D&D 5E What play after Dragon Heist (no DotMM)

[ccs]

I'll put a plug in for Curse of Strahd if your group is itching for gothic horror, but in no way should your DM run it as written. It, like most, needs work, and if done right, can be awesome.

Didn't read post #4 did you?

 

[ccs]

Hi, we are playing Dragon Heist and we love this game and our characters. But what play after? Our GM describe us some things about DotMM and everyone answer "that's nothing we want play"

Ok, if you want advice I'd suggest starting with editing your opening post to:
List the things you've already played!
Or don't want to play.

Right now I'm prepping to run the new Avernus adventure. It's interesting enough that I'll nominate it.

 

[delph]

Ok, if you want advice I'd suggest starting with editing your opening post to:
List the things you've already played!
Or don't want to play.

Right now I'm prepping to run the new Avernus adventure. It's interesting enough that I'll nominate it.

I add it to first post nwoe

Running a post-Dragon Heist game now, using the Adventurer's League "Umbral Aristocracy" trilogy...

thanks try to quote in game

Sort of depends on your party makeup and what the DM wishes to run. My group will be going into Decent into Avernus ....

thanks try to quote in game

 

[Ralif Redhammer]

Depending on which villain(s) you had for Dragon Heist, I could see Out of the Abyss hooking into it pretty easily.

 

[toucanbuzz]

Didn't read post #4 did you?

The edit of what you've played makes it easier than to find something buried in other posts. My experience over the years is that players don't like to play the same thing they just ran (e.g. mostly dungeon crawls or another jungle adventure). It always helps to have an idea of what people are wanting. Generically, if we're looking only at D&D 5E material, I'd promote:

Ghosts of Saltmarsh. Could be turned into a low to mid-level campaign for those who like nautical.

Out of the Abyss, ran this. Starts strong (imprisoned in Underdark), has a ton of moving parts (not for novice DMs), and after awhile can get tedious (foraging every day). If your DM is willing to put a lot of work adding encounters and providing a stronger link to the 2nd half (where the XP from adventuring is a fraction of what's needed to get to the end game), it could be good. Like others could use some adventures plugged in.

Storm King's Thunder. It's on my to-do list to run, looks fun, needs a lot of work. DM notes: it's more of a campaign setting, leaving it to the DM to fill in motivations and some adventures.

Tales of the Yawning Portal. This has some amazing converted classics that can be intertwined into the above campaigns or even weaved into something homebrew. I've run most of those adventures in prior settings and they tend to capture the imagination, very memorable, the type players talk about years later.

 

[robus]

Our GM describe us some things about DotMM and everyone answer "that's nothing we want play"

Care to illuminate what is unappealing about it? If it's being underground for an extended period that rules out a decent number of 5e adventures (or perhaps its too similar to the ending of ToA?)

Storm King's Thunder seems like it might be your best bet, but you'd have to come up with some transitional material.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

thanks try to quote in game

I don't know what this means?

Care to illuminate what is unappealing about it? If it's being underground for an extended period that rules out a decent number of 5e adventures (or perhaps its too similar to the ending of ToA?)

Storm King's Thunder seems like it might be your best bet, but you'd have to come up with some transitional material.

The big critique of DotMM is that it is a massive dungeon crawl, and there's not actually really a "plot," or antagonist driving the actions of the PCs.

In most 5E adventures, there is an antagonist (Tiamat, the Giants, the Demon Lords, Acererak, Zariel), driving some sort of agenda through intermediaries to reach some goal. DotMM doesn't do that; it needs to be very proactive of the PCs, that they want to go in this massive dungeon, for whatever reason.

After a couple floors of dungeons players really start to get in this funk of "why the hell am I risking this character's life for treasure this badly?"

 

[robus]

After a couple floors of dungeons players really start to get in this funk of "why the hell am I risking this character's life for treasure this badly?"

Sure, I had that feeling soon after we entered the temple of Elemental Evil in PotA. Character motivation is key part of the players experience these days. Just wandering around killing stuff and taking their loot might have sufficed in the early days (the novelty of the play experience providing a lot of the fun I imagine). But now there has to be a decent reason for characters to pursue a goal. I, for one, have zero interest in running DotMM.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Sure, I had that feeling soon after we entered the temple of Elemental Evil in PotA. Character motivation is key part of the players experience these days. Just wandering around killing stuff and taking their loot might have sufficed in the early days (the novelty of the play experience providing a lot of the fun I imagine). But now there has to be a decent reason for characters to pursue a goal. I, for one, have zero interest in running DotMM.

I've run a little bit of it... I think it works as a "quick fix" if you don't have time to plan a session. Otherwise, most people enjoy something more story-driven, or sandbox-y.

 

[Salthorae]

Sure, I had that feeling soon after we entered the temple of Elemental Evil in PotA. Character motivation is key part of the players experience these days. Just wandering around killing stuff and taking their loot might have sufficed in the early days (the novelty of the play experience providing a lot of the fun I imagine). But now there has to be a decent reason for characters to pursue a goal. I, for one, have zero interest in running DotMM.

I mean, yeah, it's a pretty old school style dungeon.

DM's will need to think about their party and the WHY that would push them into such a dangerous place again and again. (Maybe loyalty to Laerel or the Blackstaff and a mission might be enough).

That might not work for some groups/DM's. Our group moved on for the same reason... DM didn't have a "why" that would hook the PC's down into Undermountain, so we skipped it... and started a new game with someone else DM'ing.

We might yet go back to it, but... we'll see.