D&D 5E The Return of Tyranny of Dragons: First Impressions

Gamers don't usually ask for a revision to an existing adventure unless it's to adapt it to a new edition, yet that's exactly why Wizards of the Coast produced the new edition of Tyranny of Dragons. Fans online have been asking for an updated edition for some time. The fact that Tiamat and the Cult of the Dragon, especially one very prominent Tiamat follower, factors into the newest adventure, Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus, probably helped.

Tyranny of Dragons contains a revised versions of the previously released adventure books Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat, packaged with extra material, errata and a brand new cover by Hydro74 that gorgeously displays the five heads of Tiamat. While our accompanying image shows off the cover accurately you really have to see it in person to get the full effect of the metallic inks, especially the metallic red artwork contrasted with the black matte background. Unlike Hydro74's cover for Xanathar's Guide to Everything the matte portion is not a soft touch black cover they use on limited editions but it still looks terrific..

Reissuing Tyranny of Dragons in its combined form is not an insult to the original version or, in my opinion, a cash grab. Hoard of the Dragon Queen was produced by Kobold Press, but the team had the disadvantage of creating the adventure while the rules for 5th Edition were still being finalized, and the book was released with before the 5th Edition Monster Manual was released so it was designed to work with the Basic Rules that were online at that time and monsters in the appendix. Logistically, it made sense – give players a chance to start immediately with a new adventure. I don't envy Wolfgang Baur, Steve Winter and their team putting together an epic adventure without a finalized rule set for most of the development time.

As the first official 5th Edition adventure, Tyranny of Dragons, the official name of the two adventures when taken as a whole, is as epic as they come. WotC clearly wanted to kick off with a bang, and Kobold Press delivered. New leadership in the Cult of the Dragon has shifted its focus from undead dragons to plotting to free the dragon goddess Tiamat from her prison in Avernus and acquire a hoard of gold to welcome her return to Faerun (she is greedy, and dragons love a hoard). The plot takes the players through large chunks of the continent as the Red Wizards of Thay scheme with the cult to free Tiamat and a separate conspiracy seeks to shape the world in its image. From Baldur's Gate and Waterdeep to the Sea of Moving Ice and much more, Tyranny of Dragons provides an overview of the world that worked well for new and lapsed players as well as to introduce Faerun to the new edition.

Baur and the Kobold Press team also deftly worked in not just an introduction to factions but weaved them well into the plot as information sources, support and potential thorns in the characters' side, depending upon what the players decide to do. Within the story opportunities arise for rival sides like the Harpers and Zhentarim (as well as groups like the Lords Alliance who frequently disagree with both of those) to work together against a common enemy – but that doesn't mean it will smooth sailing.

The original Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat are fan favorites for a reason. It's a rollicking good adventure whether you're completely new to D&D (and role-playing in general) or just new to 5th Edition. Starting at 1st level and taking the players to 15th level before the final confrontation in the Well of Dragons, it gives players a chance to sink their teeth into the adventure, and they can fail. The final battle isn't hopeless, but victory is far from assured.

I do wish that in revising HotDQ and RoT to unify Tyranny of Dragons that they had adopted some of the conventions the more recent D&D adventures have added. Clearly defined adventure trees, dramatis personae, pronunciation guides, etc. are small things individually but make life much easier for busy DMs.

The concept art is a lovely addition. Unfortunately Tyranny of Dragons does not follow the convention of the more recent D&D adventures where the artist's name is listed on the page seam so you can tell who did what illustration. Still, in addition to the original art, ToD contains epic new images, details on the dragon masks, the cult's decorative regalia, etc. I especially like the sketches for the types of chromatic dragons with details next to them as if a zoologist was taking notes.

If you don't already own HotDQ and RoT, and are interested in the plot, purchasing Tyranny of Dragons is a no-brainer. You'll be getting a proven, popular adventure in a spiffy new edition with a gorgeous new cover and additional art.

If you do already HotDQ and RoT, purchasing Tyranny of Dragons is more of a judgment call, especially depending upon your budget. While it does incorporate the errata to fix prior mistakes and omission, that and the supplemental material for Rise of Tiamat are still available online so purchasing the new version isn't necessary. If you're a completest, then buying it is an easy choice.

Original edition or revised, Tyranny of Dragons is a terrific adventure. It definitely set a high bar for launching the 5th Edition D&D adventures and well worth a look if you haven't already played it.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Amazon is a bit cagey: the info they have out is to help direct sales towards what is hot.

Very true.

 

[Sacrosanct]

I never put much faith in Amazon reviews. Or really any online customer reviews. Why? Because there are so many bad (as in quality of the review) reviews that it always throws off the total rating. Look at those reviews for HotDQ. So many are 5 stars with comments like “Arrived in good condition” or “Came like the picture showed”. A ton of reviews from people who never even read it yet, let alone played it.

So I prefer to stick to official reviews. At least I know the people took the time to actually go over it in detail, and most often official reviews know what they are talking about and how to give an actual review that’s worth something.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

I never put much faith in Amazon reviews. Or really any online customer reviews. Why? Because there are so many bad (as in quality of the review) reviews that it always throws off the total rating. Look at those reviews for HotDQ. So many are 5 stars with comments like “Arrived in good condition” or “Came like the picture showed”. A ton of reviews from people who never even read it yet, let alone played it.

So I prefer to stick to official reviews. At least I know the people took the time to actually go over it in detail, and most often official reviews know what they are talking about and how to give an actual review that’s worth something.

If you're going to analyze what a good product is empirically, only Amazon is effective because of its large sample size.

Otherwise, you can just pick and choose reviews that already align with your personal preferences. Which you've mostly done in this thread arguing that ToD is a not good product.

 

[Sacrosanct]

If you're going to analyze what a good product is empirically, only Amazon is effective because of its large sample size.

Otherwise, you can just pick and choose reviews that already align with your personal preferences. Which you've mostly done in this thread arguing that ToD is a not good product.

only I didn’t pick and choose. I looked at the top results in google from professional reviewers. That’s literally the opposite of picking and choosing. And it gets you a much better view of reviews because none of them game five stars because “package arrived on time”. Amazon is a large sample size, but that means nothing if a huge % of those reviews are worthless.
Garbage in, garbage out. As we say in the analysts world

 

[Urriak Uruk]

only I didn’t pick and choose. I looked at the top results in google from professional reviewers. That’s literally the opposite of picking and choosing. And it gets you a much better view of reviews because none of them game five stars because “package arrived on time”. Amazon is a large sample size, but that means nothing if a huge % of those reviews are worthless.
Garbage in, garbage out. As we say in the analysts world

Here where the top reviews I got in my search results;

There is a lot of great material in The Rise of Tiamat. And I think the book is worth picking up even if you only want to steal some of the great adventure locations out of it. But to run it as a full campaign will require the GM to heavily re-work the finale so that what the PCs have done with the Council of Waterdeep actually matters. - Strange Assembly

I’ll admit I strongly prefer Hoard of the Dragon Queen to this as it’s a better overall product quality wise (take that for what you will) and it’s certainly better laid out and far friendlier to the non diehard crowd. Still, once you get past the obvious layout and editing issues, you’re getting an exceptional amount of content and value for a relatively small price tag. The Rise of Tiamat is certainly a fine way to end The Tyranny of Dragons and it will keep you occupied for several months to come. - DieHard GameFan

I think The Rise of Tiamat is a solid game. It feels like great value for money with the hardback, high paper quality and full colour illustrations. I found the ambush, the steepness of the learning curve, to be quite unsettling though. - Geek Native

I'm excited. It's exciting. I don't think I'll need to make any changes or alterations in the second part of the module, running it as is with the background I'm building in Phandlever and Hoard is enough. Now that I know the endgame, I can start to foreshadow it in my weekly game. This is the campaign that involves Dragons and Tiamat. I'm sure Wizards of the Coast will go back to the well at some point, but this is the only time I'll be drinking from it. It will be a while (a long while) before it sees play, but I'm looking forward to it. - Hack & Slash

But it doesn't even matter if my results are good or yours are bad; Google curates different results for everybody based on your search history. Not to mention, the only results your getting are ones with good SEO, which doesn't actually equate to a quality review. And most importantly of all, all of these reviews were made before actually running the game, as a key point behind a review is getting it out as early as possible rather than actually running the whole thing.

So honestly, everything you've just said about Google's reviews being more reliable than an Amazon average is complete bunk.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Online star-reviews are dumb. As I've mentioned, I own a FLGS, and while we get a lot of 5 star reviews (personally, to me, 5-stars should be for 'perfect' and I don't think we really deserve that, but the industry standard appears to be "If it's not FIVE, It's CRAP!" which to me, is utterly unrealistic). Occasionally, we get 1 star reviews. Usually, they don't say ANYTHING. (What did we do wrong?) sometimes, they post really strange rants that say more about the reviewer than they do about the store:

"I have had the unique opportunity to travel across Canada and visiting many comic books stores in various cities. I came from Ontario just to visit this store. Three key components to a successful store... affordable pricing, availability of product and customer service. I love supporting the stores that give above standard customer service which will reflect through my purchasing. In this case, I was ready to spend over $1000 but only spent $150 due to the fact the owner was standoffish, non engaging to the point of being borderline rude. Remember comic stores represent less that one per cent of the retail industry. You already have to battle big box stores etc. So do note at this point, customer service is key. It will be the difference between $150 spent rather than receiving $1000 in product."

So... you brag about your ability to travel and how much money you can spend, lecture me about how the business 'works' as if I don't know, and boast about your ability to 'punish' me by not spending it for being 'standoffish', but don't really say anything about what exactly I did wrong?

(BTW, You should see all the reviews I get about how friendly and helpful I am, usually).

I'm not sure what exactly I did wrong on this day. Maybe I was busy with another customer? I dunno - I'm not really making excuses, obviously I failed this guy - but he sure comes off as smug and self-important.

 

[Sacrosanct]

Here where the top reviews I got in my search results;

There is a lot of great material in The Rise of Tiamat. And I think the book is worth picking up even if you only want to steal some of the great adventure locations out of it. But to run it as a full campaign will require the GM to heavily re-work the finale so that what the PCs have done with the Council of Waterdeep actually matters. - Strange Assembly

I’ll admit I strongly prefer Hoard of the Dragon Queen to this as it’s a better overall product quality wise (take that for what you will) and it’s certainly better laid out and far friendlier to the non diehard crowd. Still, once you get past the obvious layout and editing issues, you’re getting an exceptional amount of content and value for a relatively small price tag. The Rise of Tiamat is certainly a fine way to end The Tyranny of Dragons and it will keep you occupied for several months to come. - DieHard GameFan

I think The Rise of Tiamat is a solid game. It feels like great value for money with the hardback, high paper quality and full colour illustrations. I found the ambush, the steepness of the learning curve, to be quite unsettling though. - Geek Native

I'm excited. It's exciting. I don't think I'll need to make any changes or alterations in the second part of the module, running it as is with the background I'm building in Phandlever and Hoard is enough. Now that I know the endgame, I can start to foreshadow it in my weekly game. This is the campaign that involves Dragons and Tiamat. I'm sure Wizards of the Coast will go back to the well at some point, but this is the only time I'll be drinking from it. It will be a while (a long while) before it sees play, but I'm looking forward to it. - Hack & Slash

But it doesn't even matter if my results are good or yours are bad; Google curates different results for everybody based on your search history. Not to mention, the only results your getting are ones with good SEO, which doesn't actually equate to a quality review. And most importantly of all, all of these reviews were made before actually running the game, as a key point behind a review is getting it out as early as possible rather than actually running the whole thing.

So honestly, everything you've just said about Google's reviews being more reliable than an Amazon average is complete bunk.

It’s not complete bunk. Like I’ve explained two times already, at least those are professional reviews. Which amazon is not. None of those professional reviews have a rating, good or bad, for things like if the game arrived on time or looked like picture. The quality of the review matters. The fact you keep ignoring that speaks volumes.

 

[Urriak Uruk]

It’s not complete bunk. Like I’ve explained two times already, at least those are professional reviews. Which amazon is not. None of those professional reviews have a rating, good or bad, for things like if the game arrived on time or looked like picture. The quality of the review matters. The fact you keep ignoring that speaks volumes.

The "quality" (whatever that means, as reviews are largely subjective for books, especially D&D ones that are made mostly by people who haven't actually run the campaign yet) is completely meaningless if the reviews can't be compared 1-to-1 against each other. So no I'm not ignoring it, it just doesn't actually mean anything to how the community-at-large actually feels.

And that is the strength of Amazon's overall rating schema. Sure a lot of the reviews are meaningless, but that doesn't change from product to product. Therefore, you can use that overall rating average to be able to say logically what products are considered better than others.

So for example, you can see that Tomb of Annihilation has a 4.7, the highest of all the adventure books, and say that this adventure is considered the best-received adventure Wizard's has released (I don't think that's a controversial statement either; ToA is pretty good). On the other side, you have Dungeon of the Mad Mage at a 4.2, the worst of all the adventure books, and say it's the worst-received (also not controversial).

This is a much more empirical way of looking at how the community actually views this books than saying "I searched Hoard of Dragon Queen Reviews and all I see is negative!"