D&D 5E Rebalanced Tyranny of Dragons Coming In January

According to Amazon a 'rebalanced' version of Tyranny of Dragons is being released by WotC in January. There's no indication if there's a new cover, but the "adventure has been rebalanced to be easier for a new Dungeon Master to run and a better play experience".

2019's Tyranny of Dragons combined 2014's Hoard of the Dragon Queen and The Rise of Tiamat with errata and new cover art. It was originally produced for WotC by Kobold Press during the early period of 5E when adventures were outsourced to local companies run by ex-WotC employees, such as Kobold Press, Green Ronin and Sasquatch Game Studios. This will be the third version of these adventures.

Tyranny of Dragons combines and refines two action-packed Dungeons & Dragons adventures—Hoard of the Dragon Queen and The Rise of Tiamat—into a single sweeping campaign. It also includes a gallery of concept art providing a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of an epic adventure spotlighting Tiamat, one of the most legendary foes in D&D.

• A wonderful re-introduction to 5th edition’s first published adventures for new fans
• Begins as a low-level adventure suitable for new players and evolves into an epic, sprawling campaign bringing players all the way from level 1 to level 15
• Adventure has been rebalanced to be easier for a new Dungeon Master to run and a better play experience.
• Book includes gallery of concept art spotlighting Tiamat, one of the most legendary foes in D&D

 

[dave2008]

Of note, that could include a revamped Tiamat.

I hope so, but I seriously doubt it.

 

[dave2008]

Doesn't look like it, no: Tyranny of Dragons | Dungeons & Dragons

You have given me new hope good person! Maybe this really will include new Tiamat art!

 

[dave2008]

I suspect we won't see it here, but a revision of Tiamat that used the mythic rules from Theros would be neat.

Yes, one that is different (and better) than the one in Fizban's (which does use the mythic rules) would be nice too. However, my guess is that they would reprint it to be the Fizban Tiamat and not, unfortunately, a 3rd stat block for the dragon queen.

It is interesting to note that the Tiamat in the adventure is supposed to be her full power lesser goddess stat block. However, the Fizban version with the myhtic rules is only an "aspect" of Tiamat (that and Tiamat is no longer a true goddess in Fizban's either). So what will she be in the re-release?

 

[Hussar]

I think it would be a great idea to refresh adventures in the current edition every 5-10 years. However, I would like it to be a true refresh where they look at playtest and feedback and think about how to really improve the adventure and not just update errata in the like. Really take advantage of the 1000s of people who have run the adventure to make real improvements. I think all adventures could use that really.

2e did this a bunch with their whole Return To series of adventures.

Seems like a pretty good idea. One would hope that the bajillion play hours that something like Hoard has gotten over the years would shake loose a couple of ideas for how it could be improved.

 

[Alby87]

I think it would be a great idea to refresh adventures in the current edition every 5-10 years. However, I would like it to be a true refresh where they look at playtest and feedback and think about how to really improve the adventure and not just update errata in the like. Really take advantage of the 1000s of people who have run the adventure to make real improvements. I think all adventures could use that really.

They could release a pdf only/d&d beyond downloadable guide with suggestion on every adventure published to date, from Lost Mines to Shadow of the dragon queen, with tools, errata and updates.

There a lot of "guides to DM" of every adventure, if they make a condesed version of them in, say, 10 pages with advices on key points or balancing issues (no extra material or extra story, just the official parts), release one each month with a discount on D&D beyond version of the adventure ("It's Curse of Strahd month! Get the official guide to run CoS, and the full adventure at 50% on D&DBeyond!"). And, at the end, here is that PDF I was speaking. This can be a way to update the Statblocks for 5.5 for more difficult to master spellcasting monsters, and a way fixes things beyond an errata sheet. This would also help sales for adventures in print form, to help them emptying their warehouses.

 

[kapars]

Is there an easy way to tie the new starter set to this? Could they be adding content to bridge the gap? Would the characters being Level 3 or 4 help with the balancing?

 

[AnotherGuy]

He's another one who's decided that the algorithm rewards him going gloom and doom and having lots of stills of him face-palming whatever WotC is doing. It's hard to take that kind of thing seriously.

I'd much rather a Mike Shea, who while he can be quite critical of works when he doesn't think they're up to snuff, heaps praise when it's due and makes it clear when something is a bad fit for him, rather than a bad product in general. (Also, Shea puts his money where his mouth is, with the excellent Lazy DM products. I haven't read any of his adventure material, but I'm guessing it's pretty solid as well -- or at least a good fit for my style of DMing.)

I used Shea's input when running certain parts of ToD. He was extremely helpful.
Given the sheer amount of incredible resources and guides that now exist (freely and for pay) to make this a spectacular adventure I'm not interested in WotC encounter-balancing or concept art for another re-release.
They had the opportunity to fix things the first time around and it feels like they squandered it.

 

[Delazar]

I'm not buying this for the THIRD time, what the heck!?

 

[eyeheartawk]

I'm not buying this for the THIRD time, what the heck!?

Yeah, kind of annoyed this wasn't included in the 2019 re-release. I remember people commenting on threads back then why they didn't fix these same things they're fixing now. I'm not buying it AGAIN, but it is pretty annoying.

 

[Velderan]

The ISBNs are different, unless the one currently on Amazon is a placeholder number…. Maybe?

View attachment 268096View attachment 268097

ISBNs are different for the regular cover Ghosts of Saltmarsh compared to the alt cover version so that supports the theory this could just be a regular cover release of the compilation we got a couple years ago.