D&D 5E 5E Lifetime Sales in North American Big Box Stores Revealed

[Parmandur]

The sales that Alphastream reports for AD&D look far lower than those that were shared previously, for example here.

Hmm, those do seem a bit different, but he cites Ben Riggs...clarification needed.

 

[Burnside]

• Curse of Strahd with 147,244 copies sold
• Hoard of the Dragon Queen with 120,844
• Waterdeep Dragon Heist with 110,678

Oh, no. Those poor people...

 

[Loren the GM]

Oh, no. Those poor people...

Dragon Heist is my favorite published D&D adventure. Running it (multiple times) is the most fun I've had at a D&D table. I definitely wouldn't recommend it for a first time DM, but it has all the pieces needed to have a great game.

 

[orangefruitbat]

Dragon Heist is my favorite published D&D adventure. Running it (multiple times) is the most fun I've had at a D&D table. I definitely wouldn't recommend it for a first time DM, but it has all the pieces needed to have a great game.

I agree. As presented, it's a bit of a distaster, but the individual building blocks and general premise can make this a fantastic adventure with a bit of work. The trick is to have all four factions looking for the keys to the Vault and to run as much of all four 'season' paths at once, with the different villains all tripping over each other. Think Lock, Stock and Smoking Barrels.

 

[Loren the GM]

I agree. As presented, it's a bit of a distaster, but the individual building blocks and general premise can make this a fantastic adventure with a bit of work. The trick is to have all four factions looking for the keys to the Vault and to run as much of all four 'season' paths at once, with the different villains all tripping over each other. Think Lock, Stock and Smoking Barrels.

I also think a lot of people get hung up on the "heist" part of the title - it is more of a detective or crime game (depending how your players take it and what factions they align with) - I think Lock Stock is a great example. Setting expectations early to move from Ocean's 11 to Guy Ritchie is a great move.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I agree. As presented, it's a bit of a distaster, but the individual building blocks and general premise can make this a fantastic adventure with a bit of work. The trick is to have all four factions looking for the keys to the Vault and to run as much of all four 'season' paths at once, with the different villains all tripping over each other. Think Lock, Stock and Smoking Barrels.

I still say they should do an updated combined, improved, Waterdeep book with WD: DH and WD: DotMM.

 

[Hussar]

I still say they should do an updated combined, improved, Waterdeep book with WD: DH and WD: DotMM.

I’d actually prefer an expanded Dragon Heist book where you get the base, return the Dragons and now dive more into the politics and intrigue of life in Waterdeep. The shift from Heist to DotMM is too big. Characters that best suit Heist very well might not be good dungeon crawling characters. And all the connections made in Heist don’t really translate well into DotMM.

 

[Parmandur]

I’d actually prefer an expanded Dragon Heist book where you get the base, return the Dragons and now dive more into the politics and intrigue of life in Waterdeep. The shift from Heist to DotMM is too big. Characters that best suit Heist very well might not be good dungeon crawling characters. And all the connections made in Heist don’t really translate well into DotMM.

I reckon that's a big reason the campaign metastasized into two books in the first place.

 

[Henadic Theologian]

I’d actually prefer an expanded Dragon Heist book where you get the base, return the Dragons and now dive more into the politics and intrigue of life in Waterdeep. The shift from Heist to DotMM is too big. Characters that best suit Heist very well might not be good dungeon crawling characters. And all the connections made in Heist don’t really translate well into DotMM.

There are ways to tied them together story wise, like mixing various levels of Undermountain to Waterdeep politics, and add more spaces were you can teleport to and from. The no teleportation thing was excessive IMHO in Undermountain.

 

[Burnside]

Having run both, my feeling is that (as written) those two books have almost nothing to do with each other except geographic proximity. It’s like saying Tootsie is a sequel to The Godfather because both are set in New York City.