New 5th Ed GM requesting advice

So we've got a group of players most of whom are brand new to 5th Ed D&D. They have played other RPG's though. We are playing over Roll20 and rotating GM's. My turn will come up fairly soon.

The group will at that time be level 4. Looks like the group is melee druid, melee paladin, wizard, archer ranger, and (probably) a cleric.

Usually when I GM I prefer to make up my own stuff (unless someone has a specific request) however, since I'm new, I would prefer to use published material this time.

I would like recommendations for a published adventure to challenge 4th level players. But that isn't too difficult for a new GM. If the maps are already set up for Roll20, that would be a big bonus.

Suggestions?

You might try "The Forge of Fury" from Tales from the Yawning Portal. You can likely buy this module on Roll20 so that the maps and whatnot are set up. I know I got it as part of a TFtYP bundle a while back. It's meant for 3rd- to 5th-level PCs. Starting at 4th level seems fine if you're working with new players.

I'd also like to recommend checking this out as a new DM: How to Adjudicate Actions in D&D 5e. As well as the Case for Inspiration.

iserith said:

You might try "The Forge of Fury" from Tales from the Yawning Portal. You can likely buy this module on Roll20 so that the maps and whatnot are set up. I know I got it as part of a TFtYP bundle a while back. It's meant for 3rd- to 5th-level PCs. Starting at 4th level seems fine if you're working with new players.

I'd also like to recommend checking this out as a new DM: How to Adjudicate Actions in D&D 5e. As well as the Case for Inspiration.

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Nailed it.

Lost Mine of Phandelver is an excellent starting adventure and should be easily available on Roll20.

At 4th your group will be on the upper range of the levels (it's meant for 1-5th level) but that shouldn't be a problem as the whole point is for them to get acquainted and comfortable with the system.

Are you looking for shorter one shots that can be played in one or two sessions? The following are some one-shot or just a few sessions adventures. I'm not seeing these in Roll20's marketplace though. Kobold Press is pretty good about having properly formatted digital player maps included in the PDFs. FGG adventures less so.

I recommend Kobold Press's Book of Lairs (though you'd likely also need their Tome of Beasts, which may price it out of what you want to pay). Other options from Kobold Press:

From their "Prepared Series" (one-shot adventures for 5th ed.):

Ooze Tomb of the Oathbreaker (Prepared 2), Assault of the Steel Horde (Prepared 2)

Frog God's Game Quests of Doom series is worth checking out if you want old-school feel with 5e rules. From Vol. 1, check out THe Noble Rot, Bad Moon Rising

ElterAgo said:

So we've got a group of players most of whom are brand new to 5th Ed D&D. They have played other RPG's though. We are playing over Roll20 and rotating GM's. My turn will come up fairly soon.

The group will at that time be level 4. Looks like the group is melee druid, melee paladin, wizard, archer ranger, and (probably) a cleric.

Usually when I GM I prefer to make up my own stuff (unless someone has a specific request) however, since I'm new, I would prefer to use published material this time.

I would like recommendations for a published adventure to challenge 4th level players. But that isn't too difficult for a new GM. If the maps are already set up for Roll20, that would be a big bonus.

Suggestions?

Click to expand...

If you have not yet made a decision you might like to take a look at one of the first three adventures in the War of the Burning Sky saga. They contain suggestions for how to adjust the scenarios to your own campaign.

The Scouring of Gate Pass - The heroes are given a mission to retrieve a package of military intelligence and escape a city under siege. While designed for a party of 3rd level, each encounter has adjustments for different numbers of PCs, and you can adjust the adventure for 4th level by treating each encounter like it has 1 more PC than is actually present.

The Indomitable Fire Forest of Innenotdar - The heroes must shake off pursuit of enemy agents by crossing through a forest that has continuously burned without being consumed for 40 years. Inside, they encounter beings with crossed purposes and must unravel the mysteries of war crimes and how their actions will affect those still surviving in the forest.

Shelter from the Storm - The heroes deliver the package to a newly-formed resistance in the coastal town of Seaquen. The town has been under a drizzle for weeks, and soon a hurricane will threaten their shelter from the storm. This adventure is for 5th level, but it can be adjusted to 4th level by adjusting each encounter as if there was 1 fewer PC than are actually present.

Hmm... That series of 3 from the Burning Sky Saga sound great for our group. But we all agreed to just pick one so that each of us would get a chance to GM before the level gets too high. But I might ask them if they want me to do 3 anyway.

Forge of Fury sounds like it might be too much of just a hack-n-slash dungeon crawl from what I read about it. Is that impression correct or does it have enough story to get the players involved?

I was reading some reviews about Lost Mine of Phandelver. I'm getting mixed opinions. Some seem to think it is way too easy. The group isn't completly novice at 5thEd. We did start at 2nd level, but we will be up to 4th by my turn. Also most of these guys have played several different RPG's in the past. I don't want to bore them. What do you think?

ElterAgo said:

Forge of Fury sounds like it might be too much of just a hack-n-slash dungeon crawl from what I read about it. Is that impression correct or does it have enough story to get the players involved?

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Something to consider that took me a long time to learn (the hard way): The "story" is whatever the characters do. When you get done playing for that session (or that adventure or that campaign), you produced a story. A dungeon is just an adventure location filled with challenges that allow you to create that story by exploring it during play.

Further, a dungeon is a representation of the underworld from the hero's journey. The heroes are called to adventure. They descend into the place they most dread to face their fears, overcome the dragon of chaos, and bring back valuable experience and resources back to the community. (There's more to the hero's journey, but that's the basic D&D formula.) This is core structure of stories in our mythology. Done well, players will like it and they may not even know why.

What people don't like about "dungeon crawls" is the fact that it can sometimes, well, crawl. But that is a feature of dysfunctional play, so don't do that. (You could start a whole new thread on that.) A dungeon is also easier to run for a new DM than an event-based adventure (aka plot-based adventure) since the PCs don't have to go in any particular direction other than to explore the dungeon. You don't have to worry about them sticking to your plot. In a location-based adventure like a dungeon, so as long as the players agree that they will have their characters explore the dungeon, you're golden.

As for the background of Forge of Fury, you can read the synopsis here and see if it interests you.

I know when I was playing in Princes of the Apocalypse that things got very dull very fast because the goals were vague and even when we accomplished them it didn’t seem to make much difference. So I’m sympathetic to the OPs concern. If you’re wanting the players to remain engaged with a larger story then you need to have a desirable goal and show meaningful progress toward that goal in reasonably frequent intervals. As DM you should also recap the “story so far” at the beginning of each session in order to resituate the players. The DM in our PotA didn’t do that and just expected us to cobble together some vague recollections (didn’t help that the games were a bit randomly scheduled!)

Anyway, just make sure there are short term story victories within the long term story objective. Not sure if FoF has that, if it doesn’t invent something if you can or find something else that provides that narrative overlay.

Totally agree that the final story is written at the table. But it does help to have a plot outline through which to thread the final story. Not saying a railroad, but something that might result in a satisfying story for the group.

Believe me, I understand the story made at the table. (Been playing since the old blue and pink books.) But sometimes there isn't too much for the story to build on, if all the module has his room after room of fights/ambushes/traps.

Yes, I can add things for social interaction, mysteries, investigation, etc... However, if I have to add in a bunch just to make it interesting, that kinda defeats the purpose of purchasing a module so I don't have to build it myself while learning the new system.

So that part of the questions, was is there any sort of story present in Forge of Fury or is it just hack-n-slash as written? If it is just a HnS dungeon crawl, I will pick something else.

What about the Lost Mine of Phandelver? Any opinions/reports on that one?