D&D General Best "out of the box" ready to run adventures/modules?

[Mort]

There's a lively debate going on re: best adventures (well best 5e adventures), but I have a different question:

What adventures/modules did you find to be the best/easiest to run straight of the box? As in least prep time, easiest to just pick up and run modules/adventures?

I rarely run adventures/modules. I tend to pick them up and cannibalize theme for my own stuff - mostly this is because I've found that running a published module/adventure well requires so much work, prep etc. That I may as well just do my own thing - using the stuff in the adventure as inspiration, resources etc.

I did find Lost Mines of Phandelver pretty good in this regard - it was easy to start and run a group through, with minimal prep etc.

Thoughts?

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Ghosts of Saltmarsh is very easy to pick up and go. Just read the first adventure and you're all good to start.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

Oh, and Dragon Heist. It is extremely modular, but the first chapter works for every path you choose, so you can read that first chapter and start very easily. You'll eventually have to read the rest of the book, but it is easy to start.

 

[Mort]

Oh, and Dragon Heist. It is extremely modular, but the first chapter works for every path you choose, so you can read that first chapter and start very easily. You'll eventually have to read the rest of the book, but it is easy to start.

Hmm, I would actually rate Dragon Heist as a trap on that front!

It looks, like it should be easy to run out of the box, but it's a mess! IMO DMs, especially first time DMs are going to be very frustrated trying to run it as written.

There are good online resources to "fix" it - but as written, I strongly disagree that it's good out of the box.

I already posted my opinion:

D&D 5E - D&D 5e Adventure Reviews

So, D&D 5e has been out for almost 6 years, and there are a lot of prewritten adventures out so far. There have been ups and downs throughout the years. This thread is to discuss the adventures, their flaws and strengths, and to rank them. All of this is opinion based, there's obviously no right...

www.enworld.org

 

[Jester David]

Princes of the Apocalypse.

Backstory? Largely irrelevant. Plot? None. Investigation? Negligible. NPCs? Minor.
All you need to do is read what's going on in each adjacent room of the dungeon.

 

[GlassJaw]

Ghosts of Saltmarsh is very easy to pick up and go. Just read the first adventure and you're all good to start.

But after that your workload increases significantly.

The lizardman-sahuagin conflict can work but U2 and U3 are really clunky as written. You will need to read through them and make some clear decisions on what options you want to give the party.

Saltmarsh is an awesome as a home base but again, it needs a thorough read-through.

GoS isn't an adventure path. It's a sandbox with a collection of loosely tied together adventures, some of which are much better than others. But if you enjoy cobbling together sandbox settings, Saltmarsh gives you a LOT of tools and pieces to get started.

 

[GlassJaw]

Oh, and Dragon Heist. It is extremely modular, but the first chapter works for every path you choose, so you can read that first chapter and start very easily. You'll eventually have to read the rest of the book, but it is easy to start.

I wouldn't recommend Dragon Heist either. It's high on the prep scale. It has some significant holes and DM has to make some big choices up front.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

But after that your workload increases significantly.

The lizardman-sahuagin conflict can work but U2 and U3 are really clunky as written. You will need to read through them and make some clear decisions on what options you want to give the party.

Saltmarsh is an awesome as a home base but again, it needs a thorough read-through.

GoS isn't an adventure path. It's a sandbox with a collection of loosely tied together adventures, some of which are much better than others. But if you enjoy cobbling together sandbox settings, Saltmarsh gives you a LOT of tools and pieces to get started.

I wouldn't recommend Dragon Heist either. It's high on the prep scale. It has some significant holes and DM has to make some big choices up front.

I read the question as what books are easy to pick up and start. Those two are. To run them through to their entirety, you definitely need to read the whole book.

All the other adventure books are even more reliant on reading them front-to-back.

 

[Shiroiken]

Of the ones I've seen, the original Starter Set was by far the best for this, which is strange, as WotC has been notoriously bad at starter sets. I've heard that Curse of Strahd might have been good for this, but I never played it, so I don't know.

 

[Todd Roybark]

There are good online resources to "fix" it - but as written, I strongly disagree that it's good out of the box.

The individual parts of Dragon Heist are good. If one is the type of DM that can wing it then the maps, names and groups and slight variations gives one a ton to work with.

If you are not that type of DM, then some editing is in order.