Quick summary of published campaigns?

[Kevtron]

Funnily enough the "Best of" thread provides exactly that for this very reason

Well perhaps I should have checked there first... Thank you very much! That's pretty perfect.

 

[DMP]

Phandelver is always a good start. Its contained in its own area and you can expand into the Sword Coast after that if you like .

I also like the compact guides such as the Moonshae (Baldman Games) and The Borderlands books. Another idea may be to start somewhere around the Moonsea as there are plenty of AL adventures available.

My advice would keep the adventure to a local area and expand after that. No need to have a whole world and lore prepared as it can prove too daunting for both DM and players sarting out.

 

[Rya.Reisender]

How come when someone asks for published campaigns, people start suggesting settings and homebrew?

Anyway, some good answers have already been giving. I agree that starting with Lost Mine of Phandelver is the best choice.

The Slyflourish link and the Best of the 5e Forum link given are both fantastic. Didn't even know we had such a nice overview here!


By the way, I don't think you need to read the full adventure books, even less twice, as preparation. I did quite fine just reading up the sections right before they happened. Though I guess this may vary depending on adventure you choose. In any case you won't really do the whole campaign in the first session and a campaign can run one to five years depending how often you meet / play online, so you have plenty of time to flesh out the story and connections over time.

 

[akr71]

I'll be having my first session zero as a DM coming up in a couple weeks. I plan to run a published campaign, as I have no idea how to make my own world. I'd like to present the different campaigns to the group and let them discuss which sounds the most interesting.


Are there any short (2-3 sentence) previews of each (including the new one) I could use to explain/tease each?


Cheers~

Making your own world and making your own campaign are two entirely different things. If you have a story you'd like to tell, but don't want to do worldbuilding, use a pre-existing Campaign Setting. Forgotten Realms would be the easiest because that is the default.

To get up and running I agree with [MENTION=6813788]sim-h[/MENTION] Lost Mines of Phandelver is an easy to run first adventure. Its got a central location where a number of mini-quests can be found and completed from and a few open threads in case you want to make your own adventure afterwards. If not, your party will be around fifth level and many of the other published adventures have notes for starting at level 5.

 

[Eltab]

I found the "home base" town in Princes of the Apocalypse to be an engaging place for PCs to set up shop and generally improve the area.
Most of that adventure is a mega-dungeon in 10 parts and may be more than you are looking for.

I haven't played LMNOP (Lost Mines Of Phandelver) but I've heard much good about it from those who have.

 

[GlassJaw]

Another vote for LMoP!

 

[robus]

Potential spoilers below but really LMoP is ancient history these days



I have a number of issues with LMoP as a starter adventure, but probably the biggest is the wimpy ending. The Black Spider definitely needs some beefing up (including HP and lair actions - such as reinforcements, tactical building collapse) if you don't want things end with a whimper. In my inexperience I doubled the number of giant spiders and it was still too easy.

 

[aco175]

I believe there is several threads or DMsGuild modules listing changes to LMoP, especially the ending to make it better. I have not run any of them, so I do not know if it is true. I guess it depends on your players and if they are new to the game or more advanced in min/maxing the classes for better optimization. Some of the encounters could be better in my opinion, but for new players, I would run it out of the box.

 

[MNblockhead]

Goodman Game's reprint of the 1st edition B1 and B2 modules, updated for 5th edition is another good option. These were written for new DMs to teach them how to run games. It is not so much story driven, its old school explore, fight monsters, and take their treasure. The one problem is that he book is espensive and a lot of it is reprinting different versions of the 1e modules. Still, if you don't mind the cost, In Search of the Unknown and the Keep on the Borderlands remain excellent starter adventures.

 

[TerraDave]

Goodman Game's reprint of the 1st edition B1 and B2 modules, updated for 5th edition is another good option. These were written for new DMs to teach them how to run games. It is not so much story driven, its old school explore, fight monsters, and take their treasure. The one problem is that he book is espensive and a lot of it is reprinting different versions of the 1e modules. Still, if you don't mind the cost, In Search of the Unknown and the Keep on the Borderlands remain excellent starter adventures.

LMoP is fine, but this is also a really fun option.

You can get a new copy here:

http://goodman-games.com/store/product/original-adventures-reincarnated-1-into-the-borderlands/

Its default setting is here, in 2 pages (not the Ilse the Known World):

https://www.dmsguild.com/product/17083/X1-The-Isle-of-Dread-Basic?it=1


But by design you can drop into just about any setting.