Dungeons and Dragons is an enduring game not for its rules, but for its adventures. When players get together to reminisce about the game, nobody talks about "my fighter had a +9 to hit" or "my wizard would cast three level 5 spells a day"...they talk about fighting giants, about investigating the death-trap tomb of a demi-lich, they talk about a keep on the borderlands, they talk about sunless citadels.

They talk about adventures.

The first adventures for a new rules set become iconic for that version of D&D. If the first adventure is poor, it can reflect poorly on the whole edition.

There have been many, many, adventures, modules, and campaigns for D&D, but there's been a glaring omission: nothing has been really centered around dragons. Dragons are iconic to D&D, as much as because, well, they are dragons as because they were one of the very first fully scale-able monsters. Across all versions of D&D, you have 5 hp dragons with minor attacks to multi-hundred hit point monstrosities with a page full of abilities. Adventurers could reasonably encounter a dragon at any point of their career.

At last, Dungeons and Dragons has a campaign built around dragons. It's an oversight long overdue for correction.

Hoard of the Dragon Queen covers the first half of the campaign, for character levels 1 through 7. While set in the game world of Faerun, it's easy enough to slip this world into any other game world; no significant cities are mapped out in detail, and no real knowledge of that world is relevant for play.

It's tough to review something of this size without spoilers, so, a quick review without spoilers:

Overall, this is a good product, worthy of 5e, and, worthy of solid reminisces for the players involved, years from now. That said, it does have a few issues here and there, and will require some level of experience in the DM to get much out of some aspects of the adventures here.

Past this point, spoilers follow, but I'll try not to mention them more than necessary.


So, let's take a closer look at this initial campaign, across all the episodes:


The opening episode, Greenest in Flames, puts characters immediately into the action, in a town currently under attack from all sides by a swarm of dragon cultists and their kobold allies.

I have to admit some disappointment here, as the town has no wall, no stockade, minimal militia...just one small keep for a town of a thousand people or more. In D&D land, I just can't see any group of humans living together without putting up defensive structures, but, it does allow the players to run around the place, engaging in small adventures.

And, that's what the players do: get orders from the keep to rescue villagers, or the like, go back to the keep, and repeat. It's all well and good, but WotC has to have known that 5e was still pretty new when this book came out; a quick fight early on, with everything laid out and "refresher rules" in a sidebar, should have been here, to allow new players to play the game with a bit less flipping through the rules. The fights are often a little too difficult for first level characters; "pack tactics" among the enemies means anyone attacked is very likely to be hit, and first level characters just can't take many hits, much less in 5e, where minimal hits still deal 3 or more damage.

The episode ends with a flyby attack from a dragon (well past the player's skill level), and a strange "solo combat" with a major enemy that will likely end in a player being beaten--unless there are many critical hits rolled. One quickly sees that life is cheap in 5e, it's quite easy for a character to be killed on a critical hit. (I recommended to players to always have backup characters ready in case of sudden deaths.)

Players are promoted to 2nd level at the end of the siege. The whole campaign uses the "milestone" experience method for gaining levels, as opposed to experience points. It's a good method in theory, but fails to account for players missing a session here or there--a certainty when we're  looking at a dozen or more sessions to finish this book. (Players that missed milestone sessions in my campaign were made to play one significant adventure before leveling.)

Episode 2 is a rescue mission, exposing the players to the cultists besides just "guys to be slaughtered." So, there's more roleplaying here as players infiltrate the camp and learn more about the cult. The players can make the rescue in a variety of ways, and then return to Greenest for their reward--treasure, incidentally, is fairly light throughout the campaign...most gold comes from rewards for quests. And, BAM, characters are 3rd level.

Episode 3 returns the players to the camp, now abandoned except for a cave with dragon eggs. This is the first dungeon adventure. It's a well laid out dungeon, although there is one big issue:

There's a roper at the end, guarding the eggs. Now, through D&D's history, ropers are not something you can negotiate with, not something you can even talk to. But, for some odd reason, this roper is reasonably friendly, and can be bribed with food (although this isn't something players would consider, since the creature isn't caged, so could feed itself if it wanted to, including the dragon eggs). As the roper is pretty tough, quite capable of killing several characters, players pretty much have to bribe the roper to finish this quest.

For some reason, XP is awarded at the end...players should just gain a level, as per the milestone rules everywhere else in the campaign. Level 4 it is.

Episode 4 is easily the weakest part of the book. It's random traveling adventures, as players travel with cultists transporting the treasure that is otherwise absent from the adventure. While there is roleplaying opportunity here, nothing is particularly memorable, or relevant. Your mileage may vary here, depending on just how much fun players have standing around talking...but there's nothing to accomplish by doing so, not even a level.

Episode 5 has the players arrive at the end of their journey, to a roadhouse. The treasure vanishes here, and the players have to roleplay/investigate what happened. This is far more interesting and goal-oriented than the previous episode, and ends when the players learn the treasure was transported to a ruined castle. Welcome to level 5, although this is a short episode.

Episode 6 is investigating the castle. This is easily the strongest adventure in the book, as the multi-level castle has various factions antagonizing each other. The players thus only have to make basic effort sneaking in, and can easily convince one or more factions to help them out, or at least look the other way. This is a first adventure where characters might take a few days to finish (although if they're not careful, they could lose out on a nice sword as key NPCs escape when they see the castle depopulating). Eventually, they'll figure out the treasure isn't here, either, and hit level 6 before following the trail.

Episode 7 takes players from the swamp castle to a hunting lodge in the north. There are some cracks here, as players are now starting to get serious arrays of powers, powers that aren't often accounted for. Some fights can become quite trivial if players do the right thing or have the right spell, and the writers don't often consider "what if?" There are some serious fights here, and enemies also have significant hard-hitting powers that can wreck a character. One of the few major treasures of this adventure is here, a nice magic wand that (after it kills a character or two) can be claimed for the party's use. Players still don't know where that treasure went, and so they follow the trail to the final episode, probably making level 7 before moving on:

Episode 8 is the grand finale, a small village of semi-hostiles leading to a flying castle, controlled by a giant. The giant isn't actually an ally of the dragons, and he (among others in the castle) can easily ally with the heroes. This is generally a good idea for the players, as even with their growing power, there are several tough fights here that roleplaying can't avoid. Again, the writers seem to have not really considered what the players are capable of, or even considered the possibility that the players will take a long rest after slaughtering half the occupants of the castle. Some guidance as to how the various factions respond when casualties mount would be good here (I had the players get ambushed as they left their Tiny Hut, almost causing a TPK because double-fireballs are brutal). The final encounter here is with a white dragon, which is more likely to fly away than be killed. The white dragon is guarding a small hoard...and the hoard is likely to be claimed by the party's new allies.

And, bam, the heroes are level 8.

Overall, the book is a collection of adventures varying from "fun" to "very fun" (outside of episode 4). Treasure will certainly be too light for some players' tastes, but for heroes bent on saving the world, this isn't much of a problem. Some parts of the adventures don't make much sense (that undefended town still puzzles me), and every statue in the book can animate to attack the players (our running joke was you need to pay 50,000 GP if you want a statue that doesn't animate), but these are nitpicks, this game book is still clearly worth the price, and, indeed, can serve as an iconic introduction to 5e.

Aside from the smug assassin NPC I actually liked DMing the chapter 4 road trip. Lots of chances to interact and mingle, some odd encounters and that messed up run-in with the misplaced assassins at the waypoint. The PCs actually won that one with some good tactics.

Quote from: Omega;856838Aside from the smug assassin NPC I actually liked DMing the chapter 4 road trip. Lots of chances to interact and mingle, some odd encounters and that messed up run-in with the misplaced assassins at the waypoint. The PCs actually won that one with some good tactics.

Well, like I said, the mileage can vary. But that "no room at the inn" encounter is not even mapped out, and is just 4 random assassins that may, or may not, be a violent encounter...and no matter what happens in that encounter, it has no bearing or relationship to anything anywhere else in the campaign.

Quote from: Doom;856830Episode 4 is easily the weakest part of the book. It's random traveling adventures, as players travel with cultists transporting the treasure that is otherwise absent from the adventure. While there is roleplaying opportunity here, nothing is particularly memorable, or relevant. Your mileage may vary here, depending on just how much fun players have standing around talking...but there's nothing to accomplish by doing so, not even a level.

That was where we were at the end of the first season of Encounters; nobody was sorry to move on to Elemental Evil/Princes of the Apocalypse, because the caravan trip was so tedious. The earlier stuff was enjoyable, though.

This is the first positive review of this adventure I've read since it came out. And it makes it sound very fun.

One of the criticisms I heard was that it leaves a lot to the GM to handle when it comes to preparation and filling in the blanks, instead of writing it out for them.

Quote from: Doom;856830There have been many, many, adventures, modules, and campaigns for D&D, but there's been a glaring omission: nothing has been really centered around dragons. Dragons are iconic to D&D, as much as because, well, they are dragons as because they were one of the very first fully scale-able monsters. Across all versions of D&D, you have 5 hp dragons with minor attacks to multi-hundred hit point monstrosities with a page full of abilities. Adventurers could reasonably encounter a dragon at any point of their career.

At last, Dungeons and Dragons has a campaign built around dragons. It's an oversight long overdue for correction.

Aroo?

Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;856915This is the first positive review of this adventure I've read since it came out. And it makes it sound very fun.

Well, having played it through, I really can't say it sucked. I mean, compared to Keep on the Shadowfell, and quite a few 4e adventures that were flat out unplayable, it works very well (yes, 4e has serious issues, but a few 4e adventures I simply couldn't run because none of it made any sense...stuff like asking for DC 12 Perception rolls for level 14 characters, for example, lead me to believe adventures really didn't have any quality control, but I digress).

QuoteOne of the criticisms I heard was that it leaves a lot to the GM to handle when it comes to preparation and filling in the blanks, instead of writing it out for them.

Back to HotDQ, outside of episode 4 (which has other, more serious problems, like complete irrelevance), that criticism just doesn't fly. Most everything is mapped out, except for small/random encounters. Regrettably, this is what happens the most in episode 1: in several encounters the DM is told a description like "there's going to be six bad guys led by a bigger bad guy, and it happens in a barn with hay and stuff."

Now, I grant a DM with some experience can certainly run with that description and make a solid encounter...but doing this right off the bat is a bit unfair to a DM with no experience, who really could use, and paid for, a bit of help. The new DM will stumble a bit in episode 1, but luckily things are simple enough there that it's not a huge deal. I mean, the stats for "bad guy" and "bigger bad guy" are provided (in the back of the book), and most folks know enough about barns not to muck up a basic architectural map too badly.

But everything past that is done well. The Raider's Camp, the Dragon Hatchery, even the Roadhouse (barely a 2 significant room structure) is mapped out with solid descriptions of what goes where. The last two episodes with castles and a village are, again, fully fleshed out. While, yes, the DM will have to go "on the fly" based on player actions, there is usually a line or two what the bad guys will do (run away, primarily, and a few will sell out).

Now, for The Rise of Tiamat, that criticism has considerable validity, but it's a bit more forgivable since at this stage the DM should have some experience. I still think it asks too much for a paid product, but I'll cover this adventure later, however.

Quote from: Ratman_tf;856933Aroo?

Well, I'm somewhat p'wned there, I admit...but Dragonlance was more a campaign built around the books (which had dragons) than the dragons. Heck, even when I read the books I never really thought the books were about dragons (it seems like draconians and effin' Kender were center stage most times).

How would you say it compares to the Starter Set?

Do you mean the Phandelver adventure? Phandelver is fine, but problematic: if you play it, your characters won't be set up to play in any of the three campaigns so far, without a little bit of work. Again, curiously, the campaigns don't have a "here's what to do if your level 5 characters have just stumbled here from Phandelver..." paragraph, which would be a good idea (and highly problematic for Out of the Abyss).

Quote from: Doom;856886Well, like I said, the mileage can vary. But that "no room at the inn" encounter is not even mapped out, and is just 4 random assassins that may, or may not, be a violent encounter...and no matter what happens in that encounter, it has no bearing or relationship to anything anywhere else in the campaign.

Dont have it handy but I believe the entry on the assassins says they attack you no matter.

As for maps. Why need a map at all? Though you could use the roadhouse map? There are no maps for the two cities you pass through. Nor one for the Mere. Which I found more annoying than the lack of a roadside inn map.

But it does leave space for the DM to embellish. And was a moot point for me as I transplanted the adventure to BX's Karemeikos maps and setting. (I turned the adventure on its side so the PCs were travelling west to east instead of south to north.)

Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;856915This is the first positive review of this adventure I've read since it came out. And it makes it sound very fun.

One of the criticisms I heard was that it leaves a lot to the GM to handle when it comes to preparation and filling in the blanks, instead of writing it out for them.

1: It is fun to DM and play in.

2: That was a bonus point for me. I dont need to be spoon fed every detail. One or two more maps would have been nice to get across to novices the setting. Or for me who know about nothing of FR.

Quote from: Doom;856982Do you mean the Phandelver adventure? Phandelver is fine, but problematic: if you play it, your characters won't be set up to play in any of the three campaigns so far, without a little bit of work. Again, curiously, the campaigns don't have a "here's what to do if your level 5 characters have just stumbled here from Phandelver..." paragraph, which would be a good idea (and highly problematic for Out of the Abyss).

Well I meant more how it compares in quality to Phandelver since that's the one most people have likely played or are familiar with (ie., me) so it gives a good measuring stick to use.

But yeah a lot of the reviews basically said "not as good as Phandelver" and left it at that so it was hard to know if they meant terrible or almost as good.

Quote from: Omega;8570601: It is fun to DM and play in.

2: That was a bonus point for me. I dont need to be spoon fed every detail. One or two more maps would have been nice to get across to novices the setting. Or for me who know about nothing of FR.

This is my experience too. Hoard of the Dragon Queen isn't perfect but its fun in play.

Quote from: mAcular Chaotic;857117Well I meant more how it compares in quality to Phandelver since that's the one most people have likely played or are familiar with (ie., me) so it gives a good measuring stick to use.

But yeah a lot of the reviews basically said "not as good as Phandelver" and left it at that so it was hard to know if they meant terrible or almost as good.

It's too much "Apples and Oranges" to make a comparison. I mean, Phandelver is a mini-campaign at best, stuck inside the starter kit. Not hardcover, not glossy (if memory serves), and not as pricey.

I wasn't as big a fan of Phandelver as others, but it got the job done. Trying to compare it to Hoard is like trying to compare an episode of Gilligan's Island to three episodes of L.A. Law. There's no real way to compare.

But, I liked Hoard far more.