It never ends, suckers!
Our heroes have fought wave after wave of invader, yet they keep coming - and now the mill is on fire. Can things get any worse?.
Starring, in order they sit around the table:
Nyvan, (played by Jason) a elven knight known for entering dangerous areas on his own and enjoys duels... just not today.
Venmir, (played by Brett) an elven clergyman, known as Kindelf, who likes playing bows and arrows.
Sigurd, (played by Iain) a travelling swordsman - he likes to sing. Only now and then.
Rodin, (played by Lorne) the battered and sullen dwarven axeman, who does an excellent impression of a dead dwarf. And hits all the time. Almost.
Nandrim, (played by Hilton), the ridiculously brave elf magic-user who always has something to say about dragons - YAWN!
and The DM, (played by Alex), who loves to comment in blue. And writes this blog. He's also a bit of a git and likes to make life difficult for his players.
The party is now complete. All five players have met one another and the siege of Greenest is in full swing - and there doesn't seem to be any way out...except perhaps in a blaze of glory?
When news of the attempted destruction of the mill reached the heroes and Governor Nighthill, he implored them to reach the mill and hold it until they could send reinforcements to hold it. Without hesitation, they set off for the tunnel.
This time through the tunnel, their route was a little easier. No rats and since they'd passed the key away from Nyvan, it wasn't quite so nerve-wracking having someone open the lock. Theycrept along the stream carefully, taking care not to get noticed by any of the invaders.
As they approached the mill, they saw a number of smaller fires around the edge of the building as well as a number of enemies. As they discussed their options, Nyvan interrupted their discussions brusquely, "Every time we sit about planning our options, something shite happens - so let's just go and kill the evil bastards and stop mucking about!". His plan met with genuine enthusiasm and the party all leapt forward to charge the enemy.
Four of the mercenaries turned to face them and charged to meet them halfway, at the behest of the fifth, who stayed at the mill, watching carefully.
The battle joined and within seconds, Rodin, targetted by the enemy, was dropped to the floor. The toll of the last few hours had shown itself. The others leapt into the fray and dropped three of the enemy in a few moments. The remaining soldier and their leader all turned to run. They shot down the soldier in the back but the leader had disappeared.
Venmir checked on Rodin, Sigurd started putting out the fires, Rodin had a nap, Nandrin picked fluff from his belly-button and Nyvan decided the best thing to do was walk into the mill on his own...
It was a trap! As he walked into the building, half a dozen figures stepped out of the darkness on the loft level and flung spears down at him. Miraculously, they all missed, and when they jumped down to engage him, he squealed loudly enough for the others to hear - and they charged in to help. They found Nyvan beset by many foes, with one dead on the floor before him. The battle was fierce but alarmingly one sided (for the DM - with Nyvan in particularly deadly mood) and before long the heroes were victorious.
As the party discussed their options, a group of militia-men turned up and relieved them (nope, no erotica here thank you). They ran back to the tunnel and headed upstairs to meet with Nighthill and Escobert.
Nighthill was in sombre mood. The Temple of Chauncea had been burned with most of its congregation inside - only a handful escaped, but luckily it included the priest, who was helping in the makeshift infirmary. The sorely-wounded heroes rushed there for some free healing (which they eventually got but I didn't make easy!).
As they exited the keep, Nighthill met them with what seemed like good news - apparently the numbers of naughty dudes outside was dwindling as they left in small groups - and the dragon had left. The party nipped up to the battlements to check it out.
As they looked on, a monstrous figure loomed out of the darkness before the keep. Seven foot tall, blue scales, a massive sword and a greatspear, Nandrin named it a half-dragon. With him were near a score of kobolds and also four hostages. He offered the hostages, alive, in return for the Champion of Greenest to step forth and face him.
Before anyone could say anything, one of the guards rushed down stairs with a cry of despair, but he was stopped by Nighthill. The hostages were his family.
"Where do you think you're going?" asked Nyvan as he strode all manly-like down to the front gate. "I'll face him!".
The priest healed him back to full health and the party blessed him, with Sigurd singing a song of valour which filled his heart with confidence. Nyvan strode forth.
The creature waited and they discussed terms. Three of the hostages now. The reaining woman once the fight was over. The fight was to the death. Nyvan agreed.
Rodin watched, jealously, Nandrin slipped outside the gate and watched in admiration, especially at Nyvan's tight buttocks, while Venmir watched his best friend from the battlements. Sigurd sang his song, which some of the guards join in with, even though they didn't know the words or have any singing ability.
The duel began!
Nyvan stormed forward, dodging two sings from the beast (but secretly wondering how the fuck he had two attacks!), before unleashing a massive blow which, in conjunction with nigh on max damage and his thundering shout, caused a massive wound to the beast....who dropped to one knee, then smiled and stood back up. In return, he unleashed his own magic - lightning breath! Nyvan staggered back - and then struck again. The crowd gasped, but the monster was not done. He swung his massive blade forward once more and Nyvan dropped to the floor. The keep went quiet.
With a slow glance over the battlements, the creature sneered, then slammed his blade down into Nyvan's prone body. Venmir cried out in pain as he watched the sword pierce his friend. The kobolds let the woman go, and she ran to the keep, passing Nandrin who had rushed forward to try and save Nyvan. Venmir wanted to shoot the beast in the back, but Sigurd halted him, "the duel was in good faith and Nyvan knew it was to the death." he added.
Within minutes, the town was abandoned by the evil mercs and monsters. Nighthill, amazed at the honour displayed by Nyvan and his pals, offered them a place to sleep and some healing potions he'd been saving for an emergency. He left them to rest but not before telling them how Escobert was in the infirmary, sorely wounded and missing a foot.
They all rested. Finally. And stopped cursing the DM. hehehehehehe
When they recovered, they found Nighthill once again asking for their help - this time to find the enemy encampment and find out what they wanted, and why. They all agreed, although Nyvan and Sigurd agreed to do it for nothing, the others were not so hasty.
they were also approached by a young monk who explained that his master, who was an expert on the cultists, had been captured or killed fighting the cultists and he begged their help to save him if they found him in the enemy camp. They agreed.
They mucked about for a few more hours (and Rodin spent some time bonding with Escobert, despite all the foot jokes - it was beautiful) and left just before first light.
First up, they found a pack of kobolds and humans squabbling over food, and then sitting at their own fires, 50 feet away from one another. The party snuck up on them and spltted the humans in no time. The kobolds fled in EVERY DIRECTION EXCEPT TOWARDS THE PARTY (that's important for Lorne!). No humans were left alive.
They carried on and the way became a little more conducive to ambush, so the party kept their eyes open. I pulled Venmir out of the room to explain how he had seen someone standing up a slope to one side. I then spent 45 seconds explaining the area and mentioning repeatedly how the party was continuing to walk forward, waiting for Venmir to shout STOP or somehow else halt the party, but he didn't, so I dropped rocks on them. The party got humped good off the rocks, but returned fire and battle was joined. Venmir made up for his lack of warnings and twanged both the clerics in the ambush group while they stood on the slope above them.
This was obviously some kind of rearguard, rather than just stragglers.
But at the point, we called it a night.
More next week!
And now it really begins!
Having suffered a brief moment of distraction at the hands of Bandit Lord de Cockernay, our intrepid heroes found themselves standing on a short rise looking over Greenest...
Starring, in order they sit around the table:
Nyvan, (played by Jason) a elven knight who enjoys watching others holding doors shut and spits in the face of danger (and prisoners - this was retconned by the DM).
Venmir, (played by Brett) an elven holy man, known as Kindelf, who runs out of healing all the time.
Sigurd, (played by Iain) a travelling swordsman and a master of the book, "Playing Pinchusion for Kobolds, for Dummies"
Rodin, (played by Lorne) the battered and sullen dwarven axeman, who loves to sneak up stairs and see how far he can throw his axe
Nandrim, (played by Hilton - welcome back, bud), the ridiculously brave elf magic-user who loves rat-flambe and taking jobs usually reserved for the fighters
and The DM, (played by Alex), who loves to comment in blue. And writes this blog. He's also a bit of a git and likes to make life difficult for his players.
The heroes are still a man down, not yet having met Nandrim - but that won't last and they're all keen to get stuck into the bad guys....at least they're assuming the guys burning the town down are bad guys...
Staring down into the town, several things were instantly notable: The town was largely on fire, there was a dragon swooping about the place and there were groups of figures running to and fro - seemingly either villagers, or bad guys.
Sigurd, the only mounted party member, spurred his horse forward and Rodin urged the horses as fast as they would go. The others prepared for combat.
As soon as they arrived at the outskirts of town, Sigured dismounted and waited for the others, while he surveyed the area. Small groups of villagers ran here and there, trying to avoid roving bands of kobolds and mercenaries, with the occasional men in strange black clothing with arched black face masks.
When the others arrived, the headed into town - the obvious choice being to get to the keep. So they made their way towards the town's only visible point of resistance. Within moments, they came across a small group of villagers; a limping man, three small children and a woman with a broken spear, being followed by a double-handful of kobolds.
With a roar of outrage, Sigurd (I think it was Sigurd!) charged at the kobolds. drawing their attention and the kobolds, originally believing the party were allies, turned in surprise, half of them peeling away to face the party. within seconds, the party had cut them down, and Venmir's arrows had left one of those on the woman dead, before Nyvan and Sigurd leapt at them leaving them down to one. With a cry of rage, Rodin flung his battleaxe at the remaining kobold...and watched it sail overhead and land in the street 30 feet beyond the beast. Before it could react, Venmir impaled it with an arrow. Nyvan and Venmir shared a coy nod.
Nyvan lead the family onto the wagon and urged it forward. The party carried on moving and found themselves on the road leading up to the keep's gate. Standing in from of them was a group of men, dressed in black, flanked by two man-sized drakes, which instantly lunged at the heroes, the cultists (for that they were!) not far behind.
From the gates, the defenders of Greenest saw the melee ensue and alerted their leader, Governor Nighthill. He stood next to the latest visitor to Greenest, a strange elf named Nandrim. Asking if he could help and receiving a positive response, he ordered the gates opened - and Nandrim ran out into the cold early evening.
As the party battled their new foes, the wagon ran up the hill. The party fought valiantly and, just as the last of the cultists was about to split open Rodin's chest, his head exploded in a ball of fire from Nandrim's fist.
"Kill the elf...!" almost shouted Sigurd. He quickly stopped himself as he realised it was a friend rather than foe.
The party made their way up into the keep and met Governor Nighthill, as well as Escobert, the keep's Castellan. Before long, they had encouraged the party to help the town and, in the first instance, capture a cultist and bring them back to the keep for interrogation. Escobert gave them a key and lead them to a door which lead down into the sewers under the keep - and to a secret exit down by the stream. Before they set out, Venmir wanted to rest, but Escobert pushed them forward - there was no time to waste, people were dying by the second. Venmir pushed for a rest, but the others saw the benefit of helping the town first, and they set out.
They leapt into the tunnel, mage first (!!!) with Nyvan at his side. Before they reached the grate, they were assaulted by hundreds, if not thousands of rats, streaming at them from the darkness. Instantly, Nandrim flung forth waves of flame, but not before they had virtually covered Nyvan and nibbled their way through every gap in his armour. He staggered back before scraping his blade down his armour - and the damage started by Nandrim was finished by his sword - and the rats fled (this does not accurately represent the bloody lucky rolls from both Nandrim and Nyvan with their rolls).
The party opened the grate (after a brief moment where they thought they'd broken the lock) and encountered another group of foes and only at the last moment, did Sigured turn his blade aside and knock a cultist unconscious. The rest lay dead, floating face-down in the stream. They tied up the cultist and took him back through the gate and up to the keep.
Governor Nighthill shied away from interrogation - and asked the party to take centre-stage - they seemed somewhat more capable in the circumstances. Sigurd leant forward and, while the cultist expected threats, he got offered a way out, a potential escape route, a chance to get out alive - and the cultist considered it for a moment before his resolve kicked in and he responded with a burst of bloody spit at Sigurd's face. Sigurd turned to Rodin - suggesting the dwarf should try a more direct route.
Rodin looked down at the cultist. He smiled, all friendly like, and laid a comradely hand on his shoulder. He contemplated his options and settled for the friendly approach.....but after some strange glares from his comrades (and a blessing from Venmir), he went for the more forceful attack. He leant back, pulled out his axe and slowly started slicing through the cultist's hairs, one by one. Several minutes later, the cultist broke - more from boredom than fear, and spilled his guts. He was a part of the Cult of the Dragon (a name which resonated with Rodin), and they were there to collect funds for the hoard they were preparing for the return of the Dragon Queen. Nandrim blanched - this was not good news - and he shared what he knew of the Dragon Queen, Tiamat. The cultist also told the group the name of his mistress, Blanky McBlink (placeholder).
Escobert came into the room as the interrogation finished and they shared some of their knownledge with him, asking what the Castellan wanted to do with the cultist. Without a moment of doubt, Escobert leant over the cultist and cut his throat. "More important things to worry about", he declared as he ran from the room.
As the party discussed their options, they heard a commotion from the stairwell, quickly followed by a flying cultist body which crumpled into a heap at their feet. Enemy in the keep, shouted Escobert from above. The party considered their options, which ranged from clearing the keep to running away. The compromised, and sent Rodin stealthily up the stairs to the kitceh, and then towards the courtyard. There he saw a dozen cultists fighting the militia. Escobert turned to face him after striking down another cultist. "The sally port, they're in through the sally port!" he shouted, leaping to help another guardsman. Rodin summoned his pals and they ran for the sally port. Sally port.
They charged into the room to find a scene of carnage, The room was filled with cultists and kobolds, as well as a different kind of cultist, in chainmail and wielding a warhammer. As combat ensued, it was apparent he was a caster and he flung spells into the mix. They proved unnecessary, as Sigurd quickly succumbed to multiple kobold stabbings. The heroes were too strong, however, and as soon the acolyte's minions fell, he cursed the heroes and condemned them to death, before running away in fear.
As the party slammed the door shut, more cultists arrived and it turned into a feat of strength - the cleric and magic-user on one side, multiple cultists (and more by the minute) on the other. The paladin watched on, bemused. Rodin helped Sigurd to his feet. Venmir hurled abuse at Nyvan, before the beefy elf finally realised he might be better served lending his weight to keep the door shut - but to no avail - numbers won out and another batch of enemies charged into the room.
More combat (and cursing) followed, before the enemies were repulsed. The door itself was damaged, but the party held the door shut (with more help from the stronger people in the room) while Escobert got one of the local apothecaries who knew a cantrip to mend broken items to come to the room and fix the locking mechanism.
The party paused for a breather.
Minutes later, Nighthill came back into the room - and they discussed their options - including finding and laying their hands on Blanky McBlink. Nighthill took them up to the battlements and pointed out their likely target. There, among a ring of foes which easily numbered in the hundreds, stood a woman, in purple robes and surrounded by kobolds and cultists. Surely an impossible target.
Suddenly (as if enough wasn't happening), a militiaman ran up to Nighthill and announced that the enemy were trying to set the mill alight. Nighthill was aghast - such an incident would leave the village to starve, even if they were to fight off the attack.
Sigurd once again volunteered the services of the party without hesitation, despite the fact it was now midnight and they had been fighting, travelling, interrogating or holding doors shut with their arses for nigh on five hours.
After all, some things are worth risking your life for, when you're a hero...
Reboot. Restart. Resume.
Here we go again!
Starring, in order they sit around the table:
Nyvan, (played by Jason) a holy elven knight who loves a speech. sitting on his arse, and his best chum:
Venmir, (played by Brett) an elven holy man who loves his longbow, is known as Kindelf and enjoys taking watch for:
Sigurd, (played by Iain) a travelling swordsman who can speak horse, and knows a few tunes, but even they can't liven up:
Rodin, (played by Lorne) the battered and sullen dwarven axeman, who has an axe bigger than you, and is a source of much amusement for:
The DM, (played by Alex), who loves to comment in blue. And writes this blog.
The Hoard of the Dragon Queen and entirely new characters. Yummy.
The first thing I did was come up with my own intro sequence and put the characters through a little character building before I even opened up the module...
One last point - each character has their own reason for being on their journey - and their stories are their own. Until they choose to share them with the others, they will not appear here.
Battered, bruised, depressed. Three words to describe Rodin Hoarfrost as he sat on the front seat of a wagon, trundling along the southern road towards Candlekeep. His thoughts were bleak and angry - he had a destination in mind and black thoughts to match. That said, his new "boss" Sonny Shilevar, the mysterious merchant, was a talkative friendly fellow with a seemingly inexhaustible supply of good quality wine - which he was happy to share. This trip might be alright after all...
Venmir and Nyvan strode along the South road. Their destination was their own, their task a secret - their loyalties, not so much. Both were richly clothed, in fine shining armour and bright blue cloaks with silver sunbursts - their allegiance to Corellon Larethian no surprise to any who knew the Seldarine, the elven pantheon of gods. With a spring in their step, the marched jauntily and at some pace. Before long, they approached a wagon trundling slowly along the path, and overtook along one side.
As Nyvan and Venmir greeted the travelling dwarf and his human companion brightly, the dwarf looked on sullenly and greeted them cordially, if with little enthusiasm. Sonny, however, was far more enthusiastic - especially after he realised there was actually two elves there, not just one being affected by too much wine early in the day. After politely declining the invitation to join them on the wagon, the elves were soon swayed by the promise of a golden payout, should they help protect his wagon and its goods until he reached his destination of Greenest. He was obviously concerned by the current guard, who had allowed to brightly coloured elves to sneak up on his wagon unnoticed.
Before long, they chanced across a young swordsman, relaxing under a tree, a lute strapped to his back and a casual, relaxed appearance somewhat unexpected in the wilds of the Greenlands. He too was travelling towards Greenest, and warned the wagon of dire dreams he'd experienced which showed the city being destroyed and often ended with a five sets of evil reptilian eyes staring at him from the darkness. Unimpressed, almost to a man, the only person who seemed concerned was Sonny, who admitted that his wagon was full of toys and gifts for the orphans of Greenest, as he'd been brought up parent-less himself and returned every year with a load of supplies for the orphanage. The wandering swordsman's name was Sigurd, and he joined the others in their journey.
A few days later, the peaceful night was pierced by horrifying shrieks of terror manly cries of dismay and, much alarmed, the party rushed to Sigurd's side - he had had the dreams again, stronger this time. Somewhat unsettled, some of them returned to sleep. but some stayed awake through the night....
Several uneventful days followed and they were most of the way to Greenest, before the still of the day was disturbed by pounding hooves. Sigurd and Venmir prepared for a fight, whlie the others watched on. a riderless horse, saddlebags and all came galloping between two hills which sat on either side of the road.
As Rodin prepared to Indiana Jones onto the back of the running horse, with a fluid movement, Sigurd pulled out his lute and strummed a quick tune - and to the amazement of all, produced a remarkably horse-like sound which halted the horse in its tracks. After an amazing horse-sound based discussion, Sigurd announced the horse's master had been knocked from the horse by someone else only a short distance away. A quick check through the saddlebags confirmed found a number of bags of coins, as well as logbook full of names and figures - surely the horse belonged to a tax collector!
As they considered their options, their discussion were interrupted by a colourful character who had leapt up to the back of a nearby boulder.
"Hello, gentlemen" he announced loudly, with a flourish. "Do hand over the contents of those saddlebags, as well as your own belongings, and be on your way. For I am Steffan De Cockernay, the most famous bandit on the Sword Coast and among these hills. You'd do well to do as I say!"
Following several rounds of disbelief, abuse and some grandstanding, de Cockernay silenced them all with a grand wave. "Right then, you arseholes, meet my pals - have at them, lads!" and from around the rocks came half a dozen brigands, ready for battle.
One immediately stepped back, an arrow from Venmir stuck in his chest, while the others leapt into battle, even Sonny had to defend himself. A vicious fight ensued, with Rodin and all of the bandits taking a slash or two, before Venmir leapt to the defence of Sonny, who had been knocked to his knees by a bandit. de Cockernay whipped out his bow and sent a shaft plunging into Sonny's chest. "Seeing as you like that one so much!".
"Bugger off back to the secret hideout" he shouted, before leaping from his rock and legging it up the road. Rodin and Sigurd ran after. One bandit tried to stop them, but was laid low with one flash of Sigurd's blade. The path, and the fleeing bandit leader, took them to a short distance away to a large farmhouse on top of a small rise, next to a graveyard with a small family crypt stood in the middle of it. By this point, Venmir was following them. Nyvan waited by the stricken Sonny, having used his magical hands to heal the old merchant. He stayed behind in case there was need for some mouth-to-mouth.
Sigurd got to the door first and banged on it loudly. "Let us in, ruffian, and face justice!"
"There's nobody home, so bugger off!" came the voice from inside.
At which point Sigurd stood to one side and offered the door to Rodin who, without break stride slammed his shoulder into the middle of the door, knocking it from its hinges - and found himself face to face with a huge crossbow on a pedestal facing the door, a smiling de Cockernay behind it.
"Eat this, dwarf!" he announced, as he fired the weapon and then dashed through the door behind him. Luckily for Rodin, it was designed to shoot a human in the chest, so it flew over his head and Venmir was surprised to see a huge arrow shaft tumble to the ground in front of him as he ran to the house.
They ran after the fleeing cowardly bandit king, through the kitchen, down into the basement, where he stood, back to the wall, hurling abuse at his pursuers and readying himself to battle with a rapier in one hand and a swordbreaker in the other.
Furious battle ensued with the bandit both giving and taking some grievous wounds, including a loud thudding sound (which Rodin thought was a secrect door mechanism) and, just as Venmir entered the fray, the wall behind de Cockernay burst in, showering them all in rocks and dust, as a monstrous figure stepped into the room, followed by an horrendous stench. The creature, obviously undead, glared at the party with great malevolence, before glancing down at the strucken brigand and. much to the relief of Sigurd and Rodin, grabbed him by the ankle and started to drag him down the passage.
"Serves him right", said Sigurd, as he turned to walk off. He had not accounted for Venmir's distaste for all things undead and he looked on in disbelief as Venmir summoned a holy flame from the heavens and flung it into the creature's back.
The outraged ghoul leapt back into the room and failed to rip Venmir's face from his skull before Rodin smashed it's head into pieces.
"Thank you, kind elf" muttered de Cockernay, before Rodin knocked him unconscious with the haft of his axe.
They captured de Cockernay, to take him to the local constabulary, searched the house (and appropriated the loot for the orphanage in Greenest), summoned Nyvan from the battleground and checked the crypt under the house, where they were attacked by a magical suit of armour - after a fierce battle, they stood victorious and, after a moment spent stopping Nyvan from stripping down to his undies to try on the now lifeless armour, they headed back to the road.
They cleared the camp, prepared for travel, had a gentle argument about who would watch for the night and settled in to rest.
The rest of the trip was quiet, Rodin lead the wagon while Sonny recovered from his grievous wound in the back of the wagon, together with the tied-up de Cockernay - kept company by Venmir Kindelf.
As they topped a hill, they saw the town of Greenest before them - but instead of the peaceful town, they saw towers of black smoke from burning buildings, people running back and forth and a huge dragon flying low over the town and attacking the keep.
Venmir looked down onto the town and summed up the group's feelings, "Right, we made it. See you later!" and turned away...
And then the shit hit the fan.
All good things come to an end!
With the Black Spider dead, what else could our party get up to? Not a lot, it seems!
Starring:
Gronn, a dwarven druid, played by Brett
Wolf, a young human fighter, played by Lorne
Ellenross, a human rogue, played by Hilton (absent due to being overseas)
Gryff, a halfling fighter, played by Jason
Ashnurak, a human wizard, played by Iain
DM comments: This was by far the toughest session of the adventure. In the days leading up to this session, the party decided to restart with Hoard of the Dragon Queen and reroll new characters. I'd always hoped this module would be a sort of springboard for more 5e and so it's proved. The group had a few options, stick with 5e, keep these characters, or reroll, or restart with the same characters - and ultimately, either go with HotDQ, or I'd create a campaign of my own. I admit I'm pleased with the choice!
Subsequently, this session was overshadowed by the fact that it was the last session of the year and everyone knew we would be restarting soon anyway. And to be perfectly fair, I lack the motivation to write a long post for a dead module. So, instead, I'm going to write a brief review of 5e and the Starter Set module.
First up, let me make this quite clear: I like 5e.
This group is fairly new. I mean, we've been together over a year, but over the last five years barely any of us have played any tabletop RPGs. We first went with Pathfinder, then to 4e and now we're giving 5e a shot. We've had a couple of other games too, like Call of Cthulhu and also a modern d20 game. Overall, we can get quite involved in the roleplaying side of things and I like to see the roleplay side of things improving all the time. Yes, we can get a little too meta now and then and I freely admit I can be a bit of a min-max'er, but we have fun and that's what counts.
So far, 5e is proving a welcome change over the other games we've played. We came to PF and 4e late, so by the time we saw them, there was so much material it became overwhelming, particularly for those who didn't have the time, motivation or experience to go through the rules repeatedly to pick out what they wanted. The "simple" nature of 5e has made it somewhat more accessible - although getting backstories written is still a pain in the arse!
We've had a handful of characters go from level 1 up to level 4 - and I think everyone has felt themselves develop and become more powerful (except Hilton, who has missed most of this adventure). I think the learning curve is just about right - and no-ones seems overwhelmed by the choices available to them. It's no surprise that our group is fairly melee-heavy - this is a demographic we've always had and one I think we won't be shifting any time soon (I can say that with great confidence knowing how the party looks for the next adventure!).
I reserve the right to comment on the system further in the future, but the fact I've bought both the PHB and the DMG already should show how much I rate it so far.
Now, for my comments about the Lost Mine of Phandelver...
Firstly, I think it's important to point out a few things:
1) These are just my personal thoughts
2) Some of these are just gripes - and what I found annoying, they're not game-breaking
3) Overall, the feedback from the players (which has to be the most important thing), has been positive.
Firstly, some of the names in this module are even dafter than usual. Phandalin, Phandelver, Hallwinter, Neverwinter....it just felt like sometimes they didn't put a lot of thought into the names. That can grate. It also caused piss-taking from the PCs - not earth-shattering, but when people are saying, "Wait, which one is which again?" that can be a distraction the game can do without.
I also found that, for a starter set module, the DM's text lacked a lot of guidance for a newbie DM. Fortunately, I like to make shit up as I go along, but I just felt like it lacked a little clarity at points. There were also a few typo errors, map numbering issues and now and then the descriptions were either too sparse or too detailed, giving away little bits which I'd have preferred the PCs find by themselves.
Finally, the game missed a lot of awesome opportunities here - and they ended up being made up on the run as we played. These are just a few of the bits I felt the module could have worked on:
- Phandalin needed more beef - more detail to the characters, physical descriptions, perhaps a few lines of dialogue for each. Something to help the DM move things along, but also make the town more memorable for the players.
- The beast in the crevasse under the manor house - he had so much potential and the game gave the DM nothing to work with. A few lines and some monster guff. He turned into a major baddie in my game - and the players HATED his whispering.
- Venomfang! A huge missed opportunity. Just plonk a massively powerful dragon down in the middle of the module and say far too little about him, his motives, his weaknesses, strengths...nothing. If my game had continued, he almost certainly would have been a recurring villain. No real detail on the danger he posed to the world around, no guidance in the text. As it was, the PCs in my group took a dislike to Reidoth which meant I had little opportunity to really offer much guidance - fortunately, a few RP faux pas spicer these encounters up.
- NPC interation was, in general, lacking. This is a roleplaying game, and the DM was left to their own devices too often for this to be a brilliant opening module for the edition.
- More should have been done to build atmosphere. Create tension, fear, relief...these things did not come from the text, but from me. I can live with that - for a new DM, it might not be so easy.
But enough of the shitty bits, this makes it sound like I didn't like the adventure, but I did enjoy it - in parts it was despite the text, rather than because of it, but there was enough to anger, disappoint, terrify, disgust and entertain - and that's what counts.
The story was great. I loved it - it could have done with more varied hooks, but the ones it provided were enough. Some of the quests around Phandalin were a little tame and I'm sure my PCs felt they were just like ticking off from a list of outstanding quests in your video game Journal, but each of the three "standalones" (Old Owl Well, Wyvern Tor and Agatha's House) were all memorable for their own reasons.
My players had fun. The turned up excited and ready to play - this is key for me. I like to bamboozle and boggle, I like to make them go "ewwwww!" and "I don't like that voice" - but at the end of each Thursday night, if they are looking forward to the next week, then that's good enough for me. There was enough in there for me to do that.
To be honest, I've just read Hoard of the Dragon Queen and it seems like the style I didn't really like from LMoP continues, so I guess it's going to be another load of making shit up as I go along to make it a little more interesting, but that's what being a DM is all about, right?
Next week, get ready for HotDQ, part 1!
