Dragon Delves Dedicated to Chris Perkins

The new Dragon Delves anthology is dedicated to Chris Perkins, who recently retired from Wizards of the Coast. The new adventure anthology is officially out in early release today. The new anthology contains a brief dedication to Perkins in the credits, acknowledgind his "decades of contributions" to Dungeons & Dragons. Perkins is also credited as a designer for the book.

Perkins had worked for Wizards of the Coast since 1997, holding a variety of design-related roles with the company and spearheading much of the work for D&D's popular 5th Edition. Perkins announced his retirement back in April, following the release of the final 2024/2025 Core Rulebook. However, his retirement was a brief one, as Critical Role's Darrington Press announced that he was joining the publisher as Creative Director, a role similar to the one he held at Wizards of the Coast.

 

[Demetrios1453]

So, how are the PCs supposed to defeat the two powerful monsters in the level 1 adventure? Let alone potentially both of them at the same time? I don't see a way to talk their way out of the two combats.....(not after they kill the dragon, if they do).

It's not highlighted as well as it should be, but in the "Gathering Samples" section, it states that the characters should advance to level 2 once they complete that section and before they enter the dragon lair.

 

[Demetrios1453]

Each adventure starts with a Key Plot Points bullet point summary of the adventure and a Preparation section which lists out stat blocks used in the adventure and a table of Key NPCs with Name, Role, Stat Block, and Location. I really like this and hope this is a feature of their adventures going forward. It mirrors the adventure prep advice in the DMG and is particularly useful for rookie DMs.

Yes, I very much agree with you that it should be the standard from here on out. It's something that will be helpful for DMs of any level, new or veteran.

 

[Zaukrie]

I love the beginning section of each chapter so much. It isn't perfect, but it is great.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I love the beginning section of each chapter so much. It isn't perfect, but it is great.

Hopefully they get a lot of positive feedfback and iterate on it.

It's definitely welcome news that they're looking at how others are doing adventures well and getting inspiration from some of those techniques.

 

[Nikosandros]

Hopefully they get a lot of positive feedfback and iterate on it.

It's definitely welcome news that they're looking at how others are doing adventures well and getting inspiration from some of those techniques.

In recent years, I've really come to appreciate this style of adventure writing. Clear, accessible and to the point.

 

[pukunui]

I’ve read through the first two adventures so far.

In the first one, I feel like it doesn’t do a good job setting up how the players can figure out that the elves have been tortured into being hostile and resolve those conflicts without killing them.

Yes, the adventure provides mechanics for it via the Influence action, but in my experience, once combat has started, players don’t bother trying to talk to their attackers.

For new DMs in particular, a bit more guidance on how to resolve these encounters so the PCs can save the elves would have been nice.

I wonder if Perkins wrote the second adventure. It has his sense of whimsy all over it. It’s a fun little adventure that I wish had been out when my Eberron PCs were level 3. (They’re level 7 now, soon to be level 8. This would’ve fit right in along with “Pudding Faire” and the like.)

 

[Burnside]

I have read the first one, Death at Sunset, and agree with @pukunui about the brainwashed elves issue. A good DM will fix that without too much trouble, but yeah the adventure doesn't handle it particularly well. Worse, it goes to that same well twice, and you can tell the first time that it's gonna be awkward for the DM to handle.

It's not a bad adventure by any means, but it's a bit generic. The wyrmling living inside its mother's skeleton is a great touch, as well as the poisoned bandit zombies, and the dragons' names - it could use like 2-3 more things like that. It has a tendency to punt to the DM for some moments when the designer could have really helped the DM out - especially novice DMs. There are some ghosts who give "cryptic warnings" - come on, throw us a bone and include a few suggested dialogue lines there.

The maps in Death at Sunset are really nice visually (full color, atmospheric and evocative, and at 5' scale thank God), but there are some map/text continuity issues as well as some physical design issues. There's a rather large treasure horde visible on the map that is , according to the text, in a different location. In the dungeon map, because of the spatial layout, most parties are going to beeline to the boss fight and either skip the side encounters or else handle them post-boss in rather anti-climactic fashion (hard to get excited about killing some centipedes right after you slew your first dragon).

Oh and it feels like it's really generous with magic items at the end, for a level 3 party - much more so than most 2014-2023 5E adventures would be. I wonder if the new adventures are taking a more Monty Haul approach to magic item placement.

I give Death at Sunset like a B. There are flaws, but I think most tables would have fun with it.

 

[Distracted DM]

Yes, I very much agree with you that it should be the standard from here on out. It's something that will be helpful for DMs of any level, new or veteran.

Nothing turns me off of an adventure faster than looking early in on it and NOT seeing a summary. It happens sometimes and I cannot understand it.

 

[pukunui]

I have read the first one, Death at Sunset, and agree with @pukunui about the brainwashed elves issue. A good DM will fix that without too much trouble, but yeah the adventure doesn't handle it particularly well. Worse, it goes to that same well twice, and you can tell the first time that it's gonna be awkward for the DM to handle.

Exactly! I note that the second adventure also returns to this well. However, it does a better job of both a) telegraphing it to the players and b) providing the DM with advice. For starters, the readaloud text indicates that the dragon's eyes are "cloudy and white" - that might make players think it's been blinded rather than charmed, but at least it's a visual clue that something isn't right!

However, the adventure has previously set up that Briochbane loves Fill's cinnamon rolls, and the players have several ways to learn this, and they can obtain some from Fill. So it shouldn't be too much of a stretch for even new players to think to offer the dragon a cinnamon roll, which automatically ends the dragon's charmed effect.

The first adventure could benefit from some extra text helping new DMs to telegraph that these elves are allied with the dragon out of fear rather than mind control or whatever. Like, there could be visual clues - the elves could bear obvious signs of having been tortured. There could be a suggestion that the PCs can take the Study action to make an Insight check to read the fear in the elves' body language rather than just a suggestion for them to use the Influence action to convince the elves that the PCs are strong enough to defeat the dragon. Stuff like that!

Oh and it feels like it's really generous with magic items at the end, for a level 3 party - much more so than most 2014-2023 5E adventures would be. I wonder if the new adventures are taking a more Monty Haul approach to magic item placement.

Yeah, I noticed that too. One thing I do appreciate, though, is the shout-out to the dragon hoard items from Fizban's in the intro section on building a campaign out of these adventures. I included a Dragon's Wrath weapon in a previous campaign, which was fun. My daughter was just saying last session that she wished her current PC had a weapon like that.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

That two back to back adventures feature the same gimmick feels like WotC running into its familiar problems with adventure anthologies.