Best FGU Campaign?

[Naimed]

Hello everyone!

I've heard that Dungeons of Drakkenheim is a campaign that really helps DMs, in the sense that you don't have to do much work to make the campaign work, and they include many helpful things... unfortunately it doesn't exist on FG :cry:

So: What - non CoS - campaigns would you recommend based on the following criteria:
- Fun
- starts at*levels*1-3*
- Colored Maps, hopefully with FG Walls done
- Minimizes the extra work the DM has to put into it

I don't care if its WOTC or 3rd party.

Thank you very much for your recommendations!

[Laerun]

Hello everyone!

I've heard that Dungeons of Drakkenheim is a campaign that really helps DMs, in the sense that you don't have to do much work to make the campaign work, and they include many helpful things... unfortunately it doesn't exist on FG :cry:

So: What - non CoS - campaigns would you recommend based on the following criteria:
- Fun
- starts at*levels*1-3*
- Colored Maps, hopefully with FG Walls done
- Minimizes the extra work the DM has to put into it

I don't care if its WOTC or 3rd party.

Thank you very much for your recommendations!

There was some push-back or size issue with the Drakkenheim IP, so it never came to be.

Lost Mine of Phandelver (the Original) is/was such an adventure and tons of lore, support, and third party content.

[SilentRuin]

Curse of Strahd.

[Zacchaeus]

Curse of Strahd.

He said non Curse of Strahd.

[Naimed]

He said non Curse of Strahd.

Indeed, we already played that one. Outstanding campaign, I have to say.
Does LMOP has a way to play it past level 4 with FG-ready modules?

Any longer campaigns that are well built?

[Lo Zeno]

Hello everyone!

I've heard that Dungeons of Drakkenheim is a campaign that really helps DMs, in the sense that you don't have to do much work to make the campaign work, and they include many helpful things... unfortunately it doesn't exist on FG :cry:

So: What - non CoS - campaigns would you recommend based on the following criteria:
- Fun
- starts at*levels*1-3*
- Colored Maps, hopefully with FG Walls done
- Minimizes the extra work the DM has to put into it

I don't care if its WOTC or 3rd party.

Thank you very much for your recommendations!

Waterdeep: Dragon Heist is a level 1 to 5 adventure that needs almost zero work from the DM to run it. And if I remember correctly Zaccheus added some color maps in the FGU module (the default maps are sepia-colored)

[Laerun]

Hello everyone!

I've heard that Dungeons of Drakkenheim is a campaign that really helps DMs, in the sense that you don't have to do much work to make the campaign work, and they include many helpful things... unfortunately it doesn't exist on FG :cry:

So: What - non CoS - campaigns would you recommend based on the following criteria:
- Fun
- starts at*levels*1-3*
- Colored Maps, hopefully with FG Walls done
- Minimizes the extra work the DM has to put into it

I don't care if its WOTC or 3rd party.

Thank you very much for your recommendations!

Most of the official 5e contents are ather complete. And, the suggestions here are decent. It's matured to the point where most of the gaps can be filled in with good supporting third party content like maps, accessories, YouTube videos online Wiki info, etc. No matter which one you decide to start its going to require some work. Knowing what exact things are lacking or good depends on how you run the adventure and how much familiarity you have. You can't really tell by just words alone as to what is complete or not. Every GM plays differently, so it's rather difficult to express what is good or bad. You have to play a couple of times to really make an educated suggestion

[Naimed]

Most of the official 5e contents are ather complete. And, the suggestions here are decent. It's matured to the point where most of the gaps can be filled in with good supporting third party content like maps, accessories, YouTube videos online Wiki info, etc. No matter which one you decide to start its going to require some work. Knowing what exact things are lacking or good depends on how you run the adventure and how much familiarity you have. You can't really tell by just words alone as to what is complete or not. Every GM plays differently, so it's rather difficult to express what is good or bad. You have to play a couple of times to really make an educated suggestion

I totally see your point, and thank you for your answer.

Let me elaborate a bit further: I know most - if not all - WOTC campaigns are FG-complete, so maps, walls, statblocks etc. So when I was asking for FG-completeness I was mainly thinking about non-WOTC campaigns or settings.

I played Rime of the Frostmaiden, and I had to put in a lot of effort to make it work.. almost as much as creating a campaign from scratch (Not FG-work but modifying the story, etc)... almost the exact opposite from CoS where I had to come up with very little extra things.

So I'm asking experienced DMs that have run some other campaigns what cool campaigns are "DM-friendly" so to speak.. I hope this clarifies it.

[Laerun]

I totally see your point, and thank you for your answer.

Let me elaborate a bit further: I know most - if not all - WOTC campaigns are FG-complete, so maps, walls, statblocks etc. So when I was asking for FG-completeness I was mainly thinking about non-WOTC campaigns or settings.

I played Rime of the Frostmaiden, and I had to put in a lot of effort to make it work.. almost as much as creating a campaign from scratch (Not FG-work but modifying the story, etc)... almost the exact opposite from CoS where I had to come up with very little extra things.

So I'm asking experienced DMs that have run some other campaigns what cool campaigns are "DM-friendly" so to speak.. I hope this clarifies it.

I ran that adventure too and it was challenging and difficult, and I agree with your assessment. I think Storm Kings of Thunder is okay, Dragon Heist as mentioned before is good too, as it can segue into the DotMM. I like most of Kobold Press's adventure content as far as third party content goes.

[Lazybones1969]

Dragon of Icespire Peak is set in the same area as Lost Mines, and can be used in conjunction with that adventure to create a sandbox-style campaign with tons of space to explore. Wizards has released three add-on adventures to DoIP (Storm Lord's Wrath, Sleeping Dragon's Wake, and Divine Contention) that can take a party all the way to 13th level. I got them all during one of the sales on the D&D Adventures Bundle and they're generally well done.

[damned]

Has anyone played The Demonplague?

[LordEntrails]

Dragon of Icespire Peak is set in the same area as Lost Mines, and can be used in conjunction with that adventure to create a sandbox-style campaign with tons of space to explore. Wizards has released three add-on adventures to DoIP (Storm Lord's Wrath, Sleeping Dragon's Wake, and Divine Contention) that can take a party all the way to 13th level. I got them all during one of the sales on the D&D Adventures Bundle and they're generally well done.
This is what I was going to say. I like the Beyond Trilogy. Si.e and straight forward and easy to extend. See my reviews on the LMOP sub of reddit for details. Or I can post them tomorrow.

[spoofer]

You could go from LMOP into Princes of the Apocalypse. That is a straightforward seires of eight dungeon crawls.

[HywelPhillips]

I haven't actually run it yet, but Rise Of The Drow looks pretty good in terms of supplied maps, stats, etc. It's certainly very pretty and the hardcover is very in-depth; I think you might need a few generic underground maps for random encounters but the campaign as a whole looks remarkably complete even for when the players start wandering around in the sandboxy bits in between set pieces.

The Scarlet Citadel is complete in terms of the dungeon, I just had to grab a few interior building maps for when stuff happened in the village IIRC.

Odyssey of the Dragonlords is pretty good although some supplemental maps for general encounters on the road etc. wouldn't go amiss. Again may need more material if the players tend to wander around the Sandboxy areas a lot.

The Wild Beyond The Witchlight is OK if your players are going to go along with the story and the general look-and-feel, but terrible if they're going to go off-trail in the sandbox. (I think the same of Descent into Avernus).

The absolute best in terms of support though as others have said is Phandelver plus Icespire Peak plus Storm Lord's Wrath, Sleeping Dragon's Wake, and Divine Contention then into Princes of the Apocalypse (in the next valley over) and side trips to places like Waterdeep (using a bunch of material from Dragon Heist). Sprinkle in some stuff from Storm King's Thunder as they travel around and you've got an epic campaign with a TON of GM material. I ran that for a couple of years, had a great time.


Cheers, Hywel

[Griogre]

Has anyone played The Demonplague?

I just started running this one. I like the starting situation of the campaign but don't really have a good feel for the later parts. My suspicion is that the hex crawling might take some additional prep to make it run smoothly. The FG version is better organized than the original PDF in the first module.

[damned]

I just started running this one. I like the starting situation of the campaign but don't really have a good feel for the later parts. My suspicion is that the hex crawling might take some additional prep to make it run smoothly. The FG version is better organized than the original PDF in the first module.

Thanks Griogre