D&D 5E What is the most played published adventure on your table?

[Madnick]

I like pre published modules, especially because I find in them something that I can add to my homebrew games. So I tend to buy most of them and run them once or twice to get the hang of the mood, the difficulty etc.

The lost mine of Phandelver to this day is by far the most played module I have ever run. It is my go to for all new players, players that want to dip their toes in the ocean called dungeons and dragons. But also a starting adventure for many of my parties through the years no matter their expertise.

It is easy, it has a nice, simple and straight forward story, plenty of hooks to base entire campaigns after it is done and it has beautiful art, maps etc. The starting village and the npcs can be used with ease for many sessions after you have cleared the wave echo cave and the general foundation of the story is perfect for all kinds of future plot arcs.

What do you need?

- Red wizards of Thay asking favours and raising zombies? CHECK

- Camp filled with Orcs ready to raid and pillage? CHECK

- A green dragon claiming ruined villages and being worshiped by cultists? CHECK

- Mysterious treasure maps? CHECK

- Powerful banshee with the power to foresee the future or past? CHECK

- Magical forge to establish a trading house ( or at least the beginning of it!) CHECK

- A castle for your players? CHECK

- Goblins? Hobgobblins? Drow? Undead? Spectators? Flameskulls? Owlbears? did I mention a GREEN DRAGON? CHECK CHECK And CHECK AGAIN.

So this is the two part walkthrough for the game masters that have not run it yet. I strongly advice you to do so, and especially if you are new to the game and you have always wanted to convince your friends to start rolling dice, go with the Mines you cannot go wrong!

Part 1 of the review:
Part 2 of the review:
What is your go to adventure for your table? What is the one adventure you have run so many times that probably you cannot remember the original story too clear with all the bits and pieces you have added all those years to it?

 

[Sithlord]

The B series of modules and isle of dread.

 

[Madnick]

The Keep of the Borderlands and the Lost City were among my favorite back in the day . They had the same feel LMoP has for me, good starting ground.

 

[CleverNickName]

As I wrote in the other thread, the published modules I've played the most are X1, "The Isle of Dread," followed by X4, "Master of the Desert Nomads" (and its sequel X5, "Temple of Death"), CM1 "Test of the Warlords," and X11, "Saga of the Shadow Lord."

 

[jeffh]

Pharaoh, I suppose, that being the only one I've attempted to run more than once.

Nothing in 5E.

 

[LordEntrails]

None.

I agree that LMOP is a great place to start. For new DMs, New Players or New Campaigns.

But, I almost never run the same things twice. There are too many things to run and I've got the disposable income to buy them. Back in the B1 and B2 days, well I didn't have the income then so we ran those and remixed them dozens of ways to run them again and again. Not that they were that good, but its what we had.

 

[aco175]

For 5e, LmoP is the place I started and are running my 3rd campaign out of it. The new campaign is using the Essentials box as well, so the adventure of the original is not used as much.

 

[Marc_C]

Several B/X and AD&D tournament adventures. I remove a lot of the crawl and keep only the central ideas. Sometimes I'll use just a level (or part of a level) that I plug into another adventure because I like the design of that part of the dungeon. I play with younger players. Chances of having played them is very low.

Usual Suspects:

• B4 The Lost City
• C2 Ghost Tower of Inverness
• L1 The Secret of Bone Hill

The Dungeon magazine city adventure 'Fruit of the Vine' is used every time I GM for a new group. Probably 5 times. Using 2e, 3e, 4e, 5e and Fantasy AGE.

 

[Stormonu]

None.

I agree that LMOP is a great place to start. For new DMs, New Players or New Campaigns.

But, I almost never run the same things twice. There are too many things to run and I've got the disposable income to buy them. Back in the B1 and B2 days, well I didn't have the income then so we ran those and remixed them dozens of ways to run them again and again. Not that they were that good, but its what we had.

Similar, variety is the spice of life.

B2 got a lot of use as it was the only adventure I had for some four-odd years (along with the Haunted Tower in the B/X basic book).

And I6 - Ravenloft. I don't miss a chance to run it, but no group I've had has ever been willing to go through it twice. I feel like that's a job done right, and not a faulty module.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I ran parts of Keep on the Borderlands so many times back in the day. It's kind of fun to come back to it with modern eyes and DMing skills for the OAR version.

 

[Scott Christian]

Sinister Secrets of Saltmarsh and Against the Cult of the Reptile God. For the DM, very easy to run. And great for introducing new players to role playing. Not just combat, but exploration and talking to NPC's. Plus, both are not bad for teaching new players resource management.

 

[Ath-kethin]

The most-played published module for me is The Idol of Bala, but that's cheating a little because I wrote it.

But I've run it in Basic Fantasy RPG (which is the system it's written for), Rules Cyclopedia D&D (2x), and 5e. It's an easy little one-shot with some nifty twists.

 

[SkidAce]

Castle Caldwell is my starting adventure go to.

 

[Eyes of Nine]

Phandelver, I have run it once, and am running again.
I tend not to run things more than once (... glances at 2+ shelves filled with various adventures and APs)

 

[Sithlord]

Castle Caldwell is my starting adventure go to.

I see that module criticized so much. Yet imho it is the single best module for beginning players and especially beginning DM’s ever created. Yes there are better more exciting modules. But it is easy for newbies. I actually love to use that module if I am going to teach new players.

 

[Fallen star]

I ran lost mines only once, for my son and his friends. The only published modules I've run more than once are Castle Ravenloft, twice, and Vault of the Dracolich, three times.

 

[Morley_Dotes]

Desert of Desolation (I3-I5) [4 different groups and added elements of Dune into it], Against the Cult of the reptile God (N1) [3 or 4 groups], and The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh (U1) [Lost track, but never ran it past the 1st module in the trilogy due to the players wanting to head off somewhere else].

 

[pogre]

B2.

I have run UK2 and UK3 a bunch as well.

 

[Bagpuss]

The Lost Mine of Phandelver - I've run this twice, but then I've only got two groups on the go. Definitely one I would use again with a new group as an intro to D&D, much better module than the one in the Essentials Kit (that one is so flawed I could do a whole thread on it).

Most run published scenario I've done is Pax Cthuliana using 7th Ed Call of Cthulhu (though the module itself is system free). Made a load of props for it so I've run it for my original group, twice at conventions and again at a local games shop. So four times in total.

Generally most published stuff only gets one outing as they are too long to run at conventions and I just DM the one group usually.