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.

 

[JusticeArman]

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.

Sure! Here are some thoughts:

• You could change the hag in the adventure to one with a higher CR—such as a bheur hag, though still a bit low for a level 8 adventure—or make them part of a coven! It might be interesting to see what the hag version of "too many cooks in the kitchen" looks like.
• Some of the encounters and traps will similarly need to be scaled up! During one version of the adventure, the subterranean level included a crystal cavern with a sleeping basilisk that could turn adventurers into rock candy. I believe that might have been cut to make it more palatable for a solo adventure. Many of the other creatures, like the gingerbread warriors, are easy reskins for more dangerous sentries.
• Bubba Wugga's stats could be substituted for a giant, though the doll's size will need to remain the same unless you change the dimensions of the map. (Ole boy has to squeeze through most the passages anyway.)
• You could add encounters on the way to the cottage, like a pair of hungry owlbears chasing a candied, would-be hero who was captured by the hag but escaped.

As another user suggested, you can also add detrimental effects for being candied! Being flattened might mean you can slip under locked doors, though it could make you brittle and lower your AC. Have fun with it! Add rooms of your own inspired by your favorite treats.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Skabatha Nightshade (Wild Beyond the Witchlight) is a CR8 hag.

 

[pukunui]

Skabatha Nightshade (Wild Beyond the Witchlight) is a CR8 hag.

She's a real pushover for her CR, though. She died quickly when she came up against a party of three 5th level PCs when I ran Witchlight.

 

[Burnside]

Read the third adventure, The Will of Orcus, which is just a very, very solid dungeon crawl for a 4th level party.

The Good

This adventure gets the party quickly to the front door of the dungeon with minimal fuss and preamble, which is sometimes exactly what you want.

Unlike @pukunui, I had little trouble with the idea that the cult would be fooled by a silver dragon impersonating their god. The cult really only has 4 sentient members, 2 of whom are wavering. Cults by their nature rely on their followers to accept absurdities as facts, and attract people who can be preyed upon in this way. I find it plausible that someone who managed to con their way into the top position in a cult's hierarchy would, at least for a period, be able to get the members to do bizarre things. This hasn't been going on very long by the time the adventure starts - a week, maybe.

Apart from that twist, it's a meat-and-potatoes D&D dungeon with a lot of undead, good combat encounters, interesting layout, some quite good roleplaying encounters, and okay exploration elements. Again, plenty of magic items but here there's more of a chance that players aren't finding all of them.

Another very good full-color map with 5' squares. With one exception (see Complaints) this map is very well laid-out and allows a lot of pathing freedom for the party. The art for this one is more in line with 5E's traditional style, with a suitably dark palette given the subject matter, with figures positioned dramatically and some nice use of perspective.

Complaints

One does have to swallow the coincidence that the dungeon was abandoned for 20 years and then, almost simultaneously (days apart), a silver dragon and cult of Orcus both show up independently to claim it. It would have been nice if there was some inciting factor that attracted both groups to arrive at this particular time - perhaps the approach of an impending astrological date of significance to Orcus that the cult wanted to capitalize on, and the dragon wanted to ensure that the site wasn't reactivated.

There are two ways that the players can find out that a silver dragon has been impersonating Orcus - one is by encountering the dragon disguised in the temple's inner shrine, speaking commandments and testing them in an amusing way from inside a huge Orcus statue, then revealing himself once they've gained his trust. The second is if the adventurers get into a fight in a nearby room and the dragon just comes running in to help, then has to explain the entire central plot anti-climactically to the adventurers who will have pretty much missed noticing it, at which point the adventure is pretty much over except for perhaps a little mopping up. Scenario 2 is far less interesting, but because of the map layout, is the most likely scenario to happen. This can be avoided just by erasing from the map the double doors which connect area T5 to T12, and closing the doors connecting T12 to T13.

The puzzle and trap elements are just okay. Not bad, but nothing to write home about.

Verdict

Solid B+ or A-. The flaws I picked out above are very easy to address, and apart from those I think it's just a rock-solid 1-2 session dungeon crawl, the twist works, and almost any group will enjoy it.

Having read 3 of the 10 adventures, so far I am very impressed and encouraged by this book. I think many of these adventures were developed prior to or during the development of the 2024 rules, and it does seem to me so far that with the substitution of one or two creatures that only exist in the 2024 Monster Manual, you could run at least these first three under 2014 rules with no problems at all.

 

[Burnside]

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.

This is kinda what I mean though - there's no available physical evidence of arson, and no way for the players to discover or confirm for themselves that it's arson. Just Edith telling them, again absent of evidence, that there was a "culprit." Why does Edith think there was a culprit? She is "reluctant" to point the finger at the baker and only does so "when pressed."

It's not a huge deal, but maybe an Investigation check to note that fires started in multiple locations in the shop with no apparent incendiary source, suggesting foul play and ruling out, say, a lightning strike. I think more satisfying to at least give the players a chance to be the ones who tell Edith "this was suspicious - we want to investigate further." Then she can prompt them if they don't do that. I'd like the adventure to give the players a chance to "drive" if possible, then use NPC pointers as a failsafe if they

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Why does Edith think there was a culprit? She is "reluctant" to point the finger at the baker and only does so "when pressed."

If you are investigating something, and you don't press your witnesses, you should expect to fail.

 

[Parmandur]

If you are investigating something, and you don't press your witnesses, you should expect to fail.

Any pre-written Adventure is going to have some failure points thst cabn go sideways: failing forwards through thst is a bug part of the magic thst makes TTRPGs different from computer fames for me.