n00b DM running KotS

[grgrsslldlln]

Hey, This is my first post on this forum so hopefully I don't break any rules or do it wrong. Sorry in advance if I'm doing anything wrong.

A little background:
For the longest time, I've wanted to play Dungeons & Dragons but it's just never happened. I bought the three core rulebooks for 3.5 years ago. I even bought the D&D for Dummies book (And then the Dungeon Master for Dummies book once I realized that I'd be the one having to DM!)

But after all that, I never managed to get a group of players together that would consistently play. I bought a lot of minis and played DDM with a couple friends, still dreaming that one day I'd get a group together to actually play Dungeons & Dragons.

THEN! Fourth edition came out! And supposedly, it was "better," easier, for new players wanting to get into D&D. So I thought to myself, "I'll give this another try." I went out and bought the 4e PHB and KotS. I got a group together, they all made characters, we all had a good time....but nothing. No interest. The group just dissolved right after the first meeting.

So, I was beginning to think that I was just a horrible DM. I mean, sure, I was inexperienced. I've never DM'd or even actually played D&D before. The only FLGS, The Dragon's Den, closed down after a couple years because it wasn't making any money. What's a guy to do?

Long story short, I've gotten another group together and so far, everything is actually going well! We've played three times now, playing for about three hours or so each time. We're just playing through KotS because we're all doing this for the first time. Last night, I did a google search and found out that Wizards updated the errata of KotS, changed up a few encounters and then released it as a free download. So my question is this: does anyone know which encounters are different? I could maybe just print out a few pages of the updated material and try using that (we haven't gotten too far just yet. They're just about to find the kobold lair and battle Irontooth)? Also, what would be good to do once we're done with KotS?

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Our party ran through KoTS, and then we switched GMs, and he had us do Thunderspire LAbyrinth. And while they take place in the same world, I don't think they are very related. However, our DM made it work out so that it was a lot more connected. Thunderspire was really fun, we had a great time in that one. However, Pyramid of Shadows is even less connected to the first two, at least according to my DM.

If you want a long adventure path, I'd recommend Scales of War. It takes the players all the way from 1st level to 30th level, through all the tiers. Although the first adventure isn't all that great, the others start to come together more.

And of course there is the option to create your own.

chris

 

[huank]

I don't know exactly what changes were made to the adventure but what I can tell you is that the battle with Irontooth is very difficult, PC's often die on that one. Another advise I can give you is that maybe you should try to update some monsters, because almost all of them come from the MM1 so they'll probably have their newer, better designed, funnier counterparts in the Monster Vault.
After finishing KotS I made my own story (First time as a DM too!), which is basically all about trying to find out who was really behind Kalarel (A bigger cult with more dangerous plans). I think KotS is a good way to start and gain enough confidence in the way to start doing your own story with your own plots, challenges, encounters, and everything you need to have fun. Remember, having fun is all that matters, always keep that in mind.

Hope you find my words useful.

Good game!

 

[mudlock]

I don't know how much in the web version of KotS was changed. But I hope the kobold lair was, because that encounter is famously a potential total-party-kill: proceed with caution, and give the PCs the chance to retreat if necessary!

I hope they added more loot, too, as KotS doesn't give out nearly enough for the 3 levels of advancement the party should go through (that should be 12 magic items, and I think the whole original published module had 4 or 5, and the ones that were in there were under-powered)... not that the final encounter is particularly hard without appropriate loot, but it might be a bit of a shock to go from that to something more-recently published.

 

[grgrsslldlln]

I don't know exactly what changes were made to the adventure but what I can tell you is that the battle with Irontooth is very difficult, PC's often die on that one.

I don't know how much in the web version of KotS was changed. But I hope the kobold lair was, because that encounter is famously a potential total-party-kill: proceed with caution, and give the PCs the chance to retreat if necessary!

DULY NOTED! The very next encounter is the kobold lair with Irontooth so I'll try to do what I can to make it fun and challenging for the PCs but not completely slaughter them. I definitely do not want to be known as a DM that enjoys killing PCs. Thanks for the heads up!

And yes! As a coming-back-to-D&D gift to myself, I recently bought the Monster Vault, Rules Compendium and three months to DDI so I'll look at the kobolds and see if it would possibly be best to replaced them with any of the more up-to-date monsters. Good advice.

 

[the Jester]

Let me add a voice to the "Irontooth aargh!" chorus that's about to rise.

That dude is bad ass. Be aware- if your party is all first level, they may be looking at a tpk. If you can arrange for an ally or two it might help.

 

[grgrsslldlln]

if your party is all first level, they may be looking at a tpk. If you can arrange for an ally or two it might help.

They'll all be first level. At least I was planning on them being first level and then leveling after the Irontooth encounter. Would letting them level up early give them a better shot at surviving?

Also, I'm not entirely sure how I would fit in an NPC ally? Story-wise what would make sense?

 

[Lindeloef]

Things changed (at least what I remember):
- the Encouter at the Burial Ground (added an Shadow of Kalarel)
- in the Final Encouter the made a Skill Challenge to close the portal

maybe some more, but I skipped some of the Encounters in the Keep. There are too many imho.

@"Irontooth aargh!"
I think it's really important when the next waves of Kobolds arrive. So you can scale the difficulty. I split the first wave, so the Kobolds from 1st wave in the next room came 1 or 2 rounds later. Also split the 2. wave. So Irontooth came later.
Best thing to do is, make some sort of "milestone" to trigger the waves. Like "if this monster dies, the next waves comes out" or something like that.

 

[grgrsslldlln]

Great advice, Lindeloef! Thanks. I'll definitely split the waves of kobolds and create a "milestone" like you mentioned.

 

[the Jester]

Another option might be to come up with a recharge condition that lets each pc recharge an encounter power (or maybe spend a healing surge, or maybe even both)- perhaps once they bloody Irontooth and it gets real.