D&D 5E The Flaw in Each Campaign Adventure (Spoilers)

[pukunui]

Too bad! Your character must immediately go somewhere where the background won’t matter, there is zero chance of running into someone who might know you, and you are indistinguishable from all the other murderhobos.

I understand WHY they did that, it’s just that it is possible to make an adventure background agnostic without making backgrounds completely irrelevant.

This is why having a Session 0 is super-important. Getting everyone on the same page so that the players all make PCs who will want to go on the adventure and who do have ties to things that come up during the campaign is definitely the way to go. (I've learned this the hard way, and I flatly refuse to do it any other way now.)

The direction on getting to Omu is relatively simple; you ask the guide you hire. They won't know, but they usually know where the Naga oracle is, who in turn does know where Omu is.

Two of the guides do know where Omu is - the yuan-ti and the coatl.

None of the groups I've DMed hired a guide who could help. They all got betrayed by the yuan-ti. Haha.
But it is a pretty weak connection even under the best circumstances. IIRC, the party has to guess they need to find Omu, guess who knows where to find it, guess where that person would be, etc. It's the weakest part of the adventure.

My players didn't trust the yuan-ti. They all thought she was too mean-spirited so didn't want to have anything to do with her. None of us ever felt like there was much guesswork involved, though.

The PCs were at the tavern. The acolyte of Savras came up and had his vision, so they went to visit the priest at the temple, who had his vision. They then hired the couatl to take them into the jungle to find the naga. The naga told them where to find Omu. They went to the aarakocra to so they could find Omu from the air. And so on.


As an aside, I'd just like to say that Omu turned out to be the deadliest adventure location I've ever run. I can't remember how many PCs died there but it was a lot. One didn't even last a whole session!

 

[Urriak Uruk]

None of the groups I've DMed hired a guide who could help. They all got betrayed by the yuan-ti. Haha.
But it is a pretty weak connection even under the best circumstances. IIRC, the party has to guess they need to find Omu, guess who knows where to find it, guess where that person would be, etc. It's the weakest part of the adventure.

Well if your group doesn't hire a guide, it kind of makes sense that they would wander around the jungle aimlessly, right?

Seriously that's some nitpicking if I've ever seen it.

 

[Retreater]

Well if your group doesn't hire a guide, it kind of makes sense that they would wander around the jungle aimlessly, right?

Seriously that's some nitpicking if I've ever seen it.

My quote was "didn't hire a guide who could help," which is a very different case than not hiring a guide at all. The module presents something like a dozen guides and the party has to interview who to hire. They could pick a clueless con artists or someone who plans to betray and kill them (which both of my groups did). In fact, I would say most of the guides do not know enough about Chult to actually benefit the party in ending the Death Curse.
So this is essentially a choke point in the first chapter of the adventure.

 

[the Jester]

I haven't actually run Descent into Avernus, but there is a huuuuuge flaw in it (IMHO)- the ways that the pcs can get a hag- a fiend- IN HELL, no less- to do stuff for them is by... being nice to her lackeys? That's the worst... I mean... words fail me. Being nice shouldn't get you anywhere with a hag, much less when you're not even being nice to her (directly).

 

[Weiley31]

I haven't actually run Descent into Avernus, but there is a huuuuuge flaw in it (IMHO)- the ways that the pcs can get a hag- a fiend- IN HELL, no less- to do stuff for them is by... being nice to her lackeys? That's the worst... I mean... words fail me. Being nice shouldn't get you anywhere with a hag, much less when you're not even being nice to her (directly).

Mt. Celestia help ya though if you get on her BAD SIDE.

 

[Eltab]

The first thing I noticed when I perused Tomb of Annihilation was that they compiled ideas for a year's worth of cool National Geographic Magazine articles ("The Jungles of Chult!") ... and put a ticking countdown timer on it, so you cannot stop to really explore / interact with the scenery.

 

[teitan]

we are having a blast with Dragon Heist but it lacks a good cheat sheet that clearly delineates to the DM relationships and the flow of things. Plus chapter 5+ is just kind of there and not necessary to the main plot? My players had a great time with setting up their tavern last weekend and we have a faction mission this weekend plus setting up a possible second faction for added... depth. I look forward to Mad Mage but I want to put other types of adventures into it to keep it less of a slog.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

My quote was "didn't hire a guide who could help," which is a very different case than not hiring a guide at all. The module presents something like a dozen guides and the party has to interview who to hire. They could pick a clueless con artists or someone who plans to betray and kill them (which both of my groups did). In fact, I would say most of the guides do not know enough about Chult to actually benefit the party in ending the Death Curse.
So this is essentially a choke point in the first chapter of the adventure.

I'm fairly certain that the cheap ones are unreliable, the expensive ones are good. So you get what you pay for.

 

[Todd Roybark]

While I have never ran an official 5e adventure as written, or even close to it’s entirety...I have stolen bits, be it a map, a NPC, a whole complex or chapter from each adventure except SGT.
(well and Avernus).

Were Official 3e adventures better in people’s opinion?

For me, outside Sunless Citadel, Red Hand of Doom, and Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, the rest of 3e modules fell flat. Dungeon Magazine, was flat out awesome then, though.

 

[pukunui]

For me, outside Sunless Citadel, Red Hand of Doom, and Expedition to Castle Ravenloft, the rest of 3e modules fell flat. Dungeon Magazine, was flat out awesome then, though.

Add in The Forge of Fury and you've pretty much got it.

"Iriandel" from Dungeon 83 was a highlight for me. (I converted it to 5e and ran it as part of my episodic campaign.) I also really enjoyed "Wedding Bells" from Dungeon 89.