Back to the Future - being a DM again
I often joke with my wife that I was a super nerd before it was cool, being in the vanguard of both video games and D&D back in the 80s and 90s, and then seeing them become (almost) mainstream now. I played mostly as the Dungeon Master back in the day, but hadn't run a session since the return to Fifth Edition. When a good friend asked me if I was willing to run an in-person one-shot whilst in Australia, I tentatively accepted at first, then became very excited as the day drew near.
Since I didn't have a ton of time to create something new, I decided to use a slimmed down version of Chapters 1 & 2 of the Lost Mine of Phandelver, which as the 'starter adventure' of 5E, seemed a good choice as two of the three players were new to the game. Hilarity ensued as all three brought very funny character concepts to the table - an aged 'rocker' bard modelled on Keith Richards, a spicy wizard whose spells often caused bodily functions, and a short, stocky human female fighter who had to insist she was 'not a dwarf' over and over through the adventure. A fun time was had over around 4 hours of play.
How I prepared for the adventure
- Established more of a connection to the the quest giver, and a personal goal in town, to raise the stakes and get player buy-in
- Chopped out a section of each dungeon, and reduced NPCs and side quests in town, to streamline the content and keep things moving at a reasonable clip
- Rebalanced encounters for 3 characters instead of 4-5 using this website
- Laid out all the main scenes and maps in AboveVTT ahead of time
- Did a tech test the day before since I used a big screen & speakers with Syrinscape to run the game
What went well
- DMing is like riding a bike! Once into my first terrible accent, any initial nerves I had melted away as the group dynamic was friendly and very funny
- Having the experienced player help the other two newbies build (and optimise) their characters on D&D Beyond made for a fast start on the day
- Adjusting the the challenge level down for 3 players, but not too far given the characters were well optimised, meant that the party got to defeat the Big Bad Evil Guy and his minions with no resources left, and barely standing
- Showing the exploration and combat on a big screen for players helped with both immersion and tactical fidelity
What could be improved
- The incentive of 15gp (I upped it from 10!) per character had the players grumbling that the effort 'was not worth it' which probably also means the connection to the quest giver wasn't strong enough, even after my additional background
- Time management is tough for a one-shot and I misjudged completely, only getting through my truncated Chapter 1 and not even getting to Chapter 2 in four hours. Even finishing Chapter 1 went right down to the wire before our 'bad boy' rocker bard had to leave... and pick up his children =)
- I over prepared and left a lot of material unused on the day - which might be ok if we ever want to continue, but note to future DM self - things always take longer than expected
- Some of the tech was a lot to keep track of - juggling music, the virtual table top, the adventure and my own google docs notes was at times cumbersome
- The adventure itself, at least in the early part, favours exploration and combat probably more than a normal campaign, meaning newer players might not get a good sense of the social pillar that is core to D&D
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