I DMed Out of the Abyss and absolutely loved it! The players RP'ed the heck out of it. For one thing, they went with PCs that were from the Underdark rather than the surface, so it was more personal to them. They wound up - totally of their own initiative - setting up a large diplomatic gathering in Blingdenstone to unite all of the various communities they visited into an uneasy alliance against the Demon Lords. It was awesome!
As for the list you have, I went with Descent into Avernus, especially since I think it could make a really fascinating double campaign. Rather than "PCs start in a richly detailed Baldurs Gate, then go to Avernus for whole rest of the campaign", I'd have them create 2 PCs and alternate between them. Group A is in Baldurs Gate and more or less plays out the intro and then has a campaign of rooting out corruption in the city as tension builds towards a massive uprising that the PCs can either work to prevent or lead. Group B were in Elturel and experience first hand what happens there and then basically plays out the Avernus part of the campaign as-is. Work in some ways for each group to impact the other, and it could really enrich that adventure quite a bit!
My group started out of the abyss and really didn't like the underdark travel nor having a bunch of NPC's around the whole time. We didn't even get 1/2 way though it and they wanted to play soemthing else.
It was the first campaign I've ever DMed that we didn't finish due to lack of enjoyment. I'll admit though, I probably could have done way better with going between each city.
How did you hand traveling down there?
Early on in the campaign, they had fun playing up the survival aspects - having to track water, hunt for food, invent rocktopus jerky. But as they leveled up, got some money, and safe base in Blingdenstone, we phased it out to "we make sure to buy X days of supplies, make a few Survival checks to see if you get there faster or slower." Then when they had access to Wind Walk, they made heavy use of that. So I only used the travel rules as much as it made it fun, and things like random encounters and such I only included when fun.
Also, I expanded the campaign to a full 1-20 adding in the Rod of Seven Parts, and the Queen of Chaos as a end boss after the Demon Lords. As they discovered the seven parts of the Rod of Law, I allowed those to be "keys" that allowed teleportation as they got into high levels. So there was definitely some heavy alterations to the Gauntlgrym and later portion of the campaign. But in the first half, prior to Gauntlgrym, I played it about 90% straight out of the book.
As for the large group of NPCs, I originally found a cool resource on DMs Guild called Companion System for using NPCs as extra abilities of PCs, and someone posted a version for the Out of the Abyss NPCs. So that simplified them a lot at first. However, pretty soon after, my players decided they wanted to fully stat them as extra PCs. We had 3 players and this was our first 5e campaign, so they wound up enjoying each playing 3 PCs (1 primary one that they started with, plus 2 former prisoner NPCs that stayed in the background except in combat) so they could try out different 5e class abilities. This only worked because it was 1) their idea rather than me trying to talk them into it, and 2) we worked out a nice balance of when I had to step into the NPCs as DM for certain events and actions. Almost like a video game where they had control of the companions during combat and solme out-of-combat, but I'd step in during "cutscenes" and some dialogue.
So it was incredible for us, but only because early on we tweaked some of the slog out, and in the back half, it basically became a very different campaign based on my adding in the Rod of Seven Parts plot and playing through the impact of their actions (like negotiating an alliance of multiple cities, as well as getting involved in Menzoberranzan politics due to one of the PC's backgrounds, etc.)
Like I'm finding most 5e campaign books, they provide a nice framework that takes heavy modification to fit a particular group, but each group needs different modifications. It worked for us, but obviously it didn't work for you. That sucks. Sometimes they click and sometimes they don't. I've had a couple that some people absolutely love that I tried to incorporate into a campaign and wound up having the modify it so much to work for us, that I pretty much threw it out. Each group is different.
Nice! That's some top tier advise on how to run the campaign, wish I would have known about that Comopanion System before, I think it would have added a layer to the game that my players would have really loved.
For travel did you do a heavy narration style of travel or did you just make sure they had the food/water they needed to get from x location to x location and roll for random encounters? Also did you use the old school navigation system where you roll survival checks to see if they get lost or not?
Like I said, I loved the adventure layout and the plot, but for whatever reason, for me the underdark travel is what killed it for us. Not sure why I had a harder time making travel fun in the underdark, when it's never and issue for me in any other campaign.
At the beginning, we did full-on day by day traveling with Survival checks for getting lost and finding food & water. Actually having it front and center as the main concern seemed to make it work better and be more enjoyable since it was their main focus rather than as an obstacle to get to the fun stuff. That wasn't intentional, but in hindsight, I was lucky that it turned out that way.
I'd have to go back and check the notes, since it's been years, but pretty early on, once day-to-day survival wasn't much of an issue (especially after their second stop was Gracklstugh, I think, and they could buy sufficient supplies) and the focus of the fun was on the larger story rather then survival, we shifted from day-to-day checks to overall trip checks. Low survival checks meant they got lost and the trip took longer, higher ones might have even made better time than planned, but it was one check per trip rather than per day. (And I think a group check by the 2 or 3 who were trained in Survival).
Also, if they were going back and forth between two locations they had previously been to, they just had to make sure they had enough supplies for the trip and they automatically made it without getting lost. By mid-campaign, I only had them make Survival checks and such if they were in a brand new area without a guide.
By the back half when they were into the thick of the plot and had plenty of access to supplies and magic, the only travel resource was technically just calendar days. "You can get from A to B and back in 20 days, just realize during those 20 days the Demon Lords and other villains will have 20 more days to do their thing." :)
Lastly, I never randomly used Random Encounters. I used many of them, but at planned points. That's just a personal preference of mine and I'm not sure how much it impacted enjoyment of the campaign other than thinking about the "focus of the fun." If the campaign is focused on worrying about random threats that could lurk around any corner, then they'd be good to include. But if the focus shifts to the larger threat and how to address that, then random encounters are a distraction from the focus. Rare distractions can be enjoyable, but regular ones are annoying.
I’ve always loved the air of desperate heroics in Baldur’s Gate: Descent Into Avernus.
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My homebrew stuff:
Spells, Monsters, Magic Items, Feats, Subclasses.
I am an Archfey, but nobody seems to notice.
Extended Signature
I would love to play original adventures reincarnated: The Lost City
At the beginning, we did full-on day by day traveling with Survival checks for getting lost and finding food & water. Actually having it front and center as the main concern seemed to make it work better and be more enjoyable since it was their main focus rather than as an obstacle to get to the fun stuff. That wasn't intentional, but in hindsight, I was lucky that it turned out that way.
I'd have to go back and check the notes, since it's been years, but pretty early on, once day-to-day survival wasn't much of an issue (especially after their second stop was Gracklstugh, I think, and they could buy sufficient supplies) and the focus of the fun was on the larger story rather then survival, we shifted from day-to-day checks to overall trip checks. Low survival checks meant they got lost and the trip took longer, higher ones might have even made better time than planned, but it was one check per trip rather than per day. (And I think a group check by the 2 or 3 who were trained in Survival).
Also, if they were going back and forth between two locations they had previously been to, they just had to make sure they had enough supplies for the trip and they automatically made it without getting lost. By mid-campaign, I only had them make Survival checks and such if they were in a brand new area without a guide.
By the back half when they were into the thick of the plot and had plenty of access to supplies and magic, the only travel resource was technically just calendar days. "You can get from A to B and back in 20 days, just realize during those 20 days the Demon Lords and other villains will have 20 more days to do their thing." :)
Lastly, I never randomly used Random Encounters. I used many of them, but at planned points. That's just a personal preference of mine and I'm not sure how much it impacted enjoyment of the campaign other than thinking about the "focus of the fun." If the campaign is focused on worrying about random threats that could lurk around any corner, then they'd be good to include. But if the focus shifts to the larger threat and how to address that, then random encounters are a distraction from the focus. Rare distractions can be enjoyable, but regular ones are annoying.
Since I'm a huge Critical Role fan, I'd love to get the chance to play Call of the Netherdeep.
I'm about to play in a Dragon Heist campaign, and it looks really interesting.
I'd also never turn down an offer to play CoS, ToA, or Descent into Avernus. They're all stellar modules.
In my experience...
Tomb of Horrors or Icewind Dale, close tie
It is the campaign or just the setting that you would like to play in?