Adventure Reviews and Recommendations

[LordEntrails]

So with the sale and some credit on my PayPal account, I've just got to go and buy one of the 5E modules. I already have LMoP, and have narrowed (not much) it down to; Princes of the Apocalypse (PotA), Hoard of the Dragon Queen (HotDQ), Rise of Tiamat (RoT), & Rage of Demons: Out of the Abyss (OotA).

Out of the 4 adventures, which one should I buy? I don't need any, but... So, what i would like is;
- First, it needs to be a good adventure. Something fun to play, nothing too linear, an interesting story/plot.
- Additional resources are a bonus (races, items, maps, etc).

PoA has the genasi race and new elemental spells, levels 1-15
HotDQ has lots of amps, and for what levels?
RoT has ? and is for what levels?
OotA has new demons and items and seems to be very open world like (a good thing in my book), levels 1-15

[Zacchaeus]

PotA and OotA are complete campaigns; the other two make up one campaign as well but split into two parts. You'll want both.

OotA and PotA are the least linear of the three campaigns although they are all really quite linear since you can't blunder about in amongst level 6 NPCs when you are level 3. The one with the most scope for seeming to be non linear is OotA since it has so much randomness in it. I think all of the campaigns have interesting story lines but that's a pretty subjective opinion; it depends on your definition of interesting.

Apart from the maps which comes with PotA and OotA there are map packs to supports these products here (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?25083-Princes-of-the-Apocalypse-Maps) and here (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?26028-Zacchaeus-Out-of-the-Abyss-Map-mod).

I'd pick any of them, but if you want an order PotA, HotDQ/RoT, OotA.

[TMO]

PotA and OotA are complete campaigns; the other two make up one campaign as well but split into two parts. You'll want both.

OotA and PotA are the least linear of the three campaigns although they are all really quite linear since you can't blunder about in amongst level 6 NPCs when you are level 3. The one with the most scope for seeming to be non linear is OotA since it has so much randomness in it. I think all of the campaigns have interesting story lines but that's a pretty subjective opinion; it depends on your definition of interesting.

Apart from the maps which comes with PotA and OotA there are map packs to supports these products here (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?25083-Princes-of-the-Apocalypse-Maps) and here (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?26028-Zacchaeus-Out-of-the-Abyss-Map-mod).

I'd pick any of them, but if you want an order PotA, HotDQ/RoT, OotA.

Outstanding! As you know, I'm fairly new to FG and absolutely a newb on this forum so I am trying to monitor all new posts and work my way backwards. I'm glad I did since it led me to this post and then to your excellent and generous third-party maps for those campaigns.

If I may ask, what are you using to create your maps?

[Zacchaeus]

Outstanding! As you know, I'm fairly new to FG and absolutely a newb on this forum so I am trying to monitor all new posts and work my way backwards. I'm glad I did since it led me to this post and then to your excellent and generous third-party maps for those campaigns.

If I may ask, what are you using to create your maps?

Campaign Cartographer 3.

[TMO]

Campaign Cartographer 3.

Ah...I thought as much. The look of your maps is quite distinctive. Are you using the Dungeons of Schley set?

I purchased CC3 as well but am somewhat overwhelmed in learning it. Similar to FG, these excellent products seem to rely on a lot of customer-made tutorials and videos, of which some are long in the tooth or oriented toward a different audience. That isn't meant to be a criticism, just an acknowledgement that I find it hard to dive in and get productive in the way I want because of the layers of general learning that seems to be required.

Your maps, however, inspire me to resume my learning. Sigh...only so much time in the day for this kind of play. Which reminds me, I need to see how much wife and kids are doing...

[Zacchaeus]

Ah...I thought as much. The look of your maps is quite distinctive. Are you using the Dungeons of Schley set?

I purchased CC3 as well but am somewhat overwhelmed in learning it. Similar to FG, these excellent products seem to rely on a lot of customer-made tutorials and videos, of which some are long in the tooth or oriented toward a different audience. That isn't meant to be a criticism, just an acknowledgement that I find it hard to dive in and get productive in the way I want because of the layers of general learning that seems to be required.

Your maps, however, inspire me to resume my learning. Sigh...only so much time in the day for this kind of play. Which reminds me, I need to see how much wife and kids are doing...

I do have the Dungeons of Schey upgrade but I also have thousands of objects from many other sources. If it makes you feel any better I've used Campaign Cartographer since it came on 3 1/2" floppy discs and I still have no real idea of what I'm doing half the time. :)

You are quite correct that most of the videos for Campaign Cartographer are way out of date. I learned everything by trial and error mainly as well as studying the manuals. You really do have to RTFM in this case; there's no other way. (Unless you use CAD software for some other purpose).

[LordEntrails]

Thanks Zacchaeus, I appreciate the feedback. I went with PotA.

[Nylanfs]

Interesting fact CC and its succeeding versions was build upon a open source CAD program, that's one reason why it's complicated. :)