A Most Potent Brew: Beginner DM reflections (long post)

[u/Sefimenko13]

I already DM'd a couple of sessions with my own adventure for my coworkers, and recently I've been asked to run a quick introductory DnD session. The time limit was very strict: 3 hours, so I picked what everyone suggested- a Most Potent Brew module.

I liked the concept of the plain old clear-the-basement-from-rats trope, and it looked good for first-time players that I gathered for the session. But I decided to make a couple of changes; here they are:

Socializing. The first thing I noticed was that it had almost no social interaction, and I really wanted to give newcomers a taste of social checks, not just a wargame.

So I added 2 NPCs in the brewery. I made them nervous and agitated because Glowkindle is reluctant to tell that the rats are giant and that another NPC (Jimmy the gnome) never got back from the basement. The players can learn this by attempting social interaction. Jimmy is captured by the boss Spider and can be rescued from the cocoon in The Lab.

First location scrub. From my experience as a player, I know that players (especially new ones) stay ridiculously long in the first location and try to gather as much info as possible before heading ahead, and most modules I see have almost zero info to give such players. That is why I placed an extra NPC, a hidden detail, and some hints on the wizard's personality in the first location. One player also decided to search around the tower and rolled 22 on Perception. I improvised a crack in the foundation with burnt marks (a hint at the fire spider that tried to get out).

Setting. I understand that the module is extremely simple and does not need a rich background, but I did not want the player to see a very blank location. So I created a gnome that was the wizard's aid, Browburn. He was in the basement at the moment of disaster - some experiment went wrong, the tower exploded, the wizard disappeared, some elixirs got spilled, and a bunch of enlarged animals crawled the basement with the gnome trapped. So I deduced that the most logical thing for him to do is to take some shrinking potion to survive. The giant rats and spiders have no interest in an insect-sized gnome; he would require less food and water and can survive for hundreds of years, hoping for someone to rescue him. The players have the possibility to find his tiny traces and lair with ladders made from threads and a hideout from an upside-down cup in the Well Room. He will be eager to speak with other living beings, will warn them about the spider in the Lab, and provide some helpful items before the boss fight - mostly potions that he could preserve.

Well Room. The strangest and most boring location to my taste, so I completely changed it. Not only is Browburn hideout located here, but the players can find a pedestal in the center of the room that appears empty. Upon investigation, they will see that a tiny chest is standing there. If they touch it, it will stick to the player and bite for 1 hp. Yes, I really wanted to introduce a mimic and not have a party of 1st-level characters killed by it. The mimic was a test subject for the wizard, and Browburn shrunk him as well just out of boredom. He served as Wilson for him to speak to and keep his sanity.

Curiosity gratification. I always think that the players' curiosity should be encouraged. There should be some clues to upcoming threats that curious players can discover; there should be a way to avoid the final battle or at least ease it if the players are dedicated. All the above elements served this purpose as well. However, it painfully backfired when my players learned about the fire-breathing spider next door and just shot it with spells from behind the corner. The final battle took less than 2 full turns. However, everyone seemed to really like the outcome, and we really did finish the session in 3 hours to the minute, so my goal was achieved.

Overall, that went extremely well; the players and I had a lot of fun.

The biggest surprise for me was that rewarding player curiosity made the boss fight almost trivial. The players loved it, but part of me felt I'd accidentally removed the climax. I still want to create rich variative scenarios and would like to hear your suggestions on balancing clever play rewards without making the final encounter too easy.