So me and friends of mine want to start playing DnD. I am the DM for this group and I have around 3 years of on and off DMing experience. All of my players are first timers to DnD although it should be said that they played various other Pen and Paper systems.
I also will run another campaign simultaniously to this one.
I am not sure which module to buy/play with them because I don't want to start building a complete campaign and story again and I want a kind of guideline in order to not have to do too much prep because the other campaign that I am currently running is more or less completely homebrew.
I already though on running Strahd but heard that it is kinda difficult, so maybe not the best idea for my new players. Lost Mines of Phandelver seems to be too short for us because we want to play on a rather lenghty campaign. I don't know how good the story and quests of the DnD essentials kit are but they certainly caught my eye as well as hoard of the dragon queen and rise of tiamat because I love dragons. Waterdeep Dragon Heis also seems a nice fit but probably a little too short. But I would have the option to into dungeon of the mad mage afterwards but I also heard that this is mainly one big dungeon crawl without any story and I think I want a mix of story and combat. But I also have to say that I will do a Session Zero with my group but from what I know they like a good mix of both.
Maybe you have an idea on what you would run. I would be really happy if I could talk/discuss with some of you and find out what is (probably) the best one for me.
Since you mentioned that all of your players are first timers to D&D, I would probably suggest going with Lost Mines of Phandelver, especially since it's geared to be more of an introductory adventure than the other ones. Agree that it's also geared to be a shorter story (i.e., ends around 5th level), but that doesn't mean you couldn't covert over to another adventure if your new players enjoy the test drive.
Hoard of the Dragon Queen as well as Rise of Tiamat are both very enjoyable, and it has lots of dragons for the dracophiles in your group. I would highly recommend both of these, which have a good mix of various story points intermixed with exploration and combat. You could potentially carry the characters over from LMoP into these adventures, although the first portion of HotDQ would be fairly easy for 5th level characters. You could probably modify them a bit to make them tougher until the book catches up with the characters.
Curse of Strahd is another excellent adventure, but it is definitely more difficult than HotDQ/RoT.CoS is less linear, so characters potentially are walking into much more difficult and even potentially deadly encounters before they're ready for it. Great roleplay opportunities for players, but not something I would recommend for first timers trying to get their feet wet... Or run them through Lost Minesbefore the mists of Ravenloft snatch them away. Starting at 5th level in CoS might be enough to ensure they don't walk into a death trap straight out of the gates.
I’m running Princes of the Apocalypse after finishing a campaign of Lost Mine of Phandelver. I’m enjoying running it, and my players are enjoying playing it, but it’s definitely possible there are better modules out there. It’s not the most balanced in terms of difficulty (easy, unless you run into the wrong area, in which case you are about 2 levels under leveled), and takes quite a bit of behind-the-scenes work to fix some errors in it and rebalance encounters. It’s also very dungeon-crawl heavy, especially at the end (9 dungeons in a row, assuming the players explore everything), but there’s enough social encounters within the dungeons that it hasn’t been a problem, even for our bard.
Overall, it’s very fun, but it takes a lot of work to make it that good, and there’s definitely some times where it’s lacking. I’d recommend it, but I also haven’t played most of the other modules to know how they compare.
I would go with Lost Mine of Phandelver and then go into Storm King's Thunder. There is a section at the back of the book that helps you go from LMoP into SKT.
The story is very giant driven but there are dragons in it as well and as the DM nothing stops you from putting more dragons in it, I did.
If you've all played something before and you've got some DMing experience I'd recommend Dragon of Icespire Peak (from the Essentials kit) - it's a bit more open ended and sandboxy than Lost Mines, but still straightforward enough to introduce aspects of the game without being overwhelming. There are follow-on adventures here on DDB that take it up to a full 1-13 campaign if you want to entend it beyond the L6/7 that the initial adventure ends at.
Curse of Strahd is very open ended and might be a lot to try and encompass straight off the bat. It's also a very different feel to 'normal' D&D, which may be what you want. or not.
Ghost of Saltmarsh has a very solid opening three adventures that then open up to the others in the book - you'll have a fair degree of freedom in what you want to run, maybe switch up the order and do some tweaking a bit for tone/flavour as group preferences dictate. Be prepared to put a bit of work in to rejig the later adventures but there's scope for developing the town, allowing for bits of downtime between adventures for other plot to develop and so on.
Or, if you want another option for an initial gambit, Sunless Citadel is always one I enjoy running, and follow on nicely into Forge of Fury (both in Yawning Portal), which sets you up at around L5/6 to go explore a bigger world as you see fit.
If you run Lost Mines, and want something to extend into afterwards, it's not impossible to jump into Hoard of the Dragon Queen/Rise of Tiamat, but as an early campaign release it's a little linear. Also possible, as mentioned above, to run into Prices of the Apocalypse after Lost Mines (indeed, that's what I'm playing right now), but it'll be a bit player dependent on how much dungoen crawling they want to engage in.
Rime of the Frost Maiden is also interesting in a very open-ended kind of way, but does rely on a tone of limited resources and the environment being as much of a threat - if you want to run something with a lighter tone and a bit less grim and gritty I might suggest elsewhere.
I really like Dragon Heist as a DM because of the scope and options, but it won't suit murder hobos, and will require a bit of work to tweak to fit for levelling if you want to take it slow and explore the surroundings. Can be followed up with Dungon of the Mad Mage if you then want to go from investigation to deep dungeon crawl for the next 15 levels.
But initially, think I'd suggest Dragon of Icespire peak and its followups - should keep you going for a good length of time without feeling too linear, and it's also set within the same sort of area as Lost Mines and Princes if you want to re-run it for a different group and maximise return on investment.
For a big, long, epic campaign, I can recommend Storm Kings Thunder, however it requires a lot of prep and you may want to replace some of the less exciting quests you get in Chapter 3, such as the "Deliver a letter to my sister who lives right at the bottom of the realm map and don't get paid for it" quest.
For a module with less prep, and focusing on dragons, you could also do Dragon of Icespire Peak and its 3 sequels.
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Hello guys.
So me and friends of mine want to start playing DnD. I am the DM for this group and I have around 3 years of on and off DMing experience. All of my players are first timers to DnD although it should be said that they played various other Pen and Paper systems.
I also will run another campaign simultaniously to this one.
I am not sure which module to buy/play with them because I don't want to start building a complete campaign and story again and I want a kind of guideline in order to not have to do too much prep because the other campaign that I am currently running is more or less completely homebrew.
I already though on running Strahd but heard that it is kinda difficult, so maybe not the best idea for my new players. Lost Mines of Phandelver seems to be too short for us because we want to play on a rather lenghty campaign. I don't know how good the story and quests of the DnD essentials kit are but they certainly caught my eye as well as hoard of the dragon queen and rise of tiamat because I love dragons. Waterdeep Dragon Heis also seems a nice fit but probably a little too short. But I would have the option to into dungeon of the mad mage afterwards but I also heard that this is mainly one big dungeon crawl without any story and I think I want a mix of story and combat. But I also have to say that I will do a Session Zero with my group but from what I know they like a good mix of both.
Maybe you have an idea on what you would run. I would be really happy if I could talk/discuss with some of you and find out what is (probably) the best one for me.
Thank you a lot in advance!
Robert
Since you mentioned that all of your players are first timers to D&D, I would probably suggest going with Lost Mines of Phandelver, especially since it's geared to be more of an introductory adventure than the other ones. Agree that it's also geared to be a shorter story (i.e., ends around 5th level), but that doesn't mean you couldn't covert over to another adventure if your new players enjoy the test drive.
Hoard of the Dragon Queen as well as Rise of Tiamat are both very enjoyable, and it has lots of dragons for the dracophiles in your group. I would highly recommend both of these, which have a good mix of various story points intermixed with exploration and combat. You could potentially carry the characters over from LMoP into these adventures, although the first portion of HotDQ would be fairly easy for 5th level characters. You could probably modify them a bit to make them tougher until the book catches up with the characters.
Curse of Strahd is another excellent adventure, but it is definitely more difficult than HotDQ/RoT. CoS is less linear, so characters potentially are walking into much more difficult and even potentially deadly encounters before they're ready for it. Great roleplay opportunities for players, but not something I would recommend for first timers trying to get their feet wet... Or run them through Lost Mines before the mists of Ravenloft snatch them away. Starting at 5th level in CoS might be enough to ensure they don't walk into a death trap straight out of the gates.
I’m running Princes of the Apocalypse after finishing a campaign of Lost Mine of Phandelver. I’m enjoying running it, and my players are enjoying playing it, but it’s definitely possible there are better modules out there. It’s not the most balanced in terms of difficulty (easy, unless you run into the wrong area, in which case you are about 2 levels under leveled), and takes quite a bit of behind-the-scenes work to fix some errors in it and rebalance encounters. It’s also very dungeon-crawl heavy, especially at the end (9 dungeons in a row, assuming the players explore everything), but there’s enough social encounters within the dungeons that it hasn’t been a problem, even for our bard.
Overall, it’s very fun, but it takes a lot of work to make it that good, and there’s definitely some times where it’s lacking. I’d recommend it, but I also haven’t played most of the other modules to know how they compare.
I would go with Lost Mine of Phandelver and then go into Storm King's Thunder. There is a section at the back of the book that helps you go from LMoP into SKT.
The story is very giant driven but there are dragons in it as well and as the DM nothing stops you from putting more dragons in it, I did.
Look at some of the Adventure League seasons. OR some CCC (con created content) modules. Some of them are 3 or more modules with a story line.
No Gaming is Better than Bad Gaming.
If you've all played something before and you've got some DMing experience I'd recommend Dragon of Icespire Peak (from the Essentials kit) - it's a bit more open ended and sandboxy than Lost Mines, but still straightforward enough to introduce aspects of the game without being overwhelming. There are follow-on adventures here on DDB that take it up to a full 1-13 campaign if you want to entend it beyond the L6/7 that the initial adventure ends at.
Curse of Strahd is very open ended and might be a lot to try and encompass straight off the bat. It's also a very different feel to 'normal' D&D, which may be what you want. or not.
Ghost of Saltmarsh has a very solid opening three adventures that then open up to the others in the book - you'll have a fair degree of freedom in what you want to run, maybe switch up the order and do some tweaking a bit for tone/flavour as group preferences dictate. Be prepared to put a bit of work in to rejig the later adventures but there's scope for developing the town, allowing for bits of downtime between adventures for other plot to develop and so on.
Or, if you want another option for an initial gambit, Sunless Citadel is always one I enjoy running, and follow on nicely into Forge of Fury (both in Yawning Portal), which sets you up at around L5/6 to go explore a bigger world as you see fit.
If you run Lost Mines, and want something to extend into afterwards, it's not impossible to jump into Hoard of the Dragon Queen/Rise of Tiamat, but as an early campaign release it's a little linear. Also possible, as mentioned above, to run into Prices of the Apocalypse after Lost Mines (indeed, that's what I'm playing right now), but it'll be a bit player dependent on how much dungoen crawling they want to engage in.
Rime of the Frost Maiden is also interesting in a very open-ended kind of way, but does rely on a tone of limited resources and the environment being as much of a threat - if you want to run something with a lighter tone and a bit less grim and gritty I might suggest elsewhere.
I really like Dragon Heist as a DM because of the scope and options, but it won't suit murder hobos, and will require a bit of work to tweak to fit for levelling if you want to take it slow and explore the surroundings. Can be followed up with Dungon of the Mad Mage if you then want to go from investigation to deep dungeon crawl for the next 15 levels.
But initially, think I'd suggest Dragon of Icespire peak and its followups - should keep you going for a good length of time without feeling too linear, and it's also set within the same sort of area as Lost Mines and Princes if you want to re-run it for a different group and maximise return on investment.
For a big, long, epic campaign, I can recommend Storm Kings Thunder, however it requires a lot of prep and you may want to replace some of the less exciting quests you get in Chapter 3, such as the "Deliver a letter to my sister who lives right at the bottom of the realm map and don't get paid for it" quest.
For a module with less prep, and focusing on dragons, you could also do Dragon of Icespire Peak and its 3 sequels.