In the twilight of 5^th Edition D&D, let’s rank all 20 official adventures from the best in epic fantasy to the best at collecting dust on your shelf.

Call to Adventure – You are a brand new character, filled with potential, excitement, and perhaps a little fear. But whatever your humble beginnings, you cannot resist the urge to strike out and explore the fantastic, magical world around you, determined to seek out your destiny and make a name for yourself. Along the way, you decide to throw your lot in with a band of like-minded adventurers as you brave the danger and excitement of this strange new world together. But where will your destiny take you?

Will you come upon a rustic village, only to be caught in a savage raid led by dragons? Or will you explore a vast city, struggling against the machinations of thieves, guards or worse, nobles? Will you travel to the frozen wasteland of the North, the steaming Southern jungles, or the bowels of Hell? Will you be swept out to sea aboard a pirate ship, or swept away by dazzling beauty of a fairyland nightmare? The choice is yours (and the DM’s), but which path will you choose? As dawn breaks on the latest version of Dungeons & Dragons, whether it be called D&D One, D&D 2024, or Edition Five-Point-Whatever, let us review, and rank, the twenty official campaign adventures released since the birth of our beloved Fifth Edition way back in 2014.

For this ranking, I am only including the full-scale, 200+ page hardcover tomes, released specifically as an entire campaign, designed to take players from levels 1-10 and beyond (with a few exceptions). Specifically, I will not include the adventures included as part of a campaign setting or box set, such as Spelljammer, Strixhaven, or Planescape. These adventures are generally too short to properly compare with the magnum opus that is a full-scale campaign. For this same reason, I will not rank the three Starter Set Adventures with this list. Suffice it to say that Lost Mine of Phandelver is great, Dragon of Icespire Peak is almost as good, and Dragons of Strormwreck Isle is crap. ‘Nuff said.

Two years ago, I did a ranking of the Top 15 (at the time) D&D Adventures. Since that time, WotC released six new campaign adventures (and combined two others) but they were overshadowed by the OGL Scandal of 2023 and were largely ignored. But are they any good? Where do they place among the original 15? As to my original post, my major opinions on these adventures have not changed, but many of my rankings did. Some moved up, some down, only one stayed in the same spot, a brand new (sort of) adventure cracked the Top 5, and we have a new Number 1.

As before, we’ll talk about the central themes, settings, major monsters, main villain, and unique features of each adventure. I’ll also rank each one based on its use of theme, DM prep required, expected player experience, and how cohesive and well-presented it is. My rankings are purely subjective and should be ignored in favor of the theme and setting. Most of the adventures are excellent and if the synopsis intrigues you and your players, then who cares what I think. This time around I will list the adventures in ranked order starting again with the first and still worst:

#20 – Tyranny of Dragons

A few years back Wizards of the Coast wisely decided to combined the first two connected adventures into a single tome. Horde of the Dragon Queen & Rise of Tiamat became Tyranny of Dragons, the epic tale of a plucky band of adventurers who thwart the plans of an evil dragon cult as they attempt to raise the even more evil queen of dragons, Tiamat, from the bowels of hell. This finally brought the page count up to the same level of the majority of subsequent adventures. But what the book made up for in quantity, it did not improve in quality. It is still an inconsequential mess at the bottom of my RPG barrel.

Act 1 (Horde) is terrible. Now, it begins with an incredible blue dragon attack on a town (who runs away before it can hurt the party) and ends with a decent assault on a flying castle with a white dragon (who also runs away), but the middle is stuffed with boring, pointless, sloggy fluff. Whole sections of the adventure need to be replayed, there’s an excruciatingly long and dull 2000-mile trek that does nothing to further the plot, nothing the players do amounts to anything, and there are no dragons. Except for the two I mentioned who, you remember, run away before they can do too much damage.

The Second Act (Tiamat) is slightly better, but the player irrelevancy is even worse. All the things that the players did and will do is always undone by DM shenanigans to ensure that the Cult’s plan can still succeed. All that gold the group kept out of enemy hands? The cult just steals more from somewhere else. That cult leader they killed gets replaced by someone else. That vital magic item the group stole gets teleported back to the bad guys. That flying castle they commandeered? Crash it! This sucks, but at least there are dragons, right?

Yes, a few of the dragon encounters are pretty good. My favorite is the Green. But like before, most of them run away so they can get to the final battle, because that battle is all this book is about. To be fair, the final battle is terrific. It is an awesome ending to a crappy campaign. Armies of humans, dwarves, and elves fighting against endless hordes of cultists, kobolds, and dragons. Yet again, do the heroes get to fight in this epic war? Nope. The heroes are tasked to run inside the temple and stop the ceremony. But of course, they have to fail again, because then we get to fight Tiamat! See, it was all worth it. All that nonsense and frustration, but at least now we get to fight Tiamat. Cool, right? Look, save yourself the aggravation; make 15^th level characters and run this epic battle as a one-shot.

 

#19 – Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage

Forget about exploring the sprawling, complex, and exciting adventures in the city of Waterdeep. Who wants to delve into the sprawling, complicated, and tedious dungeon under the city of Waterdeep? After teasing the existence of this dungeon beneath The Yawning Portal tavern in two previous adventures (see below), we finally get to explore Undermountain, the mega-dungeon that has 23 separate and distinct levels and is the only adventure, until Vecna Eve of Ruin, to take players up to the pinnacle 20^th level of experience. This has to be the best adventure of all time. Right?

Not so much. Improperly hailed as the sequel to the excellent Dragon Heist, do not play these adventures back-to-back. These two adventures are written for two very different types of players. Dragon Heist is for roleplayers, Mad Mage is for grognards who want to hack and slash their way through wave after wave of dungeon critters, and probably never stopped playing 2^nd edition D&D. Don’t get me wrong. I love the concept of Undermountain and I even own the original. This new version is very faithful to that original and improves upon it in many ways.

Now, the original Undermountain is actually too big. Each level is four times bigger than that in Mad Mage. Mad Mage trims the fat and presents still huge levels that are more manageable. If being slightly less than monumental is considered more manageable. And Mad Mage presents all 23 levels while the original gave us only the first three. Some of these levels are spectacular. The city of Skullport, haven of thieves, assassins and worse, on level 3 is excellent. As are the shrinking castle in level 7, the twisted magic school in level 9, and the spelljammer ship in level 19. There are more cool bits and pieces, but there is just as much mindless walking, empty rooms, and dull encounters to slog through before you get to the good stuff. They threw hundreds of ideas at the dungeon wall and hoped something stuck.

On top of that, Halaster Blackcloak is a powerful but unmemorable villain. Plus, he has no sinister plot to avert or evil acts to avenge. In fact one could argue that he is just defending himself against intruders in his own home, which is pretty much legal in every state. There is no real challenge for the players beyond buying 10,000 feet of string to find their way back to the surface. Meanwhile, the DM has to pretty much know the entire current level by heart, and god forbid if the players find the stairs leading down too early and you haven’t even read that chapter yet. Personally, I just used the first three levels of Undermountain during the Dragon Heist campaign when they went looking for the Xanathar’s Lair. That’s what this book is good for. There are some great ideas to steal for other campaigns, but I just can see anyone willing to commit to a year’s long excursion into Undermountain.

 

#18 – Storm King’s Thunder

I want to really like this adventure, but I just can’t. This is one of my least favorite adventures. Stealing the plot from the classic Against the Giants by Gary Gygax, this is the only 5^th edition adventure that failed to improve upon the original, and frankly, the original wasn’t very good to begin with. I don’t know what it is about giants, but they bore me to death. Giants make a great out-of-the-blue random encounter, but to run a whole campaign with them is just dull. One throws a rock, another throws an icy rock, that rock is on fire! Yawn.

On paper, the adventure seems an excellent idea; a giant romp across the breadth of the Sword Coast. The map included with the book is phenomenal and includes over 160 separate locations to explore. However, hardly any detail is given to any location. Take Waterdeep, the City of Splendors and home to 100,000 souls and twice as many secrets. If the players go there, they head straight to one spot, talk to one guy, and move on. If you’d like more information, you are directed to read The Sword Coast Adventurers Guide or Waterdeep: Dragon Heist. And this is the case for every single location. It’s very frustrating. And none of these “quests” do anything. They’re just there, a pointless string of fetch quests, padding out the sessions.

Finally, after hooking up with a ridiculously nerfed Storm Giant companion, the story gets back on track. By sending them back on a quest to travel the breadth of the Sword Coast (again!) looking for plot coupons, I mean “ancient items of great significance.” At least it has giants. Eventually. After more delays, the player can go after some giants. I do like the frost giant and cloud giant setups, but my favorite part of the adventure is the wild goose chase aboard a floating casino that ends on another boat fighting a kraken. It’s not a good sign when the best part of your Giant adventure doesn’t involve any giants.

The finale is suitably epic against a Blue Dragon (because the giants can’t be real bad guys here) and I love that the players can become actual giants themselves for the fight. But the whole thing is an anti-climactic disappointment because there were no stakes in the story. There is no threat, no ticking clock, no real reason to do anything. Except for the inciting incident, the giants don’t attack any more settlements while they give the players time to level up. The dragon’s plan is weak and ineffective and there are no consequences if the players fail. I applaud the story for attempting to go huge and make a globe-trotting adventure, but it went too big, dumping a long list of cool names and places with zero context and no details in our laps, and then having the gall to tell us to buy all the other books for “more information”! It’s shallow and crass. You can absolutely take the bones of this book and make an awesome giant adventure, but is it really worth the effort?

 

#17 – Vecna: Eve of Ruin

As the penultimate adventure for 5^th edition Dungeons & Dragons, Eve of Ruin wants to be the ultimate experience in high end play, with the most notorious villain ever, the most diabolical scheme ever, and the most madcap romp through a greatest hits collection of its most popular realms. Bigger, Badder, Bolder! It wants to be the best, but it fails in almost every way. Brilliant in its concept but banal in its content. Bloated yet bereft of any true detail or uniqueness. Bewildering, bland, and blasé in almost every barometer of dungeon design. In a word, its just blah! Where did it all go wrong? Let’s start with the big, bossman himself, Vecna.

Ever since he was just a severed hand and disembodied eye, Vecna has struck fear in the hearts of little nerds across the Oerth, or as Gary Gygax says it “Oiyth”. (This is fact, look it up!) But now that Stranger Things and Critical Role have all used him as the BBEG, it feels like D&D is copying them instead of the other way around. Worse still, is his mega-threat to undo the multiverse for “reasons” by completing some gobbledygook ritual that will take just long enough for the heroes to arrive in the nick of time. I’m willing to bet that the fallout of this nonsense will be the meta-event that justifies all the changes between 5^th Edition and whatever they are calling this next one. Even worse, is that we don’t even see Vecna until the last room of the last dungeon. He’s literally just waiting around for the heroes to arrive and kill him. This is a cardinal sin in D&D. Haven’t you guys learned this yet? Even more worse, there is no Hand or Eye of Vecna in the Vecna adventure! Seriously guys, what are you even doing?

Okay the villain and his scheme are weak, but what about the plot? To stop Vecna, three fan-service cameos, consisting of two worthy-enough to get their names on a 5e book and a third whose sister you may have met in Waterdeep, task you with saving the world. Of course, these three NPCs combined can mop the floor with Vecna, but nope, you chumps are the ones that need to do it. But before you do, you gotta collect the seven McGuffins of the rod of seven parts, which happen to be scattered on seven different worlds where you get to meet (and maybe even fight, if you behave) seven more cameo bad guys. Sounds good, right? Now go fetch. This is the real draw of the adventure, the mad dash through all those cool realms that WotC owns the publishing rights to. Planescape, Forgotten Realms, Eberron, Ravenloft, Spelljammer, Dragonlance, and Greyhawk, plus a few extras thrown in for good measure, they’re all here. And then they’re gone. Beyond those few cameos, no effort is taken to present these worlds as unique, different or even interesting. Even all the dungeons could be moved to any other world and it wouldn’t make a difference. Now if you really want to flesh out each realm to showcase its specialness, then you could always read (and buy) all the various sourcebooks and adventures relevant to those worlds and then write your own adventures. It’s a win-win. For WotC.

As if it couldn’t be worse, the quest for the Rod is all a trick, hatched by that schmuck Kas (I told you to pay attention to that lore). After you hunt down that traitor, the cameos from the very beginning just give you the item you really needed all along. Now you get to go fight Vecna. Look, it’s not all bad. I do like the Eberron and Ravenloft sections. I like the warped-reality bits as various realms far prey to Vecna’s influence, although I wish there were more. And as one of only two campaigns that take players to 20^th level, your players will have a blast, bouncing around the cosmos, kicking ass, and forgetting names. That’s the adventure’s only saving grace. It is a lot of fun, but for the amount of work you gotta do to pull it off, it should have been so much better. And where the hell is the Hand and Eye of Vecna!

 

#16 – Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel

This adventure was the first released after my last Adventure Rankings post which ended with Wild Beyond the Witchlight. “Journeys” is another anthology that marks a major turning point in WotC adventure design and introduces a new concept that will infect every single adventure going forward. The Multiverse. Apparently Wizards has grown bored of the Forgotten Realm and has decided to leave this world to explore all the other dimensions that exist in the already bloated D&D cosmology. Sometimes this can be a very effective device, such as when the characters are torn away from the known world and thrust into an alien realm where nothing can be taken for granted. Curse of Strahd, Descent to Avernus, and Witchlight are excellent examples of this. And then there is the Radiant Citadel.

Part of the fun of Realm hopping is supposed to be discovering the new rules, legends, and lore of each new world. But when the rules and lore change every session then it becomes an exercise in futility and the players stop caring. This is a shame, because this book has a very lofty goal. To present 13 unique fantasy adventures each representing a unique real-world culture and written by an author native to that culture. The cultural diversity on display is even better than a day at Epcot. I recognized elements from Chinese, Korean, African, Indian, Mexican, South American, and Persian influences among others within these stories. This is the book’s biggest strength but it also becomes a glaring flaw as well.

As for the adventures, they are a real mixed bag. A couple are really good. I really liked the creepy stories of “Written in Blood” & “The Nightsea’s Succor.” A few more can be made okay with a ton of rewriting and structuring. But this is supposed to be your job, WotC. Even worse, I really did not like four of these adventures. They are just terrible. Silly, ridiculous plots, bafflingly stupid villains, terrible dungeon design; just plain bad. The worst one, set in what should have been my favorite setting (Arabian Nights) finds you in the midst of an oppressive regime with no option to side with the resistance; you must support the bad guys and destroy the good guys! This could have been really intriguing, but there just isn’t enough on the page to make it work or be interesting. The reason for this badness is the very low page count devoted to the actual adventures. At the end of each adventure is a gazetteer that delves deeper into the culture of each new world. This is an excellent concept, filled with cool locations, neat new monsters, and unique ideas. But it is just a half measure. To make room for the adventure, there isn’t nearly enough room to fully develop each culture. And to make room for the gazetteer, each adventure is reduced to a trivial, usually sub-par, one-shot.

Then there is the central locale that all these brave new worlds are connected to and takes up almost ¼ of the page count. The Radiant Citadel, located in an alternate reality called the Ethereal Plane, is as interesting as it is ridiculous. Is it an interstellar nexus, an alternate dimension, a drug-fueled fever dream, a cosmic out-of-body experience, a hang-out for hags, or what? Does it even matter? Nope. To get from one world to the next, you hop into a giant crystal that acts like an intergalactic Greyhound bus. Whatever. Of all the extra-dimensional realms, Spelljammer, Planescape, the Shadowfell, the Feywild, the Elemental Planes, and all the Outer Planes; the Ethereal is the dumbest. Also, there is no inciting action that actually makes you go on any of these adventures. Sure, story hooks are given, but they usually amount to, “Hey let’s see where this crystal bus is going.” There is no point to any of this. If I were to actually run this “campaign”, I would have the players run afoul of a powerful demi-god or entity who zaps the group into each world where they are forced to fix “something”, and then zapped into the next scenario. Yes, I would Quantum Leap the adventure. As for it’s score and ranking, it’s right there with all the other anthologies, but I have to place it at the bottom of that group. This is a shame, because this book deserved better.

 

#15 – Candlekeep Mysteries

 

Speaking of books, the next in our list is another anthology collection, but these adventures are set in the “real” world and the central locale is firmly placed on terra firma. In the Forgotten Realms, Candlekeep is a giant library dedicating to preserving knowledge at all costs. Its halls hold untold thousands of tomes from simple nursery rhymes to massive treaties about the meaning of life. But some books have deeper mysteries than just the words on the page. While your party is exploring the library, they can discover 16 books, each of which leads to new adventure. Each claim to be a mystery, but take that with a grain of salt. It is more, “Isn’t this mysterious?”, rather than Who-done-it.

In reality, these adventures are rather short, akin to a one-shot (single session) dungeon rather than a full campaign. The stories vary greatly in style and tone, but could conceivably take players up to 16^th level, as each story gets more and more dangerous. You’ll also face a variety of foes. The first adventure pits the group against several animated objects and an imp while looking for the password to exit a magical mansion. The third, is clearly the Halloween adventure, as the party is vexed by scarecrows, gargoyles, ghosts, and other undead. Some stories are good, others just okay. My favorites are the deeply disturbed children’s book “Shemshime Bedtime Rhyme” and the silly “Kandlekeep Dekonstrukion”, which ends with one of the castle’s towers blasting off into space.

But as always, the anthology nature is its biggest weakness. There’s no real drama at stake here. If a book stayed on the shelf, there would be no adventure. There is nothing driving the plot forward. The book is also very heavy-handed in its motivations. There is no player agency. This is evident right from the start, when they players are told that they have come to the library, searching for a way to save some random town. When was that decided upon? Then, the next scene begins, “When they enter the magic portal…” What if they never enter it? Never assume your players’ actions or present them with one choice. They will defy you every turn of the page. On top of that, the book completely forgets all about that town you were supposed to be saving.

Truthfully, this book works better without the Candlekeep connection, and you shouldn’t use the same book quest delivery service for each one, it gets old quick, But if you need that quick boost of experience for your party; say that they are level 4, but they really should be 5^th for the next adventure; then have them find a book in their latest treasure horde and run the appropriate adventure. These are great one-shot adventures and should be used as such, not as an epic library adventure. Since each story is self-contained, they are easy to run right from the book. No need to waste time making it better, just make sure it’s not past its due date. As for it’s ranking, I feel that these adventures are better edited and presented that Radiant Citadel, so Candlekeep ranks just higher than that. But there is one more anthology I liked just a little bit better.

 

#14 – Keys from the Golden Vault

 

Yet another anthology adventure similar to Candlekeep Mysteries, except that instead of books, the central theme is Heists. It’s a neat concept, if a little narrow in scope. The suggested way to play this as a campaign is that your group is part of an altruistic band of master criminals (The Golden Vault) who only steal to make things better in the world. Riiiight. But the cheesiness of a good thieves’ guild aside, this is more like a fantasy Ocean’s 11 rather than Robin Hood.  And like any good heist crew, you need a mix of characters and classes. Sure, there are rogues, but you also need brutes to (non-lethally) take out the guards, some security-expert mages to take out the magical traps, and a cleric to uhm, to… cheer them on from the sidelines. Ooh, ooh, maybe they can watch the door for patrolling watchmen. Hey, heisting isn’t for everyone.

There is a decent mix of heist ideas in the book. The first few adventures have you steal an item from a museum, then steal a few items from a casino, and stage a prison break. The best scenarios require you to complete multiple objectives, demanding that your group commit the most cardinal D&D sin; Split the Party (i.e. more work for the DM). The truly great scenarios require that you commit your crimes non-lethally, a nearly impossible task for all the murder-hoboes in your group. Although there are no real consequences if you “accidentally” murder a few civilians and some of the “heists” are straight up dungeon crawls where indiscriminate slaughter is always an option.

Most of the heists follow the same pattern: Get your assignment from a self-destructing Mission Impossible-esque story hook, Meet the required contact who provides the details and a very handy pre-heist Player Map, Case the Joint, Make an Infiltration Plan, Find the McGuffin, then watch as the DM screws with your plan and it all goes to hell. This gets harder and harder as players level up, because magic just ruins the charm of heisting. A single mage with locate object, invisibility, knock, and dimension door can pretty much ruin any DM’s day. In turn, the DM will resort to even more ridiculous fudging just to keep the tension high. Heisting is way cooler at lower levels. As such, I much prefer the first few adventures compared to the final ones. Although the last few do have very cool lairs, great final bosses, some betrayal, and adequate stakes.

I really like this book, and it is my favorite of the One-Shot anthologies. Its biggest flaw is the risk that every heist begins to feel the same. Steal, rinse, and repeat. The inclusion of a rival thieves’ guild competing against the party is a great idea but I wish it had more impact on the story. And I really wish that there was some sort of shake-up within the Golden Vault Guild the party works for. There is zero drama with this organization. They could be secretly evil, they could set up the party to take the fall for some other heist to succeed, they could be subverted by another group, who sends your party false missions. Anything! But still, of all the anthology books, this could most easily be run as its own campaign or dropped into an existing one giving it a slight edge over Candlekeep Mysteries.

 

#13 – Tales From the Yawning Portal

 

 

The first proper anthology adventure was released early in WotC’s production schedule and despite claiming to include some of the “greatest” adventures in the history of D&D, it lies smack in the middle of my ranking; in fact, just a little lower. It is perfectly fine for what is it, but it not a proper adventure and serves a very limited purpose. In the early, halcyon days of original D&D, there existed a unique subset of potential adventure, The Funhouse Dungeon. Theses dungeons existed for only one reason, to be zany and wacky. Filled with crazy monsters, mazes, and devious traps, they were designed to test the players, not their character stats. No silly hooks, hardly any plot, no boring back story, just go explore the dungeon and have fun. And these are all fun, fun, fun. Mostly.

Of the seven dungeons presented, some are better than others. White Plume Mountain & Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan are phenomenal; cool and crazy, the best of the genre. The Sunless Citadel & The Forge of Fury are good and still fun, but forego wackiness for semi-successful storytelling. Against the Giants is better than its remake (see Storm King’s Thunder, above) but it’s still a muddled mess. Dead in Thay is really just a mega dungeon that I just can’t get into. Lastly, The Tomb of Horrors is the most famous module of all time, but it’s not a funhouse. It’s a deathtrap! Countless adventures have met their demise, and even more player groups have imploded at the grinning demon face of this mean-spirited, dick of a dungeon.

To run these adventures as a single story is a futile and unnecessary task. The authors don’t even pretend to offer any way to string these stories together. Then trying to link them to the eponymous tavern “The Yawning Portal” is another mistake. That infamous Waterdeep tavern has the craziest dungeon of the Realms, Undermountain, (see Dungeon of the Mad Mage, also above) literally beneath its feet. If you just want silly dungeons to explore, why would you ever travel to these other seven? The book is intended to be used for dropping the appropriate leveled dungeon into an existing campaign when you don’t have any content prepared. But all the published adventures and most homebrewed campaigns have a tight-knit narrative. To ignore all that and explore some random dungeon for 4 – 6 sessions just drags out the game and detracts from your main storyline. Of course, if you are running a campaign of random modules, strung together like we did in the old days before these 5th edition mega tomes became a thing, then this book is perfect for you.

As a retrospective of the evolution of dungeon design, the book is great. It has four of the most iconic and culturally significant adventures ever written for the hobby. And if you really need to fill a gap in your campaign, or if you just want to play in a classic funhouse dungeon for a couple of weeks, most are easy to run right out of the book. But to run it as a campaign, and to keep the latter adventures from turning into a TPK bloodbath, a lot of work is needed to tailor this book to suit your players’ needs and your DM style. I placed this comilation above the “One-Shot” antholgies because I feel like this gives a little more bang for your buck and I have so many fond memeories of these old-school adventures. But there are a couple of anthologies that I like just a little bit better.

 

#12 – Quests from the Infinite Staircase

Oh, goody! Yet another “campaign” set in the mysterious multiverse. This concept has ruined entertainment with this futile obsession for hyper-reality. Hey, how do we explain this cool idea but it violates maybe a dozen rules of nature? Shove it in an alternate dimension, and just say the rules don’t apply. Now don’t misunderstand me, I love a reality bending adventure. I love the Alice in Wonderland vibe and the fear of the unknown that these adventures can best explore. But if the only selling point in a constant string of releases (as 8 of the last 10 books have done) is “forget what you know about your lame fantasy world, this is the multiverse!”, then it gets contrived, boring, and lazy. But dammit, this staircase is pretty cool.

Somewhere out there beyond the scope of time and space there exists an immeasurable set of stairs that climb onward in every direction into infinity. As you climb this “infinite staircase” there are infinite doors on infinite landings that open unto infinite worlds of imagination. We get it WotC, the possibilities are endless. Bravo. But what sets this cosmic setting apart from all the other cosmic settings? Let me consult my Mad Libs content generator. “This land is ruled by… -insert random creature-.” Okay, let’s make it a genie. Yeah, this land is run by a genie… who likes to collect, uhm, stories,… and he sends the players to find new stories behind a bunch of random (I mean, carefully selected) doors. There you go. Be a good lad, go off and adventure.

All this is just another excuse to have another anthology campaign that revisits old-school adventures first printed by TSR. (RIP, good buddy.) But whereas the first compilation, Tales from the Yawning Portal, stuck with a theme of dungeons that could be placed into any standard fantasy setting, this batch travels to several “diverse” locales. This includes two deserts, two mountains, and two caves; locations that could never exist in standard fantasy. Wait. Why do we need this staircase again? Nevermind. Like Tales, the adventures presented are reprints of classic D&D adventures from the first and second editions of the game. By and large, they are all excellent.

The Lost City visits a buried ziggurat that leads to an even deeper buried city. Like the original, the lost city is largely left to the DM to expand upon as they see fit; a welcome recall to old-school module design. When A Star Falls is an interesting tale with neat new monsters and interesting plot twists. Beyond the Crystal Cave is my new favorite with a fun romp in the Fey based on the works of William Shakespeare. Pharoah is my all-time old favorite adventure (I love Egyptology) delving into a trap-filled pyramid which oddly excluded the overland exploration to focus solely on the dungeon crawl. The Lost Caverns of Tsojocanth is an OG tournament module that deals with the demonic half of the infamous Tasha’s split personality. Lastly, Expedition to the Barrier Peaks is the wackiest of all funhouses exploring a metal cave that turns out to be a crashed space ship! These are some really great adventures. I initially ranked this collection just lower than Tales because I prefer the connective thread of that compilation’s slightly more iconic adventures. But frankly, I prefer these six adventures more than the others, so now I place it just above.

 

#11 – Ghosts of Saltmarsh

 

I initially bought this adventure for one reason only: The rules on seaborne travel and ship-to-ship combat. But the adventures included with it are pretty good too. Another anthology adventure, this time they stuck to a central theme and the whole story is much stronger for it. Most of the adventures are based around the coastal town of Saltmarsh and the underwater terrors that besiege it. A reprint of the U (for underwater) series of adventures, The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh was followed by Danger at Dunwater, and then The Final Enemy. Several short adventures with a nautical theme from the classic Dungeon magazine round out the campaign.

First off, the campaign immediately improves upon the original by actually including details (and a map) of the titular Saltmarsh. The story starts off with a haunted house then a raid against a tribe of lizardfolk, averting an invasion of sahaugin, and culminating against three aboleths and cult devoted to the Kraken, the deadliest horror in the sea. Throw in some derelict ghost ships and hordes of undead pirates and you got enough nautical nightmares for years (or at least 20-30 sessions). The seafaring rules are another highlight and will be useful in any adventure set on a boat.

Except this one. Despite being given a ship and having the players set out to sea, there isn’t a single scenario that takes place on board any active ship. No foul weather, no whales, sharks, or shipwreck causing reefs, not one single pirate attack. Missed the boat on that one, WotC. Also, they marketed this as the pirate campaign (with no pirates), but it’s not. This is a campaign of nautical horror, filled with ghost stories and tragic tales of unspeakable evil rising from the depths. It is Call of Cthulhu, not Pirates of the Caribbean. Also, since this is an anthology, there is no main bad guy and no global threat to overcome. There’s nothing wrong with that, but the stories come off as small and personal instead of grand and heroic.

The adventures are pretty easy to run and play, but it does take a slightly more experienced DM to make the theme memorable and slightly more mature players to appreciate it. It wouldn’t take much work to make the whole thing more pirate-y and more cohesive. Just have every NPC say “Argh”, “Ahoy, matey”, and “scallywag” all the time. Off all the anthology adventures, this one is the best, with a consistent theme and an intriguing undercurrent of dread and horror just below the surface. It is a perfectly fine adventure, and I really want to explore it;s depth, but our group prefers to play the epic adventures, so Secrets is placed dead in the middle of the ocean of my rankings.

 

#10 – Dragonlance: Shadow of the Dragon Queen

I have a confession to make and it will absolutely affect this adventure’s ranking. I love Dragonlance! I read all the books. I owned all the modules. And the atlas. To get into Art School, I recreated all the cover art as part of my portfolio. 30 years later, I can still name all the Heroes of the Lance. One would think then, that when I heard that WotC was revisiting the world of Krynn, my excitement must have been through the roof. Right? Eh, not really. I had moved on. I did love Dragonlance, but now even I admit that the original adventure modules were not very good. The story of the novels was excellent, but when you shoved players into it, they had to follow a very linear path, or else. You’re playing the book, dammit, just do what the book did! So how does this new, re-imagining of a beloved but forgotten world fare?

Surprisingly good, actually. First, they wisely avoided the temptation to throw in any hero cameos from the novels. As much as I’d love to hang with Tanis, Sturm, Raistlin and the rest, their presence would be a distraction and I’m glad that this adventure is its own thing. Now there are new heroes to lend their stories to the War of the Lance. Second, it took me awhile to find it on the map, but by placing the adventure on the northern part of the continent, this adventure avoids running into the well-established canon. This is a brand new adventure. Your fate is your own and the choices are yours to make. Now, there is a cool, cameo legacy villain, but at least his presence in the adventure is justified.

One of the things I love about this adventure is the exploration and backdrop of war. Most adventures are about the heroes stopping the villain’s plans. That may be saving a village, ending a global threat, or averting a war. But here the war has already started, the village is already sacked, the threat is alreday here, and your only goal is just to escape the onslaught. This might cause problems because “heroes” hate to run away. But once you convince them that the mission is to save the villagers not the village, you’re off to a great start with solid adventuring, some goods twists, betrayals. major battles and a decent conclusion. There’s even a tie-in boardgame, “Warriors of Krynn”, which further explores the major battles of the adventure. I generally don’t like money-grab tie-in purchases, but this additional purchase is not required to run this adventure. (I’m looking at you Vecna.) And in a twist of karmic justice, “Warriors of Krynn” was a flop and now you can find it at discount stores for only $10 bucks, making it worth the money.

But beyond the war, what makes this Dragonlance RPG adventure special are the unique elements of the setting. I love the draconian monsters, although this does mean that the dragonborn race cannot exist for the players. I also like that this is a world in decline, where much of the glory and history of the previous age are lost and need to be rediscovered. But most significant is the treatment of the core classes. I love all these concepts, but they will need significant writing and preparations by the DM to really make them shine. The wizard class is the most fleshed out; ruled by the three moons of Krynn and there is a great side quest where mage players undertake the Trials of High Socerery, but it takes place too late in the adventure as written and needs to be retooled. The noble but flawed Knights of Solamnia are great, but they will need you to write your own suitable side quests for those players. But the biggest downfall is the clerics and the fact that they are not yet supposed to exist. A major theme of OG Dragonlance is the return of the gods and the cleric class to Krynn, but this is just ignored by the adventure. Yet another thing you’ll need to write up from scratch. All these missed opportunities are a  tragedy and kept this otherwise solid adventure from climbing any higher. Still Top 10 though.

 

#9 – Baldur’s Gate: Descent Into Avernus

 

By the Nine Hells, I want to love this adventure. If you thought that Out of the Abyss or Tomb of Annihilation dropped the players into a hostile environment, you ain’t seen nothing yet. Welcome to Hell! The entire town of Elturel has been lifted out of the earth and teleported to the first layer of Hell, Avernus, where devils and demons have fought an infinite war for all eternity. And somehow it is the players’ problem to go there and get it back. Filled with crazy encounters, devilish deals, and fiendish fun, this adventure is hilariously sinister and macabre. But the book is a dumpster fire of disorganization and chaos.

As for the good, it’s all about hell. There are so many intriguing, philosophical, morally grey ideas that present really unique roleplaying opportunities. Using souls as currency, saving people by turning them evil, deciding which evil is the better evil. Even the little details, like altered spell effects and the devils that tempt you during a failed death save, offering life for your mortal soul, are unlike anything you’ve encountered before. The antagonist, Zariel, is wonderfully complex. As a fallen angel, she is unlike any villain before and she can be saved, defeated, or doomed based upon the character’s actions Very cool. And I love that Zariel’s backstory is played out by the players during a dream. Even the map of Hell is a chaotic fever dream of ambiguity. But by far and away the coolest thing has to be the infernal war machines, fueled by souls in a Mad Max style death race across the apocalyptic hellscape.

But the book is just as chaotic as the adventure. There is no organization, forcing the DM to wing it on the fly, or railroad the players hard just to get from one place to the next. The intro levels in Baldur’s Gate feel ridiculously heavy handed and tacked on just to slap the recognizable name onto the cover. The treatment of the city is shoddy at best, and the treatment of the players is worse. Upon pain of death, the players must do as they’re told. There’s some lazy motivation. The breadcrumbs to lead you to Hell are lame, the path to follow in Hell is non-existent, and I hate the amnesiac guide that drags the players from one point to the next. Screw you, Lulu!

The is one of the hardest adventures to run and play, mostly because of how confusing it is. The DM workload is possibly the highest of all the published adventures. Almost all of the adventures can be run straight from the book and the difficulty comes when you want to really make the adventure soar. But this one requires constant reworking just to run the adventure. The city of Baldur’s Gate is dreadfully presented and could be exorcised completely. The Candlekeep section is weak and the fact that the players have to be told everything about Elturel being sucked off to Hell is dumb. Show, don’t Tell! The hellscape plane of Avernus is awesome but whole scenes need to be rewritten, the encounter balance is totally out of whack, and the story flow is viler than the River Styx. But if you’ve always wanted to banish your players to Hell, (and frankly what DM hasn’t) than buckle in, for you’re in for a Hell of a ride.

 

#8 – Princes of the Apocalypse

 

This adventure (the second to be released after Tyranny of Dragons) began a trend that would see Wizards of the Coast through the next six adventures; mining old-school adventures for ideas. Based upon the classic but flawed, Temple of Elemental Evil, this adventure takes our heroes on a journey to dismantle yet another cult before they can wreak havoc upon the world. Or at least a small section of it called the Dessarin Valley. Until 2023, this was the perfect follow-up to the stellar Starter Set adventure, Lost Mine of Phandelver, since the two locales are just a few days’ journey away. This time, the cults worship and have tapped into the unbridled power of the elemental forces of earth, air, water and fire.

While the original Elemental adventure is largely unplayable, this updated version has a ton of great ideas in it. To start with are the villains. An adventure is only as good as its bad guys, and these guys are great! Unlike the generic dragon cult leaders who were all the same, these four bad-guys are all unique with different motives and goals. Some work together, some work against the others. Most importantly, any villain can be killed at any time, meaning that the players’ actions actually matter. Which villain will become the main villain? That’s for the players to decide. Before that, there’s a huge sandbox for the players to explore while they gather clues with loads of interesting encounters and locales to explore. But the location of the finale is still based upon player actions.

But not everything is perfect. The main mystery that draws the players into the adventure just disappears. A fair amount of work needs to be done to keep the various cults fresh; this one hits you with a wall of fire, this one hits you with a wall of air, this one hits you with a wall of… you get the idea. The “tutorial” adventure is just okay, but most Level 1-3 Intro adventures are just okay, and this one is better than most. I’m bummed that you only battle only one elemental lord, but it does make the adventure replayable. Of course, nobody replays adventure. You just move onto the next one.

For some reason this adventure never ranks very highly on most lists, and several “professional” DMs won’t even give it the time of day. But this adventure is far better than its source material and I love the idea of a gang of bad guys who basically hate each other, each trying to claim dominance by destroying the world with natural disasters. It has a good balance of roleplay, combat encounters, and a light story. This adventure is great for the D&D groups who have moved beyond the basic adventure, but don’t want to commit to one of the more intense, hardcore campaigns, like most of the advetures that rank a little higher.

 

#7 – The Wild Beyond the Witchlight

 

Except this one. Witchlight is easily the mosy light-hearted and frivilous adventure of the entire series. And that’s a good thing. It’s a mad-cap, irreverent romp through the fantasy fairyland of the Feywild. If the Shadowfell is the dark reflection of the “real” world in D&D, the Feywild is the chaotic, joyous reflection of the world. Not evil, just crazy. Everything is bigger, bolder, brighter; and maybe a little insane. Furthermore, this version of the Fey draws heavy inspiration from one of my favorite genres of writing: nonsense literature. Alice in Wonderland, The Wizard of Oz, Peter Pan, and more recently, The Princess Bride and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy are classic examples of the style that includes puns, limericks, double entendres, and shifting narratives. I was giddy to get my grubby little hands on this treasure trove of trials, tribulations, and trivialities and try my hand at a little linguistic repartee.

But the book isn’t all rainbows and lollipops. There are some truly despicable despots roaming around, that can lead to some precarious predicaments. But this book also brags that you can complete the entire adventure without a single combat. A lofty goal, and one that is impossible to succeed at. It requires that every player commit to finding the pacifist solution, but inevitably someone will break the pact and attack out of frustration. In hindsight, the labyrinthine path needed to find the peaceful solution is filled with so many moralistic and character compromises that sometimes it’s just easier to exterminate the irritation, than talk your way around it.

So, what’s the story? Three deliciously detailed, deceptive, and devious hags have usurped this realm of the Fey from a mysterious yet obvious fourth who is trapped inside their own palace. The hags have carved up and twisted the domain to reflect their own creepy personas. And that is the best part of the story; the locations, the atmosphere, and its inhabitants. It really feels like you are adventuring in Wonderland. Despite being mechanically similar, the three hags are surprisingly memorable and unique. But the story can be rather repetitive, as you bounce from land to land, marking items off your checklist; find a guide, find a vehicle, perform meaningless tasks to gain allies, meet the hag, make a deal with the hag, get out of town before the hag kills you, rinse and repeat.

But the real problem is maintaining the tone of the adventure. If just one player insists on making it a hack & slash, then the whole story can be ruined for everybody else. Plus, literary nonsense is actually hard. Professional writers, with more talent than you or I, spend years crafting the perfect combination of words just to appear witty. It is nigh impossible for a gaggle of fantasy geeks to do on the fly. And for the DM, the adventure requires a fair amount of work to keep the theme alive and all the characters, locations and plot elements present throughout the story. The theme is not for everyone and that’s why it didn’t rank higher. But I love this adventure, and if you have the right group of dedicated players, this could be one jolly, fun yarn.

 

#6 – Out of the Abyss

 

From the light and breezy wonderland adventure we head down the rabbit hole into one of the most challenging meat grinders that just missed out of my Top 5. A terrifying tale of survival horror, Out of the Abyss traps the players deep underground in a massive cave complex called the Underdark. Filled with unseen dangers around every corner, will the players survive to see the sun once more? As if the men, monsters and the very environment that all want to kill them weren’t enough, the Demon Lords have chosen here and now to wage war upon each other and anyone (including the players) who gets in their way. Oh, and by the way, the heroes are leading a ragtag group of prisoners to safety, except some of them have other plans.

There are so many incredible ideas stuffed into this adventure, it might be too much. It has the best “hook” of any adventure; you are prisoners trapped in an alien world. After you escape, you have just one goal: Survive. More than any multiverse domain, The Underdark is a fantastical realm, filled with terrific beauty and terrible denizens. And amongst your fellow escaped prisoners, there is a traitor in the midst who will kill everyone if able. It a perfect paranoia plot straight out of “The Thing” or “And Then There Were None.” The dramatic tension is relentless. Add in the drow hunting party trying to recapture them and the chaos sown by the Demon Lords, just to survive the adventure in a monumental task.

And that is its biggest downfall. The whole adventure is a monumental task. For the DM, a ton of work is required to maintain that tension, while still keeping the world varied, fascinating, surreal, and manageable. About halfway through the adventure, the brilliant “hook” disappears and you’ll have a hard time motivating your players to solve the little “demon problem”. Plus, running the 10+ NPCs that are escaping with the players is a logistical nightmare. And it is no less difficult for the players. They will have to pay close attention to things that are ignored in most every adventure. Things like food, water, light, exhaustion, sanity, equipment, spell components, encumbrance, and healing are vital to this adventure.

It all might be too much for your group. If they just want to stroll in, eat some pretzels, and kill some monsters, this adventure might not be for them. It also needs an experienced and organized DM. This is a serious adventure for serious players, or it will just be frustrating and not fun. But if you think your group is up for the challenge, this adventure might be the most harrowing, memorable experience of a (fantasy) lifetime. Oh, and just before the final scenario, your players (and you) get to fight a battle royale as you play as one of the Demon Lords in a winner-takes-all fight to the death. So, you got that to look forward to. This adventure is excellent and the only thing that kept it out of my Top 5 was how difficult it is to run.

 

#5 – Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk

That is not the case of this adventure, which edged out Out of the Abyss because of just how easy this adventure is to run. This is the campaign release that I have been most eagerly awaiting. So often I am asked, “What adventure should I run after the phenomenal Starter Set adventure, The Lost Mines of Phandelver?” In the past, I have recommended Princes of the Apocalypse, Out of the Abyss, Curse of Strahd, and even Storm King’s Thunder. Personally, I ran a heavily modified Waterdeep: Dragon Heist after my boys killed the nefarious Nezzar in the Wave Echo Cave. Now finally, after ten years of waiting, we get the official, definitive sequel to this most popular and beloved Fifth Edition Adventure. But was it worth the wait?

First, the bad news. Half of this adventure is just a reprint of an adventure that you probably already own. Almost every single person playing this hobby today has bought the Starter Set and saved the village of Phandalin from the semi-evil machinations of the Black Spider and his minions. And the entire Starter Set only costs about $15. So, why would I spend another $50 for half an adventure? This is something you can either accept or not. Personally, I wish that this was a proper sequel that picked up at the end of LMoP and took players from levels 5 to 15 or higher. Had they done that, this could have been a contender for the top spot. But it still makes the Top 5 because the new content is truly spectacular; with great villains, a horrific scheme with deliciously creepy plot twists and it involves the mysterious Easter Eggs that has appeared in over a half dozen other 5e adventures. The Black Obelisks.

While Lost Mine of Phandelver deals with the best of standard D&D themes and tropes, fighting goblins, defeating brigands, exploring a few dungeons and running away from a few dragons; the new second half of the adventure plunges head long into strange and potentially disturbing territory filled with ancient evils that contaminate your mind, mutilate your body, and corrupt your soul. This one dives into the Chuthlu pool more than any other 5e offering. You are tasked with tracking down a twisted and terrifying take on an old enemy as they collect the pieces needed to reassemble a black obelisk to complete a foul ritual for a previously underrated villain. I love that after several turns as henchmen, mind flayers get their shot at being the BBEG. The tension, threats, and terror keep mounting as you delve deeper and deeper into the mouth of madness, taking you to the alien Underdark and beyond into the Far Realms of the Elder Evils as you struggle to reverse the curse that has plunged your adopted home of Phandalin into anarchy and chaos. It’s all just terrific, pulpy, cosmic horror.

As for the ranking, I am personally thrilled that the incredible Phadelver adventure finally has its own campaign. The new stuff is great, creepy fun, and like the first half, it’s easy to run. It is one of the most complete campaigns out there. Oddly, this also feels the most like old school D&D where one module would take you through your beginner levels and then a totally different adventure would take you into the higher ones. And unlike most every other release, you can totally run this right out of the book. Then with a little tweaking to personalize the adventure for your players, this could be your group’s most memorable campaign. If I were to start from scratch, I would buy this adventure, throw in the Essentials Kit, and mash it all together into the most epic Phandelver adventure ever.

 

#4 – Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden

 

From the mind-numbing reaches of the Far Realms, we travel to the frozen, body-numbing reaches of the Far North, Icewind Dale. Made famous by a particular drow ranger and his panther companion, Icewind Dale is a harsh land of frozen tundra. The creatures (and humans) who call this land home are among the toughest in the Realms. Just to survive a single winter is a herculean task. Are your players up to the challenge? While you’re at it, do you mind saving a score of settlements from a few calamities, including the predation of a gnoll vampire, an enormous machine dragon unleashed by some really angry dwarves, a mad demi-lich from a dead empire who has no idea what year it is, oh wait, and an evil goddess who forgot to pack her sunscreen so she cursed the land into a state of perpetual night and eternal winter.

The creativity of ideas in this adventure (as seen above) puts this adventure firmly in the upper tier. This story is packed with cool concepts and its setting in the frozen wastes of a world buried in snow just hammers home its harrowing, deadly, alien atmosphere. As a villain, Auril is the first actual god (goddess) that any group has had to face. Sure, she’s a minor goddess, but still no one to be trifled with. Another thing I love, is that the land is dynamic, while the players are doing one thing over here, other things are happening over there, and the players cannot save everyone. Bad things will happen, and they’ll have to deal with it. The Tests of the Frostmaiden section is excellent, forcing players to think coldly and rationally. I also love that the players get to accidentally (and purposefully) do some catastrophic and irreversible things, including unleashing a tarrasque, and time travelling the entire world 2000 years into the past. And I love the finale on a crashed floating city.

Of course, not everything is a winter wonderland. The structure of the book is weird. You actually confront Auril in her lair halfway through the adventure, but then you are supposed to go on a really long, extended mega-funhouse dungeon looking for items that might be used to defeat her. It’s like the chicken and the egg; it isn’t clear which comes first. Also, Ten Towns (those needy settlements) suffer simultaneously from unique NPC overload & too much similarity and sameness. One freezing, inhospitable village is pretty much like every other freezing, inhospitable village. And there’s ten of them. Also, also, the duergar stronghold is way too deadly for its suggested levels. Lastly, bafflingly, there is no Drizzt Do’Urden! Epic fail.

But these minor flurries are no match for the bonkers blizzard that is Frostmaiden. The bleak environment may get a chilly reception from those who like a more conventional fantasy setting. The harsh nature of the campaign and the fact that death is inevitable and capricious might make some players frosty. And this is a hard adventure for both players and DMs alike. There’s just a lot to deal with on both side of the DM screen. And like its frozen setting, this is the only camapign that stayed frozen in the same rank as last time (4th). If your players are up to the challenge, you could do worse than to settle in for a long, cold winter with the Frostmaiden. Just bring a good book to read in front of the fireplace or burn for warmth.

 

#3 – Waterdeep: Dragon Heist

 

This is the adventure that I am most conflicted about. There are parts that I love and there are parts that I hate, but I love the good parts so much that it moved up into my Top 3! It is the best urban adventure I’ve ever run or read, and it has the four(!) best villains ever. Even better than Acererak and Strahd. Each villain is unique with believable goals and motives and four amazing boss lairs. But as written, you only get to see one of them. The book presents the awesome splendor of the greatest fantasy city ever, filled with detail, flavor, lore, and spectacle. But you spend almost all your time down at the docks. This is also a roleplay player’s paradise, but only because every NPC is 15 levels more powerful than any player; the players have no choice but to talk their way out of every scenario. Also, it is not a heist. It’s a treasure hunt.

The gist is that half a million in gold is hidden somewhere in the city. Based upon which season (winter, spring, etc.) you choose, that determines which villain you face, which plot to thwart, and where the treasure is found. The explosive action that starts the players on this chase is exciting and the use of factions to steer players in the right direction is well done. There are plenty of cameos, easter eggs, sly references and subtle wit that don’t fit in most adventures, but are perfectly at home here. But it is the city itself that is the star of this story. Waterdeep is as much a character here as any NPC. Even the villains, as awesome as they are, come in second place when compared to the city. Except don’t tell the Xanathar that or he will kill you!

Speaking of villains, they are the best and worst part of the adventure. There’s Jaraxle Baenre, the drow ne’er-do-well from the Drizzt novels; Lord and Lady Cassalanter, members of an infamous noble family; Manshoon, the exiled leader of the Zhentarim who may be a clone; and The Xanathar, the mad beholder crime boss with an affinity for goldfish. Their schemes and methods vary from playful to insane, but they all leave a lot to be desired. Jaraxle wants the gold to pay his way to legitimacy, Manshoon wants to bribe his way to a lordship, The Cassalanter want to sacrifice the gold and 100 innocent people(!) to save two kids, and The Xanathar just wants more gold, dammit.

Of course, since the players are such low level, the villains never want to kill the players (highly convenient and wholly out of character for most of them), and the players can thwart each bad guy just by finding the gold first (also convenient and wholly lame). Also, this is not a beginner adventure. It needs proficient players who like to roleplay and will appreciate all the meta elements of the story. As written, the DM workload is Medium. You could play adventure straight out of the book, but to truly present an epic quest with good villainous plots, and more importantly, play all four different bad guys, plus all the other factions, all vying for the same gold, and homebrewing a proper heist somewhere into the story, this adventure will require an exorbitant amount of work. But I love this adventure and is the only one that I am dying to replay again and again as we explore the City of Splendors.

 

#2 – Tomb of Annihilation

 

Back in 2021, this was my favorite D&D 5th Edition adventure. It is a nearly perfect adventure. It has everything that every type of player wants. Sandbox exploration, exotic locales, high-stakes adventure with a world ending threat, cool unique monsters, bad-ass bad guys, and kick-ass dungeons. It has it all. Set in the teeming jungles of Chult, your players are tasked with stopping a global death curse that finally puts the fear of dying back into the players’ hearts. Along the way, they’ll have to contend with a mummified Yuan-ti and his army of snake people, the infamous lich Acererak and his armies of undead, not to mention carnivorous plants, enormous amphibians, and freaking dinosaurs! This adventure is so awesome that we have been running our Chult campaign for over two years now.

Part of the reason this adventure is so good, is while many 5e adventures take inspiration from one classic module, this one mines from three. Taking the best parts of The Isle of Dread, Dwellers of the Forbidden City, and Tomb of Horrors this adventure manages to improve upon all three and corrects mistakes made in previous 5e releases. Unlike Storm’s King Thunder, this sandbox is perfectly contained with the right number of locations in a manageable area. Unlike Horde of the Dragon Queen, this one has a proper villain (actually 2 or 3) to be reviled, hated, and feared. And unlike every above ground adventure ever, just getting back to the safety of town is not guaranteed. Merely stepping ten feet outside the walls of the exquisite home base, Port Nyanzaru, could be a death sentence. Even more than Out of the Abyss & Curse of Strahd, this is the most lethal of all the adventures.

There are some minor quibbles. I wish that the book gave more details about the unique African/Mayan culture and lore that is teased and hinted at, but not fully explored. Next, you must alter the start of the adventure to allow the players the joy of exploring the jungle before compelling them hunt down the source of the time-sensitive apocalypse. Before starting the death curse, I had the players get hired to lead a safari, giving them a reason to map the interior and explore a little before all hell breaks loose. Lastly, while the final dungeon is a vast improvement on the original Tomb, many of the same gags, traps, and unique monsters are included and will need to be adjusted even more for players who are familiar with that module, which seems to be everybody. The one thing that dropped this out of the Top spot, was the fact that the jungle of Chult and the final Tomb play like two separate adventures and there is no connection or build up to the later. There were so many bits that I wish were foreshadowed or hinted at before we entered the tomb. And once we entered the Tomb, the charm of the jungle was lost and all we wanted to do was get back into the jungle.

Overall, this is the one of the best adventure I’ve seen that preserved the old-school mentality of play, while keeping the far better structured and streamlined rules of modern play. The hardships of the jungle and the tomb may be too much for a lighthearted group of players and the Death is Permanent conceit may be a stark reality check for those used to epic heroic fantasy (i.e. they never die). This is a raw and gritty adventure, akin to Conan & The Lost World. But this adventure has the decency to lay its deadly cards out on the table from the start, preparing the players for what may be the most tense, gripping, challenging, and exhilarating adventure in any role-playing game ever. Except maybe one.

 

#1 – Curse of Strahd

This is arguably the most famous of all the adventures on this list. And many would claim that it is the best of them all. As much as I love to disagree and debate, the masses have spoken. Curse of Strahd is the best 5th Edition adventure. Based upon the beloved classic “Ravenloft”, this is the module that made D&D cool, at least among the hordes of goth kids in the mid 80’s. This adventure introduced the infinitely suave and sinister vampire, Count Strahd von Zarovich, and sparked decades of annual Halloween sessions. In fact, this adventure (and Dragonlance) got me into art school, since I reproduced all the artwork as part of my portfolio. But the original is single module designed for levels 5-7. How does this full campaign of tragic Gothic Horror compare?

Is it possible for a perfect adventure to be over-rated? Not in this case. This adventure is amazing. Strahd might be the best villain ever created for D&D. Most adventures revolve around heroes in a peaceful society trying stop the cataclysm. But in the land of Strahd, the villain has already won and the world suffers for it. The apocalypse is upon us, and we can only struggle in vain to vanquish him. But before that, the cursed land of Barovia (which is technically in its own shadow demi-plane) is a spooky sandbox of lost souls and unspeakable horror. Every encounter oozes with dread and pathos, the anguish is exquisite. The Count’s castle is a hallmark of dungeon design, and the prophetic Tarroka (tarot) reading is a brilliant way to rearrange the plot points of the story, leading to unlimited replayablity, hence the annual Halloween Strahd-fests.

But no adventure is perfect. The introductory dungeon is clearly tacked-on, nonsensical, and way to deadly. Welcome to Barovia! Oops, you’re dead, Strahd wins again! Mwah hah ha! But that is its only weak spot. Some of the mystery elements need a bit of finesse, or they come off as painfully obvious or impossibly obtuse. The castle is a deliberately complicated maze. And then there is a vampire, Strahd. He is the most complex, sophisticated, soulless, tortured villain you will ever run, and requires the roleplaying chops to do him justice. For the players, it is easy to be overwhelmed by the theme and lose focus on the story. And I’m a little disappointed that the adventure only takes characters up to 10^th level. I want more! Thanks heavens there is the excellent Van Richten’s Guide to Ravenloft for ever more gothic trauma.

But really, the adventure is phenomenal. The book is well structured, and as the DM, you have great control over how hard you want the story to be for your players. If your friends like vampires, they’re going to love this adventure. And if they don’t like vampires, then get new friends. I have deliberately kept the details for this story to a minimum because you need to buy it and read it for yourself. So long as everyone is on board with the gothic horror theme, this might be the most fun your players will ever have at the table. In fact, this is the campaign that my players most want to play next, so look forward to all the tales of tortured souls (mostly mine) as we play through the best adventure of all time. At least until D&D 2024 drops the world of Greyhawk and Keep on the Borderland upon us.

 

My Final Rankings

 

Whew! That’s all of them. 50 years of epic, heroic tales filled with narrow escapes, villainous downfalls, and broken quest lines, all stuffed into 20 voluminous tomes. But how do they stack up against each other? Here is my complete rankings list from best to worst along with their total score out of a possible 20.

1. Curse of Strahd (19)
2. Tomb of Annihilation (18)
3. Waterdeep: Dragon Heist (17)
4. Rime of the Frost Maiden (17)
5. Phandelver and Below (16)
6. Out of the Abyss (16)
7. Wild Beyond the Witchlight (15)
8. Princes of the Apocalypse (15)
9. Descent into Avernus (14)
10. Shadow of the Dragon Queen (14)
11. The Ghosts of Saltmarsh (13)
12. Quests from the Infinite Staircase (13)
13. Tales from the Yawning Portal (13)
14. Keys from the Golden Vault (13)
15. Candlekeep Mysteries (13)
16. Journey from the Radiant Citadel(13)
17. Vecna Eve of Ruin (12)
18. Storm Kings’s Thunder (12)
19. Dungeon of the Mad Mage (11)
20. Tyranny of Dragons (11)

As always, I reserve the right to change my mind at any time. This list isn’t etched in stone. My favorite adventure is always the one I’m thinking about playing next. There’s something for everyone in every campaign book. Part of the fun is picking apart the things you love and brewing them together into your own great adventure. So, stop reading about playing. Grab an adventure by the reins, and let’s get playing. Game On!

Or better yet, let me know your rankings. What is your favorite? What is your worst? Am I completely mental for putting Phandelver as high as I did and Vecna as low? And what do you most want to see get released during this new phase of the hobby? I wanna know.

The Xanathar would like to discuss why his adventure is only in 3rd place and not number 1.