Any Favorites of the Campaigns in the Store???

[mhorgunn]

So after a year of play and with the addition of a core of players ... we are st long last going through the Lost Mines of Phandelver/ Phandelin? or whatever???

Anyway ... what ever you call it ... we are having a ball. So much so, I am considering using these characters as the store bought campaign characters. Maybe do a second campaign as a homebrew. So, is there a certain order thematically or are they totally self contained. Are there any that you like more than others or favorites? By suggestions?

[Wookiee420]

i like SKT better than LMOP, its feels more in depth...but i really enjoyed LMOP

[Zacchaeus]

Most of the official WotC modules are big campaigns taking characters from 1st through to about 15th level apart from Legacy of the Crystal shard which is 1 to about 3. There are various other small adventures from third party publishers but none are campaigns as such apart from some of the Legedary Games ones which do link particularly the Legendary Beginnings series and the Legendary Planet ones. Then of course there's the forthcoming Tales from the Yawning Portal.

[spite]

I'd avoid Rise of Tiamat, but can highly recommend Out of the Abyss, and beginning at 3rd level won't do much to ruin it, to be honest. We were 3rd level when we started too, and it's easy enough to tune up a few of the encounters to be a bit tougher earlier on until the story catches the players. It's also my favourite of the official modules and has the most awesomeness quota of them all :P

[mhorgunn]

I'd avoid Rise of Tiamat, but can highly recommend Out of the Abyss, and beginning at 3rd level won't do much to ruin it, to be honest. We were 3rd level when we started too, and it's easy enough to tune up a few of the encounters to be a bit tougher earlier on until the story catches the players. It's also my favourite of the official modules and has the most awesomeness quota of them all :P

I've watched a few streams of OotA and that seems like a fun arc of adventures. And I'm not above tweaking it to get it to fit.

[lee100868]

I myself have started to run Hoard of the Dragon Queen and I have to say it is a great campaign, but again it would need a little adjustment or two.

[LordEntrails]

We are playing Princes of the Apocalypse following LMoP. It's an easy transition as they take place next to each other. Plus the main story lines of PotA don't actually start until 3 or 4th level (don't remember).

PotA is challenging to run though. It's fairly close to a sandbox/open world if you want it to be. Which means your players can get themselves in deep if they make bad choices. Or, you can run it linearly if you just gives them the set clues.

I would do some Google research though to get a logic map or something as this is the one FG module that I found did not have all the links in it I wanted because the layout of the chapters is... not what I would do.

[Nylanfs]

Which means your players can get themselves in deep if they make bad choices.

Which means your players can get themselves in deep if they make good choices.

Fixed it for you. :)

[SirGraystone]

Most of the official campaigns have a sandbox / open world feels, PoA explore the Dessarin Valley, SKT go all over the Sword Coast and the North. Both are great, but both need to understand the whole thing before you start to plan your campaign. Because each have parts that players can tackles out of order, even if you give them clues to follow, things will always go off tracks at some point.

[mhorgunn]

Which means your players can get themselves in deep if they make good choices.

Fixed it for you. :)

Lol bad for them ... good for you ��

[lostsanityreturned]

I have currently run or am currently running
- Lost mine of Phandelver
- Princes of the Apocalypse
- Out of the Abyss
- Curse of Strahd

I am about to run Storm King's Thunder starting this friday.

LMoP I have run to completion four times so far although not all on fantasy grounds.

I would rank the adventures I have run as follows from best to worst experience in running on fantasy grounds.
1. Curse of Strahd
2. Princes of the Apocalypse
3. Out of the Abyss
4.LMoP

Curse of Strahd is one of the best prewritten adventures I have run in my entire GMing career. I run a lot of games and it was not only a joy to read but fairly well organised, allowing for a great focused and thematic sandbox. It also covered the right number of levels for my liking. Best adventure WoTC has released so far IMO.

Princes is FAR from a well written adventure, but it gives good motivations and a fleshed out area without being too unwieldy. People get turned off by a rather poorly written start. But if the GM can get through some of the frustrating early prep slog and digging for information throughout the book it will quickly become something that takes very little energy to run and gives players a lot of freedom.
Fantasy grounds is still using the wrong map despite changing the text to the new errata... Wish they would atleast put a note in for new GMs who might not catch this. "hey guys the updated map is free form mike shley's website, go download it our map is wrong"

Out of the Abyss is an adventure I would consider to be much better written and more evocative than Princes. But in fantasy grounds it's poor organisation issues (also present in the physical book) are a bigger issue.

Lost Mines of Phandelver, okay this works pretty well in FG, but I just don't care for the adventure. I have run it through from start to finish four times now and half way a few more times.
Pathfinder introduces GMs to GMing better through it's products imo, and that is with them having to deal with the complex and bloated 3.75e monstrosity that it is...

[mhorgunn]

I don't mind a bit of sand boxing ... I try and balance both in my campaigns. There has to be some direction... right ??? Can't be in the fest hall every night? I will have to take a look at both of these.

[LordEntrails]

I don't mind a bit of sand boxing ... I try and balance both in my campaigns. There has to be some direction... right ??? Can't be in the fest hall every night? I will have to take a look at both of these.
There is direction in PotA (can't speak for the others) as it is up to you to provide the various events and leads when you want to (and there are suggestions for when).

But, the way I presented it left multiple choices for my players to chose from. And, when they stumbled through the wilderness because their was an unfilled area on their map, I let them discover things that were above their level. I could have just said they missed it or the event wasn't happening, but I chose to let them go into a side quest about 4 levels above them. They surprised me and through luck and incredible tactics they won.

So, the tools are there, you can make PotA deadly or not. Always your choice.

[lostsanityreturned]

I don't mind a bit of sand boxing ... I try and balance both in my campaigns. There has to be some direction... right ??? Can't be in the fest hall every night? I will have to take a look at both of these.

A sandbox doesn't inherrently mean a lack of directon. It just means an open field to go about discovering that direction or approaching it.

A good sandbox has the players become influential figures rather than integral figures in my opinion. Their choices matter and have an impact but events must still be able to occur with or without them.

This gives weight to player ac5ion and a real sense of control to the party. It does tax a gm a bit more and doesn't work for all adventure types but it can be really good. Even with tight time constraints.

[mhorgunn]

... It does tax a gm a bit more and doesn't work for all adventure types but it can be really good. Even with tight time constraints.

It does keep the DM on their toes! Lol! I just know I have to watch my players ... half are focused ... half are ... oh look ... squirrel!!! Its a ton of fun!!!

[mhorgunn]

... Fantasy grounds is still using the wrong map despite changing the text to the new errata... Wish they would atleast put a note in for new GMs who might not catch this. "hey guys the updated map is free form mike shley's website, go download it our map is wrong" ...


Which maps are wrong?

[LordEntrails]

Which maps are wrong?
The overall map is at the wrong scale. It was originally draw at one scale (4.5 mile/hex?) and the story/adventure written accordingly. Then WotC decided they wanted a different standard scale (10 mile/hex?) for their regional maps and so the scale bar on the map was changed, but of course the story was not updated. And, at the "new" scale it doesn't fit with the known Sword Coast geography.

So, WotC eventually issued errata putting it back at the scale that Mike Schley drew it and Mike released an updated version free to the web. But, I think because the new/updated map is not released by WotC, SmiteWorks doesn't feel they can change that part of the published FG adventure.

[mhorgunn]

The overall map is at the wrong scale. It was originally draw at one scale (4.5 mile/hex?) and the story/adventure written accordingly. Then WotC decided they wanted a different standard scale (10 mile/hex?) for their regional maps and so the scale bar on the map was changed, but of course the story was not updated. And, at the "new" scale it doesn't fit with the known Sword Coast geography.
So, WotC eventually issued errata putting it back at the scale that Mike Schley drew it and Mike released an updated version free to the web. But, I think because the new/updated map is not released by WotC, SmiteWorks doesn't feel they can change that part of the published FG adventure.

Oh ... it must be the effects of the Sundering that's happening on the Forgotten Realms. Sooo ... basically if you mentally adjust the scale ... everything is kosher?

[LordEntrails]

Oh ... it must be the effects of the Sundering that's happening on the Forgotten Realms. Sooo ... basically if you mentally adjust the scale ... everything is kosher?
That's what I did. My players have no problem brushing off inconsistencies like that.

The new map does correct the location of two of the locations (I think they are labelled incorrectly?), but I'm not sure if they were placed wrong or just labelled as each other. It's probably worth getting the updated map if you haven't started, but if you have (like me), probably not needed.

[lostsanityreturned]

Oh ... it must be the effects of the Sundering that's happening on the Forgotten Realms. Sooo ... basically if you mentally adjust the scale ... everything is kosher?

A few text blurbs in the original document state things as being further away than they are because of the shift (these were adjusted in the errata and in the text of fantasy grounds too), not a major issue.

The two temples actually moved a fair bit, because their original positioning made no sense to how the dungeon ended up or where the assault occurred. This is something that is worth taking note of if you have players with analytical minds like mine have :P

[mhorgunn]

Do you need the Sean MacDonald maps as well?

[LordEntrails]

I don't think any of Sean's maps were changed/updated. If you want higher resolution versions or want to further support him, but otherwise I'm not aware of any reason to need his maps over what is already included in the module.

[mhorgunn]

Cool ... Thanks ... I'm watching the Starwalker Studios YouTube PotA videos right now. Looks like this could be fun.

[noxioustaco]

Princes of The Apocolypse is well formatted, easy to run sandbox or you can steer them around if you want to.

I thought it had great variety, lots of side quests, random encounters and some good hooks into the Sword Coast.

[mhorgunn]

Thank you ... it's looking better every time I check it out.

[JohnD]

Princes of The Apocolypse is well formatted, easy to run sandbox or you can steer them around if you want to.

I thought it had great variety, lots of side quests, random encounters and some good hooks into the Sword Coast.

To each their own but PotA was hard to follow for me until I had the chance to sit down with the book and read through things, comparing sections and how to find stuff in FG. That might be because it was the first 5e module I looked at.

Agree that it's a nice sandbox type environment.

[SirGraystone]

https://thecampaign20xx.blogspot.ca/2015/04/elemental-evil-guide-to-princes-of.html

This guide may help running PoA