5e modules

[Niles]

Is Lost Mine of Phandelver part of the Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamet storyline? Does the story end with Rise of Tiamat or is there more to come? I want to take my players through it was wondering how many modules in the story arc.

[Xorn]

Tyranny of Dragons is Hoard of the Dragon Queen (1-7) and Rise of Tiamat (8-15). Lost Mine of Phandelver is standalone (1-5) and is a good starting point to kick off a campaign. Temple of Elemental Evil (1-15) has suggestions for transitioning from LMoP into ToEE. If you wanted to transition from LMoP into HotDQ you could pretty easily; I would just kind of fast-track them through the first few episodes for background and some motivation, then skip up to about Waterdeep.

[TASagent]

LMoP isn't directly connected to the storylines of HotDQ and RoT, though HotDQ flows directly into RoT, as it seems you have surmised.

You'd need to do a bit of tweaking to get LMoP to connect with HotDQ, especially with how HotDQ starts at level 1 (I believe). However, lots of people have been interested in doing this, so you can find discussions all over the place about how to best connect them, specifically on the dndnext subreddit.

The official storyline does end with RoT. Your players' actions may have generated clear followup ideas by the time you get to the end, but the end of that adventure (for good or ill), is not a bad place to retire (around level 15 or so).

[Trenloe]

Is Lost Mine of Phandelver part of the Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamet storyline? Does the story end with Rise of Tiamat or is there more to come? I want to take my players through it was wondering how many modules in the story arc.
LMoP doesn't link into HotDQ. Some people have linked them together, but LMOP is designed to take PCs from levels 1-5, whereas HotDQ is designed for levels 1-8; so it's a bit difficult to string the those two together without some serious work. HotDQ and RoT make a two part campaign covering levels 1-15.

[Niles]

Thanks guys, helpful advice as usual!

[crb31]

As an aside I've read that Horde is not a good starting adventure for newer DM's, despite it being the first story arch.

[TASagent]

It can be a little rough, especially if the players think that every obstacle they encounter is something they should be able to tackle head-on. You will murder at least some of them.

However, I think that LMoP is a very excellent module, for both new and more experienced DMs alike.

[Trenloe]

However, I think that LMoP is a very excellent module, for both new and more experienced DMs alike.
Agreed. I've really enjoyed it.

[jhall6766]

hmmm I havent read HotDQ or ROT as of yet. But wouldnt you be able to plant seeds and rumors with in Lmop to kind of keep the Pcs informed of the early occurences in HotDQ while running Lmop.. Im assuming that refugees and cultist would be moving around en mass... Maybe even add an encounter where a small group of refugees are ambushed on the road by a group of cultist...

[TASagent]

Yes, you could certainly connect their stories. Doing the work to level up everything from HotDQ to RoT by about 5 levels (or doling out less XP until the party is where they should have been (don't tell any players I said that)) sounds like a giant pain.

[crb31]

There are already seeds in LMoP. The problem is more at what part of the story to plug level 5 characters into the middle of. Same with EE- but that starts out with the assumption that players are using 3rd level characters and gives the DM an option to start with level one characters.

[jhall6766]

I wasnt thinking of changing anything in HotDQ or RoT ... Just inserting Pcs at an accurate point in the storyline that suits their level/knowledge and going from there... But in the process of running LMoP just seeding and keeping the Pcs informed on the happenings with in HotDQ.. So when the switch over occurs they will still have some of the Bg but not everything..Seems that all i would need to do is create a few more NPCS and use them like newspapers to spread the word about what is happening in other parts of the world... AS I said in my earlier post I havent read HotDQ as of yet so off to the reading to even see if such is possible...

[Xorn]

The main thing to understand about Hoard of the Dragon Queen is this: It's a railroad.

Now, all published adventures get a little railroady by their very existence--but HotDQ is basically Space Mountain, if you were allowed to get off the ride and kill stuff frequently.

With as little spoiling as possible, the first chapter is like a quest hub--you show up and there's a bunch of stuff to do in a time limit. It works well, but it's very brutal--you are not expected to do everything and survive--it's a good lesson for players coming from previous editions (especially 4E).

Second and third chapters are going after the cult that attacked the city/quest hub. It's a pretty logical progression and works. Again, the answer is NOT to fight everything in chapter 2 (that's suicide). In chapter 3 you have a good old fashioned dungeon romp though.

Then the REST OF THE ADVENTURE (chapter 4-8) all rely on the heroes "tracking" the cult across the sword coast for months, through two major cities, with two different caravans, through the swamp, into a roadhouse, through more swamp, into a forgotten castle, MAGICALLY TRANSPORT to another lodge, then travel to ANOTHER town, and board yet ANOTHER magical castle.

The thing is, the heroes should be able to easily slaughter the cultists they are following, so you have to figure out how to keep them from murder-hoboing them and looking for something else to do. Requires heavy handed use of baby-sitter NPCs really, or else you're going to be introducing NEW cultists to keep dropping breadcrumbs and pretty soon it's obvious that they need to just follow the Neverwinter MMO-style quest paths on the ground.

Don't get me wrong, it's a fun adventure with a lot of cool stuff in it--but it's a site-based adventure, with a linear progression. There's really not much in the way of events that progress with or without the party.

On the flip side, Rise of Tiamat is MUCH better, and has a huge background on the cult plans and progress, as well as all affected allies and enemies. If the party sidetracks, you know what's developing in their absence. It's an event-based adventure, with details for the most likely sites that will be visited. Honestly, it feels like these adventures were supposed to be one book, and got split in two.

As a whole, LMoP is a better site-based adventure, because it's not really linear. Temple of Elemental Evil is a fantastic event-based adventure, with more adventure sites than you can shake a stick at. Plus in ToEE you can EASILY go into a site that is not intended for your level--giving it a real sandbox feel.

[LordEntrails]

https://hackslashmaster.blogspot.com/p/hoard-of-dragon-queen-index.html
IMO, a really good discussion on HotDQ and a way to make changes to it to convert it from a railroad to a more interactive experience.