D&D 5E Recommended one-shot adventure as an anniversary game?

[Duo Maxwell]

Maybe some sort of greatest hits dungeon? Take your best moments, biggest fights, etc. and put them into a dungeon that lets the players relive them all.

This sounds like a fun idea, especially since we can knock this one out in one night. My players have taken a liking to more role-playing these days instead of combat, so I'll hold on to this idea for now.

 

[Duo Maxwell]

I ran this and it was really fun, took 2-3 to finish but there was alot of side conversation and drinking. I think your group could knock it out in 1 night. I will recommend reading it twice though. Overall it was worth the $5.

Rats of Waterdeep - Dungeon Masters Guild | Dungeon Masters Guild

Rats of Waterdeep - Solve a brutal crime on the mean streets of Waterdeep in this madcap companion adventure for Xanathar's Guide to Everyth

www.dmsguild.com

I've seen this on DM's Guild but never ran it. Since my group is getting a kick from running around Waterdeep in our current adventure, I might consider running it.

 

[Duo Maxwell]

Dumb idea perhaps but here goes:

The week before you want to in fact run this game, call off your usual session and have everyone go to the pub instead - tell them the pub night itself is the 25th-anniversary celebration.

Take pens and paper with you. Once everyone's there, start talking at some point about what would be the greatest dungeon ever, and get people to throw in ideas. (at this stage, the drunker the people are, the better!)

At the end of the evening, scoop up the papers and take them home. During the week, try to make some sense of it all.

Then for the actual anniversary session the following week, run whatever they designed.

Since my group and I are the ones who grew up with games like the original Legend of Zelda before we even touched our first pen and paper RPG, I have a feeling I know what this greatest dungeon is gonna feel like

 

[Duo Maxwell]

We actually ran these before Doom of Daggerdale and they were lots of fun. IIRC the Sword of the Dales is based out of Shadowdale. I remeber alot of NPCs getting pants once they got ahold of the Sword of the Dales.

I really wish I wasn't a poor junior high/high school kid with no allowance when these originally came out because we had a ton of fun with 2e. I'll have to read a copy and see if it's worth converting to 5e.

 

[Duo Maxwell]

Depends on how long you have to play. I would want a dragon and as some point level the PCs to 2nd level. I would also try to get the group something to remember it by like this healing potion vial. It would be cool when the NPC gives everyone one when starting their quest.
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We love props at our table. Even though we've moved to a VTT for now, I would definitely want to pick this up when we all return to game face-to-face.

 

[Duo Maxwell]

Outlaws of the Iron Route. It's on dmsguild but I think it might be free.

I never ran an AL module. I'll have to set aside time to read this one, among the other suggested titles.

 

[R_J_K75]

I've seen this on DM's Guild but never ran it. Since my group is getting a kick from running around Waterdeep in our current adventure, I might consider running it.

Its a short read and only $5 so not too much of a time and monetary investment. We somewhat went off script, its got a few hiccups if you don't take good enough notes which I didn't, but overall it was a solid 3.5 out of 5.

 

[R_J_K75]

I really wish I wasn't a poor junior high/high school kid with no allowance when these originally came out because we had a ton of fun with 2e. I'll have to read a copy and see if it's worth converting to 5e.

Its been over 25 years since I ran those modules so I don't remember how much converting would be needed but I can say that its 100% worth converting to 5E.