First time DM here:
I just finished fully reading through Out of the Abyss and am really excited to run it for my players this week. After having played Hoard of the Dragon Queen, Rise of Tiamat, and Princes of the Apocalypse, my first impression is that this is a much better campaign than the 5e campaigns that came before it.
There is a ton of information, but seems to be fairly well organized. Each major stop has it's own specific section and there is one big "catch all" chapter that covers content that can take place during general Underdark traveling from place to place. This really cuts down on cross-referencing and as a first time DM, I'm not really worried that I'll miss out or forget to mention something that was briefly tossed into an obscure chapter in some corner of the book, which is something my DM complained about frequently while running PotA.
Out of the Abyss is a challenging campaign that will not lend itself well to players attempting to murderhobo everything they come across. This, I suspect, will encourage players to really think through the ways they maneuver various scenarios and promote good roleplaying. This is may discourage players who approach D&D as a combat simulator, as many times that strategy will simply not work. That being said, there is still plenty of combat to be had and there are opportunities for DMs to leverage a soft learning curve as players adapt to their situation. Character death is an ever-present threat but the campaign encourages DMs to present alternate scenarios with everything from characters being re-captured, strange places in the Underdark that allow character resurrection (with draw backs) or even having the bad guys resurrect killed players to interrogate them, setting up potential rescue missions. In light of these things, players should learn that leading with combat to every challenge is no bueno.
I definitely see the inspiration drawn from Alice in Wonderland as well. The Underdark is a crazy strange place, and this campaign brings plenty of delightful surprises to uncover. In fact, my biggest concern in running OotA is that there is SO MANY amazing things that players can uncover, that I'm somewhat nervous that they miss out on some of the coolest stuff. This book is stuffed full of content, and almost all of it contributes to great roleplaying experiences.
Mechanically speaking, I do have some concerns on how to handle the near-army's worth of NPCs that the characters will recruit to their cause throughout the game. You can't simply ignore them without great cost. Many of the NPCs play into some of the best gaming hooks throughout the campaign, however, I'm not keen on the idea of incorporating them into initiative order once combat starts. Even if you dole out the various NPCs for players to control, the idea of combat dragging out because each player has 1-3+ NPCs under their command on top of their character just screams of frustration and a terrible experience in my inexperienced opinion. Maybe their actions can be handwaved during combat, explained by saying that the NPCs are also in combat against other challengers not necessarily on the board, but I have a slight suspicion that with the challenges the players are facing, they may need the extra help. This is where my lack of experience is really working against me as a DM. I simply don't know and will probably have to adjust throughout the campaign in light of how it plays out.
That minor concern aside, Im still convinced that this is 5e's best campaign yet with a really fun pay-off in the end. I'm also excited to see how Madness will end up impacting the game and it's ever-changing intrusions on character interactions as the campaign progresses. Though I can definitely see how OotA is a daunting campaign for any first time DM, I also see it as a worthwhile challenge and possibly one of the most exciting times to hop into a DM's chair during 5e's brief history.
