My next Campaign is going to be a Sandbox-ish style set on the Triboar Trail. I am planning to try and smash Lost Mines, Icespire & PotA all together so that just about any of the encounters from those adventures is possible. It will start with the Lost Mines intro of taking supplies to Phandalin, but where it goes from there will depend on what players want to do.
Yes. Very easily. Dragon Heist and Mad Mage are designed to run one after the other, for instance.
Honestly, this is probably the only exception, and Dragon Heist is very poorly written (it's a railroad fest where you basically use only 1/4 of a book) and DotMM is not for everyone either.
As a player I absolutely loved Heist. So I kind of disagree with your assessment. But on the other hand when I later read the module I remember thinking, “This next part is my favorite part....hmm where is it? Okay this next part is great...hmmm, doesn’t seem to be in here...”
Only then did I realize how much prep and inserting my DM did to make it all work. But as a player in Heist I had a blast.
yep sevaral adventures have build in story hooks to others including to two you mentioned to eachother
I see nothing of the sort. PotA can start at level 3 instead of 1, but references Lost Mines of Phandelver for this, not Tyranny of Dragons. In any case, both campaigns start at very low level and finish at around 15, so if you plan to inject Lvl 15 Tyranny of Dragons characters into the Lvl 3 PotA, you have a lot of thinking to do.
That’s what I was thinking. So you’re saying it’s like physically impossible?
@the_glimpse thanks. I haven’t read those. I’ll check them out.
We only used 25 percent of the book. As a player I was blind to all that. I had no idea 75 percent wasn’t being used. Let’s see...no spoilers...as a player we got this new place to stay that we owned. That was really cool. There is a danger of getting lost in the details of ‘running a business’ and I will admit we went into the weeds for a bit. I remember thinking, “All this fricken math... this isn’t what I want in D&D.” But thankfully we started glossing over that stuff and started focusing on the quests that were spoon fed to us. As we had multiple factions on our group we had plenty of them and, like I said, I had no idea at the time the DM was taking a paragraph or even one line from the book and expanding it into its own thing. Then an event and we’re off chasing a mcguffin. It was all railroaded, but at the time I didn’t feel that way (as a player). I was just enjoying the setting. I mean at one point we were out on a farm , another the sewer, another checking out shops, another on a mountain trail. It gave the illusion of going wherever we wanted to go.
But in hindsight we were being spoon fed stuff and following a script. It, however, successfully tricked me. Maybe I am a simpleton...
That aside, WotC’s surveys show there’s little demand for high level modules, so they’re unlikely to allocate resources to them. That said, you can use the higher level parts of Dungeon of the Mad Mage or Tales of the Yawning Portal and skip the rest (these aren’t really campaigns though, and not everyone enjoys all dungeon all the time D&D) or you can look at DM’s Guild offerings (https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?filters=0_0_45420_0_0_45462_0_0) and other 3rd party stuff. Campaigns to jump into at higher levels are less common, but they do exist. Even if they’re not quite starting at the level you want, they’ll be easier to convert too - upping a 10th level campaign to level 13 is doable, upping a starte campaign to level 13 usually isn’t.
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Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
We only used 25 percent of the book. As a player I was blind to all that. I had no idea 75 percent wasn’t being used. Let’s see...no spoilers...as a player we got this new place to stay that we owned. That was really cool. There is a danger of getting lost in the details of ‘running a business’ and I will admit we went into the weeds for a bit. I remember thinking, “All this fricken math... this isn’t what I want in D&D.” But thankfully we started glossing over that stuff and started focusing on the quests that were spoon fed to us. As we had multiple factions on our group we had plenty of them and, like I said, I had no idea at the time the DM was taking a paragraph or even one line from the book and expanding it into its own thing. Then an event and we’re off chasing a mcguffin. It was all railroaded, but at the time I didn’t feel that way (as a player). I was just enjoying the setting. I mean at one point we were out on a farm , another the sewer, another checking out shops, another on a mountain trail. It gave the illusion of going wherever we wanted to go.
But in hindsight we were being spoon fed stuff and following a script. It, however, successfully tricked me. Maybe I am a simpleton...
The mai problem is that all that spoon-feeding felt extremely artificial to us, but the most annoying thing was that, whatever we did on a given scene, it had no impact whatsoever on the following ones, and that was extremely annoying. You could do everything to try to deceive or control your adversaries, the principle was that they are more clever than you and always reset the situation exactly to what it should have been. We really felt like pawns, with scenes that we had to go through but with zero impact on the plot.
I can see that. See as a player I didn't know there was an overarching plot. I was engrossed in the faction missions which were these little mini adventures and they were fun. I mean we'd go out to a farm and the DM had this big map he'd lay out and we'd interview NPCs, figure out stuff, complete the quest, etc. At the time, however, I didn't know none of this is in the books. All the maps, NPCs, etc. was all DM home brew. So basically looking at what I typed I'm saying my favorite parts were all DM home brew. But I did enjoy it. So you are probably right...
We only used 25 percent of the book. As a player I was blind to all that. I had no idea 75 percent wasn’t being used. Let’s see...no spoilers...as a player we got this new place to stay that we owned. That was really cool. There is a danger of getting lost in the details of ‘running a business’ and I will admit we went into the weeds for a bit. I remember thinking, “All this fricken math... this isn’t what I want in D&D.” But thankfully we started glossing over that stuff and started focusing on the quests that were spoon fed to us. As we had multiple factions on our group we had plenty of them and, like I said, I had no idea at the time the DM was taking a paragraph or even one line from the book and expanding it into its own thing. Then an event and we’re off chasing a mcguffin. It was all railroaded, but at the time I didn’t feel that way (as a player). I was just enjoying the setting. I mean at one point we were out on a farm , another the sewer, another checking out shops, another on a mountain trail. It gave the illusion of going wherever we wanted to go.
But in hindsight we were being spoon fed stuff and following a script. It, however, successfully tricked me. Maybe I am a simpleton...
The mai problem is that all that spoon-feeding felt extremely artificial to us, but the most annoying thing was that, whatever we did on a given scene, it had no impact whatsoever on the following ones, and that was extremely annoying. You could do everything to try to deceive or control your adversaries, the principle was that they are more clever than you and always reset the situation exactly to what it should have been. We really felt like pawns, with scenes that we had to go through but with zero impact on the plot.
I can see that. See as a player I didn't know there was an overarching plot. I was engrossed in the faction missions which were these little mini adventures and they were fun. I mean we'd go out to a farm and the DM had this big map he'd lay out and we'd interview NPCs, figure out stuff, complete the quest, etc. At the time, however, I didn't know none of this is in the books. All the maps, NPCs, etc. was all DM home brew. So basically looking at what I typed I'm saying my favorite parts were all DM home brew. But I did enjoy it. So you are probably right...
Everything else aside, I think it’s better playing through a campaign not having too much metagame info (like what level you’re likely to reach, or what the entire story arc is like) in pretty much all cases - but particularly so for heist stories. It’s not always an option not to tell the players what campaign will be used though, if using a published one, and not every player is able to resist the temptation to sneak a peek at the cover of the book.
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Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
i think it is really quite possible, it just takes a lot of time to get them to seamlessly transition, like lyxen was saying.
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I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone, there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
Like run Tyranny of Dragons, then when you’re done run Princes of the Apocalypse?
yep sevaral adventures have build in story hooks to others including to two you mentioned to eachother
Check out my homebrew subclasses spells magic items feats monsters races
i am a sauce priest
help create a world here
Yes. Very easily. Dragon Heist and Mad Mage are designed to run one after the other, for instance.
My next Campaign is going to be a Sandbox-ish style set on the Triboar Trail. I am planning to try and smash Lost Mines, Icespire & PotA all together so that just about any of the encounters from those adventures is possible. It will start with the Lost Mines intro of taking supplies to Phandalin, but where it goes from there will depend on what players want to do.
As a player I absolutely loved Heist. So I kind of disagree with your assessment. But on the other hand when I later read the module I remember thinking, “This next part is my favorite part....hmm where is it? Okay this next part is great...hmmm, doesn’t seem to be in here...”
Only then did I realize how much prep and inserting my DM did to make it all work. But as a player in Heist I had a blast.
That’s what I was thinking. So you’re saying it’s like physically impossible?
@the_glimpse thanks. I haven’t read those. I’ll check them out.
Thank you guys. Appreciate the help.
Lyxen -
We only used 25 percent of the book. As a player I was blind to all that. I had no idea 75 percent wasn’t being used. Let’s see...no spoilers...as a player we got this new place to stay that we owned. That was really cool. There is a danger of getting lost in the details of ‘running a business’ and I will admit we went into the weeds for a bit. I remember thinking, “All this fricken math... this isn’t what I want in D&D.” But thankfully we started glossing over that stuff and started focusing on the quests that were spoon fed to us. As we had multiple factions on our group we had plenty of them and, like I said, I had no idea at the time the DM was taking a paragraph or even one line from the book and expanding it into its own thing. Then an event and we’re off chasing a mcguffin. It was all railroaded, but at the time I didn’t feel that way (as a player). I was just enjoying the setting. I mean at one point we were out on a farm , another the sewer, another checking out shops, another on a mountain trail. It gave the illusion of going wherever we wanted to go.
But in hindsight we were being spoon fed stuff and following a script. It, however, successfully tricked me. Maybe I am a simpleton...
You’re not supposed to go past lvl 15 or so. Evil is supposed to win. (https://www.sageadvice.eu/2015/05/31/why-5e-adventures-end-at-15/) :p
That aside, WotC’s surveys show there’s little demand for high level modules, so they’re unlikely to allocate resources to them. That said, you can use the higher level parts of Dungeon of the Mad Mage or Tales of the Yawning Portal and skip the rest (these aren’t really campaigns though, and not everyone enjoys all dungeon all the time D&D) or you can look at DM’s Guild offerings (https://www.dmsguild.com/browse.php?filters=0_0_45420_0_0_45462_0_0) and other 3rd party stuff. Campaigns to jump into at higher levels are less common, but they do exist. Even if they’re not quite starting at the level you want, they’ll be easier to convert too - upping a 10th level campaign to level 13 is doable, upping a starte campaign to level 13 usually isn’t.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
I can see that. See as a player I didn't know there was an overarching plot. I was engrossed in the faction missions which were these little mini adventures and they were fun. I mean we'd go out to a farm and the DM had this big map he'd lay out and we'd interview NPCs, figure out stuff, complete the quest, etc. At the time, however, I didn't know none of this is in the books. All the maps, NPCs, etc. was all DM home brew. So basically looking at what I typed I'm saying my favorite parts were all DM home brew. But I did enjoy it. So you are probably right...
Everything else aside, I think it’s better playing through a campaign not having too much metagame info (like what level you’re likely to reach, or what the entire story arc is like) in pretty much all cases - but particularly so for heist stories. It’s not always an option not to tell the players what campaign will be used though, if using a published one, and not every player is able to resist the temptation to sneak a peek at the cover of the book.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
nothing says you cant. just make the modifications that help to balance the party.
Outside the Lines Fantasy – A collection of self published fiction stories.
i think it is really quite possible, it just takes a lot of time to get them to seamlessly transition, like lyxen was saying.
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone, there will be nothing. Only I will remain.
- Litany Against Fear, Frank Herbert
With some "judicial" DM oversite/adjustments certainly.
Thank you guys. This is really helpful.