Story time: My players and I are noobs, and we choose Curse of Strahd as a our first campaign. We heard it was good for beginners, and it was not. It is a very challenging story to DM and play for the first time. Basically, we decided to continue to play despite the challenges. We are almost done the campaign and we are talking about what to do next. I feel that we should play the Tyranny of Dragons campaign as I heard that story is better for beginners. However, one of my players wants to do Descent into Avernus (he has been playing Baldur's Gate 3, I and guess the stories are link). I don't know anything about Descent to Avernus and I am afraid to have a repeat of Strahd. Can anyone give me any advice?
Ooof... Curse of Strahd can be an excellent adventure to play through, but it's not an ideal one for beginning players and/or a new DM. There's a lot of convoluted history and interpersonal connections with the various NPCs, which can take a lot of work to keep organized and coherent. Plus, the more "sandbox" set-up of the land can lead to dangerous and downright deadly encounters very early on... Again, I think it's a great adventure, but not one I'd recommend for a first time experience.
Lost Mines of Phandelver is pretty consistently listed as one of the best introductory adventures to run and/or play. More straightforward for setup and plot, but it still offers enough versatility in options to not make the players feel too railroaded. Hoard of the Dragon Queen is a fairly straightforward adventure to play/run as well. Definitely has a much more linear approach, which does feel quite a bit more railroaded than most other 5e adventures. Still a good option, but DM might need to improvise a bit more to allow player's to stretch their proverbial wings.
As for Descent into Avernus, I'd say that it lies somewhere between HotDQ and CoS. The adventure is fairly straightforward in many ways. Storylines and NPCs are detailed but not overly convoluted (at least not as much as CoS). Concept isn't as linear as HotDQ, so players can make choices and have different results occur because of them. Adventure is even written that at certain points, you choose which way to go (so theoretically you could play through multiple times and visit different places and experience different things). If you got through CoS, then I'd say you should be able to handle DiA... But if you want an easier second campaign to run, then LMoP or HotDQ would be my first suggestions.
I thought about the Lost Mines, but after Strahd I was worry it might be too easy after what we been through. As long as DiA is not another sandbox we should be fine. Thank you.
I think LMOP is going to be too "newbie" if you folks have managed to grit your way through CoS.
Tyranny of Dragons has a lot of generally bad reviews online for being highly railroady and supposedly repetitive in places. I can't say either way, but that's its rep.
I think you might have more luck with the more generally positively reviewed adventures. For low level stuff, Waterdeep/Dragon Heist is almost always praised as a good one. But it does stop around level 6, I think. Another one that seems to get a lot of positive attention is Ghosts of Saltmarsh, though I think by default it may not be Forgotten Realms -- up to you if that matters (you could probably easily locate it in the FR if you really wanted).
Another one that seems to get a lot of positive attention is Ghosts of Saltmarsh, though I think by default it may not be Forgotten Realms -- up to you if that matters (you could probably easily locate it in the FR if you really wanted).
Officially it's set in Oerth, the world of Greyhawk, but as you say it's easy as pie to change the setting to anywhere a fishing town could be found.
Since it's not clear, what's the plan for this new campaign? Keeping the same (now high level) characters? New starting level characters? Whatever works best for whichever campaign gets picked?
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Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
The first major campaign I played was Tyranny of Dragons, and honestly we had a blast. The story wasn't too complex and our DM didn't have a difficult time running it for us. The only way to really improve on your DMing skills is to put yourself out there and take risks. And if your players dont like it, get them to give you feedback so you can improve upon your skills even more.
The first major campaign I played was Tyranny of Dragons, and honestly we had a blast. The story wasn't too complex and our DM didn't have a difficult time running it for us. The only way to really improve on your DMing skills is to put yourself out there and take risks. And if your players dont like it, get them to give you feedback so you can improve upon your skills even more.
100% agree, Tyranny of Dragons was the first proper campaign i ran and yeah i had a good time. Great climax with Tiamat and a great scene when Spat the kobold rogue sacrificed himself to slay the dragon queen. Simple, good story and overall fun to run.
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One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
Better yet, just write your own adventures, too me, that is far more fun to DM then a canned campaign.
We want to, but I feel like more experience is needed. Plus writing adventures is a lot of hard work and we are older with families.
Nah, it aint hard, Write a couple of sentances and have the stats ready. IE
1. The adventurers are walking into a village to quench their thirst and enjoy the warm fire of the Welcome Wench inn.
2. They are accosted by a hermit named Herman on their way too the Inn and he tells them of an evil temple in the nearby swamps. He says he saw rats with human faces and horrific ghouls wandering nearby the temple. He pleads with the party to do something.
3. Now you just gotta write out the temple layout and get the needed stats and you are good to go. Plus you got a group to do the adventure for free lol.
Story time: My players and I are noobs, and we choose Curse of Strahd as a our first campaign. We heard it was good for beginners, and it was not. It is a very challenging story to DM and play for the first time. Basically, we decided to continue to play despite the challenges. We are almost done the campaign and we are talking about what to do next. I feel that we should play the Tyranny of Dragons campaign as I heard that story is better for beginners. However, one of my players wants to do Descent into Avernus (he has been playing Baldur's Gate 3, I and guess the stories are link). I don't know anything about Descent to Avernus and I am afraid to have a repeat of Strahd. Can anyone give me any advice?
For beginners, Lost Mines or Dragon of Icespire Peak are your best bets imho.
I can vouch for that
Mystic v3 should be official, nuff said.
Ooof... Curse of Strahd can be an excellent adventure to play through, but it's not an ideal one for beginning players and/or a new DM. There's a lot of convoluted history and interpersonal connections with the various NPCs, which can take a lot of work to keep organized and coherent. Plus, the more "sandbox" set-up of the land can lead to dangerous and downright deadly encounters very early on... Again, I think it's a great adventure, but not one I'd recommend for a first time experience.
Lost Mines of Phandelver is pretty consistently listed as one of the best introductory adventures to run and/or play. More straightforward for setup and plot, but it still offers enough versatility in options to not make the players feel too railroaded. Hoard of the Dragon Queen is a fairly straightforward adventure to play/run as well. Definitely has a much more linear approach, which does feel quite a bit more railroaded than most other 5e adventures. Still a good option, but DM might need to improvise a bit more to allow player's to stretch their proverbial wings.
As for Descent into Avernus, I'd say that it lies somewhere between HotDQ and CoS. The adventure is fairly straightforward in many ways. Storylines and NPCs are detailed but not overly convoluted (at least not as much as CoS). Concept isn't as linear as HotDQ, so players can make choices and have different results occur because of them. Adventure is even written that at certain points, you choose which way to go (so theoretically you could play through multiple times and visit different places and experience different things). If you got through CoS, then I'd say you should be able to handle DiA... But if you want an easier second campaign to run, then LMoP or HotDQ would be my first suggestions.
I thought about the Lost Mines, but after Strahd I was worry it might be too easy after what we been through. As long as DiA is not another sandbox we should be fine. Thank you.
Better yet, just write your own adventures, too me, that is far more fun to DM then a canned campaign.
Nothing wrong with getting some actual experience under your belt with a published campaign for an entirely new group and DM.
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
We want to, but I feel like more experience is needed. Plus writing adventures is a lot of hard work and we are older with families.
I think LMOP is going to be too "newbie" if you folks have managed to grit your way through CoS.
Tyranny of Dragons has a lot of generally bad reviews online for being highly railroady and supposedly repetitive in places. I can't say either way, but that's its rep.
I think you might have more luck with the more generally positively reviewed adventures. For low level stuff, Waterdeep/Dragon Heist is almost always praised as a good one. But it does stop around level 6, I think. Another one that seems to get a lot of positive attention is Ghosts of Saltmarsh, though I think by default it may not be Forgotten Realms -- up to you if that matters (you could probably easily locate it in the FR if you really wanted).
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.
Officially it's set in Oerth, the world of Greyhawk, but as you say it's easy as pie to change the setting to anywhere a fishing town could be found.
Since it's not clear, what's the plan for this new campaign? Keeping the same (now high level) characters? New starting level characters? Whatever works best for whichever campaign gets picked?
Want to start playing but don't have anyone to play with? You can try these options: [link].
The first major campaign I played was Tyranny of Dragons, and honestly we had a blast. The story wasn't too complex and our DM didn't have a difficult time running it for us. The only way to really improve on your DMing skills is to put yourself out there and take risks. And if your players dont like it, get them to give you feedback so you can improve upon your skills even more.
100% agree, Tyranny of Dragons was the first proper campaign i ran and yeah i had a good time. Great climax with Tiamat and a great scene when Spat the kobold rogue sacrificed himself to slay the dragon queen. Simple, good story and overall fun to run.
One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,
One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
Nah, it aint hard, Write a couple of sentances and have the stats ready. IE
1. The adventurers are walking into a village to quench their thirst and enjoy the warm fire of the Welcome Wench inn.
2. They are accosted by a hermit named Herman on their way too the Inn and he tells them of an evil temple in the nearby swamps. He says he saw rats with human faces and horrific ghouls wandering nearby the temple. He pleads with the party to do something.
3. Now you just gotta write out the temple layout and get the needed stats and you are good to go. Plus you got a group to do the adventure for free lol.
This is bit of an oversimplification, but yeah a general idea and some stats are ultimately what it all boils down to.