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.

 

[sevenbastard]

about a black dragon who has taken control of a pirate gang

Dungeon Magazine #16 has a adventure called "Vesicant" about a green dragon leading some pirates. I wonder if this is an homage?

 

[Paul Farquhar]

Falling to pick the lock doesn't mean that theyll automatically find another way through, but it does mean that instead of standing around thinking about what to do next, guards heard the fail so they show up to harass.

I was really talking about players failing due to poor decisions, not bad rolls, but I really hate the concept of bad rolls making guards magically appear from nowhere. The consequence of failing to pick the lock is the door remains locked. The players can either look for another way to open it or they can leave it and go do something else.

 

[Burnside]

The 8th adventure is Shivering Death, for level 11 characters. Adventurers must brave the lair of a white dragon to recover a ritual that will end a devastating heat wave.

The Good

One of the stronger offerings in the book, Shivering Death has a great full-color lair map (looks like Mike Schley's work). The art I mostly enjoy, although in the splash page the white dragon looks too cute and almost owlbear-like - that bit should probably have been reworked, but the rest is basically perfect for this adventure.

Just a very solid high tier 2/low tier 3 dungeon with plenty of points of interest, multiple creatures and groups with overlapping and often mutually exclusive agendas, and plenty of opportunities for dynamic play and different ways to resolve challenges.

There is a rogue's gallery of creatures present that will be VERY familiar to anyone who has run Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden: white dragon, frost giants, winter wolves, ice mephit, a troll (should be a snow troll, but those don't exist yet in 2024 rules) remorhaz, etc. A lot of these creatures are not on the same page with each other, and players willing to parlay - and to thoroughly explore the environment for hidden secrets - will definitely be rewarded.

Complaints

I can't say for sure if this will be the case if you run this with 2024 rules and creatures, as I'm still getting experience with them, but I will say, for sure, that if you run this with 2014 rules, a level 11 party will handily curb-stomp everything in this dungeon. I suspect this will also be the case with 2024. So the DM is probably gonna have to beef up, like, everything. Again I haven't run it and I don't KNOW that, but I STRONGLY suspect this is the case.

The adventure doesn't explain the source of the inciting heat wave, and kinda leaves that as maybe something you could weave into an ongoing campaign. I get it, but I think the designer could include maybe just a side bar of "here are some possible ideas for what's causing the heat wave; feel free to come up with your own as well". The complete lack of an explanation here to me falls less on the side of "inspiring DM creativity" and more on the side of "couldn't be bothered to put this in."

Verdict. This is at least a B+ and could be higher for some groups; I'm kinda deducting slightly as I do think the DM has work to do with making this more challenging for 11th level (alternately, you could just run it for I think a level 9 group). But it gets a LOT of stuff right and is a very good mix of combat, rp, and exploration that all hangs together logically and offers a lot of meaningful choices.

 

[Zaukrie]

The seventh adventure is Before The Storm, a very straightforward adventure for level 10 characters about a black dragon who has taken control of a pirate gang and is terrorizing a seaside town.

The Good

The splash page art, featuring the dragon, is awesome. The maps are even better, including my aesthetically favorite dungeon map in the book so far. Colorful, gnarly, and evocative while also being quite practical in play.

The dragon stole two gems that protect the town from storms; if they're not recovered before tonight, the impending storm will break and destroy the town. Good, simple, high stakes imposition of a time limit that precludes a long rest during the adventure.

This is a straightforward, no-frills dungeon crawl (well, the gorgeous map is a frill) and if that simplicity means it probably won't wow anyone, it also means that nothing is botched either - the whole thing makes sense and should play quite smoothly.

We're seven adventures into the dragon book and this is the first one wherein the BBEG is an evil, adult dragon that the adventurers unambiguously really should fight and kill.

The dragon killed the former leader of the pirates and set up his skeleton as a warning to any other potentially disobedient pirates it's a nice touch, and also neat that you can Speak With Dead on it, although tbh the resulting conversation isn't anything revelatory.

Complaints

It's...very straightforward. Go to the dungeon, get the macguffins back, kill the dragon, get back before nightfall. No twists and really not a lot of innovation in the encounters. While there is nothing wrong with it, there's also nothing that I think anybody is gonna find super memorable either.

The dragon itself could have been the twist, actually. It could have sent the pirates to raid the town and do its dirty work without revealing itself. The players discovering that the bloodthirsty new captain of the pirate gang is actually a dragon would have been a cool moment. But as written, the dragon led the pirate attack on the town. I'd probably change that if I ran it.

I'll also add that, while of course monsters don't always need to revert to type, the behavior of this black dragon isn't particularly black dragon-y. It's quite red dragon-y, and, if it concealed itself, could also be pretty classic green dragon behavior. The lore on black dragons tends to have them involved with cultists and undead - there aren't any here.

I think, but am not sure, that most of the combat encounters - except for the boss fight, as the dragon does have three darkmantles with it - are probably a bit easy for a level 10 party - but that might be mitigated by the fact that there is a time limit.

There's some stuff about the town is in an area where the barrier to the Elemental Plane of Air is thin and a lot of people who live there are essentially genasi except genasi don't technically exist yet in 5.5 so they're just described as blue-skinned humans with floaty hair and... you know what, it just doesn't really matter, doesn't really change anything, and probably isn't worth the time spent communicating it to the players. It can just be a coastal town that needs its magic gems to protect it from storms.

Verdict
I think this is a B. It does what's on the tin. I'd actually say it's a stronger B than, say, Death at Sunset, because it's less flawed - but it's also kinda less interesting.

I don't agree every adventure needs a twist. If they all do, it loses it's usefulness.

 

[Distracted DM]

The adventure doesn't explain the source of the inciting heat wave, and kinda leaves that as maybe something you could weave into an ongoing campaign. I get it, but I think the designer could include maybe just a side bar of "here are some possible ideas for what's causing the heat wave; feel free to come up with your own as well". The complete lack of an explanation here to me falls less on the side of "inspiring DM creativity" and more on the side of "couldn't be bothered to put this in."

5e adventures could do with a lot more sidebars from the designers talking directly to you, the GM, about why they designed this and that for what reason, what came up during playtesting, and how you might handle different circumstances. Earlier editions' adventures, particularly in 3e, had such things; it was enlightening, helpful, and enjoyable to read.
That's not to say that they haven't made improvements with this adventure- all the info provided at the beginning seems very useful.

 

[Burnside]

I don't agree every adventure needs a twist. If they all do, it loses it's usefulness.

That’s true, and I don’t mean to say every adventure needs a twist. In this book, the Forbidden Vale has no twist and doesn’t need one because there are lots of interesting encounters. But IMO Before The Storm either needed a good twist OR needed more original/interesting encounters than it has. In this case, the former is easier to insert. And again, I’m not even saying Before the Storm is bad; I’m just saying is not particularly special or memorable.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

the DM is probably gonna have to beef up

Or run it for a lower level party.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

5e adventures could do with a lot more sidebars from the designers talking directly to you, the GM, about why they designed this and that for what reason, what came up during playtesting, and how you might handle different circumstances. Earlier editions' adventures, particularly in 3e, had such things; it was enlightening, helpful, and enjoyable to read.
That's not to say that they haven't made improvements with this adventure- all the info provided at the beginning seems very useful.

It would be interesting, and sometimes useful, however, the word count for these books is fixed, and that includes any side bars.

 

[Distracted DM]

It would be interesting, and sometimes useful, however, the word count for these books is fixed, and that includes any side bars.

Ah yes, fair, considerations of word count... but isn't that always the case?

 

[Burnside]

It would be interesting, and sometimes useful, however, the word count for these books is fixed, and that includes any side bars.

In this case, they actually used a sidebar to explain that there is no explanation provided! They could have used the same space to suggest 2 or 3 ideas.

Or run it for a lower level party.

Yeah, I said as much a few lines later in the review.