Session 0
Here is a list of the adventures that I have a copy of, and what I know about them. For the ones that I have, but haven't read, I'll take care of the reading before we start, so only take that note to mean I know little about it. There are a few others as well, but they're definitely not what you guys are looking for.
Descent into Avernus (Lv 1-13) - never played it and haven't read it yet, supposedly has interesting vehicle combat? From what I know of the story, you go to hell and disrupt a war between devils and demons in hopes that it doesn't spill over into the material plane.
Curse of Strahd (Lv 1-10) - yeah it's a horror setting, but it's also widely consider both the best adventure and the most RP-heavy. I've played the lower level parts of it, but my groups have always fallen apart before we finished it. I can play down a lot of the horror stuff, so you'd mostly be dealing with horror-themed encounters in a gloomy setting. Probably not a whole lot of exploration going on though.
Dragon of Icespire Peak (Lv 1-6) - it's the new intro adventure and it's pretty decent. It's written pretty loosely, so you have some freedom in what you do. It's set up so that there are 2-4 available quests for your level, you go and do some of them, you level, new quests open up, so on until you get to the right level to go take on the dragon. There are opportunities for RP throughout. Of the first three quests, 2 of them have deadly encounters and one of them is very strongly encouraged to be resolved by RP. Can be combined with LMoP (below) for a better overall story. Stand-alone, there's a young white dragon that has come to the region and you're sent out to warn people, bring them back to the town for safety, search for magical items to help you, and fight off various baddies that were driven toward inhabitants by the dragon's presence, and at the end you go and kill the dragon.
Lost Mines of Phandelver (Lv 1-6) - the original intro adventure, that's pretty good all around. Exploration is maybe a bit light since everything is in one general area, but I can add some to it. Can be combined with CoIP (above) to take advantage of strengths from both while eliminating the weak points (pointless side quests, mostly). Stand-alone, you're dealing with goblins and bandits, rescuing some people, and trying to discover a lost mine that can create magical weapons.
DoIP + LMoP (Lv 1-8'ish) - A lot of minor changes will be made to both adventures to tie the two of them together for a cohesive story instead of two separate things happening in the same location. There are also two or three follow-up mini-adventures to DoIP that can add some more levels.
Ghosts of Saltmarsh - I've started playing it twice, never got more than a few sessions into it before group fell apart. Island and ship themed setting, with surprisingly few things happening on the boat itself. The quests themselves are supposedly rather enjoyable, the main complaints I hear about this one are the final quests don't have a lot to do with the earlier stuff, and people want the ship to matter more. This one is more of a collection of adventures within a setting, so it could give you options for RP and exploration but it could also feel kind of flat since there's not a key storyline taking you from start to end.
Hoard of the Dragon Queen (Lv 1-7) - Dragon cultists are raiding and pillaging cites to gather treasure to give to Tiamatt, the evil goddess of dragons, when they summon her. You're there to stop her. It starts with a lot of combat, then quickly turns into a whole lot of social encounters as you try to convince powerful organizations to side against the cultists with you. Very political/social. It's followed by another adventure, Rise of Tiamatt, where you try to undo the work that has already been done and then face off against Tiamatt herself, or her avatar.
Rise of Tiamatt (Lv 7-15) - continuation of the above adventure. You'll do more of the same, but also face several different dragons as you try to capture the artifacts they need to actually summon the Queen of Dragons.
Rime of the Frost Maiden (Lv 1-11) - haven't played it or read it, but I hear good things.
Princes of the Apocalypse (Lv 1-15) - this one is pretty cool, it's a sandbox so it has some of the exploration elements and a fair amount of RP. As a sandbox, there's a chance that your exploration takes you somewhere that you might get killed. It's full of cultists trying to bring elemental lords into power, and you're there to stop them. I've been playing in a PotA game here for 4 years.
Storm King's Thunder (Lv 1-10) - lots of travel and exploration in this, you'll be going all over the nation in this one. It's the largest adventure out there. The king of giants has gone missing, and all hell breaks loose as the different types of giants struggle to take power.
Tomb of Annihilation (Lv 1-11) - haven't played or read, but it's also a fan favorite and I know people who love it. It's the best adventure for exploration as that's largely the point. There's a death curse that means people who die stay dead and lots of people are inflicted with a curse that will kill them; I would scrap that since it only serves to force you through the adventure as quickly as possible to save as many people as you can, so most players end up missing a lot of the cool stuff the setting has to offer. Without that in place you can explore the whole island.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:13, Thu 29 Apr 2021.
