New Campaign needed

[WayOfTheFourElements]

X2: Castle Amber is really unique. Explore an occupied castle, inhabited by an insane aristocratic family, and dark, phantasmagoric wilderness area inspired by Clark Ashton Smith.

 

[Ancalagon]

Fresh setting? Yoon Suin is the most original setting I have ever read. Running a campaign in it for 1.5 years now

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Besides published stuff, your fellow ENWorlders have posted some good ideas. Check out the link to RangerWickett’s thread in my sig.

 

[Tormyr]

We're a third of the way into an excellent Curse of Strahd campaign and my gamers are unanimously claiming it's the best campaign they've ever played (and that's coming from some gamers who've been with me 15 years). But, eventually it'll end around 10th level. So this is about the time I begin brainstorming what's next down the road. The bar has been set high.

Looking for ideas for a fresh long-term campaign (level 1 through at least 10):

• Edition doesn't matter; I can convert. (e.g. I've pulled material from old Dungeon magazines.)
• Setting doesn't matter, though something fresh does. Fantasy-based, no sci-fi.
• It's got to be in print. Between job/kids, creating everything from scratch not an option. I totally am into mixing, matching, and taking what I need from a variety of adventures. Doesn't have to all come from the same place.
• We run an adult game, so no filter needed.
• Needs to be fresh. That's the hardest part.
• The last campaigns have been Dungeons & Demons (Out of the Abyss), Classic hack n' loot (Pool of Radiance remake), Super Heroic (Age of Worms conversion with classic dungeon crawls of Tomb of Horrors & Mud Sorcerer's Tomb), and Kingdoms/Fey (Pathfinder Kingmaker).
• Players liking Strahd because it's new & thematic. They're not saving the world (again), and we agreed to nix races and classes that didn't the fit them during character creation (e.g. tabaxi, tiefling).
• We've done a lot of mega-dungeon crawls in the last few. Kingmaker, by contrast, was fresh with hex-ploration, kingdom building, and dark fey. While some of it became a chore, on the front end, it was engaging.
• Limited enthusiasm for Tomb of Annihilation or Storm King's Thunder at this time. Getting impression another "save the world" high fantasy game isn't what they want at this time. For me, it's easier to have the framework, but that's just me.

So there's my menu of player-feedback and observations. Hitting a wall.

I am biased because I really like EN Publishing's campaigns (and I am doing the 5e conversion), but I would suggest War of the Burning Sky. It hits a lot of your points:

• It is for 5e, saving you the conversion. Each encounter includes a means to adjust to your number of PCs.
• It has an included setting with distinct people groups, nations, and history. PC options are included to more closely tie the PCs to the setting.
• The first adventure is out now. The second is coming out in about a week or so. Additional adventures should come out monthly.
• It touches on topics of extraordinary rendition, genocide, refugees, assassination, and healing the land from decades of war. The heroes often need to scratch below the surface to find the solution they like the best for a problem. Several times they will need to decide whether to ally with a morally questionable figure to achieve a greater good.
• Not much is like it. It is as close to Record of Lodoss War as I think a published campaign might get. At a few points, the heroes perform strategic missions to influence a battle while hundreds (or thousands) do the front line fighting. The NPCs come with a history that influences their motivations, and the campaign starts by blowing up the classic meet in a pub trope.
• Most of the encounters directly contribute to the story in some way rather than being filler. The included dungeons are not very long and are fairly different from each other. Most adventures are time sensitive and occur over a few days of game time.
• The heroes get to retrieve the macguffin and actually use it to alter the war, but using it comes with a price.

Potential cons:

• It does contain a version of "save the world," both from continuing decades of war as well as a plot that develops over the campaign.

The guides are free to peruse to give you a better feel for the campaign. You can get more information and links to the adventures and guides at https://wotbsadventurepath.com/

 

[Paul Farquhar]

X2: Castle Amber is really unique. Explore an occupied castle, inhabited by an insane aristocratic family, and dark, phantasmagoric wilderness area inspired by Clark Ashton Smith.

You go back to the 70s and 80s and you can find some really wild and wacky stuff. I guess publishers where less risk-averse back then!

Dungeonland and Land Beyond the Magic Mirror, based on Lewis Carrol; Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, based on Metamorphis Alpha; and there where a couple of Conan - based modules, the exact names I can't remember.

 

[Ancalagon]

My review of the setting: http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?479643-Yoon-Suin

It's very vaguely a fantasy India/Tibet/Nepal...

 

[GlassJaw]

Since your players are enjoying the unique flavor of Ravenloft, maybe it's time to explore some other colorful D&D settings: Dark Sun, Spelljammer, Planescape, or Eberron. The only trouble is, there aren't many good, long adventures for them. Maybe the The Great Modron March (Planescape)? That's supposed to go up to level 10.

Planescape gets my vote too.

After they finish CoS, have the mists spit them out in Sigil. That should be a surprise for your players. There is a ton of Planescape material that you can salvage.

 

[Draegn]

Empire of the Petal Throne.

 

[Eltab]

Modify the 'hook' for Tomb of Annihilation: the PCs are commissioned to explore Chult ("a cakewalk in the park for ones such as yourselves! Practically a paid vacation!") to discover and report back concerning say 1d6 of the important places found along the way to the Tomb itself - plus that abandoned dwarf mine, said to still hold a quantity of metals / gems worked out of the raw ore. Their patron is a financial backer of the Flaming Fist who wants all the money he has spent at Fort Beluarian (sp?) to finally pay off.

If your group is enjoying the campaign, turn on the Soulmonger when they are out in the jungle, and have THEM be "the first group went out but has not reported back".