D&D 5E What Adventure Storylines Do You Want to See?

[Mouseferatu]

That could work, but I might want to see more of a difference than a soft-reboot would allow.

Dragonlance was very much a child of 80s fantasy. It embraced the spirit, the tropes, etc. Again, this is not a criticism. That's what it should have done.

But I would love to see the War of the Lance written with today's fantasy and today's D&D in mind. More shades of gray, for instance. (Not that I want the heroes to be jerks, but I'd like to see it without wizards who procaim themselves evil, for instance, or see why the humans who serve in the Dragonlords' armeis would do so.) And I'd like to see modern D&D-isms in it. A warlock character, for instance. What would drive a warlock's patron to encourage him/her to get involved in the return of the gods? What if one of the "good" races--one of the elven subtypes, for instance--was on the other side? Or what if the clerics of the "false" gods had real power? Where does it come from?

All of this could be absolutely fascinating to read or play through (or write *cough*), and if presented properly, could be done as an "alternate" view that would still leave the original and its canon as its own thing.

 

[Parmandur]

Well, the MM is chock full of Elemental seeds that I'm brtting will come to fruition in Elemental Evil.

So, at a guess, given that like one in six creatures were created or enslaved by Mind Flayers, I'm hoping and guessing there will be something Illithid related, whether Underdark, Planescape, or SpellJammer!

Actually, they could go years just drawing out the campaign seeds planted in the MM
...

 

[KirayaTiDrekan]

Regarding Dragonlance, Star Trek, and time travel based reboots...

You can get away with a lot via a time travel based reboot thanks to the ripple effect. This is why I have absolutely no issues with the many changes in the Star Trek reboot that don't seem to match up to the point in time where the timeline supposedly changed. Why? Because the point at which the timeline changed also affects all future time travel points. The rebooted Star Trek universe's timeline changes include past events as the Prime timeline had time travel instances going all the way back to the dawn of time itself, which now may or may not happen based on events in the reboot universe.

Dragonlance can thus have similarly drastic changes, up to, including, and surpassing those described by our resident blood sucking rodent. A kender, dwarf, or gnome time traveler going back to before the War of the Lance could potentially change events going back as far as the Cataclysm by altering the circumstances under which Raistlin, Caramon, and Tas time travel, or changing the War of the Lance so much that they don't time travel at all. That would ripple through all of the subsequent events, allowing any number of interesting and dynamic changes (including warlocks, elves aligned with the dragon armies, etc).

All that said, I would also be perfectly ok with a simple Dark Sun 4E style reboot or a BSG reboot or whatever.

 

[Jester David]

I know this is going to bring out the torches and pitchforks, but I'd love to see the whole thing rebooted, a la old and new Battlestar Galactica.

This is not a criticism of the original. But I think there's a lot of potential in the basic idea of Dragonlance--adventure-wise and novel-wise both--that could only be tapped by a fresh start without decades worth of baggage.

It wouldn't even have to be a replacement; just sort of an "alternate," like the Marvel Ultimates line.

I second this.

Having played through the original, the ideas are good but the execution is lacking. And while the first couple are solid the adventures get worse and worse as deadlines happened and the events of the books offered fewer and fewer good adventure hooks/ dungeon crawls. It really suffers from "80s adventure design".

A level 1-15 revamped Dragonlance campaign could be excellent.

 

[SkidAce]

This. Not only aboleth, but other classic D&D villains that are badly in need of some recognition. A storyline with githyanki as the main enemies and a final battle against the Lich-Queen would be a great addition to the game.

I need to research, I think there was one of these, almost exactly as you describe.

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

I will not buy any adventure and if that's all they intend to release, they will not get my money. It's just not the kind of material I'm interested in.

 

[Jester David]

I'd like to see a few different genres of game, and adventures that segue into good accessories.

A "Pirates of the Swordcoast" adventure would pair nicely with an accessory focusing on piracy, sailing, naval combat, and underwater adventuring.
A "Secrets of the Underdark" with all the underground races works with dungeon delving and underground survival.
Similarly, travel based adventure could be set in Kara Tur or Al Qadim and provide source material based around Oriental Adventures or Arabic Nights​.

 

[the Jester]

A good shipborn sandbox, detailing an archipelago of islands and the possibilities for merchant/pirate activity.

 

[KidSnide]

I would love to see some of the original D&D properties given a reboot. A modern take on the DragonLance game would be great, as would a second look at the original Dark Sun series of adventures. I would also enjoy a "heroes vs. horrors" game where the PCs start the series by waking up on a table in a mad scientist's laboratory and have to fight there way through a world populated by Ravenloft villains. There are lots of good ideas in the old materials.

I'd also like to see some of the classic genres like Arabian Nights, Pirates, Iliad-style Greek heroes or Medici-style city plotting (sort of Kingmaker meets Council of Thieves) given a 5e treatment with first-rate adventure designers. Many of the ideas behind the weaker Pathfinder adventure paths could make an excellent game with better execution.

To me the key to a good adventure storyline is that it lets the players do something different than they did before. You need a fair share of story lines that let the PCs face increasingly dangerous monster plots and delve improbably massive dungeon complexes. That's D&D's bread and butter and there will always be a demand for that kind of storyline. But it's the "everything else" that interests me. Games like The Red Hand of Doom, Kingmaker or War of the Burning Sky let the PCs play an active role in shaping the world that is more than just killing the villains that threaten it. I'd like to see more of that.

-KS

 

[Jan van Leyden]

Not necessarily next, but at some point I'd like to see a scheming-aboleth-centered underdark campaign. A spiritual relative to the old "Night Below," only with a lot more focus on RP, interaction, investigation. (NB started well, but deteriorated into nothing but dungeon crawl. I don't mind dungeon crawl as a part of a campaign, but nowhere near a majority.) Plus, I've never yet seen the aboleth used to full potential--or sufficiently alien--in a published adventure.

Oh, and it needs to be drow-lite.

Yes on both accounts, a thousand times yes! I would even go so far to demand drow-lessity.

Another good option would be to design one or two new races playing key roles in such a campaign. One replacing the tried orcs, bugbears, gnolls, whatever as stock monsters, the other one being the enigmatic evil guys, not visible at first but pulling the strings.

Of course, illithids and beholders might fit the bill here, but imagine the whole D&D community finding and exploring the new villains together. This could be such a cool community experience!