D&D 5E Rebalanced Tyranny of Dragons Coming In January

According to Amazon a 'rebalanced' version of Tyranny of Dragons is being released by WotC in January. There's no indication if there's a new cover, but the "adventure has been rebalanced to be easier for a new Dungeon Master to run and a better play experience".

2019's Tyranny of Dragons combined 2014's Hoard of the Dragon Queen and The Rise of Tiamat with errata and new cover art. It was originally produced for WotC by Kobold Press during the early period of 5E when adventures were outsourced to local companies run by ex-WotC employees, such as Kobold Press, Green Ronin and Sasquatch Game Studios. This will be the third version of these adventures.

Tyranny of Dragons combines and refines two action-packed Dungeons & Dragons adventures—Hoard of the Dragon Queen and The Rise of Tiamat—into a single sweeping campaign. It also includes a gallery of concept art providing a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of an epic adventure spotlighting Tiamat, one of the most legendary foes in D&D.

• A wonderful re-introduction to 5th edition’s first published adventures for new fans
• Begins as a low-level adventure suitable for new players and evolves into an epic, sprawling campaign bringing players all the way from level 1 to level 15
• Adventure has been rebalanced to be easier for a new Dungeon Master to run and a better play experience.
• Book includes gallery of concept art spotlighting Tiamat, one of the most legendary foes in D&D

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

So do you think those that bought ToD on a VTT platform will get the update for free?

Since it pulls from the database every time you access it, it should be whatever the latest version in their system is, unless for some reason, one of the companies is doing versioning on each individual title, which I can't see a reason for them to do.

 

[Rabulias]

Since it pulls from the database every time you access it, it should be whatever the latest version in their system is, unless for some reason, one of the companies is doing versioning on each individual title, which I can't see a reason for them to do.

Upgrading everyone would be giving the new edition away for free, which may or may not be an affordable thing to do. If you choose not to do that, you need to maintain the older editions for the customers who bought them but chose not to upgrade. I know D&D Beyond maintains the older versions of Volo's Guide to Monsters and Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes because they (and/or WotC, though they are the same now) decided to not give everyone free upgrades to Mordenkainen Presents Monsters of the Multiverse.

 

[dave2008]

Most of the concept art was not of Tiamat.

I'm holding out hope that this is a new re-release that is adding concept art of Tiamat

 

[MockingBird]

I have both of the original books. It was a good read, I never got a chance to run it though. I never saw the reprint out in the wild.

 

[Reynard]

Since it pulls from the database every time you access it, it should be whatever the latest version in their system is, unless for some reason, one of the companies is doing versioning on each individual title, which I can't see a reason for them to do.

To be clear I wasn't talking about DNDB. I was talking about FG or Roll20 or whatever.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Upgrading everyone would be giving the new edition away for free, which may or may not be an affordable thing to do. If you choose not to do that, you need to maintain the older editions for the customers who bought them but chose not to upgrade. I know D&D Beyond maintains the older versions of Volo's Guide to Monsters and Mordenkainen's Tome of Foes because they (and/or WotC, though they are the same now) decided to not give everyone free upgrades to Mordenkainen Presents Monsters of the Multiverse.

Well, it depends on whether we see Tyranny of Dragons 2.1 as a distinct product from 2.0. If the 2.0 version already exists on VTT sites (I have no idea if it's there), it's hard for me to see WotC charging for it a separate time.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

To be clear I wasn't talking about DNDB. I was talking about FG or Roll20 or whatever.

They still pull the data from a database. I can't see why they'd have multiple versions of Tyranny of Dragons to serve up, unless WotC insisted for some reason.

 

[JEB]

This seems to be a re-release of the previous combo release, with another round of errata and maybe even other edits.

Which also tells me that WotC is very confident that 2024 DnD will be backwards compatible. There's no need to spend so many resources to release a very old product without compatibility

"Rebalanced to be easier for a new Dungeon Master to run and a better play experience" definitely suggests more than errata. My guess is the rules will be brought in line with other post-Tasha material, which per the designers has all been designed with forward compatibility in mind. And maybe some reorganization and/or supporting material for the "easier to run" part.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

The original first part (Hoard of the Dragon Queen) played badly - and not just because they hadn't figured out how to balance encounters (TBH, they haven't figured that out by 2022 either).
It was the literal railroad tour of the Sword Coast where nothing happened and no meaningful decisions could be made for weeks of play. I hated running this adventure, which would've been considered poorly designed even compared to the worst of the 2E era "read what the module writers want you to do and watch as important NPCs do the heavy lifting."

I understand what you mean, but I had a lot of fun with it, and so did my players. There certainly isn't a lot of guidance for what to do when your players go "off script" but I've never been particularly beholden to the exact word of an adventure. Luckily, I gave enough "illusion of choice" that (for the most part) my players took the bait for all the main choices that kept them (mostly) in line with the adventure.

I actually ran it twice, and both groups did pretty much the same thing, of their own volition. It's written as quite the linear track, which can be a real problem if you play with a group that likes to be contrary, but almost all the main decision points are likely to go the way the adventure assumes, if they're presented well. It certainly could have been much better, in particular when it comes to player agency, but it's not as bad of an adventure as some people seem to think. YMMV.

 

[JDR]

Would be nice if folks who had the original books got a deal on the new one. But we know that will never happen...