You NEED better hooks! How to make a party and prologue for Dragons of Stormwreck Isle

[@heyitsMattyP]

I forgot to ask you to leave a comment in this video and feed the algorithm, so you'll have to do it yourself. You're a big boy / girl / NB, I trust you to do the right thing. Thank you! -------------- ❤ Support the Channel ❤ -------------- 💚 Patreon: matthewperkins.net/patreon 💚 Donate: matthewperkins.net/donate 💚 Store: matthewperkins.net/store 💚 DM Guild: matthewperkins.net/dmsguild 💜 Twitch: matthewperkins.net/twitch 💜 TikTok: matthewperkins.net/tiktok 🧡 Discord: matthewperkins.net/discord 🧡 Facebook: matthewperkins.net/facebook 🧡 Twitter: matthewperkins.net/twitter 🧡 Instagram: matthewperkins.net/instagram 🧡 Reddit: matthewperkins.net/reddit ✏ Blog: matthewperkins.net/blog 📧 For marketing/business/sponsorship inquiries, email: [e-mail]

[@OtterrChaos]

Do you think it's possible to scale this adventure up for a group of 7 level 5 characters? 😅

[@vitaliilukin2505]

​Love the traveller reference

[@heyitsMattyP]

I've never played it, but I've read about character creation!

[@seanwoodward3640]

Hey man really like your videos. Used a lot of your suggestions for lost mine of phandelver as my first DM experience and it went so well! Your tone when you share your experience is so good and makes me feel engaged and not talked down to and I just want you to know how much I appreciate it :)

[@heyitsMattyP]

Hey thanks Sean! Feedback like this is always a pleasant surprise. I don't think my advice is always the most applicable, but I'm working hard to help people not take the game too seriously and take risks -- the players are your mates and they're just want to hang out, so you might as well have a rad time. Stop by the Twitch channel sometime and tell me about your game!

[@davidfowles]

I really love how you’ve got the background of this video set up, lighting placement etc.

[@heyitsMattyP]

Thanks! I love developing my lighting and set :)

[@glocksby5212]

I love the idea of using image die for making backgrounds, very creative!

[@heyitsMattyP]

I like making characters and campaigns using Story Cubes more than I like D&D haha - it's so fun!

[@ericg7183]

I set up a short dungeon crawl in Neverwinter for my online group, as a precursor to DOSI. It will fill two purposes, the first is getting the group familiar with combat and exploration. Second, there will be a McGuffin introduced to hook them into going to Stormwreck Isle. I was thinking of it being a stolen part of a custom crafted telescope already shipped to the island for the observatory, specifically to observe the comet. The players will recover the item accidentally, and then be tasked with taking it to the island. I'll entice them with a bag full of gold.

[@heyitsMattyP]

Hey! Glad you're making the adventure your own -- have a crack, be introspective about the results and please report back with how it goes

[@crazedphoenix8206]

I definitely like the idea of a prologue that ties the party together. I've had trouble before having the characters find a reason to forge a bond and this will do nicely.

[@heyitsMattyP]

Amen! My one criticism of the Critical Role format and style of gameplay is that they make their characters separately and bring them as surprises to the table. Every time we've made a team together, it's felt like we could step into productive gameplay immediately rather than spend a bunch sessions getting to know each other.

[@tylerbaggett2392]

My party did the dragon egg quests on your Patreon. It was great, they were pumped, I was pumped. They board the compass rose and IMMEDIATELY go and tie the egg to the top of the crows nest before setting off. Me the DM: why are you doing that. The party: safest place on the boat 😉 Later on I’m running the boat sinking scenario and the mast falls based on the rolling table. The party woke up on the shore and are now planning an egg rescue from the ocean lol I love this game.

[@heyitsMattyP]

Ha!

[@Carrtoondragon]

It's always a good idea to get the party invested. Thanks for the tips!

[@O4C209]

This is a great video about how to create and tie in character backstories. I'm going to use this at my session 0 for Tomb of Annihilation that I'm prepping for.

[@heyitsMattyP]

Cheers Orion! I'm glad these videos have broader appeal outside the Starter Set :)

[@sarahwilliams9097]

I always like to make characters with the players all round the table, it can make for some really interconnected backstories too! Great video but also commenting for the algorithm!!

[@heyitsMattyP]

Thanks Sarah! I agree -- in my experience, it usually ends up being only the players who bring a character they made in isolation that have a hard time gelling with the group. Collaboration is key! The algorithm thanks you for your service too.

[@camguarino8669]

I just picked up this module for my first ever session. I’m playing with family who haven’t played either and I am DMing. I was recommended your videos from Bob World Builder and I just have to say thank you so much for all of the inspiration from your videos!!! I really want to nail this module so that my family has something to come together each week to do and have fun!

[@heyitsMattyP]

Oh cool! Thank you and thanks Bob for the referral :) It's a good adventure and I'm sure you'll smash it!

[@kaisolacegames]

This is great advice for how to set up a campaign in general! My group isn’t going to be running Stormwreck Isle for our next adventure, but I’ll be using lots of these ideas regardless! Thanks as always for the great content, Matty P!

[@heyitsMattyP]

Kai I'm stoked that you're finding stuff to steal from these videos, even if it's not a module you're gonna run. Sometimes I worry these videos are too niche, but if you're getting broad advice from the series, that's gold.

[@cdr1179]

I lost it at the " get wrecked " 🤣

[@heyitsMattyP]

Well I'm not wrong :D

[@alvarobcneto]

Hey, Im Alvaro, the Phantasy Star Brazilian fan, just came here to tell that you looking like a bee in that video, and you know bees is awesome, congrats friend!

[@heyitsMattyP]

Haha i DO look like a bee

[@VirusVisal]

Those are some very good ideas to involve character's backgrounds to the story, I need to do that more in my next games

[@deansturtevant4345]

Fantastic, thank you

[@heyitsMattyP]

Amazing comment, thank you!

[@felipelibano8512]

Better hooks all along. To be honest your plot hook for LMOP was great and kinda saved me.

[@kdonv]

I agree with this analysis. I love the idea of linking the motivations to a common reason - or at least RELATED reasons. There's too much going on here, especially for new players, as the boxed set comes in. I'm considering linking these to Lost Mines or even Dragon of Icespire. I'm pretty sure we could link this into HotDQ (Hoard of the Dragon Queen) as well. We need a "Gundren Rockseeker" moment ... like the one you put in at the beginning of Lost Mines of Phandelver. Something that sets the narrative, establishes a theme, and gives the people at the table a common point of reference. Great stuff, Matt.

[@heyitsMattyP]

Cheers KD!

[@Odins_Bard]

Can't wait to get home because my DoSI copy arrives today!

[@heyitsMattyP]

Oh sick! Let me know what you reckon of the adventure

[@searose6192]

Interesting. Thanks

[@chrishartleroad5827]

We just got this new starter set. We are still in the middle of the first one. Plan to run it as 1 long story

[@heyitsMattyP]

Oh cool! You'll have to stretch some re-balancing muscles to make the second starter set challenging. If I were doing that, I'd say the green dragon at Thundertree was ACTUALLY a a Blue dragon wyrmling named Sparkrender, and I'd run Thundertree as an, "Is there a dragon in this town? Oh, there's not? The dragon has left? I wonder where the dragon went?" situation.

[@RoyceDavis]

Have watched a few videos now and enjoyed them. This one earned a subscrib, keep it up!

[@heyitsMattyP]

:O

[@ATG913]

Nice video, Matthew! If WoTC made good books, more than half of D&D KZbin vids would never have been made, and that would be a shame.

[@heyitsMattyP]

Cheers Alex!

[@red_bluenull9823]

I have never DM'd before but I just thought of instead of arriving at the compass rose, the compass rose recently shipwrecked, that was a fine ship and ever since then no one wants to sail to the island, start the party at some docks, so that now they either have to pay a huge sum of gold to arrive, making any treasure they find that much sweeter, or if they intimidated or forced their way onto the island, they have bad blood, which might explain why they have to earn Runara's trust

[@heyitsMattyP]

My only caution with this is that you're giving the players an opportunity to not do the adventure!

[@sun_patrol8610]

Sweet reworks! Keep it up man.

[@shanecruz2353]

“You are never gonna find that E” Giant E on the door behind him. 😂

[@shanecruz2353]

Damn, he got me 🤣

[@starshinewindlord2716]

Oh and I forgot there's this other thing. In the character generation phase for the RPG "Dresden Files" a player sheet preps their backstory with ways that hook them to the other PCs. (I think it's supposed to be with the cooperation of the other player, but this may be my idealism; Dresden's world is gritty as magic goes) So even "hey how do you know ___" let the dice pick another PC ? I'm loving this "madlibs" idea.

[@chickane5586]

More singing please!

[@michelecarroll6355]

lovely video 💖😗

[@SillySyrup]

Matty P: "You are never going to find that e." Me: *already found the e*

[@heyitsMattyP]

i don't believe you

[@SillySyrup]

@@heyitsMattyP You actually got me here. I wrote this immediately after I found the E on the wall, but I didn't delete the comment after I got to the end of the video.

[@chickane5586]

back for more

[@cafeleche]

Hi, thanks, great inspiration! I'm brand new as a DM. I have an immediate question. If I choose a prologue and want to include it, how do I play this part with my players, I didn't understand the principle behind it ( „Prologue Quests Dragons of Stormwreck Isle“ of Mathew P. and Randall)? How did you do that? What is the logic for the players, why they have come together as a group? This is not explained by the various prologues. Thank you!

[@heyitsMattyP]

The document listed is kind of like a script you can read aloud with your players. Make your characters together first, spitballing connections together for the party, then run through one of these prologues to tie those ideas to DOSI.

[@chrismurray61]

I thought the dreaded question was going to be, "Where is this relationship going?"

[@heyitsMattyP]

Stormwreck Isle

[@abpho207]

My man!

[@heyitsMattyP]

that's me!

[@nickrafuse984]

Damn... Where could that E be? I'll just stick my thumb in the wind and follow it wherever it takes me.

[@heyitsMattyP]

It's a shame too, because I did draw a VERY GOOD E on that blackboard

[@SilverSmogMaster]

Woooooooooo comment woo

[@ITSACRITICAL]

Was the the box from the Fable 3 collectors edition?

[@heyitsMattyP]

I don't know anything about Fable, sorry!

[@flogos989]

Commenting for algo

[@heyitsMattyP]

thanking for the comment

[@R2d2homie]

Silly me, dropped this comment for the algo. 👀

[@heyitsMattyP]

Oh my goodness, let me drop this reply to make it more visible for you.

[@ratatatuff]

No offense. But people spend a lot of time fixing this adventure. Why not just play another adventure? I'm not playing D&D and just bought the set because I wanted to see what 5e is about. And I'm totally underwhelmed by this adventure. It's simply not good and I wouldn't even consider running it for complete newbies. edit: I mistook the new set for the old one. I've only read the old adventure, Dragons of Icespire Peak. And that one was atrocious. I hope this one is better but I won't buy another starter set which I don't play.

[@heyitsMattyP]

There is no module I'd recommend running without reworking huge chunks of it. Even if I WROTE the adventure and I thought it was perfect, I would still advocate for people to rework it. That's what being a DM is all about!

[@ratatatuff]

@@heyitsMattyP That's all well and true. But that adventure is simply not worth the effort. You can't polish a turd.

[@chickane5586]

I rewrite every module I’ve ever run. I actually find it a worthwhile exercise in getting the adventure into my head as DM prep. It’s hard to keep coming up with new ideas so I find modules a great starting point both creatively and for a setting/NPCs.

[@needlesslycryptic]

People spend a lot of time tailoring clothing, too. Why not just buy something off the rack that fits my weird body perfectly every time? But I'll take the bait, what was a good adventure that worked out of the gate for you? It's a hard sell and I don't think any system I've played has ever quite gotten it right, so I'm curious.

[@ratatatuff]

@@needlesslycryptic Easy. I've run the starter campaigns in both Splittermond entry sets without any preparation at all (I've just read it beforehand) and they worked. Out of the box. The few changes I've made occured between sessions to react on players' choices. For 50 Fathoms and Sundered Skies I relied heavily on preparation done and published by other GMs. But the scope of those is a little bigger than a simple starter adventure. I did, however, spend a lot of time on Enemy Within and Masks of Nyarlathotep. But that was back in the days when I still had time and was willing to invest it. I simply don't have that anymore. Yes, there is always some work to do on pre-made adventures. But I don't want to practically have to rewrite them to make them work.