This is the first in what will probably be a series of posts from a new DM.
First, a little about me and my group. I'm in the process of putting together a group of players for a bi-weekly D&D game. All of us have some RPG/D&D experience (mostly in 3.5), but it's been a while since any of us have played a tabletop RPG. I've never DMed before, but I'm taking on that role since no one else was interested 
We're all professionals with limited game time, so I'm looking to the published adventures to cut down on the amount of time I'll have to put into planning and setting things up as the DM.
Trying to survey the literature on the published adventures, I see two options: (1) The Lost Mines of Phandelver followed by Princes of the Apocalypse or (2) Hoard of the Dragon Queen/Rise of Tiamat. My group will be having a session 0 soon to decide which path we want to take and to design characters. I just want to have a better sense of what each option entails before I present the group with choices.
Option 1: I read through LMoP, and I really like it! I like how it's put together, the encounters seem interesting, and I want to run it. I'm a little less sure about PotA; the reviews are so mixed, but I don't have enough experience to have a sense of whether the concerns that people have expressed will really matter to my group.
One basic question I have is this: PotA suggests that encounters need to be retooled for characters coming off of LMoP, who will be lvl 5, since PotA starts at lvl 3. How long does it take for levels to catch up, for retooling every encounter to no longer be required? Also, I've been unable to find a good guide/thread about rolling LMoP into PotA... any links/advice?
Option 2: I've been reading a lot about problems with HotDQ/RoT. Since we're newbs, I'm not sure that the linearity concern will be a problem for us. I'm more concerned about all the work that seems to be needed to retool/rebalance various things: I don't have the experience to make those moments obvious, though there has been a lot written about it. (That being said, it's hard to track all of that stuff down being effectively new to the scene.) Also, there's just something about HotDQ when I'm reading through it... it just doesn't seem as fleshed out, polished, and vibrant as LMoP; it seems to be missing something compared to the starter adventure.
So, my ultimate question is this: is a pretty new group, are we better off with Lost Mines of Phandelver > Princes of the Apocalypse or with Hoard of the Dragon Queen > Rise of Tiamat. My main concern is for the amount of work that I'll have to do by the DM followed by ushering a new group of players into playing a tabletop RPG.
Thoughts and advice are appreciated!
Hi and welcome to the wonderful world of DMing! Personally, I would go the Lost Mines route. It's a good way to get introduced to the game and has lots of great content. Don't worry too much about Princes until you get closer to that point. I'm sure you'll find lots of help from DMs here on retooling it to fit your Level 5 characters.
Lost Mine of Phandelver is the best E5 adventure module as of now and it's also perfect to get into E5 because it slowly introduces you to all the different kinds of playstyles and features. So it's pretty much the perfect choice.
HotDQ and RoT are more for very experienced DMs, stay away from these as new DM!
Thanks much for the responses. By nature, I'm a long-term thinker and something of a meticulous planner (for better or worse!); I like to have an idea of where I'm going before I get there.
Regarding HotDQ, I've read reviews and discussion that say that new DMs should stay far away and that it is a good introduction to different aspects of the game for a group new to the game... hard to make heads or tails of that.
LMoP looks great. I bought PotA to read through it and get a better sense of what I'd be dealing with. The layout of PotA (especially as compared to LMoP booklet) is... not the most helpful. I've only skimmed it so far (I'll do a deep dive over this week), but it looks like it would require a lot of preparation and bookkeeping because it's hard to predict where the group might go when. HotDQ struck me as a little more linear, with more predictability for the DM as to what will come next. Am I just being too easily intimidated by PotA? I just want things to go well for the group, ya know?
Now, I'm definitely leaning more toward running LMoP with an eye toward rolling into PotA afterwards. Also, I take your point, Ath-kethin: letting them be relative bosses for a while after beating LMoP might not be the worst thing in the world.
Thanks!
You only have another couple of weeks to wait before Out of the Abyss comes out. At least to me, it sounds like the best of the hardcover adventures so far for 5th edition, partly because it was written by Green Ronin, who have done lots of quality RPG material. So if you are not starting your game til it releases, give it a look before you make your final decision.
One thing to remember about LMoP, while it is a good adventure, is that it and the Starter Set were released before the DMG and Monster Manual were finalized, so there may be some variation between the rules if you are using all three core books to run your game.
There are some free 5e modules you can find on line, most from some sort of conest for adventures when just the bsic free 5e rules were out. They aren't great for the most part, but have some clever ideas and give you something to run that isn't "on a rail" storyline if you need it. Use google.
I would go with Mines over the Dreagon Queen mainly because after doing a lot of checking I realized that many of the Hoard of the Dragon Queen encounters are far above what the DMG guidelines for encounter building call for. It is supposedly balanced for 4 players. They better be darn competent and lucky or have a Dm planning on fudging a lot of rolls to keep the party alive. (In my humble opinion anyway).
If you want to run PotA you don't need to run anything else first - there are encounters for 1st-3rd level characters in chapter 6 which get the players up to speed - all based in and around the initial town so it all ties in.
Everyone raves about LMoP. Personally I chose to go straight for Princes (and not buy the basic set on top of everything else) and it's going fine. However, I needed to read the entire book a couple of times before I felt confident to get started 