(The Ecstacy Of Gold - Ennio Morricone)
"In an audacious bid for power, the Cult of the Dragon, along with its dragon allies and the Red Wizards of Thay, seek to bring Tiamat from her prison in the Nine Hells to Faerûn. To this end, they are sweeping from town to town, laying waste to all those who oppose them and gathering a hoard of riches for their dread queen. The threat of annihilation has become so dire that groups as disparate as the Harpers and Zhentarim are banding together in the fight against the cult. Never before has the need for heroes been so desperate." - Wizards Of The Coast
That's the official synopsis for the 2014 D&D 5e module 'Hoard Of The Dragon Queen', and while it looks good in theory, the devil has always lain with the details. The module retails for around $30 and is a little longer in length than WOTC's beginning module 'The Lost Mines Of Phandelver' that was released a few months prior in July of 2014. 'Phandelver' was not without its faults, however, and the question remains: Did WOTC learn from their mistakes?
In many ways, yes. In other ways, not so much. Gear up, adventurer, this isn't a quick answer.
(This review is written from the perspective of the PLAYER, not the DM)
THE LONG VERSION - Mild Spoilers
There are a few things that anyone looking to get into 5e as either a player or a Dungeon Master needs to understand about this generation of Dungeons And Dragons:
- Balancing combat encounters is very, very difficult for character levels 1 through 5. Because of this...
- In player groups smaller than 5, combat can get out of hand quickly for characters who are younger than 5th level. Combat can get out of hand VERY quickly for characters younger than level 3.
- You WILL have characters fall to 0 hit points.
As long as these expectations get set with both DMs and players up front, there tends not to be a problem with the 5e modules. Failing to understand these things can absolutely lead to frustration, however, and 'Hoard Of The Dragon Queen' takes no prisoners in this respect.
The first major thing that needs to be established for HODQ itself is the hilarity of the story. This is End Of The World level badness that's going down in the world of Forgotten Realms, and injecting level 1 players into that kind of a situation can only end in heartache. This is made painfully evident when you run into a rampaging dragon in the first 5 minutes of the adventure.
Things go downhill from there.
Hoard Of The Dragon Queen doesn't lend itself to people learning the game. It doesn't even lend itself to people who have had a bit of experience. Unless you're a DM with a strong grasp on how gameplay works, as well as a keen understanding of the fact that you can and MUST fiddle with dice rolling and in-game information giving, you're looking at a Total Party Wipe at some point.
A group of veteran players that I'm friends with tried to get through HODQ and one of them had this to say: "You try to play through that thing, it's a nightmare draped in a ghost story...there's no escaping the failure of that place." They TPW'd during the final act.
I found their summary of the module humorous until my group played through it, and one of the characters spent at least half of the first section of the game unconscious because the combat was so problematic. This hearkens back to how squishy beginning level characters are, and how this adventure was SO NOT DESIGNED for beginning characters.
I'd like to tell you that the oddness of the module fades once you get out of the first act, but it doesn't. Your primary mission is to follow the dragon cultists to wherever they go and disrupt their operations. This all culminates in your arrival at a swamp stronghold that can be handled one of a few different ways. Regardless of how you do it, you end up with the stronghold in disarray and the cult very much in the same state. Because of this, you would think that this is where the adventure ends, and 'In Character', you have no reason to look any further for story hooks. Any seasoned player will have seen certain elements of the castle that bear additional investigation, and will understand that this is where the story is supposed to go next, but it makes no 'In Character' sense to pursue those avenues. That really takes you out of the game and makes continuing your adventure something that you're doing, and not your character.
The somewhat loosely-knit nature of the adventure continues after that into its final act, which will either be a great deal of fun or an absolute shit-show depending on how players run through it and how nice the DM opts to be. My group was fortunate enough that our DM herded the adventure along the first path and not the second, and we ended up squaring off against a white dragon with a lisp.
It was epic as hell.
I would absolutely not play this module unless you've got a DM that is willing to help move the story along with their own input and a group of players who are willing to roll with the many punches that HODQ has to offer. If you're comfortable with your group, then give it a shot. The payoff at the end is solid gold if you can get there.
They really should have joined HotDQ to Phandelver and started people out at 5. That takes the Greenest fight from "suicidal" back down to "challenging"
Posted by: Michael J Zupon | 03/23/2018 at 02:27 PM