How to Choose Your Next 5e Dungeons and Dragons Campaign: Dragon of Icespire Keep From D&D Essientials

I've been DMing, playing, and reading fifth edition adventures since the launch of the edition. I decided to write some guides that DMs can use to can use to choose their next adventure. I'll post one at a time, then tackle them as a whole at the end. The next post will be about Tyranny of Dragons. 

Dragon of Icespire Keep

Summary

Dragon of Icespire Keep is a starter adventure that takes players on a journey through the Sword Coast. Published as part of the Dungeons & Dragons Essentials Kit in June 2019, this adventure gives the players an introduction into adventure in the Sword Coast. Designed for characters of levels 1-6, Dragon of Icespire Keep tasks players with defending the small town of Phandalin from a young white dragon and other threats. Along the way, adventurers will explore mysterious locations, uncover hidden secrets, and forge lasting bonds as they strive to bring peace to the region. Further adventures that continue the story were published on dndbeyond, but they are beyond the scope of this blog post. 

My Experience With the Adventure

I ran Dragon of Icespire Peak for a newly formed online group at the beginning of the pandemic. About half the group was new to RPGs. I chose Icespire Peak because I thought it would be easy to run and a good onboarding adventure for a relatively new group. I was right and wrong...it was a new adventure, but it still required plenty of prep, at least for me, to run. I realized my notes would be useful to others, and inspired by other dm's guild products like Sean McGovern's A Guide to Storm King's Thunder, I decided to write my own DM's Guide to the Dragon of Icespire Peak. Its by far the most popular thing I have posted to DM's Guild, and is a Gold best seller. I get a lot of satisfaction knowing I wrote a guide to a starter adventure that hopefully helps new players get into the game. 

Why You Should Run It

• Its a very straightforward adventure for new DMs. There are some moving pieces to keep track of, but its designed to provide clear choices to new adventurers. It gives the players some choice without making new DMs try to manage a giant sandbox like Curse of Strahd. It is fantastic as an introduction to the game.
• The adventure does a good job exposing new players to the pillars of dnd: exploration, combat, and social. You get a little of everything in the adventure, and a reasonable dragon combat at the end.
• There are some flaws in the adventure, but they are easy to correct. An experienced DM will handily address them, and a new DM can use the advice in my guide. 
• Anytime someone new asks me about trying DND I point them to this adventure and email them a copy of the guide. Its cheap, and a great way to onboard new players and DMs. 

Why You Should Skip It

• Its a very standard fantasy campaign. If you have been playing fantasy RPGs for a long time, you probably won't be very impressed with this adventure. The quality of the adventure has a very high floor, but its all things experienced players have seen before. I'd recommend most of the other published adventures set in the Sword Coast above this one for experienced groups. 

What You Should Repurpose From It

• I actually think you could steal pretty much any individual quest from this adventure if you needed a quick adventure on short notice. I think you could grab any one quest and have it prepped in 30 minutes to have a game ready quickly.  
• The three quests my group had the most fun with were Butterskull Ranch (orcs take over a farmhouse), Logger's Camp (Ankhegs attack a logger camp), and Falcon's Hunting Lodge (a cool ranger NPC to interact with).