D&D General Dungeons of Drakkenheim Experiences?

[orangefruitbat]

::casts raise thread::
Rather that start a new thread or bog down the excellent review thread, I figured I would necro this one.

So, speaking of experiences: how much work is Drakkenheim to run? Is the book laid out well so you can find what you need? Does it require a lot of prep?

I am considering running this as my swan song to 5E 2014 (and 5E broadly) and am looking for impressions of people who have run it. Thanks.

I ran DoD until level 8 or so where the campaign petered out due to real-life issues. For the most part, my platers really enjoyed it. Here are some of my uncollected thoughts:
*book layout is terrible - I was always flipping back and forth, especially when dealing with factions.
*the factions are great - believable motivations with lots of hooks to engage the characters
*you definitely need to spend time on session zero with the players so that everyone's characters have compatible motivations. Incompatible motivations can lead to group tensions, which not every group (including mine) handles well. Players also need to create PCs that are motivated to deal with the factions - antisocial murder hobos really miss out on a lot of content in the game.
*if the PCs have interesting backgrounds/motivations, then the campaign really does feel like a sandbox and can go in many different directions.
*individual adventure sites are a good size - you can usually narrative travel plus one complete one site/night if you are efficient
*enemy encounters tend to have large numbers of combatants which can slow down fights. While we played in person, I was using the encounter builder in DnD Beyond to track initiative/hit points.
*the rules for Delirium and the Haze do a decent job of reducing the 'superhero' nature of 5E, making the setting feel dangerous at least at low levels
*mid to high level characters will still trash most of the boss monsters. I would recommend getting the Pluto Jackson monster book to upgrade your foes.

 

[Reynard]

I ran DoD until level 8 or so where the campaign petered out due to real-life issues. For the most part, my platers really enjoyed it. Here are some of my uncollected thoughts:
*book layout is terrible - I was always flipping back and forth, especially when dealing with factions.
*the factions are great - believable motivations with lots of hooks to engage the characters
*you definitely need to spend time on session zero with the players so that everyone's characters have compatible motivations. Incompatible motivations can lead to group tensions, which not every group (including mine) handles well. Players also need to create PCs that are motivated to deal with the factions - antisocial murder hobos really miss out on a lot of content in the game.
*if the PCs have interesting backgrounds/motivations, then the campaign really does feel like a sandbox and can go in many different directions.
*individual adventure sites are a good size - you can usually narrative travel plus one complete one site/night if you are efficient
*enemy encounters tend to have large numbers of combatants which can slow down fights. While we played in person, I was using the encounter builder in DnD Beyond to track initiative/hit points.
*the rules for Delirium and the Haze do a decent job of reducing the 'superhero' nature of 5E, making the setting feel dangerous at least at low levels
*mid to high level characters will still trash most of the boss monsters. I would recommend getting the Pluto Jackson monster book to upgrade your foes.

Thanks for the detailed reply.

I am going to be running it via Fantasy grounds so hopefully organizational issues won't be as big a deal.

How much prep was it, session to session on average?

 

[zakael19]

*you definitely need to spend time on session zero with the players so that everyone's characters have compatible motivations. Incompatible motivations can lead to group tensions, which not every group (including mine) handles well. Players also need to create PCs that are motivated to deal with the factions - antisocial murder hobos really miss out on a lot of content in the game.
*if the PCs have interesting backgrounds/motivations, then the campaign really does feel like a sandbox and can go in many different directions.

Oh, I'll echo this from my experience as a player. We didn't have a unified session 0 and wound up with competing motivations in an unfulfilling way.

 

[orangefruitbat]

Thanks for the detailed reply.

I am going to be running it via Fantasy grounds so hopefully organizational issues won't be as big a deal.

How much prep was it, session to session on average?

I tend to run low-prep games so it wasn't much for me. Usually I would have a pretty good idea of what the players wanted to do next so I would just reread that night's adventure site (usually only 4-5 pages) and create encounter blocks in DnD Beyond. I would also usually jot down a couple of campaign notes on what each faction would do in response to the PCs. So for me, 1-2 hours per weekly gaming session.