D&D 5E 5e D&D adventures that have taught you the most

[Warpiglet]

I first played D&D in grade school back in the early 80s. I am an unabashed fan of the game with particular fondness for 1e and 5e.

This game is my only true hobby (including terrain building and minis). I have generally been a player but am moving toward more DMing spurred on in no small part due to my growing mini and terrain collection but also to some increased confidence.

Part of this comes from "seeing how it's done" in some modules. I have been reading through out of the abyss and find it to be a really good "how to" with regard to set pieces, drop in encounters with maps, random encounters and advice.

I am curious to know which other 5e products are good for an aspiring DM and would love to hear about your experiences!

What other product is a good manual for how to design. Your own?

 

[pogre]

Have not had that experience with 5e as much, but I know the feeling. For me the "seeing how it is done" moments came from:
Basic B2 Keep
AD&D T1 Hommlet
CoC Masks of Nyarlathotep
WFRP Shadows Over Bogenhafen
3e Lost City of Barakus and Red Hand of Doom

 

[aco175]

Lost Mine of Phandelvar is good for new DMs- it is designed for them. I found it good for getting into 5e but certainly better than some of the larger books like Hoard of the Dragon Queen. I have read the Essentials box set about Icespire Peak but have not run it yet. Looking at them both I think that my players will like Lost Mines better just because much is laid out and not so open or sandboxy. I hope I'm wrong since I like to give choices but tend to find too much free reign leads to being paralization.

 

[iserith]

Lost Mine of Phandelver is my pick for best module of D&D 5e. That said, I don't actually think modules are a good example of what a DM should be preparing for a game. Since a module is essentially someone explaining to someone else their particular vision, it's way more prep than a typical DM will need to present a decent game.

 

[Oofta]

Modules serve a different purpose than what I write up for my home campaign. In short, I write a fraction of what modules have.

I posted what I do for campaigns not that long ago, but in brief I have a handful of factions, what the current conflicts and ideas on what's going to happen for the next game. Rinse and repeat.

I have some general ideas of what's happening long term, but honestly if the group decides to ignore the rift to hell opening up or the invasion by odd bug-like creatures then they do. At the end of a session I try to come up with a handful of options, or let the group tell me what they want to do. Maybe they investigate the rift, maybe they investigate the weird traveler I threw in for flavor as an after thought.

Combine that with a bunch of lists of random names for people (by race and gender) along with store names. I have a general idea of possible encounters but always figure out a couple more than I think I will need.

In other words, running a home campaign is very dynamic and nothing like running a module.

 

[Nebulous]

Lost Mine of Phandelver is my pick for best module of D&D 5e. That said, I don't actually think modules are a good example of what a DM should be preparing for a game. Since a module is essentially someone explaining to someone else their particular vision, it's way more prep than a typical DM will need to present a decent game.

I also think LMoP is one of the better modules for 5e. I'm running it a second time for a new group and enjoying it far more than the first run through five years ago.

 

[Nebulous]

In other words, running a home campaign is very dynamic and nothing like running a module.

I think one of my favorite things about running modules is the shared experience it creates. It's like when people see the same movie, and have the same visceral reaction (or dislike) of certain scenes, it is a point of commonality. Hey, remember when such and such happened? Yeah, that was cool. We all died.

 

[Zardnaar]

Nothing really, I learnt the most off AD&D, B/X and the Paizo ones.

I learnt how to not do an adventure with HotDQ I suppose.

They're basically a greatest hits collection of adventures some outright updates.

The few things not in a module were probably in 3.5 Dungeon or Paizo.

I don't own 4 of them but have the rest afaik. Maybe 5 now with Avernus.

 

[Theo R Cwithin]

I'll second what several others here have already said.

I'm finding Lost Mine of Phandelver and Dragon of Icespire Peak to be very helpful models for building my own low-level 5e campaign. Each presents a completely different structure, while both are well laid out and small enough to wrap your head around.

Of the bigger 5e campaigns, I found Curse of Strahd to be a good, digestible example of how to assemble higher-level sandboxy adventures. It's especially nice because the peculiarities of the world greatly limits its scope, so it's simpler for my feeble brain to grasp in its entirety (compared to the few others I've read, like OotA and SKT). Strahd will be the one I turn to when I'm ready to build my first campaign in the next tier up.