Converting LMoP to a City setting. Anyone done it? Any input?

[Vintrastorm]

Hi, I'm thinking about converting (parts of) Lost mine of Phandelver to a city setting, for example having most of it take place in Waterdeep or Sigil or some sort of Metropolis.

I'm thinking that the ambush would take part in an alley, the hideout could be some sort of warehouse connected to a river running through the city. The town of Phandalin would be a shady part of the city where thugs rule the streets.
The ambushers would be street urchins (or halflings?) using goblin stats.

Echo wave, if I use it, might be located under the sewers. Kind of being part of the city that was before... Kind of going with the "we rebuilt the city atop the ruins of an old city" theme.

I'll be looking more closely at the LMoP adventure when I get back home. Haven't looked at it in over a year.

Anyone who've done anything like this?

[Vintrastorm]

Characters travelling through some part of the metropolis. Right now it helps to think of it as a more shady part of the town, probably more downtrodden where crime is more common and the law have less of a presence. Like "the Hive" from Planescape. I'd love to change that at some point, especially when it comes to the "phandalin parts"...

Ok... So the characters are travelling through the Hive, for reasons unknown. (I'm thinking about letting the players come up with the reason or expand on an existing reason, like looking for a friend, in game. But as I'm planning I'll go with the "looking for a friend"-route.) They spot a few street urchins here and there, but unlike the usual behaviour of street urchins, these younglings seems to be mostly watching in silence rather than beg for handouts. They cross an alley where they hear growling noises and notice a few wild dogs or cats fighting with eachother over a carcass. A familiar dog carcass with a collar, belong to a friend. After inspecting it they will be ambushed by a number of street urchins. It will not be an ambush-attack, but rather a "you are surrounded, give us your valuables"-attack.

After the attack the characters might have an inventive to find the hideout. Revenge, looking for the friend, searching for an item or whatever. If they do not explore this venue they might continue to Phandalin. If they explore it they'll arrive at a part of town near a river that is mostly abandoned (maybe because the river started to "thin out" and this area didn't function as well anymore.) . Old mills and warehouses and other factories. As they enter the factory area they might encounter the two traps in LMoP, or some variation thereof.

Eventually they'll find an old mill combined with a warehouse. It might be one big complex or smaller buildings that are connected. (Haven't decided, but I'm using the cragmaw hideout as a blueprint). I'll be replacing the goblins here as well, with kids, and put a warlock spellcaster of some sort (We had this in our 2nd campaign. It was with other players in LMoP, made with another DM.)

The fact that this somehow is connected to the river means that I can still use the general layout in some capacity and I like the whole stashing up on water-bit.

Aaaaand.... now I'm falling asleep as I'm typing....

[Vintrastorm]

Bumpety bump bump.

[Vintrastorm]

Bump again, since this is back on tha map, so to speak. Let's see if anyone have any ideas.