Running the Adventure - Essentials Kit: Dragon of Icespire Peak

Running the Adventure. This book is written for the Dungeon Master. It contains a complete Dungeons & Dragons adventure, as well as descriptions for every creature that appears in the adventure. It also teaches you how to run a D&D game. The other book that accompanies this one (called "the rulebook") contains the information the players need to create and advance their characters (the adventurers and heroes of the story), as well as the rules you need to adjudicate situations that arise during the adventure. Overview A D&D adventure is a collection of locations, quests, and challenges that inspires you to tell a story. The outcome of that story is determined by the actions and decisions of the adventurers-and, of course, the luck of the dice. You can run Dragon of Icespire Peak for as few as one player or as many as five players. Each player starts with a 1st-level character. The adventure is set a short distance from the city of Neverwinter in the Sword Coast region of the Forgotten Realms setting. The Sword Coast is part of the North-a vast realm of free settlements surrounded by lawless, untamed wilderness. You don't need to be a Forgotten Realms expert to run the adventure, as everything you need to know about the setting is contained in this book. If this is your first time running a D&D adventure, read the "Role of the Dungeon Master" section. Role of the Dungeon Master The Dungeon Master (also called "the DM") has a special role in the D&D game. The DM is a referee. When it's not clear what ought to happen next, the DM decides how to apply the rules and keep the story going. The DM is a storyteller. The DM sets the pace of the story and presents the various challenges and encounters that the players must overcome. The DM is the players' interface to the D&D world, as well as the one who reads (and sometimes also writes) the adventure and describes what happens in response to the characters' actions. The DM is a roleplayer. The DM plays the monsters and vi...