D&D 5E If WotC is outsourcing official 5E material to 3PP, What is WotC working on?

[Remathilis]

I mostly think it's a colloquialism to distinguish them from the shorter 1-2 level tops modules of prior editions. I personally prefer WotC's "storyline" terminology.

 

[Parmandur]

All of their adventure books are more like collections of adventuring material, with a thin veneer connecting them. Very easy to disassemble and use chapters just like old-timey modules. Not really tight paths like the Aughts Dragon material seems to have been.

 

[gyor]

Waterdeep: DH and Waterdeep: DMM do have links beyond both occuring in Waterdeep, and even to a lesser extent so does Tales of the Yawning Portal.

That is really the only 5e AP that has interested me so far.

 

[Parmandur]

Waterdeep: DH and Waterdeep: DMM do have links beyond both occuring in Waterdeep, and even to a lesser extent so does Tales of the Yawning Portal.

That is really the only 5e AP that has interested me so far.

Right, they connect...but they aren't really a "Path" the way Age of Worms or the Shackled City are.

 

[Hussar]

Minor beef: I wish people would stop calling Wizards of the Coast's adventures "Adventure paths". They are adventures - big ones, certainly, but still adventures. A path consists of many steps - the only thing they've offered so far in print that I'd consider an adventure path is Tyranny of Dragons (though a two-part path is pretty slim). I'm not sure I'd consider Waterdeep to be one - as I understand it there's no real connection between Dragon Heist and Dungeon of the Mad Mage other than both being linked to Waterdeep.

I dunno, Storm King's Thunder seems pretty solidly in the AP mode. You have to defeat each giant type before progressing to the final destination. Same goes for Princes of the Apocolypse - why wouldn't that qualify?

I guess I'm not seeing the issue here. A really big module is an Adventure Path - as opposed to a single adventure which is one and done.

 

[Parmandur]

I dunno, Storm King's Thunder seems pretty solidly in the AP mode. You have to defeat each giant type before progressing to the final destination. Same goes for Princes of the Apocolypse - why wouldn't that qualify?

I guess I'm not seeing the issue here. A really big module is an Adventure Path - as opposed to a single adventure which is one and done.

While they provide threads, it is also super easy to take most any chapter from SKT and use it without the original context and make close to no changes. It's more like a bunch of old fashioned modules given a suggested structure than a railroaded path. More of an Adventure Buffet.

 

[Mistwell]

Strahd is an AP. You have to proceed through a series of adventures, obtaining various things along the way as dictated through the cards, until the high level encounter at the end.

It's more sandbox than many and changes every time you play it depending on the cards drawn but it still runs like an AP.

 

[vecna00]

While they provide threads, it is also super easy to take most any chapter from SKT and use it without the original context and make close to no changes. It's more like a bunch of old fashioned modules given a suggested structure than a railroaded path. More of an Adventure Buffet.

You can also do that with any AP as each one is designed to also be used by itself if the DM so chooses.

 

[Parmandur]

You can also do that with any AP as each one is designed to also be used by itself if the DM so chooses.

My first experience with published adventures is from 5E, so I'm not intimately familiar with Pathfinder style AP, but what I gather from friends who have, they seem more "programmed."

 

[oknazevad]

While they may be sold as single volumes, instead of serialized across 6 issues, the 5e hardbacks are still a series of adventure modules that tie together. The AP name is not in correct in that regard.