In all the official WotC adventures I’ve run, there have been issues I would’ve handled differently. Some are relatively minor, while others knocked the adventure off course. Obviously, these are all my personal opinions, and what didn’t work for my groups might work great for your groups.
Feel free to share your experiences and what you would do differently/change to improve the adventure.
(Of course, spoilers follow.)
Storm King’s Thunder
Early in the adventure the party is investigating the ruined village of Nightstone that has been destroyed by a cloud giant attack, with little information about what tribe did it or why. Out of nowhere, a ridiculous NPC appears in a comical flying tower with a hat on! This is a “friendly” cloud giant who the party is to assume isn’t going to attack him after finding evidence that the village was destroyed by a similar giant. This NPC (Zephyros) is the information dump, quest giver, and ferryman for the beginning of the campaign.
This setup really got my campaign off on the wrong foot. I was playing catchup for the rest of the campaign because my group didn’t trust him.
In the end the political maneuvering of the different Giant clans was way too complex with a shape-shifting dragon behind everything (and very little clues to figure it out). A simple, stream-lined sandbox adventure to take down evil giant chieftains in the Savage North would’ve been epic.
Tomb of Annihilation
While this was one of the best official adventures I’ve run for 5e, there are a few flaws. The driving impetus of the campaign – the Death Curse – is so deadly and fast-moving that it overshadows the rest of the adventure. The best part of the adventure (the jungle exploration and searching for the Lost City) is blasted through to get to the endgame to save the world. Plus there is almost no direction on how to find Omu besides just walking and hoping you stumble into it.
The Death Curse countdown should absolutely be eliminated. Find another less time-sensitive McGuffin.
Princes of the Apocalypse
Evil elemental cultists wreaking havoc on the Realms. Sounds pretty cool, right? So why in the unholy name of Lorraine Williams do you start off the adventure with a confusing dungeon of roleplaying opportunities with people who may or may not be villains? The Air Cult at the start of this adventure throws off the whole adventure. I’m an experienced DM who has tried running this adventure three times, and even I don’t understand what the point of this is.
If you want to have skullduggery, enemies switching sides, and more, put that stuff later in the campaign. Don’t kick off your epic campaign with villains with unclear motivations and a confused party.
Hoard of the Dragon Queen
My initial take on this one is to simply burn it with fire. I guess to improve the main flaw I see with it is to add an actual adventure with player agency to the railroad structure that has been given to the group.
Out of the Abyss
Every time I’ve run this game the horde of strange NPCs following the group after the prison break has been a challenge to GM. I’ve tried running them as NPCs, putting them in the background, killing them off, giving players control of them. They need to be dealt with somehow. I’m wondering now if it’s not best to just give some of the traits of the NPCs to the characters as backgrounds – which might show up later in the course of the campaign.
Also, in the three times I’ve attempted to run this, it all falls apart at Blingdenstone. The group flees the Underdark here, never to return. The universal feeling is that they are too outmatched after running into numerous demon lords at low level that they just want to escape. Once given the opportunity, that is a satisfying enough ending. In hindsight, having Demogorgon appear when the group is around 3rd level is terrible for pacing and really destroys the arc of the campaign.
Dungeon of the Mad Mage
This one is bad, even as a dungeon crawl. It’s not particularly interesting as a campaign. I would recommend using it only to fill in gaps of your regular campaign and drop in the occasional level as needed and re-write it into your existing campaign.
Descent into Avernus
Ok, I haven’t run this one. But if/when I do, I’m not going to use the ghost toddler NPC guide. It seems to fall into the trap of a guide who can’t be trusted, info/dump. Fool me once with Storm King’s Thunder, I’m not gonna be fooled again.
Feel free to share your experiences and what you would do differently/change to improve the adventure.
(Of course, spoilers follow.)
Storm King’s Thunder
Early in the adventure the party is investigating the ruined village of Nightstone that has been destroyed by a cloud giant attack, with little information about what tribe did it or why. Out of nowhere, a ridiculous NPC appears in a comical flying tower with a hat on! This is a “friendly” cloud giant who the party is to assume isn’t going to attack him after finding evidence that the village was destroyed by a similar giant. This NPC (Zephyros) is the information dump, quest giver, and ferryman for the beginning of the campaign.
This setup really got my campaign off on the wrong foot. I was playing catchup for the rest of the campaign because my group didn’t trust him.
In the end the political maneuvering of the different Giant clans was way too complex with a shape-shifting dragon behind everything (and very little clues to figure it out). A simple, stream-lined sandbox adventure to take down evil giant chieftains in the Savage North would’ve been epic.
Tomb of Annihilation
While this was one of the best official adventures I’ve run for 5e, there are a few flaws. The driving impetus of the campaign – the Death Curse – is so deadly and fast-moving that it overshadows the rest of the adventure. The best part of the adventure (the jungle exploration and searching for the Lost City) is blasted through to get to the endgame to save the world. Plus there is almost no direction on how to find Omu besides just walking and hoping you stumble into it.
The Death Curse countdown should absolutely be eliminated. Find another less time-sensitive McGuffin.
Princes of the Apocalypse
Evil elemental cultists wreaking havoc on the Realms. Sounds pretty cool, right? So why in the unholy name of Lorraine Williams do you start off the adventure with a confusing dungeon of roleplaying opportunities with people who may or may not be villains? The Air Cult at the start of this adventure throws off the whole adventure. I’m an experienced DM who has tried running this adventure three times, and even I don’t understand what the point of this is.
If you want to have skullduggery, enemies switching sides, and more, put that stuff later in the campaign. Don’t kick off your epic campaign with villains with unclear motivations and a confused party.
Hoard of the Dragon Queen
My initial take on this one is to simply burn it with fire. I guess to improve the main flaw I see with it is to add an actual adventure with player agency to the railroad structure that has been given to the group.
Out of the Abyss
Every time I’ve run this game the horde of strange NPCs following the group after the prison break has been a challenge to GM. I’ve tried running them as NPCs, putting them in the background, killing them off, giving players control of them. They need to be dealt with somehow. I’m wondering now if it’s not best to just give some of the traits of the NPCs to the characters as backgrounds – which might show up later in the course of the campaign.
Also, in the three times I’ve attempted to run this, it all falls apart at Blingdenstone. The group flees the Underdark here, never to return. The universal feeling is that they are too outmatched after running into numerous demon lords at low level that they just want to escape. Once given the opportunity, that is a satisfying enough ending. In hindsight, having Demogorgon appear when the group is around 3rd level is terrible for pacing and really destroys the arc of the campaign.
Dungeon of the Mad Mage
This one is bad, even as a dungeon crawl. It’s not particularly interesting as a campaign. I would recommend using it only to fill in gaps of your regular campaign and drop in the occasional level as needed and re-write it into your existing campaign.
Descent into Avernus
Ok, I haven’t run this one. But if/when I do, I’m not going to use the ghost toddler NPC guide. It seems to fall into the trap of a guide who can’t be trusted, info/dump. Fool me once with Storm King’s Thunder, I’m not gonna be fooled again.
