I mean it's fine as a episodic campaign in that sure you got enough material to arguably take you from level 1-20. But there's going to be no over arching plot. Now that in my opinion is inessential, but some DMs and Players want things like recurring characgters and themes, and that doesn't really happen in Candlekeep Mysteries.
On another level, I'm not entirely sure every adventure really provides a "level ups" worth of adventure so if you're playing nothing but the adventures, you may have to be a bit more generous with the XP rewards.
A definite logistical complication related to trying to run the anthology episodically, is that logically, being in Candlekeep or coming across a book to bring to Candlekeep. are the catalysts for almost. all the. adventures, but there's no real through line of getting. to the various parts of. the realms. I think, for. example, one adventure. just ends in Anauroch. I guess you could make up for the aforementioned XP deficit by having them play through their returns to Candlekeep, but the adventures are literally all over the map of Faerun, so you might have to bake in some Candlekeep patronage at the early levels. To be fair, it's not the most exhaustive write up of Candlekeep out there, but the book does a good job introducing Candlekeep as a locale and it could easily be turned into the characters base of operations if you and the players are able to gel with the Candlekeep lifestyle. Easiest way. to do this is make them "research assistants" to one of the High readers, and maybe their success gets them "borrowed" by other high readers for further adventures.
TL:DR It's entirely. doable but lacks an overall "story arc" some players these days desire in a campaign.
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Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
You could create a party of folks who are investigators/researchers/employees at the Candlekeep library. Perhaps they are members of a book club? The group stumbles across interesting books, or someone in the library suggests a good book or needs help with a problem and you can use that theme to tie together most of the adventures in Candlekeep Mysteries. If you are interested, you could also supplement with adventures from the Tales from the Yawning Portal or something you homebrew to break up the book related adventures.
First toss out most of the opening reasons the books gives you to go to Candlekeep. I created a patron who payed the PC way, with the fact their patron wanted PC to suck to the Candlekeep muck muckies. Then run as series of one or two session events.
Something I'm doing is running Strixhaven and supplementing it with Candlekeep stuff. You could do something like that, and, for example, make it so that when Krinkle found Shemshime's Bedtime Rhyme, she also found a strange, chitonous substance around it. It would have been placed for her to find by the Mage Hunters (see Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos). I'm using the adventures past 10th level (when the adventure of Strixhaven ends) to be their additional four years at the university. They all lead up to Xanthoria, with clues placed along the way. For example, maybe Zikzokrishka seeked a Nether Scroll because the dragon's mortal followers were suffering from a specific fungal disease and needed to be cured to continue to serve Zikzokrishka.
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I’m about to start a new campaign. How much effort is it to change Candlekeep Mysteries from a series of one shot adventures into a campaign please?
It has the highest level published adventures which is why I’m looking at running it.
Professional computer geek
I mean it's fine as a episodic campaign in that sure you got enough material to arguably take you from level 1-20. But there's going to be no over arching plot. Now that in my opinion is inessential, but some DMs and Players want things like recurring characgters and themes, and that doesn't really happen in Candlekeep Mysteries.
On another level, I'm not entirely sure every adventure really provides a "level ups" worth of adventure so if you're playing nothing but the adventures, you may have to be a bit more generous with the XP rewards.
A definite logistical complication related to trying to run the anthology episodically, is that logically, being in Candlekeep or coming across a book to bring to Candlekeep. are the catalysts for almost. all the. adventures, but there's no real through line of getting. to the various parts of. the realms. I think, for. example, one adventure. just ends in Anauroch. I guess you could make up for the aforementioned XP deficit by having them play through their returns to Candlekeep, but the adventures are literally all over the map of Faerun, so you might have to bake in some Candlekeep patronage at the early levels. To be fair, it's not the most exhaustive write up of Candlekeep out there, but the book does a good job introducing Candlekeep as a locale and it could easily be turned into the characters base of operations if you and the players are able to gel with the Candlekeep lifestyle. Easiest way. to do this is make them "research assistants" to one of the High readers, and maybe their success gets them "borrowed" by other high readers for further adventures.
TL:DR It's entirely. doable but lacks an overall "story arc" some players these days desire in a campaign.
Jander Sunstar is the thinking person's Drizzt, fight me.
Thank you
Professional computer geek
You could create a party of folks who are investigators/researchers/employees at the Candlekeep library. Perhaps they are members of a book club? The group stumbles across interesting books, or someone in the library suggests a good book or needs help with a problem and you can use that theme to tie together most of the adventures in Candlekeep Mysteries. If you are interested, you could also supplement with adventures from the Tales from the Yawning Portal or something you homebrew to break up the book related adventures.
I've done this. In my campaign I had a sort of treasure hunt- a clue at the end of each adventure leading to the next book.
Here's another thread on this topic: https://www.dndbeyond.com/forums/d-d-beyond-general/story-lore/111141-need-some-help-with-ideas-for-candlekeep#c11
Only spilt the party if you see something shiny.
Ariendela Sneakerson, Half-elf Rogue (8); Harmony Wolfsbane, Tiefling Bard (10); Agnomally, Gnomish Sorcerer (3); Breeze, Tabaxi Monk (8); Grace, Dragonborn Barbarian (7); DM, Homebrew- The Sequestered Lands/Underwater Explorers; Candlekeep
First toss out most of the opening reasons the books gives you to go to Candlekeep. I created a patron who payed the PC way, with the fact their patron wanted PC to suck to the Candlekeep muck muckies. Then run as series of one or two session events.
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.
Something I'm doing is running Strixhaven and supplementing it with Candlekeep stuff. You could do something like that, and, for example, make it so that when Krinkle found Shemshime's Bedtime Rhyme, she also found a strange, chitonous substance around it. It would have been placed for her to find by the Mage Hunters (see Strixhaven: A Curriculum of Chaos). I'm using the adventures past 10th level (when the adventure of Strixhaven ends) to be their additional four years at the university. They all lead up to Xanthoria, with clues placed along the way. For example, maybe Zikzokrishka seeked a Nether Scroll because the dragon's mortal followers were suffering from a specific fungal disease and needed to be cured to continue to serve Zikzokrishka.