D&D 5E What do you want in the first D&D Next adventure path?

RangerWickett · Jul 3, 2012

It's starting a new chapter of D&D, but trying to recall nostalgic gamers. It wants to be the perfect incarnation of D&D's many conceits, but novel enough that people will buy it as opposed to just playing older editions.

So, what sort of adventure path does it need?

In my mind, if the game is going to be modular, then the adventures should be too. Or rather, the adventures should provide excuses to add in modules, to try out different rules for a short period of time to see if you like them. Allow groups to dabble in different styles and philosophies of gameplay.

Basically, Planescape.

"You tumble out of the portal and smell incense masking the stench of blood, and hear the amused chatter of voices speaking Abyssal. When you orient yourselves, you see that you've appeared in the middle of a masquerade party of fiends, dressed in all manner of atrocities. The disorienting chaos of the Abyss affronts your mind. Here guys, you might want to read up on the Sanity and Madness module."

"The angel bows to you and begins a lengthy introduction of his liege lord. Here, let me begin the recitation while you guys brush up on the rules for Courtly Diplomacy."

"Yes, I know you jumped across the gap. The horde of slaad keep running after you anyway, completely ignoring the pit they're floating over. The last slaad in the line does look down briefly, and suddenly gravity takes hold of him. This is Cartoon Physics, remember?"

Mercurius · Jul 3, 2012

A couple ideas that come to mind:

One, I feel like a truly great dragon-slaying quest has never really been done, or done well. I'm not sure how that would be done over 20 levels, but I'm sure that it is possible.

Two, perhaps because I'm influenced by my own current campaign design ideas, I'd like to see a D&D Next adventure path take a sandbox approach with "choose your own" plot hooks to develop. In other words, start with a box set for a region akin to the Nentir Vale with hundreds of locations and encounters detailed, and dozens of mini-adventures. Then offer a variety of hooks for more developed adventures, with some kind of culminating quest.

In other words, rather than an adventure path, how about an adventure tree with numerous branches to explore?

As a perhaps side tangent, I think one of the ways that 4E failed is that it didn't provide a cohesive and fleshed out campaign setting for folks to call home and/or draw inspiration from. Whether or not this sort of product line is directly financially lucrative, it does act as a kind of "community glue" that unites thousands of players with a common language of themes and ideas - think Golarion for Pathfinder.

With that in mind, imagine an early box set product that was akin to a sandbox campaign for low level characters in a Nentir Vale/Dalelands-type setting, from which numerous adventure paths/branches could sprout. This, I think, would embody the modularity idea that is intrinsic to Next.

RangerWickett · Jul 3, 2012

Dragon destroys your city, kidnaps the princess. You're the only survivors. You have to fight through goblin-infested wilderness to get to safety. Along the way you get drawn into an adventure that will eventually lead to defeating the dragon and saving the princess, but only after taking out 7 look-alikes hiding in different castles.

Crazy Jerome · Jul 3, 2012

What I want most is for it to not be an adventure path of any kind, but a full-blown, unabashed sandbox. Or rather, I'm fine with there being an adventure path as long as I can ignore it because there is also a sandbox. I care about this fact more than I care about the details. Merely having an unabashed sandbox would be enough for me to overlook reuse of the old tropes.

Morrus · Jul 3, 2012

Yeah, an old-school dragon quest. With a journey. And a starting village. Real old-fashioned stuff. Hobbit-esque.

Or, yeah, a good 'ol sandbox. I'd be inclined to avoid city sandboxes as that tends to be the default and I'm a little bored of them, and maybe make a rural county or something. Again, that's pretty old-fashioned. One which gets developed over time with new adventures and stuff that can plug in, but strong enough in its own right that a DM can wing an excellent sandbox campaign.

For APs, I'd be tempted by Pathfinder's newer model. Not so much 1-20 as shorter 3-4 adventure arcs. Boxed sets, almost!

LostSoul · Jul 3, 2012

Yeah, I'd like the first adventure product to be a sandbox.

An AP within that sandbox sounds like a good module to add. Could it be as easy as a few pages in the back about "How to use this product"?

"If you like adventure paths, here is how you can turn this product into one. Start the PCs off in hex G14, with the goblins raiding the town because their water supply is poisoned. Once the PCs learn the water supply is poisoned, direct them to hex H22 where they will encounter the Red Witch, the source of the poison. From there the PCs will explore the Forgotten Temple in hex M02...

In the entry for each of these hexes, you'll find notes on how to direct the party to the next location."

I don't think something like that existing in a sandbox would ruin it. Players who desire a sandbox would probably do something crazy, like setting up a refinery to process the poisoned water and sell it for fun & profit.

Whizbang Dustyboots · Jul 3, 2012

Since this is a tone-setting moment for the new edition, I'd definitely want it to have traditional elements, capped off with a big dragon fight. But along the way, I want to battle giant rats, skeletons and humanoids in ruins, later have an overland trek dealing with bandits and disrupted supply routes, and then at least flirt with the idea of domain management -- maybe just secure and hold a castle for X amount of time until the cavalry can arrive, while dealing with outside attackers and betrayal from inside -- before reaching the more fantastic end of the scale, with cloud castles, underwater adventures and the planes.

the Jester · Jul 3, 2012

If advancement rate is one of the dials 5e offers, I think having an adventure path becomes somewhat problematic; after all, if one group finishes an adventure at the halfway-through-1st-level mark but another group finishes at almost-4th-level, it's pretty hard to accommodate both in the same series of adventures.

I'm sure that there are solutions, ranging from "slow advancement groups should add random encounters and sidequests" to encounters adjusted for different playstyles, but I'm not sure how the solutions will work for a full AP.

Agamon · Jul 3, 2012

Crazy Jerome said:
What I want most is for it to not be an adventure path of any kind, but a full-blown, unabashed sandbox. Or rather, I'm fine with there being an adventure path as long as I can ignore it because there is also a sandbox. I care about this fact more than I care about the details. Merely having an unabashed sandbox would be enough for me to overlook reuse of the old tropes.

I can't XP you, we agree far too much. But yeah, pretty much this. Adventure slogs...erm, paths and me just don't get along.

Tortoise · Jul 3, 2012

the Jester said:
If advancement rate is one of the dials 5e offers, I think having an adventure path becomes somewhat problematic; after all, if one group finishes an adventure at the halfway-through-1st-level mark but another group finishes at almost-4th-level, it's pretty hard to accommodate both in the same series of adventures.

I'm sure that there are solutions, ranging from "slow advancement groups should add random encounters and sidequests" to encounters adjusted for different playstyles, but I'm not sure how the solutions will work for a full AP.

This is one of the obstacles Next will have to have worked out come launch day. It is likely that adventures written for it will need to show the expected XP for each planned encounter, etc listed for each style of play. Some sort of sidebar the DM can pull the data from would be likely.

It would then need some advice somewhere on how to punch up/reduce encounter strength as the PCs move through the adventures so DMs can avoid the whole too strong/too weak issue if it would affect the group's style of play.

Coincidentally, this could prove to be a great opportunity for teaching DM techniques.

For what I want in the way of adventures: I'd like sandbox, plus short story arcs for a few levels. Well written and not just a string of encounters. Mix up the wilderness/dungeon/urban with several 1st level starting point options.