D&D 5E Princes vs Abyss

[vandaexpress]

Hey folks, I'm wrapping up an extremely off-the-rails "Rise of Tiamat" campaign. I currently own both PotA and OotA. My plan is to take 6 months off from DMing in order to prep the next campaign (I learned the hard way during HotDQ & RoT that I need to spend more time prepping before launching a campaign).

I'm trying to decide which to run. At first I was thinking OotA for SURE, on account of these reviews calling it stuff like "One of the best campaigns for D&D in the past 20 years" or whatever. But then I'm looking at the (admittedly small handful of) reviews and seeing that PotA is still trending higher. I have only skimmed through the two hardbacks, not wanting to distract myself too much while closing my current campaign. My struggle is that I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around what happens in OotA (no great summary anywhere) and gauging how much prep work it will require vs PotA.

I have the following questions:

1. Which campaign requires more prep to run from the book?
2. Which has a stronger story, in your opinion?
3. What is it about OotA that makes it "harder" for novice DMs to run than PotA? (I've read this is the case, but am not sure why?)

As a background on the group: I run a party of 4. Guessing that I'll pick up a fifth for the next campaign. We usually meet weekly, assuming I'm adequately prepared.

 

[CaptainConundrum]

I gotta bump this. After just finishing Phandelver, I have the same questions. I have read there are hooks built into PotA for characters finishing LMoP. Anything like that for OotA?

 

[vandaexpress]

I gotta bump this. After just finishing Phandelver, I have the same questions. I have read there are hooks built into PotA for characters finishing LMoP. Anything like that for OotA?

I don't see any for OotA, but I think the reason for that is because it's designed with level 1 characters in mind, whereas Princes has Level 3 characters as the starting point, I think. That said, my understanding is that a lot of the early parts of OotA rely on leveling through random encounters before moving forward. If this is the case, then I'm not sure how bad it is to have your PCs start at a higher level. They will be miffed about losing all their magical gear though. You might want to give them an opportunity to get it back at some point, but one of the few things I've learned as a DM is that PCs often become resentful when they lose magic equipment without a clear way to get it back very quickly.

 

[Creamsteak]

I don't know about OotA, but prep for PotA I am familiar with.

PotA is a bit of an onion sandbox. You start off on the outer-most layer and you search for clues and hints that let you discover the layers below. You can choose to explore all of the outer-most layers before delving into the next layer down, or you can dig down very deep and end up in over your head. Depending on your own style and your player's style, this may mean that you need to know every single layer of the game from the beginning just to run it. On the other hand, beyond a certain point it's very dungeon-crawl heavy and very light on exposition.

Just running the beginning town can be a LOT of prep work, depending on your style.

 

[vandaexpress]

I don't know about OotA, but prep for PotA I am familiar with.

PotA is a bit of an onion sandbox. You start off on the outer-most layer and you search for clues and hints that let you discover the layers below. You can choose to explore all of the outer-most layers before delving into the next layer down, or you can dig down very deep and end up in over your head. Depending on your own style and your player's style, this may mean that you need to know every single layer of the game from the beginning just to run it. On the other hand, beyond a certain point it's very dungeon-crawl heavy and very light on exposition.

Just running the beginning town can be a LOT of prep work, depending on your style.

Thanks, yes. I tend to prefer having a 10,000 ft view of everything and lay down future plot threads and foreshadowing early on where possible. I find my players delight in figuring out those kinds of things and it helps give them something to look forward to. This tends to amp up my prep time for any campaign.

I've read that Red Larch can be a beast to prep, so it's good to get additional confirmation on that.

 

[CaptainConundrum]

I don't see any for OotA, but I think the reason for that is because it's designed with level 1 characters in mind, whereas Princes has Level 3 characters as the starting point, I think. That said, my understanding is that a lot of the early parts of OotA rely on leveling through random encounters before moving forward. If this is the case, then I'm not sure how bad it is to have your PCs start at a higher level. They will be miffed about losing all their magical gear though. You might want to give them an opportunity to get it back at some point, but one of the few things I've learned as a DM is that PCs often become resentful when they lose magic equipment without a clear way to get it back very quickly.

I will definitely keep that in mind!

 

[Creamsteak]

I've read that Red Larch can be a beast to prep, so it's good to get additional confirmation on that.

This is a spoiler, but I found it helpful for visualizing the physical interconnection of sites.

http://i.imgur.com/4zHseHJ.jpg

It's not strictly a location based adventure, there are events, and with the GM getting involved you can make it more fluid and less static... but that is where the work is. To make all of this "come alive" I feel like I had to know all the moving parts... and there are a lot of parts.

 

[Daern]

For me, Abyss is more story oriented though very open ended. Escaping the Underdark is a huge motivation and challenge. Going back in is up to the players. They can choose if and how they do it. It's really pretty rp focused.
Princes I have not run, but the isn't a lot of motivation other than, "Whats up with the weird weather, and what about some guys who are missing?" I think its the sort of adventure where characters are gonna find themselves deep in a dungeon grind wondering why they're there. Now, that can be fine if its a loose, sand boxy type of game, but there's not much narrative tension such as it is.

Anyways here's my Abyss summary from this thread: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showth...eone-please-summarize-Out-of-the-Abyss-for-me

SPOILERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OUT OF THE ABYSS
Escape from drow slave pits.
Choose a direction to travel in the underdark, engage in a long term flight from drow hunters, using the travel and exploration rules, have various random encounters and discover strange labrynths, most likely ending up at an underground lake at a Kuo Tuo or a Duergar city but possibly at a Myconid forest. Find out the place is going crazy, maybe see a demon lord.
Return to the surface. Enjoy the sunshine. Get summoned by the Dwarves of Gauntelgrym to lead an expedition of torchbearers into the depths to stop the demon lords.
Visit an underground trading post
Visit a mystical Stone Giant Library
Visit the Tower of a renegade drow wizard who has a PLAN
Search the Underdark for spell components for the ritual to lure all the demonlords together and banish them. Maybe see a demonlord.
Go to a demon lord wedding. Have an astra battle in a rotting skull, then maybe a physical battle with a demon lord.
Go to the Drow Homeland City of Menarezzzoboring to steal stuff.
Summon all the demon lords to a godzilla battle (option to have players play them) then maybe fight the surviving demon lord who is hopefully super messed up.
And I think that's a wrap!

 

[CaptainConundrum]

Go to the Drow Homeland City of Menarezzzoboring to steal stuff.

Hilarious!

 

[Lidgar]

Don't know about OotA (as I will be playing in that one), but PotA requires PLENTY of prep all the way through.

The biggest issue with the layout of these modules is WotC does a poor job (in my opinion) really summarizing plot lines and story elements efficiently. You really need to read the entire module and take notes throughout to get the big picture.

Another gripe is having the creature's stats spread across different locations/books (Appendix and Monster Manual). This makes it necessary to photocopy key pages ahead of time so you are not constantly flipping through these books during encounters.

One simple thing I would like them to do is have the DM PDF companion of the adventure to include ALL of the creatures used (not just the ones not included in the book and Basic PDF), keyed to encountered areas. That would greatly reduce the level of effort to prep.

That, and including better summaries at the beginning of each chapter...