How to Run D&D Starter Set - Goblin Arrows

A few days out from Neverwinter, you sway atop the ox drawn wagon loaded up with mining supplies heading for Barthen's Provisions in the frontier town of Phandalin. Gundren Rockseeker, your friend and patron, rode on ahead with his escort Sildar Hallwinter, hoping to make Phandalin as soon as possible. You turned off the High Road this morning and have been traveling East down the dusty Triboar trail for nearly half a day. You've had no trouble so far, but you scan the hills and trees beside the trail for danger, knowing that bandits and worse are said to lurk in this area.

The trail narrows as steep embankments and dense thickets press close on either side. You round a bend and spot bodies lying in the middle of the road: Two horses, dead, with several black-feathered arrows sticking out of them.

Goblin Arrows

We've done our homework, we know the rules, we have our NPCs and our PCs info in our notes, our players have character with connections to our story, plus: we've gotten to know and hopefully like Gundren and Sildar. And that's good, because it turns out Gundren and Sildar got got.

The Lost Mine of Phandelver starts with a bang. Goblins have shot the horses out from under our good buddies and dragged them off to their hideout. A few goblins are lying in wait to see what else might come down the road and when our player characters go check out these poor dead horses, they're going to get ambushed.

To be ready to run part one it is a good idea to have the Goblin, wolf, and bug bear stat blocks handy. Write them out, copy and paste them onto a single page, open up browser tabs, whatever works for you. I'd add Sildar's stat block to that list too. We're also going to write down Yeemik's name, noting he is a goblin with 12 hp and the second in command here, and we are going to write down Klarg, who is the bugbear and the chief. They aren't here, but we are going to write this down because the players are going to find out that King Grol is in Cragmaw Castle, he's in charge of all of these goblins, and he's been hired by The Black Spider to capture Gundren. Add a couple random goblin names on that sheet as well, just in case.

A list of names should be included on every Dungeons Masters screen. At any moment your players might stop some rando in town and ask them their name. Your players also might end up talking to any given monster, so be prepared. Watch the amazement in your players eyes as you check your notes for this particular goblins name and this proves to be real, living, breathing world. Sure, all of these monsters have names, I just don't have them memorized, give me one sec. That's Dungeon Master magic.

So we are ready to run part 1, we know what's going down in every room of the Cragmaw Hideout, and we should be ready to run part 2 as well. We don't need the Redbrands prepped but we want to be ready if the players go to town. Because, you should know, there is a chance your players don't follow the breadcrumbs to the hideout and just go to Phandalin. Be prepared for that and let them do it. “Someone paid me 10 gold to get this cart to town, I'm not just going to leave it on the side of the road.” That's OK, that's what makes D&D awesome, the players can do almost anything. That's also what keeps it fun for the Dungeon Master, even we don't know what's going to happen. If that happens we can point the players back here, don't worry.

So we're prepared for plan A and we're prepared for plan B and we're prepared to be surprised, let's run some D&D.

Goblin Ambush

After setting the stage ask the players what their characters do. Roll a stealth check for the goblins, you can always treat monsters as a unit and make one roll for all of them. Add their modifier (+6) and compare it to the passive perception that we have written down for all the PCs. We wrote this down during character creation because if we ask someone, “hey, what's your passive perception” they are going to know something is up. Odds are smart players will know something's up anyway in this case, and if someone actively is checking out the woods above the road they can roll a perception check, and that is what is going against the goblins stealth. If they spot the goblins, it might not be a of them. If the players move to attack, or the goblins know they've been spotted, OK it's on, roll initiative.

If they don't spot the goblins eventually someone is going to check out the horses. The saddle bags are enticing but empty. So is the empty leather map case lying in the dirt. Getting close the PC is going to recognize Sildar and Gundren's horses. An intelligence check, or history check, from anyone who might conceivably know about goblins, let's say DC 11 or 12, will let a character know that these arrows are the work of goblins. I like to have this revelation come just as a new arrow appears, striking into the dead horse beside the one our hero is examining, and boom, it's time to roll initiative.

Here's something the book doesn't tell you: these goblins can wipe out your party of level one heroes. Especially if the PCs don't see them coming and are surprised for that first round. Right out of the gate the designers are letting the players to know the world is a dangerous place and their characters can die out here. Now I play these first goblins kind of as the B squad here. Two of them are already written to perform sub-optimally, running out and fighting in melee instead of using their short bows and hiding in the woods. But two of these gerblins are doing just that, using their Nimble Escape to hide as a bonus action after each arrow they shoot. In part, this is to teach the players how the stealth mechanics work so that they themselves can use these tactics later. Spread the damage around as best you can, if things start looking grim you can fudge a little, make a hit a miss once or twice, but don't over do it. I made a combat demo video going over this very encounter if you want to see the mechanics. The goblins piece in my five minute monster series could help you prep as well.

If a character gets dropped to zero it is not the end of the world. Time to learn about death saves. Don't be afraid to tell the players a DC10 medicine check stabilizes a creature. You can also have the goblins say something like “give us all your gold and we'll let you live” or something when the first PC drops. Show the players they can negotiate. They probably won't, but it will show them it's an option. In the worst case scenario, all of the player characters get dropped to zero hp. If you see it going that way try to have the melee goblins get the final blow with the butts of their scimitars and it can be non-lethal damage. The PC is now knocked out, not dead. If we end up with a TPK with brand new players I might just hand wave it that way even if it was arrow shots that killed them. The adventure says this event is unlikely, but gives us good advice: have the party comes to as night is falling, robbed of the wagon and all their gear. They'll probably limp to Phandalin, Barthen will outfit them for a rescue mission, and they'll come back to this spot with a vengeance. The players will really have a reason to hate these goblins now. If they are absolutely over it, you can jump to the adventure in the Essentials Kit, but I doubt that will be the case. Whatever happens, we can adapt, so do not worry.

If the dice are with them and the players are smart, they are going to win this first fight. Remember that we want one of these goblins to survive and run away when their buddies drop. This shows the players that this isn't a video game, these things don't just exist to get killed but have some intelligence. It's also pointing the way to the trail back to the hideout. Creative players also might try to grab one of these guys, use grapple rules, or knock them out with non-lethal. These goblins are push overs, and if caught they are easily going to tell the players everything they know, which is spelled out in the block on page 8. They'll even lead them up the trail, helping the party avoid the traps on the way.

Here's something else that's maybe missing from this adventure: loot on the goblins. You know any gamer at your table is going to check their pockets after the fight. Feel free to say they don't have anything or hand out d8 copper pieces or whatever you like. I give each goblin a gold tooth worth 1gp, making it the sign of the Cragmaw, and you better believe my players were ripping them out and paying their debts with goblin teeth. You do you though.

The other thing we get from killing goblins is experience points. The adventure holds our hands a bit and spells out how much XP these encounters give out. But we can also take more control and use milestone leveling, just announcing the characters have leveled up after important milestones, in essence gaining a level at the end of each part of this book. That gives you more control over things, but maybe takes away a little fun and incentive for your players. It also takes away some math and bookkeeping. It is up to you if you want to give them a way to keep score or if you want to streamline things. I'd say milestone is going to be easier for a new DM.

There is a chance the party goes to town after this first fight. That's alright, when they get there have Elmar Barthen and everybody else ask after Gundren and Sildar and encouraging the party to go back and rescue them. If they players don't bite, well, they're being jerks, and you can start the Redbrand stuff.

But odds are, now or after a Phandalin pitstop, they'll follow the fleeing goblin, and/or find the trail to the Hideout. Between the ambush, the traps, and the encounter with the sentries hidden in front of the cave entrance, there is a good chance a short rest may be a good idea. Don't be afraid to coach new players a little bit. It helps them trust you and realize the Dungeon Master isn't the adversary. It also makes you feel better about trying to kill their characters later. Let them take an uninterrupted short rest and roll hit dice. Maybe roll a d20 behind the screen for show. If they want to take a long rest, let them know that the world doesn't go on pause while they sleep but I would probably let them do it anyway.

Cragmaw Hideout

There are six areas labeled inside the Cragmaw Hideout, definitely get an idea of what is going on in each of them before running this. We're going to get to bigger places later in this adventure where it is very challenging to keep track of each room, but for with a little preparation time we can probably handle this one. It's up to you if you want to use a map or use theater of the mind, but I vote map for this one. You can find version of a players map all over online, though the DM version in the book doesn't really have any spoilers beyond the numbers. You can take little snippets of what the players have revealed and share them. Virtual tabletops have some cool and sophisticated functionality, but there is definitely something to be said for the rolled out grid map in the center of the table slowly getting filled out by erasable markers. I miss those days. However you share it with your players, I love this place. It is an exemplary little dungeon. We've got everything, traps, combat, sneaking around, social encounters, multiple paths. We've even got potential pets.

That's right, this first encounter with wolves can go a few different ways. The party might definitely just run in and attack them, but someone rolls a natural 20 on animal handling, or casts Speak with Animals or something, and you might end up with a wolf in the party. Don't panic, if they have it fight in combat it is fair game to attack it, and if it takes half of its hp total in damage have it run away. The flood trap was enough to knock my players wolves out of the picture, but every so often they'd spot them as they traveled through these woods later in the adventure.

The flood trap is great by the way. Don't be afraid to trigger it if the goblin on the bridge spots the party. This is why we showed them stealth mechanics before. I will say, if only the first dam gets released, then having the second one sitting there all charged up in room 7 might just tee up a dramatic moment, potentially during a boss fight. It might not, but it's nice to let the players interact with the environment in cool ways. It also potentially sucks the second time the flood comes when the players thought they were through safe. I would consider having the goblin on the bridge at 5 fire arrows at the party if it spots them again after the first flood, and shout for reinforcements which show up from 7 in a round or two. This ups the odds someone thinks to take the bridge out from under them and create another cool moment.

That's a lot of what being a Dungeon Master is: creating potential cool moments for the players. They won't always work, but that's OK. Sometimes the players will think of something awesome that you didn't see. If it is reasonable, let them go for it. It might require a roll, and you might have to make something up that isn't in the book, but that's alright. If it's not going to break the game, let them do the cool thing, or at least try to do the cool thing, most of the time. Always be on the lookout for opportunities to make your players feel awesome.

Rooms 6 and 8 are where the real action is. It might take a whole session for the players to fight their way to these rooms, so they might have expended a lot of their resources, spells and hit points, before they arrive. That's OK, a lot of dungeons and designed to soften up the PCs a little before the final fight. In room 6 we get a potential lesson about the action economy: All things being equal, the side with the most attack actions is probably going to win the fight. Even with Yeemik out of the fight up on that ledge holding Sildar hostage, if it is five goblins against four PCs that have already been through some stuff, the PCs might be in trouble. It is OK to let your players get into trouble. The good news is this is tight quarters so it should all be melee. Again, if they lose, you can say it was nonlethal and skip the death saves, then the party can wake up naked in the woods with their old buddy Sildar and a new vendetta. Or you can cook up a cool prison break scenario. But this encounter is a pretty hard fight because the designers are encouraging the PCs to use their words and talk it out.

We put some work into getting the PCs to like Sildar for this very moment. Yeemik is going to try to stop this fight after the first round, for me I don't care who looks like they're winning, by threatening to kill Sildar if they don't chill. The players are still probably going to call his bluff or talk tough, and Sildar is going to get dropped. Here's a fun technique to try: rolling in front of the screen for dramatic moments. I would roll Sildar's death saves on the table where everyone can see so that the players know exactly what's going on and what they stakes are as the fight starts up again. We want Sildar to survive because he has a whole lot of information to give the party and move the story forward, but if he dies he dies, and we'll find other ways to deliver that data. The party doesn't know it maybe, but they also want Sildar to survive, because he's an asset in a fight. Read the little block on page 11 and don't let him land a killing blow on Klarg, otherwise it is cool to have him help the party for a while.

If Yeemik does manage to survive negotiations with the party, add his name to that master NPC list we made. Same goes for any captured goblin, if it lived and got a name (which you were so thankful to have prepared.) Klarg may also make his way through this one. Returning villains, or enemies that have become allies, or at the least neutral, any sort of call back you have the opportunity to create is Dungeon Master gold. If Yeemik or Klarg replaces Grol on the goblin throne when all this is over: cool.

Klarg is the big bad here, and he's definitely big and bad. New players might not realize that a bug bear is in a whole different league than the goblins. Goblins are about 3 feet tall and 50 pounds, this guy's over 7 feet and pushing 300. He is strong and fast, and he can hit like a truck. Describe him well to the players. Who's the tallest, swolest PC? This thing has got you beat by a lot. We also get the nice little details that he's a bit of a megalomaniac who speaks in the third person, so I think if the party is deferential enough and plays into that, Klarg could be persuaded to spare the PCS, maybe even share a little info and even ransom Sildar to them. Odds are this is a fight though.

Also, if you want the players to notice the Lionshield mark on the boxes in this room you're going to have to tell them a few times. In the initial description of the room, when they go to look for loot, and whenever someone uses the crates for cover. It is easy to miss, especially in the midst of a boss fight. It's fine if they don't catch on, but a reward and hey, maybe even a discount at the place that sells weapons and armor can be a great little “attaboy” for paying attention.

If the party is moving remotely quickly through the hideout they can catch Klarg unawares. You can have him yelling at the two goblins in there with him, maybe talking about how awesome Klarg is and how Klarg should the king, Klarg should have a castle, not Grol. How the Black Spider should have chosen Klarg, etc.

Now if the party has been raiding this place and left to take a long rest, well, odds are Klarg is ready. With new players I might still have him yelling at the subordinates, this time about the players killing all his tribe. If he gets to use his surprise attack, watch out, because it can potentially perma-kill a PC at level 1. Even without surprise he he's still doing big damage and maybe one-shotting characters. My first group of players took two long rests, the second just outside the hideout, and I had Klarg with his wolf and some goblins track them down just as they finished and they all fought it out in the open. The DM plays the world, and the bad guys don't know they're bad guys. They don't just sit in a room waiting to be killed always, they are going to react to what the players do, especially if given plenty of time to discover all their friends have been killed. Don't be vindictive, but be realistic.

Now, the book says Klarg runs away if his wolf Ripper is killed, which is wild because I'd write him as going full John Wick, but there you go. If he does run, again, remember, he can come back later. Add him to the list.

Here's a DM protip: You probably know that the monster stat blocks give us average damage and then the dice + modifier we can use if we decide, (I say take the average the first couple times you play, then start rolling when you are more comfortable because rolling dice is fun but another thing to think and do math about.) We are also given the average hit points and then the dice + modifier as well. So your average Bug Bear has 27 hit points, but Klarg, our big bad boss bug bear may be exceptional. He could have up to 45 hit points. Especially if the party just took a long rest before the fight and did 27 points of damage in the first round before he even got an attack off. Now I'm not saying to always do that, but it's a tool the Dungeon Master has in combat. Be very careful about bumping armor class, it is no fun to keep missing, but you can fiddle with HP. If you take it to max and then a really awesome move or critical hit happens that brings the monster close to zero just call it dead and listen to the cheers of your players.

Don’t Forget to Leave a Note

Alright, so one way or another the players are going to finish part 1 of this adventure. We don't know how they're going to get here or who's going to be left alive at the end. Maybe the players took none of the opportunities to communicate, hacked and slashed their way to the end, and learned nothing. One key of good design that this seven page chunk of adventure shows us is that if you want the players to get information, build in multiple ways for them to get it. Any of the monsters they faced, beyond the wolves, could have told them that Gundren and his map were sent to Cragmaw Castle and King Grol. If Sildar made it we're golden, he can do a huge data dump and encourage the players to help him find Iarno and then Gundren. But just in case none of these things happen, we are also going to put a note in with the treasure the players find at the end in room 8. If you can pull it off a physical hand out is always nice. If you are artistic you can go all out with tea stained paper and singed edges, calligraphy, whatever you like. But you can just describe the contents to the players as well. In the chest with all the coin and valuables is, a letter either from King Grol or signed with a black spider emblem, telling Klarg to watch the road for the dwarf Gundren Rockseeker, to capture him alive and bring him and his map to Cragmaw Castle. Even if Sildar and some random goblin told the party all of this, the letter is a great chance to introduce the Black Spider. The earlier we can get the big bad in front of the players the better.

Now the players are going to head to town or go looking for Cragmaw Castle. If they skip ahead to the castle that's OK. This is DnD. They might be outclassed but the players don't know that and the characters certainly don't know that, so let it happen. They may even pull it off. Announce that they've got enough XP to hit level two, bask in the cheers, close out the session and you've got a week to prep Cragmaw. No problem, skip ahead to that video.

But most likely they have no idea where Cragmaw is, and the party will head for Phandalin. The cart and those poor oxen are just sitting beside the road waiting, that's where Sildar wants to go, and we did our best to give the characters reasons of their own to want to go there. So we're getting ready for a town day in our next entry in this series, see you next time.

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