Busy GM looking for module advice

[ImproperJustice]

So you know the story:
Middle aged GM with spouse, kids, and two jobs to keep everyone fed and happy.

I have a few games I pop into from time to time, but now we have made some new friends who want to experience the hobby for the first time.

They are no strangers to our culture so to speak (like advanced board games, sci fi and anime), and they are more of the free spirit role players vs. tactical war gamers type.

With that in mind, what are some good recommendations for published adventures I could run for first time free thinkers, which can also accommodate a busy GM?

I am looking for something to go level 1-20, or maybe 1-14.
I have run home brew in the past, but I just don’t think I have the time this go around to do it well.

I considered using Dungeon World, but my personal bias is that it oddly restricts creativity IMHO. (Fully acknowledge I may just have a bad first impression of it).

We have access to Tales from the Yawning Portal which is pretty Old School and may be fine, but it feels more 80s war gamey than they may like.

At the end of the day, I love introducing people to what I believe is one of the greatest hobbies on earth, and I want to do a good job.

[Man_Over_Game]

So you know the story:
Middle aged GM with spouse, kids, and two jobs to keep everyone fed and happy.

I have a few games I pop into from time to time, but now we have made some new friends who want to experience the hobby for the first time.

They are no strangers to our culture so to speak (like advanced board games, sci fi and anime), and they are more of the free spirit role players vs. tactical war gamers type.

With that in mind, what are some good recommendations for published adventures I could run for first time free thinkers, which can also accommodate a busy GM?

I am looking for something to go level 1-20, or maybe 1-14.
I have run home brew in the past, but I just don’t think I have the time this go around to do it well.

I considered using Dungeon World, but my personal bias is that it oddly restricts creativity IMHO. (Fully acknowledge I may just have a bad first impression of it).

We have access to Tales from the Yawning Portal which is pretty Old School and may be fine, but it feels more 80s war gamey than they may like.

At the end of the day, I love introducing people to what I believe is one of the greatest hobbies on earth, and I want to do a good job.

Wikipedia has some great information on this topic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dungeons_%26_Dragons_adventures

Out of the Abyss has some events with Drow and Demons in the Underdark
Curse of Strahd might end halfway through (goes to level 10), but it is very popular.
Storm King's Thunder is a pretty epic quest of traveling and slaying giants, ends at level 11.
Ghosts of Saltmarsh just came out, about Cthulu monsters, I hear. Ends at level 12.
And there's the new Baldur's Gate adventure, which ends at level 13.



You could also mix and match. Use a module to flesh most things out, and then use the mini modules from The Yawning Portal to fill in gaps or add some new locations or levels to your main plot.

[QuickLyRaiNbow]

Wikipedia has some great information on this topic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Dungeons_%26_Dragons_adventures

Out of the Abyss has some events with Drow and Demons in the Underdark
Curse of Strahd might end halfway through (goes to level 10), but it is very popular.
Storm King's Thunder is a pretty epic quest of traveling and slaying giants, ends at level 11.
Ghosts of Saltmarsh just came out, about Cthulu monsters, I hear. Ends at level 12.
And there's the new Baldur's Gate adventure, which ends at level 13.



You could also mix and match. Use a module to flesh most things out, and then use the mini modules from The Yawning Portal to fill in gaps or add some new locations or levels to your main plot.

Waterdeep: Dragon Heist is a low-level module, but it has a lot of scope for improvisation and roleplaying. It ends at 5, which is when Storm King's Thunder starts (though the results of a successful heist can be a bit, uh, unbalancing). Princes of the Apocalypse ends at 14, but it's a mess, and very dungeon crawly.

Of the published stuff, Out of the Abyss has the highest ending level - 15 or 16, depending on how the DM handles things. It does require a lot of work, though, both in prep and in conversion. The second half of the adventure has a lot of very cool locations and quests with encounters that are either not challenging or overpowering, and you'll have to work to make it a consistently well-organized experience. That said, there are a lot of interesting cities filled with potentially interesting people, so it's probably pretty alright for folks who want to get a bit free-form. OotA also ends with a big, obvious, high-to-epic level adventure hook.

[Shuruke]

I would do

Lost mines

Into cloud giants bargain

Into tomb of annialation


Lost mines is really good for new players

And cloud giant bargain has fun rp and memorable moments

(I really like the feather fall skydiving )

I've also heard good things about rise of tiamat , but ive personally ran tomb of annialation and with all yhe options it really feels like players are in control

(I've dmed these but have never played them , however with nee players this is my go to)

[Torpin]

https://www.adventurelookup.com/adventures/ might have what you are looking for

[BloodOgre]

If you want to take them all the way to 20th level within the same campaign, without doing a whole lot of prep, then it's really Waterdeep: Dragon Heist (1-5) followed by Waterdeep: Dungeon of the mad mage (6-20). Dragon heist allows you to choose a season (winter, summer, spring, fall) and a bad guy, and that dictates the path the characters take, which encounters they have (or don't have) and where the treasure hoard is, so you can run through it more than once and still have it be different. Then DotMM is just plain linear, and I have been told plenty of opportunity to rollplay.

One thing to keep in mind, even if an encounter looks like it is a straight up fight, it is still an opportunity for roleplay if you want it to be... For me, unless the book or monster description says a creature or group of creatures will fight to the death, I play creatures with intelligence as having some amount of self preservation. Depending on how intelligent they are, that can range anywhere from running away, if not cornered, when they get low on hit points, running away when enough of their allies have died, a willingness to negotiate if the PCs appear to gain the upper hand in combat, to the ability to size up a group and enter into dialog if they feel the PCs outnumber them, or it just suits their needs, or if they just want to play with the PCs.

[Segev]

Dragon Heist followed by Dungeon of the Mad Mage is kind-of a classic "delve the infinite dungeon for loot" way to go. But it's very similar to just using Tales From the Yawning Portal as a string of missions.

It only goes to level 11, but Tomb of Annihilation has been impressing me a great deal as I've been preparing, reading, and running it. It's a city-sized sandbox, followed by a peninsula-sized exploration sandbox hex crawl, followed by another city-sized sandbox, followed by a deep dungeon for the climax. And chapter two, that peninsula-sized sandbox, has dozens of mini-dungeons and cool encounter locations.

Personally, I'm dropping a face-lifted Sunless Citadel and a barely-altered Hidden Shrine of Tamochan into the peninsula, and from some research I've done online, I'm not the only one who's done so with the latter of those. (Both, as I'm sure you'll recognize, are from Yawning Portal.) I also plan to put White Plume Mountain in the Fire Peaks.

If you want practically zero prep, stick with Tales. If you're willing to take some time to make sure your version of things is coherent, though, the sandboxy nature of Port Nyanzaru and all its side quests will be a solid starting point. You will want to read the whole book through, though, to make sure you catch all the foreshadowing in the early parts. You'll also probably want to add some foreshadowing regarding the Nine Gods' existence as historical parts of Omu's impact on Chult.

Do you want an exploration-based sandbox with a semi-optional ticking timer? Go with Tomb of Annihilation. (The "semi-optional" timer is because the default patron of the party is dying. But if she dies, the module isn't over, and the threat is still there to deal with.)

Do you want minimal prep, and some straight-forward dungeon-crawling adventures? Go with Yawning Portal, and find excuses to link the dungeons in the PCs' stories.