[RPG] the order in which published D&D 5e adventures (up to TftYP) should be played

dnd-5emetaplotpublished-adventures

The list of published D&D 5e adventures, by the time this question was asked, was:

  • Starter Set – Lost Mines of Phandelver | 1-4 | July 15, 2014
  • Tyranny of Dragons – Hoard of the Dragon Queen | 1-7 | August 19, 2014
  • Tyranny of Dragons – The Rise of Tiamat | 8-15 | November 4, 2014
  • Elemental Evil – Princes of the Apocalypse | 1-15 | April 7, 2015
  • Rage of Demons – Out of the Abyss | 1-14 | September 15, 2015
  • Curse of Strahd – Curse of Strahd | 1-10 | March 15, 2016
  • Storm King's Thunder – Storm King's Thunder | 1-11 | September 6, 2016
  • Tales from the Yawning Portal – Tales from the Yawning Portal | Anthology/Varies | March 24, 2017

I know that both Tyranny of Dragons campaigns are related. Are there any other relations between adventures? Is there a particular order in which they should be played, or are the adventures independent from one another?

This question only covers published adventures up to March 2017.

Best Answer

The books are designed to let the DM choose how to connect them. There is no 'you must play XYZ book before ZYX book' ordering, except insofar as levels restrict. (It would make no sense to finish Rise of Tiamat then jump into Curse of Strahd, for example, since COS ends at a lower level).

While SKT is written with the assumption that HotDQ/RoT has already occurred, there are even notes inside it on how to invert that paradigm if desired.