D&D 5E Lost Mines...and then? Advice needed.

[jrowland]

My 2cp:

Go with Princes, play as is, skipping the optional catch-up section. Don't worry if your PCs are level 5 at first. They'll still have a blast plowing through content early on. Avoid the grind by playing up the cults political intrigue with each other, nearby towns, factions, etc.

 

[I'm A Banana]

I'm actually going LMoP -> Hoard.

I'm butchering hoard, though (I think the adventure will basically be between Phandalin, The Mere, and the Sword Mountains, and I figure rather than raise Tiamat, the Cult is actually planning on ultimately turning her undead...hehehehe).

I'd go Princes. It's really designed to pick up where LMoP left off.

 

[Thymm]

I've been talking with my group about this and they are open for everything, be it sandbox, railroad (actually preferred by those who haven't even played RPGs on the PC/console) or dungeon crawl.
All of them are still very shy about RPing and about talking as their characters/in-character.

They seem to trust me with whatever I decide, as I'm the only one with (at least a little) experience in those matters (and the only one who is registered on different forums to get help )

Thanks for all your friendly advice, suggestions, posts and tips.
As many of you suggested, I'll try Prince next (ordered already, should arrive today or tomorrow) and have a look through it.

Thanks a lot!

 

[wedgeski]

I've been talking with my group about this and they are open for everything, be it sandbox, railroad (actually preferred by those who haven't even played RPGs on the PC/console) or dungeon crawl.
All of them are still very shy about RPing and about talking as their characters/in-character.

They seem to trust me with whatever I decide, as I'm the only one with (at least a little) experience in those matters (and the only one who is registered on different forums to get help )

Thanks for all your friendly advice, suggestions, posts and tips.
As many of you suggested, I'll try Prince next (ordered already, should arrive today or tomorrow) and have a look through it.

Thanks a lot!

Good luck and welcome to the boards!

 

[jrowland]

Thanks for all your friendly advice, suggestions, posts and tips.
As many of you suggested, I'll try Prince next (ordered already, should arrive today or tomorrow) and have a look through it.

Thanks a lot!

On behalf of the ENworld community, (If I may be so bold) you are welcome. May your Prophets of Elemental Evil strike fear in the hearts of your PCs!

 

[Fildrigar]

Funnily enough, I wrote a guide for integrating Lost Mines of Phandlever with Princes of the Apocalypse. You can find it here: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?434896-Integrating-LMoP-with-PotA

It's really quite easy, especially as you have a larger party so in all likelihood they won't quite be at level five when hitting Red Larch. The biggest problem you face is the integration of the dungeons. It's quite possible to get in over the player's heads. You can either run with that, or strategically block access points.


**** spoilers ******





The party in my campaign headed down into the Water portion of the lower temple ahead of level. They did just fine until they ran into the Dragon Turtle. I need to update my document to add a suggestion for that.

 

[Jabborwacky]

One of the laws of nature involving adventurers: If an NPC takes their stuff, they will hunt them down until the end of time to get their stuff back. OotA gives the characters the chance to retrieve their stolen items. The chest containing their stolen equipment appears in one of two places in the drow encampment depending on the discretion of the GM. PCs need not lose their stuff permanently if they are given plenty of information as to where it is being kept.

OotA feels more like it is designed to throw an experienced group a set of curve balls whereas PotA is more straight forward. If you are a fan of the Underdark, then OotA might be worth it, but I'd talk it over with your group first. PotA might be more their cup of tea.

 

[Wik]

You know, PotA is pretty damn cool. I think I personally prefer OotA, but neither is at all a bad choice. There's a lot of great advice floating around the boards here, and I recommend you read up... and have a lot of fun! Introducing the game to newbies is a good thing.

For what it's worth, I'd maybe crank down the difficulties of some encounters - with newbies, it's better to let them dominate a fight than to have them struggle, for the simple reason that if they have to really scrape up every +1 they can get, they're liable to think "I must suck at this game". Going easy on them at first is a good way to start - and then slowly ramp up the difficulty as needed.

PotA is good because you can jump right in at 3rd level, or use the smaller adventures to get them to 3rd before starting play. On the downside, it's a sandbox that has dungeons set at predetermined levels that the PCs can tackle in the order they wish... so they can hit the 8th level dungeon at 6th level, the 9th level dungeon at 7th, the 7th level dungeon at 8th, and the 6th level dungeon at 9th. While this is quite "sandboxy", it can lead to the game feeling a little unbalanced - super tough at one part, and super easy at another. It also has a big failing that rarely gets mentioned in the reviews - it has a lot of references to old D&D lore. For newbies, all of these little easter eggs will be completely unnoticed.

 

[jayoungr]

I currently own Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat, but I'm going to buy PoA and Abyss soon.
What I heard so far:
-) Hoard is full of mistakes and many people didn't enjoy it. Very railroady (is that a real word?)

I've gotta defend Tyranny of Dragons (i.e. HotDQ + RoT). It has a very bad rep online, but my group is having a wonderful time with it. I wouldn't say it's "railroady" so much as linear; some people use the two terms interchangeably. Here's a positive review of it that addresses some of the common complaints:

http://www.starwalkerstudios.com/blog/2015/2/23/ygs4p90jb1dlkoqe0r9f5tqatvxsgx

And there are some excellent resources to help a DM in running it--probably more than for any other published adventure. (I humbly recommend this thread, for example.)

You may decide you don't want to make it your next project, but I urge you not to give up entirely on running it! Especially if you go all the way through Rise of Tiamat, it's a very rewarding campaign.