I don't! And I didn't mean good video games like Elder Scrolls, where you can attack the NPCs, but really shouldn't. Just like Hommlet. I meant crappy "safe zone no fighting in town" games, with NPCs standing around with golden !s over their heads, whose only role is to hand out quests. Like Phandalin.
Which First Level Adventure for Beginners/Returning Lapsed Adults
- Thread starter Reynard
- Start date
I don't! And I didn't mean good video games like Elder Scrolls, where you can attack the NPCs, but really shouldn't. Just like Hommlet. I meant crappy "safe zone no fighting in town" games, with NPCs standing around with golden !s over their heads, whose only role is to hand out quests. Like Phandalin.
Yeah, this kind of attitude is why Phandalin sucks.
Mistwell
Crusty Old Meatwad (he/him)
It's basically the most successful and well loved adventure of this generation man. I get you don't like it...but read the room
Jester David
Hero
I don't get the love for Lost Mine of Phandalin. Or Forge of Fury for that matter. Heck, most of Rich Baker's adventures leave me cold.
Too often Baker's adventures are just a series of loosely connected dungeon crawls where you lurch from room to room bashing whatever's in that chamber. LMoP is no different, with five small dungeons. There's no funky creative traps or puzzles. There's no wilderness exploration or natural hazards. There's no riddles. No fantastical locations of wonder and magic. Just dungeon rooms full of things to kill.
It's a terrible way to introduce new DMs into what a dungeon looks like...
Heck, even the town is lame. It doesn't have any particularly memorable NPCs and everyone in the village either has the big glowing "!" of a questgiver above them or exists solely to introduce players to an Organised Play faction.
I'm not a fan of newbie adventures that start with an ambush. It's a dick move that can easily kill unwary and inexperienced players' characters. Who likes dying 30 seconds after starting the game?
Meanwhile, the dragon just sorta appears. It's a deadly encounter but it's not really telegraphed and people aren't warned.
The pregens all have adventure hooks, but these aren't really explored in the adventure and seem tacked-on. Like they were written by someone else after the fact. Especially annoy is the rogue's, which feels like it should have the associated NPC called out. When I ran it, I didn't realise until after all the Redbrands were dead and the player called out the absence.
There's the weird design where you get more experience for talking to an NPC than murdering them. So the adventure is outright advocating violence rather than roleplaying or diplomacy.
There's a tonne of magic items. Three +1 weapons! With one granting a bonus against plant monsters... who you have likely just defeated and won't face again. They basically give you a "key" to a door you've already kicked down.
But that's just me...
Too often Baker's adventures are just a series of loosely connected dungeon crawls where you lurch from room to room bashing whatever's in that chamber. LMoP is no different, with five small dungeons. There's no funky creative traps or puzzles. There's no wilderness exploration or natural hazards. There's no riddles. No fantastical locations of wonder and magic. Just dungeon rooms full of things to kill.
It's a terrible way to introduce new DMs into what a dungeon looks like...
Heck, even the town is lame. It doesn't have any particularly memorable NPCs and everyone in the village either has the big glowing "!" of a questgiver above them or exists solely to introduce players to an Organised Play faction.
I'm not a fan of newbie adventures that start with an ambush. It's a dick move that can easily kill unwary and inexperienced players' characters. Who likes dying 30 seconds after starting the game?
Meanwhile, the dragon just sorta appears. It's a deadly encounter but it's not really telegraphed and people aren't warned.
The pregens all have adventure hooks, but these aren't really explored in the adventure and seem tacked-on. Like they were written by someone else after the fact. Especially annoy is the rogue's, which feels like it should have the associated NPC called out. When I ran it, I didn't realise until after all the Redbrands were dead and the player called out the absence.
There's the weird design where you get more experience for talking to an NPC than murdering them. So the adventure is outright advocating violence rather than roleplaying or diplomacy.
There's a tonne of magic items. Three +1 weapons! With one granting a bonus against plant monsters... who you have likely just defeated and won't face again. They basically give you a "key" to a door you've already kicked down.
But that's just me...
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It's basically the most successful and well loved adventure of this generation man. I get you don't like it...but read the room
The town sucks. Yes, the town killed the adventure for me. But fix the town & you fix the adventure I think.
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Glad to see some push back on LMoP, if this is as good as published adventures get, I think there’s a lot of room for improvement.
It seems as good as WoTC adventures get.
The great thing about 5e is that you can take the best adventures of 0e-2e and to a slightly lesser xtent 3e, and run them in 5e really easily. I mostly run OSR stuff written for Labyrinth Lord in
5e and that works brilliantly, especially when I use BX/LL reaction/morale/loyalty - roll 2d6, low roll = hostile/brave/loyal; high roll = friendly/runs away/leaves.
Here's a good explanation of why Hommlet is so great - http://www.creightonbroadhurst.com/gm-advice-why-is-the-village-of-hommlet-so-awesome/
I'm running it in 1e, but it would work fine in 5e just subbing in MM stat blocks. Pretty much everything in there appears in the MM, to such an extent that I wonder if it was deliberate - the MM Veteran appears based on the 4th level Fighter in the Moathouse dungeon. To represent Lareth (Cleric-5) the MM Priest would need armour, staff of striking, & slightly edited spell list.
I'm running it in 1e, but it would work fine in 5e just subbing in MM stat blocks. Pretty much everything in there appears in the MM, to such an extent that I wonder if it was deliberate - the MM Veteran appears based on the 4th level Fighter in the Moathouse dungeon. To represent Lareth (Cleric-5) the MM Priest would need armour, staff of striking, & slightly edited spell list.
If only there was a thread where you could suggest such adventures...
http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...Returning-Lapsed-Adults&p=7501430#post7501430
And I've been running Stonehell Dungeon in 5e for the past year - it's brilliant, but the format takes a bit of getting used to to appreciate. I mentioned Gygax's Village of Hommlet upthread.
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