Adventure Query

[Nickademus]

I'm looking for a group of adventures to fill a specific niche. I dislike third-party, so I'm referring to the adventure produced by WotC. I'm looking for a list of adventures that are:

1. Longer than a single session (so no AL adventures)
2. Shorter than a long adventure like Hoard of the Dragon Queen or Curse of Strahd
3. Not part of the D&D Encounters line
4. Set in Forgotten Realms

Upon compiling the list, I came up with: Lost Mines of Phandelver.... that's it. Am I missing something or is WotC not making any more adventures that are played in 3-4 sessions? This used to be a staple for D&D (and other games).

[Trenloe]

Lost Mines of Phandelver.... that's it. Am I missing something or is WotC not making any more adventures that are played in 3-4 sessions?
You'd be pushing LMOP in 3-4 sessions.

[Zacchaeus]

I think the answer to your question is yes. The philosophy for 5e (thankfully) is to not deluge the place with splat books but produce a small number of long and quality adventures. With the OGL there has been a large number or third party adventures released almost all of which will last 3-4 sessions. None are set in the Forgotten Realms of course since that's WotC's IP but most that I'm aware of can be set anywhere or can be readily adapted to the Realms.

[Nickademus]

Yeah, the DMsG has Forgotten Realms non-OGL third-party adventures too. I'm weary of anything third party (and am currently perusing some for game balance). I was hoping for a stronger base from WotC. I guess in a way I'm glad they went the megaadventure route. I just wish they had about 3 adventures the size of LMoP to start with.

[Zacchaeus]

Well even WotC stuff varies in quality but some of those TPP adventures are rather good.

[Nickademus]

If you have any recommendations, it would surely bump them up my list.

[Zacchaeus]

If you have any recommendations, it would surely bump them up my list.

Well I am biased of course but the Legendary Games series 'Trial of the Apprentice' is rather good (2 in store three more soon). And when it hits the shelves the Book of Lairs is all about short adventures. I'm sure others have personal favourites too.

[jshauber]

I am currently making corrections/changes to the Quests of Doom series which have adventures of various lengths. Not specifically set in Forgotten Realms, but could be placed as you see fit.

[Myrdin Potter]

The Quests of Doom are not super hard to convert as their maps are pretty simple. I did one from Quest of Doom 2 just for the experience of converting an adventure. The quality does vary a little from adventure to adventure but I have not seen any bad ones. They certainly are older school in feel. The art and maps are nowhere near as nice as the WoTC products of some of the recent 3PP ones.

All of the Wizards longer 5e modules are a series kf encounters/dungeons with a story behind them. I think the latest one. SKT, allows you to wander around the Sword Coast and exact sub-section is a few sessions each.

[Nickademus]

Well I am biased of course but the Legendary Games series 'Trial of the Apprentice' is rather good (2 in store three more soon). And when it hits the shelves the Book of Lairs is all about short adventures. I'm sure others have personal favourites too.


I am currently making corrections/changes to the Quests of Doom series which have adventures of various lengths. Not specifically set in Forgotten Realms, but could be placed as you see fit.

As I stated in my original post, I'm looking for adventures for Forgotten Realms (not just set in the world, but using the content of the setting), which means content exclusively from the Dungeon Masters Guild. I'm already familiar with the third-party adventures made by professional development companies for generic or other settings. The problem, and this will sound negative even though I think the idea of the DMsG is great, is that companies don't post to the DMsG; ordinary people do. (Companies have to post under a normal user account.) So this means the majority of the content on the DMsG is just some gamer's stories thrown up on the site (with no fee) to share and make some money. There is absolutely no guarantee of quality or balance to the adventures which makes each one suspect until perused.

Hence my desire for WotC FR adventures.

[Nylanfs]

The reason why companies don't put things on DMsG is because they lose some control of it. Ie they can ONLY sell that item on DMsG, and depending on if they build upon it anything related to that has to be on there.

[Nickademus]

All of the Wizards longer 5e modules are a series kf encounters/dungeons with a story behind them. I think the latest one. SKT, allows you to wander around the Sword Coast and exact sub-section is a few sessions each.

I was pondering today the idea of breaking long adventure paths and mega adventures into pieces and running them separately. This might be a more viable option to fill in the gap of the medium-length adventures.

[Nickademus]

The reason why companies don't put things on DMsG is because they lose some control of it. Ie they can ONLY sell that item on DMsG, and depending on if they build upon it anything related to that has to be on there.

I agree. Also, the content goes into the collective and other people can take the non-art content and use it for free. Still, I see some companies putting things on the DMsG under the author's account. I imagine it's about exposure at that point.

But to be honest, content that uses WotC non-OGL material could only be sold on the DMsG anyway.

[Myrdin Potter]

PoTA, which I am running now, has 4 different flavored levels 3-6 surface dungeons and then a series of dungeons under each. Any one of them could be run as stand alone adventures.

There are also extensive side quests - about 1 for every 2 levels from levels 3 on up that each have different themes. There are escort missions, something that must be based on Zulu (orc raid on walled farmhouse), ancient dwarven ruin, and barbarians.

SKT has extensive maps and adventures ranging all over the Sword Coast. Each part is a sub-encounter and the story arc is usually in the background.

So plenty of ability to use the existing modules. The only one that seems to lock you in is the demons/underdark Out of the Abyss.