Waterdeep Dragon Heist - buy or not

[Sigreid]

Now that some people have had it for a bit, I'm curious whether it's worth picking up if you don't want to run it as written. Areas of interest would be:

New rules
New character options
Maps or set pieces that can be easily repurposed
New magic items that would be great additions to a campaign

So, what do people think?

[ciarannihill]

I think it's worthwhile, there's a lot of great content in it, even if you don't plan on playing it as written (I don't know that anyone ever plays thing exactly as written anyway, players tend to make choices the books can't have accounted for frequently).

I think it also just provides interesting frameworks for an urban game with multiple factions competing for the same goal, you can totally use the bones of that and change the factions, motivations and even specific events while keeping the core engagement of it similar. That takes a decent chunk of work, but it should allow it to be applicable to multiple settings and world that might not house Waterdeep specifically.

I think it's worth a purchase personally, but that's just me.

[ZorroGames]

I think it's worthwhile, there's a lot of great content in it, even if you don't plan on playing it as written (I don't know that anyone ever plays thing exactly as written anyway, players tend to make choices the books can't have accounted for frequently).

I think it also just provides interesting frameworks for an urban game with multiple factions competing for the same goal, you can totally use the bones of that and change the factions, motivations and even specific events while keeping the core engagement of it similar. That takes a decent chunk of work, but it should allow it to be applicable to multiple settings and world that might not house Waterdeep specifically.

I think it's worth a purchase personally, but that's just me.

Cool, waiting for it to come in the mail.

[Unoriginal]

Dragon Heists has no new rules per se. It has quite a few nice NPCs, but most of them are modified versions of the NPC statblocks. Some of the named NPCs have unique statblocks, and there are three "generic" statblocks: the Gryphon Cavalier, the Drow Gunslinger (with poison guns) and the Nimblewright, a sapient automaton. Not worth buying the book just for them, though.

There is a few maps you can re-purpose, and locations you can use in other situation you need a mage tower, tavern, noble mansion, criminal warehouse or underground hideout, etc. Not worth buying the book just for them, though.

The book also has a few magic items, and a few non-magical items like parachutes. Not worth buying the book just for them, though.

All in all, if you're not interested in an urban adventure of the kind Dragon Heist proposes, it's not worth buying the book. It does the job nicely for that kind of adventures, though.

[ZorroGames]

Dragon Heists has no new rules per se. It has quite a few nice NPCs, but most of them are modified versions of the NPC statblocks. Some of the named NPCs have unique statblocks, and there are three "generic" statblocks: the Gryphon Cavalier, the Drow Gunslinger (with poison guns) and the Nimblewright, a sapient automaton. Not worth buying the book just for them, though.

There is a few maps you can re-purpose, and locations you can use in other situation you need a mage tower, tavern, noble mansion, criminal warehouse or underground hideout, etc. Not worth buying the book just for them, though.

The book also has a few magic items, and a few non-magical items like parachutes. Not worth buying the book just for them, though.

All in all, if you're not interested in an urban adventure of the kind Dragon Heist proposes, it's not worth buying the book. It does the job nicely for that kind of adventures, though.

An urban adventure with two of the three legs of the game (depends how how you define exploration for the third leg) is exactly What I am interested in for my own purposes. Muchas Gracias for that.

[Unoriginal]

It definitively has exploration too, unless you use the "explore wilderness no one knows" definition exclusively.

Have any of you guys played to/seen played one of the Yakuza video games?

[Sigreid]

Thanks for the feedback so far. Interested in as many opinions as people are willing to leave.

[BoxANT]

my dream of running shadowrun in 5e d&d fantasy setting will be realized