What have you initiated a new group with? Have any of you ran all of the adventures and if so what we're your favorites? I have almost read all of Hoard of the Dragon Queen and I am probably going to run that unless there is a compelling post from one of you to run something else first.
HOTDQ looks awesome but so does LMOP. Then again Murders in Baldurs Gate looks great and Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle looks really interesting. I have the playtest Isle of Dread and Mines of Madness and those look fun but I don't know. So much of this looks great and I'd rather hear others opinions on what works well for them and what was most fun to play.
My group will have fun no matter what but I would prefer to give them something with more role playing opportunities and creative ways to avoid combat. One guy is playing a charlatan bard just because he knows I prefer non hack and slash adventures and he wants to focus on interaction. Combat is fine and necessary sometimes but I do highly prefer more opportunities for creative thinking and combat avoidance.
LMOP. no question.
I think LMOP, Legacy of the Crystal Shard, Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle, and Scourge of the Sword Coast are all strong contenders.
We are working through LMoP here right now and it is truly an awesome first choice. 
LMOP, and while I do change a bit of every adventure I run, LMoP is a very good way ro start of.
LMoP seems the popular choice lol
I like LMoP because I could easily convert it to a Western themed adventure (see my signature). That frontier feel made it different from other adventures and I like things that are a little different.
TheLyons wrote:
One nice thing about starting with LMoP is that, if you wanted, you could probably continue on to HotDQ as written. Sure, the PCs would be higher level at the beginning, and that would let them take on more opponents in direct rather than indirect ways, but that's hardly a problem. If you just give XP (rather than use milestones), the PCs won't be levelling up so much in the first few chapters, so eventually they'll be more or less at the expected level.
I agree with LMOP.
While HOTDQ does start with 1st level characters, LMOP was written specifically with new players in mind, and being in the middle of running LMOP (I do own HOTDQ and have read through some of it), I can say that my new players are picking it up really quickly.
Kentus wrote:
Clutchbone wrote:
Hoard of the Dragon Queen.
Why?
Because the first episode is a total meat-grinder that will chew up numerous PC's and spit them out.
Before HOTDQ and LMOP came out I heard a lot of good about Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle. Would any of you suggest it first? I've read maybe one page of it so I'm not well versed. I seem to recall reviews stating it was more open ended and sandbox style for a bit and I love that.
Thank_Dog wrote:
I am in a simliar quandary to OP about whether to start with HOTDQ or LMOP. My group are very experienced players and like things dangerous, so HOTDQ seems to have an edge there, at least at the beginning. However, LMOP is said to be less of a railroad, so that is a plus point for that. I don't seem to be able to make up my mind 
One other consideration - our session is going to run from friday evening to mid-day sunday, only stopping to sleep and eat (re-living our RPG youth!). Given HOTDQ is much longer, am I better off going with that in case we might finish LMOP in the time frame?
Also, if running HOTDQ is it worth boosting up magic items slightly, to keep it on a level with the amounts found in LMOP?
Go with LMOP. There's plenty of content to keep you playing through the weekend.
For what it's worth - LMOP has been pretty universally reviewed as an above-average published adventure, while the reviews of HOTDQ have not been nearly as kind.
I've heard a lot of theory-crafting that the goblin ambush in LMOP is too deadly, but I have ran it four times myself and never had more than one player go down. I think that intiially there was some confusion on the hiding rules that has since been cleared up.
My regular Sunday group likes LMOP so much that we did a collaborative world building session to add some layers of depth and expand it into a full-blown campaign. I'm thinking it will now take them closer to level 8-10.
Iorwerth wrote:
Thanks for the link to the blog, much appreciated.
I am an experienced DM, so have no problem with HotDQ on that score - just need to do a little prep before hand to keep things moving smoothly. Having read both, i think a little prep is also needed on LMOP, especially the rogue backstory.
I am still undecided at the moment. There is a lot Iike about HotDQ, even though it is railroaded, but LMOP has good reviews as well.
One thing about LMOP - strikes me that the party will find out about Cragsmaw castle right near the beginning, either from the goblins in the first encounter or from the Cragmaw hideout. This could easily lead the party to the castle pretty quick and bypass many of the sub-quests, which would seem a shame - after all, if they want to find Gundren, then getting distracted and doing sidequests, when they could just head straight to the castle, seems a little cavalier for a good party. What are others experience of this?
Iorwerth wrote:
Tomb of Horrors or Labrynth of Madness should be the perfect fit! 