D&D 5E Semi-sandbox product I'd love to see

[Fildrigar]

I used to love adventure path type adventures, but I've grown pretty sick of them at this point.

type of sandboxy, homebase oriented adventure with recurring NPCs as friends and enemies really is what I've been looking for ... I love the opportunity at the end of Lost Mine of Phandelver to take over the keep and use it as a base for the PCs...

I'm considering taking all the recent sword coast stuff and trying to tie it all together... Anybody know of any other adventures in the area that could be appropriated... Or suggestions for other modules that match these parameters would be great!

So glad I found this thread.

mal

Other than Lost Mines, you've got:

Scourge of the Sword Coast, set in Daggerdale just south east of Waterdeep. Levels 1-6 or 7 ( It's a little bit longer than Lost Mines.) It'd be pretty easy to up the levels a hit and still provide a good challenge for a post-Phalandrin party.

I don't recommend going to the next adventure on that series without a whole lot of work. ( Dead in Thay) It's a cooperative mega dungeon designed for four parties simultaneously clearing it out. I'm going to mine it for adventure seeds, but don't want to do the whole thing.

There are two chapters of note in Horde of the Dragon Queen that take place roughly in the area, the Castle in Mere of Dead Men, between Waterdeep and Never winter. The second is in a hunting Lodge. It'd be easy to change some motivations to tie them into a non-Tiamat plot. I want to say they're level 6 or 7.

The 4e book Neverwinter has a bunch of detail about the general area, and some ready made plots.

Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle is another D&D Next adventure that takes place around Daggerdale. I don't own it, so I don't know how good it is personally. It does have good ratings here. ( As good as Lost Mines and Scourge of the Sword Coast.)

 

[Gecko85]

Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle is another D&D Next adventure that takes place around Daggerdale. I don't own it, so I don't know how good it is personally. It does have good ratings here. ( As good as Lost Mines and Scourge of the Sword Coast.)

And Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle is a sort-of prequel to Scourge of the Sword Coast, although they both start at level 1 or 2. You could have a DM run Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle, then start a fresh campaign (new characters, possibly new DM) for Scourge of the Sword Coast. Here's part of the dndclassics description for Scourge:

Though the Red Wizards (hopefully!) failed in Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle, their story continues here as they bedevil Daggerford once more. To a certain extent, "Scourge of the Sword Coast" is a direct sequel to Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle, continuing with some of the characters and the setting and exploring some of the repercussions of the earlier adventure. However, it can't be run for the same characters, as Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle was meant to advance characters from level 1-10, while "Scourge of the Sword Coast" begins play at second level.

 

[pickin_grinnin]

I run all campaigns as sandboxes. Sometimes they characters have a base of operations, and sometimes they don't. I prefer it when they do, though, for many reasons.

 

[Nebulous]

I think you just (almost) described Lost Mines of Phandelver. You could use Phandalin as a base city. At the end of LMoP, the PCs can relocate in Phandelver to help rebuild/revitalize it. It already has several NPCs, but you could add more as the town grows/expands. Flesh it out a bit more and you have your sandbox.

Exactly. Take something like Lost Mine and expand on it. Even include day and night random encounter charts. Not even just monsters but non-lethal but potentially interesting encounters, like gnome gypsies that might be thieves, but there's one gnome who is willing to help the party. Take time to devote a whole page to possible encounters - maybe a selkie tries to charm a PC and lead him to an underwater grotto where a magic item is held. Build scenarios where factions in the area overlap, such as hill giants led by an annis and they've got some beef with the orc Bloodtusk tribe.

Definitely have a theme to the core adventure but have enough peripheral intrigue that it could go all kinds of different directions.

 

[mserabian]

Nebulous

That exactly what I'm looking for in a product, Phalndelver is a great start but I want all the other things you describe wrapped into the final product!

 

[Iosue]

I think LMoP is great for what the OP is looking for, except for one minor quibble. It takes a little too long for the through-line adventure to reach a statis point. In my groups, no one wanted to do any of the side quests until they had saved Gundren. While he was captured, there was a sense of urgency. After he's rescued, then they started looking at their options.

[sblock=Here's what I would change
I would have Gundren held captive in the Tresendor Manor, but King Grol in Cragmaw Castle still has his map. This way, the Cragmaw Cave adventure gets the PCs hooked, and the Redbrand Ruffians encounter gives them a clear signpost for what to do next if they are unsure. But after that they are free to explore the town and surroundings, find and pursue sidequests, all while having a MacGuffin to the next part of the throughline adventure.[/sblock]

 

[pming]

Hiya.

1e boxed set, "City State of the Invincible Overlord". Pure awesome.

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[JoeCrow]

See, what I'd like to get is an urban sandbox setting. Same basic idea, but for folks that want to do urban adventuring instead of woodsrunning frontier-life adventuring. Lots of intrigue-based adventures, house-breaking and roof-running, sewer crawls after were-rats and urban goblins, street gangs and guild rivalries, upstart cults and social unrest, all that kind of thing. I'm trying to get my crew out of the usual "city as pit stop and loot dump" POV, and it's harder than you'd expect.

 

[Staffan]

That would be cool too, but would probably (ironically) require a bigger product than a countryside-based sandbox.