I've heard that Curse of Strahd is one of the best official pre-written campaigns. What are some other good ones and what is each adventure best at? Are there certain ones more tailored for beginners, or to more experienced players? Which one is the easiest to read and run, no matter what level of DMing you are at?
Hoard of the Dragon Queen (pre-errata) - Only managed the opening chapter before the group fell apart. Whilst fairly fun, it definitely needed a LOT of DM fixing beforehand (less mooks grinding on the party/potion supplements, the Half-Dragon boss not being such a one-sided encounter and actually meaning something if you defeat him, rather than just replacing him with another Half Dragon in the exact same location later if the original boss is killed).
Rise of Tiamat (pre-errata) - Played all the way through. Had an amazing time buuuuuuut..... I did a lot of homebrewing/personal modifications. As a first time DM, I took one look at the official dungeons for some chapters and decided 'you know what, the Tomb of Diderius is great, but it doesn't need 20+ rooms to slog around'. I made a custom tomb, used the best rooms and went from there.
Some chapters were great, others I added personal touches (possible spoilers!!)
Reducing a LOT of dungeon room filler
Adding combat into the chapter for Metallic Dragons arise by....
Turning the Cult Strikes Back from 3 random attacks into one big attack that results in the Council being directly attacked by the Cult and the Heroes having to get back in time to save them after negotiating with the Metallic Dragons
Giving Galvan the Blue an actual APPEARANCE in the module and giving him a personal tie to the party
Creating some kind of war game for the army face off instead off the 'it happened off screen' summary so that the parties efforts to gain allies are actually of consequence
Turning Mission to Thay into a Dungeon fetch quest )to be fair, this chapter is a good one, but the Chapter can end in 30 mins and my group played each chapter for one 8-hour session)
I guess what I'm getting at is, there was a lot of fun to be had, however it involved a lot of personal edits. I guess, if I had access to the Digital Maps back then it would have been a different story for the dungeons. However, my group played in person and I was restricted to what I could draw.
Curse of Strahd - a family member DM'd this. Far less editing required and the Adventure was fantastic. Only small disclaimer is telling the players not to make a backstory too attached to the material world ('oh you had an important warning to deliver to the Garrison where your sister is at? Let's hope they can manage without that warning for the next month or two...)
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I think the Lost Mine of Phandelver is a great adventurer from start to finish, but then I'm a fan of its small scope and low(er) stakes. It requires some work for players who dare to ask questions, but it has enough room to slot in homebrew and enough prompts for tweaks of your choice. It's great for beginners and serves as a good break from other campaigns for experienced players.
While Curse of Strahd is incredibly well penned, it's all Gothic Horror all the time. I can listen to podcasts and actual plays of it without issue, and I imagine I'd like novels such as I, Strahd (not to be confused with the Apple iStrahd), but it's such a dreary setting to play in. I love it mechanically and the difficulty's right up my alley, but the tone is not one I can sit through for its duration.
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Zero is the most important number in D&D: Session Zero sets the boundaries and the tone; Rule Zero dictates the Dungeon Master (DM) is the final arbiter; and Zero D&D is better than Bad D&D.
"Let us speak plainly now, and in earnest, for words mean little without the weight of conviction."
I am rather fond of the mini adventures in both Candlekeep and Radiant Citadel - I would never try to run them as a full campaign, but it is rather easy to slot one of the adventures into other campaigns, both premade and homebrew, if you want to pad out the time.
I know Avernus is popular, but I would advise caution with that one - if is basically a glorified fetch quest that keeps adding “now go here and fetch new thing” goals, making the entire campaign incredibly linear. That’s fine if you like very on-the-rails campaigns, but it is not everyone’s cup of tea.
I would highly recommend against Rime or the Frostmaiden. The setting itself is neat and the book would make a decent purchase if you wanted to homebrew a campaign using its locations. But, as an actual campaign? It is a mess - the BBEG has no characterisation to her other than “evil” and the pacing is so poor that you “win” the campaign two thirds in, then the remaining third of the campaign is basically filler.
I have played as a character in most of Lost Mines of Phandelver and it was a good adventure for beginners.
I have also played up to level five in Rime of the Frostmaiden and it was really fun. From what I could tell it was very open world and it has a bunch of different beginning storylines. It was challenging to play through, several of us died, and almost every session involved at least one character dropping to 0 hp. We didn't finish it though, and when we played it, Auril did have some interesting character but she was definitely evil. She was pretty involved in our backstories, but that may have been mostly our DM. I thought it was really fun, but I don't know how much of it was good campaign material or just our great DM's work, but our DM seemed to think it was a good book.
I have been playing in Storm King's Thunder and it is fun, but it sounds like it is very confusing and a lot of work for the DM.
I have looked through Candlekeep and ran one of its adventures, and it has a lot of great adventures that could be easily fit into other campaigns.
I have Strixhaven, and read through most of it but stopped because I was bored. It is not a high fantasy story, and the style of it is not really what I want in a campaign. Many of the adventures require you to act like teenagers who don't care about school, and not like students of magic and mystery that I was hoping for. I might still use the setting and some of the stuff in it, but I would change a lot of it. If I ever had a group of player's who really wanted to play young characters, I would use it, or if I wanted a campaign similar to Harry Potter, but it is not that great of a story in my opinion.
I've heard that Curse of Strahd is one of the best official pre-written campaigns. What are some other good ones and what is each adventure best at? Are there certain ones more tailored for beginners, or to more experienced players? Which one is the easiest to read and run, no matter what level of DMing you are at?
If anybody would like my GMing playlists
battles: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2mRp57MBAz9ZsVpw895IzZ?si=243bee43442a4703
exploration: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0qk0aKm5yI4K6VrlcaKrDj?si=81057bef509043f3
town/tavern: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/49JSv1kK0bUyQ9LVpKmZlr?si=a88b1dd9bab54111
character deaths: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6k7WhylJEjSqWC0pBuAtFD?si=3e897fa2a2dd469e
From my own personal experience:
Hoard of the Dragon Queen (pre-errata) - Only managed the opening chapter before the group fell apart. Whilst fairly fun, it definitely needed a LOT of DM fixing beforehand (less mooks grinding on the party/potion supplements, the Half-Dragon boss not being such a one-sided encounter and actually meaning something if you defeat him, rather than just replacing him with another Half Dragon in the exact same location later if the original boss is killed).
Rise of Tiamat (pre-errata) - Played all the way through. Had an amazing time buuuuuuut..... I did a lot of homebrewing/personal modifications. As a first time DM, I took one look at the official dungeons for some chapters and decided 'you know what, the Tomb of Diderius is great, but it doesn't need 20+ rooms to slog around'. I made a custom tomb, used the best rooms and went from there.
Some chapters were great, others I added personal touches (possible spoilers!!)
I guess what I'm getting at is, there was a lot of fun to be had, however it involved a lot of personal edits. I guess, if I had access to the Digital Maps back then it would have been a different story for the dungeons. However, my group played in person and I was restricted to what I could draw.
Curse of Strahd - a family member DM'd this. Far less editing required and the Adventure was fantastic. Only small disclaimer is telling the players not to make a backstory too attached to the material world ('oh you had an important warning to deliver to the Garrison where your sister is at? Let's hope they can manage without that warning for the next month or two...)
#Open D&D
Have the Physical Books? Confused as to why you're not allowed to redeem them for free on D&D Beyond? Questions answered here at the Hardcover Books, D&D Beyond and You FAQ
Looking to add mouse-over triggered tooltips to such things like magic items, monsters or combat actions? Then dash over to the How to Add Tooltips thread.
I think the Lost Mine of Phandelver is a great adventurer from start to finish, but then I'm a fan of its small scope and low(er) stakes. It requires some work for players who dare to ask questions, but it has enough room to slot in homebrew and enough prompts for tweaks of your choice. It's great for beginners and serves as a good break from other campaigns for experienced players.
While Curse of Strahd is incredibly well penned, it's all Gothic Horror all the time. I can listen to podcasts and actual plays of it without issue, and I imagine I'd like novels such as I, Strahd (not to be confused with the Apple iStrahd), but it's such a dreary setting to play in. I love it mechanically and the difficulty's right up my alley, but the tone is not one I can sit through for its duration.
Zero is the most important number in D&D: Session Zero sets the boundaries and the tone; Rule Zero dictates the Dungeon Master (DM) is the final arbiter; and Zero D&D is better than Bad D&D.
"Let us speak plainly now, and in earnest, for words mean little without the weight of conviction."
- The Assemblage of Houses, World of Warcraft
The Avernus book is pretty good, if your party is up for demon/devil stuff. The tiamat campaign is cool; needs a lot of fixing.
Saltmarsh is a great nautical themed campaign.
The one shots in tales from the yawning portal are great; it includes the original tomb of horrors
Strahd is cool.
I’d personally recommend Goodman Games “keep on the borderlands” reboot, which is a great set of dungeon crawls.
I am rather fond of the mini adventures in both Candlekeep and Radiant Citadel - I would never try to run them as a full campaign, but it is rather easy to slot one of the adventures into other campaigns, both premade and homebrew, if you want to pad out the time.
I know Avernus is popular, but I would advise caution with that one - if is basically a glorified fetch quest that keeps adding “now go here and fetch new thing” goals, making the entire campaign incredibly linear. That’s fine if you like very on-the-rails campaigns, but it is not everyone’s cup of tea.
I would highly recommend against Rime or the Frostmaiden. The setting itself is neat and the book would make a decent purchase if you wanted to homebrew a campaign using its locations. But, as an actual campaign? It is a mess - the BBEG has no characterisation to her other than “evil” and the pacing is so poor that you “win” the campaign two thirds in, then the remaining third of the campaign is basically filler.
I have played as a character in most of Lost Mines of Phandelver and it was a good adventure for beginners.
I have also played up to level five in Rime of the Frostmaiden and it was really fun. From what I could tell it was very open world and it has a bunch of different beginning storylines. It was challenging to play through, several of us died, and almost every session involved at least one character dropping to 0 hp. We didn't finish it though, and when we played it, Auril did have some interesting character but she was definitely evil. She was pretty involved in our backstories, but that may have been mostly our DM. I thought it was really fun, but I don't know how much of it was good campaign material or just our great DM's work, but our DM seemed to think it was a good book.
I have been playing in Storm King's Thunder and it is fun, but it sounds like it is very confusing and a lot of work for the DM.
I have looked through Candlekeep and ran one of its adventures, and it has a lot of great adventures that could be easily fit into other campaigns.
I have Strixhaven, and read through most of it but stopped because I was bored. It is not a high fantasy story, and the style of it is not really what I want in a campaign. Many of the adventures require you to act like teenagers who don't care about school, and not like students of magic and mystery that I was hoping for. I might still use the setting and some of the stuff in it, but I would change a lot of it. If I ever had a group of player's who really wanted to play young characters, I would use it, or if I wanted a campaign similar to Harry Potter, but it is not that great of a story in my opinion.