D&D 5E What do you want in the first D&D Next adventure path?

[Frostmarrow]

I'd like to see an adventure path with humble yet ominous beginnings, set in a fresh unpublished fantasy setting where the goal of the campaign is unquestionably good. The world need to be rich and have a classic feel to it. It should be deep and detailed yet only the stuff that comes up in the adventure itself should be revealed.
A time of campfires and the very constellations in the sky are in fact other planes of existance (not available for this campaign).

 

[aco175]

There are a few things I would be pleased with, but generally Wizards has come up with ideas that are overall fun and enjoyable, whichever edition.

I would like some sort of sandbox, since 5e is setting up to be more dangerous in the fact that encounters should not scale with party level. A sandbox of one kingdom or land would be a good start. Something small can root the players in the adventure, maybe hints of a larger world. Several sites in the land can be labeled for Wizards future development and some left to dm design. Really cool would be letting 3rd party publishers develop some of the sites and neighboring kingdoms. Barring this, some of the sites could be fan created on their message boards allowing everyone to share ideas.

I also like longer modules that span several levels. Call this an AP or not, but if life comes along and I do not have the time to spend developing on my own, I like to have something cool enough to play. Some of the base kindon can have its own arc, like one of the town lords from your base town or the neighboring town stirs up one thing or the next and either the party does something or ignores it, it should not matter. Either play where it happens anyway if the party did or did not do anything, with any repucussions, or leave it undone until the party accepts the challenge later on.

I can also see value in rehatching old mods. This allows new gamers to play some of the iconic dungeons, and old gamers to relive past glories. They can also be used to showcase the new rules in ways that appeal to all gamers. I would also think that they are cheaper and faster to make than a whole new idea, but I'm not positive on this one.

 

[Crazy Jerome]

Actually, my #1 preference would be for WotC to hire Willie Walsh, of old Dungeon adventures fame, keep him in the loop on the internals of the design, and then help him turn whatever his home adventures are into a bang-up product.

There might be a few goofy side tracks, but the majority of it will be worlds ahead of anything that has been done by WotC this century. If they announced today that Walsh was doing his own version of a 5E sandbox, I'd pre-order it immediately, sight unseen. Walsh has a "serious about fun, but not too serious" sensibility that has historically been rare.

 

[Fifth Element]

As long as it doesn't have kobolds, I'll be good to go. No kobolds, please. I'm sick to death of kobolds. There's always kobolds. What's with all the kobolds?

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

A couple ideas that come to mind:

One, I feel like a truly great dragon-slaying quest has never really been done, or done well. I'm not sure how that would be done over 20 levels, but I'm sure that it is possible.

Oh, I like that. Though I think a Dragon Hunt on its own is probably not something for 20 levels. But why not kill a few more than one. Start as a Dragon Hunting expedition that reveals some sinister plot involving multiple dragons, and some other factions - so that not every adventure is a dragon at the end.

As a perhaps side tangent, I think one of the ways that 4E failed is that it didn't provide a cohesive and fleshed out campaign setting for folks to call home and/or draw inspiration from.

I love the Point of LIghts setting and that it isn't cohesive and fleshed out, but a collection of plot ideas and historical elements you are free to interpret on your own. I like to believe that the people that used POL were able to take all these elements and spin a setting that genuinely feels their own.

Eberron, Dark Sun, Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk all feel more like someone else's setting to me, and I worry i may "break" the setting accidentally. PoL made it clear that I am free to interpret the different events and individuals as I want to.

With that in mind, imagine an early box set product that was akin to a sandbox campaign for low level characters in a Nentir Vale/Dalelands-type setting, from which numerous adventure paths/branches could sprout. This, I think, would embody the modularity idea that is intrinsic to Next.

That, on the other hand, I like. It could have been done in 4E already, but they choose to do only a single "path". Having different turning points where you can go either adventure A or adventure B sounds interesting, and could even allow a certain replay value, or sharing the DM responsibilities - imagine splitting groups every so often to explore 2 alternative adventures.

As long as it doesn't have kobolds, I'll be good to go. No kobolds, please. I'm sick to death of kobolds. There's always kobolds. What's with all the kobolds?

Sorry, at the current pace, it will take at least 3 more D&D editions to eradicate all Kobolds.

At least the low level ones. We have to expect that evolution will create some particularly vicious Kobolds that will become high level enemies. They will probably use Ultra-Dire Warspider Lords and Super-Vicious Plague Rats as mounts.

 

[JeffB]

Personally I hope WOTC would drop the idea of the AP and focus on self contained event or site based adventures instead.

That goes for Paizo and others too. But i know it wont happen. APs are the new splatbook du jour.

 

[Zaran]

I want it to follow the Guidelines given to gms in the DMG. The 4e path lacked magic items and loot for the xp that could be rewarded. Had encounters that were way out of line for the party level. And was over all poorly designed. DescriptiOn, treasure and encounter info should be in the same locatiOn.

 

[Fifth Element]

Oh, I like that. Though I think a Dragon Hunt on its own is probably not something for 20 levels. But why not kill a few more than one. Start as a Dragon Hunting expedition that reveals some sinister plot involving multiple dragons, and some other factions - so that not every adventure is a dragon at the end.

That sounds good to me. As long as it doesn't have kobolds.

I love the Point of LIghts setting and that it isn't cohesive and fleshed out, but a collection of plot ideas and historical elements you are free to interpret on your own. I like to believe that the people that used POL were able to take all these elements and spin a setting that genuinely feels their own.

I used a lot of the ideas from the 4E DMG in my campaign, and had a lot of fun with it. I think it worked very well - I've never really been a fan of having every little detail of a setting put into writing.

 

[Agamon]

Personally I hope WOTC would drop the idea of the AP and focus on self contained event or site based adventures instead.

That goes for Paizo and others too. But i know it wont happen. APs are the new splatbook du jour.

Paizo is where it is today because the format is so popular. It sure isn't for everyone though (including this guy). It's too bad Ben Robbins did the West Marches blog and not someone at Paizo, we might be in a different world today....

 

[Fifth Element]

Personally I hope WOTC would drop the idea of the AP and focus on self contained event or site based adventures instead.

That goes for Paizo and others too. But i know it wont happen. APs are the new splatbook du jour.

Wait, are you saying that all adventure publishers should only be publishing one type of adventure? There are currently all types being published, surely there's something out there for you already.