Tyranny Of Dragons

[Uthgar21]

I know that this is obviously a repost but I cant find it anywhere so have you tried this campaign?What's your opinion about it?

[Kryx]

You can find your answer on google and many other forums.
See Why is Hoard of the Dragon Queen such a bad adventure? (http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?399202-Why-is-Hoard-of-the-Dragon-Queen-such-a-bad-adventure)

[Rallicus]

You can find your answer on google and many other forums.
See Why is Hoard of the Dragon Queen such a bad adventure? (http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?399202-Why-is-Hoard-of-the-Dragon-Queen-such-a-bad-adventure)

That thread brings up some valid points, and my own personal experience reading through the module had me draw the conclusion that "Man, this is terrible."

Yet many examples of actual play tend to differ. People seem to really enjoy it. Maybe it's the obliviousness of players, not knowing the module's glaring flaws?

[Feldarove]

Hot Garbage from what I have seen

I've never seen a pre-made go great though, so maybe they're just not for my group.

[Madfellow]

Maybe it's the obliviousness of players, not knowing the module's glaring flaws?

That, coupled with a good DM working to make sure everybody has fun. Works wonders. :smallsmile:

[Envyus]

I like it a lot. Different strokes I guess.

[Guran]

If you follow the book to the letter, then yes it will be a pretty boring campaign. When I DM it on the wednesday evenings in our LGS I simply give it my own twist. I use the book as a guideline and adjust situations to earlier choices and interactions the players made.

[Mandragola]

My impression, from having DMd chapter one and done chapters 2 and 3 as a player* is that it's combat-heavy and extremely hard. I had to put in tons of extra healing in chapter one, then chapter 2 was kind of impossible to do without being captured, but being captured was not too bad. Then in chapter 3 we met two horrible monsters at once, plus a couple of barbarians, and we all died without having a chance in hell.

Another problem is that players almost can't help but to metagame. If you show them a monster they obviously can't fight, they start looking around for the trick that makes it go away. Otherwise I mostly did like chapter one. I think it's fun to put players under pressure, which it did. The chapter does a good job of showing what an emergency the whole situation is. Unfortunately I think the BBEG in that encounter sort of undermines the cult. What's it doing there?

I liked the duel at the end of chapter one but it was kind of ridiculous to then expect the gold dragonborn paladin who'd fought the duel to go and sneak into the enemy camp without being recognised! So what were we supposed to do, have that player sit out?

*we swap around DMing in our group because we all like DMing and playing characters.

[Uthgar21]

I liked the duel at the end of chapter one but it was kind of ridiculous to then expect the gold dragonborn paladin who'd fought the duel to go and sneak into the enemy camp without being recognised! So what were we supposed to do, have that player sit out?


I dueled that guy with my human barbarian 1st level, an unforgettable experience!!! :P But I agree that it was a little too much to sneak in their camp without anyone noticing me.Generally I think that the whole sneaking in a huge camp that's bigger than the town they attacked is a little illogical.It's an army camp, you can't just get from the main door and expect noone to understand that you are not part of their army.

[Envyus]

I dueled that guy with my human barbarian 1st level, an unforgettable experience!!! :P But I agree that it was a little too much to sneak in their camp without anyone noticing me.Generally I think that the whole sneaking in a huge camp that's bigger than the town they attacked is a little illogical.It's an army camp, you can't just get from the main door and expect noone to understand that you are not part of their army.

Thing is they are not a an army they are a bunch of cultists that wear masks when on the job and a bunch of sell swords. They have Dwarf, Elf and Halfling members and It's pointed out in the adventure that if you just walk in acting like you are supposed to be there the chances are fairly low of them recognizing you.

[RedMage125]

Hot Garbage from what I have seen

I've never seen a pre-made go great though, so maybe they're just not for my group.

I've had a few go well. But I've only used them sparingly, as I prefer to write my own stuff.

The Age of Worms adventure path from Dungeon Magazine (3.5e era) was amazing. One of the few times I have ever wanted to set my personal setting aside and run a prepublished.

The Madness At Gardmore Abbey (4e) was also good. I was able to drop this into my campaign setting by simply changing the name of the town they start in (from Winterhaven) and changing deity names to ones more appropriate to my setting (except Bahamut and Moradin, who are in my setting as well.

[Falcon X]

So far, my players are enjoying it.

Overall, Tyrrany has a lot to do with factions. Even when infiltrating places, most of the time you can find allies if you look hard enough. It's also progressively more open-ended. It is railroadish and action focused at the beginning, but slowly gives more and more to roleplaying and the player.

Hoard of the Dragon Queen goes through lots of different types of missions: Kick starts with high-action, defend the castle. Do an infiltration mission, a well-crafted escort mission, and assault on a floating castle, etc.
Overall, it's pretty linear and action focused, but a good DM can add lots of flavor.

Rise of Tiamat - I haven't played it yet, but from what I've seen it's where the floodgates open. Non-linear, many different paths, both social and action.

In my personal game, I'm weaving it in with some old 2nd edition modules to give the players sub-plots and a continuation to level 20 (Ravenloft, Vecna Lives, Die Vecna Die, part of Throne of Bloodstone). I'm expecting good things.

[Uthgar21]

I dueled that guy with my human barbarian 1st level, an unforgettable experience!!! :P

I know most of you won't care but yesterday night I took sweet revenge on that son of a betch!!!
And it felt good!! :smallcool: :smallbiggrin:

[Socko525]

Thing is they are not a an army they are a bunch of cultists that wear masks when on the job and a bunch of sell swords. They have Dwarf, Elf and Halfling members and It's pointed out in the adventure that if you just walk in acting like you are supposed to be there the chances are fairly low of them recognizing you.

See we didn't get this because on your way in you get ambushed by cultists and falling rocks. Why would you think you could walk in if you're attacked before you can get there? Also every "mission" prior requires some degree of stealth and now all of a sudden you're just supposed to waltz right in?

I agree that it can be fun, but as a player and even in conversations with the DM, it seems very disjointed.

My best explanation? A different person wrote each chapter and then they just slapped it all together and printed it. (Talking HotDQ haven't played RoT yet)

[MadBear]

I'm absolutely loving the campaign.

From what I remember the cultists camp also has mercenaries there doing some of the dirty work. That alone made it easy for us to fit in, and act like we were just another bunch of faceless thugs.

One thing I noticed was that the book has alot of combat if your DM is set on having to play through every encounter, but most of the combat can be skipped entirely through smart play.

The only time the campaign seemed like it would be deadly was if you decided that you would just attack everything and never bother to try and using stealth or lying your way in. (btw thank the cosmos for the vengeance paladins ability to ignore the smaller evil, since he had to play the part of the cultists more then he'd like to fight the greater evil).

[bokodasu]

The first time I read through it, I thought, oh no, waste of money. Then I started reading a series of play notes, and I realized it's actually pretty good. It's not just a->b->c - the DM has to do a lot of work and make a lot of judgement calls. But wait! I love doing that kind of work and making those judgement calls! That is why I DM!

It's not suited to every playstyle. Not everything is supposed to be used, and players will do things that the authors didn't expect. There's not a right answer for every situation, and if your DM isn't prepared for that, it's not going to go well. I didn't care for the dragon part, but the duel wound up being absolutely perfect for the character who stepped up to it. My players avoided the ambush, and I found it really satisfying when they observed the camp and came to the conclusion that they could just walk in - they roleplayed it well and thought about things like disguising the more recognizable characters. They didn't fulfill all the objectives, but that's ok - one of the things they missed is actually the perfect setup for the next chapter.

So I'd say if you're looking for pick up and play, it's a bad campaign. If you're looking for a base set of things that happen in the world to plot your game around, it's pretty fun! I've already made some changes to the more ridiculous things (I loathe "here's an thing you have to do to save the day, neener neener you can't do it" and there's some of that in there) and I'm working on integrating the characters more into the fabric of the world - I wish I'd started with that but better late than never. I'm sketching out a few side-quests/dungeons in places where it looks like they fit, and I'll actually fill it in if it looks like my players want to go in those directions. I enjoy worldbuilding, but plotting is not my strong suit, so I appreciate having a plot laid out for me already that I can slot things into.

There is no excuse for the silly tour the cultists take their treasure on, though. I'm just kind of hoping my players don't notice, although one of them is a big Forgotten Realms guy and almost certainly will put it together by the end...

[JFahy]

It has some weaknesses story-wise, in places the fights happen
in clumps that can exhaust a group and in other places it assumes
the group will do not-super-obvious things.

My players keep showing up, though.

One thing I've noticed is that while the first part is kind of scripted,
the second part opens up a lot. Not sandbox, but 'here are eight
things you can do, run as many as you want - and while you're at
it, work in these two events that kind of need to happen'.

I'm not sure I'd recommend it for an inexperienced DM. It's tricky
to let the party control their own lives, while simultaneously keeping
them within shouting distance of the intended storyline. :smallwink: