So I’m taking my 5e home game back in time a bit. After playing a session of Hoard of the Dragon Queen, I felt a bit dissatisfied with the adventure (mostly due to the way it played with my group), so I’m going to do a bit of a do over. I’m going to usse 5e’s launch as a chance to do something I’ve never done before, and that’s use my old Realms’ stuff for a campaign. I have my 2nd Ed. boxed set which I love, so I’m going to set my game in that era of the Realms, 1367DR, about 120 years before the 5e Realms are supposedly set.
The 2e realms box
This will allow me to use all the material (and it’s a hell of a lot) that’s available for the 2e Realms, and give me the chance to actually use the stuff in the damn box for the first time. There’s a neat dungeon crawl intro adventure in there which I’m already looking at converting monsters for, and I know that we’ll all enjoy using the old poster maps, etc. The Realms wiki page is a great aid, and between it, the boxed set, and my 3rd Ed. hardcover (which only advanced the timeline by maybe 5-6 years) I should be okay.
I have maps (both 2e and 3e), sourcebooks, and tons of modules and books on pdf, so I can adventure in that era of the Realms for a long time. 5e was supposed to be the edition that made it easy to use all that old stuff, right? Lets put it to the test. 🙂
On another note, I’ve been wanting to try out monster design for 5e, so I’m using this as a good opportunity to, since there are plenty of critters in this box and adventure that aren’t available for 5e. So far I’ve created a Mongrelfolk and a Gambado. Check them out and tell me what you think!
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Christopher Smith (@cassmi87)
September 14, 2014
I’ve been meaning to try this out using the 3e FR Campaign Setting. I’m very interested in seeing how it will turn out. 🙂
Daniel Davis
September 14, 2014
What was unsatisfactory about your Hoard of the Dragon Queen session? (I just ran the first session of it last night.)
newbiedm
September 14, 2014
I don’t want it to seem like an indictment on the adventure itself. It just didn’t play well with my group based on the PC concepts they have. It was tough to get a hook buy-in, and they felt a bit railroaded into the whole thing. Mostly issues with the group itself and not ~all~ on the adventure.
richgreen01
September 14, 2014
I think that’s a great idea. Definitely planning on using as much of my FR material (1e-4e) as possible when I run Lost Mine of Phandelver.
medievalmike
September 14, 2014
I love your monsters! Have you tried, or are you using this tool at all? I’ve found it neat and handy to at least see how the math compares. There seem to be some 3E glitches as far as relating the 3 NADS to the 5E math.
http://brentnewhall.com/games/1e5e.html
Also, I noticed your save DCs for those monster abilities is 14. In the 5E monsters, at that level, it’s almost always 13 or lower, which brings me to my question, and maybe a bit of an answer. Do you feel, in your experience so far, that the save DCs (and even AC really) is a bit on the low side? Even taking into consideration the lower to hit bonuses? The game I’m running, the PCs, hit almost all the time and very rarely miss a save.
Thomas Drevon
September 15, 2014
This is interesting. I’m setting out to DM our first session in Hoard of The Dragon Queen an evening this very week. Having read a third of the book so far, I have the same feeling of railroaded-ness. The tips in the appendix about how to make the adventure relevant for the PCs are weak, and I’m struggling to come up with a really snazzy campaign intro to unite the PCs for The Cause in a fun way.
Also, the first mission in Greenest seemed bogged down in tons of insignificant and identical encounters (3 x acolyte + 1 x whatnot). This seems to me like getting off on a bad start! I mean, the first encounter in the first module of a brand new edition needs motivation a-plenty, atmosphere, memorable foes and a custom battlemap. At least that’s what I’ve would have gone for if I were the adventure designer. Wandering monster bonanza, you can do better, WotC.
medievalmike
September 15, 2014
@Thomas,
Well, this is a common issue in published adventure. THere’s an ultimate railroad in every one. Every single one. Because if the players have ultimate choice, IE no railroad, they can obviously choose not to go on the adventure that is offered. But, I’ve found through personal experience, that good players will never do that to you. They are there to play. And they don’t need an enormous hook to get started. Most good players are just like, “Show me the way” and they’ll go that way.
That being said, I’ve been reading this with the ultimate intent to run it too. I run a lot of published material and intergrate unrelated adventures into ongoing campaigns. Often times, the hooks are drop are actually break off points leading to different published materials. But in this case, at level 1 with the campaign before you, it’s harder. I tend to use backgrounds and such. Work the narrative into the backgrounds and they’ll be buying in faster than you can say “Chugga choo choo!”. Maybe one of the players grand parents once found a dragon mask and they still hold a shard of it. Maybe the Captain of the tower guard is someone they use to play poker with and the player owes them some money or favor. Maybe in their early life, they were a local farmer and their farms have come under attack as well, but the root is in the starting town. Use the published material but be gratuitous in bolting it to the NPC backstories.
Daniel
September 15, 2014
@Thomas, check out the posts tagged #hdqRemix on my blog: http://detectmagic.blogspot.com/search/label/hdqRemix
I’ve put a lot of stuff on there (more coming all the time) that will let you run HDQ as a sandbox and not a railroad.
Thomas Drevon
September 18, 2014
@medievalmike I absolutely agree that published adventures by definition consists of a railroad. There are degrees of railroading, however. Say you have five encounters. In a highly railroaded adventure, you’d have to do all of these and in a specific order. In a not-so-railroady adventure, you can do any number of these encounters, and their order is not critical. ‘Cept for the boss fight, which should probably be at the end 🙂
@Daniel This looks very cool! More crunch than I need, but still very useful with thoughts on degrees of success and failure. Thanks!
medievalmike
September 18, 2014
@Thomas,
Very much agree. However, in reading the first parts of HotDQ, there are several encounters. Most are entirely optional and other than a particular encounter happening first/early, it seems pretty open ended so far. Combined with the fact that they leave at least 2 means of success (through town or through tunnel) for each one, with different potential complications for each, it doesn’t read as very railroady so far. Does it change later in the module?
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