I’m coming towards the end of of DMing CoS. Yesterday’s session was a jaw on the floor, slug fest and had all the players (and some bystanders) punching the air at the end. Needless to say I am looking forward to the last couple of episodes and the final Strahd encounter. This is what D&D is all about.
But... it’s coming to an end and I am terrified we won’t find a campaign that is as rich as CoS. The players love the shades of grey in morale, becoming the monster you’re trying to defeat type trope, the betrayal, the life and death set pieces, the intrigue, the well rounded characters with their own personal struggles... but every campaign I research seem to lack some of these elements and seems (to me anyway) to be standard, hack and slash dungeon crawlers.
So... Oh wise DMs of dndbeyond, lend me your advice! What campaign have you felt could live up to Strahd? Have you finished Strahd and moved on to another prewritten campaign? If so what one? What’s your favourite campaign?
Curse of Strahd is definitely WotC best 5E adventure for dark fantasy themes. If you feel you want to continue using WotC adventures, then I'd say to look into Out of the Abyss. A group I ran the game for played through Lost Mines of Phandelver, then Out of the Abyss, and are now about halfway through Curse of Strahd. If by chance we were about to finish Curse of Strahd, I'd likely move onto Tomb of Annihilation. ToA doesn't quite have the same dark fantasy feel as OotA or CoS, but it does have some interesting survival horror elements to it.
ToA doesnt have much of the intrigue, but you can tweak it a bit to make it a lot more interesting. I personally ran a HB arc after a CoS (have them find a city being raided by an Oni... tends to be fun ;) ). Then we are in ToA, which they were dragged to by some intrigue of party members not being able to be revived anymore (they got to used to having that magic, now 2/5 are using their 2nd and 3rd characters). They seem to be enjoying ToA, but I'm giving the lich a little bit more role than the dungeon.
Ah ace. Don’t feel confident enough with a HB yet (first time DMing), also... 0 time to write! 😆 any tips for HB though will be much appreciated! Thanks for replying.
homebrewing a small arc (the oni piece was less than a level total thanks to some luck on my players side) is a great way to start. throw them in a large town and see how they react. (be prepared for a lot of shopping). I just threw them into Neverwinter and they happened to choose my HB option (it was that, or ToA, or go into part of the TotYP (the ruins i cant remember the name of). So ran with it, it was pretty easy to HB it out. Just think like the NPCs haha.
Are you and your players going to start the new adventure with new characters or continue with (presumably 10th level) characters?
Also, you mentioned you don't have a lot of time to write a homebrew game, but would you have time to convert an older edition adventure (maybe from 2E or 3E) into a 5E game? There's a game called Lamentations of the Flame Princess that is a dark and weird fantasy adventure. It dips more into the realm of Lovecraftian horror, but might be worth a look. It's a fairly well-reviewed adventure, I think. The best part is that there is a free version of the adventure, so you can check it all out before deciding if it's what you're looking for.
The group haven’t decided, although I’m fairly confident they will roll a new set of characters. They’re confident in the system now
Having never played earlier editions of D&D, I wouldn’t even know where to begin to convert an older edition. Although, (if I go down the HB route) this might be a good setting for HB.
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I’m coming towards the end of of DMing CoS. Yesterday’s session was a jaw on the floor, slug fest and had all the players (and some bystanders) punching the air at the end. Needless to say I am looking forward to the last couple of episodes and the final Strahd encounter. This is what D&D is all about.
But... it’s coming to an end and I am terrified we won’t find a campaign that is as rich as CoS. The players love the shades of grey in morale, becoming the monster you’re trying to defeat type trope, the betrayal, the life and death set pieces, the intrigue, the well rounded characters with their own personal struggles... but every campaign I research seem to lack some of these elements and seems (to me anyway) to be standard, hack and slash dungeon crawlers.
So... Oh wise DMs of dndbeyond, lend me your advice! What campaign have you felt could live up to Strahd? Have you finished Strahd and moved on to another prewritten campaign? If so what one? What’s your favourite campaign?
thanks in advance!
Curse of Strahd is definitely WotC best 5E adventure for dark fantasy themes. If you feel you want to continue using WotC adventures, then I'd say to look into Out of the Abyss. A group I ran the game for played through Lost Mines of Phandelver, then Out of the Abyss, and are now about halfway through Curse of Strahd. If by chance we were about to finish Curse of Strahd, I'd likely move onto Tomb of Annihilation. ToA doesn't quite have the same dark fantasy feel as OotA or CoS, but it does have some interesting survival horror elements to it.
Ahhh interesting. Thanks for the reply. Was toying with ToA but heard it probably doesn’t have the same level of intrigue as CoS. Might research OotA.
ToA doesnt have much of the intrigue, but you can tweak it a bit to make it a lot more interesting. I personally ran a HB arc after a CoS (have them find a city being raided by an Oni... tends to be fun ;) ). Then we are in ToA, which they were dragged to by some intrigue of party members not being able to be revived anymore (they got to used to having that magic, now 2/5 are using their 2nd and 3rd characters). They seem to be enjoying ToA, but I'm giving the lich a little bit more role than the dungeon.
Ah ace. Don’t feel confident enough with a HB yet (first time DMing), also... 0 time to write! 😆 any tips for HB though will be much appreciated! Thanks for replying.
homebrewing a small arc (the oni piece was less than a level total thanks to some luck on my players side) is a great way to start. throw them in a large town and see how they react. (be prepared for a lot of shopping). I just threw them into Neverwinter and they happened to choose my HB option (it was that, or ToA, or go into part of the TotYP (the ruins i cant remember the name of). So ran with it, it was pretty easy to HB it out. Just think like the NPCs haha.
Are you and your players going to start the new adventure with new characters or continue with (presumably 10th level) characters?
Also, you mentioned you don't have a lot of time to write a homebrew game, but would you have time to convert an older edition adventure (maybe from 2E or 3E) into a 5E game? There's a game called Lamentations of the Flame Princess that is a dark and weird fantasy adventure. It dips more into the realm of Lovecraftian horror, but might be worth a look. It's a fairly well-reviewed adventure, I think. The best part is that there is a free version of the adventure, so you can check it all out before deciding if it's what you're looking for.
It might be the motivation I need to get started on a HB. Thanks!
The group haven’t decided, although I’m fairly confident they will roll a new set of characters. They’re confident in the system now
Having never played earlier editions of D&D, I wouldn’t even know where to begin to convert an older edition. Although, (if I go down the HB route) this might be a good setting for HB.