D&D 5E Is every Official Adventure Going to be about Saving the World?

[Grainger]

But would you run a 1-15 campaign about trying to do a prison rescue?

No, I would vary it up along the way. By level 15, they may be saving the world (or more likely, part of it), but they will more often be competing against other high-level characters - often just for power - not because the world is at stake.

On a related note, I once played in a 2e campaign which was epic in scale. Everything we encountered was huge - the biggest fortress ever seen, we were fighting the mightiest enemies, etc. etc. For the players who had worked their way up from 1st level, and gradually increased in power, it must have been a great experience, because what they had been working up to was paying off. However, it meant absultely nothing to me. I had just parachuted into the campaign, and none of it was relate-able. So what if I was encountering galactic-scale threats? I was 20th-level (or whatever it was), and it may as well have been a 1st-level character against Kobolds - in fact that would have been more relate-able IMO.

I realise the DM could (and should) maybe have put some hooks in to get me more involved, and make me care about The Epic that was happening around me, but putting that aside and looking purely at the power levels involved, it didn't really mean anything in itself - that scale has to be the culmination of the character's arc for it to meaningful. Personally, if it's a one-shot, or I'm dropping into a campaign, I'd rather be doing the prison rescue.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

No, I would vary it up along the way. By level 15, they may be saving the world (or more likely, part of it), but they will more often be competing against other high-level characters - often just for power - not because the world is at stake.

In most adventure paths I've seen, you aren't even aware that the world needs saving until the mid point. Granted, I haven't read HoDQ, but the ones I am familiar with (Runelords, Savage Tide, Age of Worms) don't tip their hands at level 1. Clues are sprinkled along the way, and the adventures feed into one another. Like, I don't even think you hear Karzoug's name until the end of the 4th adventure, so that's only the last 2 segments of "save the world". Previously its
1) kill some goblins
2) solve some murders
3) save a fort
4) save the city

Which is the normal ramp up I'd expect in a heroic adventure path/campaign. There's no world shattering urgency until the last 2 adventures, which is campaign endgame. AP's really arent suited to sandbox style games (really no single published adventure product is), so expecting a module to adapt to whatever your players want to spend their high levels doing is unrealistic.

And as evidenced from the "what to do with gold" threads, lots of players aren't interested in running a kingdom or playing politics. They signed on for Dungeons and Dragons, not Taxes & Treaties. This style of AP is right up their alley. What the kingdom/army builder player needs is a good sourcebook and GM advice, since anything tightly woven enough to be called an adventure path is probably already too rail roady.

 

[Parmandur]

We really don't know the extent of their product plans; we do have a very down to Toril adventure in Lost Mines, as stated above, and we might have more on the way, either through the Adventurers League or through further releases. Insufficient data to know.

 

[Staffan]

Isn't "Princes of the Apocalypse" from a third party? What exactly is WotC working on after the DMG?

Princes is published by Wizards, and based on a Wizards story. They've farmed out the actual writing, but that's no different than other adventures and supplements that were written by freelancers - which is a whole lot. You might have heard of this Greenwood guy who freelances a bit for Wizards, for example.

 

[Uller]

I haven't read HoDQ, but the ones I am familiar with (Runelords, Savage Tide, Age of Worms) don't tip their hands at level 1.

Spoiler alert!!!

Unfortunately the first episode of HotDQ, while it may not fully tip it's hand that it's about saving the world, it does jump straight to material that is just not appropriate for 1st level characters, IMO. Straight away the PCs are asked to run into a village (it is assumed) they know nothing about and have little connection to in order to save it from an adult blue dragon and an army of Kobalds and Cultists.

If I were a player in such a campaign, I would bite that hook for one of three reasons: 1) if I'm playing a character with some sort of extreme faith that my god will take care of me no matter what or some other delusion of immortality (or death wish). 2) I'm playing some sort of very heroic and selfless character (which is plausible...many D&D characters fit both those molds) or C) Metagaming....I know this is the adventure and this is how it starts.

If I were to run this adventure, it would start with the PCs investigating complaints by farmers and other people who live in unprotected places of having their valuables stolen by little men. As they investigate this, they find it's happening on a very large scale. Perhaps they would investigate rumors of gatherings of people in strange costumes cavorting around bonfires being sighted in desolate places and increased banditry as well as the presence of outsiders in the area. Around 3rd level I'd confirm the presence of a cult stealing valuables and slaves. At 4th I'd introduce the raid attack on greenest but I wouldn't introduce the dragon until the PCs are committed. From there it's fine, I think. I just don't like the idea of 1st level characters taking on tasks that are well beyond normal what normal human beings can do because that's basically what 1st level characters are...normal people with a lot of potential.

 

[Uchawi]

What they need is a new adventure for saving the world, versus the cliché dragons taken over the world, or a rewrite of previous adventures. It is like Hollywood in an endless spin cycle.

 

[Bayonet]

I don't think there's any way to run a level 1-20 adventure path without 'saving the world' coming in to play somewhere, but I agree that I'd like to see more low-level, local campaigns. (how about you turn a city-state around? Clean up crime, defend borders, defeat internal traitors, etc.)

I really hope Wizards has some intern keeping up to date on the chatter of online forums, who notices how MANY OF US LOVED LOST MINE OF PHANDELVER and passes that info on to the higher-ups.

 

[Gecko85]

I really hope Wizards has some intern keeping up to date on the chatter of online forums, who notices how MANY OF US LOVED LOST MINE OF PHANDELVER and passes that info on to the higher-ups.

I totally agree. LMoP is such a well designed adventure. It's essentally a mini-sandbox, with so many different options/paths. Reading through several different play-through write ups and watching a few play throughs on YouTube, it's great how different it is for each group. I really hope WotC looks at the success of LMoP as a blueprint for future adventures.

 

[DongMaster]

Princes is published by Wizards, and based on a Wizards story. They've farmed out the actual writing, but that's no different than other adventures and supplements that were written by freelancers - which is a whole lot. You might have heard of this Greenwood guy who freelances a bit for Wizards, for example.

I do hope that mysterious Greenwood guy finish something called sourcebook for the Swordcoast or the rest of the... Well... Meat.

 

[Quartz]

I want to see a series of mini-campaigns, not a 1-20. Remember the A series, the G series, the D series? T4? I5-7? That series of adventures in Dungeon set in Geoff?