>>12 named NPCs absolutely 100% necessary to move forward

>>53944696
Nearly any adventure since 2nd edition has been a DM fiat scene-based railroad. I don't know why this is news to anyone or why you'd ever use them.

>>53944696
Hoard of the Dragon Queer and Tranny of Dragons is worse imo

>>53944756
I just had my first PC adventure in years. So angry.

>>53944775
Dragon queer at least gives you agency at the beginning of the adventure. even though you're in a caravan for a 100% railroad caravan after, there is a puzzle to solve with agency in the beginning of the adventure.

>>53944696
10 named NPCs, actually. And none of them are required to move forward, it's just easier. Also WAAAAAYYY more fun if some of them come along for the ride.

Especially Ront, surprisingly enough.

>>53944806
The caravan was actually my favorite part of playing in that campaign, since my DM actually went day-by-day (rather than saying "four days pass, then...") and took effort to have each of the random NPCs have a personality (if none of us had anything in particular we wanted to do on a given day, we did just say as much). It was basically four or five sessions of roleplaying backed up by the occasional monster fight or something, and was really fun for character development.

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>>53944696
I don't see anything wrong with it. It's a great must-survive beginning and a good way to introduce the brutality of the Underdark. It's much more boring to have everyone kitted out with all the supplies and ignore the dangers of the underground empire. It encourages escape, exploration, running for your life and ingenuity in order to survive.

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So, what is the best adventure book so far for 5th Edition?

>Tyranny of Dragons
>Princes of the Apocalypse
>Out of the Abyss
>Curse of Strahd
>Storm King's Thunder

Any good 3rd-party ones out there?

>>53949466
I think it's a toss-up between Out of the Abyss and Curse of Strahd.

>>53949466

I think Storm King's Thunder is a tremendously fun adventure with an excellent sandbox section. If you use Faerun--and not everyone does--it is essentially a mini-sourcebook for the Savage Frontier.

>>53949628
>a mini-sourcebook for the Savage Frontier.
Is it really? Didn't know that, and I really like the Savage Frontier. I guess I should read it for that alone.

>>53949637

Yeah. It has a truly insane number of mini-hooks and encounter ideas for the Savage Frontier, and a lot of information for places mentioned in or featured in previous books but not necessarily elaborated on (Goldenfields, Triboar, etc.)

Seriously. It is a wealth of information and the adventure part is pretty great too. Frost Giant bro is bro.

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>>53949466
My personal favorite was OotA. Wonderful environmental effects and landscapes, weird fungi, etc. One of the best sourcebooks on the Underdark I've read in the setting's history, well since Vault of the Drow anyway.

>>53949466
LMoP > CoS > SKT > OotA > PotA > ToD

>>53951218
I personally would switch SKT with OotA but otherwise you have good fucking taste, anon

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>>53951218
Lost Mines is indeed good.

That said, I had great fun running ToD but with a lot of modifications. Like, I added 50 pages of shit to it.

>people actually run the modules like they're intended and don't just use the maps, locales, and characters to fluff out their own stories

Really?

>>53951330
Yes
>>53951281
Thank you.
>>53951303
I had an absolute blast in that game.

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>>53949466

>>53951387
Well damn. When and where did this survey take place?

>>53944696
Curse of Strahd has magic death fog that literally forces PCs onto the rails.

>>53944696
How are they 100% needed? My group left the orc, duergar and drow behind.

>>53944806
>even though you're in a caravan for a 100% railroad caravan after, there is a puzzle to solve with agency in the beginning of the adventure.
I dunno, anon. Back when I played it, I was managed to derail it pretty easily by playing a Drow Dragon Sorceress with 16 starting Cha and Proficiency in basically every social skill.

I looted the leader-woman's cloak during the initial raid on the Cult of the Dragon camp following the attack on the town at the very beginning, and proceeded to pass myself off as the leader of the Cult of the Dragon's "Underdark chapter" right up until we wound up meeting the Cult's *actual* leadership.

>>53951463
I did it on /tg and r*ddit d&d subr*eddits and some other forums like 3 months ago or so

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>>53951387
>>53951463
also this

>>53955280
Wasn't there some kind of issue with ToD where the designers were working with completely different encounter building rules than the ones that made it into the DMG and it never got updated before going to print, or something like that?

>>53955584
Yes, most of the monster stats and encounter building was not hard set when ToD was being developed. In the end, they did not test it enough once stats were finalized before going to print.

What's wrong with PotA?

So I'm curious, when it comes to a pre-written adventure, do you expect complete flexibility, and open-endedness?

Because you realize that's literally impossible, right?

If ANY part of you expects a pre-written adventure to be flexible enough that it can adapt to whatever you want to do, you're a complete fucking idiot.

>>53956324
There's a difference between "if this NPC is with the group, this, if not, this" and "this NPC MUST be with the group! Absolutely MUST! Or the adventure basically can't continue."

Just as an example, not citing any particular adventure.

>>53949466

I would say SKT or CoS. If you want much more solid mechanics and greater replay value, SKT. If you want a deep dive into the decidedly un-Core Ravenloft setting, CoS.

>>53951218

Turn the > between CoS and SKT into an = and you've got a deal.

>>53953792

>what is Ravenloft

>>53951330

Why not both? I didn't pay $30 for a hardback to only use it one way.

>>53956324

Personally, I just want a lot of stuff to work with. I can re-work whatever I need to if I have enough pieces to use to do it.