First time DM'ing D&D 5th, adventure recommendations?

[Rolero]

Hi folks,

After a long Pathfinder campaign and after finally trying 5th edition of good old D&D, I decided to switch games and master my new adventure on this system. However, although I have some ideas for my game, I would like help with the initial setting or some adventure books as reference for the starting sessions.

My idea for the setting is about exploring a group of uncharted islands on a mysterious sea that was obscured to the world until recently. Naturally, everyone embarks looking to make fortune, but of course, the place is not going to be so easily exploited. It's been some months since, and a few settlements have been built in the safest parts of the islands, with most of the territory secrets still undiscovered. Different guilds, merchants, nobles and opportunists are hiring adventures to secure the riches and resources the islands can offer, and here is where my players adventure begins.

So, I have access to a lot of classic situations to play with. From ancient civilizations, to angry savage natives, monsters nests, secret hideouts for organizations, etc. What I lack is the expertise with the game to make good dungeons and good encounters out of this options.

I want my players to start at first level so they can get used to the new system easily, but from experience, I know that creating interesting challenges for the party at low levels can be quite difficult.

That's why I ask for some recommendations of published modules or your own suggestions. Most of my players are seasoned roleplayers so don't pull any punches. I want them to bleed, but preferably without kicking the bucket.

[Azgeroth]

the mines of phandelver, or however its spelt.. you can find it on the DMs Guild for a couple of quid. it is one of the most highly rated starter modules,

given that your going full on homebrew i wouldnt recommend a full campaign book, but a module such as the one i mentioned is a good start.

other things that might help (though milage would vary so hopefully other people will chime in)

volos guide to monsters gives some decent information about the lore of certain beasties, it could help you colour the lairs/dungeons.

tales of the yawning portal has several modules and dungeons that you could straight up just steal.

or the DMG has tables on randomly generating dungeons, loot tables, etc.

you could, of course, start a thread for your campaign, throw out your basic dungeon/encounter ideas and let the playground give criticism on them. (this is definately the cheapest option)

there are also several free tools like kobold fight club, to help you build encounters, and others that i cant remember to help you pick monsters based on enviroment, im sure there are even free dungeon generators, and loot horde generators.

[Falcon X]

For the official, published modules of 5e:

- Tomb of Annihilation will take place on Chult, which is an island. There's got to be plenty of ideas there.
- Tales of the Yawning Portal has famous dungeons pre-made to go into any campaign. Sunless Citadel would be a fantastic adventure to get people used to 5e, as it is full of every type of die roll.

A few of my own ideas:
- Uluu Thalongh is an unstatted creature from the island of Chult. If ToA is smart, they will use it because it is creepy and flavorful.
I used it in my Hoard of the Dragon Queen game. One of the cavern masters had wares from Chult. Her traveling companion had been acting funny since. Turns out, Uluu had taken control of her body. The cavern master has had terrible nightmares too.
Uluu's goal was to get to a secret lake that was a planar bubble to the Plane of Positive Energy. When the caravan got close, Uluu told them, correctly, that there was a special white wood that grew nearby.
Party, caravan head, and Uluu travelled to it, where the beast promptly left the body as a lifeless husk and travelled into the trees. It then took control of a bear to attack them before assaulting with its massive vines.
They drove it off, but there was promise of them being hunted.
http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Uluu_Thalongh
- Have a small, tribal village living on top of a giant dragon turtle. Totally ripped this from The Way of Kings, if you know it.
The tribe can be any nature you want, from friendly merchant to undead pirates.
- Volos Guide has stats for the Kraken and a Kraken Priest, who seeks to summon the Kraken. The priest would be a great reoccurring villain, or a simple one-off fight.
- Fisherman tribe. There is a small fishing village. On one trip, they are attacked by a giant sea beast who mind controlled them and poisoned others (an Aboleth). In great malevolence, it promised to attack and destroy the village in five days time.
Every day in those five days, people get mind controlled and bad things happen.
The Aboleth is basically toying with its meal.
It makes liberal use of its illusions to prevent people from leaving and causing genera
This creature should far outlevel the party, so defeating it might involve explosives, going to a nearby town for help, or some other daring plan.
I have a full breakdown of this adventure (originally made for an arctic region, but its adaptable.) Message me if you want it.

[Safety Sword]

My recommendation:

Hoard of the Dragon Queen is a low level PC killer. Careful!

Honestly, other campaigns seem better balanced at the start.

[Falcon X]

My recommendation:

Hoard of the Dragon Queen is a low level PC killer. Careful!

Honestly, other campaigns seem better balanced at the start.

And Out of the Abyss drops you into the Underdark.
Quote from player talking to his friend:
- "Yeah we ran into one of those wired eyeball creatures last session. Our orc got vaporized."
- "you mean a beholder?"
- "yeah"
- " what level did you start at?"
- " Well, we are level 2 now."
- "WHY ARE YOU FIGHTING A BEHOLDER AT LEVEL 2!"
- "It was more of running, really... I mean, we are in the Underdark."
- "WHY ARE YOU IN THE UNDERDARK AT LEVEL 2!!!!"

That was a fun session. To be fair, the book doesn't give you abeholder at level 2, but I added it because it felt appropriate.
The game itself, while not giving perfect challenge ratings, is designed to keep the characters alive for the long haul, if they aren't idiots.

[comk59]

Mines is pretty much my favorite 5e module right now, so I'd suggest that
Also, I cannot recommend Volos more highly, it really is a fantastic book.

[Easy_Lee]

I think HotDQ has a worse reputation than it deserves. It was many people's first experience with both 5e and AL.

[Rolero]

Thank you for all the tips :D

I tend to howbrew my whole campaigns because my players are terrible trying to railroad a module. My usual MO is dropping tons of hints for different adventures and start writting once they are on the road.

My main interest was recommendations for encounters and low level dungeons. I can adapt them to the situation easily.

[Smitty Wesson]

Hasn't been mentioned yet, so I'll throw in a rec for Princes of the Apocalypse. It's fairly easy to separate into smaller dungeons, with the level 3-6 adventures in particular being nice standalones.

[Armored Walrus]

Maybe want to check out Maniac Games' Madness of the Rat King (http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/183874/Madness-of-the-Rat-King) and Fiery Grog Tavern (http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/183857/Fiery-Grog-Tavern) as a place to start. They should be easy to drop in any homebrew campaign setting, give you a good home base in the tavern, and let the PCs fight a bunch of different types of giant rat with unusual abilities. It's a nice change of pace from caves full of goblins. And yeah, it's "go in the basement and kill the rats" but there are some cool twists to all of it.

[Rolero]

Maybe want to check out Maniac Games' Madness of the Rat King (http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/183874/Madness-of-the-Rat-King) and Fiery Grog Tavern (http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/183857/Fiery-Grog-Tavern) as a place to start. They should be easy to drop in any homebrew campaign setting, give you a good home base in the tavern, and let the PCs fight a bunch of different types of giant rat with unusual abilities. It's a nice change of pace from caves full of goblins. And yeah, it's "go in the basement and kill the rats" but there are some cool twists to all of it.

Nice ones, this is exactlye what I needed to start the campaign with a bang. I like the tavern, and yes may become a good base of operations for the players and home for npc hooks.

The rat king cave its also an interesting low level dungeon.

Thanks for the input ;)

[Zorku]

The Wolves of Welton is a well written one shot that understands a lot about pacing. It's meant for 2nd level, but if you use kobold.club you can adjust combat difficulties quickly.

So, The Lost Mine of Phandelver, the adventure from the 5e starter's kit, has been recommended a couple of times now. Even if you've got no interest in the premise, it's worth reading through that one just to see how they put it together. It is a very powerful distillation of what 5e generally wants to be.

My favorite module I've run in 5e is still Mind Blast. It's meant to be a 1 shot for 4th level PCs (though it took me two full sessions with a newbie heavy group,) and leans heavily into D&D tropes with a good sense of theme but also knowing how to throw a whole slew of weird circumstances at the party that tugs their attention in different directions until they have to actually think through a solution for how to make sure their murder of the big baddie at the end actually sticks.

[Safety Sword]

I think HotDQ has a worse reputation than it deserves. It was many people's first experience with both 5e and AL.

It was the first campaign I ran in 5E. I have been DMing other versions of D&D for 20+ years so I can usually predict when encounters aren't going to go the way I plan during the session. It is horrifically balanced (especially in the first couple of encounters), I had to literally cheat or play bad guys as complete morons who didn't use their abilities so that the party could get to the part of the adventure where it's just extremly dangerous.

It's over tuned for the levels it is supposed to be appropriate for. I even had a lead in adventure to travel to where the book started to give my characters a couple of levels and it still sucked.


Hasn't been mentioned yet, so I'll throw in a rec for Princes of the Apocalypse. It's fairly easy to separate into smaller dungeons, with the level 3-6 adventures in particular being nice standalones.

This is a good suggestion!

[Zorku]

Hasn't been mentioned yet, so I'll throw in a rec for Princes of the Apocalypse. It's fairly easy to separate into smaller dungeons, with the level 3-6 adventures in particular being nice standalones.

Last person I know that ran that one said that the dungeon design was fantastic, but his table had a really rough time with the non-dungeon elements.

Presumably that comes from the mostly meaningless and stakes-less choice of "well, where do we look for clues next?" that the adventure throws at you until it's finally willing to spill the beans.

[Armored Walrus]

Nice ones, this is exactlye what I needed to start the campaign with a bang. I like the tavern, and yes may become a good base of operations for the players and home for npc hooks.

The rat king cave its also an interesting low level dungeon.

Thanks for the input ;)

No problem. I try to keep an eye out for free and 'pay what you want' stuff from non-WOTC sources. I find a few gems that way, then go back and buy them again for a couple bucks if they turn out to be good.

The official stuff is nice and all, but if you're running in a homebrew world there's a lot of mental baggage involved (at least for me) in trying to decouple the adventure from the FR setting and fit it into your world. That and indie stuff just tends to be more creative overall.