Fall of Plaguestone DM Notes

[Breadisfun]

Hey everyone,

So I'm about to run Fall of Plaguestone for my friends in a group of 5 players. I've read through the book about 5 times or so, and I've checked nearly every thread I can find on Reddit and here to get ideas for improving it. However, most of those threads are a couple years old, at least. Does anyone have any recent experiences and notes about the campaign to help it go smoothly? I'm mainly concerned with making sure the "murder mystery" phase doesn't get too overwhelming for them before they find the goblin or Hallod.

[DukeXray]

I'm running it now for three players. My players pretty much got all the clues early on.

Spoiler:

After the sheriff interviews everyone after the event on the night in question, they spent one day exploring the town and trying to speak with a few of the people they wanted to. Feel out your group and make a judgement call. The orchard event was skipped and I never presented the "tour around town" part. (Maybe I'll modify that and present it later)

Present the goblin sneaking between buildings when you feel that your players are solidly on the right track. Don't worry if they don't talk to everyone or visit everyplace. Honestly it could drag it out. Some of the clues they find in Hallod's will make more sense if they end up searching Bort's wagon. If needed, have Tamil suggest it if the players.

Good luck