D&D 5E Legacy of the Crystal Shard Mine of Phandelver

[Tobold]

I am planning to start a 5th edition Dungeons & Dragons campaign with players who haven't played 5E before. Due to an infrequent playing schedule we had some problems in the past with adventures that contained too many parallel stories and too many NPCs. So a relatively linear starting adventure like the Lost Mine of Phandelver looks like the right choice. However, I also have the Legacy of the Crystal Shard adventure. And while it looks a bit too complicated for my group with 3 parallel stories to keep track of, it has this great Icewind Dale setting. Which would be a perfect settings fit if I want to play Storm King's Thunder afterwards.

Having trouble deciding between the two choices, I came up with a crazy idea: What if I play the plot and encounters of the Lost Mine of Phandelver, but move the whole thing from Phandalin to Bryn Shander or one of the smaller of the Ten Towns? That way I could use the excellent campaign guide material from LotCS, but keep the story to the simpler Starter Set one. And the cast of the two adventures appears to be somewhat compatible, with dwarves and bandits and goblins.

Has anyone experience with the two adventures in question and an opinion whether that crazy plan of mine might work?

 

[happyhermit]

I don't know much about LotCS, but LMoP is super easy to drop into most settings. I mean you have a small town, a cave, a forgotten castle and a forgotten mine, etc. these things could be anywhere in reasonable traveling distance from one another. I will say though, LMoP ties very well directly into SKT, there is even some advice in the book.

 

[GlassJaw]

LMoP can be placed anywhere but bear in mind, when the players arrive in Phandalin, there are a LOT of NPCs and side quests. I'm running it now for a group that is relatively new as well. Everyone is having blast but they've spent the better part of 2 sessions exploring the town, talking to NPCs and following leads. The module is great and the main quest line is relatively linear but there are a lot of leads to follow and keep track of.

 

[jerry247]

LMoP has a couple of things going on as well, and my players ended with at least 5 open threads. It's been a while since I read LotCS but reskinning is easy. You can pretty much just drop Phandelver in (eleven towns?) and change the mobs to whatever you want.

I really like the icewind dale as well and bought that adventure solely for the setting.

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[SheWantstheD&D]

LMoP is fairly easy to adapt I'd think. Hell, the McElroy's left a bunch out and now we have going on 60 episodes of Adventure Zone

 

[Herobizkit]

I don't have any useful advice, but I had to laugh when I read the title because I read it as:

"The Legacy of the Crystal Shardmind of Phandelver" and I was like COOOOOOL!

If you didn't know, a Shardmind was a 4e race of psionic humanoid-shaped creatures made of crystal. Thought it'd be great if one wandered the halls of its Phandelver home, trying to keep those pesky PC's from adventuring in there.

 

[mbenson111]

LotCS is not as complicated as it seems. You can present the characters with all of their options in the first session, really. It's laid out well, and keeps moving, regardless of what the players do. If you want to make it even easier, have the characters choose one "path" and follow it through to completion, focusing on the events surrounding that.

 

[Luz]

LotCS is not as complicated as it seems. You can present the characters with all of their options in the first session, really. It's laid out well, and keeps moving, regardless of what the players do. If you want to make it even easier, have the characters choose one "path" and follow it through to completion, focusing on the events surrounding that.

I've run LotCS and have to agree with mbenson111. It's a really well laid out module and the PCs are likely to follow just one of the three paths to its conclusion, while allowing the DM to coordinate the parallel story lines in case they decide to investigate another midway. When you include the campaign book, this is one of the best 1st level modules produced for 5th edition.

 

[Tormyr]

I did a 5e conversion of LotCS a couple years ago.
http://www.enworld.org/forum/rpgdownloads.php?do=download&downloadid=1188

 

[Tobold]

I did a 5e conversion of LotCS a couple years ago.
http://www.enworld.org/forum/rpgdownloads.php?do=download&downloadid=1188

I thought the "D&D Next" stats *were* 5e. Can you explain what the difference is?