D&D 5E Which of the big hardcover adventures have you run or played through?

[Burnside]

Dragon Heist is a terrible adventure but a really good adventure construction kit. All of its parts are great and yet the sum of those parts was a garbage fire.

I'd actually argue it isn't even a really good construction kit tbh. It assumes everyone loves factions when in fact almost nobody loves factions. I think Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden and Tomb of Annihilation are both better construction kits for their respective regions without really even billing themselves as such in the way that W: DH did.

 

[Mezuka]

HotDQ finished. Played one session of Rise of Tiamat but the group disbanded.

We tried playing Curse of Strahd but the DM gave up after two sessions.

I bought Ghost of Salt Marsh, used the small adventurers in my campaign but never used to three main ones.

 

[Reynard]

I'd actually argue it isn't even a really good construction kit tbh. It assumes everyone loves factions when in fact almost nobody loves factions. I think Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden and Tomb of Annihilation are both better construction kits for their respective regions without really even billing themselves as such in the way that W: DH did.

I don't own ToA but Rime was the closest thing to a CRPG style adventure WotC has done. You could almost see the glowing exclamation points hovering over the NPCs.

 

[overgeeked]

Played through and ran Curse.

Played through Dragon Heist.

Started playing Mad Mage, but the group rebelled against doing a pure dungeon crawl, then COVID hit.

 

[Hussar]

Played Storm Kings Thunder to completion and ran Dragon Heist to completion. I've played through a chunk of CoS (loved it), Hoard, Princes, and DotMM. Currently in the Hoard campaign actually - just joined a new group recently. Very different experience - only two players and one DM. Been a ton of fun actually.

Dragon Heist requires a few things - a LOT of player buy in for one. Also, I think people forget that you're supposed to blow through this thing in about 6-8 sessions. It's really, really short. It's not meant as a campaign, and I think people try to play it like one. It's more just a primer for Waterdeep.

Now, that being said, when you start adding in lots of stuff from DM's Guild, you can easily turn this into a full campaign. And Waterdeep really is a very cool place. But, again, you need players who actually give a toss about setting. If you're players are all goal/task oriented and just want to resolve the plot, then, nope, this module is going to suck. That's I think, why the whole factions thing just falls so flat. No one really cares about the factions, mostly because the factions don't really connect to anything. Yay, you're a harper now. Ok, do these harper tasks. Great, now, let's get back to the actual adventure and we'll never mention the fact that you're a harper again.

 

[Reynard]

Played Storm Kings Thunder to completion and ran Dragon Heist to completion. I've played through a chunk of CoS (loved it), Hoard, Princes, and DotMM. Currently in the Hoard campaign actually - just joined a new group recently. Very different experience - only two players and one DM. Been a ton of fun actually.

Dragon Heist requires a few things - a LOT of player buy in for one. Also, I think people forget that you're supposed to blow through this thing in about 6-8 sessions. It's really, really short. It's not meant as a campaign, and I think people try to play it like one. It's more just a primer for Waterdeep.

Now, that being said, when you start adding in lots of stuff from DM's Guild, you can easily turn this into a full campaign. And Waterdeep really is a very cool place. But, again, you need players who actually give a toss about setting. If you're players are all goal/task oriented and just want to resolve the plot, then, nope, this module is going to suck. That's I think, why the whole factions thing just falls so flat. No one really cares about the factions, mostly because the factions don't really connect to anything. Yay, you're a harper now. Ok, do these harper tasks. Great, now, let's get back to the actual adventure and we'll never mention the fact that you're a harper again.

One of the things about Dragon Heist done right -- and I ran a very successful short campaign with it -- is that players buy in to getting that hoard early and all the messiness and machinations follow from that buy in. If they are motivated, you can let them loose and as long as you have a sense of all the players you barely have to do a thing. Confined sandbox in its purest form.

 

[Hussar]

One of the things about Dragon Heist done right -- and I ran a very successful short campaign with it -- is that players buy in to getting that hoard early and all the messiness and machinations follow from that buy in. If they are motivated, you can let them loose and as long as you have a sense of all the players you barely have to do a thing. Confined sandbox in its purest form.

I think one of the bigger problems with Dragon Heist is that it's presented as a fairly standard module - go here, do this, which leads to the next thing, wash, rinse repeat. Bog standard module fare. But, once you get into play, you realize that no, it's not really like that at all. You start out with a straightforward 1st level adventure, fair enough. There's always a limit as to what you can really do at 1st level. Then you get the house. Ok, great. Then... you faff about for quite a while getting your house set up. Then... after that... you get to get back to the adventure at hand.

There's a real disconnect between the sections. And yes, I think if you set it up as much more of a sandbox with a bunch of things going on here and there, that it would work much better. I almost wonder if you couldn't skip the last two chapters entirely and just go from having the house and then sandboxing it from there.

 

[John R Davis]

Run most of them, some twice
Dragonheist was poor, but managed to finish. Descent was worse and we all gave up.
Really enjoyed SKT, TOA, COS, GOS, ROTFM,
Bought CK but never touched it so sold. Not interested in WW or RC.
Will try Spelljammer.

 

[TheSword]

I'd actually argue it isn't even a really good construction kit tbh. It assumes everyone loves factions when in fact almost nobody loves factions. I think Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden and Tomb of Annihilation are both better construction kits for their respective regions without really even billing themselves as such in the way that W: DH did.

Well this isn’t really true at all is it, because there’s only one very short section that involves factions and your are free to ignore them if you don’t like them.

My party spent that chapter developing their tavern and exploring the city. The factions chapter is just a way to facilitate that, with plenty of other stuff to do instead.

 

[TheSword]

Most of them up to and not including Witchlight.

The only reason I havemt ticked OOTA is that. I am really excited about it and want to do it justice. Probably mashing it up with some other underdark adventures.