What to play, what to play

[PallentisLunam]

Hi everybody,

So I've recently finished The Lost Mine of Phandelver (the boxed starter set adventure) and am now considering what adventure I want to run. Does anyone have any suggestions as to which of the published 5e adventures is best or do I scrap them all and start writing my own?

[Falcon X]

Hi everybody,

So I've recently finished The Lost Mine of Phandelver (the boxed starter set adventure) and am now considering what adventure I want to run. Does anyone have any suggestions as to which of the published 5e adventures is best or do I scrap them all and start writing my own?
This all depends on your experience level and interests.

Out of the Abyss (Demons): By far the best written on the 3 published 5e modules. However, it is also the toughest, having to manage lots of NPCs, a sandbox style world, sanity ratings, food rations, etc. It assumes an experienced DM and experienced players. That being said, its a ton of fun and a wondrous adventure. Don't do it if your players just want to kill a bunch of things. This is the Dark Souls of D&D. Most of the things you run into are stronger than you.

Hoard of the Dragon Queen (Dragons): The most linear and easy to run of the modules, has plenty of action, and a lot of interesting things happen here, especially if you like dragons. It has interesting plot and a wide variety of types of missions: Castle defense, spy, escort, dungeon crawl, diplomacy, etc. The negatives are that there is a relatively low variety of monsters, and the characters might feel a bit railroaded at times.
I strongly recommend spicing it up a bit with your own material, or from sites like slyflourish.

Princes of the Apocalypse (Elementals): Haven't played it yet. It's reputation is of having more combat that roleplaying, been mid-level difficulty and mid-level sandboxish. What's really cool about it is that you get to fight elemental enemies, which I find to be the more exciting than demons or dragons. I've been told that this is the best of the three for fighting.

Own Material: Always a fun thing, if you think you have the mind for world building. It will be very time consuming and won't have the solid consistency of information that one of the published does. However, it can be very exciting to see your own work fleshed out.
Don't do it if you know you are one to create an elaborate, linear plot that the players constantly feel in chaos. Do it if you think you can bring something fun to the table every single game.

[PallentisLunam]

I've played alot of D&D usually as the DM about half with published adventures and about half with homebrewed stuff.

My question was mostly are the published adventures fun or complete crap and you seem to have answered that pretty well. Thanks :smallwink:

[mephnick]

Honestly I can't run published modules. It turns D&D into homework instead of a creative outlet.

[Addaran]

Honestly I can't run published modules. It turns D&D into homework instead of a creative outlet.

Me it's the contrary atm. My friend is usually DM and really want to play. With a published module, i'll be able to do that, without having to put massive work into creating the story/quest/encounters/etc. When i used to DM as few years back, i often had great vague ideas for scenes or general plot-line, but i had problems with the details and making a coherant adventure.

[PallentisLunam]

Usually I just run the module the way I want to run it and both of those problems go away. I don't worry about getting all the details right beforehand. I ad lib and let things evolve or change. Nothing I've ever run has survived my group unscathed anyways, homemade or published. If that means I have to rework a sizable chunk of the story, ah well.

[Whisper Knight]

You could always do some more simple made-up campaigns until something better comes along.

The DM Guide has some rules and guidelines for random stuff that could help get those creative juices pumping. Not sure how well they're put together, but it could be worth a shot.

If there're some really good 3.5e campaigns not available for 5e, some kind of conversion could be done given time.

Good luck with your DMing!

[Falcon X]

I've played alot of D&D usually as the DM about half with published adventures and about half with homebrewed stuff.

My question was mostly are the published adventures fun or complete crap and you seem to have answered that pretty well. Thanks :smallwink:
Ah, if that's the case, general consensus is that Out of the Abyss is masterfully written, the best we've seen in years, while the other two show potential, but need tweaking to make them worth everyone's time. I would stick to OotA.


Honestly I can't run published modules. It turns D&D into homework instead of a creative outlet.
I both agree and disagree. I used to run all of my own material, and it was a great creative outlet. However, now I'm doing modules and experiencing a similar enjoyment. I spend time adding things to the game based on the character's backgrounds, studying what other people have done, and putting together gaming tools like maps.
Therefore, my creative energy is going more directly to how to boost the player experience and merge plots rather than building from the ground up.

For example:
Hoard the Dragon Queen: I am stringing together Hoard of the Dragon Queen>Ravenloft>Vecna Lives>Rise of Tiamat>Die Vecna Die, supplementing with Rary the Traitor, The Dancing Hut of Baba Yaga, flashbacks to the player's old characters, and enhancements to the current missions (like a really fleshed out Episode 4).
If you know those modules, you know I had to work hard to make them fit together. For starters, I dropped the Eye of Vecna as random loot from the cave in episode 2 (and the rogue has kept it a secret from the others). There is a party of anti-heroes they worked with in a former life who trap them in the Demiplane of Dread (long story in how they get out), one of the characters turned traitor and became a student of Baba Yaga as we passed Ardeep Forest.

[PallentisLunam]

Out of the Abyss it is then.