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!
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