D&D 5E Anyone else feeling "meh" about recent 5e releases?

[Zardnaar]

The worst 5E WotC adventures are not terrible though, low side of average. There's no Forest Oracle or Highlander 2 equivalent.

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

My fondness for MTG is at minimum giving it sparkle

The few things I know of MtG came from the Planeshift articles: they all sparked at least some interest to play an AP in a somewhat different setting
Curse of Strahd in Innistrad, Tomb of Anihilation in Ixalan etc

I scraped my prep for Dragon Heist -> Rise of Tiamat set in FR, instead running it in Ravnica, with Tiamat being a 5-mana-fueled Glory Bringer dragon ''stolen'' from Amon-khet and twisted with mech and stuff from Izzet and Symic.

 

[Parmandur]

There's no correlation between adventure quality and sales.

Biggest selling adventure of all time isn't the best adventure of the era.

Name recognition and a popular edition are more important. HotDQ came out first and has Dragon in the title.

Niche stuff won't sell that well comparatively regardless of the quality.

3pp is doing it better than WoTC. Kobold Press comes to mind. Name recognition, marketing etc though.

There is, however, a correlation between satisfactory quality and longevity. It's not that these books are selling well, it is that they are selling for year after year at a high rate: which means word of mouth is working for them.

There are other factors no that you are not considering, as well. For instance, you say you might not want to run a campaign in Waterdeep specifically. Bit, you might have use for the over two dozen dungeons provided in am urban environment. These books are goldmines, even ignoring the overarching plots.

 

[Zardnaar]

There is, however, a correlation between satisfactory quality and longevity. It's not that these books are selling well, it is that they are selling for year after year at a high rate: which means word of mouth is working for them.

There are other factors no that you are not considering, as well. For instance, you say you might not want to run a campaign in Waterdeep specifically. Bit, you might have use for the over two dozen dungeons provided in am urban environment. These books are goldmines, even ignoring the overarching plots.

I don't think casuals are going to mine adventures. It's old hat for salted players.

When you have popular editions tie in adventures will be well regarded.

The best ones usually come a few years into an editions lifecycle but before it starts heading downhill.

The most popular ones are usually early and mid cycle ones.

Not absolute of course and there's always an exception somewhere.

 

[Vael]

Well, Hoard of the Dragon Queen is still in print after five years, and people are still talking about running it. So at least one of those books has a longer shelflife than previous WotC editions, let alone adventures. If WotC succeeds with their evergreen plan, all of those books will still be relevant in ten years for playing wit the current rules.

Yay? I'm sorry, but I really dislike that adventure. It's poorly conceived, didn't read well, it was a frustrating PITA to run and I abandoned it less than halfway through.

 

[FlyingChihuahua]

Yay? I'm sorry, but I really dislike that adventure. It's poorly conceived, didn't read well, it was a frustrating PITA to run and I abandoned it less than halfway through.

Good for you.

Other people disagree, and they aren't wrong or bad for doing so.

 

[cmad1977]

I’d say I’m more
‘Oooh’
Or like
‘HEEEeeeay’
Or like
‘Niiice’.

 

[Parmandur]

Yay? I'm sorry, but I really dislike that adventure. It's poorly conceived, didn't read well, it was a frustrating PITA to run and I abandoned it less than halfway through.

Well, that is certainly your experience, but it is not universal.

 

[Zardnaar]

Objectively I think HotDQ is a bad adventure.

But depending on your DM and players you could have fun.

It's also not that hard to easily modify or start at level 2.
The opening scene is terrible. 6 to 8 encounters but 3 or 4 is tpk material here.

 

[Vael]

Good for you.

Other people disagree, and they aren't wrong or bad for doing so.

Good for you for educating me. Congratulations. Have a peach.

Well, that is certainly your experience, but it is not universal.

Again, thanks for pointing out the obvious.

However, I'd state that even positive reviews of the book point out that there significant flaws in the adventure. I've read more threads and posts about how to actually run the darn book than any other 5e adventure.

But fine, I haven't read all the 5e adventures, and clearly I'm an outlier, so I'll ask the thread: How would you order the 5e Adventures from best to worst? And how do they compare to other adventures from other systems?