I'm going to be DMing an adventure for a group of 5 friends and they would like to do an adventure that lasts more than one to two sessions. For most of them this will only be their 2nd time ever playing. Last year I ran Wild Sheep Chase for them and that took 2 sessions. Ideally I'd like to find an adventure that takes closer to 4-8 sessions as I'm not sure I can commit to a game that's going to take close to a year if not more to complete. Does such a thing exist?
I did see there's Tales from the Yawning Portal, but that seems to be more of a collection of one-shots that could be mid-length if ran back to back. But the book goes so far as to say the adventures weren't meant to be ran back to back and that they're not part of a cohesive story relating to one another.
There was also some Adventure's League modules I was looking at but I'm not sure how those differ from the hardcover books. For instance how is the Storm Kings Thunder AL series different than whats in the Storm Kings Thunder hardcover book?
Depending on how long your sessions are, the adventures in Tales from the Yawning Portal can each be several sessions long. I've run Sunless citadel, Forge of Fury and Hidden Shrine of Tamaochan and unless the party races through, each should be 3-6 sessions of 3-4 hours each depending on how much role playing goes on.
Also, the home campaign I am currently running is a combination of Ghosts of Salt Marsh and Tales from the Yawning Portal with the content intermixed and the TftYP content placed around the town of Saltmarsh. I've been leveling folks at about 1/2 the usual rate so I can incorporate the content from both (this also works better with the player sensibilities since they all started with AD&D and much slower leveling than is typical for 5e).
The adventures from the starter kit: Lost Mines of Phandelver (Lvl 1-5) or the essentials kit: Dragon of IceSpire Peak (lvl 1-6 or 7) are both introductory adventures that would likely run at least 8 sessions. Waterdeep: DragonHeist is also likely in this category.
As for the AL modules - these are all able to be run as one shot adventures with run times on the order of either 2, 4 or 8 hours - it will say on the adventure - most are 4 hours. The AL modules are supplementary but not directly related to the hardcover issued for the same season. For example, the season 7 AL modules set in Chult generally complement the hardcover Tomb of Annihilation but mostly don't overlap. The lower level AL content (tier 1 and 2) has the death curse in play while the tier3+ content is set at a later time frame which assumes the hardcover has been successfully completed. However, most AL modules are not directly related to each other.There are some that have a connected plot line or mention the events in the previous module but all of them assume that a completely different group of characters could be playing the adventure without having played previous adventures so the connections between them are pretty loose. That said, it is possible to string a series of AL adventures together into a mini-campaign but it may take a bit of effort on the DMs part to enhance any storyline connecting them.
Depending on how long your sessions are, the adventures in Tales from the Yawning Portal can each be several sessions long. I've run Sunless citadel, Forge of Fury and Hidden Shrine of Tamaochan and unless the party races through, each should be 3-6 sessions of 3-4 hours each depending on how much role playing goes on.
The adventures from the starter kit: Lost Mines of Phandelver (Lvl 1-5) or the essentials kit: Dragon of IceSpire Peak (lvl 1-6 or 7) are both introductory adventures that would likely run at least 8 sessions. Waterdeep: DragonHeist is also likely in this category.
Thanks, seems I'll go for Tales from the Yawning Portal as I've been wanting to try it out anyways. I had also considered the Lost Mines and Ice Spire, and ran through Dragon Heist as a player, but I have a feeling this group will get a little bored of starting at level 1. Plus Yawning Portal seems like more bang for your buck.
I was playing AL a lot up until the pandemic and with the hardcovers I played I noticed there was always some familiarity between the modules and the books but since I wasn't DMing and it was hard to focus on the story at the game store (its a very busy store on AL night) I didn't get all the details. I'll stick with books though knowing this now.
I just ran Salvage Operation from Ghost of Saltmarsh for a group of 4 fourth level characters and that took three two hour sessions. Plus it has a great finale, which is something lacking from many of the WotC published adventures.
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I'm going to be DMing an adventure for a group of 5 friends and they would like to do an adventure that lasts more than one to two sessions. For most of them this will only be their 2nd time ever playing. Last year I ran Wild Sheep Chase for them and that took 2 sessions. Ideally I'd like to find an adventure that takes closer to 4-8 sessions as I'm not sure I can commit to a game that's going to take close to a year if not more to complete. Does such a thing exist?
I did see there's Tales from the Yawning Portal, but that seems to be more of a collection of one-shots that could be mid-length if ran back to back. But the book goes so far as to say the adventures weren't meant to be ran back to back and that they're not part of a cohesive story relating to one another.
There was also some Adventure's League modules I was looking at but I'm not sure how those differ from the hardcover books. For instance how is the Storm Kings Thunder AL series different than whats in the Storm Kings Thunder hardcover book?
Depending on how long your sessions are, the adventures in Tales from the Yawning Portal can each be several sessions long. I've run Sunless citadel, Forge of Fury and Hidden Shrine of Tamaochan and unless the party races through, each should be 3-6 sessions of 3-4 hours each depending on how much role playing goes on.
Also, the home campaign I am currently running is a combination of Ghosts of Salt Marsh and Tales from the Yawning Portal with the content intermixed and the TftYP content placed around the town of Saltmarsh. I've been leveling folks at about 1/2 the usual rate so I can incorporate the content from both (this also works better with the player sensibilities since they all started with AD&D and much slower leveling than is typical for 5e).
The adventures from the starter kit: Lost Mines of Phandelver (Lvl 1-5) or the essentials kit: Dragon of IceSpire Peak (lvl 1-6 or 7) are both introductory adventures that would likely run at least 8 sessions. Waterdeep: DragonHeist is also likely in this category.
As for the AL modules - these are all able to be run as one shot adventures with run times on the order of either 2, 4 or 8 hours - it will say on the adventure - most are 4 hours. The AL modules are supplementary but not directly related to the hardcover issued for the same season. For example, the season 7 AL modules set in Chult generally complement the hardcover Tomb of Annihilation but mostly don't overlap. The lower level AL content (tier 1 and 2) has the death curse in play while the tier3+ content is set at a later time frame which assumes the hardcover has been successfully completed. However, most AL modules are not directly related to each other.There are some that have a connected plot line or mention the events in the previous module but all of them assume that a completely different group of characters could be playing the adventure without having played previous adventures so the connections between them are pretty loose. That said, it is possible to string a series of AL adventures together into a mini-campaign but it may take a bit of effort on the DMs part to enhance any storyline connecting them.
Thanks, seems I'll go for Tales from the Yawning Portal as I've been wanting to try it out anyways. I had also considered the Lost Mines and Ice Spire, and ran through Dragon Heist as a player, but I have a feeling this group will get a little bored of starting at level 1. Plus Yawning Portal seems like more bang for your buck.
I was playing AL a lot up until the pandemic and with the hardcovers I played I noticed there was always some familiarity between the modules and the books but since I wasn't DMing and it was hard to focus on the story at the game store (its a very busy store on AL night) I didn't get all the details. I'll stick with books though knowing this now.
I just ran Salvage Operation from Ghost of Saltmarsh for a group of 4 fourth level characters and that took three two hour sessions. Plus it has a great finale, which is something lacking from many of the WotC published adventures.