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

[jerryrice4949]

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.

Yeah I am surprised about all the love LMoP gets. It is a decent adventure but very plain and predictable. I don’t know that I would ever play it again.

 

[R_J_K75]

To be honest WotC never really did publish APs.

Although it was put out by TSR in the mid 90s, Id consider the Randal Morn trilogy, (Sword of the Dales, Secrets of Spiderhaunt and the Return of Randal Morn) an adventure path. But I digress, sorry, carry on.

 

[R_J_K75]

eah I am surprised about all the love LMoP gets. It is a decent adventure but very plain and predictable. I don’t know that I would ever play it again.

Our DM ran a short part of it as written and I was bored to tears.

 

[pukunui]

Yeah I am surprised about all the love LMoP gets. It is a decent adventure but very plain and predictable. I don’t know that I would ever play it again.

Our DM ran a short part of it as written and I was bored to tears.

The best part of LMoP for me was how easy it was to run. I barely needed to do any prep at all, unlike with every other adventure WotC has put out for 5e since.

 

[jerryrice4949]

The best part of LMoP for me was how easy it was to run. I barely needed to do any prep at all, unlike with every other adventure WotC has put out for 5e since.

It did seem like a fairly easy and straightforward adventure to run. I imagine in this case its virtue was also its weakness.

 

[pukunui]

It did seem like a fairly easy and straightforward adventure to run. I imagine in this case its virtue was also its weakness.

Potentially, yes. I think Dragon of Icespire Peak does a decent job of fleshing it out more. I'd love to run a combined LMoP and DoIP campaign. Problem is that because of LMoP's status as the first 5e starter adventure, everyone has already played it. I'd have to find a group of all new players to run it for.

 

[Smackpixi]

The best part of LMoP for me was how easy it was to run. I barely needed to do any prep at all, unlike with every other adventure WotC has put out for 5e since.

I don’t think super easy to run is the goal with the Big Book adventures. Dragon Heist has a pretty great 20 to 40 hour, maybe more adventure in it, but you have to find it. Its got everything you need for it. They say “all you need to make it easy to run“ because all you need is in the book, but the adventures are not just read and run like dmsguild one shots, they‘re full of more background and setting stuff. They’re 250 pages, and at that kind of page count not all of it is gonna be good even if parts are awesome. So a handicap on them being classics compared to all the way shorter old school stuff. I really like SKT, but you have to put blinders on to just whip open the book and run people through it I think.

There’s not a lot of unity on what’s a good adventure these days, so the Big Books split the difference in different ways bending adequate for most but rarely being awesome for anyone.

 

[Smackpixi]

Potentially, yes. I think Dragon of Icespire Peak does a decent job of fleshing it out more. I'd love to run a combined LMoP and DoIP campaign. Problem is that because of LMoP's status as the first 5e starter adventure, everyone has already played it. I'd have to find a group of all new players to run it for.

I had the opportunity to do that, spent a couple weeks of evenings plotting out how I’d like to present, all kinds of options and epicness, read all the guides to do it I could find and concluded, combining them is really more an idea that makes a DM happy than players. Makes them happy about presenting something more epic. But for players, just more confusing. LMoP is near perfect in the amount of player options to quest goals to hurried imperatives. There are way more stories about how great the combination is from DMs than players. Basically I think combining them just ruins LMoP. DoIP needs something, but it’s not Lost Mines.

 

[pukunui]

I don’t think super easy to run is the goal with the Big Book adventures.

Indeed. And for someone who is fairly time poor, I find that more than a little annoying.

I really like SKT, but you have to put blinders on to just whip open the book and run people through it I think.

I really like it too, and I managed to run it without a huge amount of advance prep. But then I had already played through it as a player, so I was already familiar with it, which is undoubtedly a factor.

I had the opportunity to do that, spent a couple weeks of evenings plotting out how I’d like to present, all kinds of options and epicness, read all the guides to do it I could find and concluded, combining them is really more an idea that makes a DM happy than players. Makes them happy about presenting something more epic. But for players, just more confusing. LMoP is near perfect in the amount of player options to quest goals to hurried imperatives. There are way more stories about how great the combination is from DMs than players. Basically I think combining them just ruins LMoP. DoIP needs something, but it’s not Lost Mines.

Good to know. Thanks.

 

[LordEntrails]

With all this talk about DoIP and where to go from there... Has no one read and/or run the beyond trilogy, Storm Lord's Wrath, Sleeping Dragon's Wake, and Divine Contention?

They flesh out the town of Leilon (on the coast south of Phandelver), and can easily be run after DoIP, LMoP, or even Dragonheist (as I did).

I liked these. Sure, nothing about them was new, but everything is solid. Can be run pretty much as written (not that I did). Maps are decent. NPCs are a bit refluffed MM creatures. But the plot is clear but open. i.e. not a railroad that allows te players to manage various ongoings while staying on plot, flexible enough but not a sandbox that leaves DMs wondering what's next.