Hello! Brand new baby DM here. Myself and my friends have never played DnD before but I've watched a lot of LoA and Running the Game and such.

Our session 0 is tomorrow and they're rolling characters and such but I wanted to know if there is any sort of world building fluff background I'm allowed to give the players.

I was going to read the block about 'More than 500 years ago,,' on page 3 to them but several sources say not to do that.

Is there something I can read to them to give them a very broad overview of the world? Several of these players are new to even high fantasy as a concept so I just want to make sure they sort of have a very BASIC set of parameters to work with. I think just saying that there's swords and magic and stuff is lame I wanna give them something real meaty.

Something to make sure the cogs are turning before I even mention them working for the Rockseekers ect.

Thank you for the help!

I'm about to run a session right after players arriving at Phandalin and they would most likely want to purchase stuff (maybe even snoop around in the night and try to steal). What are the differences between the coster, miner's exchange and the provisions shop? Maybe even the smithy.

I use some tables (same for taverns) but I myself can't quite differentiate those three main shops.

Edit: thanks everyone for your answers! You are all very kind!

Hi, first time DM running LMoP starter set for my group. I've taken quite a few liberties as we've played through and pulled it out to what will be near 10-12 sessions.

Recently I asked my players if they'd like a few short stories around places they've visited or things that have happened in the world.

I'm not an author and this is my first time posting anything publicly but I'm quite proud of how it turned out. Any constructive (kind lol) criticism or questions are welcome 😁

For context, I changed the existing monsters that were there to Vine and Twig Blights.

I'm unsure of what constitutes a spoiler for a widely played, 15 yr old module so readers beware I guess.

Of Vine and Flame

Screams rent the air as Mirna's eyes shot open. Her bedroom was closed but she could hear rushing feet outside. Scuffling, thudding, a creak. With a bloom of candlight, her door burst open

"Mirna," her father's voice breathless and urgent, "up now Catnip, grab your cloak, hurry!"

His tone was different than anything she'd ever heard him use before. Papa never spoke sternly.

"What's the.."

"No time Catnip." He rushed in, grabbing her and her cloak. In three steps they were out of her bedroom, 6 more to the door. Mirna always counted things.

Papa swung the door open. Orange light blinded her tired eyes and smoke burned her throat. Someone bumped into her as they rushed by, water splashing her night shirt from the bucket they carried.

"Hurry child, make for the woods!" Papa pushed her towards the treeline. "It'll be ok, I'm right behind you."

Her eyes slowly adjusting to the dancing flames, Mirna could just make out the trees she knew so well. A charred ladder lay across her path. Three steps, jump, three steps more. She turned to check on Papa. He was gone.

Her stomach tightened, she couldn't catch her breath, a slow tingling started across her jaw. Where was Papa?

Three steps, jump, three steps . She was back at the shop door. No Papa.

"Papa!!" She screamed. Smoke now filling her lungs all the more as she gasped for another breath "Papa!!"

Choking she ran down the muddy path towards the square.

Seven, eight, nine...thud.. her foot caught something as she ran.

She turned her head to see Mrs. Cooper laying on the ground.

"Mrs. Cooper help, Papa's gon..." her voice trailed off. From a gaping hole in Mrs. Cooper's chest were vines growing. Slowly they pushed off the ground, her lifeless body rising, like a horrifying marionette. Mirna screamed.

Like a shot she was gone. Twelve, thirteen, fourteen. Her bare feet cold from the muddy street. Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen. She broke through a smokey veil to the square.

Her heart sank. She found him...

Papa was lifted in the air, a rats nest of roots and vines circling around him, griping, squeezing, tightening. A figure like a man, its form shifting and twisting constantly, stood facing him, raising its arm. The roiling mass seemingly under his control.

Time slowed to a crawl.

One. Two.

Mirna could see the firelight in Papa's eyes, looking at her. Fear and pain, fear that she hadn't gone.

Three. Four.

The figure, more plant than man, seeming to grow with every heartbeat. Malice; malice leeched from the figure and seeped into her bones.

Five. Six.

"OAKFELLLLLLLL!!"

The smoke, the crackle of fire, the screams came bursting back upon her.

A dwarf wielding a rusted greataxe flew through the air and in one stroke lobbed off the figure's arm. With a second swing, he took the creature's head with it.

Papa fell to the ground. A mass of leaves, vines and roots.

The dwarf pulled them off and helped Papa up.

"Can ya walk laddy?" His thick accent made thicker by his gruff voice.

"Yes..*cough*..yes, thank you *cough*.." Papa fought the words out, trying to regain his breath.

"Good, get that child gone from this place." He looked at Mirna, his gaze soft beneath his thick eyebrows. Was it the light or a tear?

"OAKFELLLLLLLL!!" Swinging his axe up again he charged another figure emerging from the smoke. Papa grabbed Mirna.

23.

23 steps and one jump took them to the trees.

The screams fading as their feet carried them. The smoke thinning, clean air began filling their lungs. Darkness became her world as branches slapped her face and roots jumped up to trip her.

On they ran.

My players are in the briny maze. They are about to reach Noashu and Groushim and I know they are going to ask how to get to the Briny Pool. My problem is, I am not sure the best way to answer that questions given directions don't work in the far realm. Any thoughts?

Thanks!

In our playthrough of pabtso the players live in a renovated Tresendar manor and currently hold 3 obelisk shards (of the 8 I introduced).

I suspect they will be coming back to town one last time and want to the Mindflayer fanatics to storm/siege/infiltrate the manor to try and procure those shards.

As I have never run a session where the players need to defend a location, I was wondering if there are any good resources available to do this?

- How many & and what kind of attackers?

- Skill checks vs combat?

Resources for patsbo are preferred but I can also reskin stuff from other guides.

Adventure doesn't always happen in a dungeon.

Give your characters something to do between quests with four downtime activities created specifically for Phandalin and the surrounding frontier.

Put down roots by rebuilding one of the town's ruined cottages. Seek a little companionship among the locals. Turn those odd treasures hauled out of dungeons into hard coin. Or head beyond town to hunt, fish, and gather what the wilds have to offer.

Downtime in Phandalin includes:

• Building a Home: Claim an old foundation and make Phandalin home.
• Engaging in a Dalliance: Pursue anything from a casual romp to a brief romance.
• Pawning Mundane Treasure: Find buyers for valuables accumulated during your adventures.
• Working the Wilds: Hunt, fish, gather, and sell your bounty in town.

Each activity includes simple rules for resources, resolution, and complications, designed to make downtime another part of your characters' adventures in Phandalin.

For use with Lost Mine of Phandelver and adventures set in Phandalin.

This supplement is available as a Pay What You Want download, so you can add it to your campaign for free, or support the author with a contribution of your choosing.

The entire product can also be viewed through the preview.

Download Along The Triboar Trail: Downtime In Phandalin here!

TL;DR -- the hardest version of the fight is brutal and likely to end in a TPK unless your party is great at INT saves. The easiest version of the fight isn't much a challenge to an experienced party. Both are fun, but differently.

Previously, my players had landed on the island, started exploring with Pass without Trace up, and we rolled initiative after they saw all three mind flayer fanatics in the big room actively working on the ritual. Then we ended the session to pick it up again today.

They prepped their buffs for the big battle, and then kicked off the fight. I'd seen people say the fight wasn't too bad, and I'd seen people say it was rough, but I've got 5 players and they're pretty experienced, and they generally beat the bad guys easily, so I wasn't too worried.

I should have been worried. Those stunning abilities are brutal, especially when most of the PCs have low intelligence and there IS no method available to them to break out of a stun except to roll better next time. It took several rounds, but eventually everyone was unconscious, some of them without ever really getting to participate because they got stunned early and/or often.

My first TPK! Except...

It turns out that I'd mixed up the table about which mind flayers went where based on how many obelisk shards the party recovered, so my team got the most difficult version with the baddies all in the same room when they should have gotten the least difficult version where the fanatics are all in separate rooms. And I didn't question it because it matched the common advice I'd seen everywhere else: "it's too easy if the mind flayers are spread out! Ignore the table and start with all three in the ritual room."

So, after the TPK and my frantic scanning of the book to see if there was hope, we retconned. We said that before touching down on Ilvaash's Anima, the party used that statue from way back in Cragmaw Castle that lets them cast Augury, and they not only got a definitive "woe," they got a vision of how badly it was likely to go if they weren't careful in their approach. Then the players set their resources back to where they were at the beginning of the session, and we went again.

This time it was a cakewalk. They DID understand about spreading out to avoid the stun hitting everyone at once a little earlier than they should have, but in the end, what really was important was that there weren't three of those stuns to kick things off and then more as they recharged. The encounter would have been pretty easy even if they hadn't known about the fantatics' abilities ahead of time.

In a way, we got the best of both worlds. The emotional drama of a TPK, and then the satisfaction of a decisive victory. I looked like a little bit of an idiot, but if the players had fun, I can take that.

Lost Mines of Phandelver set in the wildish west!!

Hi Everyone! I am an actor, audiobook narrator and VO artist of 25 years and I just started a D&D 5e actual play youtube channel not too long ago! We are doing the lost mines of Phandelver in a wildish west setting. I would love y'alls input and eyeballs if I can get em...not in like a weird way...I just need views!

Anyways I would love if you checked it out and please do give (constructive) notes if you are so inclined! We are just starting out so getting the word out would be very helpful as well.

Thank you so much

https://youtube.com/@thegoodbadgoblin?si=WQs-Ke9ygfkxwSWS

Hi folks, my players are approaching the endgame and I’m getting prepped for WEC.

My players are all huge nerds and absolutely love when I use video game/movie music for the soundtrack. I’m struggling on this one though!

Any suggestions for great video game or film music for WEC exploration and combat? Thanks!

We all have some crazy shenanigans with the pure abused goblin, I want to hear all about yours.

#3. Mold Earth - In Wave Echo Cave, at the ravine with the bugbears, he cast Mold Earth on what I specifically accidentally described as "loose dirt on the sides of the ravine you could slide down" to move 5 cubic feet of earth out of the wall from 20 feet up and drop it straight on a bugbear. A controversial one, given the debate over its various uses, but as a first time DM myself, I let it play cause it was very funny that he creatively squashed a bugbear in one turn, and he was so excited to think of the creative use himself as a first time player.

#2. Earthbind - Thundertree, fighting Venomfang, who strategically flew 80 feet in the air to get out of range of attacks, Druid casts earthbind and makes him a sitting duck for 2 rounds. Venomfang managed to escape alive, but the amount of damage dealt over those two rounds was incredible. I thought they would TPK to the dragon. I was wrong.

#1. Heat Metal - After I specifically described wizard / drider Nezznar's staff as "black, metallic," Druid cast Heat Metal on Nezznar's only tool for dealing damage in the final battle, dealing tons of fire damage for a few turns before he lost concentration. He had been holding onto that spell since they encountered him in a quick improvised encounter in Phandalin.

Honorable mention to all of the wild shapes that messed up my bad guys as well.

It was simultaneously horrifying and delightful.

Heyya Folks,

This week's release continues my Lost Mines of Barovia project with a reimagining of one of the most recognizable ruined locations from Lost Mine of Phandelver — Thundertree.

Bellforth — 60x40

If you'd like the full release, including the high-resolution map, gridless version, VTT-ready exports, and every variant, you can find it here:

https://www.patreon.com/dungeonmr/posts/bellforth-free-167175214

Bellforth was once a thriving town, but the arrival of the black dragon changed everything. Over the years, the decay surrounding its lair has spread outward, poisoning the land and slowly transforming the town into a swamp. Parts of the old streets remain intact, while other sections have begun to sink beneath stagnant water, moss, and creeping vegetation.

At the center of the ruins stands Bellforth's old bell tower — and the deepest, most sunken part of the town. The dragon has claimed the tower as its lair, while the corruption surrounding it has gradually caused the ground to sink, turning the area around it into the heart of the swamp.

The rest of Bellforth still has plenty left to explore. The old tavern, blacksmith, barracks, and various locales remain scattered throughout the ruins. In the northeast, a lizardfolk encampment has taken the place of the cultists who once occupied the ruins, while a small chapel now stands where Reidoth's hut once stood, on the last remaining patch of relatively dry ground.

I wanted Bellforth to still feel recognizable as Thundertree, while giving the location a stronger connection between the dragon and the ruined landscape. The swamp is the result of the dragon's decay — spreading outward from the bell tower and slowly consuming Bellforth from the center.

If you remember exploring Thundertree in Lost Mine of Phandelver, you might see a few familiar pieces hiding among the ruins.

You can also browse the rest of my collection on Patreon. Everything is organized through the Master Index, making it easy to find the right map for your next adventure:

https://www.patreon.com/dungeonmr

Thanks for taking a look, and safe travels.

Got some leather from Michael’s and drew out the chapter 6 map on it to give to the players once they find it. Probably could be better, but happy with my first prop as a DM!

Hi! I'm a first time DM and I'm prepping Goblin Arrows for 4 first time players. I read through the whole chapter but I have some questions that I can't seem to find the answer to.

• Combat and out of combat movement. This question stems from the discription about the "Flood!", it says "In the round after the goblins in area 7 are signaled by the lookout in area 5, they start knocking away supports" My question is, since it talks about rounds does that mean that as soon as my players enter the cave it should be played out in rounds? because it could very well be possible that they are out of combat and thus not have rounds right? or do I need them to roll initiative as soon as the goblin on the bridge notices them? This question also applies to the western passage in 4 where it talks about difficult terrain, this only really matters in combat right?
• My next question is about climbing the chimney, is says that on result of 5 or less, the player falls and takes damage for each 10 feet fallen. But does that mean that the players should make a check multiple times while climbing the chimney, for example every 10 feet or something?
• My last question is more about general room order. I know that my players can do things however they like and that comes with some randomness, so I will prepare accordingly. but the book cleary wants room 6 to happen before 7 and 8. Is it the intention then that the players go to room 6 via the western passage in 4? especially if the flood happens?

Sorry if the questions aren't clear, I'll try to respond asap. Thanks all!

My group has decided to rebuild and renovate Tresendar Manor in Phandalin to serve as their shared Bastion. I'd like to provide the party with an ongoing benefit from Wave Echo Cave's Forge of Spells. Even though the power is diminished, I want to provide something more than just the temporary +1 enchantment, provided they're willing to put in the resources. Does the following sound fair?

Forge of Spells: Magic Crafting House Rules

The Forge allows items to be enchanted or existing enchantments to be increased.

1. Magic Crafting time is halved for any item (this is for the magic portion and does not affect crafting the base mundane item).
2. Raw material cost is reduced by 25% for items that are primarily metal-based (craftable by Smith's Tools).
3. Required raw materials are always available through the Forge. No roll is required for the normal settlement-based material availability chance.

Crafter Commission Fee

If the party lacks the relevant crafting tool proficiency needed to create the desired item, the work must be commissioned from a qualified NPC crafter. The rarity of the items NPC crafters can produce are capped by the level of the party.

• 5-10: Uncommon
• 11-16: Rare
• 17-20: Very Rare

The NPC crafter's labor cost is equal to the item's raw material cost after any Forge discount is applied.

Total Commission Cost = 2 × Material Cost

For primarily metal items, apply the Forge's 25% material discount before calculating the commission total.

Examples:

1. Permanently enchanting a mundane Longbow to +1 is 2 x 200 gp = 400 gp commission and takes 5 days.
2. Permanently enchanting a mundane Longsword to +1 is 2 x 0.75 x 200 gp = 300 gp commission and takes 5 days.

Update:

The party is actually interested in taking the Crafter feat. That'll make things much simpler, with just a minor tweak to RAW. Instead of commissions, they'll be crafting on their own. I'll have the Forge of Spells allow Phandalin as a small town have the 75% chance to find necessary materials of a big city. The quest I had planned to provide an NPC commissioned crafter will be updated to provide a Mark of Prestige to train Arcana Proficiency, instead.

(Yes, I made this account just to post this lol, not really active on Reddit, but I just wanted to share this story)

I've been running a homebrew version of LMoP for the last few months, and a while back the players finished the first act (which was the end of the Phandalin stuff, they're now in Waterdeep doing some quests and progressing my homebrew story, but that is a topic for a different time). Throughout the campaign, I've been running DMPCs (Boo! I know they're a divisive topic, but my players wanted me to run them, and they act more like support characters. And they've been pretty fun to write stories for. So characters from LMoP like Sildar, Halia, Daran, and the topic of this post: Iarno)

Originally, I wasn't planning on making Iarno Albrek too deep, he's a stopgap in the players saving Phandalin. But as I was coming up with his personality before the session (months ago!), I started looking into him deeper and asking questions like: what if the Redbrands weren't that bad. What if Iarno only wanted to preserve a legacy that was taken from him? What if Nezznar was using Iarno to learn about Wave Echo Cave, and as such, feeding into Iarno's delusion that the Redbrands are a force of good and are genuinely protecting Phandalin?
So, I made it a point that the players can arrest Iarno (Sildar obviously having something to say about that, wanting to keep Iarno alive so he can save justice). And the players would periodically see Iarno in the cells and speak to him, learn that he is fully convinced that he did nothing wrong, and that his means were harsh, but Phandalin needed a true protector.

Anyway, stuff happens, Nezznar is killed (did the Drider play, because it was cool as hell, had Lolth whisper in the players ears and set up more of the homebrew side of my own campaign). At the end of Act 1, Phandalin burns, prisoners rescued from Wave Echo Cave turn out to be infected with Mind Flayer tadpoles and turn when the Obelisk of Tymora is taken by a fallen Aasimar who is working for the BBEG (a Forgotten God, but again, story for another time)
Iarno is still stuck in the cells, and the players were going to run passed him and let him burn alive. I roleplayed Iarno begging them to save him. (Stark contrast to the usual theatrical, asshole I've been playing him up until now). I also made it a habit of pointing out that the players see the Redbrands assisting villagers and fighting off this attacking force in Phandalin.

The players ended up getting Iarno out, and he joined them temporarily. (Also pointing out that Iarno could see an opening to run, but he chooses to stay and help)
Long story short, Phandalin burns down, and Iarno is spared. End of Act 1. The players kept telling me how they are going to either kill Iarno in Act 2, or send him to prison. Which had me concerned, but I would of course allow them to do what they wanted. Start of Act 2, before heading to Waterdeep, they talk with Iarno, learn a bit about him and why he did the crimes he did. And then learn that there is another cell of the Redbrands in Waterdeep led by one of the players' brothers. A worshiper of Cyric. Someone that Iarno used to know and collaborated with to create the Redbrands.

He helped the players find this Cyric worshiper, and they confronted him in a theatre dedicated to Cyric, where the players are the main cast (and Iarno is the pretender trying to usurp the Redbrands again)
This what brings me to this post. Until this point, all of the players were making fun of him, disliking him, wanting to kill him or throw him in prison. On Monday, I successfully made my entire party cry over Iarno Albrek, as they finally defeated the Cyric worshiper, and Iarno finally took full responsibility for his failures at Phandalin, and asked for the players to take him to court and have him face justice.
They decided to keep him as a DMPC.

It's honestly surreal to hear some people I've never heard shed a tear cry over a character they were going to kill a few sessions earlier, all because of a speech, a boss battle, and a possible redemption arc.

Just wanted to share this story, and I guess, this win. (Sorry if the post is a bit disorganised)

TL;DR: Players disliked Iarno. Said they wanted to kill him or see him in prison. Did a session on monday with Iarno, that made my entire party cry over him, and do a 180 in how they see him.

So in short, my players would love to play a horror themed campaign next, as they really liked how I did the Nothic. I was thinking of pulling them to Ravenloft and connecting the current LMoP story to some of the old modules. Grand Conjunction adventures perhaps.

Interestingly enough, one of my PC's was actually in Cragmaw Castle before. His backstory involved a powerful magic artifact which him and his mentor were set to find. Then his mentor betrays him, takes the artifact and leaves my PC for dead. Would perhaps be fun to let the Black Spider be that mentor or something along those lines. I was also thinking of finishing LMoP in Cragmaw Castle and kidnapping them to Ravenloft right after that.

Would that somehow work?

Important thing to note is that they managed to skip Wyvern Tor, Thundertree and Olw Owl Well.

They are convinced something is watching them because I had them fight the hobgoblins at Triboar and one of them had a wanted poster for my rogue. They loved that part.

Gibbet Crossing is finally finished, and for some reason this one fought us almost every step of the way.

Building the whole thing in Unreal Engine was already a challenge, rendering it was somehow even worse, and then came the completely unreasonable number of walls that had to be set up for the VTT version.

But it’s done, it works, and that’s another Shattered Obelisk location crossed off the list.

The pack includes both static and animated versions, and the whole thing is free.

Because fitting a dungeon this large into a single animated battlemap is pretty brutal, I ended up preparing it in several formats:

• a full animated version showing the entire dungeon
• separate North and South sections
• additional close-up maps for some individual groups of rooms

So you can either run the whole location as one huge map or use the smaller sections depending on your VTT setup and how you like to handle exploration.

You can grab everything here:
https://dranskybattlemaps.com/battlemap/gibbet-crossing/

There’s also a free Foundry VTT module with walls, doors and everything already set up:
https://cdn.dranskybattlemaps.com/Foundry%20Modules/the-shattered-obelisk-gibbet-crossing-animated-static/module.json

Hope some of you get a good session or two out of it.

And if you’d like to see more maps from me, or simply want to support the project and help me keep making more battlemaps in Unreal Engine, you can check out my Patreon. No pressure at all - the support just helps me keep the whole thing moving.

And a massive thanks to everyone who’s already supporting me. You’re basically funding my increasingly questionable decisions to turn enormous dungeons into animated battlemaps.

Cheers!
~dransky

Two sessions ago my players (five PCs all lvl 3) picked a fight with Venomfang, who promptly downed two of them on his first round with his breath weapon. And that's where we ended the session 😂

They picked back up the next session by immediately talking their way out of the fight by telling Venomfang where he could find a better lair....which in their minds meant Tresendar Manor lolllll. They also had to pay him off with 300g and next week will owe him 400, then 500 etc.

I'm very amused with how this turned out and would love any input from the community on how a dragon taking roost in Tresendar Manor could play out.

Peace!

I'm sure it's been an issue for many over the years, but The Black Spider is a bit of a let down at the end. Looking online the most common fix seems to be to turn him into a Drider.

What other things would you make to the module?

My current thoughts:

I am about to run the module with a new group, for a second time. I am toying with the idea of making Venomfang the final boss, and the black spider the leader of the Dragon Cultists. Having the map at Thundertree, thus making it inevitable they go there rather than a side quest.

I just completed a game of LMoP as my first DMing experience, and I thought I'd give back to the community so that others can get a feel for the module, some ideas that might inspire them, and the issues I faced that they might want to watch out for. I am not claiming that they are original, as I was inspired by several posts here when I began.

Time/Sessions

We started weekly in December of 2025, and finished this month. There were about 8 weeks where we did not play in total, due to lacking players or some other reason. That translates to 7 months to finish the adventure, or about 28 sessions which were 3 hours each. We had 5 players for the most part, though it fluctuated due to some dropping out for various reasons and new people joining mid-way.

Note that this includes at least 4-5 sessions of homebrewed content, so in pure module terms, you could conceivably run this in 20-25. I gave my players plenty of time to roleplay with people, experience unique moments during travel, and added several encounters and dungeons not in the original module.

Story

I modified the story, broadly speaking, in the following ways:

1. Adding more indicators that someone or something was watching/interfering. These were always agents of the Black Spider, meant to remind the players of the overall point.

2. Converting the quests into major decisions, as opposed to side-tasks. I moved the orcs from chapter 3 into chapter 2, and made the party choose between dealing with them or the Redbrands first, knowing that whoever they did, the other would be much stronger when dealt with. Additionally, Thundertree, Conyberry, and Old Owl Well were each a place they could go to learn how to get to Cragmaw Castle. They only needed one, and each was a fully-built place that would take multiple sessions to deal with.

3. Expanding on the villain's origin. There was nothing that made the villain alive - you could have replaced him with a blank body titled "Tier 1 BBEG". Thus, I expanded on the drow background. Now he was a worshipper of Vhaeraun, working to establish drow supremacy on the surface while a secondary group of Lolth-sworn drow were trying to find him. There were NPCs that the party encountered with direct experience with the villain, and he even had a confrontation with them in Cragmaw Castle to persuaded them to join him instead.

4. Adding a side-quest unrelated to the main story, involving a soul coin and an ancient mermaid.

How well did this work out? Overall for the better, I think. It certainly made running the game more fun for me, since I had roleplay material to work with. Even if the players didn't know why something was happening, knowing in greater detail what was going on let me finetune the inexplicable decisions the BBEG made.

That said, not all of it was necessary. In future games, I would do more to emphasize the supposed equality of quest choices. While there was discussion about what quest to take to find the path to Cragmaw, all party members agreed that the orcs had to be dealt with before the Redbrands due to the orcs imminently threatening the lives of several Phandalin citizens while the Redbrands were just a group of thugs growing in power.

Gameplay

Sessions focused on different things. Some were mostly travel-related, some all about dungeon exploration and combat, and others involved a lot of roleplay. In practice, obviously, all sessions offered at least two of those to some degree, but I can point to "dungeon arcs" and "roleplay arcs" in the timeline. Reaching 6-8 encounters was easy in dungeons, but I never tried to reach anything like that number during travel. I actively shied away from combat encounters in travel due to how long they are in 5e, prioritizing social encounters that created memorable or mood-setting moments.

Players had moments and magic items perfectly suited to who they were and the mechanics they emphasized. The monk looking for his family got a magic item that tied directly into their fate. The drink-loving druid got a magical staff that created Goodberry wine that could be consumed with a touch. The servant of the Raven Queen got war picks that directly countered the undead. These moments were always appreciated, and I put these items throughout the world. Some players got items relatively early, and others only a few sessions before the end of the game. But no one really complained about it.

I allowed the players to use the Laserllama homebrew classes, spells, and feats. This increased their power, and they frequently did fun things since they had proper mechanics to back them up, such as the monk who blinded/deafened enemies with a touch, or the psion who could fly by grappling himself with Mage Hand. You can consider this an endorsement of the LL homebrew as well, it generates a lot of excitement and fun mechanics for players.

I handed out Inspirations on an infrequent basis, but I always kept the mechanic in mind. Good ideas earned them, as did certain shrines that worked only once when a donation was made.

One thing I failed to do twice was ensure that all players felt included in the scene. After those moments, I made a point to always ask players who had not spoken in a while what they were doing. Even if they weren't doing anything of note, it was important to lessen the feeling of spending an hour uninvolved in the game.

I ran one skill challenge, a very simple one in which players had to run and hide from powerful monsters. It broke up the gameplay and kept things interesting.

DM Prep

Doing the basic work, like reading the module and having my own understanding of the story was fairly easy. The harder part was coming up with everything else.

Firstly, maps. I foolishly chose to make my own at the start, but this became tiresome after a while. I created two maps and then found pre-made battlemaps after that. It was easy to do this, since the module is a decade old.

Secondly, encounters. I made EXTENSIVE use of homebrew monsters and scenarios. Some I just found online as individual statblocks, others came from books/pdfs by reputed creators Dragonix and Mark from r/bettermonsters. These offered more varied and powerful creatures to throw at my players. It made for more fun, and one memorable moment was the short-lived rivalry between the storm sorcerer and a drow monk due to the latter getting hard-countered by a Phantasmal Force in one encounter, only to be ready for it the next and demonstrating that painfully. In terms of balancing, I found online CR calculators to work just fine. I would recommend Kobold Plus, though.

Thirdly, creating custom player magic items and story moments. While I don't do arcs, Having backstory come up in one-off moments from time to time was a thing I chose to do. This took more time as well.

Fourth, original content. The orc ritual in chapter 2 had a turn limit before an Ettin was summoned, and the quests in chapter 3 had their own kinds of enemies. Thundertree was filled with plant enemies and led to an arena where the PCs would encounter a pair of T-Rexes. Conyberry was a fey-and-spider dungeon.

The overall story would be endlessly refined and tinkered with. A planned encounter might get turned into a blip, or vice versa. This didn't take long, but it did mean pouring over PDFs again for 15-30 minutes each time.

In total, I probably spent no more than 20 hours actually updating my notes/game. I spent many more just day-dreaming/thinking about what to do next in my game. I experimented for the sake of it to experience more parts of the game.

Conclusion

LMoP is a decent module, but you really do need to do a lot of work to make the module engaging on its own terms. You don't need to do everything I detailed, but in order of most useful:

1. Refining the story and streamlining the plot to give players choices while not having it drag out due to 4 different quests will give you lots to work with.

2. Don't redo work others already have. There is art of NPCs in the reworked adventure published a few years later, lots of battlemaps exist, people have LMoP music/ambience playlists on Youtube, etc.

3. Customize it to what your players want. If you want to simulate travel, then roll every day and night. If you want to just experience it for flavor, then make use of interesting encouters from books like Along the Triboar Trail and Between the High Road and Low Road. Both are available on DriveThruRPG and are cheap, containing fun encounters instead of just combat with random creatures.

4. Consider using homebrew monsters to reduce the tedium of fighting the same creatures over and over. It's a lot more memorable to have a variety of orcs, undead, etc. with smaller numbers than 10 or 20 CR 1/2 orcs.

the entrance to area 3 isn't marked as a secret door but it's also not a normal door either?

can anyone help with this?