How to run the Redbrands, Glasstaff, and the Nothic in LMoP - D&D 5th Edition Starter Set Guide 5

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I went into the hideout and somehow managed to get all of the minions to fight each other by getting invisible and impersonating them, then I freed a goblin, made him my sidekick and made him help me sneak into Glasstaffs room through a secret door. The goblin named Droop just stole his weapon and i proceeded to slash his knee with a greataxe and kick him in the stomach without the guy getting a single action done which ended in me tying him up and handing him over to the town master

Barts been a big help to the party with free room and board, free use of horses to get to locations when needed and just generally being a stand-up guy. Some of the party started a brawl outside of the Redbrands bar and ended up killing like 8 of them. (Im adding some bodies as I have a party of 6) Next morning had the Blackspider (disguised as Talia as she's been written out) show up and arrange the trade for Gundren leaving the town unprotected for the night. They returned to find the Stonehill Inn a smouldering pile of ash and Bart missing both hands. Ended the session with Bart passing on a message from the Redbrands: "Seeing as you so happily lend a hand to outta towners, you surely wont mind if we take two as well". My players flew into a RAGE. Storming the hideout tomorrow. Don't think there will be any mercy shown xD

Red guys are better than goblins

You don't mention Glasstaff's rat familiar--do you drop it so players are more likely to surprise him if he hasn't already joined combat, or do you leave it so they can have a fun chase scene?

The baddies could also be "The Means" as in "the ends justify the means." And of course, they're just jerks. Puns!

I am German, so using the biggest word I know would probably be a bad idea.

They sound like a mafiiso group.

So the party meets the nothic before they get to Room 8 (its lair?)

For the evil alliance I call them the WEC pact, it's consistent and when you know what it means it makes a lotta sence ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Thought it was kinda hard comming up with something "cool sounding" so i went with an easy alternative :)

I had Droop act as the sentry in the Cragmaw hideout, and he ran to Yeemik when he was attacked by the players. After my players cut a deal with Yeemik, I had Droop secretly run away as the players were fighting Klarg.
When they got to the Redbrand hideout I described Droop's shoulder injury (one of my players hit him with a javelin on his shoulder) and immediately my players went 'wait a minute' as they recognized this goblin.
It was especially funny since they lost some of the goods in their cart as Droop ran away and stole them so they had some animosity towards Droop.
I can see how the tone may not fit but honestly my players really enjoyed the whole thing and he really served to make the plotline feel more connected.

One of my players fell in love with Elsa the barmaid at the tavern, and the next adventuring day, I mentioned that Elsa looked particularly busy and that she couldn't really talk to the player sufficiently. After my player inquired some more, Elsa quickly told her about Trilena's good friend Thel Dendrar dying after standing up to the Redbrands. So basically, I moved the Thel Dendrar rumour to Elsa and used Trilena as a friend. This was really interesting actually since then the whole party wanted to go get the Redbrands, and after they wiped them out, they went to Trilena's house and told her, which lead to a very emotional moment with Trilena and her husband and the rest of the party. I thought this was really smart since I really got my players invested In defeating the Redbrands, and I got the questline with the Dendrars to feel so much more relevant.

In my version of the story iarno albrek was actually an adopted brother of one of my players and actually had a bit of a redemtion in the end, he still ended up in jail though

I love the Nothic noises

I am DMing this campaing for my friends. The hook we got was that one of the players is a Druid and on his back stpry he said he could only sleep well while up on a tree. The Redbrands were spying on them and when he went alone to sleep he got attacked and robbed alone on his tree during the night. Thas was it... The next morning they decided to find the Redbrands.

The party had gotten to know the barmaid fairly well in the first few days of their adventure and found out she was in love with the carpenter’s daughter.
After the party had gone out to deal with the Orcs for Sildar and returned, she told them she was worried, her love and her family had been kidnapped by the red brands and their house tossed.
The party rushed over to see this was true and then set out to the bar on the other side of town and the manner to clear shop and find the red brand prisoners.
They were very invested and found the hints the the black spider to further the plot to finding Gundren. I honestly think this was the height of our campaign, it felt emotional and tense. And they adopted Droop.

I decided make the black spider from menzoberranzan. Her last name i made from one of the main houses of the underdark city. So i named the evil faction the Fey-Branche contingency. It also opens up the underdark to the party for a future or continuing campaign.

I've got my Nothic almost acting like Beetlejuice, and it worked. 😆 Only during his insane ramblings did I bust it out but everyone was into it. Cool video

"Handlin' Phandalin" instant sub

LMoP is my first ever time running a campaign. I already got past this part with my players, but it's great to compare what I did, what I would like to do differently and compare that to these ideas! When my party confronted Glasstaff, he was trying to escape and they found him looking for his once-hidden emergency pack that the players had found. While he was talking to them trying to get out of it, my Wild Magic Sorcerer cast Suggestion and convinced him to hold out his hands and close his eyes 'cause they had something for him. He failed his saving throw, so he held out his hands and closed his eyes. The Sorcerer tied his hands up. As I was about to have him Misty Step away (since Misty Step only needs verbal and not somatic components), they gagged him. Considering the sorcerer loves chaos and the Barbarian loves collecting heads, I expected a fight. I was so impressed with how they prevented the magic user from casting magic I let it go and they brought him back to Phandalin to turn him in.

Do you run all of these dungeons as ToTM?

Howdy Matt! I've just finished most prep for this part of the campaign, but I was hoping I could get your thoughts on something. Because I goofed last adventure and pretty much spelled out where Cragmaw Castle is, my party wanted to go right away to the castle to rescue Gundren. Sildar managed to convince them instead to go to Phandalin, but I'm still worried that they are going to ignore all hooks about the Redbrands and all side quests and go after Gundren again. Which would be fine, but I don't have time to prep for the Cragmaw Castle adventure. Any thoughts on how I can keep them engaged with the goings on of the town?

Ran the encounter with the nothic for our second session, hinting at the darkness underneath Phandalin and my elf wizard having a nightmare the first night staying in Phandalin seeing a green eye watching over him in the darkness - and the player immediately picked it up and spun stories for the other plays about magical evil in the dark. Ixal startet reading minds and spilling their secrets already in the tunnel, and my players were freaking out. When they arrived at the crevasse I slowed the pace down and really put weight on the description of the talons and spikes before the green eye appeared from the dark crevasse - they hesitated and started to discuss how to kill it. Then Ixal filled their spaces with magical darkness and they bolted! They are super scared of the mansion now, I don't know if they will every visit. I might have overplayed it, haha. Next session in two days.

I think I'd like to imagine the redbrands as the Yiga clan from Breath of the Wild :P

Oh my God, the Worms intro! I haven't seen that for like 25 years or something 😂Amazing. Thank you.

This is a little late to the party, but I'm preparing this chapter now, and I've decided to give Glasstaff a Skeleton bodyguard, which I named Aldith Tresendar after the owner of the sword the players MIGHT find in the Nothic room. I figure if they bring the sword into the fight, it will surprise the skeleton for a turn. And if they don't find the sword, at least the wizard will have some back-up. I also named the three skeletons as various Tresendar family members in the crypt.

I got a little inspiration from one of my friends for this. My nothic in the crevasse is crazy about puzzles. He made a pact with Glassstaff to let him and the Redbrands come and go as they please in exchange for a few puzzles from time to time. Lately, Glasstaff hasn't been delivering, and it just so happens that one of the PC's is carrying around a mysterious puzzlebox for him to solve!

One of my players decided she was gonna try and openly steal potions from the shop. The merchant ran away screaming thieves!
And had 3 redbrands show up ( they dealt with them easily)
But because 3 redbrands showed up that was reason enough for my players to want to wipe out the whole hideout

Well, I guess I gotta subscribe lol

I decided to make the redbrands like a mafia and make glass staff the mafia boss, it’s been really funny with the interactions

In my first ever dnd campaign, I played a fighter alongside a bard, artificer, and wizard. The bard did classic bard stuff and got spicy with a barmaid. The next day he sent the artificer out to meet the barmaid and he got mugged by the Redbrands who were after the bard bc the barmaid was apparently in league with them. After that we all got so mad we fixed up the artificer and went straight to storm their hideout

I have only just started this video but just had to come down here to give props for "handlin' Phandalin" and "better red than dead". Gods and bunnies, man.

I miss the intro ! I love how you joke about the players. They're so silly , they always say that

So fun story, my players asked Nezza to help them defeat the redbrands..... Oh boi this is going to be interesting next session

My players became murder hobos and to get them off of killing anything in their path, when they encountered Glasstaff and he surrendered they looked like they were just going to kill him. I had him begin a little speech relating to them and comparing what they've done to what he was trying to do... which was the same thing. Defining "good" and the "right path" and "taking action". He stated he could see they wanted to take justice into their own hands and he was simply doing the same. Where was the difference between him and them? I didn't think it was going to work but I was shocked it did... they stopped, ended up taking him to Sildar. Even having a conversation with Sildar about knowing when killing is necessary and recognizing other options.

Just finished watching your vids as I prepare to run LMoP. I have a cool compass/clock prop to put in the puzzle box. I’m going to make the Forge’s guardian/obstacle a space-time rift made by a Phandelver pact wizard who wanted to seal away the Forge (haste on the spectator, slow on its foes, no metal can enter the area of the forge, plus floating earth motes). Same wizard made the puzzle box compass/clock to fix the rift - then died and got buried with it. And I’m gonna make the Nothic a Phandelver pact wizard who was revivified and mutated by the space-time rift, and give the nothic lair earth motes and impossible architecture; so the nothic can for shadow the “guardian” a bit (but of course can’t remember where the Forge/WECave is :).

I had an obnoxious trio of Redbrands go after the horses my party love, no horses were hurt beyond getting riled up. Between the horses, the shirtless joke of a man making fun of them for wearing armour, and the magic weilding woman that used blink to escape... They are ready to ruin them

An update about the final runs with LMoP,
-Ran Nothic as a clever deal maker
-Traded player items such as invisibility potion,a shield and hp potion for information
-Becomes recurring character that trades easy kills for deal making
-Shows up frequently in player sessions to give the chills and shock becoming more powerful with each victim taken.
-Integrated with the Warlock character as a component to its patron being a corrupted mage that it is and ties with the warlock's backstory.
-Overshadowed the Black Spider as the BBEG XD

I just had the redbrands accost them outside the inn asking for a tax from the players of 10 silver pieces. That aggravated them enough to pursue them and their hideout.

Name for the bad guy factions... "The Web"

My players are really into intrigue, so I actually augmented the faction stuff in Phandalin. They decide to do some plotting with Halia, and end up inserting themselves into the Redbrands. At this point it doesn’t make much sense to storm the manor.

Instead, the just found out a Redbrand named Big Red is getting married. They are going to help plan the wedding: Red’s Wedding

Adjuments I made to my one-shots (which take place in Widemount instead of forgotten realms) include making Glassstaff a young apprentice disguised as an older wizard from the Cerberus Assembly and having the Rebrands be ex-imperial soldiers.

I was gonna name this evil alliance "The Spider web".... but what you suggested - Bad boys - sounds better Lol

Name for the bad-guy alliance:
The Dark Web

You got a like for "Handlin Phandalin" :)

Perfect video. For a DM 👍

My players killed off the Redbrands at the Sleeping Giant, but they never really did anything to find out their hideout or go speak to the right NPCs about where Cragmaw Castle. I tried to lead them on by using your vegan cookies, but chocolate croissants for my rogue players, attacking them, but nothing was enough. They did however complete the Banshee quest and as they exited Sister Garaeles house, stating that Glasstaff wanted to speak to them (Glasstaff having been sent orders to capture the party, unknowing that it was for the puzzle box).
The Redbrands put hoods on the party, and as soon as they started leading them away, the leader said:
"So how did it feel to kill them? Gary, Luke... You know, Luke was actually my brother..."
Before hitting the hooded player in the back with a shovel, and yell "They're resisting!"
And that's how I got to finally have my players hate the redbrands and finally deal with them.

Your series have made my LMoP-campaign so much better!

Hi Matthew !

Not sure if you still check the comments on this serie of videos but I still wanted to share my experience on this one.

First of all, thank you so so much for your videos ! Not only you give us great ideas to improve the story line of this campaign, but in my case you also taught me how to approach the DM role in a more relaxed way and it helped me so much (I used to stress a lot before each session).

Anyway, here is a what happened with my party :

After they arrived in Phandalin, they wereimmediately
through

I mixed things up quite a bit with Iarno... I introduced another NPC, namely... L'Khifrey Albrek-Roethorn, who is of course Iarno's daughter. Iarno did indeed go rogue from the Lords Alliance, and did "disappear" but it was his daughter who brought this to the attention of Sildar Hallwinter.
Iarno is basically undercover on a solo mission - a mission of revenge. Just over 2 years ago, Iarno's daughter fell in love with and married Iarno's protege (Daylonir Roethorn) who was really more the son he always wished for. Shortly after Daylonir started a happy life with his new bride he was found murdered. Iarno lost his mind with grief and anger and began to investigate with a focused passion for blood-recompense. One clue led to another and another and eventually to a shadowy character named The Black Spider. Iarno discovered that the only way he would ever get close enough to the Black Spider to kill him would be to go to work for him, to become a trusted lieutenant of sorts in his black web of criminal enterprising. He quietly despises the Redbrands and what he must order them to do... but his mind is fixed on vengeance and no cost is too high... until the Redbrands take his daughter to the cellar...

Awesome video! This series has been really helpful. For our game Glasstaff is a widower. He was easily swayed to support the Black Spider my means of seduction and wealth. When the PCs are in the Red Brand hideout it will be revealed that Glasstaff has been getting hot and heavy with Monteeth instead of the real Black Spider. He gets fuming mad at the intrusion and readies an attack against the trespassing PRUDES!! Haha