I am a average player player that only has done homebrew. But I have never been a DM so I got my group together. Now I need your ranking and brief summary of the module.
Just rank all content so I know witch one to run. Money is tight so I can only buy one and hopefully I which ever one gets the most number ones I will buy. Then a brief review so I know if it will go well with my group.
There are lots of folks who have ranked them. The problems with these rankings are (1) they disagree wildly because the DMs doing the rankings like different things, or have players who like different things, and (2) I can't think many people could possibly have played all the adventures to even know. XP to Level 3 did a review (with his fiance, who is also a DM as well as a player), and like half the modules they reviewed they had not played either (a) all the way to the end, or (b) at all. So they could only fairly rank like half of them (they ranked them all but you have to ignore the ones they haven't played, since they are just speculating). Just reading a module can't really give you that great a sense of it... you have to play it at least once to see how it works. And even there, you may find some modules that are great to DM but suck to play, or suck to DM but are fun to play. And it is all subjective, and tied to player preference.
In the end I don't think you're going to get any useful answers here, because no one knows what you and your players will like.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
I understand that there are many modules. The reason I have asked for a brief review is for my friends tastes. Many post before this are outdated with many newer campaigns not included.
9/10. Tyranny of Dragons. (Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat) Extremely Railrodey but the faction relationships from RoT can be inspirational
8. Princes of the Apocolypse. solid module but is very disorganized and hard to put together for a new DM
7. Curse of Strahd. great adventure, but I'm just not into gothic horror and the campaign could end the first session with Death House
6. Tomb of Annihilation. I personally love the theme but can be overwhelming to a new DM unused to sandboxes
5. Out of the Abyss. I really enjoyed running the survival horror of this adventure, but for new players this would be a big no
4. Descent into Avernus. I loved this adventure. It has so many possibilities, as the outcomes can be extremely different, even changing the face of the cosmos
3. Storm King's Thunder. Many players favorite adventure, this is a great sandbox. Just make sure you keep your players on track.
2/1. Dungeon of the Mad Mage/ Waterdeep Dragon Heist. Dragon Heist really carries Dungeon of the Mad Mage. DotMM is good, but dungeon crawling the entire adventure is awful. Dragon Heist on the other hand, is extraordinary. Perfect for beginners
Other:
Tales from the Yawning Portal and Ghosts of Saltmarsh are great adventuress but require more work to put them together
Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden is releasing Tuesday, and from the reviews I've read its really good, so look out for that
P.S. Try to be a little nicer with the tone next time you post, seemed kind of rude
Keep in mind that it's not just about which adventure book is "best", or which one your players will like the most. It's also about which one you'll be able to do well with as a new DM. I just started as a DM back in April and I started with Lost Mine of Phandelver which turned out to be a great way to get started. That one or the Dragon of Icespire Peak are both introductory modules that are designed to teach you how to DM and how to play a character.
I went from LMoP to Curse of Strahd with my three groups and the difference in huge! CoS is an awesome book but it is massive in scope. With LMoP I just had to read a page or so ahead of where the group was and I did fine. With CoS I had to prepare for 6 weeks before I felt ready to run the first session. I'm so glad I didn't start with a larger more advanced adventure book because I would have struggled and the players wouldn't have had as much fun.
I noticed some people also mentioning Dragon of Icespire Peak and I have to echo that if you choose to do that one, take a look at the encounters beforehand. We have a new DM and two brand new players (including myself, so I don't have a ton of experience to share...) and we have been struggling heavily with this campaign as written. We have only just reached level 3, and its a milestone campaign so almost everyone will be around the same level for these encounters. There are 5 of us: a warlock, a druid, a paladin, a fighter, and a rogue.
<<Spoiler alert from here>>
In the first specific encounter that pissed us - the players - off the most, its the second one with orcs involved. There were 5 orcs on the first floor and 11 orcs on the second floor of the building with no time for a short or long rest. That was far too many. The druid knows Spike Growth, so we were able to attack a lot of them without taking too much damage, but once they all stopped moving because of the spell, we had to attack them head-on. And well... They 2HKOed the Paladin.
In another example, there's a very small cavern filled to the brim with 9 wererats and 4 giant rats. Here we are at level 4, there's nowhere to move, AoE spells will always hit one of our allies, and keep having to make CON saving throws or gett the wererat's curse. 3/5 of us are now cursed, btw. If I were the DM, I would have removed a few of the enemies or transported them to other areas in the cave. If they had been spread out, maybe it wouldn't have taken us 4 hours to finish just that encounter. Everyone was really, really bored because the enemies themselves took a long time to move and attack. It was slow going and took up a lot of our session.
<<End spoilers>>
So I think no matter what you choose, maybe the DM should take a look at the encounters for that session (that have already been made) and make sure it will suit the kinds of PCs you have, their abilities, and class levels, etc. If you think that they will struggle with it, remove a few of the enemies or nerf the enemy's damage a bit. Don't be afraid to make some homebrew changes in the name of the Rule of Fun. Personally, I won't be recommending Icespire Peak, but if you finish Lost Mine first, this takes place in the same area and would be better for a DM who kind of knows how to fix the broken encounters.
[TLDR]; Don't do Dragon of Icespire Peak as a new DM, leave that for later when you've had a little experience because the encounters will need balancing to make them fun and not broken af. I recommend Lost Mine of Phandelver as it comes with the Starter Kit and has repeatedly been suggested to me by the groups I play with and other people have posted it already so they must be right. Maybe after doing Lost Mine you can take a look at Icespire.
Also, if you only can buy one, see what they have from the local library before you buy. You can often order from other libraries--ask a librarian. If your library is closed due to covid like ours, they might still have pickup.
Our library has Tales of the Yawning Portal (we just keep renewing it, since we only want to do 1-2 dungeon adventures), Ghosts of Saltmarsh, etc.
The Sunless Citadel, the first adventure in Tales of the Yawning portal takes 4 characters from level 1-3. If you have fewer people, try starting them level 2 or so, give them each a healing potion, and go levels 2-4. There are something like 7 total dungeon adventures.
Also, if you only can buy one, see what they have from the local library before you buy. You can often order from other libraries--ask a librarian. If your library is closed due to covid like ours, they might still have pickup.
Our library has Tales of the Yawning Portal (we just keep renewing it, since we only want to do 1-2 dungeon adventures), Ghosts of Saltmarsh, etc.
The Sunless Citadel, the first adventure in Tales of the Yawning portal takes 4 characters from level 1-3. If you have fewer people, try starting them level 2 or so, give them each a healing potion, and go levels 2-4. There are something like 7 total dungeon adventures.
Lots of smaller libraries have the books in the "Reference" section so you can't take them out to play (or, possibly steal them).
In addition, libraries are too noisy to do D&D in. Cause' we're modern.
I am a average player player that only has done homebrew. But I have never been a DM so I got my group together. Now I need your ranking and brief summary of the module.
You are asking for a lot...do you know how many modules there are?
If this is your first time, use Lost Mines of Phandelver...its the default "beginner" module and will be a good way for you to ease into DM'ing.
thank you for your feedback
Just rank all content so I know witch one to run. Money is tight so I can only buy one and hopefully I which ever one gets the most number ones I will buy. Then a brief review so I know if it will go well with my group.
I have seen some other forums for ranking but it is from like 2017 or 2018 an there are a lot of d&d modules scene then.
I believe there is 26 modules. ( I know that is a lot
There are lots of folks who have ranked them. The problems with these rankings are (1) they disagree wildly because the DMs doing the rankings like different things, or have players who like different things, and (2) I can't think many people could possibly have played all the adventures to even know. XP to Level 3 did a review (with his fiance, who is also a DM as well as a player), and like half the modules they reviewed they had not played either (a) all the way to the end, or (b) at all. So they could only fairly rank like half of them (they ranked them all but you have to ignore the ones they haven't played, since they are just speculating). Just reading a module can't really give you that great a sense of it... you have to play it at least once to see how it works. And even there, you may find some modules that are great to DM but suck to play, or suck to DM but are fun to play. And it is all subjective, and tied to player preference.
In the end I don't think you're going to get any useful answers here, because no one knows what you and your players will like.
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
thank you for your feedback
I understand that there are many modules. The reason I have asked for a brief review is for my friends tastes. Many post before this are outdated with many newer campaigns not included.
thanks for the video suggestion.
XP to Level 3 is pretty good but is about a year old:
WOTC lies. We know that WOTC lies. WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. We know that WOTC knows that we know that WOTC lies. And still they lie.
Because of the above (a paraphrase from Orwell) I no longer post to the forums -- PM me if you need help or anything.
Here's my ranking:
9/10. Tyranny of Dragons. (Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat) Extremely Railrodey but the faction relationships from RoT can be inspirational
8. Princes of the Apocolypse. solid module but is very disorganized and hard to put together for a new DM
7. Curse of Strahd. great adventure, but I'm just not into gothic horror and the campaign could end the first session with Death House
6. Tomb of Annihilation. I personally love the theme but can be overwhelming to a new DM unused to sandboxes
5. Out of the Abyss. I really enjoyed running the survival horror of this adventure, but for new players this would be a big no
4. Descent into Avernus. I loved this adventure. It has so many possibilities, as the outcomes can be extremely different, even changing the face of the cosmos
3. Storm King's Thunder. Many players favorite adventure, this is a great sandbox. Just make sure you keep your players on track.
2/1. Dungeon of the Mad Mage/ Waterdeep Dragon Heist. Dragon Heist really carries Dungeon of the Mad Mage. DotMM is good, but dungeon crawling the entire adventure is awful. Dragon Heist on the other hand, is extraordinary. Perfect for beginners
Other:
Tales from the Yawning Portal and Ghosts of Saltmarsh are great adventuress but require more work to put them together
Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden is releasing Tuesday, and from the reviews I've read its really good, so look out for that
P.S. Try to be a little nicer with the tone next time you post, seemed kind of rude
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Keep in mind that it's not just about which adventure book is "best", or which one your players will like the most. It's also about which one you'll be able to do well with as a new DM. I just started as a DM back in April and I started with Lost Mine of Phandelver which turned out to be a great way to get started. That one or the Dragon of Icespire Peak are both introductory modules that are designed to teach you how to DM and how to play a character.
I went from LMoP to Curse of Strahd with my three groups and the difference in huge! CoS is an awesome book but it is massive in scope. With LMoP I just had to read a page or so ahead of where the group was and I did fine. With CoS I had to prepare for 6 weeks before I felt ready to run the first session. I'm so glad I didn't start with a larger more advanced adventure book because I would have struggled and the players wouldn't have had as much fun.
THANK EVERYONE FOR THERE FEED BACK
sorry I was counting souse books to but I dint mean to.
sorry It is just my writing skills are not the best. But if I was meeting you in person I would be much nicer.
I noticed some people also mentioning Dragon of Icespire Peak and I have to echo that if you choose to do that one, take a look at the encounters beforehand. We have a new DM and two brand new players (including myself, so I don't have a ton of experience to share...) and we have been struggling heavily with this campaign as written. We have only just reached level 3, and its a milestone campaign so almost everyone will be around the same level for these encounters. There are 5 of us: a warlock, a druid, a paladin, a fighter, and a rogue.
<<Spoiler alert from here>>
In the first specific encounter that pissed us - the players - off the most, its the second one with orcs involved. There were 5 orcs on the first floor and 11 orcs on the second floor of the building with no time for a short or long rest. That was far too many. The druid knows Spike Growth, so we were able to attack a lot of them without taking too much damage, but once they all stopped moving because of the spell, we had to attack them head-on. And well... They 2HKOed the Paladin.
In another example, there's a very small cavern filled to the brim with 9 wererats and 4 giant rats. Here we are at level 4, there's nowhere to move, AoE spells will always hit one of our allies, and keep having to make CON saving throws or gett the wererat's curse. 3/5 of us are now cursed, btw. If I were the DM, I would have removed a few of the enemies or transported them to other areas in the cave. If they had been spread out, maybe it wouldn't have taken us 4 hours to finish just that encounter. Everyone was really, really bored because the enemies themselves took a long time to move and attack. It was slow going and took up a lot of our session.
<<End spoilers>>
So I think no matter what you choose, maybe the DM should take a look at the encounters for that session (that have already been made) and make sure it will suit the kinds of PCs you have, their abilities, and class levels, etc. If you think that they will struggle with it, remove a few of the enemies or nerf the enemy's damage a bit. Don't be afraid to make some homebrew changes in the name of the Rule of Fun. Personally, I won't be recommending Icespire Peak, but if you finish Lost Mine first, this takes place in the same area and would be better for a DM who kind of knows how to fix the broken encounters.
[TLDR]; Don't do Dragon of Icespire Peak as a new DM, leave that for later when you've had a little experience because the encounters will need balancing to make them fun and not broken af. I recommend Lost Mine of Phandelver as it comes with the Starter Kit and has repeatedly been suggested to me by the groups I play with and other people have posted it already so they must be right. Maybe after doing Lost Mine you can take a look at Icespire.
Also, if you only can buy one, see what they have from the local library before you buy. You can often order from other libraries--ask a librarian. If your library is closed due to covid like ours, they might still have pickup.
Our library has Tales of the Yawning Portal (we just keep renewing it, since we only want to do 1-2 dungeon adventures), Ghosts of Saltmarsh, etc.
The Sunless Citadel, the first adventure in Tales of the Yawning portal takes 4 characters from level 1-3. If you have fewer people, try starting them level 2 or so, give them each a healing potion, and go levels 2-4. There are something like 7 total dungeon adventures.
Yes library, My family lost a book from the library and because of covid we cant pay them back for the book. So now the library blocked us.
Lots of smaller libraries have the books in the "Reference" section so you can't take them out to play (or, possibly steal them).
In addition, libraries are too noisy to do D&D in. Cause' we're modern.
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