D&D 5E Where is the content?

[Eyes of Nine]

The the OP - have you thought about using the Pathfinder APs? Or the 4th Edition APs?

I would say you are not a typical game group in terms of how fast/far you go through official WotC stuff. But then again, I have a game with my kids friends (my sons are in college) that we play once per year during christmas break. It's not my only game, but I do know something about slooooooow progression

 

[Xenonnonex]

I don't want to come up with things on the fly. I want plans. I want organization. I want a book I can look over and remember details from session-to-session and not forget when a few weeks go by without a game. I want a shared community experience of war stories we can re-tell about classic modules we all played. I want evocative art I can show my players. I want professional design, sound adventure logic, not just stuff I make up on the fly.

For people who are great at improv, that's awesome for them. I have a job that drains my creativity on a regular basis, leaving little left for hobbies. So I really appreciate using published adventures so I can better relax and enjoy time with my friends playing this game.

You of course realize you can come up with plans and adventure ideas yourself yes? You just need to plan ahead of time.
If you are so time poor and creativity starved there are lots of seeds of inspiration on the internet. And many many 3pp and DMsGuild adventures. But these of course do not prohibitively carry the "official" label.

And I don't think that anyone can say the 3.x era didn't produce quality content and that we had only "mediocre adventures." Look at "Sunless Citadel" and "Forge of Fury" (both of which were good enough to be reprinted in 5e). Look at "Red Hand of Doom." Look at "Age of Worms" from Dungeon Magazine. Look at Ptolus, Lost City of Barakus, Aerie of the Crow God, Black Ice Well, and numerous other 3PP offerings.

I was not saying anything about the 3x era. I was saying however that rushing to satiate fan whim is again going to cause fan whinging.

If we're in the height of popularity for the game, where is the support?

Trying to launch seven video games.

 

[MichaelSomething]

May I suggest Ptolus? It's being remade for 5E! At a whooping 672 pages with about 300 pages of extras. If that isn't enough for you, I don't know what is...

 

[The Big BZ]

I'm right there with you about the lack of high level material.

Yeah, seems quite strange that (excepting a handful of AL modules of variable quality) there is exactly one product in 5 and a half years that goes to Level 20 (DotMM). Now, I know all the research etc says that the average game stops around 12 but every product they produce except modules goes to 20. And at some point it becomes chicken and egg. Having run a 1 - 20 campaign it gets quite hard at high Levels, constantly hacking material etc.

(I guess TftYP has Tomb of Horrors too, which I used but the point remains the same).

 

[The Big BZ]

To the OP, I'd suggest Eyes of the Stone Thief from13th Age. The conversion will take a fair amount of effort, but the campaign is strong enough to be worth it.

Thanks for that and I will have a look but I guess once I have to start converting I'd prefer to play one of the all time classics like Night Below or something.

 

[The Big BZ]

Sure.
As I said, the game runs most weeks. You know, the usual handful of missed sessions due to vacations, GenCon, Holidays, illness etc. And this Feb was almost completely shot due to a death in my family. So on average I'd say about 40-45 sessions/year.
Average session:

• 6-6:30 - people arriving. BSing. As more people arrive, more BSing.
• 6:30 average - get started. Recap what was going on for anyone who needs it. Hand out any xp from previous session, lv up if nec. Play a bit.

*A Game veers off into random discussion of _____
*B Play a bit more.
*A Game veers off into random discussion of _____
*B Some more play.
*A Game veers off into random discussion of _____
* Repeat this A/B cycle until about 9:50 when we clean up.
Same time, same place, same pattern next week....

We're not on some sort of clock where we have to complete x amount of stuff/session. And much of the action/direction is player determined. So things often just meander along at whatever pace the players are happy with. I just have to write stuff a week or two ahead of them. For example, they just spent the past 6 or so sessions (so mostly Jan & some of Dec as Feb was blown to hell) on a self appointed quest to visit a conclave of Druids. They could've done this a bit faster, but they were having fun farting about.
The story that's forming is actually more important than the XP gained.

I'm happy for you guys that you enjoy that type of play but to be honest with you I think that it's pretty irrelevent to the discussion of the the release schedule. WotC could publish a book a week or no book for a year and it wouldn't really have an impact on your game. That's really what I'm trying to get at in this thread i.e. the release schedule of three setting books in a row with no adventures seems off. In fact if you go through the release schedule like this:

May 2019 Saltmarsh
June 2019 Aquisitions Incorporated
October 2019 Tyranny of Dragons Reprint
September 2019 Descent
November 2019 Eberron
March 2020 Wildemount
June 2020 Theros

one sees that of the last seven books released or about to be release, four are setting books, one is a reprint of an adventure, one is an adventure anthology and one is a brand new shampoo AP. Now I own everything released so far at least twice so I am anything but a disgruntled naysayer but still a ration of 4 setting book to 2 adventure books seems wrong to me.

 

[The Big BZ]

OP: If your group is buzzsawing through adventure paths that fast, then I would guess you are doing the videogame equivalent of following the main quest and ignoring all the side content.

Do you ever have sessions with no combat, or downtime activities, or PC individual goals?

My group is pretty solid in the ROLLPlay camp, but even with that our last session was the following.

1. Explore the market.
2. Bard having an impromptu duet performance with an NPC bard.
3. Going back to the market during the day and looking for exotic animals.
4. Noticing the PC bard was missing.
5. Tracking down the fact that the PC bard had been shanghaied onto a troopship.
6. Securing the bards release and doing a cursory investigation of the corrupt recruiter and shady NPC bard.
7. Actually beginning the adventure proper, investigating some murders at three locations.
8. Figuring out the source of the murders is in the sewers and gaining access.
9. Getting into an argument with some hobos at the sewer entrance and it moving to violence.
10. Called for time.

All the above took 4 real time hours of play and only half had to do with the "adventure" which has nothing to do with the "campaign story" as a whole.

We actually do plenty of side quests etc. Maybe overall we like to make progress but not unreasonably so I don't think.

 

[The Big BZ]

You want more adventures. I am saying that you already have adventures in your imagination. Unless you don't.

Have you read your thread title?

So no then.

 

[The Big BZ]

The the OP - have you thought about using the Pathfinder APs? Or the 4th Edition APs?

I would say you are not a typical game group in terms of how fast/far you go through official WotC stuff. But then again, I have a game with my kids friends (my sons are in college) that we play once per year during christmas break. It's not my only game, but I do know something about slooooooow progression

I have done but as I say upthread, once I get into conversion work I would prefer to convert an iconic D&D module I suppose.

 

[werecorpse]

I hadn’t noticed it but you are right.

I tend to run things a fair bit slower. When I have run hardback books I have integrated AL stuff & DM’s guild into them but you seem to already do that.

Night Below is very good, and has plenty of room for side quests so good choice.

So you want stuff that fits easily into a homebrewed forgotten realms & preferably is already 5e.

Have you tried Red Hand of Doom or a Paladin in hell? Both pre 5e but both pretty good and able to fit where needed.

Have you thought about having a break from D&D for a 6-12 month campaign of some other system?