FG Most Enjoyable Campaigns - Sand-boxy Recommendations?

[HywelPhillips]

Hi Everyone,

I'm after some recommendations: which commercial campaigns available to run on Fantasy Grounds have you had the most fun running/playing? Especially something with more of a sandbox feel rather than a tightly plotted railroad.

I'm running weekly games for two groups, I'm a photographer and film-maker by day and writing RPG home-brew campaigns is perilously close to writing scripts and shoot plans i.e. my day job. Work has been hugely busy this year and I'm expecting it to be just as bad next year. To keep my groups going, I am after commercial stuff to base them around and homebrew on top of.

At the moment both groups are on 5E D&D.

One group is likely to want to stay on 5E, but the other is system-agnostic (although the campaign would have to be super to tempt us into anything as high-crunch as Pathfinder- we enjoyed Ptolus back in the day in spite of 3.5E, not because of it. But never say never if there's a really stunning adventure path).

We really like Free League games (doing Mutant Year Zero and Vaesen in person) and are waiting with bated breath for Forbidden Lands to appear on FGU.

We've REALLY enjoyed LMoP and Icespire Peak and Rime of the Frostmaiden. Descent into Avernus in the sandboxier parts, Wild Beyond The Witchlight in parts, cannibalised bits of other Faerun-set capaigns already (Princes of the Apocalypse, Tales of the Yawning Portal).

So generally something more sandboxy is a good fit for us rather than a railroad- I'm just reading Spelljammer and it's going to need so much disassambling for my group that I might as well homebrew the whole thing.

Anyone got any experience to share of Rise of the Drow, any of the PF1 or PF2 adventure paths, the old Deadlands campaigns or the latest Horror at Headstone Hill? Red Opera, Kobold Press Southlands stuff or Zobeck/Margreve stuff? (I enjoyed playing Courts of the Shadow Fey but it looked a bitch to run) How about Empire of the Ghouls? I had fun playing the first part of Odyssey of the Dragonlords - it's how I met the core folks in one of the groups- but it falls into a railroad and the group fell apart a bit. How is Savage Pathfinder and the Rise of the Runelords to run or play? What about other SWADE settings?

I've got analysis paralysis and a few anecdotes of "had a great time with this one, fairly sandboxy" would go a long way!

Cheers, Hywel

[LordEntrails]

I loved Dragon Heist with the Alexandrian Remix. But would never run it without remixing. But the Remix is quite a bit of work. Also... the reward at the end sets a tone for the whole campaign that you may not want.

I had no trouble running PotA as a sandbox without altering anything written and we enjoyed it.

I also really liked the Beyond IceSpire Trilogy (Sleeping Dragon's Wake, Storm Lord's Wrath, and Divine Contention). I put together plot summaries and thoughts here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/DragonOfIcespirePeak/comments/i6anbx/plot_summary_sleeping_dragons_wake/
https://www.reddit.com/r/DragonOfIcespirePeak/comments/i5012o/plot_summary_storm_lords_wrath/
https://www.reddit.com/r/DragonOfIcespirePeak/comments/iil5jf/plot_summary_divine_contention/

City of Brass by Frog God is interesting, but no FG conversion and it would be a lot of work to make one. I've used it more as a setting than as campaign/plot line. But it does have one. I just don't know how sand-box that part is.

I've read a lots of pieces of AAW, including parts of Rise of the Drow and think it would be good, but can't be certain until I run or play it.

Hope you find what you are looking for :)

[Zarestia]

Curse of Strahd for me and my group (although the group nearly fell apart but because of humans, not the adventure).
You get dropped into a world and your group is pretty much on their own to explore it. The GM should have a good understanding of the adventure before starting and there is a whole subreddit for this adventure with many, many good things.

Otherwise, we're now very happy with our current adventure path 81 sessions in, which is only partly sandbox and not available on FGU sadly. 3.5e (though possible with PF1e) Savage Tide.

[HywelPhillips]

Ahhh yes I enjoyed the start of Dragon Heist I did as a player but agree that it really needs remixing. I will take another look at the Alexandrian remix, as I recall he'd done all the heavy lifting of refitting it. That might be just the ticket for the 5E only group!

I've been feeling that A LOT about WotC releases recently - as I said I was reading through Spelljammer, there's some good stuff in there but the whole thing is on rails and doesn't make anything like enough of the potential locations and storylines. Which is spectacularly weird for such a free-wheeling setting, surely the players are going to want to fly around a bit in their space galleon?

I've already chopped up the Beyond Icespire trilogy too, have had fun with those. (My PC group have managed to secretly make themselves Talos' arch enemies, whilst one of them is a Warlock of Talos, having started as a Cleric of Asmodeus. They go off-piste A LOT.)

Thanks for the suggestions!

[HywelPhillips]

Sadly I think at least one or two players in each group have already done Curse of Strahd :(

[mhossom]

<edit> Boo, just saw your comment about your players.

I am currently running Curse of Strahd for my group and it has be a great deal of fun. I agree with Zarestia about spending time to prep. I read the book cover to cover twice before I even approached my players about running it. Since the player are able to go anywhere they want you need to be familiar with all areas of the "world".

This is the subreddit that was mentioned. GREAT resource with tons of extra content and a helpful community.
https://www.reddit.com/r/CurseofStrahd/

[Dax Doomslayer]

I liked two of the adventures that were in the D&D Next time period. One of them is in the Store, Legacy of the Crystal Shard. It's a fun adventure.