Mines & Misfortune | Lost Mine of Phandelver | Beginner Friendly
A dwarven map, a missing friend, and a mine long forgotten. What starts as a simple escort spirals into an adventure of greed, danger, and legend.
$20.00
/ Session
Details
Weekly / Monday - 10:00 AM UTC
Session Duration / 2.5–3 hours
Campaign Length / 10–30 Sessions
0 / 8 Seats Filled
Report Adventure
StartPlaying Money Back Guarantee
If your game doesn't happen, we guarantee a refund. Just reach out to StartPlaying Support. Refund Policy
About the adventure
New to D&D? This is the perfect place to start. Set in the wild frontier of the Sword Coast, this campaign follows your adventuring party as you're hired to escort a wagon to the sleepy frontier town of Phandalin. But things go sideways fast—bandits, goblins, and dark forces are stirring, and your client has vanished. The Lost Mine of Phandelver is the most iconic introductory adventure for 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons. It’s a balanced blend of dungeon delving, tactical combat, roleplay, and exploration—ideal for new and returning players alike. Whether you’re swinging a sword, hurling firebolts, or trying to talk your way out of a goblin’s trap, there’s space at the table for your story to shine. This version is slightly enhanced with atmospheric music, optional character voices, and narrative moments that make your choices feel meaningful. We’ll start at level 1 and grow together—this is your journey, and I’m here to guide it. Perfect for first-time players Rules-light, story-rich Voice-enabled, character-focused Weekly 3-hour sessions, with guidance for making characters and learning the game Let’s uncover what’s buried in the dark.
Game style
Rule of Cool (RoC)
Roleplay Heavy
Combat Heavy
Meet the Game Master
5.0
(8)
2 years on StartPlaying
40 games hosted
Highly rated for: Creativity, World Builder, Storytelling
About me
Hi I'm Josh, a worldbuilder, writer and forever DM by choice! I'm a huge fan of mixing roleplay heavy games with interesting and engaging combat and challenges for my players. I have been a Dungeon Master for over 4 years, throughout that time I have maintained multiple active campaigns, one of which lasting from level 3 to a conclusion at level 20. My favourite part about RPGs and mainly Dungeons and Dragons is writing and creating. I love building engaging worlds for and with my players and I create homebrew classes, races, subclasses, magic items, and everything in between for fun and to fit the worlds I create. I am in the process of establishing a small publishing independent "company" called RPJeez where I publish the homebrew I create and I run a small podcast of the same name to discuss all things TTRPGs. Basically I love this hobby and am looking for more opportunities to spread the worlds and stories I create with more players who can help me make them.
View Profile →Character creation
Creating your character
We will work together prior to the first session on creating your character. All official 5e content is allowed and most Unearthed Arcanas are allowed too. Any homebrew content created by me found on DrivethruRPG is allowed and other homebrew can be allowed too if checked with me first. Level 1 PCs, roll for stats on the roll20 game when link provided Rolling: roll 4d6 drop the lowest When rolling HP you can reroll 1s
What to expect
Preparing for the session
What to install and/or sign up: Roll20 - used for rolling dice, accessing character sheets and for combat Discord - used for communicating with each other https://discord.gg/RhxDgFRXYy What equipment needed: Microphone and headphones - for voice communication
What Josh Ainsworth brings to the table
What I offer in DMing: I use character voices for NPCs (Some better than others), I encourage epic character moments through things like describing actions in detail, flashbacks and dream sequences for cool roleplay opportunities. I enjoy interesting combat where defeating every enemy is not always the solution and while I use the 5e rules I do encourage creative use of the rules in a Rule of Cool fashion. Resources I offer: Content on Roll20 for PC creation including PHB, Monster Manual, Dungeon Masters Guide, Tashas, Xanathar's, Volos and Mordenkainens.
Homebrew rules
Some house rules I use: Using health potions costs a bonus action Giving someone else a health potion costs an action Flanking grants advantage When you drop to 0 hit points and are healed you gain a point of exhaustion
Equipment needed to play
Internet
Computer
Microphone
Platforms used
Safety
How Josh Ainsworth creates a safe table
I am a DM that loves to engage in roleplay scenes and epic character moments. I love challenging my players with tough and interesting encounters and encourage players to make fun choices and actions to push not only the campaign but their PCs own story too. Lines and Veils: This will be sent to players before the first session to be completed Session 0: At the start of the first session for no more than 30 minutes I will dedicate time to reiterating our safety tools and how they work. Character creation will be done before the game to get into the action as soon as possible but any extra new or pressing questions would also be addressed in session 0. X, N & Os will be digital via discord DM Houserules: Flanking - if 2 characters are directly opposite a creature, melee attacks are with advantage Potions - bonus action to drink, action to feed to another
Content warnings
Safety tools used