Do NOT believe what people say about the new D&D Starter Set - Dragons of Stormwreck Isle review
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- čas přidán 2. 08. 2024
- Dragons of Stormwreck Isle comes out worldwide on October 4th. I've run the whole campaign twice - here's my review of the new D&D Starter Set.
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This work includes material taken from the System Reference Document 5.1 (“SRD 5.1”) by Wizards of the Coast LLC and available at dnd.wizards.com/resources/sys.... The SRD 5.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License available at creativecommons.org/licenses/....
▼▼ Timestamps ▼▼
0:00 Introduction
0:48 Adventure synopsis
1:47 Who is this for?
2:45 Fix these errors on the character sheets!
4:18 How clear is the adventure?
5:24 Reviewing the adventure
#dnd #5e #dosi - Hry
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Having the 'invisible wall' is something that *should* be written in to a module like this. If you're an experienced dungeon master, it's not hard to just pretend there is no wall or re-write if you're up for the challenge. And if you're a new DM, perhaps the true core demographic for this adventure, it is a great relief like you mention.
Yeah I'm OK with it! I always skew towards being a friendly, non-lethal DM though, so I wouldn't get any brutal satisfaction by letting the players swing their agency around the adventure and YOLOing into the final dungeon at level one
I feel like zombies are a huge threat if you play them aggressively. First turn they all dash to close the gap, and they attack until the target is dead. Not unconscious, dead.
Even then, I find their statblock very unsatisfying to fight.
Give them status ailments
If they can ambush and paralyze the adventurers everything changes
Looking forward to the “How to run” guide! Your video on Wild Sheep Chase was an enormous help when I was a brand new DM, and I’ve pulled a lot of inspiration from your LMoP videos.
Me too Eric! I think this should be right up my alley - the adventure is short and sparse, perfect for expanding and exploring.
Great stuff! Really good point about how simplicity actually leaves room in the DM's mind for getting creative. I also loved the concept of the tides changing the environments but I didn't take things as far as you in making a full tide table! Looking forward to the full Matty P treatment on this one
Cheers Ryan! I'm squirreling away in the background getting everything ready for the next few months of videos about this adventure :)
Tyranny of Dragons is pretty difficult for low level PCs (it's actually one of the official campaigns with the highest number of TPKs). I think I'm going to use Stormwreck Isle as an introduction to the setting and also to empower the PCs for Tyranny of Dragons.
ToD gets such a bad wrap, but I played about 20 sessions of it as a player and had a great time. That said, since I haven't read the adventure, so I don't know how much heavy lifting my DM was doing. Let me know how it goes!
I feel the zombies in this adventure are very off theme. I swapped them out with low-level Sahuagin one time and with blue kobolds another time. I wasn't 100% satisfied with either option, so I am looking forward to see how you changed this.
I'm OK with the theme of zombies, just not the slog of zombie combat. To replace them, I'm working on some zombie variations that are a bit more interesting to fight.
I'm looking forward to your fixer upper guides for this new Starter Set.
Me too! I made the original Lost Mines videos without many expectations or CZcams experience, so now I feel like this is my opportunity to knock it out of the park
Great overview looking forward to the coming videos!
Thank you!
You are just crazy mate, your LmoP videos made my DM skills ramp up. Amazing work, keep going as you are.
Cheers Patrick! Will do :)
Put the ritual on a timer, have how the PCs handle the myconids impact bridge construction (fighting slows down construction preventing its completion in time to stop ritual), then let PCs buy a boat to cross the waters to the island. Gold sunk.
Alternatively, allude to dragon earlier, allow players to pay for boat trip to island while dragon is "out hunting" so they can loot hoard earlier. Include evil kobold bounty hunters sent out by dragon to find the ones that stole his stuff.
Thanks for the review, can't wait to see the series
Me too! I'm putting lots of work into this one and it's good fun :)
I wasn't sure if I was going to pick this up but your video convinced me, keep it up dude.
Mr Ricardo Merry! Glad to help - I reckon it's worth looking into just to see how their approach to new players has shifted over the five years between Starter Sets. It's a nice way to bookend the edition.
Thanks for the detailed review.
It would be interesting when you do your fix/improvements if there are any nice hooks that could help a new or newish DM take this intro dragon adventure that might tie or lead into some adventures from Dragon of Icespire Peak and/or maybe Venomfange from LMoP that could eventually lead into the Hoard of the Dragon or Tyranny of Dragons or Storm King's Thunder. A little road map with hooks/transition to help give new DM ideas of how to stitch adventures together could be really interesting and helpful.
Great idea! I'll dedicate a whole video at the end to linking the adventure to other modules.
Woo! Looking forward to seeing the new series 🎉
im gonna fit so many dragons in this youtube channel
I haven't read this adventure yet but it seems like a good time to introduce Fizbans for a dragon themed adventure. Perhaps if the sacrifice isnt stopped this wrymling gets to become a young blue dragon, perhaps it starts some sort of dragon vs dragon war where all of a sudden there is an arms race in the form of dragon sacrificing.
I haven't even opened Fizbans yet! I'll have to take a flick through. The next book on my reading list is the Witchlight adventure.
I’d love to see your takes of the essentials kit and combining it with your version of the Lmop adventure
Unfortunately I haven't read the Essentials Kit! One day though!
Great work dude, thanks for the review :)
Cheers Ben!
Hey Matthew, great overall summary of DoSI! Will you be offering suggestions for where the party might go after the adventure? Reaching Level 3 is such an exciting time for players because they're all now in their subclass and just starting to get some cool powers. It'd be great to have somewhere for them to use them. :)
Great work and I look forward to the deep-dive Matty P treatment!
Thanks! Yes I'll be looking for ways to insert hooks to other published adventures, but this is something I'll do in a dedicated video, rather than calling out the opportunities piecemeal as we go along
SUBSCRIB 😮
E
Oh and I forgot to mention, I'm already subscrib'd :D
There are a number of techie things I've encountered where "oops left off the E haha" was definitely a thing. good pok at lif too.
Thanks!
That adventure not only looks cool for newby DMs but also to introduce new players to the game!
I kinda want to get it, wish I had time to run more games haha
As if that's ever stopped you from buying D&D stuff you know you'll never use haha
@@heyitsMattyP #TRUTH!
Love the video. About the zombies, however, my group has had some great experiences fighting zombies and it is because of that sometimes they don't die when you kill them ability. We recently had a zombie pop back up 4 or 5 times and it started a legend in our group of the immortal zombie. Yes, it can be a time sink but sometimes I think it is ok to have monsters the party is easily able to dispatch to make them feel powerful and zombies do that but with a twist that can be fun.
That sounds fun! And for one fight, I would agree, but this module has up to four zombie fights.
Thanks for the rundown - I wasn't going to buy it but this might just be a good short adventure to have a round for spontaneous sessions.
Also love to see the orange table cover 👍😉
It's super short and simple! I reckon i could run the whole mini-campaign from memory.
I was thinking the same thing - we have the same colour desktop mat now! Though mine is actually a kind of macaroni yellow in natural lighting, but my camera and colour adjustment does a bit of a number on it.
@@heyitsMattyP mine always shifts colors once published as well. It's just part of the charm
I did LMOP but put in forge of fury instead of WEC.
I just got it this month
Ok so now I'm torn. Should I run DOSI for my group right now or should I wait until the series is complete? I feel like it would be better to run it first, then listen to Matty P's sage advice and modify the adventure based on my experience and your videos. That's what I did with LMoP and the second time I ran it was so much better!
I'll always say you should back yourself! Have a go of it, make some mistakes, see how you feel about it :)
Interesting take
Please make a guide like LMOP!!! that's been so useful, I'm still playing with that guide 😍
That's the plan! I think this series will be easier to follow than the LMOP guides
Would've loved to have had Dragons of Stormwreck isle when I started DMing, I ended up starting with Sunless Citadel and turned out that was the right choice, but maybe not for the reason you might think.
I had already ran Phandelver start as a player twice and I found it uninspiring at the time (Until I actually finished LMoP as a DM)
Sunless Citadel was only 1 location (2 maps) instead of several smaller maps making it seem less daunting to new DM me, + the level 1 to 3 was the perfect duration for my players Because the moment we went onto a longer adventure they didn't want to play anymore because it was taking too much time, so we never would've finished Phandelver
I've heard good things about that adventure! That's one of the ones in Yawning Portal, right? It's the only adventure in that whole book I've heard of anyone running
@@heyitsMattyP Yeah it's from the Yawning Portal book. I myself didn't run anything else from it either. I think it's because in essence the entire book is just 5 dungeon crawls separated by visits to the Yawning Portal and while I'm sure there's plenty of people that like that sort of thing most people would like to mix it up a bit more, so after the first dungeon crawl your players have a place in the world, either continue into a different module or continue with Homebrew, there's also several hooks inside the dungeon itself that players might be more interested in exploring rather than going back to the Yawning Portal and going to a different dungeon.
(From what I've understood most people, including me also skip the Yawning Portal introduction and just have the players start in Oakhurst, the starting town for Sunless Citadel)
Thanks for all the information and ideas :) Investigation should be +1 right? Not +3 (At 3:17)
Investigation = +1 for the INT Modifier, then +2 for the little proficiency dot next to the skill.
Is the red box with the Elmore painting the actual BECMI basic box or the 4e intro set?
It's the 4E version :) It's actually a pretty good little adventure! I wouldn't mind making a conversion for 5E sometime.
How long would you say this campaign takes? Thinking of running this for a group of new players (as someone who has only DMed LMOP and some one shots) for a short adventure before doing something long term
It took me four sessions, 16 hours total.
Awesome review Matt! I really agree with your take on NPCs that overshadow the PCs. Like - why don't you just go and do all the quests on your own?
When I do bring NPCs of that power, they are almost always neutral and have an agenda that doesn't align with the PCs.
In this case, it's the QUESTGIVER that's overshadowing the PCs :( :( :(
@@heyitsMattyP Ooof
Hallo, could you do a "how to DM" the story in the essentials kit ? Plz
Hallo! Unfortunately I haven't read or played the Essentials Kit - I'd recommend checking out my mate Bob World Builder for some solid guides on the Essentials Kit
To me, the essentials of a beginner box adventure are: a cool adventure name, a trap, a riddle, and a dragon fight (or at least something new players will probably consider a dragon fight). Would Stormwreck have me covered?
You got 3/4. There's a riddle/puzzle but it's solved by a dice roll.
Hahaha the SUBSCRIB-E bit had me laughing. Good video thanks for the review :)
I made that joke especially for you. Cheers!
I am pretty excited to start playing it soon :)) but it sounds like i need to change a lot :D... Thanks nice video :))
Changing a lot is the fun part! I'm looking forward to it :)
Now I just need to find some more players to run this for: we’re still doing LMoP!
LMOP is a fair bit better than DOSI, but DOSI is still pretty good.
For new players, yeah LMOP is better. The story is more robust and has heaps of classic D&D experiences. But DOSI is a better starter set adventure for new DMs because it's more focussed on giving the DM a safe, contained story to experiment with.
How about adding a merchant to the settiement where you can spend money? To simple? yes, but how about the merchant comes flying there once a week using a zeppelin. They are not landing but lower down somebody on a robe and take orders for stuff which will be deliverd on parachuts (which might miss the delivery spot by chance or can be damaged). The merchant can appear random and can have some interaction with the dragon fighting in the sky etc.
Just a rough idea which can be expended but might be fun because of the interaction and delivery process. You could add some fun magic items this way too.
Fun idea! But I reckon I'd prefer to use Myla or one of the kobolds as a merchant, scavenging goods from sunken wrecks, just because I'd worry about the questions of, "Why didn't the dragon attack the blimp? Why is the blimp immune to the harpy's song? Can we catch a ride on the blimp to leave the island?"
@@heyitsMattyP They could be immune to harpy's by using ear blugs and communicate only by signing or writtin notes? they might be attacked by the dragon but have cannons on board to defend or have a machine or gizmo to producue a sound a dragon really hates. They can refuse taking anybody on board out of fear somebody might steal they inventions and/or: sorry our insurance doesn't allow passenger transport you are on your own down theire.
What are those books in the back? The beholder one looks sick. I want one.
Cool review btw.
That's the limited edition monster manual! They did a reprint as part of a gift set a few years ago
Hey Matthew! I really miss your CR episode breakdowns, is there any chance you'll start doing them again or will they be left but a sweet dream?
All the best.
Hey mate! Unfortunately, the time of Matty-P-does-Critical-Role is long passed. I was not vibing with the content, and the weekly grind was killing something in me that I would very much prefer to keep alive. Funnily enough though, since quitting, I've gotten the opportunity to play a game with James Haeck at PAX AUS next week, the guy who co-wrote the CR sourcebooks. If I was still making CR content, I would have milked this for all it's worth haha :D
@@heyitsMattyP Taking care of yourself is paramount, thanks for answering!
Was Debating either this, Rime, or delving into OG DM sauce
Tricky decision, Sam! The main benefit of this is that it's SHORT and you can guarantee you'll finish it.
Matty P!!!!!!
Mr Savas.
@@heyitsMattyP Mr. Perkins! Love seeing your new vids in my notifications!
If Zombies are no threat and boring... have your 4-6 players go up against an unending army of them. The players must get 100 feet across to the other side of a cemetery, where the mausoleum of the Undead Lich king resides in an underground labyrinth, with possession of the players' souls. If they survive the 100 foot gauntlet of zombies, (difficult at any level) it lets the players have an epic LotR Aragorn, Gimli, Legolas type moment. Especially if they get their souls back???!!!
Goblins... Try fighting them with 4 or 5 levels of exhaustion, with the goblins attacking and hiding, attacking and hiding... Good luck! Did that in my LMoP Goblin Attack... It was not easy and quite challenging to my experienced players.
Don't just change the monsters into something else... Pull a Kirk... Change the conditions of the test!
Look forward to the upcoming series on Stormwreck!
the paladin and roque have an additional language,
Thanks! They got a little funky with languages and some tool proficiencies in general, so I presumed they were hot-swapping some features for languages or vice versa
Is there such a thing as a good 5e adventure?
There is no good adventure module in any system. Every single one needs input from you before it becomes table-ready and good for your group.
Im okay with with an "invisible wall" if its still possible to cross with some creativity and determination. but if it is actually impossible to cross im way less okay with it.
This invisible wall is an 80-foot gap! Seems plenty passable for determined parties, but a deterrent for others.
Lost mines for life! Jk. I'm willing to accept some change but I just recently started lost mines.
I'll still be doing Lost Mines stuff FYI! Expect something once a month.
I prefer this shorter adventure over LmoP for newbies overall and good run down on the adventure content.
As a Starter set for D&D... its lack luster. The intro to how to play the game barely goes over the importance of the role of a DM in describing the theater of the mind. Its easy for experienced DMs but for new DMs, i've tried introducing to found it to loose. At the very least giving a "Rhythm of play" example for combat would help out a lot.
As for new players, telling them which dice is which has always been a problem and I wish they made a diagram of what each dice looks or color coded the dice to help learn. Also the lack of inclusion of extra character sheets is weird. If the starter set was made to lure in new players, locking the players out of one of D&D's biggest appeal of playing whoever or whatever you want as an option is just missed opportunity.
It does have a rhythm of play section, but it's super short. I'll admit I'm biased here, but I'm glad it doesn't perfectly teach them game, because then it means I get to make guides about it haha! The official D&D channel has the same idea because they're making videos about the adventure too, and their production value is CRAZY good.
Having run both, I prefer Dragons of Stormwreck Isle as a starter adventure
I reckon so too! It's defs shorter, and I prefer that over anything
Wait... Are you a fusion between Matthew Mercer & Chris Perkins??
No, I am the original.
OOooooOooooooOooo
EEeeeeEeeeeeeEeee
Subscrib
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Not even close
"Zombies are too hard to kill, and they come back to life"
Just cut off their head. Or, if your the Cleric, use Turn Undead XD!!!!
If you're supposed to be a level 1 cleric, I'm not sure that's supposed to work.
on the other hand telling a new GM how to make the Gods of their world, or at least the Cleric at their table look awesome, seems a good thing to have in a starter set.
I know my intro to one of the other D&D versions was a zombie fight. But it had its own reason to make sense. Also I got introduced to the paladin who was gonna join the group with me.
I think that reducing the zombie fight to not-all-the-players might make a good war story to start things out with?
That's a good point about the Cleric! I need to keep Zombies around to give that Turn Undead ability a use in the campaign
@@starshinewindlord2716 True, but then, just cut off their head XD!!!! (Or Smash since Cleric's use Warhammers and Maces)
Just play Lavender Hack
That actually looks pretty fun! Hey I gotta ask, because I'm getting some different comments on this video recently: did someone link this video on an OSR or AD&D forum or something? Or did you find this in your general YT feed?
@@heyitsMattyP youtube listed it as osr. Did you put that in the tags ir description?
Nope!
So they are stealing from Adventure League and giving guidance on some encounters. Waiting for my copy to drop.
It should be standard practise, I reckon! I love reading that kind of stuff. I've been meaning to pick up that book The Monsters Know What They're Doing that breaks down strategy for every D&D monster.
@@heyitsMattyP I recommend you pick it up in paperback so you can write notes in it. If you get on kindle pay no more than $5 for it. It does get boring if you try to read all at once.
For the AL adjustment here is the formula. Find the Level of module/adventure.
Party Composition Party Strength Average Party Level.
3-4 characters, APL less than Very weak
3-4 characters, APL equivalent Weak,
3-4 characters, APL greater than Average
5 characters, APL less than Weak,
5 characters, APL equivalent Average
5 characters, APL greater than Strong,
6-7 characters, APL less than Average
6-7 characters, APL equivalent Strong,
6-7 characters, APL greater than Very strong
Rogue and Wizard Pdf still have those errors. But I have pdf editor.
Ola! 💋👌
Saying lost mines of phandelver is so annoying. It's lost MINE. ONE MINE.
You know what? I'm gonna say Mines even harder.
If it's 5e and/or made by WokeC, it's NOT good. Have you tried 1st/2nd edition AD&D? You should it's real gaming although they don't have coffee shops in those editions.
heh, nice one brother, own those libs
Yeah, but no. It teached DMs all the wrong lessons as a module. It teaches them that the game is just a series of combat set pieces connected by brief roleplay that doesn't really mean anything. The adventure sites, the dungeons, are shallow and basic with no options or challenge... The shroom caves are nothing but boring fights, a little talk, and then a nothing 'end boss'. No exploration, no puzzles, no traps, no challenge, no room for the craziness of D&D to actually happen.... Turn up, say the words, fight the monster, cash in your reward. D&D is MUCH more than this.
Lost Mines was 100 times better for both the player and the DM
Lots longer though! Sometimes people want a quick thing rather than a large commitment when trying out a new hobby.