D&D 5E Against the Slave Lords/Dungeons of dread books...or another module/campaign?

Celebrim said:

The same could be said of the map of Bavaria in Ravenloft. The issue is the scale of the map. It's quite possible to make each of the wilderness journeys in a day or two at most. There isn't enough time invested in that journey to make all the problems mentioned in the text in any way relevant. Any exploring is not only strictly optional, but makes no sense as a choice for the players in context. People just follow the road/breadcrumbs and no trip requires much time.

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A couple of suggestions: change the scale of the map. I don't have it handy, but I think that Raurin is huge. And "empty," so it is easy to make it any scale you need. Second suggestion is that a failed survival check is the DM's best friend. Lost desert tribesmen, hidden oases, cranky brown and blue dragons, ancient Imaskari ruins, etc.

Just take some inspiration from the world around you - how often do you see news stories of a lost hiker who is literally the next hill over from civilization...

Actoba said:

I'm DM'ing for a small and completely new to DnD group (including myself).

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Congrats, Actoba!

Actoba said:

I was wondering if people had any suggestions for campaigns they would recommend for a relatively inexperienced group? [snip] I've been possibly looking at the recently re-released Against the Slave Lords/Dungeons of Dread books as possible options since the playtest packet also has bestiaries for them but if anyone has any other suggestions or recommendations i'd appreciate them.

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I'm a fan of many AD&D era adventures. It sounds like your group will be starting new PCs for the new campaign; will you create PCs for the level of the adventure(s) you want to run, or were you planning to start the new campaign with level 1 PCs to help ground the new players in the game?

Actoba said:

I kinda like the idea of trying something with a bit more wilderness exploration in it as well as it's something i havent quite got a feel for how to do properly i dont think. That and I guess something a little more sandbox-y rather than so much on rails might be useful too.

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The aforementioned Night's Dark Terror is an excellent and often under-appreciated adventure, definitely worth checking out. It's also for lower level PCs, so that's good since it sounds like you'll have novice players with you again. L1 Secret of Bone Hill has a nice sandbox wilderness to it, too, and is also for lower level PCs (2-4, like NDT). If you're looking for some higher level wilderness fare, I would recommend S4 Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth (recently reprinted in Realms of Terror) and WG4 Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun, which both have extensive mountainous wildernesses surrounding their dungeon sites.

The group is about to start the last adventure of the Dragonspear castle campaign this weekend. I'll be hunting down and reading a fair few of the suggestions made here over xmas. I particularly like the idea of running the sundering adventures tho given that it would hopefully inform and provide us with a connection to the likely future adventures come the full Next release. Thanks all!

I'm going to second Red Hand of Doom, which is a wonderful adventure with a lot of variety in encounter types, setting, etc; has a significant threat with proactive villains who have an actual plan and pose a real threat, and comes with a timeline of their progress if not interfered with; includes a lot of very open choices for the pcs; and sketches out the consequences of failure as well as success for the pcs.

It is one of the best and best-looking adventures ever published for D&D, IMHO.

The only flaw from your perspective is the fact that it starts at 4th level.

I'd recommend Village of Hommlet, followed by Secret of Bone Hill and the Assassin's Knot, leading into RHoD. And honestly, depending on what your players do, they might be above 4th level by the time they go through all three of those earlier modules, so you might end up wanting to curtail some of them. But that's a string of some of D&D's best published adventures (again, IMHO).

Just a quick follow up/close out here to say that my group finished the Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle campaign just before xmas. The end didnt go so well if i'm honest both in terms of the PC's survival (only 1 survived) and in terms of the players understanding/engagement with the story as a whole. Several times they all looked at me, then at each other, and remarked "I dont know what to do" and had to be prodded/pushed a little bit to make a decision when there was no clear "next step" or when it was left more open ended. Because it wasnt a more traditional dungeon type affair too i think that confused them a little.

I think that contrary to what i suggested in my posts before i suspect they're not ready to be given the freedom of a more sandboxy type adventure and need things to be on rails a bit more till they gain a bit more experience....probably me too!

We've pretty much decided to go with the sundering series next (I already have MiBG and will pick up the others later no doubt) and just run each as standalone adventures to allow them to play with different classes and learn a bit more without worrying about a longer campaign. We figured that it will be nice to be involved in the sundering story for when the full release comes out in the summer and let them get more familiar with some places, classes, mechanics, and playstyles too.

Thanks one last time for the advice, suggestions and opinions here...i'm sure i'll come back to this thread at some point in the months to come. All the best for 2014!

lots of good suggestions already given. if you want more structured modules, i would say look at some of the b series modules. they are designed for beginner play and most of the creatures should be in the playtest packet. night's dark terror is good, also keep on the borderlands, in search of the unknown, and palace of the silver princess. they all are fairly detailed and provide helpful hints for the dm.