Reviewing Every Official Adventure for D&D 5e (Part 1)

MONSTERS OF DRAKKENHEIM is 300+ pages of eldritch horror inspired monsters for 5e by the Dungeon Dudes! Coming to Kickstarter March 26th, 2024: www.kickstarter.com/projects/... In part one we review the first half of the modules released officially for Dungeons and Dragons 5e. We discuss a brief synopsis, Dm skill level, workload, and player challenge, as well as the general appeal of the module.
TIME STAMPS
0:00 - Intro
1:48 - Criteria
4:22 - Lost Mine of Phandelver
7:13 - Tyranny of Dragons (Hoard of the Dragon Queen & Rise of Tiamat)
12:15 - Princes of the Apocalypse
15:37 - Out of the Abyss
19:54 - Curse of Strahd
23:56 - Storm Kings Thunder
27:32 - Tales from the Yawning Portal
32:44 - Tomb of Annihilation
____________________________
Watch us play live Tuesdays 6-9 PM EDT on Twitch:
/ dungeon_dudes
Join our Patreon community:
/ dungeon_dudes
Get our custom t-shirts:
bit.ly/dungeondudesmerch
Pick up your next D&D book on Amazon using our affiliate links below. As an Amazon Affliate, we earn from qualifying purchases:
Tasha's Cauldron of Everything -- amzn.to/38SXLK2
Xanathar’s Guide to Everything - amzn.to/2YjaIHY
Volo’s Guide to Monsters - amzn.to/2SseJVu
D&D 5e Starter Set - amzn.to/2Yjbc0K
D&D 5e Core Rulebook Set - amzn.to/2xYTKQG

[@itribbits633]

I ran Lost Mines but completely changed the location and monsters to a desert setting, including ancient Egyptian-style gods and 'sun sickness' mechanics, and my players loved it. Lost Mines is simple but solid and lends itself really well to fantastic reskins that add some wow-factor for new players, like Monty and Kelly said.

[@Barrlounge]

Completely agree. I used it as a backbone to replace the start of Descent into Avernus as the actual town of Eturel instead so the players get transported straight to hell with it and have to deal with the direct aftermath instead of just wandering in half way through

[@eminentbishop1325]

This! Thank you! You just helped me with my campaign my friend

[@jackkingsman2758]

Tyranny of the Dragons suffers from just saying: "Idunno do whatever you want" at several points. So if you as the DM put in the work to flesh said parts out they are lovely if you don't... they are still ok to pretty decent. Some parts are pretty good even. Gotta love me some Xonthal's Tower

[@danbourlotos5188]

My first exposure to 5e adventures was Hoard of the Dragon Queen. I also felt it was pretty aimless at times and making a perfectly seamless advance through the adventure took way more time than I had anticipated.

[@telboy007]

There are lots of websites with good ideas on tweaks and extra things to do that will help the party figure things out, but it is quite a job to keep on top of it all. Baldurs gate turned into quite a big thing in my current campaign as they wanted to raid razamith's tower, and I planned out a cult secret meeting and safe house with clues and an assassin attempt on one of the Lords, the players did love it though so it was worth it.

[@StarkMaximum]

Wow they were even doing that shit back on day 1, huh.

[@ssfbob456]

I'm running it right now because my players wanted a campaign to go into high level, I'm using those moments to bring in backstory elements as side quests. But man, some parts of of it are painful to run.

[@jackkingsman2758]

@@telboy007 that's the thing though none of the cities are fleshed out they are just... there. And one thing that annoys me to this day in Rise of Tiamat there are three seperate cult ambushes that ramp up in difficulty each time. The adventure just shrugs and says I dunno just pull things from this sheet containing everything from base cultist to adult dragon. No matter what give them a level for every fight. Of which the first is supposed to be underestimating the characters by a long shot. Not a fan, rewrote that entire thing. But I had a field day planing elaborate 4d chess ambush Traps for the later ones

[@dtczyk8976]

You guys are so professional, I love the way you guys operationalize what you mean by “experienced” and other vague terms.

[@Thetruepianoman]

What does operationalize mean?

[@Ubersupersloth]

@@Thetruepianoman “Express or define (something) in terms of the operations used to determine or prove it.”

[@Thetruepianoman]

@@Ubersupersloth Makes sense, thank you

[@Silenc42]

Hear hear! I am seeing that table and if I hadn't subscribed and liked already, here they'd go. Actually, I'm starting to consider a patreon more and more.

[@seigefaire5320]

​@@Ubersuperslothis

[@DnDDeepDive]

Ooo… I’m looking forward to this series. As much as I love playing in Homebrew worlds, sometimes it’s fun to jump into the official WotC stuff, but we just don’t have time for both :).

[@mrbean3470]

We did Lost Mines and transitioned into Storm King's Thunder, ending at level 11. Lost mines was fantastic, Storm Kings dragged on.

[@Noitri]

Chapter 3 of SKT killed our campaign and tortured our new DM

[@P-diddykong]

That was my first adventure as a DM. Lost mines was fantastic, but Storm Kings thunder was really tedious for me and my players. It was my first time so I didn't feel comfortable changing a lot of stuff, which turned out to be a mistake. For a campaign so heavily focused on travelling, the travelling was really underwhelming and repetetive

[@Noitri]

@@P-diddykong Yep agree 100% - and I think that a lot of new DM's really struggle with travel and making it fun just as a general thing.

[@wrenn5682]

I am running LMOP too SKT. I wouldn't have been able to do it as a new DM. I cut chapter 4, and added hooks in 3 with secrets for the players to uncover. Fire an experienced DM, it's a good skeleton. For a new DM, it would be very difficult. Without a solid plan and the ability to redirect your party organically, it's easy for the thread to get lost in chapter 3.

[@joshholmes1372]

We quit SKT lol

[@Raggi86]

The amount of work you guys put into this video. I see you.... And as a DM, your videos. In particular this one are appreciated. Thank you.

[@maybevoldemort8995]

Prewritten adventures are really helpful. I know some people like (pure) homebrew, but I love using prewritten adventures. They provide such a good framework and take a lot of pressure off. I’m disabled, I have a young child, I don’t necessarily have time or energy to write. Being able to write around a prewritten module when I have time or just using the core content when I don’t had been a godsend. It also provides a really good area for discussion. I love talking about this hobby and, while talking about character builds and homebrew worlds is fin, I also like talking about modules lots of people have run. There is just a huge resource out there that iterates on modules, you can do your own thing, get answers if you need support and also just have fun talking about it!

[@dirtroadsandwoodstoves]

Nothing better than adding some homebrew to a module, or a little module to your homebrew. 😉

[@Eisenwulf666]

I prefer prewritten too. Especially since my players are more of the "beer and pretzels" kind of guys: no complex stories, no misteries no big atmospheric scenes. A big dungeon with traps, some interesting monsters and cool treasure is what they crave. If an adventure has that plus some NPCs i can let them meet and an overunning story that connects the dungeons, that's good enough.

[@maybevoldemort8995]

@@Eisenwulf666 absolutely, mine are much the same!

[@rk9sbpro83]

I've been running storm king's thunder for a long time and we barely do the main story lol. However, this is a good thing for us, because I focus more on the character's backstories and their personal story arcs, and it's nice to still have an overarching story in the background as well as a setting that I don't have to create all myself. It's like I just get a taste worldbuilding because I essentially have to come up with stuff for each town, but each area still has lore surrounding it that I can take or leave as I wish. So I quite like it, it's very chill while still not "running itself" so to speak. I get to be creative, but don't have to come up with everything myself.

[@nicolasantoniomolinacaric7826]

Same. I Focus the 2 and 3 chapter on player's backgrounds. Melting their backgrounds with the actual story (BBeG being a Hidden reason behind everything or maybe a giant leader). Letting My player to make a route on the map. So i put the hooks and hints wherever they travel. Using no random encounter on the travel. Encounter dat give them clues, Magic ítems, gold , background related or companions. And finally, making shopping a necesitty (Weather hazards, weapon and armor durability, Magic shops, teachers/ profesion, etc).

[@Josh-ed9fd]

The yawning portal is a great home brew tool. I've pulled dungeons or parts of dungeons into my campaign several times. With just a little reflavoring they fit right in. I had a player who ran one of the dungeons as dm before and he didn't notice.

[@InsightCheck]

There’s been a lot of talk about Pre Written adventures recently. I’m a huge fan, I love them. They create such an excellent framework and do so much of the heavy lifting! I appreciate the systematic approach you guys are taking to this which is awesome. I’ve been running Dungeon of the Mad Mage for a year and a half now. The campaign was largely written off by so many as a simple dungeon crawler. But honestly, I’ve found that this far in my game looks NOTHING like the actual campaign. It has so much room to develop your own stories, tie in backstories. It’s been super fun to run!

[@beaug4306]

What i like about them is that because so much work is already done, and the work you'd do homebrewing from scratch can be spent really fleshing out everything making for a much better experience for much less work.

[@InsightCheck]

@@beaug4306 100%. It lets the DM focus more on the details that are going to be more personal to the players.

[@PrimalEmpath]

I agree completely! I've also been running DotMM since March 2020. We only play once a month and my players are only on level 6, The Lost Level, so far. I am terrified for them once they get to the Obstacle Course.

[@InsightCheck]

@@PrimalEmpath that’s pretty quick haha! We play weekly and are on the Maze Level. But like I said we have changed so much. I even got rid of Maddogoth’s entirely because it just made no sense in our world. But it’s a really adaptable campaign!

[@BooksToAshes]

I'm personally not that great at imagining my own worlds and getting into detailed parts of it, so pre written has been really kind to me. I'm planning on homebrewing after I get more experience using the Mythic Odysseys of Theros handbook so I have a world, Gods and ideas thought out for me. I REALLY am grateful for them

[@davidhamer7820]

Thanks for the pointers. I ran phandelver and the players loved it. We transitioned to princes of the apocalypse and I've got to say if I didn't know how to run sand box games it would be a tough one to get right. Could easily be difficult for a new DM. I have used the lost portal games and they are great. One of my players is threatening to run decent and I'm so excited. Haven't got to play a character in 15 years. Forever DM can be tough.

[@vladimiregorov8382]

Question to Kelly and Monty: how would you rate your Dungeons of Drakkenheim book?

[@thor498]

Medium to hard

[@drakebetz3570]

i'd also kind of like to know the player difficulty level for Dungeon of Drakkenheim bc I would like to run it but half the party are pretty new players.

[@hopelessnecromantic2794]

@@drakebetz3570 Im running a drakenheim campaign, I would say its a pretty tough one on the players. Its amazing for open-ended faction roleplay and character freedom. It may be harsh on new players, but isnt unfair or cheesy in a way that would turn people off.

[@tacosamurai1]

I started running Tomb of Annihilation after finishing Lost Mines with my first ever D&D group and having just started running Descent into Avernus. Boy was it a shock to the DM system lol, I think I came out a stronger DM for it and I've had some very memorable moments from my group along the way. I think they'll be wrapping up in the next two months, but it was a meat grinder for me as a new DM as well!

[@neiltobey1746]

I took a different approach to the Yawning portal where they are actually....portals! I am running a campaign where the Yawning Protals are portals to all the different adventures and there is a narrtive built on why they need to go through these portals. It has turned out well so far!

[@Snakenator_WZ]

I did this too when I DM'ed Yawning Portal, it works amazingly to string the adventures together. My approach was the PCs are trying to rebuild a magical artefact to "insert objective here", but the artefact was broken into fragments and then scattered across time. Therefore, the PCs travel to the Inn and go through the Yawning Portal, to travel to the last known locations/time periods of the artefact fragments. This allowed the Inn to serve as a hub/safe zone and focus on role-play. Then, they travel through the portal to adventure through each of the dungeons, to rebuild the artefact. My party loved this way of running the book.

[@neiltobey1746]

@@Snakenator_WZ Mine was similar but with magical coins! Works great as a narritive.

[@jeepersmcgee3466]

The video had me thinking that Yawning Portal might be the book for me and my party. Your comments have me 100% convinced. Snakenator, do I have your permission to use your plot chassis?

[@Jessie_Helms]

I adore Rime of the Frostmaiden. It’s my first time every running a game (and I’ve never been a PC). It’s just detailed enough to where I can reply on the book, but I’ve had enough room to write some homebrew in there too.

[@deckerjake438]

Thank you! I haven’t played D&D yet but I’ve learned a lot from your channel and feel ready to join a group for a one shot.

[@bupperdupper8873]

Good luck!

[@theresnoracelikegnome]

When I was 12, we didn’t have the internet, but I found an old book about D&D(not a D&D book, more like a primer/discussion for D&D). I was so excited that it was all I could talk about with my friends for the next few months until one of their parents got them the core books for Christmas. I’ve been playing for almost 30 years, and I still get super excited, but there’s nothing quite like that first campaign. Anyway, I guess what I’m saying is that I hope you have an amazing first experience and it starts a 30+ year love affair for you, too.

[@bluebird3281]

Try fantasy grounds or roll 20 fantasy ground you only need to down load the free demo to play and the free forums to find games

[@deckerjake438]

@@bluebird3281 thank you, I’ll take a look.

[@deckerjake438]

@@theresnoracelikegnome thank you! I’ve wanted to since I was a kid…. But the school yard wasn’t the idea environment (lol). Congrats on a long list of fond memories of playing.

[@jaredlocke4300]

Currently running SKT for the second time. I love the story. It takes some DM work to streamline the story and cut out the fat. Once it's leaned out, it's sick. I do actually regularly refer to SCAG while running SKT. I agree with the fixer upper assessment, but i love it

[@Japanimal179]

Please please please Its so great! I had a PC complete the SKT and I took a level of the Arcana cleric and OH MAN it made things swing.

[@superpheemy]

Langdedrosa Cyanwrath has become a fixture in my Forgotten Realms setting. He's got the Devil's own luck, having survived a growing list of player character groups. He's risen to become a particularly influential leader within the Cult of the Dragon.

[@dynestis2875]

I ported Langdedrosa Cyanwrath and Rezmir into my homebrew campaign and added 3 more chromatic dragonborn to serve as an anti-party named the _Steel Scale Pact_ I am the forever DM but got to play Langdedrosa as a PC in a oneshot with my group, and now he is a well-known and loved character in the entire group I definitely plan on making him be a returning character in every future campaign I run!

[@ChadHensley]

The first campaign I ran as a DM just a few months after my first game of D&D was Tomb of Annihilation. We played for almost two years before life took too many players away and we ended before ever making it to the tomb. The group really had a good time and we only lost two PCs. One to the puzzle floor at Camp Righteous and one to Tzindelor through a random encounter that the characters caused when she flew over as they were on their way to Hrakhamar. In all reality, the should have died in the first session when they decided to hunt down the gladiator for K'lahu but the gladiator refused to kill them because he did not have a permit from the merchant princes. We still joke about the memorable stories from random encounters that I created on the fly that went really poorly or really well due to dice rolls. I loved this campaign and really hope to run it again one day. I made things a lot more difficult on myself because of my excitement, creating all sorts of printable options and taking a deep dive into DMs guild. Part of what caused the stall that eventually saw the group fall apart was extra content for Shilku Bay from the DMs guild after they accepted a mission for Liara Portyr at Fort Beluarian to go and explore the bay. The other campaign that I've run multiple times is Lost Mines of Phandelver. Each forray has gone quite differently. This was my introduction into D&D so it holds a special place in my heart. I'm getting ready to run a homebrew of sorts with Candlekeep Mysteries, though we may change it to The Sunless Citadel because of your review and I am also about to start a second campaign with some Pathfinder 1E players playing 5E for the first time with The Wild Beyond the Witchlight. Appreciate all you guys do!

[@fatherdanner2329]

I can’t wait for part 2! I’m close to finishing Lost Mine of Phandelver with my group and this is helping me figure out what to present to them for our next module!

[@mrblackdx]

I started LMoP 04/2020 and got them straight into Curse of Strahd 12/2020, been running it over a year, they are about 2 thirds to 3 quarters through, they love it, I would highly recommend. It does really require a solid commitment to playing Strahd, Strahd should be around constantly, he doesn't always have to turn up and be aggressive, he can mess with them in so many ways :)

[@aavavertu229]

It might be a good idea to ask them what kind of adventures they would prefer and then picking something along those lines. One suggestion is to get Ghosts of Saltmarsh/Candlekeep Mysteries and set hooks for some of the adventures while letting the players roam free and decide what they want to tackle next.

[@TheCubetree]

CoS was the first adventure I got to play in and I loved it. Our DM was roleplaying Strahd really good. We all hated and loved this villain at the same time, because he kept messing with us, but every appearance had this cool Strahd-factor to it. Once we finished the adventure and started into our DM's own homebrew campaign we never lost our paranoia of bats tho.. :D

[@AC-eb7kt]

I would like to see a review of the Dungeons of Drakkenheim campaign. Done by Jill and Joe lol

[@nicka3697]

Maybe Wotc should do a tier list of third party adventures. 🤠

[@SonOfTheNorthe]

I imagine this as a neat April Fool's themed video.

[@brezski594]

Omg so happy !! Thank you both so much for taking the time to go over all of these ! It's a lot of reading and a lot of work but very appreciated! Also I love how all your rating videos have a set and easy to understand ranking system💚 very helpful

[@waynewilde]

Ok so I love these style of videos but im a fan of the tier list ranking system, if only for the visual help of the chart, that way I can see where all of the modules stand when I look at the tier chart, I know its more work but if there was a graph that placed the modules in their spot based on dm work/player challenge/dm difficulty and I could see them all and where they all stand it would be super helpful, in those type of videos I can essentially see all rankings rather than having to scrub back thru the video to rewatch what you gave them. I like the visual graph for visual reminders of where the others stand. Still glad you guys made this video even if theres no tier-list or visual chart/graph, and im looking forward to part 2! Keep it up dudes, best DND channel on KZbin!

[@waynewilde]

The same way you rank subclasses in a tier-list, I wouldve liked that similar ranking, maybe in another video?? 👀

[@Zachafinackus]

ToA is one of my all time favorite HCs. I had such a good time playing through that with the party I was with (even though my character died, in the permanent way).

[@davidgratton8869]

I am a new DM, currently running my second campaign with a mix of new and experienced players. I chose a modified version of Lost Mine of Phandelver. One of the experienced players came up with a really good backstory which has become the core of the story arc for the entire campaign, though he doesn’t know that yet. I really like LMoP because it provides enough framework, maps, side quests, and plot hooks while still being flexible enough to adapt as needed. I have changed lots of the monsters to fit the plot, as well as much of the geography, but still kept it cohesive using the original content. And nods to you both after watching one of your game sessions, I added a gelatinous cube (with a minimal walk speed) to the hallway with the pit trap in the ruffian hideout in town. It made an otherwise boring and easily avoidable trap a suspenseful and dangerous encounter with all 5 PCs scrambling to flee, fight, or save a teammate. It was the highlight of the whole evening.

[@jamesc1901]

You guys are are always so clutch with the timing for me. I’m just about to decide what campaign to run for my new group. Yesterday I was watching your review of Phandelver from back years ago! Today you drop this banger to update

[@coreyburton8]

Love this ! Can’t wait for part two. Lost mines was a great starter and easy to run. A lot of fun. Then we did storm kings thunder. I changed it so that the characters had to progress through each giant race to conquer them or work with them to get a teleportation conch. Then when all were collected they could teleport to the last chapters material. Much more fun and allowed progress from level 1-18. Next we started out of the abyss but the beginning had so many extra npcs it was overwhelming and the plot wasn’t engaging enough so we dropped it. That could be my fault as an intermediate dm. Now we are on level 3 of the mad mage and having a ball. Lots of death traps here too. My advice is take the alert feat. Going first on initiative has saved the party several times

[@NoSocksNoLife]

Thank you guys for uploading this. I love your ranking videos so it feels refreshing to finally hear you guys rank the published modules. Especially because of what you said in your intro, sometimes as a DM I want to pick an awesome module that players will love without having to come up with everything all the time due to time management issues.

[@zwidowca1]

This is great, somebody has finally spoken up about player/GM workload and difficulty ( while playing and running games ). Or at least it is the 1st time i have seen in not in a rant. Fantastic job Dungoen Dudes!!!!!!!

[@taliesinllanfair4338]

loved how you rated these campaigns without any major spoilers. That's a feat that should be available to players.

[@iansheffy4952]

I have a funny story involving OotA. Before the campaign started, I had never played DnD before, it was always kind of something that just existed but I never had any interest in playing it. When my DM said she wanted to run a campaign, I volunteered to join in. Did our session 0, rolled up our characters, and I made a Half-Orc Barbarian. And took a proficiency in animal handling (DM okayed it via backstory). A couple of sessions pass, and I've been trying to tame any and every beast out there, from bugs, to hands, to giant lizards. As we come across the Chaos Orcs, I, being the closest thing to an Orc in the party, decide to strike up a conversation. Int score of 8 save us all, he just tells me to leave him alone to hunt. Annoyed, I leave and attempt to tell the party what happened, but have quite the time of it. They all decide it's not worth it to listen, and start heading down tunnels, and the first one we come across has a chasm, small enough to deal with, but still a chasm. And what do I find on the other side, but a Giant Worm with a Saddle. I know what I have to do, and I instantly roll for an animal handling check. Nat 20. And that's the story of how my party managed to make our DM stop the campaign for like a month to rebalance most of the campaign

[@JC-lm3bb]

Oh my god I’m so happy you guys are doing this! I’ve recently decided to do an official module and have been trying to do as much research as I can but I’ve found there’s not many good concise reviews of all of the modules that I find approachable. During my searches I’ve literally been thinking how much I wish you guys had a video like this. The campaign start has been delayed by COVID so I’ll have plenty of time to take into account what you advise

[@selendrasama44]

I started playing DnD with the release of 3rd. I played through and ran both The Sunless Citadel and Forge of Fury many times. So of course I picked up the Tales from the Yawning Portal. In 3rd I got very good at knowing what would challenge my party. I needed to re-calibrate that for 5e. I ran my players through The Lost Mines of Phandelver. In the mines, they found a scroll that led them to The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan, reskinned to be a Yuan-Ti Temple instead of Aztec. Then from the contacts in Phandever, they headed to Triboar for Chapter 2: Rumblings of SKT. Which I changed into an endurance battle. They were never swamped, but there seemed to be a never-ending stream of groups of raiders. Worked out much better than what was suggested. When the Fire Giants started to flee, the party: " just let them go, we are spent". I still don't know if they knew if I was running SKT.

[@whiteraven562]

I swear to god, that animated broom in the Death HOuse in Curse of Strahd is the most dangerous encounter I've ever had in a d&d game

[@Sdulcamara]

This was excellent. I think I should do Princes of the Apocalypse for my mid-level players now. Thank you! Please include Candlekeep in the next one. I am running that and want to see where it lands.

[@linrichardson8250]

As someone who wants to DM for the first time, this is an awesome video. I kinda hope you do a similar one for some un-official adventures too, for those that aren't as inspired by these or who know a lot of them already.

[@hammert0es]

Specifically Call From the Deep by JVC Parry

[@wizardingpost616]

Thank you for making this video. I've been wanting to DM for a while now and although I have hombrew ideas I'd like to get some experience using the published modules first. This (and part two when it comes out) is super helpful.

[@ascendent3084]

Great video! I'm a relatively new DM and for my first campaign I ran Mines of Phandelver and then morphed it into Storm Kings Thunder. SKT does require a bit of work as some parts of it are quite open-ended, but as a DM I'm loving that aspect of it as this actually helps me develop my own skills. It's also given me an opportunity to throw in some things that really tie in to my PCs' background stories.

[@Noitri]

Great video! I’m running Descent into Avernus at the moment and can’t wait to hear your take! LMoP is absolutely perfect for new players and I absolutely love Tales of the Yawning portal for the magic items, monsters, and the really awesome dungeons that can be used just for inspiration. It’s GREAT for dropping into a campaign, homebrew or pre-written module.

[@thebrunsenbeast1989]

SPOILERS for Storm King's Thunder! Just finished DMing for the first time like two weeks ago, ran Storm King's Thunder lvl 1-11. As a first time DM, I had a lot of trouble garnering interest/investment from my players. I think only two of my 5-6 players made backstories (not tied to the story at all, my fault) and I plopped the PC's into Nightstone with nobody really knowing or caring for each other. The necromancer wizard player raised some dead from a city graveyard and ended up becoming outlaws with no reason to protect the sword coast. When they got to Maelstrom, they didn't look around at all or investigate the court intrigue, so my PCs ended up just following whatever the NPCs told them to do with little personal motivation, all the way to the BBEG and they seemed ambivalent throughout the whole campaign. Wouldn't recommend for first time DMs As an afterthought, I would be interested in a video from you Dudes about getting/keeping players interested at the table and throughout a campaign (not sure if that's already a thing you've done)

[@jltheking3]

Think in your case, it’s important to get player buy-in at the very start of a campaign in a session zero. Draft out a single page campaign summary and pitch the campaign to your players. Only run it if they are excited by it and willing to write backstories that tie themselves into the hooks of the campaign plot. If they’re not, well either run a different campaign or find other players that do buy in.

[@jltheking3]

Your experiences seem to suggest that it’s either your players didn’t buy into the campaign plot and thus weren’t interested in it, or perhaps they’re just new players and need their hands held through a story. If it was the latter, then perhaps it’s important to choose a campaign that’s less open ended and more linear.

[@thebrunsenbeast1989]

@@jltheking3 I agree on both points. I remember pitching the idea of a session zero but nobody seemed interested. Also we were all new players so I believe we were all just too new. Nevertheless I would have benefited greatly from this video last February when we started XD

[@evansiegel5660]

Princes of the Apocalypse is the first module I ever ran as a new DM, I will say it definitely has some issues with how the mega dungeon is laid out. It expects you to attack each of the 4 cults repeatedly when the layout of the dungeon makes it seem as though you should keep delving further and further down each layer. This is counterintuitive as each layer is designed to be 4 levels higher than the previous layer so players can quickly find themselves in deadly fights (speaking from first hand experience)

[@VikingTurtle]

I agree. The campaign seems to want the part to be constantly leaving the dungeon, but the dungeons itself is laid out in a way that you could realistically never leave. On top of that it's very easy to end up in places much to high level for the party

[@evansiegel5660]

@@VikingTurtle the only reason my players have survived the higher level areas are because one of the players is a DEX build Barbarian who rolls ridiculous with her HP on level ups and has a Ring of Fire Resistance so face tanks for the party and takes 1/4-1/2 damage from the fire cult (which is the main one they are combating)

[@Demonist1]

PotA was my first DM experience, my group's first full campaign, and the first module I ever ran. It'll also be my last, not touching modules with a long stick anymore. I don't know if the dudes are seeing the module through their experienced eyes, but as a newbie DM it was horrible. It had couple cool moments, but the amount of work I had to do to make anything make sense to the players, or me, was stupid. The module really killed my motivation to DM, or to even to play D&D. Abandoning that campaign and starting my own homebrew was the best decision I've made as a DM.

[@ianwood5362]

@@Demonist1 I will have to admit my take is fairly similar to yours and when I listened to what they said above I genuinely wondered if we read the same book. I will concede that once I had the dungeons and the monsters laid out on them I was ready to go, but the poor organization in the book make things difficult and I had to do some light railroading (which the players agreed with to keep the game moving) to keep things on track and to keep the party from getting destroyed due to how the mega dungeon is laid out due to how very easy it is to go to a higher leveled area. The poor organization did me no favors in regards to prep either. When my players were going through the fire cult dungeon I started to read ahead in the next chapter only for it to say when the first prophet is killed the other three retreat into the Eye of the World. That would have been way more useful at the beginning of the previous chapter especially after the party already killed three of the prophets. Not to mention sure in theory there are four different possible final bosses but the way the whole thing is set up I feel like usually it is probably is almost never going to be the air elemental faction.

[@ryanjmcintyre]

For my first campaign in 5e, we ran Lost Mine until level 3 at which point the Essentials Kit came out and I was drawn more to the Dragon of Icespire Peak content (because the segmented locations made my prep easier) and since it was all set in the same place I transitioned to that adventure. We played that all the way through the three mid tier adventures that come digitally on Beyond after Icespire Peak, until we finished that and I pulled it all together by wrapping up the Lost Mine plot at Level 14.

[@blainduncan9641]

This is by far the best review video ive seen. Im glad you put in "DM Level" It helps a lot with these types of books.

[@NapoleonSoares]

Long time dm here, I am running my first ever module (all my other campaigns have been homebrewed) and we are playing Curse of Strahd. I think I have everything prepped and im excited to see how everyone responds to it. Kinda wild that you guys happened to post this video today! Keep up the great work dudes

[@carlosrivera9047]

Love this!! Wish there was a video like this for Star Wars RPG Adventure modules

[@phnxrpnzlYT]

This is something I've been waiting for!!! Fantastic job Monty and Kelly - can't wait for part 2!!!

[@arkmer]

As a new DM who was reading Tomb of Annihilation as my first module... THANK YOU for this video! I'm excited to eventually get to ToA, but I'll be picking up a more beginner friendly book for my first go at it. I definitely look forward to more content like this.

[@danieljavorek8191]

Dudes, THANKS for this brilliant content. You made a “single” video that has everything I was searching for 2 weeks. We are finishing Dragon of Icespire peak and considering what adventure we should pick next. One of my players want to try DM for the first time and Lost Mines seems to be a good choice BUT- we spent a lot of time around Phandalin village in Dragon of Icespire Peak..I really appreciate if you cover this “comparing” in next episode :)

[@mikecarson7769]

so much fun to follow your review, especially about the workload for a DM to run a module

[@spenccky]

I'm an old 3.5 homebrew player. Recently had the spark to get back in, all of your content is great. And this video in particular gave great direction to what I'm going to run first. Thank you two soo much

[@toranas1500]

Great video, and I'm looking forward to the next batch of adventure reviews! Currently playing Icewind Dale, but after this, I'm jumping in to Strahd as my first time DM'ing a full adventure haha.

[@johnpaulcross424]

Time and time again it amazes me how incredible of a module Phandelver is, Strahd is the only other one that comes close

[@jarodjagges599]

This was a huge help, I've been trying to get ready to really invest in running a campaign and these reccomendations really helped me make a plan to implement. Thanks guys 👌

[@bigwig8657]

Tomb of Anhilation on meatgrinder mode feels a lot like a Black Company tale.

[@emmasilver2332]

My dad ran Tomb of Annihilation for the family, and boy do we have a whole bunch of fun stories from that campaign. Some completely due to our own shenanigans, others only partially due to our own shenanigans, and a few purely because of my dad's DMing being superb. The most memorable part of the campaign was our very first PC death. We were delving into the Tomb of the Nine Gods, and we got to a point where the next room over was a place where we'd have to squeeze into in order to get in, unless of course we wanted to make a bunch of noise by breaking a larger hole into the entrance. The party's druid, played by my brother, got the idea to use his wild shape to turn into a fly so he could scout out and see if it would be safe to widen the entrance or not. Seems to us like a good idea. Not much different from a wizard sending in his familiar. What could be the harm in that? So Gallidan the wood elf druid did just that. He flew into a room that was mostly empty except for some loot and a couple of trivial monsters that wouldn't be very hard to kill. Job well done, right. No. Gallidan's interest got peaked by some holes in the corner of the room that were too small for anything but insects to get through. So he flew in to investigate. To which my dad instantly has this look of panic. For unbeknownst to us, the module stated that there was a spider's nest was hidden in the wall, home to dozens, if not hundreds, of spiders, ready to attack whatever disturbs their nest. My brother failed to take the hint that this was not a good idea. So in Gallidan went. And the spiders swarmed him instantly. Now normally this would've activated surprise, but since my dad wanted him to at least have a chance of making it out of there, he called for an initiative roll. That would at least give him the chance of being able to fly the heck out of there before the spiders got the chance to attack. But alas, Gallidan lost the initiative roll, and the spiders do 3 points damage to him. Now if he had been in an open space, he would've just lost his wild shape and then been able to squash those spiders in one round. But no, he was in a space that was only large enough for a tiny creature. so when he transformed, he would have instantly been pulverized by the wall. So my dad decided to cut him a little bit more slack and allow him to stay in his fly form and make a death saving throw to see if he could get back up with 1 hit point, giving him another chance to get out of there. But alas, he rolls a 1. The spiders roll another successful attack on him, and Gallidan was no more. Meanwhile the rest of the party waited for 10 minutes for Gallidan to return, but he didn't. My character started to panic, and she was like "screw stealth, we've gotta bust in and find out what happened to Gallidan." So our paladin, played by my mom, slams into the entrance full force, collapsing enough of the wall to make room for us to get in. The two monsters in there, I think they were kobolds or something, were quickly surrounded by the party. We killed one of them, and captured the other to interrogate. "You'll tell me where my friend is right now, or you'll end up like yours!" My character shouts. As a high elf ranger, my character, Bethrynna, was the closest to Gallidan, viewing him as a brother. So Bethrynna pins the kobold against the wall and screams at him to tell us where Gallidan went. "I don't know!" the kobold tried to protest. But Bethrynna was having none of it. She holds a dagger to his throat and says "you'd better figure it out if you want a chance to keep your head!" The kobold, terrified out of his mind, points in the corner of the room and says "I was minding my own business when something red came spewing out of that corner. I don't know where it came from." Gwynbelle, the party cleric, goes to investigate it, and lo and behold, it's blood. She also spots a bunch of tiny holes from which the blood was coming from, and the remains of a few dozen spiders. She looks at the rest of us with a grim expression. "I'm pretty sure I know where Gallidan went," she says, shaking her head with a mixture of shock, devastation, and horror. Bethrynna literally chucks the kobold aside to make sure Gwynbelle's assumptions were right, and immediately breaks down in tears. Tears of grief, anger, frustration, and pretty much every other negative emotion. She screams out in absolute rage, snatches up the kobold again, and before he even gets the chance to beg for mercy she stabs him in the chest, again in the stomach, and once more in the neck. She looks at the ceiling, holding up the dead kobold and shouts, "I know you did this, Acererak! And mark my words, when I get my hands on you, you're going to meet the same end as this pathetic excuse of a dragon that I'm holding right now! You hear me? You will pay for this!" Meanwhile the came table is completely full of laughter at the ridiculousness of the situation. My brother turns to my dad and says, "you know what, I'm not even mad." And this is the story of how an 8th level druid got bested by a swarm of spiders.

[@Thoken91]

This was fantastic!

[@emmasilver2332]

@@Thoken91 Thanks!

[@Sheepindisguise]

I was just looking for a video like this to help my order my first adventure, great timing !

[@briguy_3840]

Great video guys! This was very helpful. I can’t wait for part 2.

[@alexanderwizardjar9540]

can't wait for part 2 to release, i am currently choosing a module to run with my players and most of our available ones are gonna be in that one. amazing job as always!

[@z0mbyz624]

I would warn new dms that getting a strong hook and sense meaning to princes of the apocalypse is pretty challenging. Im running it right now as my first full campaign and its okay, but I constantly have to think about what would motivate the party to explore this and that. Imo, the book fails to clearly depict how your pcs would even know whos behind each cult. Awesome work on this video as always. My group is near the end and it was exciting to think about what could be next

[@outercow1]

Just a greatly useful video. Can’t wait for part 2!

[@Ghost8935]

I’m going to be running ToA as my first ever campaign in a couple of weeks. This should be fun.

[@brettaronson9135]

This is a video series I have been waiting for from the Dudes for years!! Hooray!!

[@CamJacobson]

This was such a great video, very excited to see the next section of books covered

[@boyfromoz7]

Great vid guys, Played a lot of these. First 5e game (after a 25 year absence) was Out of the Abyss and really enjoyed it (though it could of just being back playing D&D). The final boss fight was a little disappointing (think our DM was amped to run Curse of Strahd). This was a lot of fun also with the most epic final boss fight with Strahd. Went on with same group and played Tomb of Annihilation. Really love the hex crawl aspect to it (reminded be of old Isle of Dread BECMI module in the 80's) and the final Tomb was a meat grinder. Can't believe we actually completed this with out a loss of character (think our DM can be too easy on us sometime though we did play on meat grinder (15+ death saves). Went on to do Dragon heist, Dungeon of the Mad Mage (fun getting to 20th level) and now wrapping up Frost Maiden (meh) but that's for a different video.

[@jurdgrath2069]

Great rundown. I haven't played or run all of the modules, but of the ones I know, you guys nailed this. As I have noted to many others, the game is all about the DM and their ability to handle these things, pivot quickly, and manage the situations, and of course, players need to be up to the task too.

[@Maxagorn]

Man wow, what an incredible video. Very good idea. thank you so much for the work you put into this.

[@totosauron720]

I have been waiting so long for this video!!! I'm glad you guys are making this ranking! Very excited to see what the community thinks about this ranking too.

[@luizfelipe1911]

Its my dream play descent into Avernus, Im really excitad to see what you dudes gonna show about it!

[@Serenity22885]

Love the stuff guys! Super helpful. I would love for you guys to rank them on your opinions as well at the end please!

[@katarhall3047]

Definitely have to say Tyranny is great for starter players into 5E.

[@Sound_Tech]

Really? I'm a player in a 5e Tyranny game, we've been playing when we can get everyone together for maybe 10-15 sessions over the last year and not only have the 4 starting characters all heen sucked inside a gemstone, making them effectively dead for all I know and making us roll new characters, but we've only just made it to Carnath Roadhouse on our way north. I'm bored as sin half the time in our now 6 player game and I'm waiting for this campaign to get on with it.

[@katarhall3047]

@@Sound_Tech That doesn't sound like the game I played, maybe your GM altered it?

[@Sound_Tech]

@@katarhall3047 I don't know, I haven't read the campaign and don't know if it's on my DM or the module.

[@TroyKnoell]

I'm a new DM and I'm playing with some experienced players. Right now we are in the Sunless Citadel and we are planning on going thru all the dungeons in the Tales of the Yawning Portal. The plan is that there's a bard in the Yawning Portal who is telling the tale of the mighty adventurers. I haven't read beyond the Forge of Fury. But, I'm definitely looking forward to the challenge of the other dungeons.

[@shortguy2206]

Preface: I really appreciate the amount of effort you guys put in to this and think you have a very good channel and content. That being said, I do have to disagree with some of your ratings. Let's go down the list: --Phandelver: The goblin encounter at the very beginning is notorious for party wipes even with experienced players. Likewise, the boss in the first dungeon is very capable of wrecking a prepared party with just one or two good rolls. A brand new player can easily be overwhelmed unless the DM is doing a lot of hand-holding, so I think it actually requires a veteran DM and/or veteran players to really run the adventure properly. --Tyranny of Dragons: One of the best ways to start this adventure is by just having everyone be level 3-5....that should tell you how poorly designed it is. The DM has to put a LOT of work in to make this adventure playable as the book expects. You guys even mention it's great for homebrew, but you shouldn't have to make up a bunch of your own stuff when running an adventure module. I agree that a veteran DM CAN make it a really fun adventure, but you're assembling pieces of a very broken puzzle. New players are probably going to die in the first town (multiple times), die in the camp (multiple times), and be too frustrated to keep playing. Experienced players may enjoy the challenge and the story is actually pretty good if you can hammer it together enough to make sense, but I would only suggest it for people who know what they're doing. --Princes: I'm pretty close to you on this one. I think Player Challenge, DM Experience, and Workload are all Easy. Everything is pretty straight forward and I was able to run this more or less by-the-book. --Abyss: I'm with you on this one 100%, one of my favorites but takes a lot of lifting by the DM. --Strahd: Also agree, great evaluation! I might bump the difficulty down if you have experienced players. A party that preps for the environment (Paladins and Clerics) can break it pretty easily. --SKT: Agree again, your thoughts are my thoughts! --I haven't ran Yawning Portal or ToA, so I can't comment on much of them. I've played Sunless Citadel and it's great, but I would put it at an intermediate player skill/challenge due to some of the enemy groups that you can....antagonize pretty easily. Thanks for the video guys, can't wait for part 2!

[@GuardianTactician]

I have DM'ed Curse of Strahd and Tomb of Annihilation, and am currently DMing Princes of the Apocalypse. Curse of Strahd was run with a small group. I ended up allowing the monk in the party to change from open hand to sun soul because they lacked radiant damage. It was a difficult module, and the horror of beig powerless came through strongly in the early levels. Once the party hit level 5 and 6 they were a force to be reckoned with. Tomb of Annihilation was a continuation from Waterdeep: Dragonheist, and since the party were owed a favor by an ancient dragon, they were given a lift over the jungles of Chult. They still needed to find Omu, and we got some interesting undead encounters while they were on the ground. One of the players had died and was revivified in the previous module, so he was particularly motivated to go on this adventure. Leveling up kept the deathcurse at bay for awhile.

[@rodrigobueno8652]

THat series is a gift from heavens lol I'm finishing Lost of mine of phandelver soon and we are kind lsot what play next haha This video is going to help a lot!

[@Thechessrocker1]

This video was EXACTLY the one I needed, thanks :D About LMoP, i'm laughing when I hear 8 or 10 sessions. With me as a DM adding just a bit of stuff along the way, we litterally had around 40 3h sessions (and it was great).

[@christhewritingjester3164]

Wow, this is a great way to break down the modules! Thank you!

[@CoryDignard]

Great video, loved the format

[@TheDNick]

As a brand new DM, trying to get my head around everything, this video was amazing. Completely changed the order of campaigns I want to lead. Can't wait to see part 2.

[@cascadianone]

Currently running a highly-modded Curse of Strahd / Ravenloft campaign for some very experienced Players and it's been a blast. The Curse of Strahd subreddit is an invaluable resource- so many great DMs working there.

[@ADT1995]

The first time I ran Tyranny of Dragons I added in several homebrewed dungeons and side quests to help the players get with some experience, and ran it after LMoP because I had read through Hoard of the dragon queen and there were plenty of areas especially in the beginning where it was quite brutal for really low levels, and also there were several parts where the party was traveling and I wanted the travel to be much more interesting than me making about 40 some odd random encounter checks. Our group uses XP rather than milestone (although when a module is really counting on milestone I might fudge the numbers and give the party extra XP), and I have an optional rule where you can spend gold and downtime for training to grant additional XP (more accurately electrum, this is the only way aside from the deck of many things to have characters at different levels since I award full XP to absent players as well). This is not a houserule I necessarily recommend for most groups but it works well for our group. All of this to say when we got to the sea of moving ice the party was a couple levels higher than they otherwise would be, and this happened. Cleric: I would like to make an insight check Me: against what exactly? Cleric: you said it was odd that the ice hunters are so hostile, I would like to examine their body language, are they fearful, are they suspicious, does it seem to me that they may be acting this way because outsiders have wronged them or because they're scared of something else? anything that might give me a clue for their motivations Me: (impressed that they're using insight for something other than lie detection), yeah, go ahead and roll, and since you are being so specific roll with advantage Cleric: 23 Me: they're definitely scared, but not of you Cleric: (to wizard, who has tongues active) they're scared of something, let's offer to help Wizard: can I make a persuasion check and offer help? Me: this is going to be a little more complicated than just a roll, you have to convince me that it warrants a check. By that I mean say what you will to the ice hunters, then I'll decide if it warrants a check Wizard: I say, "allow us into your village, we will help you and keep you safe" and I cast mass suggestion on the leader the champion the druid and the 9 toughest looking warriors Me: okay *rolls saving throws and fails*... Let's take a 5 minute snack break while I figure out how I want to run the rest of this chapter because that definitely wasn't covered in the books.

[@Neo232100]

Storm King’s Thunder was my first DM-ing experience with my friends. And we had a blast playing the module. It even lead to one of our current favorite events in D&D dubbed “Operation: This is a Sneaking mission” we still think back fondly on that experience and those characters. Even tossing in references to those events and characters.

[@V-vision]

Haven't run any pre-made campaigns yet and barely got started in curse of Strahd as a player. So this is really helpful now that I'm looking for the next thing. Thanks guys!

[@Chris-so1tn]

Extremely helpful guys! I look forward to Part 2.

[@elGap1]

I LOVE the use of "grok" lol. Perfect use, great reference.

[@EduardoLock]

Excelent review! Just what I was looking for!

[@MikChaos]

Having ran most these at least once (mainly as part of the Adventurers League at my FLGS) I agree with your assesment of the adventures. Looking forward to seeing part 2 with the newer adventures.

[@nathanaelthomas9243]

Thanks for the video guys!

[@robertparshall9807]

Hey guys, I love your work. I have been in D&D since 1987, had to stop playing awhile back because of family issues. Totally missed 3.5 and 4, other than to know they were there. But I decided to start looking a few years back at 5e and I saw you. Been happy with ALL that you have been doing. I am so glad your Kickstarter worked out for you. Now what I would love to see is a 1 - 10 level guide to play and rank them that way. Because as we know higher level games don't play as well. You need a special DM to take it that far. Most gameplay is lower levels where you have the fun. So ranking 1-10 would be great with the mention of the higher level and what could be accomplished. Just a thought. Ps I have figured a way to get infinite wishes. I do not want to mention this openly, but would not mind a quick discussion with you on this topic privately. If we could find a way it would be great. Thank you and keep up the great work.

[@mborel]

I love video reviews like this, thanks! Can't wait until the next one.

[@richardhealy]

I may have erred. First time DM, I fell in love with Chult and the story of Tomb of Annihilation and have quite literally thrown myself in at the deep end and learnt how to swim. I ain't drowned yet - but you are not wrong this is a module that requires commitment from the DM, fortunately the support I have found online from Facebook to Reddit with dedicated DM groups for posting encounter maps and ideas has been phenomenal and social media at some of it's level best. My players and I are having a blast, Monday they explore The House of Man and Crocodile which will be their first real trap-filled micro dungeon. Fortunately the ranger did take dungeon delver, and as I told him atcthe time, "it won't be relevant all the time, but when it is you'll be right glad that you did!"

[@MrBubbydoo]

This was really helpful. Looking forward to your review of Ghosts of Saltmarsh

[@LVC_TV]

Awesome video! Looking forward to part 2 😃

[@marco.t82]

Thanks a lot for this video, i really needed it !

[@Cats_are_cool_i_guess]

This was extremely helpful as a new DM with some new players Thanks!

[@solaries3]

Can't wait for the Descent into Avernus review.

[@TrojanManSCP]

One thing I'd recommend for ANYONE trying to run an official module is to try to read a related novel. The literature of the Forgotten Realms is incredibly rich, and a lot of very good authors have contributed to it. With hundreds to choose, then, which should you read? Some of the modules tell you. In the intro of Out of the Abyss, for example, Chris Perkins recommends reading RA Salvatore's novel, Exile. But you can also use the wiki/google to determine which novels have which characters, locations, etc. You can also look at publishing dates of the modules and novels. In 5e, there has been a lot of teamwork between the game developers and the authors and much of it lines up (eg the Sundering series, multiple authors, was coordinated with the start/launch of 5e). But weirdly, this doesn't seem to be heavily advertised. You kinda have to look up what novels go with which modules and I'm not aware of a definitive list or anything.

[@shajirislamuddin-caycho6659]

Thats really cool and good to know.

[@shortseater9379]

ooo excited to hear abt witchlight in the next vid, i just told my players i wanted to run it. im pretty confident i can handle it though regardless

[@fatrunner]

Such a helpful video. I'm a new DM running Lost Mines of Phandelver with brand new players. Looking to see what to do next. Curse of Strahd sounds great but want to do a few more campaigns first.

[@theflyingdutch]

This is great content, love that it gives a breakdown of these modules. One that I was hoping you’d mention was Against the Giants out of TFYP. Currently running it for my group as my first experience being a DM, so I’m curious where on the “varied” scale of difficulties you’d place this and what your thoughts are on the overall plot hooks.

[@genghisgalahad8465]

Nice evergreen DnD 5e Adventure Review, Dungeon Dudes!!