I have found that this is a good sequence to run as a series. I have run it in this order as DDAL, but 90% of the players and characters were carryover week to week. I haven't gotten to the tier 3 yet with this group. But I have run them multiple times at Cons, and they work well together.
You have to build a bit of the story on your own, but there is room to do so if you are not pushing to do each one in 3.5 hours and then have everyone level up. Essentially, you will have to do some connect-the-dots to get through Tier1 and to the start of Breaking Umberlee's Resolve. But between the various Harper agents, Damita Uthros as an anti-Tamm Thayan, and a few contacts in Candlekeep that might help, there is possibilities.
For 1st-4th: DDAL-DRW-INT01: Big Problems. Introduction to Post Storm King's Thunder Sword Coast and simple. DDAL-DRW-INT02: Watchers of the trollclaws: Red wizards causing trouble- can be easily tied into the previous module DDAL-DRW-INT04: Tales of Fang and Claw: Makes more sense to do next, since you are in the same area. Introduced to working with the Harpers. They send you to Mulmaster and next adventure. DDAL-DRW-INT03: First attempt at foiling a Red Wizard plot. Get to see post Elemental Evil effects on Mulmaster. Good expansion the rest of Faerun.
Then, for 5-10th:
DDAL-DRW01: Breaking Umberlee's Resolve: Save Zehira, who becomes one of your two main contacts. DDAL-DRW02: Blood in the Water: Work with Zehira, foil a plot. Great underwater adventure and gets character used to battlefields that effect combat. DDAL-DRW09: Vile Bounty: Prefaced this with several months passing with little activity. Zehira had an adventure or three and was taken by the Giants over to the Sword Coast again to act as their champion. She has a problem, and recruits all of you to help. Also meet the Harpers crew in the area. DDAL-DRW10: Unsafe Harborage: More Zehira and Harper's goodness. Start to understand big things are afoot, and there are multiple players. DDAL-DRW11: Shadows in the Stacks: Candlekeep! And the complexities of the Thayan activities. And cultists! Can this get any wierder? DDAL-DRW12: To Walk the Cold Dark: Yes, it can get wierder. And you make a new friend, maybe. DDAL-DRW13: Night Thieves: Now we get to the heart of it, and Zass Tamm's plans are uncovered.
Then for Tier 3: DDALDRW14-18: What is really going on in the City that SHould Not Be, and why are cultists and Thayans both interested in it?
The Dreams of the Red Wizards campaign mentioned above is a set of loosely connected adventures that that the characters from level 5-20. They have more recently added the DRW Introductory adventures to get the characters to level 5.
Another decent AL 1-20 campaign is the Eberron Oracle of War series (but this is the Eberron campaign and not Forgotten Realms). This also gets the characters from level 1-20 and there are several epic adventures that you can drop in at an appropriate plot point to expand the adventures a bit. Each adventure comes with a page summarizing the rewards received by the characters listing the ones they can choose based on accomplishments in the adventure. There are also story awards and other elements that come back to play a role in later adventures. Out of all the AL "seasons", I think it is probably the best designed to be run as a series of inter linked adventures.
Other than that, most of the seasonal adventures are typically linked in mini-arcs up to 3 adventures or so. In addition, depending on the season, it can be a good idea to combine the official AL adventures with CCCs or other 3rd party AL adventures to fill out the storylines.
However, in general, I find it easier to run a hardcover if I am looking for a campaign experience in AL. I've run DoIP, CoS and am currently running OotA. I've also played SKT and ToA and all of these give a better "campaign" type experience than the seasonal modules because even with the ones like the Eberron OoW ... the modules just aren't as closely tied into an integrated storyline as the dedicated hardcovers.
I know I am late to this game, but I use the HCs then add the DDALs during the wilderness travel chapter. It gives some more interest and a better chance to level up a little before a difficult chapter. I like my players to feel like heroes, not get stomped…though that happens, too.
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I want to run a long campaign for my regular group of players.
If I were to choose an AL season for this, which one would you recommend as the best, most story-driven? And which one do you like the most?
And in general, how would such a campaign differ from a campaign based on a hardcover book?
I have found that this is a good sequence to run as a series. I have run it in this order as DDAL, but 90% of the players and characters were carryover week to week. I haven't gotten to the tier 3 yet with this group. But I have run them multiple times at Cons, and they work well together.
You have to build a bit of the story on your own, but there is room to do so if you are not pushing to do each one in 3.5 hours and then have everyone level up. Essentially, you will have to do some connect-the-dots to get through Tier1 and to the start of Breaking Umberlee's Resolve. But between the various Harper agents, Damita Uthros as an anti-Tamm Thayan, and a few contacts in Candlekeep that might help, there is possibilities.
For 1st-4th:
DDAL-DRW-INT01: Big Problems. Introduction to Post Storm King's Thunder Sword Coast and simple.
DDAL-DRW-INT02: Watchers of the trollclaws: Red wizards causing trouble- can be easily tied into the previous module
DDAL-DRW-INT04: Tales of Fang and Claw: Makes more sense to do next, since you are in the same area. Introduced to working with the Harpers. They send you to Mulmaster and next adventure.
DDAL-DRW-INT03: First attempt at foiling a Red Wizard plot. Get to see post Elemental Evil effects on Mulmaster. Good expansion the rest of Faerun.
Then, for 5-10th:
DDAL-DRW01: Breaking Umberlee's Resolve: Save Zehira, who becomes one of your two main contacts.
DDAL-DRW02: Blood in the Water: Work with Zehira, foil a plot. Great underwater adventure and gets character used to battlefields that effect combat.
DDAL-DRW09: Vile Bounty: Prefaced this with several months passing with little activity. Zehira had an adventure or three and was taken by the Giants over to the Sword Coast again to act as their champion. She has a problem, and recruits all of you to help. Also meet the Harpers crew in the area.
DDAL-DRW10: Unsafe Harborage: More Zehira and Harper's goodness. Start to understand big things are afoot, and there are multiple players.
DDAL-DRW11: Shadows in the Stacks: Candlekeep! And the complexities of the Thayan activities. And cultists! Can this get any wierder?
DDAL-DRW12: To Walk the Cold Dark: Yes, it can get wierder. And you make a new friend, maybe.
DDAL-DRW13: Night Thieves: Now we get to the heart of it, and Zass Tamm's plans are uncovered.
Then for Tier 3:
DDALDRW14-18: What is really going on in the City that SHould Not Be, and why are cultists and Thayans both interested in it?
The Dreams of the Red Wizards campaign mentioned above is a set of loosely connected adventures that that the characters from level 5-20. They have more recently added the DRW Introductory adventures to get the characters to level 5.
Another decent AL 1-20 campaign is the Eberron Oracle of War series (but this is the Eberron campaign and not Forgotten Realms). This also gets the characters from level 1-20 and there are several epic adventures that you can drop in at an appropriate plot point to expand the adventures a bit. Each adventure comes with a page summarizing the rewards received by the characters listing the ones they can choose based on accomplishments in the adventure. There are also story awards and other elements that come back to play a role in later adventures. Out of all the AL "seasons", I think it is probably the best designed to be run as a series of inter linked adventures.
Other than that, most of the seasonal adventures are typically linked in mini-arcs up to 3 adventures or so. In addition, depending on the season, it can be a good idea to combine the official AL adventures with CCCs or other 3rd party AL adventures to fill out the storylines.
However, in general, I find it easier to run a hardcover if I am looking for a campaign experience in AL. I've run DoIP, CoS and am currently running OotA. I've also played SKT and ToA and all of these give a better "campaign" type experience than the seasonal modules because even with the ones like the Eberron OoW ... the modules just aren't as closely tied into an integrated storyline as the dedicated hardcovers.
Many of the older seasons are directly tied to published campaigns. Logically it would follow that you could do any of those.
For example (and off the top of my head)
Season 10 was Rime
Season 9 was Descent
Season 5 is Storm King
Season 4 is Strahd
There are a few lists out there that you can reference for others including many 3rd party (Moonshae Isles comes to mind). This is one I have used in the past: https://merricb.com/the-great-list-of-dd-5e-adventures/
I know I am late to this game, but I use the HCs then add the DDALs during the wilderness travel chapter. It gives some more interest and a better chance to level up a little before a difficult chapter. I like my players to feel like heroes, not get stomped…though that happens, too.