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

[Piperken]

...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...

If you aren't planning on running suggestions in 5e, why limit to reading 5e campaigns? There's a lot of well organized and written campaigns out there that don't use a 5e house layout.

That said, while I haven't run or extensively read these, some have mentioned Dungeons of Drakkenheim as being a campaign they enjoyed running. I've also been intrigued by what Metis Creative have published; they may be worth looking at as well.

 

[Desdichado]

If you aren't planning on running suggestions in 5e, why limit to reading 5e campaigns? There's a lot of well organized and written campaigns out there that don't use a 5e house layout.

Because I'm wary of scope creep. I'm already familiar with Cthulhu campaigns, Paizo adventure paths and, of course, like I mentioned, The Enemy Within and other stuff. But I want to limit the suggestions to 3pp 5e campaigns.

That said, while I haven't run or extensively read these, some have mentioned Dungeons of Drakkenheim as being a campaign they enjoyed running. I've also been intrigued by what Metis Creative have published; they may be worth looking at as well.

Good call; that's one that I'd heard of but had forgotten.

 

[Desdichado]

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.

I would really love to get my hands on these if you can remember who's actually selling them. I've having a devil of a time locating them. Of course, internet searches are useless the last several years, but this one is kinda ridiculous.

EDIT: Actually, were they even released? I was able, after considerable effort, to find that two of the campaigns were released in full, but the rest... it seems not so much.

 

[Voadam]

I would really love to get my hands on these if you can remember who's actually selling them. I've having a devil of a time locating them. Of course, internet searches are useless the last several years, but this one is kinda ridiculous.

EDIT: Actually, were they even released? I was able, after considerable effort, to find that two of the campaigns were released in full, but the rest... it seems not so much.

I have the PDFs from when they were on drive thru. I think the new company is called something like Quimbleys and they still sell them on their own site. Mostly they focus on the board game stuff now though.

Edit looks like the relationship fell through this year and the quimbley site is down.

 

[GM Lent]

I loved the Primeval Thule setting, released for a few different systems early in the 5e era (before there was even an SRD or OGL for the edition, so some of the writing in the 5e version is pretty clunky). It was billed as "Conan metts Cthulhu" and for the most part stood by that idea.

Primeval Thule | Sasquatch Game Studio

I also loved Xoth, and used a bunch of Xoth material in myu Primeval Thule campaign back in the day.

xoth.net publishing - sword and sorcery roleplaying adventures

 

[Desdichado]

I have the PDFs from when they were on drive thru. I think the new company is called something like Quimbleys and they still sell them on their own site. Mostly they focus on the board game stuff now though.

Edit looks like the relationship fell through this year and the quimbley site is down.

Yeah, these 5(?) sagas seem to be exactly what I'm looking for, and of course, they seem to be almost completely unavailable anywhere. Sigh. Maybe if I just reach out to Sandy he'll help a guy out and point me in the right direction or something. I don't seem to have too many other options.

 

[titanguy654]

Dungeons of Drakkenheim. It's a sandbox, faction-based campaign located in a city destroyed by an Eldritch meteor. One of the best sandbox campaigns I've read due to the wealth of information and resources it comes with. Puts pretty much all the campaigns that WOTC have put out to shame.

 

[boffo01]

Completely Unfathomable (collecting Operation Undathomable and Odious Uplands) is a wonderfully entertaining setting if you're up for something a little offbeat. Strange creatures and oddball encounters abound. One of my all time favourite settings.

 

[Voadam]

I recommend changing the title to campaign adventures to avoid confusion with campaign settings.

 

[Desdichado]

Yeah, that probably would have been better. Regardless, I've got a long enough list of things to read for now.