D&D 5E (2014) Dragon Heist vs DotMM?
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TheSword
Warhammer Fantasy Imperial Plenipotentiary
I have been pleasantly surprised with Dragon Heist. It is a damn good attempt at a city adventure. There is also a lot of great support materials on the DM’s guild to iron out a few wrinkles.
Dungeon of the Mad Mage is purely a mega dungeon. A little finessing has been done with level plots. However it wouldn’t work alone for my group.
The ideal is to do Dragon Heist followed by DotMM to set the second book in a context. With the city as a base of operations.
Avoid storm kings thunder like the plague. It’s the worst of their campaigns that I’ve seen.
Dungeon of the Mad Mage is purely a mega dungeon. A little finessing has been done with level plots. However it wouldn’t work alone for my group.
The ideal is to do Dragon Heist followed by DotMM to set the second book in a context. With the city as a base of operations.
Avoid storm kings thunder like the plague. It’s the worst of their campaigns that I’ve seen.
pukunui
Legend
I've had the exact opposite experience to @TheSword: I absolutely love SKT and despise Dragon Heist with a passion. SKT is a fantastic sandbox adventure. Yes, it needs a bit of filling in, but so does every other 5e adventure.
Dragon Heist, on the other hand, is what I regard as the worst of WotC's campaigns so far. It's trying to be too many things at once and ends up just being a big mess. It also contains some of the worst examples of railroading I've seen in a long time.
I'm only just still reading through DotMM myself, but it seems like, at the very least, it would make for a great resource of drag-and-drop dungeons. I think it has the potential to turn into a real slog but could be hella fun for the right group. One thing I note is that Skullport is strangely empty and devoid of many plot hooks. It feels like a real missed opportunity.
Dragon Heist, on the other hand, is what I regard as the worst of WotC's campaigns so far. It's trying to be too many things at once and ends up just being a big mess. It also contains some of the worst examples of railroading I've seen in a long time.
I'm only just still reading through DotMM myself, but it seems like, at the very least, it would make for a great resource of drag-and-drop dungeons. I think it has the potential to turn into a real slog but could be hella fun for the right group. One thing I note is that Skullport is strangely empty and devoid of many plot hooks. It feels like a real missed opportunity.
ccs
41st lv DM
SKT - I was a player in this one. Was it perfect? No. But we had a lot of fun in it. And that was with a DM who'd only ever run one other adventure/mini-campaign. If one of us veteran DMs had been running it it'd have been a lot better.
Of particular note is the odd intro. The town has just been attacked by Cloud Giants. And then a friendly Cloud Giant swoops in with his flying tower & the party hops aboard in order to be whisked off to _.
I now own a copy, will make some changes, & run this for a different group.
DotMM - I'm a player in this one right now. All it is one giant crawl. And not a particularly interesting one.
My advice is to leave this one on the shelf.
Dragon Heist.... I picked this up (burning Amazon reward pts, so it didn't really cost me anything
) as the premise sounded interesting. Thought I could do something with it.
As is it's a mess, a lot of railroading, & has a really stupid clumsy beginning.
Good premise, bad execution.
Of particular note is the odd intro. The town has just been attacked by Cloud Giants. And then a friendly Cloud Giant swoops in with his flying tower & the party hops aboard in order to be whisked off to _.
I now own a copy, will make some changes, & run this for a different group.
DotMM - I'm a player in this one right now. All it is one giant crawl. And not a particularly interesting one.
My advice is to leave this one on the shelf.
Dragon Heist.... I picked this up (burning Amazon reward pts, so it didn't really cost me anything
) as the premise sounded interesting. Thought I could do something with it.As is it's a mess, a lot of railroading, & has a really stupid clumsy beginning.
Good premise, bad execution.
Ancalagon
Dusty Dragon
Charlaquin
Goblin Queen (She/Her/Hers)
This looks like it will take me some time to chew through, but he sold me with “ALL OF THE VILLAINS.” Thanks for sharing the link!
G
Guest 6801328
Guest
My beef with both STK and Dragon Heist is that you only use a fraction of the expensive book. If I ever do run an adventure again it would be a different group, so they're not going to be aware that it uses different options. (And as DM, I'd rather it be the same options so that I more experienced running it.)
Dragon Heist is cool, although it needed more material for playing with the Tavern, but Dungeon of the Mad Mage is the best AP in 5e, yes it's a megadungeon, but it's more then hack and slash, each level is a unique adventure in it's own right, but with plots tying them together. Still they really meant to be used together, with Waterdeep being where you spend you down time days. Plus you can poach the more powerful villians of DH and stick them in the dungeon. Also Tales of the Yawning Portal goes well with this as there are links on various levels of the dungeon with the various ToTYP adventures to make it even more of a megadungeon.
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