D&D 5E Recommend an adventure (difficulty level: minimal prep)

[Mercurius]

On one hand, you say "no philosophy," yet on the other the basic truth of the matter is that "minimal prep" really depends upon the individual DM. You might find an adventure needs to be completely overhauled, while another person might find it just fine to run as-is, and have a great play experience. This isn't a matter of philosophy, but better understanding the issue so that it can be effectively addressed.

So I think it really comes down to what you think requires "a large amount of fixing." What is it, exactly, that you regularly feel needs to be fixed about pre-written adventures? And is it something that is just the nature of the beast, or indicative of the style of WotC adventures?

Maybe something that would be helpful is you listing adventures that you've run that you feel required minimal prep, and explaining why. That might help people pinpoint what your concerns are, and what you're looking for.

 

[DeviousQuail]

I would suggest checking out D&D 5e Content | Adventures Await Studios. They are neat little adventures and come with most everything you would need to run them. They also suggest multiple ways to get the players hooked into what's happening. There's always going to be a little bit of prep needed but it's not onerous. They have a bunch of free ones and plenty of patreon ones.

 

[Lanefan]

What you're probably after is adventures with as little baked-in backstory or plot as possible, so as to avoid the prep-time of having to strip out the built-in backstory and replace it with your own to suit your campaign; and in this I hear ya loud and clear!

However, as it seems you're running 5e the best solution I can offer probably won't help very much, in that it'll mostly just replace one type of prep-work (backstory replacement) with another (edition conversion). That solution is to look at some of the classic early-era modules. Many of them didn't involve much backstory at all other than just enough to give the adventure a reason to exist, and thus they can be easily dropped in anywhere with minimal effort. But - converting them from Basic or 1e (or in some cases Judges Guild's bizarre homebrew rules system) to 5e would require some work on your part.

 

[edosan]

What you're probably after is adventures with as little baked-in backstory or plot as possible, so as to avoid the prep-time of having to strip out the built-in backstory and replace it with your own to suit your campaign; and in this I hear ya loud and clear!

However, as it seems you're running 5e the best solution I can offer probably won't help very much, in that it'll mostly just replace one type of prep-work (backstory replacement) with another (edition conversion). That solution is to look at some of the classic early-era modules. Many of them didn't involve much backstory at all other than just enough to give the adventure a reason to exist, and thus they can be easily dropped in anywhere with minimal effort. But - converting them from Basic or 1e (or in some cases Judges Guild's bizarre homebrew rules system) to 5e would require some work on your part.

For some reason, I don't find converting a decent 1e or 2e adventure as difficult as repairing a broken or incomplete adventure.

I just find that with WOTC adventures (or anything that follows the "adventure path" template) are easily broken if the players guess wrong and that they focus way more on being an enjoyable read than a easily playable adventure. By comparison, substituting 5e goblin stats for 2e goblin stats is NBD.

 

[Malmuria]

Ghosts of Saltmarsh is good in providing a little mini-setting with lots of adventure hooks, plus the updates from the original U series and some other adventures. I haven't run the whole thing.

Other than that I wonder if homebrew is actually less prep-intensive if you aren't trying to built out an entire world but just focus one session at a time. You can use random generators to spark creativity and take care of the more mundane bits (treasure, encounters, tavern names, etc). You just have to prevent yourself from going overboard.

 

[LordEntrails]

What's wrong with LMoP and PotA? I ran both of those with virtually no prep. LMoP we kept pretty much on plot/track while PotA was a multi-choice sand box for the most part.

 

[Ancalagon]

For some reason, I don't find converting a decent 1e or 2e adventure as difficult as repairing a broken or incomplete adventure.

I just find that with WOTC adventures (or anything that follows the "adventure path" template) are easily broken if the players guess wrong and that they focus way more on being an enjoyable read than a easily playable adventure. By comparison, substituting 5e goblin stats for 2e goblin stats is NBD.

I completely agree.

I'm curently running a 5e game of Gates of Firestorm Peak. Converting it was a bit of work, but once that was done... easy peasy. In fact, I'm running it for the 2nd time with a 2nd group and once I found some VTT maps, we were set to go!

 

[aco175]

What's wrong with LMoP and PotA? I ran both of those with virtually no prep. LMoP we kept pretty much on plot/track while PotA was a multi-choice sand box for the most part.

I ran both of these as well and found them fine to use out of the box with hardly any prep. I even managed to spin a couple more campaigns out of LMoP and the Essential box.

 

[Scott Christian]

I recommend Rime of the Frost Maiden. No, seriously, I do.

Outside of that, Ghosts and Tomb have been my two favorites. Although Tomb takes a lot of work if you want to tie in character arcs. I would actually say the lowest prep work of all the official adventures is Hoard. I have seen it run many times and ran part of it myself. It is easy and a solid adventure.

 

[Mort]

Minimal prep is a tough bar for published adventures!

That said, A Wild Sheep Chase is whimsical little adventure (for 4th-5th level PCs) that's very easy to run. Plus, it's free.