Waterdeep: Dragon Heist - Posssible to use all four villains?

So, I got Waterdeep: Dragon Heist for Christmas. Haven’t read it yet, only skimmed through, but I’m excited to dive in. What I’m wondering is, do I have to pick just one villain? Considering that all four seasons seem to use the same set of encounters (albeit with some changes), I’m wondering if it would be possible to have all of the villains involved, all trying to get to the vault for their own reasons, and the PCs caught in the middle. I love the idea of having the players contend with multiple antagonistic factions, eachof which are also working against each other, so the players have the opportunity to play them against each other, or team up with one or more of them, double-cross them, etc. So I’m asking the folks who have run or read it, is this idea possible, or is the adventure structured in such a way that it wouldn’t work?

I think it is possible but you have to have a lot of flowcharts around how each villain will react to possible PC actions. For my game, I'm doing as much as I can to throw in so many different actors.
1. The Lords of Waterdeep. The module really doesn't talk much about what they would be doing to help the players find the gold or to interfere with the villains. The kinds of shenanigans that would be going on around this would come to their attention. I think there are NPCs that are very poorly used in the module that could have been much more a play all the factions against each other type of game.
2. The other factions are only lightly touched about what would happen if the players go to them for help. I think Chapter 4 is trying to encourage the players to move quickly and don't think about asking for help but there are ways to communicate that wouldn't be hard to do on the move. Even if it is to hire some to deliver a message.
3. Other villains outside of Waterdeep. Dragon cultists, Red Wizards, other adventuring parties, and more. Add a mix of things to keep the players on their toes.
4. More heists. I think there is a thread around on the forums to enhance the module and one is to have each villain have a Mcguffin that has to be stolen out of their hideout. This works great because now the players have to find a way to not tick off all the villains but still get everything all together. And you can encourage the players to do so without the normal walk into the building and kill everything that moves.

Give each actor a goal, a set of methods they would use to get the goal, and let the PCs try to figure out who they can use and who they can let use them to get out alive.

On thing I'm planning on doing is having the keys to the vault be something owned by leaders of the various factions, such as having Sylgar be a key. This will allow the players to encounter all four vilians, and even enter their strongholds in order to do an actual heist to gain the keys...

practicalm said:

I think it is possible but you have to have a lot of flowcharts around how each villain will react to possible PC actions.
4. More heists. I think there is a thread around on the forums to enhance the module and one is to have each villain have a Mcguffin that has to be stolen out of their hideout. This works great because now the players have to find a way to not tick off all the villains but still get everything all together. And you can encourage the players to do so without the normal walk into the building and kill everything that moves.

Give each actor a goal, a set of methods they would use to get the goal, and let the PCs try to figure out who they can use and who they can let use them to get out alive.

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I think these are some very good points to keep in mind. You will need quite an appendix and chart mapping out who is located where, their motivation, what they will do in certain situations, etc. Also, Practicalm is correct in that someone was considering having the McGuffin move from major villain to major villain before the endgame so as to force the players to encounter all of the major villains, while also trying not to take any of the villains head-on and risk a TPK.

To me, the way WDH is laid out, I think of it being designed as more of a race against the main villain to get to the treasure first. It certainly has some potential comedic beats built into it, and if you play the Autumn/Jarlaxle scenario, it is even more comical and tongue-in-cheek, imo. Therefore, I turned to some films to help decide how I might consider how to approach this adventure, and the one that I looked at the most was "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World". Now, that movie is a flat-out comedy, but is essentially the same plot being played out in WDH: a bunch of people from different backgrounds found out about a hidden treasure and it's a mad race to see who can get to it first. Along the way, the original treasure-seekers encounter more goof-balls and even a crooked cop ends up getting into the act. I don't know how serious or how humorous you would like this adventure to be for your players, but either way, I recommend watching this film (warning: it's roughly 3 hours in length) because I think it will give you some tips on transposing that type of story into characters and their motivations in a D&D setting. Good luck!

collin said:

I think these are some very good points to keep in mind. You will need quite an appendix and chart mapping out who is located where, their motivation, what they will do in certain situations, etc. Also, Practicalm is correct in that someone was considering having the McGuffin move from major villain to major villain before the endgame so as to force the players to encounter all of the major villains, while also trying not to take any of the villains head-on and risk a TPK.

To me, the way WDH is laid out, I think of it being designed as more of a race against the main villain to get to the treasure first. It certainly has some potential comedic beats built into it, and if you play the Autumn/Jarlaxle scenario, it is even more comical and tongue-in-cheek, imo. Therefore, I turned to some films to help decide how I might consider how to approach this adventure, and the one that I looked at the most was "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World". Now, that movie is a flat-out comedy, but is essentially the same plot being played out in WDH: a bunch of people from different backgrounds found out about a hidden treasure and it's a mad race to see who can get to it first. Along the way, the original treasure-seekers encounter more goof-balls and even a crooked cop ends up getting into the act. I don't know how serious or how humorous you would like this adventure to be for your players, but either way, I recommend watching this film (warning: it's roughly 3 hours in length) because I think it will give you some tips on transposing that type of story into characters and their motivations in a D&D setting. Good luck!

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Excellent advice, thank you! It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is also exactly the kind of vibe I was hoping to capture, which is part of why I wanted to have multiple villains going after the treasure. I suppose the villains don’t really get enough screen time for that to work in the same way Mad World does. I should give it a re-watch to refresh my memory and think about the motorists as the PCs rather than the villains.

Charlaquin said:

Excellent advice, thank you! It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is also exactly the kind of vibe I was hoping to capture, which is part of why I wanted to have multiple villains going after the treasure. I suppose the villains don’t really get enough screen time for that to work in the same way Mad World does. I should give it a re-watch to refresh my memory and think about the motorists as the PCs rather than the villains.

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That sounds EXCELLENT! Would love to have you report back after you've run a few sessions to hear how it works out.

collin said:

That sounds EXCELLENT! Would love to have you report back after you've run a few sessions to hear how it works out.

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Thanks! It’ll definitely be a while. I’m currently running my group through Yawning Portal. I just want to plan ahead for once we finish, because I have some pretty lofty ambitions for the Waterdeep adventures.