What should I suggest we play next?

[jaappleton]

So by my estimation we have about 12-15 sessions left in our Curse of Strahd campaign.

Coming down to the home stretch, I’ve begun thinking about what’s next. DM loves DMing, and.... Honestly I’m the one with the most money, I’ve no issue buying the adventure for him to run for us. Least I could do when he’s the one putting in the work to run it.

And he’s pretty open to running whatever.

Problem is, CoS is really the only published adventure we’ve done. And it’s been great.

But I hear mixed things about other adventures:

Tyranny of Dragons apparently has some messed up encounter balance and expectations, especially early on (part of what led to the upcoming re-release, with numerous fixes)

Ghosts of Saltmarsh, being a collection of smaller adventures... Don’t think it’ll work well for the table. Some of the players have that “need the objective marked clearly on the map” video game mentality, y’know?

Same goes for Yawning Portal.

Mad Mage is pretty much a straight dungeon crawl, right? A bit too extreme to one side of the game spectrum.

Princes of the Apocalypse... Won’t lie. I’ve heard nothing great.

Storm King I’ve heard describes by many people as “fine”.

We’re a bit past the intro adventures like LmoP and Icespire Peak.

So..... How’s Out of the Abyss? Basically the only one left I can think of.

And while we don’t know the adventure yet, it’s clear that Descent into Avernus takes you into Hell. Lots of Fiends, likely some undead. After finishing up Strahd, in which having a particular party makeup (GO CLERICS AND PALADINS!) can make a big difference, do we really want to play another game that could very well be just like that?

[clash]

Out of the abyss is good but it is a ton of work. It was the first official module I got because I heard it was really good and I didn't have as much time to work on my home brew stuff. Turns out it was more work and more of a time investment to run then creating something from scratch. Good if you are feeling stressed on the creativity side of things but be forewarned it is a lot of work for a dm.

[Temperjoke]

You might want to consider Tomb of Annihilation, its got a very different aesthetic than CoS, and the different challenges facing players in it present opportunities to try different types of characters.

[GlenSmash!]

Do you consider Waterdeep to be an introductory adventure? Heist and Political intrigue might be a nice change of pace form vampires.

[KorvinStarmast]

Ghosts of Saltmarsh, being a collection of smaller adventures.
Don’t think it’ll work well for the table.
Some of the players have that “need the objective marked clearly on the map” video game mentality, y’know? Three of the first four adventures mesh seamlessly together. I have the book and our group will be starting in a few weeks. There is no reason that the DM can't do a little thinking and have an overarching "this is bad" theme. The entire series of adventures has a maritime theme that is set in the same general region. By the end of the last adventure, the PCs will have had a significant impact on the region, and to a certain extent regions beyond.

STK: hard not to like.

[intregus]

My suggestion would be Tomb of Annihilation

Its a lot of fun, and a great setting and could easily be lead into from CoS

[Keravath]

I've played Tomb of Annihilation and it is good though I think it is more of a sandbox than CoS and the DM might need to tweak the timing of events since there is a global deadline running for the person who introduces you to the adventure and travel times in Chult can be slow. On the other hand, it is generally a lot of fun.

In addition, there are some good Adventurers Guild content like Return of the Lizard King and the Hidden Shrine of Tamochan from Tales of the Yawning Portal that can be fitted in to the adventure for extra content and also fits well in the ToA setting.