How to run Phandalin NPCs and fix the Black Spider in LMoP - D&D 5th Edition Starter Set Guide 3

The best way to fix the Black Spider is with a ridiculous German accent.

Theatre guy here. I’m late to the game here but your understanding of verisimilitude is a little off - your instincts are right but you’re scapegoating verisimilitude. Verisimilitude isn’t a measure of accuracy and realism, it’s the measurement of how lost in a story one can get. Abstraction is always going to be better at enabling a viewer/audience member to form imagery in their mind’s eye. Metaphor is the best example of this. When you try to get too realistic and into the nitty gritty in ttrpgs, I’d equate that with Brechtian plays. Basically, that’s when you do something that reminds the audience that they’re watching a play, and players that they’re playing a game. It pulls them out. Verisimilitude is what they’re IN, not the thing pulling them out. We do want verisimilitude, very much so

Your guide has been invaluable to me. Running a Hub town with so many side quests and NPCs is always where I start stressing about a campaign. I'm becoming better at story-telling thanks to your videos

I have a great idea for how to continue this campaign. After you go onto the forge of spells a huge explosion opens a hole in the ground and you are in the underdark trapped with the black spider. And you start playing out of the abyss

Can you plzplzplz do a series on how to fix the shattered obelisk? It feels so disjointed and tacked on to the end of the original LMoP with no connection. It needs fixing and you’re the one we trust to do it PLZPLZPLZ we love you ❤

(ps i LOVE your channel you literally COMPLETELY changed how i ran LMoP and gave me confidence to make some of my own changes and my group loved it!)

Watched this video maybe 100 times. Got to the table and made my version of Molly inform the players she saw a man in the graveyard by old owl well. Immediately one of the players looks at the map and says "the kid was playing in a graveyard 60 miles away? Fast runner huh" I hate players lol

I wish I had seen this before running my first campaign by the book and giving myself 8 goofy accents to keep track of day 1 in phandalin.

This video was like asking someone how to drive and they only show me how to turn the steering wheel.

Throwing out the sandbox elements of this adventure and replacing them with a corny wild west theme to railroad your players with is the opposite of what makes for a good game.

Thanks for wasting my time.

👍

RIP Dumbledore II

Love your content dude!

Great content! I'm prepping to run this for my nephews and nieces and this is really helpful. Thanks a ton.

Great content!

Love what you do here! As a new DM, you really gave me the confidence to change stuff around and make my own game. Thank you so much.

Thanks, dude, this videos have been great for me, a new DM. Obviously lots of work from you side, and therefore lots of appreciation from mine!

If I take anything away from this video, it’s “Trust Yourself.” Idk about the content cuts made here, but I know one thing I agonize over is “verisimilitude.” It’s a tendency I’m growing out of to embrace the abstract. It’s difficult though, but thinking to myself “I know what a world with (blank) should look and feel like, so just stop agonizing about the details and just trust yourself” that’ll make my games so much more fun to prep.

I’m running LMoP again w/ a solo player and sidekicks. The player asked what’s the population of Phandalin but the Starter Set doesn’t say. The Essentials Kit says Phandalin has 40-50 buildings but not all are homes. I figured no more than 40-families as permanent residents. Miners & visitors naturally increase that number. What would you say is the population of Phandalin?

Oh that paperclip joke was most certainly worth the pause!

I am getting ready to run this adventure with some newbies in a few weeks and I am wondering why the PCs would trade for the puzzle box when their friend Gundren needs it? I imagine I would have Nezzar make the offer and then the PCs would simply refuse and walk away. Any thoughts on this?

I don't understand this at all. Wasn't the players supposed to hand in the Puzzle Box to Bart? Then why would they keep it? I'm so confused about it