5Es Tiers of Play

 I liked the idea of Tiers of play in theory, but my game just went to the 2nd tier and I didn't really like the way 5E handled it. I've felt the game gets more and more complicated as the players go up and it becomes less and less fun. Feels more and more video-gamey, and becomes more and more of an exercise in Min/Maxing (for two of my players at least). 

For example I have one player who picked the Polearm Master Feat instead of a Attribute bump at 6th level. So now he gets 2 attacks (for 5th level fighter) an occasional 3rd attack (Action Surge once per shor rest) and the Polearm Master feat allows each of his attacks to become two, one with the blade (1d10) of his polearm and once with the butt of the weapon (1d4). So he's making 4 attacks a turn and occasionally 6. That's just ridiculous. Unless I'm misreading something it's in the 2014 Players handbook which is where I drew the line in the sand about which rules counted so It's legal by my own rules. We'll see how it plays out, maybe he'll need all those attacks as we meander through Tier 2 play but it really makes the PC into a super-hero and I don't like it. 

I've always felt D&D combat was a bit like rock-em sock-em robots with both opponents standing still and punching each other. By turning shields into an AC boost and dodging being mostly in the fantasy of Hit Points there really isn't much tactics to the fighting. Even the tactics found in the Battlemaster Martial Archetype are pretty bland (trip and do extra damage, or scare and do extra damage, and oh my god if the enemy misses you the Repoist gives you a bonus attack making that possibly 7 in one round (i'm not giving a bonus ontop of the bonus for that one).

5E seems overly complicated and gets worse and worse for DMs as you progress. The game promotes the Min/Maxing I've always disliked. I'll continue going (Storm King's Thunder now) and see if it grows on me over time, and see how the players feel about it, but now I'm dreaming of RuneQuest 2 which we thought was complicated at the time but which is actually a pretty clean system.

If I Ran Phandelin Over Again

With a new group, that is. I've run them through a blend of Lost Mine of Phandelver with the Dragon of Icespire Peak from the start (both were pretty cheap on Roll20). I mostly like the adventures and combining the adventures gives you a lot of choices and allows you to toss the mediocre bits. 

Foreshadowing

Since the adventure ends with the players at 5th level you then have a few options for the players to choose from. I'd like to better setup the options ahead of time. The three likely options:

1. Option 1 is to go into Phandelver and Below: the Shattered Obelix. Shattered Obelix contains the Lost Mines of Phandelver so it's an easy transfer.
2. Option 2 is to continue into Beyond the Dragon of Icespire Peak extra Adventures. The extra adventures were designed to continue on from Dragon of Icespire Peak so it should be an easy transition as well.
3. Option 3 is to continue into Storm King's Thunder. The module has lots of notes on how to continue on from Lost Mines of Phandelver including skipping the first chapter.

Backstory - I'd give the players more of a backstory. When set up from the Starter Set you don't get much backstory. I noticed a lot more going into Storm King's Thunder so I'd use that to help link the two (if things go that way). Backstory that links one or two players with the Harpers (the chosen faction because they appear in the movie and so have some recognizability right away) or the Lord's Alliance or have a player that grew up on Butterskull ranch or in that area. 

Initiating Mission - Caravan guards is to bland. The PCs are doing that, but actually the Harpers in the party are going to Phandelin to figure out why the Harper representative isn't reporting back (Sister Garaele is missing from Lost Mines, why?). Any Lord's Alliance members are sent to look for what happened to Iarno Albrek. 

Re-arranging, combining, and dumping Missions - I hate fetch-quests and both adventures are filled with them which has them journeying here and there and back again. It feels very video-gamey and I'd try to get away from that by bundling them into a few mini-campaigns. This means I don't need rationals for 30 mini-adventures but only for 3 or so which makes them feel more important. Also the order of adventures is odd as the mission to save their friend gets put aside for a bunch of level-up fetch-quests. There should be a ticking clock to save their buddy, then after that there is time. The re-arranged sequences follow:

Goblin Troubles

So we start with Gwyn, the Rockseeker brothers scholar friend that appears in Phandelver and Below traveling with the party. I want her introduced early in case they segway into that adventure. She's also a useful resource as a scholar to give the PCs info. The order goes:

1. Goblin Arrows
2. Cragmaw Hideout
3. Cragmaw Castle

So the first two run as normal. Gwyn starts with the group, she can take the wagon to town and get reinforcements. If the party is beat up dealing with the Cragmaw Hideout she could have returned with help, and perhaps a healing potion or two, otherwise they are free to continue to Cragmaw Castle uninterupted. 

Changes The only real changes to the first two adventures would be the addition of dead Goblins hung near the entrance of Cragmaw Hideout. These Goblins have strange tattoos (the mark I'm giving to all the Sawplee Goblins from Phandelver and Below). Helping to set them up a bit, early on. The elongated heads are silly. 

I'd also include a captive Sawplee Goblin (if it survives the onslought through the Hideout, which is no sure thing) that can provide guidance to Cragmaw Castle and basically answer any questions the party has about Goblins or Orcs. At this point problems between Sawplee and Cragma Goblins should look mostly like tribal conflict. This Goblin would be a bit like Golum, not really trustworthy but in the end he doesn't try to deceive them. He will not help in a fight, but won't double-cross or anything either. 

I'm not one for a lot of funny voices but this guy gives the opportunity for lots of that. He's not a big fan of the Sawplee Goblins (he was drafted) and hates the Cragmaw Goblins. He also really hate the Orcs. If set free he'll head to Butterskull Ranch where he might be met later. If he's brought to town it's likely he'll be hung as a bandit and marauder.

More Changes Spider is a weak villian so he's gonna be a minion of Glasstaff. 

Phandelin

The time pressure is off. The party are heroes of the town.

4. Phandelin & Redbrand Hideout

This part should play out mostly as written. There are a few changes to the town.

New Faction Dwarven Ultra Patriots: The Miners Exchange is filled with Dwarf miners and they have a mine directly below the exchange. That mine is the economic heart of the town. The non-Dwarfs in town like the Dwarf coin but the Dwarves don't spend much which is a problem. Human miners mine the streams and rivers and sell their gold at the Exchange but don't think the Dwarves give a very good rate of exchange. So there is a bit of tension there. The Dwarves think the whole area is there as they once had a great kingdom here and they want it back. The Rockseeker brothers are sympathetic with the Dwarves but not as Zealous about their long-term plans. The races of the Forgotten Realms is to friendly.

Changed Faction The Redbrand Ruffians. They don't just beat people up. They are a proto-Thieves Guild that has set up gambling in the Sleeping Giant Tap House. A lot of the human miners have gambling debts and are occasionally beaten to get them to pay. Pretty standard stuff but the locals are hoping the heroes in town will deal with the problem for them so they are mostly mum. One might let it slip once Redbrands are gone, otherwise the paperwork in Glastaff's office might give it away. It may not matter. Glasstaff's paperwork will also show he is looking for Wave Echo cave without luck. He has a whole Grail Diary of info on the Wave Echo Cave and if given to Gwyn she can sort through it and provide hints and info to the party as they go. Also Glasstaff.

Other Changes Obsidion. There is a giant shard of obsidian at the Shrine of Luck. There are also shards of Obsidion flecked with color at different spots throughout town (Cornerstorne of Miner's Exchange, and embedded in the counter of the Sleeping Giant Traproom. These bits set up things alter, foreshadowing of sorts for Phandelver and Below.

If the party hasn't decided to remove the Red Brand Ruffians on their own, Sister Garaele will return and any Harpers in the group will be requested to do so. Any Lord's Alliance members will be told Iarno Albrek is Glasstaff.

Changes to Redbrand Hideout Glasstaff should survive if at all possible so he can replace Nilron Darlost in Storm King's Thunder and links things to Frost Giants. If he doesn't survive then Nilron Darlost can be himself. Otherwise the hidout plays out the same. 

Dwarves & Wave Echo

So now the rest of Lost Mines is silly fetch-quests and Wave Echo Cave. The party has still not found it. If you want to cut things short the location could be found in Glasstaff's notes and the party could go right there. Otherwise they go to Dwarven Excavation to see if they've found anything that might indicate the location of Wave Echo Cave. 

5. Dwarven Excavation
6. Axeholm/Wyvern Tor
7. Wave Echo Cave

Now we are jumping to Dragons of Icespire Peak for a bit. No changes to Dwarven Excavation and the Dwarves there haven't learned anything. They suggest Axeholm which has a map room of old Dwarven Kingdom but warn it's been owned by Orcs for generations. They may just be being difficult as Dwarves wouldn't want others to find the Cave, and sending the party to Axeholm may be a sort of suicide suggestion depending upon the DMs mood and how the Dwarves were treated. 

Changes To Axeholm Axeholm's Ghouls will be replaced with Orcs and Ogres from the Wyvern Tor adventure (which had no map anyway). The Banshee can stay, and maybe be talkative if the GM likes and the players are reasonable. Perhaps Sister Garaele gave her silver comb and asked her question, except now it's in Axeholm and not Agatha's Lair.

Changes To Wave Echo Cave The only real change is the location. I'd place it beneath the Ruined manor, at the bottom of the ravine in the Redbrand Hideout. Maybe Glasstaff knew it was there and has been trying to open some Dwarven doors to allow access, while keeping the site secure, maybe the Dwarfs at the Miner's Exchange know and are actually tunneling to get around Glasstaff. Either way putting it there removes an additional journey.

Morglum's Marauders!

So now the Lost Mines main adventure is over. If the DM wants to continue it a bit further Sister Garaele can have them go to Triboar with the art and other stuff they've accumulated. And to tell the Harpers there that Wave Echo was found and its a bust, and all that. 

8. Ruins of Thundertree/Conberry 
9. Butterskull Ranch (part 1)

On the journey the party pass through Conyberry a ruined town sacked by barbarians long ago. I'd use the Thundertree map and adventure. The players can get involved or not depending upon their whims. 

Changes To Thundertree/Conberry The dragon is Cryovain the White Dragon. If the players manage to kill him here, that of course would change or eliminate the need for killing it later. 

Changes To Butterskull Ranch (part 1) The cowboy hat is gone! It's embarrassing and stupid. The first time through the area the ranch is peaceful. The players meet Alfonse Kalazorn, he's a pleasure and puts them up for the night.  

Alfonse also has a Cow named Butterspout. The Cow was given limited intelligence and the ability to talk by a passing Elf Wizard. The Elf also gave the cow amazing tasting milk (which is used to make the Butter that Butterskull ranch is famous for). The Cow replaces the intelligent Crab from Tower of Storms. It can be used for comic relief (it proudly pushes milk and butter products and is very proud). The cow might even fall in love with an Elf if any are available, or a horse if none are.

Eventually the party makes it to Triboar, meets with the Harpers representatives. I now own Storm King's Thunder which has maps and details of Triboar. The PCs can exchange things of value and perhaps buy up a magic item if they'll need help when they eventually fight the dragon. They will learn about the white dragon that has been driving Orcs out of the mountains, and about the Dragon Barrow where the great dragonslayer and her sword were buried with suggestions the sword might be helpful and tokens to keep the spirits of the dead tranquil as long as the dead are not actually disturbed.

On the return trip they go to Butterskull Ranch again only to be overwhelmed by Orcs.

10. Butterskull Ranch (Part 2)
11. Shrine of Savras
12. Circle of Thunder (optional)

Morglum and his Orcs comes from issue #110 of White Dwarf. His maurders are Warhammer Greenskins full of malingering and screwing around. This was long before Pathfinder did their Gremlins take on Goblins and I like it a lot better. Also I'd have them wearing Talos symbols and chanting Talos a lot to help set up Talos cultists if the adventurers go into the Beyond the Dragon of Icespire Peak extra Adventures.

Changes To Butterskull Ranch (part 2) The party is dining with Alfonse when the Orcs attack. It should be a battle with the players able to select defensive positions and make a go of it. Possibly escaping to snipe at the Orcs. It's twilight and during the dark the Orcs can see nicely. In the end Butterspout the cow has been taken, along with a ranch-hand. The trail will be easy to follow in the morning, they were taken to the Shrine of Savras.

Changes To Shrine of Savras The main difference is the party is there (if they decide to get involved) to rescue the talking cow Butterspout. Otherwise the adventure should play out the same except some Orcs will escape at the end, leading to the Circle of Thunder where there will find re-enforcements.

Changes To Circle of Thunder (optional) The location is moved to a mile away from the Shrine of Savras. Circle of Thunder is optional because the players may not chase the fleeing Orcs. If they do, they can catch the orcs long before they arrive at the Circle of Thunder but will notice Orc footprints leading them clearly to the Circle of Thunder. Otherwise the adventure is the same.

13. Dragon Barrow

14. Icespire Hold

Dragon Barrow and Icespire Hold should play out mostly as written. I'd give the Sword a personality. Make it annoying and full of elitist "I will not allow that!" talk but basically it's all talk.

Segway to the next Tier of Adventure

So now you need to figure out where you are going with the adventure. Are the characters sick and tired of Phandelin, or are they protective of the place. Either way the 5th level portion of both Phandelver and Below and the Storm King's Thunder start with an attack.

15. Goldenfield (Storm King's Thunder) / Paths of Peril (Phandelver and Below)

Changes To Goldenfield The attacked city is Phandelin. I think Goldenfields is a lame location and nothing about the attack is really specific to the location. Hillgiants are my favorite Giants, and the lowest level giants, so they're gonna attack Phandelin instead, from their the Harper Sister Garaele can send the party to Triboar to inform them the giants are acting up. While there the PCs can be in the middle of the Triboar attack and are well into the Storm King's Thunder storyline.

Changes to the Paths of peril storyline. None, we've set up things nicely for Phandelver and Below.

If they go for Beyond the Dragon of Icespire Peak, nothing happens and they head to the coast. 

GM Mischief The GM can drop hints, or let the players figure things out for themselves. If going forward with Phandelver and Below then the Spider was working to stop the Mind Flayers, but he was stopped/killed by the party before he could. If going forward into the Storm King's Thunder it can be stated that Dragons and Giant are enemies, and hinted that a single white dragon near Phandelin would have stopped the Giant attack on the city that occurred prior to the goblin attack. A bit of guilt can help motivate PCs to push forward and do the right thing.

You Missed a Few Adventures?

There are a handful of mini-adventures in the Lost Mines of Phandelver and Dragon of Icespire Peak that haven't been used yet. 

Umbrage Hill, Logger's Camp, and old Owl Well can be repurposed for adventures along the road. Random encounters are dull, better to have something a bit more planned out from time to time.

x. Umbrage Hill (Manticore) 

x. Logger's Camp (Ankheg)  

x. Old Owl Well (Necromancer and zombies)  

Changes To Old Owl Well The Necromancer will sense/notice Glasstaff's staff if the players have it. He doesn't like Glasstaff so that could go either way depending upon how the players handle it.

The rest of the adventures I don't like. If you want wererats have them attack as a faction in Phandelin, otherwise get them out of there. 

x. Agatha's Lair (Banshie)

x. Falcon's Hunting Lodge

x. Mountain's Toe Gold Mine (wererats)

x. Gnomengarde (Mimic)  

x. Tower of Storms (Talking Crab)

x. Woodland Manse

Conclusions

This whole post is about how I would blend and inter-connect a module with other modules. In general I like Lost Mines of Phandelvin and Dragon of Icespire Peak. I think they made a mistake when they made Phandelin & Below instead of officially combining the two modules into a big low level sandbox with foreshadowing of The Shattered Obelisk. Then have shattered Obelisk as its own thing for levels 6-10.

The crazy way WotC handles modules

Most of these comments are based on Lost Mines of Phandelver, Phandelin and Below, Dragon of Icespire Peak (and the additional modules that came with it in Roll20) and Storm King's Thunder. Maybe the other modules change this but it doesn't really look like it. So...

1. Broad, not long

I have a problem is with the way Wizards does modules as a skeleton outline from level 1-20. This maps out a characters entire life. You start with this module and damnit your gonna go all the way... 20 levels is too much commitment. My characters are sick of Phandelin and they've only gone through a mash of Lost Mines of Phandelver and Dragon of Icespire Peak and they are only at 5th level. Space considerations ensure they can't put enough content for proper levelling so they race through levels and the DM has to fill in a lot of adventures along the way. Charitably this could be seen as a way to encourage DMs to home-brew but I don't think it works that way in practice. I think most will lean on DMs Guild content full of mini-adventures or just have them race up the levels.  

Storm King's Thunder showed the way, somewhat  (I haven't finished reading it). The module goes from 1-20 but also starts with a disposable 1st section that takes you from 1-5 and suggests skipping that part if your characters come over from the Starter Set's Lost Mines of Phandelver. I'd prefer the first chapter was skipped entirely but If you must start every adventure at 1st level this is the way to go.

I've also read that Storm King's Thunder and Rime of the Frostmaiden both have great middle-play and flop a bit at the end. If true that suggests, once again that they should be concentrating on the tiers of play. They list tiers of play in the DM's Guide. Write the adventures for the Tiers. A sandbox with a throughline. Then when done the GM can look over the next Tier of play for adventures or pick the one that naturally segways with the previous Throughline. 

I guess the downside is that a crappy adventure will never sell the upper tier, and like TSR found, high level adventures don't sell so well. Well then encourage the DM's Guild writers to concentrate on the upper tiers so the Wizards don't have to spend the time and resources. Let 3rd party folks continue the through-line. It would be great to have multiple companies come up with a high tier conclusion to different adventure threads.

2. Organize Better

I'm a technical writer by trade so organizing information is one of my bug-a-boos. I'm reading Storm King's Thunder and it's driving me crazy. In the Technical Writing World we have a thing called DITA (Darwin Information Typing Architecture). The idea is to divide types of information (instruction, reference, info) so that different parts can be re-used easily. A simple example of this is the way Wizards has Goblin printed in a module with the Statblock in the Appendix or in the Monster Manual. Saves space. Not the most usable, but it saves a lot of space and makes reading the module far easier.

So in Storm King's Thunder they have a section of detailing a town. Then following that a bit of adventure, then quests. Then detailing a second town. Then adventure, then quests. Some of these quests take you to additional location. So the straight-up location info is great as it could be re-used in a dozen adventures but it's spread out all over the place making it far harder to use that way. It also is stuff that really isn't so relevant for the adventure or the quests. Then in the next chapter they have info on the different cultures and sites throughout the Savage Frontier. Great stuff for running those adventures between the set-pieces but it makes it harder to have them spread all over the place. Then they have a few locations that a blended with the adventure they serve. I'm not talking about those because those are logically combined.  

A better organization would have been to divide the book into three big sections. 

1. The Savage Frontier - Include all the details about cultures, locations (not specific to a one-shot adventure), cities. All the stuff you would want if you dumped the Giant content and just wanted to run adventures in the Savage Frontier.
2. The adventures. A chapter on each attack location and the Quests that follow. Mostly the way things were done in Storm King's Thunder from Chapter 4-12.
3. Appendixes. exactly as they are.

This would make the book easier to read. Easier to run at the table. 

3. Cut the fat

Reading through the town descriptions is a chore because they try to give fun little bits about every single building. for example:

Tl7. ULDINATH'S ARMS

This hilltop smithy across the road from Foehammer's Forge (area T18) is run by Harriet Uldinath (LG female Illuskan human commoner), the great-granddaughter of the establishment's founder. Harriet has known Ghel­ ryn Foehammer since she was a child, and the two are friendly rivals. Harriet sells fine weapons stamped with the Uldinath family glyph, which generally increases their value by 25 percent.

Could have been just...

Tl7. ULDINATH'S ARMS - Harriet Uldinath (LG female Illuskan human commoner) sells fine weapons stamped with the Uldinath family glyph, which increases their cost by 25 percent.

The rest could be included in a table of potential backgrounds for proprieters in that town and saved a lot of time. So now it's all canon but most adventurers aren't gonna go to T17, and if they do are unlikely to talk about the family history, so it's wasted space. Fluff takes longer to read, and makes it harder to find anything. Fluff is bad.

So if I was made lead designer of WoTC that's what I'd concentrate on first. Better modules.

Rethinking Weapon Damage

Using average weapon damage instead of rolling speeds up the game. I've been doing it in Roll20 because the system doesn't automatically roll the damage (at least I haven't found the correct setting yet) but this is unsatisfactory.

I've always felt that the hit roll and weapon damage should be linked. A really good hit should do more damage and a barely successful hit should less damage, so here is what I'm thinking. This applies to the raw roll without any modifiers and only when the roll is a hit of course.

    20         A critical, double damage

    15-19    Maximum damage

    10-14    Average damage

    05-09    Minimum damage 

For example: 

Thug's mace: Max is 8, Ave is 5, Min is 3. Easy enough.

Thug's Heavy Crossbow: Max is 10, Ave is 5, Min is 1.

Since Roll20 automatically calculates weapon damage for the players this will only be done for the foes but I think it should work.

My only question is would the critical be double the max damage or double the average? I'll have to think about that.

Lost Mines and Dragons of Icespire Peak

So I rolled our Lost Mines of Phandelin campaign into Dragons of Icespire Peak. Some players had wanted to buy up a house in Phandelin and make a base of operations but others didn't. Some thoughts so far:

• Phandelin should be walled with a small keep like the Keep on the Borderlands and every building in Phandelin should have been mapped with a table of who is inside during AM and PM.
• Town needs a wandering encounters table for the streets. Something quick and easy but currently there is nothing and this is an intro to the game so why not?
• The townsfolk should have been introduced better. Perhaps in the Inn where everyone knows your name they have a table that lists who is in there in the AM, and who is there in the PM.
• The Miners Exchange should be a building built over an actual mine. This would justify the town being there and makes the town a target for greedy villains. Also miners unearthing something could provide an adventure.
• The rumors should be introduced better. The game needs carousing rules with rumors added. The Innkeeper should be the source of most rumors. The message board used in Icespire Peek is gamey and stupid. 
• Phandelin should have a proper temple with encouragement for PC Clerics to either be connected to or in conflict with that temple.
• The campaign should have ended with a list of further adventures for the New PC to create in Phandelin. Orcs attack the town walls, Orcs get in and attack a specific building. The locals are hostile to that temple, or the temple has been taken over by a different faction within the greater cult and is no longer friendly.
• So far the bigger adventures have been decent and the short ones have been lame. Hopefully Icespire Peak gets better, online reviews seem mostly positive but reading ahead I have my doubts.

Crowscroft - One Page Dungeon Entry

Thought I'd give the one page dungeon contest a go. I'm pretty happy with it, even it is more of a setting than a dungeon. In case it isn't clear the name is a play on Ravenloft. Crowundercroft seemed too obvious so I chopped the name a bit. Fingers crossed. 

Some Thoughts on the Lost Mines of Phandelver

First a minor nit, the names Phandelver and Phandalin are too similar. Also Phandalin is a village on the frontier with tribes of goblins and bugbears around and it has no defenses, no militia, nothing. It's a miracle it hasn't been wiped out yet. I would expect a ditch and wooden palisade at the very least if not a stone wall surrounding the place. 

Second, the maps. Cragma Caves reminded me a lot of the map in Murria's Revenge in the old Runequest Borderlands box. It's a good map and the similarities might be accidental. In fact most of the changes are improvements, still you start on the left side of the stream and circle around and cross to the right. Weird coincidence. 

The map of Cragma Castle was nice as well, My players enjoyed the tactical nature of it, even if the designer has apparently never actually seen a castle before. I didn't like the Wave Echo map at first, visually its pretty bog-standard, but in play it worked nice as my players were trying to circle around the enemies and take advantage of the looping nature of the place. It needed more verticals but it was nicely designed. Just goes to show you can't judge a map entirely on the appears. Lastly the Orc mission needs a battlemap. Luckily pretty much any map you could dream of is online somewhere.

Third, I like the way they aimed for a sandbox but the pacing was odd. Maybe I misread something but it felt like there is a bit of hurry to save the missing dwarf brothers, but you aren't really high enough level so first right away, so you do a side-quests or two to level-up before hand. Very video-gamey and artificial. It would have been better if it started in Phandelin against ruffians, then side-quests and sandbox fun, and on one of those the party is Ambushed > Cragma dungeon > Cragma Castle > Wave Echo cave for the win.

Lastly the module missed a chance to explain how to run urban adventures in Phandelin.  They needed details on how to handle encounters, how to dole out rumors, maybe an encounter table. Instead they just list out the important buildings and leave it all up to the DM. They leave you the feeling that the players need to go door to door knocking and asking questions for quest hooks which is silly. They should have had carousing rules of some sort. Not the kind used throughout the OSR for XP, but some fun tables to handle the celebration that was likely to spring-up when the players took out the Redbrand Ruffians. Tables that helped introduce NPC and dole out scenario hooks. 

So it was a good module for my parties intro to 5E and re-intro to RPG after a couple of decades.