D&D 5E Tyranny of Dragons Getting Republished in Combined Anniversary Volume

So, WotC is re-releasing Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat in a combined volume, with a special cover, re-edited based on feedback, on October 22nd.

From ComicBook.com -- "The new Tyranny of Dragons volume will update the adventures by incorporating feedback to smooth out the curve for new players, while adding resources previously only available online and adding never-before-seen concept art. In addition, Tyranny of Dragons will have a new cover designed by Hydro74, depicting Tiamat in all of her five-headed glory."

The adventures are known as being very tough - it sounds like the challenge is being lowered a little.

 

[Superchunk77]

Do you have a link?

https://twitter.com/Wizards_DnD/status/1152718673947217920

 

[Parmandur]

I heard via Twitter that only the first chapter is being revised, and the rest of the adventure will remain as is, with a few editing/spelling fixes.

Here's what the official product page says:

FEATURES
Two adventures (Hoard of the Dragon Queen and The Rise of Tiamat) are bound together with a fresh new cover with spectacular art by Hydro74.
Features concept art providing insight into the creative process when crafting this fantastical adventure.
Complete with errata and a reworked opening chapter.

The Errata seems likely to include reworking encounters that were originally miscalculated, so we'll see. Not a total rewrite, but a definite reworking.

 

[Parmandur]

Do you have a link?

ETA: Found this on the WotC site (https://dnd.wizards.com/products/tabletop-games/rpg-products/tyranny-dragons): "Complete with errata and a reworked opening chapter." Disappointing if that's the only change.

Depends on what the Errata entails: fixing the encounter budgets goes most of the way to fixing the reported frustrations with HotDQ.

 

[Wrathamon]

also, the treasure budgets weren't finalized.

The two biggest complaints I heard was the encounters/treasure budgets being all over the place and the encounters in the beginning where you had to fight the Blue Dragon and the Half Dragon.

The first chapter encounters were pretty hard from what I remember. If you're not good at avoiding enemies you can get really punished. It's a very hard adventure overall if you're not experienced players and just murder-hoboing it.

But, these were just because of the timing of the adventure and poor editing. Steve Winters posts something about changes he would have made.

The other was the some unconventional encounters, one was meant to be a big cinematic movement and the other was to make an enemy rival for later. I think these were very controversial encounters (I liked them) but that was in the first chapter.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Fair enough, however notice how - outside that sidebar and the throwaway comment in the MM about the trhee there's practically no into about current divine ranks. We know Lurue (who was previously a demigod), Sekolah, Lolth, Bahamut and Asmodeus are lesser deities but nobody else is defined and the pantheon in FR is huge - especially when you consider that all the deities previously thought as dead are back in one form or another (this I learned from Ed Greenwood). Then there's also the fact that they don't distinguish between lesser and intermediate deities which formed a major part of divine politics in previous editions.

To be honest there was never a need for Intermediate Deities, 1e did not even have them.

 

[jayoungr]

Depends on what the Errata entails: fixing the encounter budgets goes most of the way to fixing the reported frustrations with HotDQ.

Sure. I was really hoping for the cut material to be restored, though.

 

[thexar]

Does it still start with a 1st level party coming out of the woods to see a large city under siege getting blasted by a dragon, and they're supposed to think "hey guys/gals, we should help those people"?


How about when you jump through a portal and level to 7. If you make your perception check you turn right and are now level 8. If you fail, you go into a time-sink house to kill some stuff that has no connection to the person you'd been chasing. You eventually find that path you missed earlier, because there's nowhere else to go. That is, if the DM read far enough ahead to notice the mislabeled rooms, and you don't get stuck in there like the Overlook Hotel.

 

[jayoungr]

Does it still start with a 1st level party coming out of the woods to see a large city under siege getting blasted by a dragon, and they're supposed to think "hey guys/gals, we should help those people"?

The announcement says they're reworking the opening chapter, so probably not.

How about when you jump through a portal and level to 7. If you make your perception check you turn right and are now level 8. If you fail, you go into a time-sink house to kill some stuff that has no connection to the person you'd been chasing. You eventually find that path you missed earlier, because there's nowhere else to go. That is, if the DM read far enough ahead to notice the mislabeled rooms, and you don't get stuck in there like the Overlook Hotel.

The announcement also says that errata has been incorporated, so that should mean no rooms will be mislabeled.

 

[Matrix Sorcica]

And maybe Silverymoon will be spelled correctly on the map (amongst several snafus).

 

[criticalfumble]

Great news! I've been thinking for a long time that this would be a great idea. Do we know if the new volume will include "The Frozen Castle"?

The Frozen Castle turned out to be a high point in our play through with the kids. They allied with Allac and convinced him and the yetis to help free the castle. From there out, they had a sweet ride and a yeti crew.