D&D 5E What Starter Set Adventure To Playtest With?

[Zardnaar]

So I'm writing my own D&D system
It's basically a 5E/OSR hybrid.

Basic idea each day design 1 monster or 5 levels of a class. I'm tweaking my skeleton system from a while back.

Anyway I'm designing some basic critters. Orcs, Kobolds, Zombies etc. Anyway looking at converting the monsters from one of the following adventures.

1. Lost Mines of Phandelver.

2. Dragon of Ice Spire Peak.

3. Dragon of Stormwrack Isle.

Got a bit carried away and did a 20
Level fighter I'll do lvl 1-5 of the other 3 core classes then Bard, Druid, Ranger, Paladin then rest of PHB.

LMoP best adventure, haven't played Stormwrack Isle (best boxed set?), and Ice Spire Peak has potential.

Thoughts?

 

[delericho]

IMO, the two "Starter Set" boxes are only worthwhile for the adventures. Fortunately, "Lost Mine of Phandelver" is well worth the ticket price all by itself. "Dragons of Stormwreck Isle" is... adequate, but no better than that - I really wouldn't recommend that set.

On the other hand, the "Essentials Kit" is a vastly superior product on all counts except the adventure. In particular, that 64-page rulebook is great. IMO "Dragons of Icespire Peak" is adequate, in the same way as DoSI. However, what it does have, which is very nice (and which DOSI lacks) is that it dovetails really nicely with LoMP.

So my recommendation, in general, would be to get both the LoMP Starter Set and the DoIP "Essentials Kit" and use those together.

For playtest of a new system, though, I'd recommend LMoP by itself. Or maybe looking for something else, perhaps "Sunless Citadel" or "Crown of the Kobold King"?

 

[Muso]

IMO, the two "Starter Set" boxes are only worthwhile for the adventures. Fortunately, "Lost Mine of Phandelver" is well worth the ticket price all by itself. "Dragons of Stormwreck Isle" is... adequate, but no better than that - I really wouldn't recommend that set.

On the other hand, the "Essentials Kit" is a vastly superior product on all counts except the adventure. In particular, that 64-age rulebook is great. IMO "Dragons of Icespire Peak" is adequate, in the same way as DoSI. However, what it does have, which is very nice (and which DOSI lacks) is that it dovetails really nicely with LoMP.

So my recommendation, in general, would be to get both the LoMP Starter Set and the DoIP "Essentials Kit" and use those together.

For playtest of a new system, though, I'd recommend LMoP by itself. Or maybe looking for something else, perhaps "Sunless Citadel" or "Crown of the Kobold King"?

I totally agree.

 

[Zardnaar]

IMO, the two "Starter Set" boxes are only worthwhile for the adventures. Fortunately, "Lost Mine of Phandelver" is well worth the ticket price all by itself. "Dragons of Stormwreck Isle" is... adequate, but no better than that - I really wouldn't recommend that set.

On the other hand, the "Essentials Kit" is a vastly superior product on all counts except the adventure. In particular, that 64-page rulebook is great. IMO "Dragons of Icespire Peak" is adequate, in the same way as DoSI. However, what it does have, which is very nice (and which DOSI lacks) is that it dovetails really nicely with LoMP.

So my recommendation, in general, would be to get both the LoMP Starter Set and the DoIP "Essentials Kit" and use those together.

For playtest of a new system, though, I'd recommend LMoP by itself. Or maybe looking for something else, perhaps "Sunless Citadel" or "Crown of the Kobold King"?

I've used parts of DoIP and yeahbi quite like it.

Good pick up on Sunless Citadel. Also thinking of Mere of Dead Men follow up from 2E Dungeon.

 

[Stormonu]

If you got access to it, I'd also suggest looking at Tales From the Yawning Portal. It's got a range of adventures for various levels that you could use for testing beyond starter adventures.

 

[Zardnaar]

If you got access to it, I'd also suggest looking at Tales From the Yawning Portal. It's got a range of adventures for various levels that you could use for testing beyond starter adventures.

I own that and Saltmarsh

 

[aco175]

Out of the 3 box sets to convert, I would recommend Icespire Peak. Stormwreck is only levels 1-3 and Lost Mines might not be varied enough to get to test out the concepts and monsters. Icespire has good quests that are short enough to complete in a night and are all tied under one concept of the dragon in the region. There is room to expand each of the sites but you should not need to unless you are running a dedicated campaign. If all you are are doing is testing your clone, then having a night of play in each of the locations and level would allow time to tweak as you go.

A drawback of using Icespire Peak would be that there are multiple choices to go to for each level. You could railroad it and have only one choice, but the extend of the conversion is not a lot and if multiple parties are playtesting, it might be better to have the varied locations.

 

[Zardnaar]

Out of the 3 box sets to convert, I would recommend Icespire Peak. Stormwreck is only levels 1-3 and Lost Mines might not be varied enough to get to test out the concepts and monsters. Icespire has good quests that are short enough to complete in a night and are all tied under one concept of the dragon in the region. There is room to expand each of the sites but you should not need to unless you are running a dedicated campaign. If all you are are doing is testing your clone, then having a night of play in each of the locations and level would allow time to tweak as you go.

A drawback of using Icespire Peak would be that there are multiple choices to go to for each level. You could railroad it and have only one choice, but the extend of the conversion is not a lot and if multiple parties are playtesting, it might be better to have the varied locations.

That's fine I've used tge first 3 levels of ice spure peak elsewhere.

Depends on how big the party us. Level q-3 would be nice with 6 players, up to level 5 with 4.

Mere of Dead Men starts around 20 total levels.