A simple review of of Hoard of the Dragon Queen. I've read many reviews that Hoard of the Dragon Queen is bad and difficult to play. Very railroady. I agree the beginning is a tough sell. A town is being ramsacked, looted, and burned down, and loosely attacked by a dragon. If I came across something like this I'd run. My players were all mostly neutral and therefore they could watch the city be destroyed if they wanted to. The Hoard book allows for this. There's a section that's only one or two sentences, but says the characters may sit on the hill and watch the town be attacked and can enter the town after it's all over. So, my perception is that the those that have played it played through the basic campaign and nothing more.... The characters don't have to do anything. They don't have to care about the cult of the dragon, they could decide to go explore a mine or a set of ruins for treasure instead. That's the fun of D&D . In fact, right now we're on chapters 4,5, and 6, the long road to waterdeep. And I'm presenting several encounters that aren't in the book at all, the Hoard of the dragon queen in fact, states flat out, this is a good place to insert side adventures, leaving it wide open.
One could pass a ruined tower on the way to waterdeep or a ruined mine. It could open up a completely secondary plot line. As for me, one of the people they were hired by wants to become a vampire and her vampire lord has asked her to deliver him to a new home that has a powerful focus of undead power. The crate the adventurers are hauling is full of dirt. She tells the characters it's a crate of exotic roots that need specific grounds to grow on.. It's her master's vampire body entombed in a crate of dirt. A wraith that has taken advantage of the location to raise up skeletons, zombies, and even a few scare crows at the same place the vampire was to be delivered.
The ironic thing is the setting is a farm. And the zombies were hoeing the land when the wagons pull up. A perception roll and one character spots an arm falling off one of the farmers hoeing. Just one of the many ways I've added content to the hoard of the dragon queen. Later on in the campaign, I may make this location and the vampire a spot that's causing problems for the trade way.. Heh. They'll recognize the lady and she'll also probably be a vampire by the time they get around to it.
I've also addressed the political climate, it's an era of anti - heroism. Clerics have saved the world from actions that heroes performed (unbeknownst to the heros of the time) that were evil and caused a large famine and very bad things to happen 500 years ago. Clerics of the day saved the world, but, heros got the bad wrap. So there's also military and standing orders to arrest anyone labelled a hero or performing something that could be so vile as to be considered heroic. This provides additional plot lines, potential encounters for me as the DM to easily insert, and makes the players think before they simply blow something up.
I also make use of the player history. One player, has been reborn but has very little memory of his past or who he was. I as the DM have a path I may induce upon said player in the future, the start was in the first chapter of the Hoarde, the Blue dragon recognized the spirit of this player as they were formerly great enemies in that character's past life. The dragon laughed in his face at how pathetic he's become. And the players while quivering in fear, and wanting to run away, asked the dragon why he's helping the cult. He said he's not really, the cult has one of his eggs hostage and asks the characters to rescue his egg.. An evil act, but yet, what choice do they have. I played on the arrogance of the Blue dragon and the fact he could kill them in one blow. Do this for me or you die. I would have had him do a breath attack had the characters refused and it'd probably have been TPK. They wisely chose to help the blue dragon.. Feeding the rumors that the land has taken against heroes that heroes are in league with evil.
It made for a great story and a reason for the dragon to talk to the characters, and blended well into the overall scenario as a reason the dragon was half assed attacking the village.. So the characters went with it. I gave them a timeline. A tenday to locate and retrieve his egg and he'd come back for it. Heh. Another plot line for later on for one of the characters. I'm toying with making the character that the dragon recognized a half gold dragon that as he levels sudden changes start appearing, like a dragon scale on his chest some of the traits listed in the monster manual for half dragon start showing up.
So, all this to say, the hoard of the Dragon Queen by itself, as I see it, is not intended to be run by a DM that wants cookie cutter everything laid out and this is all you do.... It's designed to provide an overarching story line to play through, but, there's work on the DM's side to make the story have some depth and pertain to why the characters are even caring about any of it. There's a few loose motivations now... They've received passes from Lady Selebon (a very loosely defined character in the book) to travel in the name of the Lord's Alliance and can no longer be jailed for doing heroic works. The corruption goes up a long ways. The anti-hero efforts are a front to allow the cult to carry out it's works freely... So, how long will the Lord's alliance pass be effective at getting through patrols? Hard to say.. A future encounter for me to easily insert... To let the characters know the world is still f'd up. heh...The hoard of the dragon queen so far offers many options, locations, subtle reasons for additional plots, ability to add depth by introducing NPCs. There's still a plot, there's still some urgency to find out what's happening, but there's other things happening in the world too. And the characters can choose which parts of the world they care about.
The world hasn't just stopped to focus on the cult. But it's power and influence is growing so far, despite the best efforts of the characters.
I challenge any DMs to make this story just a starting point for many fun adventures, encounters. In fact, our last session, last Saturday, had a 2 and a half encounter with something that had nothing to do with the hoard of the dragon queen, it was the introduction of a new player, and well they chose to fight an encounter that was a way higher encounter rating than the players could handle, yet they tried anyways. And found ingenious ways to get out of it that I did not plan for or expect. My players have enjoyed most of the scenarios so far and to me that's the most important!
One could pass a ruined tower on the way to waterdeep or a ruined mine. It could open up a completely secondary plot line. As for me, one of the people they were hired by wants to become a vampire and her vampire lord has asked her to deliver him to a new home that has a powerful focus of undead power. The crate the adventurers are hauling is full of dirt. She tells the characters it's a crate of exotic roots that need specific grounds to grow on.. It's her master's vampire body entombed in a crate of dirt. A wraith that has taken advantage of the location to raise up skeletons, zombies, and even a few scare crows at the same place the vampire was to be delivered.
The ironic thing is the setting is a farm. And the zombies were hoeing the land when the wagons pull up. A perception roll and one character spots an arm falling off one of the farmers hoeing. Just one of the many ways I've added content to the hoard of the dragon queen. Later on in the campaign, I may make this location and the vampire a spot that's causing problems for the trade way.. Heh. They'll recognize the lady and she'll also probably be a vampire by the time they get around to it.
I've also addressed the political climate, it's an era of anti - heroism. Clerics have saved the world from actions that heroes performed (unbeknownst to the heros of the time) that were evil and caused a large famine and very bad things to happen 500 years ago. Clerics of the day saved the world, but, heros got the bad wrap. So there's also military and standing orders to arrest anyone labelled a hero or performing something that could be so vile as to be considered heroic. This provides additional plot lines, potential encounters for me as the DM to easily insert, and makes the players think before they simply blow something up.
I also make use of the player history. One player, has been reborn but has very little memory of his past or who he was. I as the DM have a path I may induce upon said player in the future, the start was in the first chapter of the Hoarde, the Blue dragon recognized the spirit of this player as they were formerly great enemies in that character's past life. The dragon laughed in his face at how pathetic he's become. And the players while quivering in fear, and wanting to run away, asked the dragon why he's helping the cult. He said he's not really, the cult has one of his eggs hostage and asks the characters to rescue his egg.. An evil act, but yet, what choice do they have. I played on the arrogance of the Blue dragon and the fact he could kill them in one blow. Do this for me or you die. I would have had him do a breath attack had the characters refused and it'd probably have been TPK. They wisely chose to help the blue dragon.. Feeding the rumors that the land has taken against heroes that heroes are in league with evil.
It made for a great story and a reason for the dragon to talk to the characters, and blended well into the overall scenario as a reason the dragon was half assed attacking the village.. So the characters went with it. I gave them a timeline. A tenday to locate and retrieve his egg and he'd come back for it. Heh. Another plot line for later on for one of the characters. I'm toying with making the character that the dragon recognized a half gold dragon that as he levels sudden changes start appearing, like a dragon scale on his chest some of the traits listed in the monster manual for half dragon start showing up.
So, all this to say, the hoard of the Dragon Queen by itself, as I see it, is not intended to be run by a DM that wants cookie cutter everything laid out and this is all you do.... It's designed to provide an overarching story line to play through, but, there's work on the DM's side to make the story have some depth and pertain to why the characters are even caring about any of it. There's a few loose motivations now... They've received passes from Lady Selebon (a very loosely defined character in the book) to travel in the name of the Lord's Alliance and can no longer be jailed for doing heroic works. The corruption goes up a long ways. The anti-hero efforts are a front to allow the cult to carry out it's works freely... So, how long will the Lord's alliance pass be effective at getting through patrols? Hard to say.. A future encounter for me to easily insert... To let the characters know the world is still f'd up. heh...The hoard of the dragon queen so far offers many options, locations, subtle reasons for additional plots, ability to add depth by introducing NPCs. There's still a plot, there's still some urgency to find out what's happening, but there's other things happening in the world too. And the characters can choose which parts of the world they care about.
The world hasn't just stopped to focus on the cult. But it's power and influence is growing so far, despite the best efforts of the characters.
I challenge any DMs to make this story just a starting point for many fun adventures, encounters. In fact, our last session, last Saturday, had a 2 and a half encounter with something that had nothing to do with the hoard of the dragon queen, it was the introduction of a new player, and well they chose to fight an encounter that was a way higher encounter rating than the players could handle, yet they tried anyways. And found ingenious ways to get out of it that I did not plan for or expect. My players have enjoyed most of the scenarios so far and to me that's the most important!
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