D&D 5E (2014) Player awareness of adventure - would you still use it?

[HawaiiSteveO]

Considering running LMoP for brand new group. I'm an experienced DM (new to 5E) but all the players are first timers.A couple players have starter box, access to / read first part of adventure. Is this a big deal? Wondering if I should pick something else brand new? I'd dislike doing that as I think it's a great adventure. I don't want to do a bunch of work changing it up.I don't know what else is out there for short introductory adventures. I don't want to prep / buy anything long as it might be a disaster or group dynamics might not work out so potential one shot at this point. If we have a good time and group clicks will look at something longer.Thoughts? Suggestions?

 

[delericho]

Tricky one. I'd probably go with something else, unless I or one of the players really wanted to do this one. But then, I already own far more adventures than I'll ever use, so that's a pretty easy option.

 

[Mishihari Lord]

If all of my players have read an adventure I won't run it. If just some have read parts, I might run it but make extensive changes. My biggest concern is that as a player, playing an adventure I've read or played before is pretty boring.

 

[iserith]

Considering running LMoP for brand new group. I'm an experienced DM (new to 5E) but all the players are first timers.A couple players have starter box, access to / read first part of adventure. Is this a big deal? Wondering if I should pick something else brand new? I'd dislike doing that as I think it's a great adventure. I don't want to do a bunch of work changing it up.I don't know what else is out there for short introductory adventures. I don't want to prep / buy anything long as it might be a disaster or group dynamics might not work out so potential one shot at this point. If we have a good time and group clicks will look at something longer.Thoughts? Suggestions?

I created a lot of one-shot adventures for use with pickup groups. Sometimes those players have so much fun that they want to play them over again (and again) with new characters/groups/decisions to see how it turns out. The only thing I require of them is that they use their knowledge of the adventure to make the game fun for everyone and to help create an exciting, memorable story. I've never had a problem.

So my advice would be to run LMoP and tell those players that have access to or have played the adventure before exactly what I said above. If they're playing in good faith, you should have no issues.

 

[AaronOfBarbaria]

A player, or even all the players, having read the adventure doesn't spoil their fun in playing it - especially if it is being run with a different DM, or the same DM but intentionally taking a different approach.

There is a lot about an adventure that can be changed just by how the DM decides to portray the creatures involved and frame the situations - and also a lot of tweaks that can be made quickly and easily like moving one monster to somewhere it isn't expected to be.

 

[redrick]

Have the players actually read the adventure, or do they just have access to read it? And, ask them honestly, how well do they remember it?

If you can trust the maturity of your players (which hopefully you can), they won't go out of their way to crib up on the adventure before they start playing, nor will they go out of their way to spoil adventure elements for new players. It might not hurt to encourage the few who know the adventure to try and take a back-seat during strategy time, but hopefully they will know to do this on their own. (In other words, don't say, "I think we should go left because there is a big bugbear to the right and we can't handle that right now.")

On the other hand, I played through the opening dungeon of LMoP after reading it myself (with the intention of running it), and it was a little boring as a player. I couldn't really engage with the problem-solving, exploration aspects, because there was no actual discovery in it for me, so I just played dumb and impulsive, and hoped that the other players would play smart and inquisitive. The actual combat encounters were interesting, because you never know how a DM is going to make a group of NPCs come to life, but sneaking around the cave (normally one of favorite aspects of an adventure), was pretty dull.

If players are honest with you about which parts of the adventure they have read, consider:

a) swapping those parts out entirely. (replace the ambush and goblin cave from the beginning with a similar dungeon of your own design, or steal a similarly-sized dungeon from another adventure)
b) make a few significant changes to the existing adventure to keep new players guessing. (And let them know you've done this.) Move or swap out traps. Switch up where some of the encounters take place. Make some changes to the layout. Make just enough changes so that players feel like they have a reason to pay attention during the exploration aspects, and to keep some of the tension up.

I think it could work, and if you love the adventure and want to run it with a (mostly) new group, I'd say go for it. Just try to work a little to keep things fresh for your experienced folks so they don't feel like they have to tune out.

 

[fba827]

It's an adventure that you're interested in running so use it since a dm should be excited by the adventure. But having said that I'd toss out the caveat ....
Ask the players who are familiar to not take charge of big decisions and let those unfamiliar make those choices. No matter how good their intention might be, background knowledge can subconsciously affect their decision making.

of course the the group leans heavily towards just the combats and the story is just loose framing to put the combats together then frankly knowing whatever of the story does t really matter.

 

[Shiroiken]

It really depends on the players. I've played with players using the same adventure before, and good players use their out of character knowledge to help the game (i.e. avoid stall points and dead ends). Bad players who do this tend to "cheat," leading them towards greater rewards with minimal risk. With first time players and you being new to 5E, you might be better off just running something else.

If you feel squirrelly, run the adventure but change a few things. This will keep the cheaters honest, while keeping the game moving forward.

 

[redrick]

It really depends on the players. I've played with players using the same adventure before, and good players use their out of character knowledge to help the game (i.e. avoid stall points and dead ends). Bad players who do this tend to "cheat," leading them towards greater rewards with minimal risk. With first time players and you being new to 5E, you might be better off just running something else.

If you feel squirrelly, run the adventure but change a few things. This will keep the cheaters honest, while keeping the game moving forward.

If you know who has played the adventure already, it should be pretty easy to see them "cheating" and call them out on it. I'm not sure that that's a position you want to be in as a DM, though it helps if your players are mature enough to not put you in that situation in the first place. Certainly, I've had to remind players who DM to please stop reciting all the various abilities and features of a monster to all the new players.

That being said, I think making changes to the adventure is a kind gesture to the returning players, even if they are "good" honest players. It lets them enjoy the game a little more, because they don't have to be biting their tongue the whole time.

 

[Remathilis]

Depends on your group. My players are really good at "forgetting" the details of modules, so I can get away with it. I've even re-run modules for some of them that they played before. (Ravenloft is a good example; but a bit unfair since things do change by the cards). Its doable if your group is in it for the fun; but if your group likes to "win" then avoid.