Intro

I have been playing various RPGs (mostly D&D) since college. About 1.5 years ago, my twice-a-month group decided to try out D&D 5e and I volunteered to DM. We ran the Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure with the pre-generated characters, because it was just a test. They liked it, we kept going.

When we finished, I wanted to give everyone a chance to play characters of their choice. There were some complaints about starting over again at 1st level -- that the previous year of play would be a "waste." So I compromised on starting at 3rd level, which is when most characters start to branch out.

It took me a while to settle on the material for the next campaign. I don't feel up to writing my own yet, so that meant published sources. I knew that Out of the Abyss was right out; our campaign before this left us bogged down in the Underdark and I'm quite sure most of the players had no desire to go back there. In the end, what tipped the scales toward Princes of the Apocalypse is that most of the players had done the classic Temple of Elemental Evil way back in the dawn of time, before I joined, and they had a great time. Once I found out that PotA was a re-imagining of those same themes, and that it was generally well-received, I made my decision.

My weekly game, where I'm a player, is doing a 5e adaptation of ToEE, so that will be an interesting point of comparison.

We're using Roll20. Most of the game is in-person, but people were bringing tablets and laptops, so it's actually easier than using figures. (My group really likes maps, so theater of the mind didn't do it for them.) Richard is finishing college, so this simplifies the tech challenges of sharing the field of play. We're gradually discovering the various features.

So the players are still getting accustomed to the system, the DM is still getting accustomed to running the campaign, and we're all still getting accustomed to the tool set. It's a big ol' voyage of discovery.