WHAT’S IN THE BOX?
With the LMOP being part of the Starter Set for the 5th edition game, there is a lot of useful information
for new dungeon masters getting into it for the first time. As part of the set, you also get character sheets
for the players to use if they don’t want to create their own, as well as rulebook with all the monster stat blocks
and rules for how to run the game.
The LMOP takes place in the Sword Coast of a World known as the Forgotten Realms. You can easily port this into
your homebrew worlds should you so choose. This guide is going to be more on how to run the adventure as written,
but you can easily add the town of Phandelin and it’s characters anywhere in your world that is near a mountain
range or other typography that makes sense for the adventure.
CONTEXT FOR THE ADVENTURE
The setup for the adventure, and history of the land does a great job to inform the DM on what the purpose of the
adventure is.
For many years, rumors circulated about the riches still abound in this mine that was eventually lost in time. Recently, people have resettled in this area, more importantly, a trio of dwarven brothers known as the Rockseekers.
These brothers discovered a lost entrance to Wave Echo Cave and hope to re-open these mines. Sadly for them,
they aren’t the only ones interested in these riches. A mysterious villain known as the Black Spider and his
new allied minions of goblins and bandits also express interest in what these caves hold within. The Black Spider
wants it all for himself and is now taking steps to ensure no one else can find this entrance.
THE CALL TO ADVENTURE
The players are brought into this story when their friend Gundren Rockseeker, yes one of those Rockseeker brothers, hires them to escort a wagon to Phandalin from the city of Neverwinter. Gundren has already gone ahead with a warrior, Sildar Hallwinter, for protection and to attend to business in town while the characters follow
with supplies. The characters are to be paid 10 gp each by the owner of Barthen’s Provisions in Phandelin when
they successfully deliver the wagon safely to the trading post.
HOW WILL YOU PLAY?
The LMOP takes place in 4 parts. We will be covering each part of this adventure in future videos, but for now,
let’s setup this adventure to put you, the DM, in the best position for success.
Now, there are many ways that you can run this game. You can play via virtual tabletop, theater of the mind, and with miniatures and maps at your dining room table.
Regardless of where and how you run your game, I highly recommend you use a note taking system that works for you. I, personally, love to use OneNote to organize my notes. This is mainly because trying to flip through the
adventure at the table can be quite cumbersome and disrupting to the flow of the game.
Nesting items into each of their own categories, like towns and their inhabitants, quests related to the area
and other important locations of interest are always a must when I’m setting up adventures. OneNote allows
me to do that effectively.
Check out the video if you want more step by step guides and instruction on how to do this. I’ve
also included a template on my Patreon for patrons to check out. We’ll have more on the Lost Mine of Phandelver to come soon!