Phandelver ⮞ Vecna | Beadle & Grimms 1-20 Mega Campaign
A routine job turns into a hunt for a lost spell forge, and an obsidian staff emerges from a spider's nest.
$25.00
/ Session
Details
4 players following this game
Weekly / Wednesday - 11:00 PM UTC
Jul 29 / Session 12
Session Duration / 3–3.5 hours
3 / 5 Seats Filled
Top Game Master
One of StartPlaying's top-rated GMs, a player favorite and highly recommended.
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Schedule
Meet your party members
3/5
About the adventure
Phandalin clings to the edge of the Savage Frontier, a region of mineral-rich ranges, dark forests, and ruins scarring the landscape. What starts as a routine job pulls you into turf wars, goblin raids, and a town kept uneasy by hired badges. Whispers speak of a prophecy to find a missing mountain, reignite a spell forge, and flood the frontier with mage-wrought steel. And, somewhere from that tangle, an ancient black-glass staff has resurfaced, tugging threads of silk from the shadows. Expect small-town politics, claim-jumpers with spellbooks, and crossfire in cavern choke points. You’ll read grudges like maps, ride trail dust into sinkholes and cellars, and press into tunnels where new timber frames old stone. Exploration matters, clues link cleanly, and hard bargains are struck by lantern light. Under the hills, the geometry gets strange. This campaign welcomes first-timers and veterans at the same table. New players get a clear on-ramp and story thread; while experienced hands can push into side deals, riskier routes, and smarter play. If the table leans in, the hunt for the spell forge opens a web of paths, and the black-glass thread starts tugging toward deeper, stranger country. Built from a heavily reworked adaptation of Lost Mine of Phandelver (5e’s iconic starting point), this campaign is designed to flow into The Shattered Obelisk and, if the table wants it, onward into Vecna: Eve of Ruin using the Beadle & Grimm’s versions across the full arc of adventures to create a premium level 1–20 campaign that bookends the era. This is a seat in an ongoing story, not a drop-in ticket - once you're in, the party (and the plot) counts on you being there.
Game style
Roleplay Heavy
Rule of Cool (RoC)
Game themes
Meet the Game Master
5.0
(27)
4 years on StartPlaying
268 games hosted
Highly rated for: Voices, Storytelling, Creativity
Average response time: 2 hours
Response rate: 100%
About me
Watch the short video pitch for the TL;DR version of my origin story: https://youtu.be/htEhWDgKbsU I run character-driven, story-focused games, where player choices, dice rolls, and gumption drive the plot and adventures forward. I prepare situations, people and problems - and then let you decide how to handle it all. I’ve been obsessed with this stuff for most of my life. I grew up obsessed with mythology and fairy tales, and in the mid-80s I fell into D&D through Dragonlance and the old Gold Box computer games. While other kids were outside doing whatever normal kids do, I was pulling apart hit points and monster design to see how they worked. That obsession eventually led me into theatre and film. I directed Troll Bridge, a Pratchett-approved Discworld movie that received a heart-warming amount of attention, and Blood on the Game Dice, a love letter to tabletop gaming. Now days I'm back behind the DM screen, and doing what I can to torment and delight in the name of collaborative storytelling.
View Profile →Character creation
Creating your character
You’ll create your character on D&D Beyond using the complete official 5e library, plus selected partnered content. New characters start at level 3 and use point buy with fixed hit points. For gear, take your normal starting equipment - you may sell back anything you don’t want - then add 100 GP, plus 1 common magic item. You may buy additional equipment and magic items before the game at 5.5e prices. For games that begin with Session 0, I’ll guide you through the process as we build the party together as a team. Please come to the table with a few concepts that you’d enjoy playing and that lean into the themes of this adventure.
A.D.A.: Warforged | Barbarian / Path of the Wild Heart Daen Verenne: Human | Wizard / Illusionist Leonis Rowanfell: Human | Bard / College of Valor
What to expect
Preparing for the session
💬 Discord: Install the app (not the browser version), make an account, and join the server link I send after you book. 💻 VTT: Foundry runs in your browser, you don’t need to buy anything. Use Edge for best performance (Chrome’s fine). Turn on hardware acceleration. 📜 D&D Beyond: Make your character there and send me the link before your first run - I'll need to import them into Foundry. It's free to sign up. 🎧 Audio gear: Headphones required. If we hear pets, fans, traffic, or typing, please enable push-to-talk. 🎬 Tech check: Join Discord 10 minutes early for a quick audio check and chatter. Then we kick the doors off their hinges. 🛰️ Connection: Stable internet. If your Wi-Fi is powered by sadness, plug in. Turn off your VPN and downloads. Foundry is a data hungry beast.
What DM Dan Knight brings to the table
🐲 Master subscription on D&D Beyond for sharing the entire official 5e digital library ⚒️ Foundry VTT on Molten Hosting for accelerated network speeds 🎼 Syrinscape for licensed atmosphere and music 🗺️ Only the best third-party maps, tokens, and animation assets available 🎙️ Discord Nitro for exceptional speech clarity 🌈 A welcoming and inclusive game for everyone of all walks of life I run games from my studio with production-quality camera, lighting and audio. With a background in film, theatre, AV, and design, I bring a production mindset to the table. The space is built for your character to take centre stage with a focus on presentation, flow, and narrative punch - so every session plays like a live show built around your party’s story. Watch my video pitch here: https://youtu.be/htEhWDgKbsU
Homebrew rules
➤ Backgrounds are decoupled from ability score modifiers and origin feats, and you can select and adjust those appropriate to your character. You can leverage your backgrounds for skill check advantages in circumstances that would narratively favor your background. ➤ Drinking a potion as a full action provides maximum results on all rolls. Drinking as a bonus action rolls dice as normal. Administering a potion to another is a full action with dice rolls. ➤ Critical hits provide maximum damage, followed by an additional roll of all dice. ➤ No reactions when surprised. ➤ No flanking, but gain advantage on attacking targets out of their line of sight. Reactions can be spent to turn to face an attacker before the attack is resolved.
Equipment needed to play
Internet
Computer
Microphone
Platforms used
Safety
How DM Dan Knight creates a safe table
I don’t try to “decide” what’s uncomfortable for you. If the fiction gets too close to home, that’s completely valid. The table runs on an open-door policy: you can step away, call a break, or tap out at any time with zero judgement. Intimacy fades to black and stays offscreen. There’s no racism, sexism, homophobia, or transphobia at the table. Any bias toward fantasy peoples (orc hate, drow misandry, etc.) is roleplay only, and it earns in-world consequences. PvP only happens with explicit consent from everyone involved. Villains may threaten ugly things, but we don’t linger on it, we keep it offscreen, and player characters never perpetrate it. We always close with a quick debrief so nobody leaves carrying anything heavy. For everyone’s safety, sessions have their audio recorded.
Content warnings
Safety tools used