Which Adventure To Play: January 2017 Edition

In late 2015, I published an article that considered and compared each "official" D&D Fifth Edition adventure released at the time. As my fifth most popular article of all time, and with two new adventures released by Wizards in 2016, this seems like an opportune time to update it. If you're a Dungeon Master trying to decide what adventure to run in the new year, this article is for you!

In this article, I'll walk through each hardcover adventure that Wizards of the Coast has released at the time of this writing (plus Lost Mine of Phandelver, which comes in the introductory Starter Set). I'll discuss the selling points of each one, as well as some pitfalls you might expect while running them.

Why listen to me? While I haven't played through each of these adventures to completion, I've spent a lot of time reading each of them along with internet reviews and actual play reports. In addition, I've been a dungeon master for all but Out of the Abyss, and played a character in the Tyranny of Dragons adventures as well as Out of the Abyss and Storm King's Thunder.

Before we start, I'll point out that these descriptions are, by their nature, likely to spoil the content of the adventures discussed. I’ll try not to be too specific about plot points, but if you want to play through any of these adventures blind, don’t read ahead. In other words, SPOILER ALERT!

Which adventure to play?

With Wizards of the Coasts’ recent policy of releasing just a few big adventures each year, Dungeon Masters who want to run a published adventure for D&D Fifth Edition have a choice to make. I've written this article to help DMs make informed choices about the adventures they'd like to run. Since we're approaching the holidays, this is also an excellent opportunity to pick out the perfect adventure for the DM in your life. Take note, players!

Why listen to me? While I haven’t played through each of these adventures to completion, I’ve read through them all along with reviews and actual play reports of each campaign. In addition, I’ve played through most of Lost Mine of Phandelver, all of Hoard of the Dragon Queen and The Rise of Tiamat, and about a third of Princes of the Apocalypse.

One last note: all of these descriptions are, by their nature, likely to spoil the content of the adventures discussed. I’ll try not to be too specific about plot points, but if you want to play through any of these adventures blind, don’t read ahead!