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

 

[DEFCON 1]

Seems to me that unlike the three Core books that need new print runs made with much more frequency (and thus they just add in the errata they've collected up to that point for them each time)... new necessary print-runs of adventures allows them to do more in-depth work on them besides just errata since they occur with much less frequency. Wouldn't be surprised if Princes and Abyss get similar treatment at some point down the line.

I also have to imagine that they wanted this adventure back into circulation to coincide with 5E Dragonlance being released so that there's more dragon-focused material out there for DMs to pick up and use should they want to expand their DL campaigns. Same way having Odyssey of the Dragonlords on the market helped WotC have more Greek material on the market when Theros was released.

 

[MockingBird]

Sunless Citadel is way outside of the range of stuff that Joseph Goodman is into (his stopping point appears to be about 1982 for TSR and 1980 for Judges Guild), but I agree that it'd be a great product to do a Return to, for WotC. Meepo needs to be as iconic in 5E as he was in 3E.

The others all seem like stuff Goodman would jump on for an OAR, if they were available to him, which I'm guessing they aren't. (Crypt of the Devil Lich is a big love letter to Tomb of Horrors and they took their time with the recenti-ish Kickstarter campaign to really polish and expand it even further, which suggests a real love of ToH, IMO.)

My kids loved Meepo, I mean I figured they would like him but they went crazy over him. We are having a lot of fun with Sunless Citadel.

 

[JEB]

Yes, one that is different (and better) than the one in Fizban's (which does use the mythic rules) would be nice too. However, my guess is that they would reprint it to be the Fizban Tiamat and not, unfortunately, a 3rd stat block for the dragon queen.

It is interesting to note that the Tiamat in the adventure is supposed to be her full power lesser goddess stat block. However, the Fizban version with the myhtic rules is only an "aspect" of Tiamat (that and Tiamat is no longer a true goddess in Fizban's either). So what will she be in the re-release?

Oh yeah, I forgot there was a mythic Tiamat in Fizban's. Agreed they'll probably just use that version in a rebalanced update.

 

[Weiley31]

It's probably just the 2019 Tyranny of Dragons. MINUS the super fancy Hydro47 cover.

hugs his 2019 version tightly.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

My only Issue with Fizban’s Tiamat is that it does not use any multiple heads things.

 

[Weiley31]

"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.

Hmmm, if that's the case, I wonder then if some of the Backgrounds unique to Tyranny of Dragons, and not found in the other books/released outside of it, will be modified to INCLUDE a free starting feat as well. Specifically, any of the Fizban's Draconic Gifts or what not.

 

[Reynard]

They could release a pdf only/d&d beyond downloadable guide with suggestion on every adventure published to date, from Lost Mines to Shadow of the dragon queen, with tools, errata and updates.

There a lot of "guides to DM" of every adventure, if they make a condesed version of them in, say, 10 pages with advices on key points or balancing issues (no extra material or extra story, just the official parts), release one each month with a discount on D&D beyond version of the adventure ("It's Curse of Strahd month! Get the official guide to run CoS, and the full adventure at 50% on D&DBeyond!"). And, at the end, here is that PDF I was speaking. This can be a way to update the Statblocks for 5.5 for more difficult to master spellcasting monsters, and a way fixes things beyond an errata sheet. This would also help sales for adventures in print form, to help them emptying their warehouses.

That is exactly the sort of thing DMsGuild was made for and there are many documents of that sort available.

 

[Ghost2020]

Wait...you mean they're doing the "fix" they should have done when they reprinted it? I have the two separate books and the Tyranny of Dragons Hydro cover book. Was considering selling them both.
Curious to see if this will actually have fixes this time.
Buy it again? I seriously doubt it.

Release an errata document and be done with it already. Good grief.

 

[aco175]

The sweet, sugary side of me thinks this is a rework that will fix the old problems and rework the monsters and make something that is worth playing. The crunchy side of me thinks it is a bait and switch.

For those not in America, the commercial talks about their new 'premium' coverage and the lady cannot see the difference in coverage. The salesman then says, "But this one is purple."

 

[dave2008]

My only Issue with Fizban’s Tiamat is that it does not use any multiple heads things.

I have more issues than that, but that is one of them.