I've been playing D&D on and off (mostly off) for the past 35 years. Recently, we started playing 5e, and we have a group currently running Lost Mines of Phandelver. Catching the D&D bug, I just formed a second group with a couple who have never played D&D before, plus my wife, sister and brother-in-law who are part of the first group. My brother-in-law ran us through a short home-brew to get to level 2, but I'd like to take over as DM since he's running the LMoP group.
I'm looking to run a pre-written campaign that's easy to run for a very rusty DM who hasn't been behind the screen in 20-something years. Plus the campaign should be welcoming enough for my new couple, yet interesting enough for everyone else. I've been looking at the D&D hardcover adventures, but seem to get mixed review.
Tyranny of Dragons seems unloved. Complaints of spotty rules due to its release before rule finalization, and lots of hate for the on-rails nature. I'm intrigued by the adventure's premise, and I like to start at the beginning of things. I almost think being on rails might help the newbies in my group. However, I don't want to suffer poor rules, editing and incomplete information.
Elemental Evil seems to be well-liked along with Rage of Demons. However, I'm reading that they may not be well-suited to beginner DMs and players. Between the two, the premise of Elemental Evil interests me more... but the Underdark is still a very interesting place!
Curse of Strahd... lots of positive reviews. Lots of warnings against new DMs and players. I'm thinking I should pass on this one. At least for now.
Storm King's Thunder didn't seem to have a lot of reviews or opinions due to the newness of it. My wife didn't seem intrigued by the premise when I asked for her opinion. Its fate may have been sealed then and there! ;-)
So what do you think? Which of the official D&D adventures would best suit my group? Or am I barking up the wrong tree and I should be considering something different. I have until next Friday to decide, purchase, and prepare whatever I wind up with.
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Don't forget the Adventurer's League seasons for those different campaigns - each have between 12-16 short adventurers that usually tie together in an over arching storyline that is an off shoot of the published adventurer books. I personally like the Tyranny season but all the different seasons have different storylines (that put in a good mix of adventure, roleplaying, skill checks and of course combat).
Storm King's Thunder is pretty great, I've been playing it with new players and they've enjoyed it. I will say that from levels 1-4, there are a lot of goblin encounters. But after you get out of Nightstone it gets pretty spectacular.
But you should go with the premise that best jumps out to you. You can always edit the mechanics and story to your liking (and to your players liking), but the basic premise is your starting point. If there's incomplete information in Tyranny of Dragons, you can always fill it in with pieces of your own story. This means that you have to prepare and do a little writing before each session, but I think that will only make things run more smoothly.
Personally? Choose whatever story you like, dont think too much about the reviews. There all great stories. I would suggest Stom King's Thunder or Curse of Strahd because the campaign is not as long as the number of pages would say. But yeah, choose a story you like and go for it.
Well, I just found out that one member of the first group already has both Tyranny of Dragons books, so we're likely to play that after finishing Lost Mines. So for the second group I will choose one of the others.
Tyranny of Dragons can be good if your players don't mind following a fairly linear path of missions. Just make sure to ask your players before starting; tell them straight-up that this campaign requires a pretty heavy buy-in in terms of following the plot. If they don't like that idea then this campaign probably isn't for them, but if they don't mind that then great!
Elemental Evil/Princes of the Apocalypse is a much more sandbox-like adventure. The players are pretty much free to explore the valley and follow leads as they see fit. I personally really like this adventure. All the different elemental cult factions and the other world factions, all with their own objectives can make for alot of interesting political intrigue. I would encourage you to play-up the interactions between the different factions and let the players potentially play them against each other!
Dex took the works out of my mouth. I started a group in Tyranny of Dragons with some new players. It was good to get their feet wet, but, having just finished the first half, they are ready for some sandbox action :/
I've heard good things about The Sunless Citadel out of Tales from The Yawning Portal. Other than that and the previously listed ones, there isn't much in the way of official adventures for 5E. There are third party modules though they can be hard to sift through for good quality material. I would recommend some of Goodman Games 5E Fantasy adventures, specifically The Fey Sisters' Fate.
Dex took the works out of my mouth. I started a group in Tyranny of Dragons with some new players. It was good to get their feet wet, but, having just finished the first half, they are ready for some sandbox action :/
I'd say this is the downside to a lot of published adventures. It lacks the organic elements that make Table Top games so much fun.
Run Sunless Citadel and Forge of Fury from Yawning Portal to take them thru level 5. These are both historically loved adventures, and it easily transitions you into Storm Kong's Thunder, which has a jumping on point at Level 5, and is regarded as the best and best organized hardcover of 5e
The Whispering Cairn and it's 5E Conversion, and it's detailed background information is an amazing adventure and basis for an entire campaign. I ran this in 3.xE to rave reviews and have been running it with 5E again and think it's even better now. Pixel_Hunter, you may be a new DM but your level of experience should do you service with The Whispering Cairn. Aside from the great backdrop of Diamond Lake, there's the Cairn itself with all kinds of puzzles/traps/surprises that gives you a Tomb of Horrors feel without dem-liches. Play up the whole Rod of the Seven Parts red herring, get the players excited that they're on the cusp of something truly epic...because they are...just not necessarily Wind Dukes of Aqaa and the Queen of Chaos. Once D&D Beyond has their Character Creator working, all the 3.xE NPCs are easy to convert (I use Hero Lab currently). There's an Alchemist build for 5E to use for Filge. It all works beautifully. And it's in Greyhawk, the setting where it all started (Blackmoor is on the map too!).
Run Sunless Citadel and Forge of Fury from Yawning Portal to take them thru level 5. These are both historically loved adventures, and it easily transitions you into Storm Kong's Thunder, which has a jumping on point at Level 5, and is regarded as the best and best organized hardcover of 5e
I second the Sunless Citadel from TftYP as well. I'm a first time DM running a new group, of mostly experienced players who haven't played together before, and decided to start here before transitioning into one of the bigger premade campaigns which will be Storm Kings Thunder. Citadel is pretty well made and gives good opportunity for dungeon delving, trap solving, and Role Playing (With the Kobolds and potentially a White Dragon Wyrmling). I decided to go right into SKT once we finish SC as I want the players to be able to go through the initial part of the adventure before getting to high level for it.
Speaking of Sunless Citadel, does anyone have a good ballpark idea of how long it should take a goup to get through it? I'm thinking of scheduling it in public play at my FLGS and I want to know how many 4-hour sessions I should reserve for it. I don't recall it taking very long when I ran it in 3e, though that was a long time ago and under special circumstances (one player running multiple characters).
Speaking of Sunless Citadel, does anyone have a good ballpark idea of how long it should take a goup to get through it? I'm thinking of scheduling it in public play at my FLGS and I want to know how many 4-hour sessions I should reserve for it. I don't recall it taking very long when I ran it in 3e, though that was a long time ago and under special circumstances (one player running multiple characters).
Ditto Forge of Fury, long as I'm asking.
Sunless Citadel for most groups will take about 12 hours, but you could speed run it closer to 8. Forge of Fury is a lot shorter, I think running at about 6 or 8 hours as it's meant to take players from Level 3 to Level 5
I haven't run every published 5E campaign, but here's my thoughts:
Tyranny of Dragons can be great. Having a more linear story allows the players to make important decisions that affect the entire world while getting them used to the game. The premise is good, and it has plenty of different types of encounters: combat isn't always the best answer, which allows stealth and social encounters to be played out. The module does have issues, and there are things I would personally change about how things happen, but overall it's probably what I would run for first-time players.
Out of the Abyss is the campaign my party is just about to finish. It, too, has a unique premise. There are a couple of things to consider, though: first, will any of your players have an issue with demons running around in the world? If so, change the name or don't run this module for them. Second, will your players be content to spend days in-world wandering around the Underdark dealing with random encounters, and do you want to have to prepare these random encounters? If not, you might want to reconsider this module. I left the adventuring out when I ran this module, but only because I knew my players wouldn't enjoy it, even if removing it changes the feel of the module. Your players may also have little context for what's happening in the surface world, so you may have to do more explaining of where the players are from than otherwise.
Princes of the Apocalypse is one of the modules I haven't run. I've tried to, but my players lose interest, so I can't make a judgment about this one.
Curse of Strahd is really good! The issue is that, well...it's lethal. I wouldn't run this for a group of beginning players unless I made sure they understood that: A), there are characters written as homosexuals in the module, and insensitive and inappropriate jokes will not be tolerated; B), this adventure is thematically dark and would at the least be PG-13; and C), the PCs can die. (Perhaps C would be better as A, but establishing that there are characters of that sexuality early on is probably a good idea.)
Storm King's Thunder is another one I haven't run, so again I can't make a judgment about this.
Speaking of Sunless Citadel, does anyone have a good ballpark idea of how long it should take a goup to get through it? I'm thinking of scheduling it in public play at my FLGS and I want to know how many 4-hour sessions I should reserve for it. I don't recall it taking very long when I ran it in 3e, though that was a long time ago and under special circumstances (one player running multiple characters).
Ditto Forge of Fury, long as I'm asking.
Sunless Citadel for most groups will take about 12 hours, but you could speed run it closer to 8. Forge of Fury is a lot shorter, I think running at about 6 or 8 hours as it's meant to take players from Level 3 to Level 5
Thanks! Though that seems like it might be backwards, seeing as it takes a lot fewer XP to get from 1 to 3 than it does to get from 3 to 5.
Oddly, not! Sunless Citadel is a much larger dungeon with more role playing opportunities. The Forge is a wee smaller and is basically a straight forward dungeon crawl
Dragon of Icespire Peak is pretty easy to run, and your players will already be familiar with the Phandalin area and some of the NPCs.
That's what I'm running as a first time DM, and I like it a lot. Though I'll give the caveat that I've been doing a lot of extra stuff with it. As an adventure with no modification, it's kinda video-gamey and boring. So I've been going through and adding sub plots, other encounters, and some major tweaks and twists. I did this on purpose; I eventually want to homebrew my own campaign, but wasn't ready to hit the ground running with that my first time. So I'm using DOIP as my training wheels. I'd say if you're not a fan of having to put extra work in, the adventure might not be to your liking. But if you like adding and editing, it's great fun.
Dragon of Icespire Peak is pretty easy to run, and your players will already be familiar with the Phandalin area and some of the NPCs.
That's what I'm running as a first time DM, and I like it a lot. Though I'll give the caveat that I've been doing a lot of extra stuff with it. As an adventure with no modification, it's kinda video-gamey and boring. So I've been going through and adding sub plots, other encounters, and some major tweaks and twists. I did this on purpose; I eventually want to homebrew my own campaign, but wasn't ready to hit the ground running with that my first time. So I'm using DOIP as my training wheels. I'd say if you're not a fan of having to put extra work in, the adventure might not be to your liking. But if you like adding and editing, it's great fun.
I absolutely agree. I think it was made intentionally videogamey to try to cater to new, younger players who are used to video games.
Currently I’m running a LMoP+DoIP combination I call Dragons Over Phandalin. I also gave Venomfang a much larger role.
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I've been playing D&D on and off (mostly off) for the past 35 years. Recently, we started playing 5e, and we have a group currently running Lost Mines of Phandelver. Catching the D&D bug, I just formed a second group with a couple who have never played D&D before, plus my wife, sister and brother-in-law who are part of the first group. My brother-in-law ran us through a short home-brew to get to level 2, but I'd like to take over as DM since he's running the LMoP group.
I'm looking to run a pre-written campaign that's easy to run for a very rusty DM who hasn't been behind the screen in 20-something years. Plus the campaign should be welcoming enough for my new couple, yet interesting enough for everyone else. I've been looking at the D&D hardcover adventures, but seem to get mixed review.
Tyranny of Dragons seems unloved. Complaints of spotty rules due to its release before rule finalization, and lots of hate for the on-rails nature. I'm intrigued by the adventure's premise, and I like to start at the beginning of things. I almost think being on rails might help the newbies in my group. However, I don't want to suffer poor rules, editing and incomplete information.
Elemental Evil seems to be well-liked along with Rage of Demons. However, I'm reading that they may not be well-suited to beginner DMs and players. Between the two, the premise of Elemental Evil interests me more... but the Underdark is still a very interesting place!
Curse of Strahd... lots of positive reviews. Lots of warnings against new DMs and players. I'm thinking I should pass on this one. At least for now.
Storm King's Thunder didn't seem to have a lot of reviews or opinions due to the newness of it. My wife didn't seem intrigued by the premise when I asked for her opinion. Its fate may have been sealed then and there! ;-)
So what do you think? Which of the official D&D adventures would best suit my group? Or am I barking up the wrong tree and I should be considering something different. I have until next Friday to decide, purchase, and prepare whatever I wind up with.
Don't forget the Adventurer's League seasons for those different campaigns - each have between 12-16 short adventurers that usually tie together in an over arching storyline that is an off shoot of the published adventurer books. I personally like the Tyranny season but all the different seasons have different storylines (that put in a good mix of adventure, roleplaying, skill checks and of course combat).
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Storm King's Thunder is pretty great, I've been playing it with new players and they've enjoyed it. I will say that from levels 1-4, there are a lot of goblin encounters. But after you get out of Nightstone it gets pretty spectacular.
But you should go with the premise that best jumps out to you. You can always edit the mechanics and story to your liking (and to your players liking), but the basic premise is your starting point. If there's incomplete information in Tyranny of Dragons, you can always fill it in with pieces of your own story. This means that you have to prepare and do a little writing before each session, but I think that will only make things run more smoothly.
PBP: DM of Titans of Tomorrow
PBP: Lera Zahuv in Whispers of Dissent
PBP: Evaine Brae in Innistrad: Dark Ascension
PBP: Cor'avin in Tomb of Annihilation
Personally? Choose whatever story you like, dont think too much about the reviews. There all great stories. I would suggest Stom King's Thunder or Curse of Strahd because the campaign is not as long as the number of pages would say. But yeah, choose a story you like and go for it.
Enjoy!
Well, I just found out that one member of the first group already has both Tyranny of Dragons books, so we're likely to play that after finishing Lost Mines. So for the second group I will choose one of the others.
Tyranny of Dragons can be good if your players don't mind following a fairly linear path of missions. Just make sure to ask your players before starting; tell them straight-up that this campaign requires a pretty heavy buy-in in terms of following the plot. If they don't like that idea then this campaign probably isn't for them, but if they don't mind that then great!
Elemental Evil/Princes of the Apocalypse is a much more sandbox-like adventure. The players are pretty much free to explore the valley and follow leads as they see fit. I personally really like this adventure. All the different elemental cult factions and the other world factions, all with their own objectives can make for alot of interesting political intrigue. I would encourage you to play-up the interactions between the different factions and let the players potentially play them against each other!
Dex took the works out of my mouth. I started a group in Tyranny of Dragons with some new players. It was good to get their feet wet, but, having just finished the first half, they are ready for some sandbox action :/
I've heard good things about The Sunless Citadel out of Tales from The Yawning Portal. Other than that and the previously listed ones, there isn't much in the way of official adventures for 5E. There are third party modules though they can be hard to sift through for good quality material. I would recommend some of Goodman Games 5E Fantasy adventures, specifically The Fey Sisters' Fate.
Run Sunless Citadel and Forge of Fury from Yawning Portal to take them thru level 5. These are both historically loved adventures, and it easily transitions you into Storm Kong's Thunder, which has a jumping on point at Level 5, and is regarded as the best and best organized hardcover of 5e
The Whispering Cairn and it's 5E Conversion, and it's detailed background information is an amazing adventure and basis for an entire campaign. I ran this in 3.xE to rave reviews and have been running it with 5E again and think it's even better now. Pixel_Hunter, you may be a new DM but your level of experience should do you service with The Whispering Cairn. Aside from the great backdrop of Diamond Lake, there's the Cairn itself with all kinds of puzzles/traps/surprises that gives you a Tomb of Horrors feel without dem-liches. Play up the whole Rod of the Seven Parts red herring, get the players excited that they're on the cusp of something truly epic...because they are...just not necessarily Wind Dukes of Aqaa and the Queen of Chaos. Once D&D Beyond has their Character Creator working, all the 3.xE NPCs are easy to convert (I use Hero Lab currently). There's an Alchemist build for 5E to use for Filge. It all works beautifully. And it's in Greyhawk, the setting where it all started (Blackmoor is on the map too!).
We all leave footprints in the sands of time.
Speaking of Sunless Citadel, does anyone have a good ballpark idea of how long it should take a goup to get through it? I'm thinking of scheduling it in public play at my FLGS and I want to know how many 4-hour sessions I should reserve for it. I don't recall it taking very long when I ran it in 3e, though that was a long time ago and under special circumstances (one player running multiple characters).
Ditto Forge of Fury, long as I'm asking.
I haven't run every published 5E campaign, but here's my thoughts:
I hope this helps!
Oddly, not! Sunless Citadel is a much larger dungeon with more role playing opportunities. The Forge is a wee smaller and is basically a straight forward dungeon crawl
Dragon of Icespire Peak is pretty easy to run, and your players will already be familiar with the Phandalin area and some of the NPCs.
That's what I'm running as a first time DM, and I like it a lot. Though I'll give the caveat that I've been doing a lot of extra stuff with it. As an adventure with no modification, it's kinda video-gamey and boring. So I've been going through and adding sub plots, other encounters, and some major tweaks and twists. I did this on purpose; I eventually want to homebrew my own campaign, but wasn't ready to hit the ground running with that my first time. So I'm using DOIP as my training wheels. I'd say if you're not a fan of having to put extra work in, the adventure might not be to your liking. But if you like adding and editing, it's great fun.
I absolutely agree. I think it was made intentionally videogamey to try to cater to new, younger players who are used to video games.
Currently I’m running a LMoP+DoIP combination I call Dragons Over Phandalin. I also gave Venomfang a much larger role.