In June I finished up running Lost Mine of Phandelver for D&D 5th Edition. One of the players in the game was kind enough to write a session recap of each game. They are scattered throughout my blog and I thought I'd compile all the links for those interested in reading through the campaign. The campaign was ran on Roll20 and each session was roughly 3 hours long. This was my second campaign this year. I ran a 9 session AD&D 2E game earlier. I am hoping to run a Labyrinth Lord or Swords & Wizardry sandbox in the fall.
Here my random thoughts on the 5E/Lost Mine of Phandelver.
-Lost Mine of Phandelver is a very good adventure. I enjoyed running it and would recommend anyone wanting to start a 5E game to give it a go. The adventure has a main linear storyline with a few sandbox options. My group follow the main path and didn't do any of the side-adventures. They had the choice to do so but decided to focus on the main plot.
-I prefer running OSR Games since they are less codified in their rules. I found 5E to be a medium crunch game. Not as complex as 3.X/PF/4E but not as simple as OSR games. The main mechanics are straight forward though. Players get a lot of character options and it requires you to keep close track of them.
-I found Inspiration to be a throwaway mechanic. With my focus on the adventure and keeping track of everything I completely forgot to give out Inspiration. I only give it out once when I remembered. It didn't hinder the game but I found it to be unnecessary.
-The Advantage/Disadvantage mechanic was interesting and comes into play a lot. I didn't think I would like it but it did grow on me.
-I found monster mechanics to be relatively boring. Having ran a few Pathfinder campaigns I felt 3.X monster mechanics were more interesting. I replaced a few of the monster with more flavorful creatures from 5th Edition Foes by Frog God Games.
-I don't go out of my way to kill players but I don't mind a few casualties here and there. 5E is very generous with hit points, recovery, and death. The death saving throw mechanic is interesting but I prefer negative hit points and bleeding out. We did have one PC death though. Our cleric made some poor tactical decisions.
-Overall I think 5th Edition is a well designed game. I enjoyed running it. One of the players has decided to run Princes of the Apocalypse and I'm actually getting a chance to play a 1/2 Orc Barbarian. Also playing dwarven cleric in a AD&D 2E Game(DM is running the Saltmarsh series). I usually DM so actually playing in a couple of campaigns is a nice change of pace.
Links to all the Session Recaps
Session 1 Session 2
Session 3 Session 4
Session 5 Session 6
Session 7 Session 8
Session 9 Session 10
One of the weaknesses in LMOP PDF is that Nezznar (the big bad final boss guy) isn't seen at all except in the final encounter. The players only learn about him from letters and dialogue. DOIP and particularly the table above, really helps expose the players to the dragon. Maybe they'll find their quest location ruined once they arrive? Or they could even meet the dragon before the final battle somewhere in the field.
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