Tyranny of Dragons

[intregus]

I'll be running the updated tyranny of dragons campaign that contains hoard of the dragon queen in it as well.

Was goint to start the group off at level 5 but was wandering if anyone had any suggestions or tips for running this campaign?

Or any suggestions for twists/changes to the story, NPCs or story hooks for starting the game?

[Theodoxus]

5th level is a little high for starting at Greenist, unless you're ok with the players steamrolling their way through the encounters. Just throwing that out there...

What I did was incorporate a lot of the lore in the area. There's some amazing work available with a bit of google-fu that will round out the rough edges and provide interesting not-so "random encounters" while providing interesting breaks from the otherwise railroady feel to the middle of HotDQ.

One thing I really loved incorporating was the twin black dragons that inhabit the Mere of Dead Men. Hiking up the intrigue and making the players overly cautious was a lot of fun for me. I also empower my dragons a bit, harkening back to older editions with shapeshifting into humanoid forms. Had one dragon befriend them as a wandering knight - giving out lore and a quest to help retrieve some artifacts from a sunken ruin. Then turning on the party when his brother shows up. The players were genuinely shocked at the turn of events.

[intregus]

5th level is a little high for starting at Greenist, unless you're ok with the players steamrolling their way through the encounters. Just throwing that out there...

What I did was incorporate a lot of the lore in the area. There's some amazing work available with a bit of google-fu that will round out the rough edges and provide interesting not-so "random encounters" while providing interesting breaks from the otherwise railroady feel to the middle of HotDQ.

One thing I really loved incorporating was the twin black dragons that inhabit the Mere of Dead Men. Hiking up the intrigue and making the players overly cautious was a lot of fun for me. I also empower my dragons a bit, harkening back to older editions with shapeshifting into humanoid forms. Had one dragon befriend them as a wandering knight - giving out lore and a quest to help retrieve some artifacts from a sunken ruin. Then turning on the party when his brother shows up. The players were genuinely shocked at the turn of events.

We're ok with them being higher level. I wanted to make the 1/2 dragon that shows up a little stronger.

I was toying around using the dragons as spellcastere variant in th MM since I'm use to 3e dragons so I think ill take your advice and just go with it! Really like the idea of a black dragon manipulating them as a "knight"!

[intregus]

We ended up starting at level 3.

Human greatweapon fighter champion
Warforged artifice battlesmith
Swashbuckler rogue, not sure on race yet
And an undecided 4th person.

Anyone have any other thoughts?

[Morollan]

One thing I have done in my campaign is made Bahumat more involved. I figured he would be more than a little interested in the possibility of Tiamat returning to the Realms so I've changed or added several encounters to indicate that he is moving things around in the background without getting directly involved.

[GreyBlack]

I haven't read the new version, but I have run the original Hoard and, let me tell you, it was a trip. I did wind up changing some encounters to make it flow a bit better, but having the players fight an endless stream of encounters and feel overwhelmed was a blast.

[intregus]

One thing I have done in my campaign is made Bahumat more involved. I figured he would be more than a little interested in the possibility of Tiamat returning to the Realms so I've changed or added several encounters to indicate that he is moving things around in the background without getting directly involved.


I didn't even think about the great platinum dragon! Ill be sure to mull this over!


I haven't read the new version, but I have run the original Hoard and, let me tell you, it was a trip. I did wind up changing some encounters to make it flow a bit better, but having the players fight an endless stream of encounters and feel overwhelmed was a blast.

I am excited to see how they handle them as well!