D&D 5E Nominate Today's Top Adventures for Use in 5E

[LordEntrails]

As the OP I feel I should chime in on the Dragon Heist discussions. I get it., and for me I would not list it because I felt I had to do too much to make it useable (and great). But feeling otherwise is certainly acceptable. Remember all, this is individual nominations. When it comes time to vote, we can all get our say

(Though don't feel discussion is not desired!)

 

[TheSword]

OK, 5 greatest adventures that still work today, regardless of system they are written for:
5 Lost Mine of Phandelver: a masterpiece of an introduction.
4 Curse of Strahd: I was genuinely terrified playing this
3 Rappan Athuk: puts the “dungeon” into D&D
2 The Enemy Within: multi-layered intrigue and looming menace
1 The Night Below: simply the greatest campaign

And I hate myself for leaving out Dwellers in the Forbidden City, Saltmarsh, Tsojcanth and Caverns of Thracia

I’d forgotten about Night Below. What a beautiful adventure. I’m gutted I never got to play in your campaign. I’m just torn as to what is take off my top five to put in there.

 

[John R Davis]

Of newish stuff, The ones I have enjoyed a lot, and therefore run at least twice are:

COS.
SKT.
ROTFM.
GOS.
X6 OAR.
The Kingmaker AP.
Ironfang Invasion AP.

 

[Zardnaar]

I’d forgotten about Night Below. What a beautiful adventure. I’m gutted I never got to play in your campaign. I’m just torn as to what is take off my top five to put in there.

I played the first book in 5E and the campaign in 2E.

Pt 1 holds up really well. Very similar to LMoP as a template imho.

Turns into a dungeon hack later and rescuing the people 10-12+ levels later doesn't work so well in practice. Evils of Harranshire rocks and I used it as a campaign launch.

LMoP everyone's gonna say this and it's fair enough.


PotA I think is better than people credit it for. Might actually be top 5 of the 5E stuff but the 5E adventures aren't great let's face it. Salt Marsh number 3 behind LMoP and Strahd.

Lost City still holds up.

Individual parts of Savage Tide and Age of Worms are good, they fall apart later imho.

 

[dave2008]

I think you're just reinforcing it's a bad map... if you need to build it a couple of times in Minecraft to understand it, I don't think it is intuitive to read.

I think the rebuild was because of computer crashes:

"but after building it in Minecraft a couple times (damn computer crashes),"

 

[TheSword]

Kingmaker has to be in any list of great campaigns. Even in its slightly flawed 1e state it was still amazing. I’m awaiting the re-release with baited breath and will definitely run it again.

Skull and Shackles mentioned above was similarly wonderful. I wasn’t joking when I said you could lift it wholesale and put it into Spelljammer or the Sea of Fallen Stars.

Curse of the Crimson Throne is one of the best Pathfinder Adventure Paths, because it’s a city adventure and tied to the place really well. The city is a really good backdrop and the events of the AP are very dynamic. Having both played in it and prepped it for 5e. It is a really solid story. Great scenes, great characters. Who doesn’t love an evil plague doctor! Crying out to be moved to Waterdeep.

Carrion Crown is also very very well done and could easily be ported across to Ravenloft. It takes a journey through all the great horror tropes, a haunted house, the created, werewolves, things in the lake… all Pursuing a madman across the land to stop him bring back an ancient evil.

 

[Zardnaar]

Kingmaker has to be in any list of great campaigns. Even in its slightly flawed 1e state it was still amazing. I’m awaiting the re-release with baited breath and will definitely run it again.

Skull and Shackles mentioned above was similarly wonderful. I wasn’t joking when I said you could lift it wholesale and put it into Spelljammer or the Sea of Fallen Stars.

Curse of the Crimson Throne is one of the best Pathfinder Adventure Paths, because it’s a city adventure and tied to the place really well. The city is a really good backdrop and the events of the AP are very dynamic. Having both played in it and prepped it for 5e. It is a really solid story. Great scenes, great characters. Who doesn’t love an evil plague doctor! Crying out to be moved to Waterdeep.

Carrion Crown is also very very well done and could easily be ported across to Ravenloft. It takes a journey through all the great horror tropes, a haunted house, the created, werewolves, things in the lake… all Pursuing a madman across the land to stop him bring back an ancient evil.

I've mined parts of Skull and Shackles. Like most APs the 2st few adventures are great.

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

1st: The Enemy Within Campaign - released by Cubicle 7. Without a doubt the best campaign I’ve ever played and DM’d. (I’m on the third run through!) Brilliant characters, setting and investigation. Locations are evocative. You could easily run it for 5e using the rules for gunpowder in DMG. The perfect mix of plot and sandbox. It also does a very good job of bridging the gap between local heroes and kingdom heroes. All you would need to do is convert treasure and NPC stats. You’d lose a bit of the old world flavor but the adventure is still at core amazing. Highlights include secret societies, carnivals, corrupt nobles, deadly meteors, mutants, lurking ratmen, imperial politics and small but vicious dogs. Run it, you won’t regret it. There is a reason this is on every top ten list of adventures of all time… the re-release is much better.

2nd: Age of Worms. The best of the 3e adventure paths. A really solid campaign of growing evil. Strong individual chapters and a nice overarching theme. Part One the Gathering of Winds has probably the best dungeon I’ve seen in a game for tier 1 characters.

3rd: Odyssey of the Dragonlords. Epic, campaign with a capital E. Heroes at the heart of everything in a great setting. Very thematic. Beautiful to read and to DM. Best Greek campaign I’ve seen.

4th: Way of the Wicked. Written for Pathfinder but easily convertible. It has may favorite hook for adventuring and has one of the best story arcs I’ve seen in a campaign. A pleasure to DM. Of course it is for an Evil Party, and the methods the writer uses to keep things coherent is very clever. One of the chapters the party get to build their own dungeon and protect it against adventurers!

5th: Curse of Strahd. The best of the 5e WotC hardbacks. A great tight story which links everything back to the BBEG. Very atmospheric and fun to DM. The only reason it hasn’t placed higher is that I think after the awesome 80% of the book, the castle is a bit of an anticlimax.

Honourable mention: Tales of the Old Margrave. By Kobald Press. Designed for 5e. Again very thematic and atmospheric. A series of beautifully written adventures that capture a Hansel and Grettel theme.

Honourable mention: Kingmaker. It was amazing for pathfinder 1e but had its flaws. A new release should be out soon which improves these and also offers a 5e monster and NPC conversion. Worth waiting for that.

Isn't that The Whispering Cairn?

 

[TheSword]

Isn't that The Whispering Cairn?

Good spot! I corrected.

I always get those two mixed up! Probably because I think Gathering of Winds is such a good name for a first adventure for a party .

It’s a nifty mechanism to go back to the first dungeon and open up an previously unexplored part of it. Ties things back to the start in a satisfying way.

 

[Smackpixi]

I hear everyone on LMoP, it’s a very well structured adventure and it showcases a good breadth of baddies that have a reason to be there. It is a great introduction to a bunch of standard DnD tropes, but it’s also trodding very well worn ground. It’s basic DnD done right, but…i guess, yes, not everything has to be new and exciting if it just works.

No one has yet really gone to the stuff on DM’s guild, so I will. With my sole nomination.

The Collected Works of MT Black Volumes I & II. I guess that’s two products. There’s better production value in Two, and it has more stuff over Level 5, but One has more adventures you can link into mini campaigns. Overall, while they’re just one shots, they are far more imaginative and interesting than just about anything the Big Books have. A tremendous value and easy to run right off the page. West Marches in a box that is a pdf. Great intros to SKT or PotA if you’re not impressed with the get to level 4/5 intro stuff those have. Side quests any time. If we’re talking things people should run, should experience in 5e, these are some of the best little set pieces out there. Cheap and quick reads too if you doubt me.