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

[PinkRose]

Point 1. WotC's 4e Adventure Path was Dragon-centric. Scales of War. As in, Dragon Scales. I know it wasn't the best but it was just done.

Point 2. I don't want a sandbox Adventure Path. I want an AP that makes it easy for me to DM straight from the page. I like the idea of Bandits and keeping a Keep.

Point 3. For a Sandbox, give us a huge Big Box Set. Menzoberranzan or Forgotten Realms or Night Below. Gardmore Abby was kinda close. Something like that.

 

[Primitive Screwhead]

I have become a fan of 'half tier' story arcs. Have the adventure cover 2 to 4 levels and be a developed story with memorable villians. I mean, when you think of games past do you think about the well balanced encounter with the Slaad.. or do you remember Lareth the Beuatiful?

Also I think the best module ever was "Chrome Beret's" a cp2020 game that had 5 developed factions and the module could end up in a myriad of ways.

This means that I would like to see a path that scratches the surface of a dungeon, then leads to a conspiracy that leads to a behind the scenes darklord villian

Like a dragon!


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[dd.stevenson]

Their first adventure will need to show us how inclusive D&D next really is. Whatever they provide at launch will be used as a template by future 5E adventure writers, so they really need to get this part right.

How was caves of chaos received across those with different play styles?
It would be interesting to know.

 

[Stormonu]

I guess I'm the only one who wants to see them put out the original AD&D modules, just prettied up like the AD&D core reprints?

Failing that, I'd like to see a solid dungeon crawl starter adventure. Something like Caves of Chaos, but a little more interesting - and all underground. Later adventures would include wilderness travel/hexcrawling and culminate in plane-hopping, if you want to go that far.

The big thing is, each adventure should have a beginning, middle and end that doesn't REQUIRE you to buy any of the others. You can pick up in the middle or just play the first adventure (or three) and skip out to your tale without feeling like you lost something.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I guess I'm the only one who wants to see them put out the original AD&D modules, just prettied up like the AD&D core reprints?

I started in 1979 and played most of those as they first came out, and still love most of them. (Heck, I still have two copies of Dungeonland on my shelf.)

But the game doesn't advance by reissuing the same six adventures over and over. Every edition should have had classic adventures but didn't, I'd argue, partially because TSR and WotC were content to keep returning to the same well over and over again.

Save the conversions or homages for later on. WotC needs to create a few new classics of their own, first.

 

[nerfherder]

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.

This.

The first published 5e adventure should be a pristine example of "how to write a 5e adventure". It should showcase the various tools of the edition, provide an introduction for recommended secondary rules for the adventure (or adventure arc), provide grey box text for various play styles, encompass the three pillars, and be an excellent example for DM's who wish to write their own adventures and campaigns, as well as aspiring authors and publishers who wish to provide material for this iteration of D&D.

I would actually prefer two simultaneously published adventures, both embodying the above elements. One would be an example of a traditional sandbox embracing a low power setting for the old schoolers, and the other would be an example of a more plot driven adventure embracing a more heroic setting for... well... me.

And this.

I'd much rather have a toolbox with some small building blocks that I can combine and plug my own ideas into, than a monolithic AP.

 

[avin]

Wotc should start hiring fresh-minded writers... and stay away from tolkien.

 

[nerfherder]

Wotc should start hiring fresh-minded writers... and stay away from tolkien.

If they hired Tolkien, I'd be impressed (and slightly nervous about what rituals they had to use)!

 

[avin]

If they hired Tolkien, I'd be impressed (and slightly nervous about what rituals they had to use)!

Well, US government is denying zombies, so...

 

[Kaodi]

If there are ample modules for different things rather than just different styles, then I believe that showcasing them is the right way to go. RangerWickett joked about the original Mario Bros., but later installments may also inform our opinion: Super Mario Galaxy 2, which was supposed to do something different in practically every level, was given the perfect score by more than one outfit (unfortunately I cannot quite corroborate this myself since I quit video games before I had a chance to really play through most of it).

I bet that if Paizo wanted to they could have an adventure path that used Skulls & Shackles' ship rules in the first two adventures, Jade Regent's caravan rules in the third, and Kingmaker's kingdom building and army rules in the last few. And if Next has similar sorts of modules, it could easily be done with that as well.

In any case, there has to be a dungeon in the middle and a dragon at the end. Those are the two cardinal rules.