Running Dragons of Stormwreck Isle – Tips for New D&D DMs #dnd #lazydm

This is really helpful. I've become really interested in D&D over recent years but thought it was too late for me to try, as I'm in my mid 30s. I just bought this Starter Kit and getting ready to finally give it a shot, being the DM and running it with my wife and her sisters. This video was really helpful, and not sure how common this is but since I've never done this before, I'm actually going to try and run the first two chapters on my own as DM and a couple of PCs so I can make sure I understand the flow of battles, checks, saving throws, when to mention story hooks, etc. Is this something that DMs will sometimes do before bringing the other players in?

I started this for my brothers, father and nephew, recently and after just over an hour of talking (about how to play and to the NPC's), they decided to go to the ship.

They ignored the zombies at the start so I chose to have the harpy attack immediately if someone entered the crow's-nest (as their first combat). The person in the crow's-nest got Charmed and roll multiple Nat 1's for a few turns. They eventually fell down the 50ft drop, and were immediately dead. The rest took down the harpy and retreated back to Runara, who in her grace, spent the night resurrecting the dead party member, as it was clear that they were attempting to help the cloister.

Suffice to say, that's where we chose to end the session for the day; 2 hours, 1 harpy, 1 death. What a way to start.

I just ran my first DnD session both as a DM and in general! I had the zombies undead fortitude DC increase by 2 per death but it still went on for a little bit, I also had the zombies collapse when reaching zero and then stand back up the next round if they succeeded, having the players not know for sure if something was dead for good was great.

Excellent work as always ❤

How did people adjust the vague character personal goals? Please comment to let me know what you did!

My nephews want to play this and I’ve always been interested in the game. So I’m learning how to be the DM without having ever played.. 😅

This is mine and my friends first time playing dnd. I have a group of 4 people playing and I was excited to be the DM. I started reading the book and am super overwhelmed with all the information. After watching this video a few times I feel alot better now. Thank you for such a great video.

So I made a bit of an oopsie by DM'ing Lost mines of Phandalin while also playing it for the first time.
My thought was "I'll give the players a taste of it, see if they like it and go from there. They'll get to do the first goblin ambush, maybe the hideout and we'll call it a day. No way they'll get even close to where we are currently." (My pc group was in the redbrand hideout)
They made it into Phandalin before I had to call it, otherwise I'd have to read up on spoilers.

I picked this set up and I'm thinking of combining the two somehow. Maybe have the end goal of LMoP be on stormwreck isle or something.
Also don't do what I did. If you want to try DM'ing, pick something that you've already played yourself or don't mind knowing the full story of.

I was a DM back during second edition , lived my life and got away from DnD . Now my son and his friends are 14-15 and wanna play DnD . I bought this starter set and Player , Dm and monster book . Thx for this video it helped me a lot getting back into how you DM a game . the game sure changed a lot lol .

I am having trouble making sense of why my players are coming to the isle. I have players that enjoy working on a backstory. I either missed a clear reason in the opening reading or its just not there? Do you folks have a good summary for what this island is about without giving away too much to your players? What info are you giving away prior to kickoff? Thanks for any assist here.

Very helpful thank you! I'm running this tomorrow morning, dm'ing irl for the first time all the players are new & I'm very nervous 😂

the module is a MESS. References all over the place. Mines of Phandelver is a much better starter mod.

This is really good. All these tips are so helpful!

Any suggestions on how to tie this into ghosts of salt marsh?

😀

For anyone who runs this for their group, be sure to review and fix the errors on the pregens:
• The rogue’s Investigation bonus should be +3, not zero.
• The wizard should have a +2 DEX save, not +3.
• The high elf should have longbow proficiency, though that's less likely to be relevant.
All this has been reported for months without any errata.

I was thinking about running this adventure for some new players. Thanks for the great tips.

I did find it funny that the book art has characters clearly inspired by the old D&D cartoon but the ready made PCs are completely different.

What about transitioning Stormwreck into the Tyranny of Dragons series? Seems like some good shared themes to work with, but I’d have to take another look at how the level progression might work.

Mike - you are the best DM coach out there, in my opinion. The resources you've produced are simple, effective, and to the point. I haven't played D&D for almost 40 years, but my son got me back into it this year and I'm totally hooked. Your one-on-one Dragon of Icespire Peak with NewbieDM is one of the most entertaining things I've seen and it really opened my eyes to how fun and interesting this game can actually be. You rock!

thanks for this video! the suggestion to carry on with Call of the Netherdeep at level 3 was something I hadn't thought of - thanks!

I'm currently playing JVC Parry's Call from the Deep. With the nautical setting, it would be easy to maintain some continuity and set the players up for a second, longer adventure.

Good starting point for new DMs! I probably won't get to run this adventure any time soon, but I'm really tempted to.

I had an Eberron game where the players fought zombies on a haunted lightning train, and this one last zombie would. not. die. In the end they threw him off like mama from the train. Getting rid of that one measly zombie gave these lvl 5+ players a greater sense of accomplishment than anything else so far. Always planned to have it come back as a leveled-up nemesis for them but sadly the game came to an end before I could.

This video is likely to be the benchmark standard for recruiting new DMs to the hobby. Giving them helpful tips for plugging into the most likely product that will introduce them to the game of Dungeons & Dragons is exactly what they need. I would like to see Seth Skorkowski's version. You know, just for comparison.

Any existing adventures that can be used to further explore the tomb of Sharruth? I’m thinking of going full homebrew but could use something to reference. Is there a longer adventure for example that they could go on and return to the island and confront Sharruth who by then is escaping somehow?

Just ran my first session on stream last Sunday! We are planning to segue into Light of Xaryxis, and so I decided that Captain Sartell and the Moondancer is the ship that delivers the PCs to the island. I also changed all of the human NPCs to be different races.

We're experimenting running this on discord as play by post. Thanks! Great timing!

I am running this saturday! You are indeed my friend from Sly Flourish, Mike! Thank you!

Nice

Thank you. I value tips that don't require a rewrite of the campaign. I just ran SeaGrow Caves and I agree re the Violet Fungus, I felt that that players wanted to switch it up a bit, so we skipped them too. I also described Tarak as "Tarak Gamgee a halfling gardner" and described amazing cliff-face gardens with ropes and ladders and secret paths throughout Dragon's Rest. It gave options for movement around the cloister.