D&D 5E (2014) Campaigns or adventure anthologies?

[Morrus]

"Adventure Path" I assume is a Pathfinder

Yep. The term is used by Paizo to describe their products. In recent years it has become a more generic term though. WotC doesn’t use it.

(technically it began with the 3E Dragon Magazine content produced by Paizo — there were 3 ‘adventure paths’ — they took the term with them when WotC cancelled the magazine license, and launched the Pathfinder Adventure Paths).

So yeah, technically it’s a Paizo brand but it’s fairly ubiquitous these days.

 

[Umbran]

Because "campaign" as a product when it's not used with "adventure path" can't be described as "long" since it's not anything serial.

You don't need to be serialized to be long. Give someone a campaign sandbox product, and it can still take a long time to go through the content.

 

[Helldritch]

I voted for Anthologies. But I like my anthologies to be linked. The link could be obvious or nebulous it does not matter.

 

[aco175]

I voted episodic myself. I did like the box sets more than the other choices though. I have more use for a smaller campaign like that over something spanning 12-15 levels. Right now, I'm joining a Phandalin homebrew to the Forge of Fury adventure in the Yawning Portal book. I do not think it will expand to include more of the adventures in that book, but I may use some of them in other homebrew campaigns when short on design time.

That brings up the cost per use of anthologies. If I buy a 30-50$ book and only use part of it, I feel like I am overpaying since I do not see using some/most of it. With a large campaign book, I see up front if the feel of campaign is something the group will see through and use the whole book. I did run the Elemental Evil book since it fit my group, but the Chult one did not and I felt no need to purchase it.

I think that ideally I would like a book with a couple larger arcs that can fit together if wanted. Maybe more of a Saltmarsh book like what others are saying. A section of the book taking the PCs from levels 1-5, with another arc that is more self-contained for levels 5-8, and 8-10.

 

[not-so-newguy]

So I prefer the campaigns because I am a lazy, lazy man and usually don't want to put in the effort to make a whole campaign but I also like having long running campaigns with overarching plots. I've run 4 of the Campaigns that wizards have put out and while I usually end up changing a LOT of stuff having the bones of the campaign there to put some structure to the campaign is really helpful.

I tried Tales from the Yawning portal once and just couldn't get into the episodic disconnected feel of it. Admittedly I have stolen dungeons from it to run in other games so I do get some use out of them. Just not as much.

I chose anthologies, but I respect your style.

 

[Eltab]

I also like the Saltmarsh-style 'middle ground' of thematically linked adventures, presented in Level-advancement order.

Big campaigns should be released when rules modules that support the main theme are ready. The naval combat and boat rules from Saltmarsh would have been ideal (but Saltmarsh was an 'updating heritage' product) for a Pirates of the Caribbean-themed campaign. In contrast Frostmaiden's cold weather / exposure rules were not robust enough by themselves to support 10 levels of character advancement.

 

[pogre]

Anthologies for me. Not by a lot though. I like big campaign books. I hope that WOTC keeps trying different things.

My problem is I have players who frequently buy the adventures. They run them in adventure league - they're not trying to cheat or anything. It just limits the use of the WOTC books in my campaign.

 

[delericho]

In theory, my answer is anthologies, but with the big caveat that none of the WotC ones to date have been of any great interest to me. That said, I've largely checked out of their campaign books, too.

Two other things:

• I'm very much of the view that things should actually deliver what they claim. So the fact that many of the WotC "campaigns" are loosely-connected chunks that can easily be extracted is a big negative for me. If it's a campaign, I want a campaign. (And, conversely, if it's an adventure anthology, don't bother with any linking material.)
• Honestly, single standalone adventures are probably a better fit for me than anthologies - less wasted material. I understand, of course, that the economics of print make that impossible, but it's very much a niche for the DM's Guild.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

I should point out that the reason I'm "getting tired" of the long campaigns is because I've run a LOT of them. I've done Out of the Abyss and Dragon Heist twice each, I've run half of Tomb of Annihilation, half of Storm King's Thunder, all of Elemental Evil, half of Baldur's Gate, the first level of Dungeon of the Mad Mage, Horde of the Dragon Queen and half of Rise of Tiamat.... what am I missing?

And as a player, I've played Icewind Dale, Storm King's Thunder, Tomb of Annihilation, and Curse of Strahd.

As you can tell by the above list... I don't always finish them. They're too long! I prefer the length of Lost Mine of Phandelver, which I've run twice. I've run a little of Candlekeep and Saltmarsh as well, and while the story isn't as epic, they're easier to get done.

Don't get me wrong - I run them because I like them! I just wish they were a little shorter.

So as I've said in other threads - my ideal would be something between the two. Closer to the Anthologies, but with only four to eight adventures, with some kind of potential story connections, but with reasonable endings to each. So they could be more in-depth than, for example, the Candlekeep ones, but much shorter than the full campaign books.

 

[THEMNGMNT]

I always think I want anthologies but the reality is I get more mileage out of campaigns, even when I'm picking them apart and repurposing them for standalone adventures (as I have done with Dragon Heist countless times).