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.

 

[Burnside]

Just finished reading Baker's Doesn't, which I really like.

The Good

I absolutely love the children's book art style, which is used for both the illustrations and the maps here. Do I want all D&D adventures to look like this? No. Am I delighted that this one does? Yes. Makes me want to see even more varied experiments with art style.

The bulk of the adventure is a keyed, 15-room dungeon set in a hag's candy house. The encounters are varied, thematic, and really fun. It also features a lot of great Easter eggs and detail work that I really appreciate (a rocking horse with a Magic Mouth spell that causes it to loudly exclaim "Hot dog!", a jar in the pantry packed with green slime and labeled "Granny's Sourdough Starter", a book that finishes writing itself depending on how the adventure is completed, etc.)

NPCs and villains are quite memorable. I don't think any group that encounters Bubba Wugga is likely to ever forget him. Cockatrices that turn you into chocolate instead of stone, dryads who only share fruit with animals and children - there's just a LOT of great stuff going on.

Most encounters offer a variety of solutions, and the ending itself can go many different ways based on player actions and decisions; the designers account for a lot of possibilities here.

The maps are great and, again, in 5' squares.

Complaints

I think the investigation section at the top of the adventure is a little thin and relies a bit too heavily on a charred cinnamon roll found near the scene of the crime. I think most players will not feel that a burned cinnamon roll found in an area where a confectionary shop was just on fire bears further investigation. The assumption that the roll did not originate from the burned shop isn't a logic leap that players will make without NPC prompting. There's also no real mechanism by which the players can deduce/confirm that the fire was an act of arson. I suspect that there isn't quite enough going on here in terms of logical clues to enable the players to successfully investigate for themselves, and ultimately one NPC or another is pretty much just going to end up having to point them in the right direction (which doesn't feel as satisfying as being able to assemble clues themselves).

There are several areas in the dungeon where characters can be temporarily turned into candy creatures. This is a great idea, but it's purely cosmetic. I wish there were some minor mechanical effects incurred by these transformations. Maybe a character turned into taffy should have movement speed halved or be unable to Dash, but should have advantage on Grapple checks. Or a character flattened into a gingerbread person should have disadvantage on Strength (Athletics) checks but be able to slip into small spaces (under doors, etc). Nothing that would take anyone out of the game, but it just seems weird that becoming flat, for example, has NO mechanical impact.

Like the previous adventure, there are a LOT of magic items available here. These are scattered throughout the dungeon and one or two could certainly be missed, but it still feels very generous compared to what we've seen over the past 10 years. I'm not saying this is horrible or anything, but given that 2024 characters are already more powerful than their 2014 counterparts, I'm surprised to see a trend towards more generous magic item distribution.

Verdict

I give Baker's Doesn't an A-. If you don't like it, you are probably an enemy of fun.

 

[pukunui]

"Baker's Doesn't" was written by me! But Chris was the developer. It will come as a surprise to no one, but he is a very good one.

I was deeply inspired by my (at the time) somewhat recent foray into the world of baking, Wild Beyond the Witchlight, and the fairytale of Hansel and Gretel, among other things. Since then, I have spent a lot of time baking various treats for friends, family, and neighbors; sometimes, we enjoy these with coffee during a game night! Last fall, my mom actually flew out to the PNW, and we took a four-day class on advanced lamination techniques from the King Arthur Baking School in Skagit Valley, WA. The art of the baker also features conchas, which became a favorite of mine when living near several panaderías in Texas.

To me, baking is truly magical: creating something delicious and beautiful with fire and ingredients transcend the sum of their parts. It's dangerous sorcery! It's also the perfect backdrop for a story featuring a dragon, especially one with such wholesome and whimsical artwork by Andrew Kolb.

That’s awesome, Justice! Thanks for chiming in. Any thoughts on upscaling it for 8th level PCs? I’d love to include this in my ongoing episodic Eberron campaign, but they’re already a bit past 3rd level.

 

[Demetrios1453]

I think the investigation section at the top of the adventure is a little thin and relies a bit too heavily on a charred cinnamon roll found near the scene of the crime. I think most players will not feel that a burned cinnamon roll found in an area where a confectionary shop was just on fire bears further investigation. The assumption that the roll did not originate from the burned shop isn't a logic leap that players will make without NPC prompting. There's also no real mechanism by which the players can deduce/confirm that the fire was an act of arson. I suspect that there isn't quite enough going on here in terms of logical clues to enable the players to successfully investigate for themselves, and ultimately one NPC or another is pretty much just going to end up having to point them in the right direction (which doesn't feel as satisfying as being able to assemble clues themselves).

Edith's store sells candy, not baked goods. If they find the cinnamon roll and think it was from Edith's shop, just call for an INT roll for the characters to realize there weren't any baked goods in the store. As for whether the characters think it's arson or not, Edith definitely seems to think so, and her prompting to look for clues should be enough to have the characters go along. In reference to both these things, the map to Edith's shop doesn't have a kitchen, either to bake goods or as a place for a fire to accidentally start (the map for Fill's shop, on the other hand, does show his pretty spacious kitchen)

Having read through it all now, what a fun and unique adventure. It might be a bit to whimsical for those who demand grimdark only in their campaigns, but other than that, most groups would probably have a really fun time playing it.