Hello! I'm a new DM; so far I've run a one-shot twice (one time for two different friend groups). I have a group of friends I'm wanting to DM for soon, but I'm really not the best at writing homebrew. What modules would fellow DMs recommend for a group that leans heavier into the roleplay in D&D? I've heard that Curse of Strahd and Wild Beyond the Witchlight can be RP-heavy, but I'm currently playing those and I hope to avoid spoilers for now. The group isn't averse to combat, but so far I've gauged they seem to favor character development and interaction. Thanks in advance!! :]
Waterdeep: Dragon Heist has huge potential for roleplay, and I can speak from experience that it's very fun. It is a bit of work on the DM's end to make it come alive, but that's par for the course honestly.
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I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
The amount of role playing is often much more dependent on the players and their characters than the module.
From what I have heard, Wild Beyond the Witchlight is designed with non-combat/role play solutions to many of the challenges. This can increase the amount of role playing because the module doesn't force things back to combat to resolve the plot points.
Waterdeep: Dragon Heist could also provide decent roleplaying opportunities since, if I recall, there are a number of tasks to do, not all of which are combat oriented .. the plot involves the characters acquiring an inn/tavern which can be a great locus for role playing and the module has a number of very high level iconic NPCs with which the characters can interact but aren't expected to fight.
On the other hand, Curse of Strahd has a very well defined gothic horror theme with vampires/werewolves/witches/undead etc .. it also has some possible interactions with the Vistani and with inhabitants in the various villages of Barovia, Krezk and Vallaki BUT ... most things will be resolved with combat. Vampires/werewolves/witches/undead are all fundamentally evil creatures with evil agendas who do nasty things (in the module) like eat children, force children to fight to the death for entertainment, lock up mongrelfolk in the sanatorium, build a flesh golem to be a wife for Strahd out of the body parts of recently deceased villagers, etc, etc ... this means that most players/characters will only be interested in killing these creatures ... so a lot of the role playing will be within the party and with an occasional interesting non-evil NPC like Esmeralda, Ismark and Ireena, the Vistani Seer (can't recall her name), and a few others. Overall, I'd personally rate CoS as combat heavy rather than role play heavy though it could depend on how you run it but as written it leans towards combat.
CoS also has quite a bit of "trigger" content depending on the experiences, tolerance and interest in horror themes of your players.
If you aren't too concerned about setting I'm currently running Dungeons of Drakkenheim which has plenty of RP opportunities and faction intrigue built in to it. There's also the Critical Role adventure Call of the Netherdeep which has a lot of chance to RP, including a rival adventuring party that runs through the whole adventure that you keep encountering
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Hello! I'm a new DM; so far I've run a one-shot twice (one time for two different friend groups). I have a group of friends I'm wanting to DM for soon, but I'm really not the best at writing homebrew. What modules would fellow DMs recommend for a group that leans heavier into the roleplay in D&D? I've heard that Curse of Strahd and Wild Beyond the Witchlight can be RP-heavy, but I'm currently playing those and I hope to avoid spoilers for now. The group isn't averse to combat, but so far I've gauged they seem to favor character development and interaction. Thanks in advance!! :]
Waterdeep: Dragon Heist has huge potential for roleplay, and I can speak from experience that it's very fun. It is a bit of work on the DM's end to make it come alive, but that's par for the course honestly.
I know what you're thinking: "In that flurry of blows, did he use all his ki points, or save one?" Well, are ya feeling lucky, punk?
The amount of role playing is often much more dependent on the players and their characters than the module.
From what I have heard, Wild Beyond the Witchlight is designed with non-combat/role play solutions to many of the challenges. This can increase the amount of role playing because the module doesn't force things back to combat to resolve the plot points.
Waterdeep: Dragon Heist could also provide decent roleplaying opportunities since, if I recall, there are a number of tasks to do, not all of which are combat oriented .. the plot involves the characters acquiring an inn/tavern which can be a great locus for role playing and the module has a number of very high level iconic NPCs with which the characters can interact but aren't expected to fight.
On the other hand, Curse of Strahd has a very well defined gothic horror theme with vampires/werewolves/witches/undead etc .. it also has some possible interactions with the Vistani and with inhabitants in the various villages of Barovia, Krezk and Vallaki BUT ... most things will be resolved with combat. Vampires/werewolves/witches/undead are all fundamentally evil creatures with evil agendas who do nasty things (in the module) like eat children, force children to fight to the death for entertainment, lock up mongrelfolk in the sanatorium, build a flesh golem to be a wife for Strahd out of the body parts of recently deceased villagers, etc, etc ... this means that most players/characters will only be interested in killing these creatures ... so a lot of the role playing will be within the party and with an occasional interesting non-evil NPC like Esmeralda, Ismark and Ireena, the Vistani Seer (can't recall her name), and a few others. Overall, I'd personally rate CoS as combat heavy rather than role play heavy though it could depend on how you run it but as written it leans towards combat.
CoS also has quite a bit of "trigger" content depending on the experiences, tolerance and interest in horror themes of your players.
If you aren't too concerned about setting I'm currently running Dungeons of Drakkenheim which has plenty of RP opportunities and faction intrigue built in to it. There's also the Critical Role adventure Call of the Netherdeep which has a lot of chance to RP, including a rival adventuring party that runs through the whole adventure that you keep encountering