How do the published Adventures fit together

[Astovidas]

I'm really looking forward to the adventures that are going to be Published by WotC. I already own the starter set and preordered Hoard of the Dragon Queen.

My Problem however is, that I don't know how to fit them together.

I know, that HotDQ will get the characters from level 1 to 7 or 8 and Rise of Tiamat will get them from 7 to level 15. But the Starter Set already gets them to level 5. And the story is (at least loosely) connected, since you have some cultists in the SS-adventure as well. So it plays in the same world at the same time.
My players like to roll up new characters, but they don't like it that much and they especially don't like to start from lvl 1 on each adventure..

So how are you going to do this?

Side note; if you don't like WotC-Adventures and are not going to play them, that's fine and I respect that. But please don't post here and try to explain how bad you think they are and convince me not to play them.. this isn't the right topic.. thank you!

[Knaight]

Cultists are a pretty generic fantasy enemy - them being in both isn't a problem. The starter set is its own thing, and isn't intended to link with the other two, which are actually on an adventure path. That said, it shouldn't actually be a problem. Boost the opposition in HotDQ, and they should link up fine, particularly as character power grows a lot more slowly than in 3e and 4e. RoT fits with no changes.

[Falka]

Hey, how many adventures are published already? It's just HotDK and Lost Mines, right? Maybe I will buy Hoard, though I'm already running a sandbox-y minicampaign. I could get it just to fetch some ideas.

[Astovidas]

Cultists are a pretty generic fantasy enemy - them being in both isn't a problem.

yeah, I know. :) but they are Dragon Cultists.. Are they as generic as well?
And I didn't say it's a problem, I just think it is the same world during the same period. If i tell my players, that we make a new Adventure set in the future, now one is going to argue to keep his Paladin. If the new campaign is in the same area at the same time, that's a different story.. :P

Thanks for the advice. I'll see if I can boost the difficulty of the encounters in HotDQ so we can play all adventures as a sequence.


Hey, how many adventures are published already? It's just HotDK and Lost Mines, right?
Well HotDQ isn't actually published yet.. It will be published in a week though. Rise of Tiamat will follow in October.
Then there are some Adventures that you can play with 5e such as Murder in Baldur's Gate and Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle. But I don't know much about them..
you can find all of them here: http://dnd.wizards.com/products/tabletop-games/rpg-products

[Knaight]

yeah, I know. :) but they are Dragon Cultists.. Are they as generic as well?
And I didn't say it's a problem, I just think it is the same world during the same period. If i tell my players, that we make a new Adventure set in the future, now one is going to argue to keep his Paladin. If the new campaign is in the same area at the same time, that's a different story.. :P

Pretty much. They are marginally less generic than Snake cultists or Spider cultists, but sticking some animal or mythological creature up front is basically standard practice. You've got your serpent cults, dragon cults, golem cults, scorpion cults, so on and so forth. There's definitely no need for it to be in the same period, let alone the same general area.

[eastmabl]

I think the problem with Lost Mines and Hoard Of is that they both start at level 1. When Lost Mines is complete, the players should be at level 5, and plunking them into Hoard means that they've got a bunch of meaningless encounters to complete.

I haven't looked at Hoard Of closely, but I don't believe that there's a way to soup up encounters, although I suppose that a motivated DM could do so.

[eastmabl]

Well HotDQ isn't actually published yet.. It will be published in a week though. Rise of Tiamat will follow in October.

Much like the PHB, HotDQ has been published, and is available at Wizard Play Network stores.

[Astovidas]

Much like the PHB, HotDQ has been published, and is available at Wizard Play Network stores.

Really? Actually I knew, that the PHB was out, since there are already some topics and a lot of discussions about its content.. But i didn't know, that the Adventure was published as well.
The Problem there is, that I live in Switzerland and we don't have any Core level stores here.. the closest WPN-Store is more than an hour for me and the closest one that actually runs D&D-Encounters is more than 3 hours away.. And I don't know if they are even Core level.. So the prerelease isn't really an Option for me and I have to wait till 19. August.. :smallmad:

Anyway;

I think the problem with Lost Mines and Hoard Of is that they both start at level 1. When Lost Mines is complete, the players should be at level 5, and plunking them into Hoard means that they've got a bunch of meaningless encounters to complete.
That's exactly my point. :)
I think I will run Lost Mine with the pregens and say it is just to get accustomed to the new system. Then I'll start on HotDQ with new chars and let them play it through normally.

[Cibulan]

That's exactly my point. :)
I think I will run Lost Mine with the pregens and say it is just to get accustomed to the new system. Then I'll start on HotDQ with new chars and let them play it through normally.My players are really attached to their LMoP characters so there's no way I can do that :smalleek:.

[Mezmote]

Just a side question for those of you who own the adventure.

Do the adventure offer additional options for character creation and feats? New special abilities or class features? Spells and evocations?

I remember that one of the tenets of the new editions was to offer a basic game, where advanced modules could be added. But newer info suggests that we will only see new Adventure modules. If they don't contain any new stuff (like tactical combat and the like), where else do you recon we'll get it?

[rlc]

I don't own the adventure, but it doesn't make any sense for them to have any of that stuff. First, because that's not what they're for and second, because they're third party.

[Yuki Akuma]

Hoard of the Dragon Queen is first-party.

[DonEsteban]

Well, it's something in between. It's third party, but heavily sanctioned by WotC. So it's sort of second party (although that would mean you).


That said, it shouldn't actually be a problem. Boost the opposition in HotDQ, and they should link up fine, particularly as character power grows a lot more slowly than in 3e and 4e. RoT fits with no changes.

I don't that it's that easy. Sure, their proficiency bonuses wouldn't be that much off, but they would still have access to fly and dispel magic and 8d6 area damage and more abilities which would trivialize encounters. Raising challenges by two levels is usually possible, but by 4 is (without knowing the adventure) going to be difficult, to say the least. As a compromise you might either level them more slowly during Lost Mine or even lower them by two levels at the start of Hoard. This would be awkward, but probably be the lesser evil.

[Falka]

I think the problem with Lost Mines and Hoard Of is that they both start at level 1. When Lost Mines is complete, the players should be at level 5, and plunking them into Hoard means that they've got a bunch of meaningless encounters to complete.

I haven't looked at Hoard Of closely, but I don't believe that there's a way to soup up encounters, although I suppose that a motivated DM could do so.

From what I've read from a HotDQ review yesterday, you shouldn't play it if you started with Phandelver or a similar adventure - you should pick Rise of Tiamat (the second part of the Tyranny of Dragons campaign) instead.

I like dragons a lot and I've read the first HotDQ PDF from Encounters. Looks fun. :p

[rlc]

Would the second part make sense without the first?

[Falka]

Would the second part make sense without the first?

Citation needed, but I specifically read that's how they're going to roll. You either play Phandelver of Hoard, but not both. Both are designed to take you to 5th level.

[Yuki Akuma]

Citation needed, but I specifically read that's how they're going to roll. You either play Phandelver of Hoard, but not both. Both are designed to take you to 5th level.

Lost Mine of Phandelver goes from 1 to 5.

Hoard of the Dragon Queen goes from 1 to 8.

[rlc]

I kind of assumed that when the starter set said that you could do whatever you wanted after the adventure was over that it wouldn't lead into any of the Dragon adventures.