Review Dragon Heist, Mad Mage, and Ravnica!

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[Magister Ludorum]

I own Dragon Heist, but haven't read it yet because I'm currently playing it. I can't review it as GM or a reader.

I can say that I love playing it.

The city of Waterdeep feels extremely alive to me. There are extraordinarily interesting NPCs to interact with, and lots of opportunity for role playing. We've gotten to the point where we've heard all about the stolen dragons. It never would have occurred to us that we would get to steal them and keep them. It's much too much money to go unnoticed. This is an issue since the original owners of the horde will likely want it returned. So far, we've discovered some very bad people (whom we really have come to hate), and we're happy to be getting the money before them so we can thwart their plans. If we can only keep a small portion as a reward - we couldn't care less.

I can't wait to find out what happens next.

For me, that's all that's important in a published adventure.

If I weren't playing it, I still wouldn't be running it as is. I've been GMing this game since 1978. I've read every adventure published for it by TSR, WoTC (excepting most of the 4e stuff), Judges Guild, Paizo and many others in the 3e era. I've run almost none of them as written. I also homebrew all the RPG chronicles I run. I have found valuable inspiration and useful ideas in almost everything I've purchased.

I wasn't going to buy Dungeon of the Mad Mage because I hate giant dungeon adventures. When I found out that the various levels were independent and could be stolen in a modular fashion, I changed my mind. It much more useful to me in this way.

Just my experience. YMMV.

 

[guachi]

uh...not really. Reddit is the place you go to see character illustrations (mainly anime style) and new DM arguing that a steampunk or post-magic-apocalyptic-no-gods-nor-magic setting is an interesting new concept.

Enworld is the place I go when I want to see elderly people arguing for 100 pages on important subjects such as:
- Was the font used in Basic Rules better than the one used in an obscure supplement from 2e edition.

I am a font nerd. This is an important subject. There is even an entire website that will explain all the fonts used in D&D publications.

For the record, Baldur is the best D&D font. (or at least Baldur being a re-creation of whatever the D&D font was actually called).

 

[Older Beholder]

i want new settings. but ravnica just held little interest for me. if i want to play a vampire i want to play a classic undead vampire. what ravnica calls a vampire just does not work for me.

I get that the whole city/planet concept is a bit 'all or nothing', and not for everybody.

But I was wondering what do vampires have to do with the Ravnica setting? Was there a UA about playable Vampires? I only ask because they aren't playable races in the book.

Mostly they're only really mentioned as members of the Orzhov Syndicate which was a real tipping point for me, where I went from being mildly interested in what I was reading to being in love with it. The idea of bankers so greedy they've become undead ghosts and vampires in order to hang onto their wealth beyond the grave was one of the coolest ideas I've heard in years.

Pretty much every guild I read gave me multiple ideas for characters I'd love to play.

I guess what I'm getting at is that I was someone that used to refer to Magic: the gathering as Magic: the smothering. And I would still never buy the cards.
But there was much more to Ravnica than my preconceptions when I picked up the book and checked it out.
I'd probably read some of the novels to get a better feel for the world now, which means the cross promotion is working a some degree. The real test though is how many MtG players take up D&D.

 

[guachi]

Mad Mage has been "ho-hum." I spend more time reading than I do running the game, and the presentation is definitely lacking. The maps are uninspired and artwork is pretty much non-existent (just pages of unbroken text in the same font.) The adventure itself seems more like a randomly-rolled dungeon with little thematic unity

This is my basic opinion, as well. It's not good enough to be a hard cover. I got it for under $20, so there is that. It doesn't need to be epic for that price. But it's not interesting enough of a read to keep me interested for very long when I open it up.

It's basically the kind of random dungeon that was presented in the 1e DMG and the maps remind me of some really early modules from 1980-1982 or so. It certainly gives me all the nostalgic feels looking at the maps (though if they were blue...) but it never seems to elevate itself above that in its 300+ pages.

 

[Eric V]

This is my basic opinion, as well. It's not good enough to be a hard cover. I got it for under $20, so there is that. It doesn't need to be epic for that price. But it's not interesting enough of a read to keep me interested for very long when I open it up.

It's basically the kind of random dungeon that was presented in the 1e DMG and the maps remind me of some really early modules from 1980-1982 or so. It certainly gives me all the nostalgic feels looking at the maps (though if they were blue...) but it never seems to elevate itself above that in its 300+ pages.

I basically feel the same. Problem is, if it doesn't sell as well as a result, it's going to be interpreted to be because it's high-level...

 

[Ash Mantle]

It's probably a more accurate title for Guildmasters' Guide to Ravnica to be called Guildmasters' Guide to the Guilds of Ravnica and a Small Section of Ravnica, but I get why Wizards went with the former.