I was planning on running Hoard of the Dragon Queen after finishing Phandelver, but after skimming through Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle, it looks to be a much more interesting and planned out adventure. Has anyone ran this and if so, what did you think?
I usually DM, but I played in this one for a bit. We only got to level 3 (with playtest pregens) and didn't finish it because schedules and travel got in the way, so my view is only on the starting point.
SPOILERS
I felt sympathy for our DM. He did a great job of adding personality to the NPCs, but two or three time the "this is a railroad, enjoy!" stick was staring us right in the face. Notably getting to whatever the lizard man-plagued fort was called was obvious not a choice, but was presented as one anyhow. Likewise with "volunteering" to go dragon hunting in the killer swamps. Gee, of course we lowly 1st level adventurers will go do that; great idea!
The scene with the "dworcs" had Chris Perkins written all over it, and I did crack a smile, but it was so ridiculous and left us scratching our heads: What in the hell does this bit of randomness have to do with anything? Despite our guide being a hard-ass about killing the "dworcs" I managed to conduct trade for intelligence in peace.
That was about it roleplaying wise (ah, and "neutral" lizard folk) for 4 sessions. The rest was pretty much hack and slash trudging thru swamps. The railroad was pleasant enough, if you're into that sort of thing. Personally, I didn't care for it. The other players, however, didn't mind so much.
The fights were actually kind of scary at levels 1 and 2. We lost a PC and had several down at one point to scary giant lizards. Also the harpy fight was just a PITA and quite dangerous when the DM played them smart.