Welcome back to Advent's Amazing Advice! The series where I take popular One-Shots, Adventures, Campaigns, etc. and fully prep them for both New and Busy DMs. This prep includes fully fleshed-out notes, music, ambiance, encounter sheets, handouts, battle maps, tweaks, and more so you can run the best sessions possible with the least stress possible!
Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk stems from The Lost Mine of Phandelver a classic and beloved starter set that many new DMs run. Even with this being the most recent release it still has an issue, the same as with many others...it doesn't describe the best way to transform the book's contents into an actual session. The Book-to-session conversion can be difficult between figuring out when things should happen, understanding motivations, and even organizing encounters.
Well, fortunately for you, 99% of that work is done! Only a few things are really left:
- Read the book, I know surprising, but It can be extremely confusing when you don't know where everything leads to.
- Consider the needs of your group. As you've heard or are about to hear a million times, every table is different. If you plan on combining this with a campaign, you'll have to make tweaks here and there.
- These notes aren't meant to be the end-all-be-all. Tweak to your heart's content, and don't consider any of what's written to be set in stone. For me having notes like this helps give me the confidence to go off the rails and follow along with what my players want. It helps me understand where things were meant to go and why. Having that understanding allows me to guide the players and create other new and interesting stories. These are all things that will come with experience, though, so don't freak out and enjoy the journey!
Advent's Notes: I was surprised with how few changes were made in the book considering how long this adventure has been around and all the wonderful things the community has come up with, I was even more surprised when they started adding more monsters to Cragmaw Cave. It's already pretty rough in there and with the additional creatures, it's almost assured there's going to be a TPK. I've kept most of the fights the way they were with only a few minor adjustments, the most important changes are just subtle nods to the Psi Goblins that will be encountered later on.
Without further ado:
- Google Docs Notes Part 1 Cragmaw Hideout: DM Notes
- Link to: Intro + Cragmaw Hideout Playlist
- List of changes in Phandelver and Below: Change List
- Link to: The AAA Collection
Included in The AAA Collection are:
- A Word document with all my notes, including links to music tracks for ambiance and fights
- Special PDFs for all the encounters. This includes all the enemies' stat blocks organized neatly, along with an initiative tracker and a spot to mark HP.
- An additional PDF with Sildars stats should he join the party as an ally
- Custom maps of Cragmaw Hideout. I enlarged and printed this out for my players as a battle map!
Other One Shots, Adventures, and Campaigns:
- Dragons of Stormwreck Isle - Click Here
- The Wild Sheep Chase - Click Here
- We Be Goblins - Click Here
- The Egg of Estyr - Click Here
- Into Ivy Mansion - Click Here
- Wolves of Welton - Click Here
- To the End of Time - Click Here
- A Most Potent Brew - Click Here
- Moon over Graymoor - Click Here
- The Drunken Treasure - Click Here
- Curse of Strahd - Click Here (W.I.P)
- A Grimdark Adventure - Click Here
- A Wild West One-Shot - Click Here
- The Wizards Treehouse - Click Here
- D&D vs Rick and Morty - Click Here
- A Prison Break One-Shot - Click Here
- The Barber of Silverymoon - Click Here
- The Tavern at Death's Door - Click Here
- The Night Before Wintermas - Click Here
- L'Arsène's Ludicrous Larceny - Click Here
- Shadow of the Broodmother - Click Here
- The Secret of Skyhorn Lighthouse - Click Here
As always, If you see something you think I can improve, add, change, etc. please let me know. I want this to be an amazing resource for all DMs and plan to keep it constantly updated! If you'd like to support me, shape future releases, and get content early feel free to check out my Patreon!
Cheers,
Advent
