How to Run the D&D Starter Set - Goblin Arrows
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- čas přidán 2. 06. 2024
- Part one of the Lost Mine of Phandelver is many people's first experience with Dungeons and Dragons. We're going over the ambush and Cragmaw Hideout with tips and tricks to help you feel prepared to run it as the Dungeon Master and give your players an awesome experience.
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👨🏫 DND101: • Intro to DnD
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Index
00:00 - Lost Mine of Phandelver Prep
00:48 - Goblin Arrows
04:04 - Goblin Ambush
12:00 - Cragmaw Hideout
22:53 - Don’t Forget to Leave a Note
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#Dnd #DM #StarterSet #LMoP - Hry
Re. Names for npc’s... I just look at whatever is in front of me, drop my finger on a random word, and use it backwards.
This, this is good
- Er
- Smane
- Roff
- Sc'pn
- Tsuje
- Kool
- Ta
- Revetaw
- Nisi
- T'norf
- Em
- Pord
- Y'mm
- Regnif
- Ano
- Modnar
- D'nadrow
- Esu'ti
- S'dara Kwab
I switched some things around. But that list of names was just your comment with words (or pairs of words) backwards for the most part.
This is genius.
My party did in fact charm the three wolves in the first chamber and then used them in the fight against the bugbear. When Klarg attacked one of the wolves, I had his pet wolf roll against Klarg's charisma saving throw to see if he turned against his master under the assumption that the other wolves were its children or at least related / kin. Klarg failed his save and was devoured by his own wolves.
This was good as two of the party were rolling death saving throws at that point due to a series of very unfortunate rolls, and the other PCs were running very low on health. Was absolutely epic and the party was so happy to have four very grateful guardians for the rest of the journey on the path to Phandalin.
Oh wow, that sounds awesome. It can be tricky to have NPCs in combat but sounds like you handled it smoothly
I had to pull SOOOOO many punches on both the ambush, and in the cave. It really felt like these characters needed to start at level 2.
Yeah, starting at two is definitely an option. It really depends on player strategy, and then ultimately it depends on the dice. The PCs get way more durable pretty quickly, don't worry
I just started running this campaign last week and i noticed my players are waaay too skeptical of everything haha
I made them start in neverwinter meeting with Gundren and Sildar, and then deliver the wagon to phandalin, they checked the wagon and everything on it lookikg for traps or maybe runes.
Then after the goblin ambush they headed to phandalin to deliver the wagon, so I described the town using the text box from the adventure and they were suspicious of the town itself and all the ruins that it's built on.
Anyway, they headed back to the ambush place and made their way to the hideout, we ended the session there. Reaally looking forward to the next session, we had lots of fun! Amazing video, thank you :)
Awesome! It can get a little tedious sometimes when they investigate every little thing and trust no one sometimes, but an insight check and a whisper or text message to say “this NPC is trustworthy” can help. And it is great to have a group engaged and curious about the world, definitely beats the alternative. With your players it sounds like you could make very good use of the doppelgängers 😉
Fantastic video explains exactly what a DM has to do to make a game involving & interesting to keep players guessing & engaged!
Glad you enjoyed it and found it helpful!
Agreed! These videos are excellent.
I just started DMing and chose this as the very first campaing! I can't tell you how nervous I was of not being capable to continue the narrative after the ambush just ended, the bard just OBLITERATED the remaining two goblins at the same time with Thunderwave, so I had nothing pointing them towards the goblin hideout, and my party was adamant about delivering those goods to Elmar Barthen, who thankfully redirected them back to the scene of the ambush (I didn't read part two and was unaware that this happens, never again am I not gonna read the entire book first)
Yeah they'll usually try to track down Gundren and Sildar, but once in a while a group will head to town first. Definitely good to have Phandolin prepped before you start, it can be a lot to run on the fly, especially for a newer DM
New DM and new subscriber here! Thank you so much for this series! I'm about to run this game for the first time this Thursday for my husband and grown kids (18, 22 x 2, and 20). I'm more nervous about DMing for them than DMing for the first time, lol. They're all very creative and love gaming. I've only played D & D once, and it's been a while. But, when they asked me to DM, I couldn't resist! I have taken notes and now will be getting ready. I'll listen to this video once more before Thursday night and I know it will help. I'm looking forward to prepping for the rest of the chapters with help from your videos. Thank you!
Oh amazing, that makes me really happy! The first time I ever played D&D I was the DM for this adventure. You can absolutely do it and have a great time in the process. Maybe check out my combat video companion to this one, it goes over the first fight here and more of the mechanical side of things.
Having experienced and creative players can feel intimidating sometimes, because you’re more likely to go “off book,” but you’re going to find it’s a real asset. The unknown is what keeps it a game for the DM. Just stress to the players that this isn’t a video game if that’s where a lot of their experience comes from. The monsters are intelligent, the NPCs will remember if you’re mean to them and treat you accordingly, there are no save points, etc.
Thanks for the subscription and the comment, I hope this reply was helpful and not just unsought advice. I’m excited for you and your family and hope you come back and tell us how it goes!
Same here running it for my first time today with my wife and kids 2 are 16 and my daughters 10 but I think she'll be ok. Hope you got on well Vanessa Zahel . Looking to play upto chapter 2 then do some homework on the minig town and npc's etc to make sure I do it justice. Thanks for the great vids super helpful
Thanks @@Jaklas1979 There's definitely a solid approach in taking one thing at a time but if there's time I would definitely consider taking a look at town and the NPCs there for two reasons: 1) to potentially give the player characters deeper ties to the place and people there, but maybe more importantly 2) There is a chance they decide to head to Phandalin instead of the Cragmaw Hideout first thing. Even a quick skim or a watch of the Phandalin video in this playlist will be a good foundation
I'm very happy to be helping families play some D&D and have some creative quality time together. I hope you all have a lot of fun and make some memorable stories!
@@Jaklas1979 The first time I ran this adventure, my party completely skipped Cragmaw Cave and went to Phandalin. Then when Barthen suggested they go find the goblins cave, they said they'd do it later.
They decided to explore Phandalin. They accidentally stumbled upon the Redbrand Hideout, realized it was too advanced for them and ran away.
When they finally explored Cragmaw Cave, Sildar was dead. The goblins had killed him while the party was wasting time.
I've never played D&D, and neither have my friends. We decided to jump in to this campaign and I volunteered to DM (I've always wanted to run a game after watching D&D streams). This video has been a godsend for easing a brand new DM/GM into learning good habits and crafting an enthralling story. Thank you!
Oh awesome, so happy to help you get up and running. Once you've got a handle on this playlist, or at least the first half of the videos, I would recommend checking out my newer one on the Shattered Obelisk. There is some small details you can add in to LMoP early that will set you up for success taking the campaign a much longer distance. And if you end up stopping after Wave Echo Cave it won't be much effort wasted or unsatisfying cliffhangers
I used the Cragmaw gold tooth idea with my new group last night. They loved it.
Awesome! Nothing says D&D like collecting teeth
The gold tooth idea is amazing for my players. I made a little Tutorial mission at the start because they were all new and they ended up all making tooth necklaces for each other(gotta love the creativity). Now they get a sweet gold tooth to add on to it aswell
Awesome! You gotta give the people what they want, and for some reason it’s teeth
Bout to run this for some friends. this is awesome advice!
Awesome, have fun!
This series has been great so far in preparation to DM my first ever campaign for my friends. I love that you pictured Barristan Selmy for Sildar, that was IMMEDIATELY where my mind went as well and the inspiration for his voice and mannerisms for me. Very excited to run this campaign this weekend!
I love it! Hope you have a great time kicking off your D&D journey
Great work with this. I'm running this as my daughters' and their friend's first RPG experience. I was a bit worried about them as they chose to play as 2 rogues and a bard so started them at level 2 so they weren't quite as squishy.
They steamrolled the initial ambush with the goblins only managing to do a flesh wound to the bard (a massive Dragonborn), they engaged in a short chase with the last goblin who they just managed to capture after he surrendered on 1 HP.
They've now learned everything they could from him, though I did have to encourage them not to head off to confront Grol as their next goal by making it extremely clear that the goblin thought it would be a great idea for them to walk up to a castle full of the rest of his tribe.
So next session they head to the cave with the knowledge that all the goblins hate Klarg, that Yeemik wants to see him dead and him in charge, and that Sildar is still alive, there are quite a few other goblins in the cave, and that the path is trapped.
I was very impressed with the way they handled session 0 plus introduction encounter. Session 1 will be this coming Saturday and I will definitely encourage them to take a short rest and scope out the cave before tackling it.
Thanks for the tips in this series, a truly excellent resource.
Oh wow, sounds like a great session! Party composition can matter, but way less than player tactics, so I bet your table will be fine. Have fun!
This has been a big help running the game. Your mention of cool things the players can do led me to allow a bit of leeway when they did something. To deal with the bridge goblin, (which the ranger noticed) the players decided to take him out silently. The ranger and sorcerer shot him and the barbarian caught him before he could hit the water so it was a silent kill. The part that I allowed was letting the sorcerer’s cantrip hit even tho it technically didn’t beat his armor class, I reasoned that unaware he wouldn’t have the dex bonus to dodge.
Glad you found it helpful, sounds like you're all ready having a good time and making the game your own. Other systems do a similar thing and have like a -2 penalty for being "flat footed"
Ran this yesterday...my first time as a DM, also my first time playing D&D ever...
And when my party saw the horses in the road they decided to light the forest on fire using the oil in the wagon.
How the hell does one prepare for that. Lol
Oh yeah, welcome to the illustrious club of DMs! You just have to roll with it. I will say it isn’t always necessarily easy to start a forest fire unless there’s a drought going on. And Never Winter Wood is big
Great video learning a lot! Great story telling because that’s all it really is telling a story!
The first time I ran this adventure, my party completely skipped Cragmaw Cave and went to Phandalin. Then when Barthen suggested they go find the goblins cave, they said they'd do it later.
They decided to explore Phandalin. They accidentally stumbled upon the Redbrand Hideout, realized it was too advanced for them and ran away.
When they finally explored Cragmaw Cave, Sildar was dead. The goblins had killed him while the party was wasting time.
I might also add that it was my first time DMing and I didn't do a very good job. I've gotten much better at it since then, though I've only used published adventures. Writing an adventure from scratch intimidates me.
Yeah a lot of the time new players will kind of experiment and explore, kind of just revel in their freedom. That's how they learn how wide open this game can be, and that the world around them is alive and still ticking away when they're not looking.
As far as homebrew it's like anything else, start small, build your confidence. You don't have to write out a whole campaign, just make a little 5-7 room dungeon. Or even just a single encounter to start.
@@RdotDoyle I'm running Storm King's Thunder right now. I added five additional dungeons, my first time creating dungeons on my own, and I hope they're perceived well by my players.
Perfect, there you go. And STK has a lot of room in that big sandboxy middle act for homebrew and variety
I just first time dmed my group of beginners. My party killed all the goblins in the ambush, forgetting that one of them was supposed to try and retreat. I had them all go to Phandalin where I got Elmar to have them go back to the site and investigate. They found the goblin path and avoided the first trap, and almost fell into the second. We ended at the Cragmaw hideout, but I think we all did great for the first session. Lesser rules I didn't understand I avoided to keep the game going, and it all came right together.
Sounds like a great time. No plan survives contact with the enemy, I mean the players. Adapt, learn, grow, and have fun doing it. Sounds like you're already there
Super helpful, thanks for the effort put in, liked and subscribed!
Thanks! Glad it was helpful
Just getting back into DM-ing with LoMP, lots of great ideas. Thank you!
Welcome back! Hope you have a blast
Like the first video in the Series, this is pure gold.
Awesome, thank you, hope your players enjoy it too!
I ran this today and but I didn’t get a chance to watch this video but I think it went pretty well. The players ended up killing Yeemik and rescuing Sildar without fighting Klarg. I will make sure to watch your next episode before I run session 2
Awesome, did you run your second session yet?
@@RdotDoyle unfortunately no as something came up but I have finished my notes for it
I was a bit nervous about DMing for the first time, but watching these videos has made me super excited. Cant wait to start with my group now!
Heck yeah, that's exactly why I did this. Have a blast!
Your channel is amazing, I'm a new DM and have already learned a ton. Great teaching style. Not sure why you don't have more views!
Thanks! I’m glad you’re getting a lot out of it, bringing new people and particularly new DMs into the game makes me super happy.
As far as the channel, I think I made some mistakes early on that did not please the algorithm gods. And that’s alright because it’s a great metaphor for running D&D (or a lot of things in life) fail forward, accept that you might screw some things up, keep getting better, and try to enjoy the process. Growth is slow but steady now, and the smaller community does make it possible to interact with everybody
@@RdotDoyle It's funny, I've been looking at a lot of videos on how to run Lost Mines.. took forever for yours to pop-up. Anyway, liked and subscribed! Cheers
Great video! Liked and subscribed.
Thanks!
Great Video! 👍
Thanks!
Oh man I’m DMing for the first time this Sunday with this set. They’ve videos are a lifesaver!! Thank you! ❤
Awesome! Have fun with it. Check out my latest on the Shattered Obelisk when you get a chance to give yourself some tools to set up to continue the story all the way to level 12 if you want
Terrific job on this video
Thank you, I appreciate you saying that. A lot of work went into this series
Amazing! Thank you very much
Thank you
My players Calmed the Wolves down with food and Animal Handle Check DC 10 as the book says, this idea came to them as the chain almost broke. They then proceeded to climb the hole to area 8, they succeeded because the first person to climb throwed them a rope and I gave a +5 to their athletics check to climb. They obliterated Klarg by surprising him and his crew, and now Im kinda lost because the big boss moment was blown up by that shortcut and surprise attack. I am thinking in use the goblins on area 7 to warn the one in the bridge to tell Yeemik that Klarg is dead so they can surprise the party and get things more challenging.
Sometimes it feels anticlimactic when the players short circuit the boss fight, but that’s only on the DMs side. For the players it feels great. Between being outnumbered by goblins and keeping Sildar alive the Yeemik room can still be a big moment for sure
This is one of those moments where you smile at your players and let them know that enemy was written to be a dangerous boss, and they just outwitted him so hard it made him look like a chump.
When something that feels anticlimactic due to the player's cleverness/success happens, showing how hard they worked to make it anticlimactic can make it feel even more satisfying as a victory.
Lol, one of my players scouted up the garbage chimney by himself and then noped back down after realized there were at least 4 enemies up there, Ripper the wolf chased him down and I think had his final HP knocked out by flubbing the climb and taking fall damage, then Klarg was sending one of the other goblins down the chimney to fight, literally kicking him down, he got a nat 20 on the acrobatics, but then missed his attempted attack, and was basically like, "Fuck this, I'm not fighting 4 adventurers alone", nimble escaped, and ran away. The players recognized him among the Grol loyalists when they returned to the cave and faced the results of leaving a power vacuum by killing Klarg and almost no goblins
Enjoying these updates! Any opportunity to have call backs and returning characters is Dungeon Master Gold
I'm about to start LMoP with my kids tomorrow. And I'm was just searching for some last minute tips and tricks to run it smooth and keep them engaged. And man.... this video really got my brain running. Ages 9-14. And now I'm just excited to see thier reactions of excitement and/or betrayal. Kinda wishing I had found a different ambush grid Map. But I'll make it work.
Oh that's awesome. The goal is always to get the imagination sparking, hope you all have a ton of fun with it
Very good video, thanks
Thank you
Thanks for the help, I finally started running this story for my wife and son this past week (after lots of reading, notes and additional details). Still feel like I could have done even more prep, but I think being able to look things up quickly is the key (and rolling with things). I gave them a side kick (Ruby), but they were a bit too gungho in many respects and my son’s character died during a random encounter while they rested outside of Cragmaw Hideout. He cried (while I wasn’t there) and really wasn’t up for another session. Through some fancy footwork and creative writing I managed to keep him in the party and he’s now super invested in the story (the semi-tame wolf companion he now has helped). Thanks!
Sounds like a memorable experience for all of you! Happy to help you get there. You’ll feel more and more prepared as you gain experience, and as long as you stay flexible I think prep is innately good
Gerblins…thank you. Worth it all right there.
Ha! Thank you, that is probably my favorite part too
Hey dude. Just found your channel. About to start running lost mines. Great vids and your gonna get a shit ton of plays from me. Old 2E player getting into 5E 🤓 Thanks for all the help. I love how you explain stuff and make it easy for nub dms haha
Hey hey! Welcome to the table and welcome back to D&D! Happy I can help
My players pacified and released the wolves. Ranger snuck up and 1-shot the Overpass guard. Then he jumped the goblins in the Twin Pools room by himself. I used 3 goblins there, since the book weirdly says 2 in the description but 3 in the text. I had them eating at a small fire and talking, which the ranger put out with Control Flames, then tossed the head of a goblin from the Thicket he decapitated into their midst to scare them from a juicy dirty 20 stealth roll. So they heard nothing. Since he's new, I didn't have that break stealth but instead, two began advancing with shields up and one ran to Klarg's Cave. One round of combat later, with one gob dead and one at 1 hp, Klarg arrived with the messenger goblin and Ripper, and the injured gob walked up and crit the ranger for 11 damage, putting him at 1, too. I was briefly VERY worried about Klarg getting a round in with the ranger up front, before the 1hp gob was finished off, the ranger 1-shot Ripper with Favored Foe and a good roll, the Rogue who had also been in stealth landed a big Sneak Attack on Klarg for 14 damage and then the Sorcerer cast Sleep, rolled way higher than needed and put all of them to sleep. The party then decided to walk around and give each one a coup de grace. Funny enough, the ranger pulled out his rapier to finish off Klarg, and rolled a 2, followed by a whopping nat 1 from his advantage. They roleplayed up the miss, which impressed me since it was their first session ever playing, and it was all good fun. They have yet to take a rest, but the wizard is now out of spell slots. I think the Sorcerer has 1 left and a one-per-long-rest Cure Wounds. Rather than Klarg being the big bad, I think it's going to turn out that the Goblin Den will be the big scary fight, since they'll be out-numbered and are low on resources. I'm looking forward to it! Just an hour to go as I review last-minute prep!
Classic! Hope the next one went well and you all had fun
@@RdotDoyle Thanks! We snuck in a mid-week session to wrap up the cave. The players ambushed the Goblin Den, but then negotiated with Yeemik. One of them had taken a tooth from Klarg as a trophy, and tossed it to them as proof they'd already killed him. So Yeemik demanded money since they did that on their own and he didn't owe them for it. Our kobold ranger offered his share of the copper and silver (it was at this point I realized Yeemik was dead), and our rogue threw in 5 gold, getting a nat 20 slight of hand to pretend the rest of their pouch was empty. They handed over Silvar and ordered the players to leave and never return. As soon as they got Sildar to safety and the ranger loaned him his rapier and shield, they snuck back in to ambush the goblins. A single gob failed its stealth against them, and they opened with a surprise attack against it. But the goblins were waiting to ambush them if they returned, and almost pin-cushioned the rogue. Fortunately, two of them missed despite advantage, and the rogue survived. They wiped the remaining two goblins in two rounds without taking another hit! They missed the supplies, but made it safely back outside without ever taking a single rest and no one being downed.
Thank you so much for this video! I‘ll be starting this campaign soon with only minimal playing and no DM experience at all. I hope I can be creative enough to react spontaneously to everything that happens and make the story immersive enough. That‘s probably my biggest challenge. Knowing the stats and rules and information is probably the easy part for me.
Knowing the rules and even more so the info in the book is important, at least for me. I find that helps me improvise and adapt as I know what's meaningful and what's going on elsewhere. I think of lot of that creative side just comes from practice, and it's not even simply building up your imaginative muscles, it's proving to yourself that you can do it so you can relax into that knowledge
Freakin awesome advise
Thanks!
I’m about to run this as a first time DM and this video has given me so much more confidence I really want my players to enjoy the game and the natural flow of things is amazing can’t wait to see how it goes thanks for the video
Awesome, I think you all will have a lot of fun
@@RdotDoyle do you have a video on running a game with a party full of spellcasters we have two sorcerers a wizard a rouge and a ranger I’m afraid they will be too squishy
I wouldn’t be too worried about it, rangers can be surprisingly tough and depending on build even the rogue could be frontline. I see that as the players problem to figure out honestly, you’ve got enough on your plate. They can worry about they’re strategies and synergies and gear and build outs. You’ve got a world to run
@@RdotDoyle you not wrong lol thanks for the response
Absolutely, hope it came off helpful and not flippant. Worst case they can hire a tanky sidekick, and share their loot and even XP. Actually I guess the actual worst case a squishy character dies and they roll up a class with more AC/HP
Great videos thank you so much! In a couple of weeks I'm DMing the first part of this campaign. Im gonna try it out on some experienced DMs to get some tips and tricks and then run it for my inexperienced friends who want to get to know D&D.
Up until the first goblin encounter I think I'm solid, but I'm a bit nervous about the cragmaw hideout. There's so much going on and it could go in so many directions. I was wondering, when do you roll for initiative and when do you stop initiative? I.e. when the goblin on the bridge spots the adventurers he tries to sneak up to his buddies and start the flood and then starts fyring arrows. Is that when you role for initiative and will the flood start in round 2 or does the flood start simultaneously with the goblin firing the arrows? And at what point does Yeemick come in threatening to kill sildar and do you stop initiative rounds when yeemick tries to stop the fight? Tnx!
I'm going to give you two answers here. First one is by the book technical: Initiative starts when combat begins. Some participants might be surprised in that first round, so they don't act until the second round. That would be what happens if the goblins spring the flood trap and the players and unaware. If a whole round goes by and no one is attacking, because everyone has agreed to negotiate with Yeemick than I'll get out of initiative, but I'd pick it up right back on his turn and have him push sildar off the ledge if anyone moves to attack again.
Second answer is how I've been doing things lately: Initiative is a tool for when you as the dungeon master want to want things to move in slow motion, because it is dramatic and/or because it matters what happens when exactly down to the moment mechanically. I'll call for initiative sometimes out of combat because whatever the players are attempting feels like it should happen in "bullet time."
That's a little more advanced maybe and usually it will confuse players the first time I do it for them, but sometimes it ups the drama and sometimes it's just key for helping me organize and structure the game. It's also worth keeping in mind: For most players initiative=fight, so if you call for it in the midst of a tense conversation they might interpret it as the time for talk is over.
@@RdotDoyle thanks for the clear answers, I can work with that! One more question, when they are fighting and more goblins run in as back up, how do you determine their initiative? Do you add them at the bottom of the list or do you role their initiative and add them in the order according to their rolls?
Easiest to keep all of the same type of monster on the same count.
Im using this adventure for a kids D&D game I'm DM'ing so this has been very valuable, thank you!
Question - how come the closed captions aren't accurate? It looks like something else was typed in than what was said? It's throwing me off and idk what's going on with it.
Oh that's great! Thanks for the comment.
This was back when I was doing the subtitles differently (and worse lol.) Thanks for pointing it out, I went through and cleaned them up a bunch.
@@RdotDoyle you’re welcome! And no worries. I usually have captions on due to my hearing loss so it was throwing me off a little bit but you’re good. I know it’s a lot of work to do that and when you’re a one person show doing this on your free time I just appreciate the fact you were even trying!
Hey at 7:20 I was wondering what website you used to map out the encounter.
That is a map I found on google image search and downloaded off of Reddit, the program I’m using it in is called Owlbear rodeo and it’s great. It’s gotten a big update since I’ve made this but I believe you can still use this older version as well
You have to be able to Adapt as a DM! & get your players where you want them to go!
7:29 where did you get that map sir ? I would love to use it. And thx for awasome tips!
Definitely. That one is actually the official one from the module. I'm pretty sure you can still grab it for free on DnD Beyond
Hello! Im new to dming and have am currently preparing to run this for a group of 5 or so. Been using your vids to prepare and its been alot of help. Something im stuck on is Cragmaw Hideout though. I might be misunderstanding the map but it seems to take my players to room 7 (and potentially 8) before they meet Yeemik in room 6. But the adventure is written the opposite and makes sense to meet Yeemik first. Can you please clarify? If it makes any difference im using roll20 to run it, but the maps the same
The great (and potentially scary) part of D&D is almost anything can happen. It’s nonlinear. I’ve had groups meet Yeemik after killing Clarg, and it makes things interesting. I find it actually makes them more likely to negotiate, which means you have some potential to bring Yeemik back later
I guess I'm not misunderstanding the map layout of the map then?
The players have choices to make, you just lay out the options for them and they decide which way to go. I find most groups will engage with the wolves in room 3 one way or another. From there some take the shortcut to 8, some head towards 5 and the trap, and others cut up 4 to 6
Alright ty very much for the info!
i executed some methods from your videos and pays off perfectly.
First, i want to all my players roll d100 and i will set their money sync with the dice. One of the player rolls "05" so i give her 5cp as money. All the players members of guild called "Fairy Tail" and want to secure hireling jobs. Our dwarves start to choose volunteers and my broke wood elf ranger friend first one to want this quest because she simply need job. Our golden dragonborn want to escape from his hunters so joins. (In Phandalin thing will interesting for him though he most experienced player in our group he knew what will i plan to anybody ) everybody joins for a reason basically. I placed some sick dog amoung the wolves. Our ranger refuse the attack animals fataly so i am sure she wants to pet the dog. I also place a "tamed mimic" in the cart but sometimes he moves in its crate and makes voices. Our party members scared from it but my experinanced player poke it and make it attack the players (we actually staged this because we want to show every decision has consequences) and they fight some wolves on the road. They bring cart to the dead horses and we finished our session. After we finished the session they argue how they explain themselves to the Rockseeker. It was hillarious the watch.
Oh, our two player member of "the order" and they demand insurance from the Rockseeker and i obliged. (I will use them inssurance for saving throw after if they fall) and they are geniunly sorry for disturbing mimic because of that
Sounds like a great start to things!
My player average height is always 7ft+ for some reason so I can never scare them with big creatures
Everybody wants to be huge and here I am always making weird little dudes when I play a character
In the meantime, we're still at the tavern 😆