At the beginning, it can be intimidating to run a dungeon & dragon game. That led many novice Dungeon Masters for their first campaign to choose a pre-written adventure. The help of a written, expert book can help reduce preparation time and the mental overhead to balance all DMing expectations and can be tailored to fit the tastes of the table.
Lost Mine of Phandelver is a part of the Starter Set and a center for many DMs before they move on to other adventures.
A single adventure that covers one to four different levels and divided into four, Lost Mine focuses on the simple task of escorting a wagon to the city of Phandalin. When the goblin ambush and the re-discovery of its benefactor is over, the party deals with the bandits, exposes a conspiracy to a mysterious marionettes master take the magical mine and, finally, dives in to reclaim the wave Echo cave.
Lost Mine of Phandelver is a very simple experience, with a very few factions to track every step of the way and with a direct and straightforward set of objectives. It is ideal for a new group of players as it is for an initial adventure. However, it suffers from some balance issues as one of the first adventures published for the Fifth Edition.
For example, the first few meetings – before the players move even to the first level – are notoriously lethal. Even after players gain some power, in Chapter Three they will have to contend with a very strong green dragon. Although this is not really a bad thing (and actually DMs can find ways to create fatal encounters otherwise), the book is hardly capable of leading new DMs into anything but struggle.
Lost Mine is best suited for a group of new players who need a simple, simple introduction to D&D, but best works in the hands of DM who tweaks the balance of meetings, leads and promotes players to unorthodox and diplomatic solutions when out of line or both.
While an experienced party can deal with the whole adventure relatively easily, if the DM doesn't take best advice, the target audience can be overwhelmed by difficult struggles.
Lost Mine of Phandelver has several meetings, which, while interesting, offer players who are trying to dig deeper nothing else. Between a power battle for control of a tribe of goblins, a strange nothic in a bandit hideout and the dragon driven away by the party, several major meetings never again occur, even if it seems that there should be more pay-offs or foreshadows involved.
For example, the dragon – an 8-man challenge fought by a three-party level. Although it is an important and potentially fatal challenge, it simply does not exist with the bigger story. If the party drives it out, it's never heard of again, and the adventure never talks to it.
These foregone conclusion encounters, many of which seem suitable to bond with the larger story, can easily be fixed by a DM sufficiently qualified to alter the existing story. But it is a bit at the expense of its newcomer-friendly packaging that such a skill is required first of all. Lost Mine, however, works well enough to ensure that the players are satisfied with these encounters without weaving all those dead ends together.
The Lost Mine should ideally be used as the first long-lasting campaign adventure. This is intended to be a starting point for further adventures in the party between the possible escape of a revengeful green dragon, a large financial recompense (including a percentage of the profits from the reopenation mine) and a plan that DMs can use in their book as a hook in future adventures.
It excels in this, providing a DM with ample room to combine more published adventures or start writing its own homebrew contents.
Until the DM cautiously faces the unexpected hikes and seeds for further adventures, Lost Mine of Phandelver can serve as a fantastic first journey to D&D
A simple, easy, satisfying adventure is all the game has to do with new players, and while Lost Mine is able to develop complex adventures, the games and players both increase their experience.