D&D (2024) What Adventure Should One D&D Launch With? (+)

[Reynard]

Let's pretend that One D&D is going to launch with a big fat campaign adventure. It could be a revised and updated 5E adventure, a 1D&D adaptation of a classic adventure or series, or something completely new. What do you think they should lead with, adventure wise?

Note: "should" here can mean either :what I would like" or "what would be good for 1D&D" but in either case remember this is a + thread.

Personally, I would like to see either a big fat dungeon campaign (maybe Castle Greyhawk or Ruins of Myth Drannor if they wanted something legacy, or something totally new) or a full globetrotting Eberron campaign that hits all the high notes and cool locations on the way to 20th level.

But perhaps the best thing to do would be for them to revise and expand a beloved 5E campaign not already done. I would have said Phandelver but they are already doing that next year, so maybe SKT?

 

[Scott Christian]

Launch with a brand new campaign. One that involves travel throughout the land: from artic territory to desert sands to tropical rainforests. Place in distinct cultures and a few new creatures. Make the questline not as big as the travel. Meaning the heroes are doing something that is not saving the world, but maybe protecting the little person that can't protect themselves or thwarting a plan to terra-form an island the size of Cuba to one that is completely devoid of living things.

Then...

Publish smaller adventures that bring the smaller regions the heroes visited more to life. Ones that delve into the deserts and its people, one that explores the rainforest and its flora and fauna, etc.

My players don't want to save the world every time. They want to be in a story. A story with a beginning, middle, and end. This would allow that, and then in the other smaller adventures the breadcrumbs of the past would be easy to place in. A win-win for players and for newer DMs.

 

[aco175]

I would like to see an updated Keep on the Shadowfell (KotS). Could even tie it to FR someplace if needed. Likely will get a new starter box set with a red dragon this time.

 

[Loren the GM]

I'd love to see a really good starter adventure set. Something along the lines of Phandelver, with a good central location for players to get connected to. Not world spanning, just a local threat that can be built on into a larger homebrew campaign, or extended through a second adventure released separately. I'd be happy for this starter adventure to be level 1-5 if they can really deliver on the next paragraph.

As important as the adventure side would be to build this as an on-boarding game for new DM's. Really build it out with advice on how to run a campaign through the adventure. Start with Session 0 tips, then into simple encounters, dungeons, how to run npcs, home bases, foreshadowing a villain, escalating the story, providing rewards, introducing quests, etc. I think Lost Mines of Phandelver and the newest Starter Set both do this reasonably well, but I think it could be done even more intentionally and stronger.

Make this starter set truly the essential, best way for a new DM and set of players to get into the game.

 

[Charlaquin]

I would like to see an updated Keep on the Shadowfell (KotS). Could even tie it to FR someplace if needed. Likely will get a new starter box set with a red dragon this time.

I assume you mean the full H-series? If so, hell yeah!

 

[MockingBird]

I wouldn't expect a "redo" on a 5e campaign since the adventures are supposed to be backward compatible. I personally would love a introduction to Greyhawk with a full campaign. Hopefully we get another starter set with a 1-5 level adventure like we got with 5e starter. I think it would be cool to have a starter 1-5 adventure focused on a local area in Greyhawk then a adventure book going from 5-15 (or 11 or 20) expanding the setting and hitting more locations.

I'm hoping for some Greyhawk but we might get FR again. I'd be okay with that either way.

 

[J.Quondam]

I wouldn't be surprised to see a big campaign/adventure tightly linked to the movie among the earliest OneD&D books.

 

[Minigiant]

A new one.

Write for the audience you have

 

[Reynard]

I wouldn't be surprised to see a big campaign/adventure tightly linked to the movie among the earliest OneD&D books.

Isn't the heisty book the movie tie in?

 

[Tales and Chronicles]

I'd go with a redux of Keep on the Borderland, with the addition of using the new homebase rules to refurbish the keep. Add a little more story rather than just ''go explore there and loot stuff''.

Give a few exploration region with each their own threats or factions with ideals and goals and ask the PCs to recruit some of them or oppose some of them to prepare for an imminent attack on the keep, ala Red Hand of Doom.