgot to give them both the sack of scraps AND the potions. They absolutely slaughtered their way through towards the Larder, then went back into the first room for a long rest because the session ended. I decided to each send them an individual text describing a dark dream they had while resting, in which they get the feeling they are not wanted here, but also that there is another feeling in them that does give them the idea their help is needed. This being influenced by the spores of the Myconids, lingering in the heavy sulfuric gasses. The combination of both made that they get the sense there is something wrong ánd something to be done about it. They then are woken up by footsteps entering the cave. Tarak ran after them to give them the sack of scraps and the potions in case of need. But as he found out they are doing mighty fine on their own, he ventures back to Dragon's Rest, mumbling about something Varnoth found on the northern cliffs of the island. First time being a DM and it's both nerve wrecking and enticing how much freedom you can take in these chapters.
Thanks for the spore octopus tip, I ran this for the first time tonight. I think the regular spore octopus would have slaughtered one of my players before dying in a turn or two, but your modified spore octopus was able to slap them around lightly 7 times before they finally put it down. One of the players landed a crit so I decided that he chopped off one of the tentacles, thus reducing the attacks per round to 3. The martial characters got to fight out of the tentacles' grasp and the wizard got clever with his ice and lightning based cantrips. I actually let the octopus attempt to grapple multiple times without a recharge because the fight was so weighted in the players' advantage, but it failed all the grapple attempts so no harm done. In the end I probably made the fight a bit too easy but everyone had fun and we were running late anyway.
So glad to see the DM guides back !! Not a fan of this aventure, but I'm preping dragon of Icespire Peak and your playlist is great to have an overview and refresh my memory about the next aventure !
Especially with new players, I will sometimes walk back their narrated action if it doesn't fit the dice, just like your example. Zombies are my excuse to let my "yes and/but" out. Narrate successful removal of about anything but the head, and it inexorably continues unphased. "I cut the zombie's legs off"...rolls a 3. "Yes, you cut it's legs off. It continues to Lt. Dan it's way after you"
General GM advice: You are there to have fun as well, do not tolerate people that try to rob you of that. Be polite, be fair, be firm. Having bad players is not a reflection on you as a DM, it is a reflection on them on being bad players. Have a session 0 to set expectations in both directions. What you expect the players to play and act like, and tease out of them what they expect you to do as well.
My group just started this, they were shipwrecked, though not by the harpy, as a starter before continuing to neverwinter for the Phandelver and below Shattered Obelisk. Since Icespire Peak is more sandbox I am using it to fill in quests so that the total campaign will allow my players to reach lvl 20. If Sparkrender escapes, I plan to use him again in the Tower of Storms quest. So far, my players are enjoying the interruption to their planned merc work. The funniest thing thus far though was on the beach. Paladin tried to force a zombie prone, got a 1 and ended up prone himself. Zombie flops on him and succeeded in it's attack, next turn, tries to push the zombie off, another 1! He had 2 hp left after the 1st encounter! The other players were untouched. Haha
Baldur's Gate 3 got me into D&D again, upgraded from 3.5e to 5e. I wanted to try being a DM for the first time since 9th grade so I bought the core rulebooks, and two modules - Descent into Avernus and this D&D Starter Set. I really want to run Descent into Avernus but it's a bit long and there's a lot of stuff in it so it's a bit daunting, so I wanted a smaller one to run first to practice with some friends and I settled on this cause it looked fun and inexpensive. Still, being a DM can be daunting since you have to bring to life the world the characters interact with, and so after I read the Stormwreck Isle booklet, I wanted more info and tips on how to potentially run it and I found your video. In a word - amazing. Thank you for the helpful and friendly advice and going so in depth into the module even though its a starter one. You've made me a lot less nervous and even more excited to run this for myself. Thank you.
Do I run DnD? No, I run MotW. Do I run modules/pre made mysteries? No, I prefer making my own adventures. Am I a new GM? No, I’ve been running a campaign for two years. Am I still gonna watch this entire video? Yes, yes I am.
Big change I made when running it was to play up the comet and have Sparkrender perform the ritual in d4 days when it got closest. I then had the five different dragon death locations show signs that a taloned creature had defiled it x months ago and that pieces of bone were missing from the remains. That way Sparkrender was foreshadowed way before the Observatory chapter, and made the ritual have cool components. One other change I loved was to have one of the Myconids Tarak’s dead lover transformed into a spore servant when he first came to Dragons Rest but couldn’t save her. That added a layer to why he was so desperate to return to the caves.
I'm half way through DM'ing this for my family. We're all new to D&D (I bought this box plus the essentials kit) and this video has helped me a lot. We've played through the start and the caves (where I had the myconids only communicate by feeling to make the roleplay interesting for the party) and we're doing the compass rose tomorrow.
One homerule that me and my friend has adopted to increase survivability in the early levels and just to make everyone a little bit more beefy and adventury is to give full Hit dices for the first three leves.
I had the sailors crash onto an islet 30 feet from the dock in the beginning after they unloaded the PCs on the dock. I read the bluetext that said there was a rowboat tied to the dock. I put the 3 zombies on the islet and let them figure out how to get to the npcs and save them. It was arduous, sure, but it taught them how to play and solve problems as regards movement and combat. After pure insanity and the heat death of one of the sailors, they managed to kill the zombies. They managed to affix a rope to a harpoon and succeeded on a check to throw it to the sand on the islet, allowing them to hold the rope as they crossed the channel. An hour of hilarity ensued. Thats a long time, but they were learning the game. And the most important lesson they learned? When the DM describes something, pay attention and even take notes. They forgot that the rowboat was tied to the dock lmao. After that session I read on and discovered that there's a scenario that has them rescuing 2 sailors, i think in chapter 3? I had no idea! So I'm just gonna omit that when they hit that chapter haha. Had the surviving sailor give them a potion and 1gp each. The module as written is only a guideline for you to expand upon, and it even says so. I think its great in that regard. I ran lmop years ago and while that was good, i think this set is better for new players and dms.
Thanks for the guide, I planned on introducing this as part of a campaign I’m running that it a combo of Dragon of Icespire Peak and Rise of Tiamat. Stormwreck Isle is a great place for a blue dragon cult!
This is going to be my first time as a DM and first time playing dnd in general. A bunch of my friends and I have been dying to play but had no DM. This video helped me feel a lot more prepared.
When I run campaigns (homebrew, one shot, or modules) I like to put my players in scenarios that make them think and come up with creative solutions to the problem. If a player wants to do something and they can explain it in a way that makes sense to who there character is and how that character would act, then that character can absolutely attempt that thing. I never want to tell my players "No you can't do that." I want them to be able to attempt anything and if they can make it make sense, then they're allowed to try it. Try not to call out players if they ask to do something that would be meta gaming(things the player knows but the character doesn't). Rather, press questions that make so the PC has to come up with an explanation or reasoning as to why the character would have that knowledge. Being a DM is rewarding and challenging but with the right group and a solid adventure, some great memories are waiting to be made. PS. One of my favorite moments is when my players were raiding a cult compound and a player asked me if the locked door had visible hinges on the inside or outside of the door. I said outside (facing them), the player asked if it was possible to remove the bolts from the hinges (with a Dex check they did.) This lead to him (a halfing) making an Acrobatics check to ride the door down a set of stairs like a surfboard into some cultist. He succeeded and this one of the flashiest DM moments was born.
For the violet fungus room, I increased each one's HP to 25 and increased the AC to 10 (to make them more annoying to deal with) and had one creep twards a wayward sprout in the room, one of the players passed their perception check, and stepped in between the sprout and the fungus, after the fight the myconids, attitude changed.
finished DoSI last week... had to tweak it too. had same questions as you.. purple fungi attack? nope dragon asleep? nope made blue dragon a hybrid between wyrmling and young adult with AC and HP. left dragon breath and physical attacks as wyrmling. also my players created characters so by lvl 3 very powerful so I added a dragonborne cleric npc to throw out bane and spiritual weapon on final fight. didn't have kobold fight either. I found adventure fun and a good starter for testing new players to know each other. going to take their characters to Decent into Avernus next.
My advice (and I am still rather new) is to ask your players at the end of session what they plan on doing next session. Especially if you are running a more open sand box type of game. Helps you prep what they want to do.
Great video! As a new DM I have a couple of questions I hope someone can advise on. 1) How much of the background story should I tell the players and when? Right now they have no idea what happened and why things are the way they are. 2) What are your views on whether to use theatre of the mind vs hand made maps for a starter set? My players are all new but are used to playing things like Heroquest on a detailed board with miniatures. Thanks for any info / advice!
When I run stormwreck, I have the characters roll for their kobold, then have that kobold guide them to the ship/cave. Sometimes the kobold fights alongside the players. Sometimes the players throw their kobold to the octopus. It`s great.
I just started to run this module for a few friends, two being long time dms from 3.5 and 5e. Your example is so similar to how our combat started, it is almost scary. Thank you for this guide. I have only ever ran homebrew, and this was more intimidating than I thought it was (even for a beginner module). I am still very new to being a dm. Love your vids.
Loved your guides since Dragon Of Icespire Peak DM Guides, it was such a great source of entertainment for my partner and I, during the quarantine. I really appreciate your effort put into these videos and love your format, it's so welcoming and easy to understand. I was wondering if you have or know an all-in-one beginner player video as I would love to share that with my friends that are potentially interested in playing :) Thank you again, Bob! Love your content!
I loved the seacave part because one of my players was convinced that the myconids could give his character top class hallucinogenic and ended up helping them and then having a party to get high together. Apparently he found enlightenment towards Bahamut 😂
I’ve always wanted to play d and d but never had anyone to play it with except my friends and none of them know how to play so I know a little but not a lot so I’m the only one to be the dm so I needed something simple to start with and this is perfect 👍
I have friends coming over tonight and yes I did think I could watch this video and play the game! lol Fine, I shall read the books and play another time.
About to start my journey into DND's campaigns for the first time and got this campaign recommended online. I'll be (trying) to be the DM while 3 friends will be the players/characters. This video got me really excited to read into this campaign and i wanna thank you for taking the time to make this! I'm still not sure if this will be something for me but im intrigued by the community and concept of the game. Got the idea to start learning this game due to 2 dutch streamers called Lekker Spelen ('tasty playing' litteraly translated). They play the game (and every other game) in a very non-serious way and their layedback approach to the game got me interested. We'll see where my journey ends (or never ends)
I just had a cool thought in linking this to DoIP. This is assuming that the PCs take a ship to the mainland sword coast after the adventure ends. Easy easy..the ship crashes on the rocks beside the Tower of Storms lighthouse. The DM can run that encounter (it's lvl 3), plant a injured/stranded sailor to rescue somewhere towards the end of it or earlier on if the party needs a little help figuring out what's going on since that adventure is designed o start from the land side with the banshee. After the encounters, the sailor can ask the party to help them get safely to Phandalin. Boom! DoIP started.
Thank you for the super helpful video! As a new dm I appreciate your easy going attitude towards everything; makes me feel less worried about running my first session :)
Does Bob have a video that goes through the starter set rule book as detailed and informative as this premade adventure? As a new DM, trying to remember all these terms, rules (and sometimes expansion to a particular rule), DC's, AC's... after I read about 6 pages I've just got a jumble of information all swimming around in my brain. This very patient, concise and straightforward explanation makes this so much better on a magnitude that is hard to even explain!
Things I wish the book told me as a new DM: Have a mini Session 0 for new players to discuss personal goals. This is ESPECIALLY important if you're using the pre-made characters, because as written they have no reason to be working together except "we came here on the same boat". In addition, some personal quests are more directly tied in than others, which confused my players. While the Cleric gets pointed directly towards the zombies, and the Rogue has a very straightforward goal, the personal quests for the Fighter and Paladin are completely nebulous. My group didn't have any gamers in it and weren't super familiar with the idea of an "RPG", so giving the fighter and paladin a direct quest with the only tie in being an old lady going "hmmm what do *you* think your problem means?" did not work. Of course, all of this can be fixed by good DMing, but I'm playing the Starter Set: I'm not a good DM (yet). So future DMs, plan ahead! Also, the Zombie encounter relies HEAVILY on DM narration if you want to hook your players. This is the first minute of D&D they'll ever play, and as written it will quickly devolve into standing in the same spot hitting each other until someone dies. They're on a beach so there's no cover or objects to interact with, the Zombies are brainless and can't talk, and your players are new and don't know anything about radiant damage - it is a BORING encounter unless you and your players narrate.
My best general tip is have fun ! Don’t overthink or over prep. Also depending on party size have the PC’s start off with level 2 HP. That way they are a little tougher than average.
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Bob that's a really good idea about phandolin bring so close. I'm running Lost Mines of Phandelver right now for a group of new players. If I send them to Stormwreck after, do you think that the monster manual young blue dragon would still be a challenge at 7th lvl?
My best general advice for DM's is simple: Don't get married to anything you planned. I see a lot of DM's get frustruated when their players decide to ignore a key NPC, or walk right past the obvious clues pointing to your hidden treasure room, but no worries! This isn't a video game where that room is stuck behind that door forever. If your players don't see it, or don't interact with it, it wasn't actually there. Now you can put that same planned-out room, or encounter, or social interaction somewhere else. Did your NPC get killed by the splash damage from a Fireball before he could tell his tragic backstory? Now his story is tragically dying in a fireball accident, and the story you had set up for him belongs to a new NPC you can introduce next time the players are in town. Don't get frustrated when players break your world. Just save your plans for later, and maybe think through the consequences that your players NEVER do. I find they always appreciate that kind of a "comeuppance" moment.
This is a key piece of advice! Well said
great advice/reminder.
So true
I agree!
Agreed, in my current campaign, some of the best plot left turns have come from players just doing whatever they want (within rules of course) and just rolling with it. The campaign is now infinitely more epic than it originally would’ve been.
Yall. My party did the shipwreck, found the journal and triggered the harpy. Once they made their way to the top, they somehow had talked themselves into believing the harpy was the woman in the journal whose husband was at the sanctuary. So they didn't kill her, but instead TURNED ON THE PALADIN who assumed the harpy was creating zombies and DID try to kill her. The harpy KO'd the paladin and the rest of the party let him bleed out while they tried to convince her to return to her "husband" at the sanctuary. They failed the persuasion checks and I played it as the harpy was too ashamed of who she became and what she looked like now to return and fled the shipwreck.
So I had to turn the whole encounter on its head because in my opinion, that was a dope story. And this was my first time being a DM.
Dnd is fun yall. Only panicked the entire time.
Hahah sounds like you handled it very well!! That’s epic!
Very similarly, my first time DMing (or playing at all) I played with my kids, and right out of the gate they were arriving by ship to that little bay at the beginning and they decided to mutiny the ship’s captain and try to take over the shop. It was inventive so I went with it. I got them “back on track eventually by they getting knocked out cold and thrown in the brig only to wake up in the healers house on the top of the cliff, but along the way they accidentally made another dead zombie sailor that came back to get them later!
Best part about playing with your kids is it’s basically stress free. It’s basically impossible to be embarrassed about DMing mistakes in front of your own kids 😊
Best DM tip: listen to your players. There is more to elaborate, but just start by listening to the things they are saying or aren’t saying and you’ll learn a lot about how to DM by responding to what they’re saying.
Now that's a great tip! Thanks for sharing!
My best advice: Open with a session Zero where after character creation all your players are getting onboard the ship taking them to stormwreck isle introduce a captain who can possibly help during the first zombie encounter and will be a liason between the island inhabitants and the party. At this point each player can think of why they're going to the island and can either take from the pre-made Character sheets or make up their own backstory.... But either way end the first session/session zero right before they reach the island. That way session 1 will jump right into the story, and you won't have any of those weird bored questions of "why are we here, and what are we doing?"....
Great idea for really leading them into the RP!
Agreed…I had my characters begin in a tavern called The Lighthouse Lounge where they lost in a drinking contest to some sailors who ferried them to Stormwreck Isle the next day. And that boat ride is when they shared backstories, etc. Worked out v. well.
I did this with a 3rd party module. Ran a session zero where they got run out of town but the rogue had stolen a deed to a house in the town the adventure starts in. So they decided to go there to hang out. If the rogue hadn't of come across the deed the bard was going to when it in a card game.
First time dm , followed this advice, we cannot wait for session 1! Thank you 🙏
@@younggrasshopper3531 I'm so happy to have helped so many people! 💓
My big DM tip that I wish I knew starting out: Establish the villain immediately and make the villain do villainous things. It makes the campaign so much more engaging and satisfying at the end to have the players actually interact with the villain often and see the horrible things they do in-person. The players won’t feel compelled to defeat the “big mean man who is really mean and brings meanness to the realm” that they have heard about one time and never seen what they do.
This is a cool tip that definitely takes human behavior into account
@@carpefuego thank you pluhbruh. Thank you ballincat 43
General GM advice that I'd like to share is: Read the entire adventure, and become familiar with every chapter. A lot of adventures don't tell the players where to go next, and no one will be able to 100% predict where they go. Having a general idea of where the players might go will save you a LOT of headache.
True! Being at least a little familiar with the full story goes a long way to helping improv
Always. Read the entire adventure first. Get ideas from that. Then reread what you're going to run in that session. Adapt to changes that your players make! And it WILL happen. And that's ok.
Dm Tip: your doing good. you got this. as long as everyone is having a good time your doing great :)
Best tip!!
I ran this as a one-shot (we play over a whole weekend) where my party was some money hungry gremlins they grabbed every piece of gold they could, they gutted the dragon and even took the golden astrology thing. They bought a pirate ship and are now are randomly teleported to a different planet for my next campaign.
No need to "magically teleport" them though. You just need to make a whole new island/continent for the new quest and give them a means of discovering it...by doing this instead of "teleporting" them, the characters can better feel the size of the world which increases their appreciation of it, since even though these new events are across the ocean, they can still be tied in to the events and lore of what happened in Stormwreck Isle, because they had to physically traverse from one adventure to the next.
I love it!
Best advice: let the players talk and plan and role play as much as they like in Phandalin. If they're having fun at home base, trying to force them into a dungeon or to fight orcs before they're ready to leave is spoiling their fun. I had fun with my group when they first explored the town and I told them there was a basic shrine of tymora. Im not even kidding when they were telling me they were making rocks glow, doing backflips and playing lutes like Van Halen trying to gain some sort of attention of Tymora herself. It was hilarious. I gave them two bunnies come from the forest to give them a round of a-paws while standing on their hind legs and the hint of something extremely magical lured by their efforts (if someone rolled a 20 on perception, they'd have glimpsed a unicorn) but they all got goosebumps together. It was a special moment.
My first DM was amazing at the ad-hoc style stuff... I was about 12 years old, had never played, and it was AD&D. I'd always come up with the most stupid ideas, but he'd always find a way to keep me happy but within the spirit of the rules... Looking back, it must have been hard work, but I think he found it fun to try and accommodate my weird prepubescent requests while sticking to the intention of the rules, so everyone was happy. A good DM really does make the game just work.
After the sketch at 1:54, I'm jealous of the sheer romantic tension Bob has with _himself._
In the Seagrow caves, leave some barnacle encrusted zombie parts around the Plant Octopus and Violet fungi to explain they both why those defenses were added by the myconids, and why they are now so terrified they will be attacked (by more zombies).
Another tip I got from enworld forum: A good motivation for the players would be for one of the residents to the deathly ill with an illness that only the ruby morel in the Seagrove caves can cure. Probably Varnath. Then when Varnath is cured she can recount the story of the ship lured onto the rocks.
Just a tip to buff little blue. Use max Hit points instead of an average for him. 80 hp isn`t to much, but is definitely more appropriate for a final battle.
That’s an awesome and simple fix! Nice!
@@BobWorldBuilder I do that all the time FYI, sometimes I'll even just add a full 50% from the base HP on the stat block. Anytime I run a creature who is supposed to be important I make sure their HP is buffed a bit if it isn't a custom stat block, and even then if it's just an additional or tweaked ability I'll also buff their HP. PC's just hit really hard in 5e.
For henchman or normal encounters, I go with average hp + 25% unless it's getting late in the session. Lieutenants and bosses get at least Max + 25%.
@@orwin5445yeah, especially if initiative goes pc sided.
My players loved this gem of a DM hack: when players level up, I set up the first encounter as a 'rematch' against monsters they fought at their previous level. I would often add a few more to make it a 2 round fight. Typically, the players get a clear sense of how much more powerful their characters are now after mopping the floor with baddies that they had some trouble with before. This also works when players get cool new magical weapons. Letting the players experience the 'same' fight with more powerful versions of their characters resulted in much more engagement and planning for future levelling. My players snapped at every adventure hook. If feeling powerful isn't motivation for your players, the rematch scenario adds a bit of immersion and world-building: why would the characters levelling up magically make all the enemies in the area stronger? Thanks, Bob! Appreciate your work.
Oh no! A Bob World Builder video I cannot watch! My youngest daughter is considering the possibility of running this as her first foray into DMing. I will definitely pass it on to her should she choose to give it a go. So glad that you made this video!
That’s great!! Best of luck to her!
I think my best advice is *"Be ready to improvise"* because things don't always go as planned; a solution you thought of, may be less favourable than the solution all your players, combined, came up with! Things won't go your plan quite often, so be ready to improvise!
You can even find UA-cam videos on how to improvise better, D&D, or acting or otherwise!
Although that's being said a lot, and my second-best tip is something I don't see often; *everyone has fun differently!*
Some players love to get into your world and would ask you a lot about it!
Others love to get nitty-gritty into combat, to the point of min-maxing, and they love it!
Again, others enjoy vibing with friends around a D&D table. They might seem passive, not enjoying it, but they really do!
The same goes for you; you're _playing_ as a DM, after all!
Anyway, if you see other players "not having fun", you can ask them if they are! They might just be having fun differently than you would!
I’m starting this set with a couple of friends and we’re all new to DnD. So as a person new to not only DMing but DnD altogether- Thank You for this frankly ✨amazing✨ walkthrough!
The advice I give to any new DM/GM is to remember you are merely the rules guru at the table. Any expectations or desires you have for your campaign and/or story will inevitably go awry. You are COLLECTIVELY telling a story with the PCs and their pilots; don't put your desires first. Remember everyone at the table wants to have fun, and it's no fun for anyone else if you're forcing a story to happen the way you want.
Hello Bob!
I am in this game since 2002 (3rd edition) and a DM since 2003. I just want to express my thoughts of your work.
You are a treasure to D&D community.
Thank you for your great work on analyzing the starter sets of 5th edition, which for me, a 35 y.o. software engineer with limited time, is a huge life saver on how to avoid mistakes and setbacks.
If you ever travel to Greece, I would love to meet you in person.
I wish you best of luck and keep building ;)
Have not played DnD since the 90s but my 13 year old son and his friend wanted to give it a go so mum gets to be DM for the first time ever! Its all a bit daunting but your video really helps thanks :)
Bob you never disappoint! Wonderfully said! It amazes me how many DMs still don't understand that PLANS NEVER WORK. Think about it: the players have no plan at all. They are making it up as they go. So as a DM one must naturally be able and willing to make shit up along with the players
I played this with a random group IRL and we did a similar thing with the obsidian egg. I played the Dwarf Cleric and the DM allowed me to use my stone cutting knowledge to chisel it away...and we then proceeded to carry it around and not use it
Haha very nice!
I ran this for my sons in October. They’re experienced players, but one is in the military so we can only play face-to-face when he’s on leave. The Starter Set gave us the opportunity to play a complete adventure in a condensed timeline. I used homebrewed zombies and updated pack tactics for the bad kobolds. I punched up the number of zombie encounters a little bit, added a few hooks to get the party interested in the possibility of a red dragon living under the island and Sparkrender’s ritual. We had a lot of fun and decided to chain it into a combined LMoP and Icespire Peak adventure, which will introduce the party to the Dragon Cult, and Tyranny of Dragons, modded to bring the characters back to Stormwreck Isle and the red dragon lying dormant beneath it.
Thanks, Bob. Grace too! I'm currently running this for a volunteer program (That I started) at our local library. I think it's really important to support your community, in particular, underserved kids. I'm not made of money, but the time that I can do. These kids make it so worth it too. Hence me being up at 5am to write encounters. This group is between 11-14 yrs. 3 players are completely new to TTRPGs. It's been an interesting group to balance, but man is it fun!
That's amazing! I hope this video helps you cut down on the prep time! :)
Very cool!
Thanks Bob! I plan to run this as my first job as a DM (that wasn’t a one-shot) and lead it into the extended Dragon of Icespire Peak. My brother and new stepdad will love it.
Awesome! I hope you love running it and that they love playing it!
Ardith, Bob has a great series on running DoIP. It was a great help when I ran it for my group as my first time DMing a two years ago. Have fun!
@@michaelthomas1916 I watched most of it both the breakdown and the playtest. I’m going to run it slightly differently since they’ll be level 3 when reaching Phandalin. Planning on starting that section with the lighthouse since they have to cross the sea to make it back to the main land and it ties nicely into the overarching theme more. I know to have some backups prepared since my brother rarely does the obvious thing lol
We’re having our session zero after the new year.
@@Ardith50 great idea with using the lighthouse as a link between the two adventures.
Thank you Bob and Grace for all of your guides and videos.
Thank you for watching and commenting! :)
Posted an hour ago, and I bought the set yesterday. Good timing!
Haha awesome! Enjoy!
ahhh i literally finished running this yesterday. i wish this could've come out earlier...
Just find a few new players to run it for! lol Hope you had fun with it!
How do you get your brand new group, and their brand new characters, to even go to Stormwreck Isle (assuming you let the players roll characters and not use the pre-generated ones)?
Use a McGuffin. Part of the story revolves around a comet that is going to be prominent in the sky very soon. To that end, scholars in Neverwinter have gathered funds to build a new telescope on the site of the observatory. The ship sails tomorrow, to transport the remaining pieces, most importantly, a newly designed focusing lens, that will make the telescope far more powerful than the old one. The characters are gathered in The Purple Worm, an inn and tavern near the docks, each there of their own accord. As they finish their meals, separately, a commotion is heard outside, along with cries for help.
Most of the people in the tavern are dockworkers and ships crew, not adventurers. A fat balding man is in the street, wringing his hands, and calling for assistance. He sees the obvious adventurers in the gathering crowd, and presses them into service, with the promise of a sizeable purse of gold coins. Kobolds have stolen the lens, and ran into the abandoned warehouse across the street. It's up to the players to work together, defeat the enemy, and recover the lens, and safely return it to the man. Once safely recovered, he gladly pays them in his office nearby, and asks them if they would like to make more money, in exchange for escorting the final telescope pieces to the island, and up to the observatory.
That's what I'll be doing this Friday, and then running most of the rest of the printed adventure slightly out of order. I'll be introducing three options for them to pursue, and flesh out my campaign for the next stage when they decide. I'm definitely looking at a Hollow World setting, though modified to not be like the printed box set. Another hook will involve an NPC from a far away land, whose ship was blown far off course, and he is the lone survivor, brought back to health under the care of Ruana. The players will have the opportunity to secure a ship, and try to find a way to return him to his homeland. The last possible hook will involve the dwarf ruins on the other side of the mountains from Phandalin. Though I MAY use that as a means to get the players into the Hollow World scenario, I haven't decided.
Thanks for sharing those ideas!
Also, was surprised the set didn’t allow the kobolds / Tarak or Varnoth to become sidekicks for a smaller PC group. Way easier than “give the PCs another character to run.” Also connects them to the island as a guide. My 2 PCs (Rogue & Wizard) loved Tarak, who I made a half-orc, and wanted to know what his deal was.
I am seriously thinking about making them accompany the players to each main quest location, as in Tarak for the caves and Varnoth for the shipwrecks. My players are like.. 2. So I feel like adding a third member to their party will be a good idea
@Hero-qg9ch not a bad idea, just try to make sure the npc doesn't outshine the player characters.
I've got a "expert" sidekick running with my party through Lost min3 of phandelver and Dragon of Icespire because they only number 3.
Some good advice for running a module. Read the whole book once, or at least the story bits. This tells you about your key characters, their motivations, and what happens to them throughout it. Then, once you are actually preparing to run it, only re-read the parts you will probably get to in the next session. Don't get bogged down by the massive mountain ahead of you, but do remember your landmarks.
Awesome video. I really want to introduce D&D to some people and this is convinced me that the DOSI set might be the way to go. A simple, contained story!
Glad it was helpful! Besides homebrewing something more simple, I think this box is the best option right now
I have visions of a group of PCs who starts this, sees kobolds, wants to kill the kobolds at the sanctuary and Runara comes in and kills the party. Adventure is over guys.
Yeah maybe they should be warned about the kobolds first haha
We got this from Wizards for review and my son (13) began his first foray into DMing using it. It's been great! My 1st level wizard only died once (so far). :)
Keep it up! I keep praying for the power & internet to go out, because it causes automatic D&D time. This video is a great tutorial or refresher about what makes a good adventure.
Thanks! And haha, D&D with the lights on is fun too!
Just ran the first encounter and did the mushroom fantasia quest with my 11 year old. He had a blast. I like these starter adventures because I make some really over powered characters for me and him and add a few magical items so that we can co-op these quests. Of course i do take some combat encounters out and as long as my kiddo is having fun, i did good! This really helped me as the DM because i can skim the chapter now and know what i can do and cut out. Thank you!
I was DM'ing this for just one person, and instead of using one of the premade characters, I let her choose a Kobold to take with her everytime she went out on one of the main quests.
(spoilers btw)
This was dependent on how she treated the NPC's, so I incorporated little challenges for her to boost friendship. For example:
-You saved Blepp's life by defeating those zombies. He wants to go with you.
-Mumpo and Zark are sparring when you find them. If you can beat one of them in an arm wrestling match, you'll get a cool pebble(if the PC loses, they earn these kobold's favor anyway, because they had a fun time).
-Funding Myla's shop
-Helping Myla and Laylee with some tinkering
-Helping any one Kobold(except Blepp with the zombies) gets Agga on your side.
-Anything else you'd like to try
Btw, only one kobold at a time accompanying the party. Can't have a game-breaking army, can we?
Genius!
Always do a session 0 with expectations!
Great point! Can’t believe I left that out 😅
Maybe go with the young blue but DO have him asleep. They can then sneak up on him and do a big chunk of damage.
Yep haha, I tried to really emphasize the not-sleeping part at the end of the video! So important!
I am doing something slighting different when combining this to the Lost Mines of Phandelver and Icespire Peak. I have my players start with Stormwreck Isle with the characters provided, but told them this is because Stormwreck Isle is the prologue of the story. After Stormwreck, they experienced how to pay the game, learned about the rules, and understood better what they like and dislike. At that point, they create their own character, and we start with Lost Mines of Phandelver, slowly worked towards Icespire Peak, with the Stormwreck characters reappearing as NPCs. I get a lot of excitement from these familiar faces reappearing throughout the story. Sometimes I intertwine the Stormwreck character's goal with things happening in Phandelver and Icespire Peak, and my players would go, "So that's why Runara was saying this back then!" or "I knew this character was behind the incident at Stormwreck Isle!" Connecting all three campaigns this way is very fun.
You could also use more than the average HP, roll an extra hit die per player or something.
Good tip!
I just ran across this video, but it's a great walkthrough of the next module I plan to run. Overall DM advice (when thinking of the Sparkrender encounter, but applicable to any encounter you want to have weight), goes back to an old Matt Collville line, "Encounter design doesn't stop because everyone rolled initiative." If you've got a trivial to medium (or even hard) encounter just in the middle of an adventuring day and the party crushes it with good tactics or just because they had a good character build with nice dice rolls... good for them. Let them feel awesome. Enjoy it with them. If you have a climatic battle and your PCs pull out all the stops and your BBEG is going down too fast, give them extra HP. (You won't screw with the balance by overpowering the hits on your players, but you can make it last longer and have them prock a few more abilities to make things seem more dire.) Is it cheap? Absolutely. Will your players know? Normally not. Especially if you're using specific baddies to the campaign or homebrew stuff, where they can't know the statblock without metagaming. And if someone is metagaming for your specific campaign and gets upset that you're adjusting the climatic battles to give them more weight, then as a DM, I would question whether I want to play with that person. We'd definitely be having a conversation about it.
i love the suggestions here. i was planning on running a short campaign arc AFTER DOIP and im planning to bump up the challenges within. Im glad that theres plenty of hooks that could still work for higher levels of play (looking at potentially fleshing out the story of The Compass Rose and its passengers’ connection to Orcus, exploring how the Isle would look like if the fire crystals grew unchecked, and a what-if scenario where Sparkrender was in league with bigger threats.
Very cool ideas!
My party set out for the Seagrow caves while I forgot to give them both the sack of scraps AND the potions. They absolutely slaughtered their way through towards the Larder, then went back into the first room for a long rest because the session ended. I decided to each send them an individual text describing a dark dream they had while resting, in which they get the feeling they are not wanted here, but also that there is another feeling in them that does give them the idea their help is needed. This being influenced by the spores of the Myconids, lingering in the heavy sulfuric gasses. The combination of both made that they get the sense there is something wrong ánd something to be done about it.
They then are woken up by footsteps entering the cave. Tarak ran after them to give them the sack of scraps and the potions in case of need. But as he found out they are doing mighty fine on their own, he ventures back to Dragon's Rest, mumbling about something Varnoth found on the northern cliffs of the island.
First time being a DM and it's both nerve wrecking and enticing how much freedom you can take in these chapters.
Thanks for the spore octopus tip, I ran this for the first time tonight. I think the regular spore octopus would have slaughtered one of my players before dying in a turn or two, but your modified spore octopus was able to slap them around lightly 7 times before they finally put it down. One of the players landed a crit so I decided that he chopped off one of the tentacles, thus reducing the attacks per round to 3. The martial characters got to fight out of the tentacles' grasp and the wizard got clever with his ice and lightning based cantrips. I actually let the octopus attempt to grapple multiple times without a recharge because the fight was so weighted in the players' advantage, but it failed all the grapple attempts so no harm done. In the end I probably made the fight a bit too easy but everyone had fun and we were running late anyway.
Bob, if only DM's watch this, it will be one of your least viewed videos! Lol. Great vid!
Yep haha, but it's worth it!
So glad to see the DM guides back !! Not a fan of this aventure, but I'm preping dragon of Icespire Peak and your playlist is great to have an overview and refresh my memory about the next aventure !
Haha yep! I packed it all into one video for this one, but along it felt nostalgic :)
Especially with new players, I will sometimes walk back their narrated action if it doesn't fit the dice, just like your example. Zombies are my excuse to let my "yes and/but" out. Narrate successful removal of about anything but the head, and it inexorably continues unphased.
"I cut the zombie's legs off"...rolls a 3. "Yes, you cut it's legs off. It continues to Lt. Dan it's way after you"
I am a fan of your quest and campaign walk through’s. Keep them coming.
Thanks! I may do more play throughs and guides on my other channel Bob’s RPG Radio!
This came at the perfect time. I just got the set and have been excited to try to dm.
General GM advice:
You are there to have fun as well, do not tolerate people that try to rob you of that. Be polite, be fair, be firm.
Having bad players is not a reflection on you as a DM, it is a reflection on them on being bad players.
Have a session 0 to set expectations in both directions. What you expect the players to play and act like, and tease out of them what they expect you to do as well.
I took the white cardboard spacer that occupied half the box and turned it into origami. That was the most fun I had with this box.
My group just started this, they were shipwrecked, though not by the harpy, as a starter before continuing to neverwinter for the Phandelver and below Shattered Obelisk. Since Icespire Peak is more sandbox I am using it to fill in quests so that the total campaign will allow my players to reach lvl 20. If Sparkrender escapes, I plan to use him again in the Tower of Storms quest.
So far, my players are enjoying the interruption to their planned merc work.
The funniest thing thus far though was on the beach. Paladin tried to force a zombie prone, got a 1 and ended up prone himself. Zombie flops on him and succeeded in it's attack, next turn, tries to push the zombie off, another 1! He had 2 hp left after the 1st encounter! The other players were untouched. Haha
Baldur's Gate 3 got me into D&D again, upgraded from 3.5e to 5e. I wanted to try being a DM for the first time since 9th grade so I bought the core rulebooks, and two modules - Descent into Avernus and this D&D Starter Set. I really want to run Descent into Avernus but it's a bit long and there's a lot of stuff in it so it's a bit daunting, so I wanted a smaller one to run first to practice with some friends and I settled on this cause it looked fun and inexpensive.
Still, being a DM can be daunting since you have to bring to life the world the characters interact with, and so after I read the Stormwreck Isle booklet, I wanted more info and tips on how to potentially run it and I found your video. In a word - amazing. Thank you for the helpful and friendly advice and going so in depth into the module even though its a starter one. You've made me a lot less nervous and even more excited to run this for myself. Thank you.
Thanks Bob, awesome breakdown. Might have to give this one a go when introducing new players
My pleasure! Yep, for brand new players, I think it's the best box set
As a DM, YOU make the rules!!!!!!
Thanks Bob for the great vids!!!!!
Do I run DnD? No, I run MotW. Do I run modules/pre made mysteries? No, I prefer making my own adventures. Am I a new GM? No, I’ve been running a campaign for two years. Am I still gonna watch this entire video?
Yes, yes I am.
I really appreciate that!!
Stirges are the plague that infects the otherwise-healthy body of D&D adventures! Every time! :P
At least they’re reliable! Lol
Thanks for the great video, Bob! I'm excited to run this at some point, probably after I'm done with Dragon of Icespire Peak.
My pleasure! Hope you enjoy it!
Big change I made when running it was to play up the comet and have Sparkrender perform the ritual in d4 days when it got closest. I then had the five different dragon death locations show signs that a taloned creature had defiled it x months ago and that pieces of bone were missing from the remains. That way Sparkrender was foreshadowed way before the Observatory chapter, and made the ritual have cool components.
One other change I loved was to have one of the Myconids Tarak’s dead lover transformed into a spore servant when he first came to Dragons Rest but couldn’t save her. That added a layer to why he was so desperate to return to the caves.
Your sword cleaved the zombie in half to the waist. The zombie keeps plodding toward you with half its ribcage and an arm hanging off.
Well said!
Thanks Bob. Always great info 👍
Thanks for watching! Happy to help with this one
Thanks to you, Bob for all you do.
I'm half way through DM'ing this for my family. We're all new to D&D (I bought this box plus the essentials kit) and this video has helped me a lot. We've played through the start and the caves (where I had the myconids only communicate by feeling to make the roleplay interesting for the party) and we're doing the compass rose tomorrow.
One homerule that me and my friend has adopted to increase survivability in the early levels and just to make everyone a little bit more beefy and adventury is to give full Hit dices for the first three leves.
Thanks for the video.
I had the sailors crash onto an islet 30 feet from the dock in the beginning after they unloaded the PCs on the dock. I read the bluetext that said there was a rowboat tied to the dock. I put the 3 zombies on the islet and let them figure out how to get to the npcs and save them. It was arduous, sure, but it taught them how to play and solve problems as regards movement and combat. After pure insanity and the heat death of one of the sailors, they managed to kill the zombies. They managed to affix a rope to a harpoon and succeeded on a check to throw it to the sand on the islet, allowing them to hold the rope as they crossed the channel. An hour of hilarity ensued. Thats a long time, but they were learning the game. And the most important lesson they learned? When the DM describes something, pay attention and even take notes.
They forgot that the rowboat was tied to the dock lmao. After that session I read on and discovered that there's a scenario that has them rescuing 2 sailors, i think in chapter 3? I had no idea! So I'm just gonna omit that when they hit that chapter haha. Had the surviving sailor give them a potion and 1gp each.
The module as written is only a guideline for you to expand upon, and it even says so. I think its great in that regard. I ran lmop years ago and while that was good, i think this set is better for new players and dms.
Thanks for the guide, I planned on introducing this as part of a campaign I’m running that it a combo of Dragon of Icespire Peak and Rise of Tiamat. Stormwreck Isle is a great place for a blue dragon cult!
W/o people like you doing this incredible work I wouldnt be starting DnD. Thank you.
Im about to run this tomorrow as my first time dming. This made me excited to start! Thank you!
This is going to be my first time as a DM and first time playing dnd in general. A bunch of my friends and I have been dying to play but had no DM. This video helped me feel a lot more prepared.
Never heard of those mushroom people. Definitely want to explore using them in other settings
When I run campaigns (homebrew, one shot, or modules) I like to put my players in scenarios that make them think and come up with creative solutions to the problem.
If a player wants to do something and they can explain it in a way that makes sense to who there character is and how that character would act, then that character can absolutely attempt that thing. I never want to tell my players "No you can't do that." I want them to be able to attempt anything and if they can make it make sense, then they're allowed to try it. Try not to call out players if they ask to do something that would be meta gaming(things the player knows but the character doesn't). Rather, press questions that make so the PC has to come up with an explanation or reasoning as to why the character would have that knowledge. Being a DM is rewarding and challenging but with the right group and a solid adventure, some great memories are waiting to be made.
PS. One of my favorite moments is when my players were raiding a cult compound and a player asked me if the locked door had visible hinges on the inside or outside of the door. I said outside (facing them), the player asked if it was possible to remove the bolts from the hinges (with a Dex check they did.) This lead to him (a halfing) making an Acrobatics check to ride the door down a set of stairs like a surfboard into some cultist. He succeeded and this one of the flashiest DM moments was born.
For the violet fungus room, I increased each one's HP to 25 and increased the AC to 10 (to make them more annoying to deal with) and had one creep twards a wayward sprout in the room, one of the players passed their perception check, and stepped in between the sprout and the fungus, after the fight the myconids, attitude changed.
finished DoSI last week...
had to tweak it too.
had same questions as you..
purple fungi attack? nope
dragon asleep? nope
made blue dragon a hybrid between wyrmling and young adult with AC and HP. left dragon breath and physical attacks as wyrmling. also my players created characters so by lvl 3 very powerful so I added a dragonborne cleric npc to throw out bane and spiritual
weapon on final fight.
didn't have kobold fight either.
I found adventure fun and a good starter for testing new players to know each other.
going to take their characters to Decent into Avernus next.
Never DM'd a D&D game before. I've run a few campaigns for Call of Cthulhu before and I'm really excited to jump into Stormwreck Isle.
I started playing it, it's fun so far.
My advice (and I am still rather new) is to ask your players at the end of session what they plan on doing next session. Especially if you are running a more open sand box type of game. Helps you prep what they want to do.
He does indeed address this in the video, but absolutely a life-saver for the DM's time and effort!
Great video! As a new DM I have a couple of questions I hope someone can advise on.
1) How much of the background story should I tell the players and when? Right now they have no idea what happened and why things are the way they are.
2) What are your views on whether to use theatre of the mind vs hand made maps for a starter set? My players are all new but are used to playing things like Heroquest on a detailed board with miniatures.
Thanks for any info / advice!
Thanks Bob! Stay cool!
When I run stormwreck, I have the characters roll for their kobold, then have that kobold guide them to the ship/cave. Sometimes the kobold fights alongside the players. Sometimes the players throw their kobold to the octopus. It`s great.
I cannot express with words how perfect this video is for me as a brand new GM. Thank you so much!!!
I just started to run this module for a few friends, two being long time dms from 3.5 and 5e. Your example is so similar to how our combat started, it is almost scary.
Thank you for this guide. I have only ever ran homebrew, and this was more intimidating than I thought it was (even for a beginner module). I am still very new to being a dm. Love your vids.
Loved your guides since Dragon Of Icespire Peak DM Guides, it was such a great source of entertainment for my partner and I, during the quarantine. I really appreciate your effort put into these videos and love your format, it's so welcoming and easy to understand. I was wondering if you have or know an all-in-one beginner player video as I would love to share that with my friends that are potentially interested in playing :) Thank you again, Bob! Love your content!
I loved the seacave part because one of my players was convinced that the myconids could give his character top class hallucinogenic and ended up helping them and then having a party to get high together. Apparently he found enlightenment towards Bahamut 😂
I’ve always wanted to play d and d but never had anyone to play it with except my friends and none of them know how to play so I know a little but not a lot so I’m the only one to be the dm so I needed something simple to start with and this is perfect 👍
Oowh...now i see how it work...i never see anyone play..and i don't know how to play....thank ,it make me learn so much this video...
Running this tonight as my first ever DM session, so I appreciated the tips!
I have friends coming over tonight and yes I did think I could watch this video and play the game! lol Fine, I shall read the books and play another time.
About to start my journey into DND's campaigns for the first time and got this campaign recommended online. I'll be (trying) to be the DM while 3 friends will be the players/characters. This video got me really excited to read into this campaign and i wanna thank you for taking the time to make this! I'm still not sure if this will be something for me but im intrigued by the community and concept of the game. Got the idea to start learning this game due to 2 dutch streamers called Lekker Spelen ('tasty playing' litteraly translated). They play the game (and every other game) in a very non-serious way and their layedback approach to the game got me interested. We'll see where my journey ends (or never ends)
I just had a cool thought in linking this to DoIP. This is assuming that the PCs take a ship to the mainland sword coast after the adventure ends. Easy easy..the ship crashes on the rocks beside the Tower of Storms lighthouse. The DM can run that encounter (it's lvl 3), plant a injured/stranded sailor to rescue somewhere towards the end of it or earlier on if the party needs a little help figuring out what's going on since that adventure is designed o start from the land side with the banshee.
After the encounters, the sailor can ask the party to help them get safely to Phandalin. Boom! DoIP started.
you 're an awesome youtuber , im learnin english through your tutorials
We love you Bob !!!!!
Best DM ever
I really wish I'd have watched this before running the adventure. Lots of good tips.
Thank you for the super helpful video! As a new dm I appreciate your easy going attitude towards everything; makes me feel less worried about running my first session :)
this video helped me a ton when i played with my kids!
Does Bob have a video that goes through the starter set rule book as detailed and informative as this premade adventure? As a new DM, trying to remember all these terms, rules (and sometimes expansion to a particular rule), DC's, AC's... after I read about 6 pages I've just got a jumble of information all swimming around in my brain. This very patient, concise and straightforward explanation makes this so much better on a magnitude that is hard to even explain!
Things I wish the book told me as a new DM:
Have a mini Session 0 for new players to discuss personal goals. This is ESPECIALLY important if you're using the pre-made characters, because as written they have no reason to be working together except "we came here on the same boat". In addition, some personal quests are more directly tied in than others, which confused my players. While the Cleric gets pointed directly towards the zombies, and the Rogue has a very straightforward goal, the personal quests for the Fighter and Paladin are completely nebulous. My group didn't have any gamers in it and weren't super familiar with the idea of an "RPG", so giving the fighter and paladin a direct quest with the only tie in being an old lady going "hmmm what do *you* think your problem means?" did not work. Of course, all of this can be fixed by good DMing, but I'm playing the Starter Set: I'm not a good DM (yet). So future DMs, plan ahead!
Also, the Zombie encounter relies HEAVILY on DM narration if you want to hook your players. This is the first minute of D&D they'll ever play, and as written it will quickly devolve into standing in the same spot hitting each other until someone dies. They're on a beach so there's no cover or objects to interact with, the Zombies are brainless and can't talk, and your players are new and don't know anything about radiant damage - it is a BORING encounter unless you and your players narrate.
My best general tip is have fun ! Don’t overthink or over prep. Also depending on party size have the PC’s start off with level 2 HP. That way they are a little tougher than average.