D&D 5E Are the 5E playtest adventures worth buying?

[Tormyr]

Is there any story connection between these adventures and the Tyranny of Dragons storyline? I ask because my players just gave me HotDQ and RoT for an early Christmas present, and if the other adventures are connected, I would consider running them too.

The playtest adventures are loosely connected to the Sundering story line in the books. While Tyranny of Dragons deals with the attempted return of Tiamat. They are pretty much separate story lines. The Sundering was the epic, world shaking story line of 2013-2014. The Tyranny of Dragons is the epic, world shaking story line of 2014-2015.

 

[RealAlHazred]

Is there any story connection between these adventures and the Tyranny of Dragons storyline? I ask because my players just gave me HotDQ and RoT for an early Christmas present, and if the other adventures are connected, I would consider running them too.

The Sundering Adventure series consists of the following playtest modules:

1. Murder in Baldur's Gate
2. Legacy of the Crystal Shard
3. Scourge of the Sword Coast
4. Dead in Thay

These all had to do with drastic changes to the Forgotten Realms setting, brought on by the return of some dead gods, and political upheavals in key areas.The last two are strongly tied together -- DiT is the immediate sequel to SotSC -- but the previous two are not; basically, the only unifying parts are the theme of the rise of the Chosen of the Gods.

The Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat modules are part of the Tyranny of Dragons storyline. This has to do with an upsurge of activity with the Cult of the Dragon. RoT is the immediate sequel to HotDQ. These modules also have some thematic crossover with the other adventures in the Tyranny of Dragons storyline, namely the D&D Expeditions and D&D Epics modules released to date; however, there is no direct crossover of characters between them.

There is a direct tie between some of the Sundering modules, and the Rise of Tiamat module. There are in fact ties between the Rise of the Dragon module and a few other modules in D&D Encounters. Saying any more would spoil too much.

The other playtest modules were:

• Against the Cult of Chaos
• Storm Over Neverwinter
• Search for the Diamond Staff

Each of these is more-or-less independent, although SON is the sequel of a previous Neverwinter module, Lost Crown of Neverwinter.