D&D General The most played D&D Adventure of all time

[FitzTheRuke]

Here's an Anecdote that might be interesting for the conversation:

Take my personal FLGS after-hours 5e group. I have 5ish players. I'd say that on average, those 5 guys have bought 3 of EVERY BOOK that 5e has put out. BUT... we haven't PLAYED all of them. We only got a little way into Princes of the Apocalypse before switching to Out of the Abyss, for example. We haven't had time to play Theros, Eberron, Ravnica, or Stryxhaven. We didn't play Call of the Netherdeep or Dungeon of the Mad Mage. We've played most of the rest (though we haven't finished all the levels of the Tomb of Annihilation).

My point is: 5e Books have SOLD and sold shockingly well. But I wonder how that translates to PLAYED? My group alone is responsible for many Bought but Unplayed copies! One of the "problems" (Which B2 doesn't have) is that the 5e Adventures take ~18 months of weekly gaming to finish!

Now, that's not true of Lost Mines, which is another reason why I think that it "Wins" (on top of selling ~1M copies, and people starting with it will actually play it).

My copy has been used at least 3 times!

But the other Adventures? I suspect that their sales are multiple times what their played-value would be. B2 is certainly the other way around.

I think all that we can confidently guess is that LMoP and B2 are the most played adventures ever, and that they're very likely CLOSE to each other, but dwarf everything else.

 

[Zardnaar]

Here's an Anecdote that might be interesting for the conversation:

Take my personal FLGS after-hours 5e group. I have 5ish players. I'd say that on average, those 5 guys have bought 3 of EVERY BOOK that 5e has put out. BUT... we haven't PLAYED all of them. We only got a little way into Princes of the Apocalypse before switching to Out of the Abyss, for example. We haven't had time to play Theros, Eberron, Ravnica, or Stryxhaven. We didn't play Call of the Netherdeep or Dungeon of the Mad Mage. We've played most of the rest (though we haven't finished all the levels of the Tomb of Annihilation).

My point is: 5e Books have SOLD and sold shockingly well. But I wonder how that translates to PLAYED? My group alone is responsible for many Bought but Unplayed copies! One of the "problems" (Which B2 doesn't have) is that the 5e Adventures take ~18 months of weekly gaming to finish!

Now, that's not true of Lost Mines, which is another reason why I think that it "Wins" (on top of selling ~1M copies, and people starting with it will actually play it).

My copy has been used at least 3 times!

But the other Adventures? I suspect that their sales are multiple times what their played-value would be. B2 is certainly the other way around.

I think all that we can confidently guess is that LMoP and B2 are the most played adventur

es ever, and that they're very likely CLOSE to each other, but dwarf everything else.

Here's an Anecdote that might be interesting for the conversation:

Take my personal FLGS after-hours 5e group. I have 5ish players. I'd say that on average, those 5 guys have bought 3 of EVERY BOOK that 5e has put out. BUT... we haven't PLAYED all of them. We only got a little way into Princes of the Apocalypse before switching to Out of the Abyss, for example. We haven't had time to play Theros, Eberron, Ravnica, or Stryxhaven. We didn't play Call of the Netherdeep or Dungeon of the Mad Mage. We've played most of the rest (though we haven't finished all the levels of the Tomb of Annihilation).

My point is: 5e Books have SOLD and sold shockingly well. But I wonder how that translates to PLAYED? My group alone is responsible for many Bought but Unplayed copies! One of the "problems" (Which B2 doesn't have) is that the 5e Adventures take ~18 months of weekly gaming to finish!

Now, that's not true of Lost Mines, which is another reason why I think that it "Wins" (on top of selling ~1M copies, and people starting with it will actually play it).

My copy has been used at least 3 times!

But the other Adventures? I suspect that their sales are multiple times what their played-value would be. B2 is certainly the other way around.

I think all that we can confidently guess is that LMoP and B2 are the most played adventures ever, and that they're very likely CLOSE to each other, but dwarf everything else.

Another factor is 32 page Adventures may be more likely to get played vs a larger book.

Way more likely to be completed as well.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Another factor is 32 page Adventures may be more likely to get played vs a larger book.

Way more likely to be completed as well.

Absolutely. I understand why WotC doesn't want to SELL them that way anymore, but it's a (IMO) WAY better format for D&D Adventures.

 

[Zardnaar]

Absolutely. I understand why WotC doesn't want to SELL them that way anymore, but it's a (IMO) WAY better format for D&D Adventures.

Yeah I have same opinion. There's really only 2 good hardcover 5E adventures. Starter Set and essentials are good and even DoIP isn't bad.

Other modules like PotA are decent lvl 1-5 then fall apart later.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Yeah I have same opinion. There's really only 2 good hardcover 5E adventures. Starter Set and essentials are good and even DoIP isn't bad.

Other modules like PotA are decent lvl 1-5 then fall apart later.

Which two hardcovers?

 

[Zardnaar]

Which two hardcovers?

Curse of Strahd, Tomb of Annihilation.

Plus side none are outright awful mostly just average.

 

[bedir than]

I'm surprised it hasn't been mentioned, but it was the only official module/adventure I played in the 80s -- Dragons of Despair

 

[Parmandur]

I'm confident it's outsold B2.

B2 did see play over 3 editions+ conversions in other editions+reprint in 5E and 40 years old so personally wouldn't claim more people have played LMoP. It's plausible more people have played it but the reverse is also true

Probably impossible to know, but seems safe to put those 2 in the S-tier with no plausible competition other than each other.

Given what Perkins has been laying down about the new DMG having multiple Adventures, I do somewhat suspect that we may see B2 included in the book.

 

[Zardnaar]

Probably impossible to know, but seems safe to put those 2 in the S-tier with no plausible competition other than each other.

Given what Perkins has been laying down about the new DMG having multiple Adventures, I do somewhat suspect that we may see B2 included in the book.

Tier list would be interesting. Those two are S though. Need to see bookscan numbers again for phb and 5E adventures sales numbers.


X1 and ToEE would be the only other tsr contenders prefaced by a maybe depending on bookscan numbers.

 

[Parmandur]

My point is: 5e Books have SOLD and sold shockingly well. But I wonder how that translates to PLAYED? My group alone is responsible for many Bought but Unplayed copies! One of the "problems" (Which B2 doesn't have) is that the 5e Adventures take ~18 months of weekly gaming to finish!

I'll complicate it a step further: with those big books, it is easy to pick parts out and use seperate from the rest...unlike B2.