D&D 5E (2014) Best third party campaign books - recommend me some

[Desdichado]

I'm going trawling through campaign books and adventure path like things, looking for some to read. There's obviously a bazillion of them out there. I'm looking to winnow down the list of ones I might want to read, however, to the best of the best.

Couple of caveats: my tastes lean towards darker, lower magic, grubbier fantasy rather than cozycore or high fantasy animal-headed people. I recently read Cubicle 7s Enemy Within Director's Cut for example, and that's probably my ideal of a campaign to read; I'm also going through older Freeport adventures, which kinda sorta resemble a big campaign. But for this exercise, I'm specifically looking for 3PP 5e compatible ones.

I don't care much about mechanics; I would never run these in 5e anyway. I just want to know which 3PP 5e campaigns I should read to loot for good ideas. My short list of ones that I know about and will probably read include Call From the Deep and Kobold's Empire of Ghouls. I'm also thinking of scaring up a copy of Sands of Doom by MrRhexx. But give me your feedback on those, plus any others. I haven't been paying a ton of attention to the market, so I don't know what to look at.

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

I liked "Aventures in Rokugan". I bought the Spanish translation. I also have got "Iron Kingdoms: Requiem" but I didn't like too much any things about the lore.

 

[Desdichado]

Is Iron Kingdoms Requiem a campaign? I thought it was an update to the setting.

 

[Necropolitan]

Chains of Asmodeus: https://www.dmsguild.com/product/457996/Chains-of-Asmodeus

Courts of the Shadow Fey:
5E: Courts of the Shadow Fey for 5th Edition - Kobold Press Store
4E: Courts of the Shadow Fey (4th Edition) - Kobold Press Store
Pathfinder 1E: Courts of the Shadow Fey (Pathfinder) - Kobold Press Store

 

[Voadam]

I like the 5e Cthulhu D&D adventure paths that were originally put out by Petersen Games. They have four part ones that are themed around Mi-Go, Yig, Tsathogua, Ghouls, and Hastur (and I think an all in one single big one about Dopplegangers/possibly Shoggoths?). Dark World is the Mi Go one and the only one they have left on Drivethru and just part one. I can't remember the name of the company they sold off their old 5e Cthulhu stuff to. Strong focused specific Lovecraft themes for a full on D&D campaign AP.

 

[Voadam]

Northlands Saga stuff from Frog God appeals to me the most of their 5e stuff, though they have not converted the entire saga yet that they have in Swords & Wizardry and Pathfinder 1e.

If you like the darkness of the Ghoul Empire one you might also like The Blight from Frog God.

For more dark stuff from Kobold Press who did the Ghoul Empire I like the dark fairy tale forest of the Tales of the Old Margreve adventure anthology.

 

[Voadam]

For Freeport, there is only the Death in Freeport conversion for 5e, but if all you want is the story ideas and D&D beats the Pathfinder 1e Return to Freeport and the 3.5 Black Sails and the Trilogy follow up 3.0 Hell in Freeport and 3.5 Crisis in Freeport provide a bunch more. Hell and Crisis lead directly from the Trilogy but are not as highly regarded, Crisis in particular has a sexual assault plot line that will be offputting to a number of people. There are also Goodman Games and Adamant 3rd party shorter supplemental adventures set there, I think the Goodman Games one won an award.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Ptolus contains several campaigns within it, with one particular one foregrounded that goes from the depths of the Dungeon below up to semi-secret locations on the Spire above the city.

 

[humble minion]

Is Iron Kingdoms Requiem a campaign? I thought it was an update to the setting.

It’s a setting book and rules supplement only. There a couple of adventures available for the setting, but no level 1 to 10+ campaign in the style of Curse of Strahd or the other modern WotC 5e campaign books.

 

[Zardnaar]

I quite like the Midgard Heroes and World book from Kobold Press.