I'm kind of glad that all the villains and their lairs don't get used in a major way in the adventure, since they can be used in later adventures. The true value of this book is a starting point for adventures in Waterdeep, not just the adventure in the book.
Seriously, this seems to be the perfect book to expand off on. Add new NPCs, add new interested factions, throw in some side adventure and it holds great potential.
@@omlo9093 it depends on what program you are using. If you are using dndbeyond you can right-click the image and click save the image, which will then save the image at a high quality, there is also a player version of the map below them in a hyperlink same process. If you are using roll20 go to the map layer click the map press ctrl and z, it should make a version pop up of the map and again right click save the image.
Sounds like a module that can be used to flesh out Rise of Tiamat. Faction quests for the Harpers and Zhentarim etc. One of the evil bad guys could be the Cult of Dragons trying to get the dragon hoard as offering to Tiamat's ritual. Could be nice optional tie ins for my players. As well as the whole extra stuff regarding giants and demons/devils content.
It is not really ancient Greek (in terms that we still use it) and it is more like "en-he-RI-thion" and it basically means guide (or more like a small quick guide) ;)
Cashe is pronounced “cash”. Cashet, meaning the state of being respected or admired, is pronounced “cash-ay”. Great video, by the way. Keep up the good work.
in the dnd camp, my friends and i ran, jarlax was our quest giver. after we became so bad ass, he "hired" us to do works for him. we rode around on a magical flying sand/submarine/space/ship. how cool that the book says he does the same...
I bought this on D&D Beyond. The book is an amazing read (something that e5 gets right: they make it fun for the DM to read). I love the concepts and the flavour of the adventure (while I have players who try to kill everything, this is more my style). I have yet to run it, though, but I am very excited! Only downside with the digital version is no fold-out map. Real bummer, but other than that, all good.
Thanks so much! Your review helped me decide on my next campaign. My players were craving more roleplay, and I think Dragon Heist is the answer! Wish us luck and thank you again!
I think the levels for the book are based on the new progresion system, as there are items you can only unlock at tier . There's even the option of slow progression (crazy, who would've thought)
Just got the book a few weeks ago and am super stoked about how the book is laid out. I personally love the flow of it. I think it's a great intro story book. Due to the liner flow of it. Thanks for making content keep up the great work
I love the honesty in this review Nate. Extremely helpful and down-to-earth. Well done! I'm usually a DM for players that love combat, exploring, and dungeon crawling, so I was a bit disappointed to hear that it may not fit our current playstyle. However, "Dungeon of the Mad Mage" sounds like it will be right up our alley, so I bought Dragon Heist and we'll give it a go. Hopefully, it will tie-in nicely with the Mad Mage. Plus, I need to work on my DM role-playing ability anyway. :) Super stoked about the Map, the history of Waterdeep, and Volo's 30 page guide at the back of the book. I own the 2E "Volo's Guide to Waterdeep" so I can't wait to compare the two.
If I were gming this, I’d probably play it as the backbone of a somewhat ongoing campaign. This becomes the homebase of plenty of out-of-town adventures which can be as murder hobo… ey as you like. Those adventures then help to finance some of the expensive things being done in town.
My brother did this campaign at level 3, and ended at level 9, and killed Xanathar all by himself, soooo, all the other villains a re impossible to beat, but Xanathar should be easy enough to beat, you just have to be lucky on your rolls for when he shoots his laser beams.(BTW, he was a human fighter)
I expected this book to be a pretty short low page count book and that kinda put me off of it for a full price 50 dollar book. After this I definitely plan to buy it as soon as possible
Good video! I'm not a D&D player (just here out of curiosity!) , but the adventure looks well dome and lots of content. Regarding the multiple antagonists and replayability, I agree I doubt you could replay with the same group without it being a little samey, but perhaps it is intended for GMs in that they csn rerun with different groups? With the different branching structure, it would be more interesting for the GM than a straight rerun. Good review! Thank you.
Do you think this book would make for a good “Urban Adventure” framework? Is there enough tips and mechanics for running the politics of the city and the different enemy factions and ally factions all in one city?
You know, I wish I had talked more about that. There's a lot here that would certainly help, but not as much as I'd hoped for when I first heard about this book. I think there's room for improvement from WotC in terms of giving tips for GMs who homebrew more. Might make their modules more appealing for a wider audience. Still, you get A LOT of info on Waterdeep in general here, so there's a fair bit of material for an urban sandbox.
Another great video Nate and thanks for that! I have decided to steer away from published adventures for my students and now I am having them tell me what they want to see in an adventure. Werewolves seem to be a popular theme! We tried running ToYP last year but it took way too long as we only met during lunches once a week. If you have any suggestions for brief adventures it would be much appreciated. We have begun to meet (will meet tomorrow at lunch) and we are developing new characters using DND Beyond (and me setting up a campaign so they can access all the content for free...thank you DND Beyond!). Great video and keep them coming!
This book is interesting to me because I've been planning my first proper campaign for YEARS and the thing that would often get me stuck is the nature of my campaign: you start in a city that you cannot yet leave because it's effectively under siege by a giant herd of goliaths. You're looking for a way out of the city which takes you through its criminal underbelly and where you must join one and navigate the other various factions residing there, winning favors until you're trusted enough to join one of the small, elite escorts through the goliath blockade. In other words, a 1st through 5th level urban campaign with an emphasis on criminal factions, each with their own unique leader, could be god sent for me in terms of fishing ideas. As such, I'm curious how you found the actual encounters in the book? Would I be able to use those for inspiration in my campaign or are they too tied to the dynamics of the adventure and Waterdeep? One of the encounters for my own own campaign that I had been struggling with are a bank heist a la Harry Potter breaks into Gringotts (because one of the crime syndicates also own the largest bank in the city), but I haven't been able to find much help in that regard. Is the dragon vault anything like a bank befitting a fantasy setting?
I'm thinking of running this or curse of strahd for my group. A couple questions which is easier to run as a dm and approximately how long is each one?
a pretty late answer, but strahd is a lot harder. I'd suggest you to run this, and try to learn strahd in your free time because dragon heist is a lot easier to understand and you only need to read certain chapters for certain sessions, while you'll need to pretty much know everything about barovia while strating CoS.
Just got done running the first chapter of Dragon Heist. It's been almost 20 years since I played, playing mostly 2nd AD&D with THAC0 before migrating to the new d20 system that I played for about a year. Jumping back into it, though it had been quite a while was a cinch. Yeah, small rule changes here and there, but when you have a repository of the past, the changes are simple to grasp. What I found to be the most discouraging, even though primarily having been a player all my DnD life and with the large gap in playing, was the plethora of information given to the DM and the lack of information and set-up given to the player. I've been in many games where people run it off the cuff, and it rarely goes well and leaves players confused as to what to do next. So I did what any good player, who was actually trying to make a first time, concerted effort into DMing(not b.s. dming) would do. Make shit make sense. All the players I played with were brand spanking new new. Never having visited any world within the forgotten realms, Faerun seemed as good a place as any. I put together an introduction, spelling out their sub-continental location, the city in which they were located, the time of the year, local authorities, fighting amongst the black network and other criminal organizations, and pinned the player side of the map on the wall, because even though they were familiar with the layout of the town, being locals for the most part, they wouldn't be able to see the street names or the location of anything too important without asking me to check(which cost them a dc check). They were able to acclimate quite well and I was able to give a good, 5 minute introduction to Waterdeep. What killed me as a DM trying to take his job seriously was the fact that hardly any relevant information is given to the players. Not a description of the yawning portal, nothing. They went out of their way to build a story, but not a world, nothing to actually capture the imagination of the players, and left it bare minimum with text dialogues. To work out the first chapter into something that was playable and keep the new players interested on the path laid out took almost as much time as it did for the players to progress through the chapter. The development time for the entire chapter 1 took a total of 6 hours, including printing out NCP's, additional maps, extra code law sheets, ect to make it work. Thankfully, I was able to get about 7 hours of gameplay out of it. Though it was a great experience, I feel someone new to the game in general will not be able to run a game that leaves any impact on the players, or leave them coming back for more.
If a group wants to have a campaign that focuses more on diplomacy than combat, then doing it with lv 1heroes is great since at that point the heroes are quite weak and they don't have many options in combat anyway. For that reason alone, I like that it is a starting campaign. I am a huge fan of Matthew Mercer and Critical Role, so when I learned he was involved in the creation of this adventure I was hyped. Alas, right now I don't have anyone to play it with as my group's members drifted apart 1-2 years ago, but I would love to try it out at some point. Very interesting setting and ideas.
Love your review... I'm getting ready to run this campaign and have run into a snag. One of my Player characters is DragonBall. How do you handle Ahghairon's Dragonward? I'm guessing this would also ward off dragonborn as well. And you can't get a pass unless touched by the dragonstaff which is held by gold dragon outside the vault. Thanks in advance for your insights.
Part of my biased opinion is based on this being an urban setting and how hyped I was for that but I think this is a great adventure. If you can’t improvise then sure you will go down one path or another but this is your adventure as a DM group! Maybe the main villain is caught or your players expose him/her for breaking the law and the main villain changes during the adventure! Maybe Mashoon and the Zhents decide to work together with the drow to take over the city and destroy Xanathar and use your party as chess pieces to take out the opposing villain. There are ways to incorporate the lairs and the various parties to make the whole thing more complex. Since Xanathar likes the status quo but also wants to put a thorn in the side of Mashoon maybe he decides to create an uneasy truce with the Cassalanters. No one trusts anyone and they are all after power and wealth and the party is just trying to survive and keep the gold out of the hands of evil. There are ways to expand on this to go past while including everything in the book so you don’t have any “wasted content” so to speak. May favorite aspects of this are the incorporated of how well or much the world acts as a character through guilds and factions and how they affect the party and what they do. Alliances are a huge factor. Downtime plays into some of the early chapters. This is the kind of campaign that helps players - old or new - use their brains to role play more instead of becoming murder hobos due to the threat of arrest and other political moves that could hinder your party. You still kill things... in the first few moments your party is thrown into combat at the Yawning Portal and get your first gig because you helped kill a monster. This is still D&D. However it also asks you to your brain and reasoning to find alternative solutions to get what you are looking for and I love that. So if you are worried about wasted content then use your imagination and find a different way to include it. Later on in the story, the party has to find keys to access the dragon vault and maybe they haven’t obtained all of the necessary items so a NPC mentions seeing such item at one of the lairs. It’s a great purchase and the fact that it leads into Undermountain and you see the entrance to it from the get go had me hooked immediately. Purchased it and no regrets whatsoever.
I can't get over the maps... 😢 Black and white.... Plain... It seems like WotC was going for a vintage throwback to old-school maps or something. I don't know, they just don't do it for me.
I’ve been a player in this and found it frustrating. I kinda think our DM struggled running role play heavy stuff/ which is a shame as that’s how we like to play. More than a couple of times we found ourselves with no idea where to go next
Or even in a heist theme, as if you'd acquired the maps from spies, with their personal notes on them, etc. I expect the volume of maps they had to commission compared to other books made a difference in their choice. These are easier on a printer if you're going to copy them, but it sucks for people who stream or play online.
Not only that but they don't look polished to me, but like something _I_ would draw. I guess it's authentic for some DMs but it just looks worse overall in my opinion.
Huge thanks for a brilliant review, Nate. The book looks amazing and I can't wait to get my hands on it and run the adventure. Do you have any idea whether the old City of Splendors box set would make a fine expansion to the city materials in Dragon Heist?
Thanks so much, Anton. I don’t know anything about that boxed set, but I imagine any previous waterdeep material would make a great addition in terms of lore and fleshing out the city for possible sidequests and such.
I’m considering bringing my plane walking party of level 11 lunatics to run through this, mostly because they need the cash and I have a plan for Xanathar as an multiversal villain. I’m tempted to leave a few of the encounters as trivially easy, to get them to use their brains rather than cut their way through. Or I could scale it up , but I’m not sure it would be believable.
I'm currently wondering how easy it would be to move from from dragon heist into ghosts of saltmarsh, I've not read this book but maybe if you used jarlaxle as your villain it could be possible?
I'm a 2nd time dm whose currently running Lost Mines of phandelver but my PCs made characters that really fit an urban environment more. I'm planning on skipping lmop final dungeon and some side quests and nudging them to waterdeep. For people new to the backgrounds of waterdeep and dn d are the villains still fun? memorable
Hey I really enjoy your reviews. I've seen your review of Curse of Strahd, and am aware you have done one for Tomb of Annihilation (but I am trying to avoid spoilers for that one just in case). Did you ever read the Rise of Tiamat books or Out of the Abyss? If so I was wondering if you might give your opinion on those. I feel like many have gotten into the hobby after those were released. As such they have kind of fell to the way side. I am just wondering if you have read them and like or dislike them.
I don't know anything about Rise of Tiamat, but I do own Out of the Abyss and like it. Here's a video I made with my impressions: ua-cam.com/video/7zTw86zY8jI/v-deo.html
Спасибо за обзор, я уверен что тебе придется использовать переводчик чтобы понять что я пишу , но я слушаю тебя чтобы улучшить свой английский , но писать ещё не научился ) книга действительно крутая )
Personally, if I were running one of these campaigns I would probably get the screen. I have not run a full published campaign, and usually get these books for inspiration and collection. Therefore I don’t buy the screens.
Manshoon feels like a bit of an afterthought. I also don't like that Xanathar's guild is prominent throughout, makes him feel like he's the intended main villain. Otherwise I love this adventure!
I can see why you would say that. I certainly framed Manshoon to a bit that way in my review, simply because I don’t know that much about him. I don’t think The book itself treats him that way. Anyway, Xanathar is very central to the story, but if someone wasn’t using him as the villain, I actually think he would make a great potential ally. Still, he’s probably the least avoidable villain for sure. Thanks for the comment!
This is mostly a summary... I say this after watching half the video. Thank you for the info early on, but, as I don't want to know to much going into a buddy's campaign, I will be stopping half way through lol.
And I get that, but doing a chapter by chapter summary is not a review... If the review is at the end, then... I guess? And, I personally am not a man that cares about spoilers, I just don't want to much in depth knowledge that would then possibly lead me to metagame. Literally the only reason I stopped watching. I personally know nothing about the Faerun world, and want to know a bit of the basics of the Waterdeep lore going into my buddy's campaign of Dragon Heist just so I can build a character that would actually belong. So I have been looking up reviews and lore videos to listen and watch in my spare time since I do not own the books. Don't have the money for it lol. Again, thank you for the info, and thanks for the summaries of the first few chapters that I did watch. But, if it is going to be a chapter by chapter summary and not a review of how this campaign will affect Waterdeep... Well, I will stop watching for now :) as stated above. Keep up the good work, you actually did a good job of summarizing the info to where even I could understand with my limited world and lore knowledge ^^
Oh yeah, I totally get that. That's my style of review for the new D&D books. Summary and flip through with evaluative comments sprinkled in and a couple minutes of only evaluation at the end. And I can see that that's not for everyone. Sidenote - Have you seen the channel Jorphdan? He's an internet friend of mine and has a great video on Waterdeep. ua-cam.com/video/fBiQ1Ft5MJ8/v-deo.html and his focus is primarily Forgotten Realms Lore. Really great stuff.
Just found a playlist from the Forgotten Realms Lore channel, but I will give that one a look in a little while. I mainly just need to know the basics of the world so I can do this character I am working on, but then it will come down to me sitting down with the DM and hammering out the rest of the fine details. Because, let's be real, a Changeling going with the Clan Crafter background can be done in so many interesting and potentially funny ways ;) (Changeling + Dwarves lol)
Haven't gotten my copy yet, but I'm trying to find a way to transition to this from Curse of Strahd without level draining the whole party... I wonder if you could swap Strahd with Asmodeus for the child soul arc? Also, is the Volo's Guide chapter spoiler-free for players?
I'm going to be running and playing it. It's Going to be hard to not metagame. im making a tiefling fiend packed warlock, i hope its in summer, that should be fun!
Ok, I have a question. My group has just gotten tomb of annihilation, and it's hard to navigate for me as the dm. Should I look into this first? It seems easier to read through. Also, if I play tomb of annihilation (level 1-11) and THEN I go out and start playing this,(level 1-5) would it be too easy for my players?
Usually you'd start a new campaign with new characters. Play one adventure book, and then if you want to play another roll up some new characters. That's what works best imo. I can't say this is any easier to understand than Tomb of Annihilation. If you've never run DnD before and you are looking for a good starting point for a published adventure Lost Mine of Phandelver is quite good (And you can get the starter set for pretty cheap).
@@WASD20 Ok. I've made a bunch of extra character sheets that I'm looking forward to having my players use (or make their own). Thanks. I'm excited for ToA
Nah, just a submarine. I wasn't a Spelljammer player (I basically skipped 2e completely) so wasn't aware that there were manta-shaped jammers when I drew this.
Hey nate, I've just began to start playing dnd and I know this has nothing to do with what you are talking about but how go about using tools? Particularly theives tools. edit example being 1 d 20 + skill mod + prof?
Its 1d20 + dexterity mod + proficiency bonus (if applicable). one does not need proficiency in thieves tool according to Mike Mearls but DMs may say that ones does.
Would this be good for a new players or would MOP be better. Some of the players already played half of MOP that’s why I’m asking bc they might ruin it for the new ones
Somewhat. There are some well-known Waterdeep figures you may want to rename, and obviously find replacements for the various places. There are also some peculiarities of life in water deep here, but if your players don’t know Sharn all that well, you could probably get away with just the name changes.
Not really the best for total noobies but still a lot of fun. Having a hard time having my players "care" about anything NPCs, Laws, and Enemies alike. But I think that comes with time.
I know this video was posted some time ago, but I was hoping for some peoples’ opinions. I’m looking for suggestions on published, role play heavy adventures. I have one player who likes crime stuff and another who likes role play. anyone know of any books that might offer this combination? It doesn’t have to be about heist, but they’re not too excited about just killing monsters
I own this book and it is great fun, how cheesy though is it that Matt Mercer, listed as a story consultant in the credits, inserts himself in the Yawning Portal illustration? Very cheesy I guess, it's WOTC's blatant attempt to grab the Critical Role crowd. I like the rest of the book though
I love Jarlaxle, but the Cassalanters present a really big moral dilemma to the players, and knowing Jarlaxle, he would be the type of character who could find a way to insert himself regardless of what other villain you choose, so if you're up for editing stuff a bit, that could be interesting. But I love Jarlaxle and he's the kind of guy who would be very fun to play.
I liked the villains, but not as part of the adventure. More as a campaign setting. Which is my issue with the book. As a campaign setting to adventuring in Waterdeep it’s a decent start. The actual adventure is actually pretty bad, with a lot of stuff the players cannot possibly handle if they do end up at a lair, and terrible timing problems and railroading in the adventure itself.
2:50 "Someone has hidden half a million dragons in the City of Splendors"
Well... If that's not an adventure hook, I don't know what is.
How about wyverns? Drakes? No? Dragons it is!
"My wealth and treasure? If you want it, I'll let you have it. Look for it, I left it all at that place!"
I'm kind of glad that all the villains and their lairs don't get used in a major way in the adventure, since they can be used in later adventures. The true value of this book is a starting point for adventures in Waterdeep, not just the adventure in the book.
Great point!
Seriously, this seems to be the perfect book to expand off on. Add new NPCs, add new interested factions, throw in some side adventure and it holds great potential.
Thanks for the props on the maps. :)
Oh cool. Of course! I was incredibly happy to see they hired you for this. :)
Why don't digital versions of this module include maps as separate image files?
@@omlo9093 it depends on what program you are using. If you are using dndbeyond you can right-click the image and click save the image, which will then save the image at a high quality, there is also a player version of the map below them in a hyperlink same process. If you are using roll20 go to the map layer click the map press ctrl and z, it should make a version pop up of the map and again right click save the image.
Bro I love your maps
I freaked out when I saw Jarlaxle. Any RA Salvatore fans out there?
Same here haha
Yes. And jarlaxle is my favorite character
Me and my cat where watching this video together. Let me say she finds the movement of your hands entertaining.
I love the art showing story scenes with the kids: Nat, Jenks and Squiddly. Aka the EggoCrew. Now, I want to read/ write a story about them.
Sounds like a module that can be used to flesh out Rise of Tiamat. Faction quests for the Harpers and Zhentarim etc. One of the evil bad guys could be the Cult of Dragons trying to get the dragon hoard as offering to Tiamat's ritual. Could be nice optional tie ins for my players. As well as the whole extra stuff regarding giants and demons/devils content.
Enchiridion is Ancient Greek, pronunciation is something like "En-kai-rid-eon," definitely didn't learn this from Adventure Time nope
It is not really ancient Greek (in terms that we still use it) and it is more like "en-he-RI-thion" and it basically means guide (or more like a small quick guide) ;)
Same
it is Greek. derived from the Greek word ἐγχειρίδιον (enchiridion) referring to a small manual or handbook.
It's actually pronounced like: En-kee-ree-dyon
Are you guys PhD in random stuff? :v
Love the reviews man, I wish you had more views.
If you watch it over and over again they will
Honestly this was one of the best, descriptive guides ive seen amazing!
Cool. Thanks! :)
Cashe is pronounced “cash”. Cashet, meaning the state of being respected or admired, is pronounced “cash-ay”.
Great video, by the way. Keep up the good work.
Thanks!
@ddsoco1 The words you mentioned are spelled "cache" and "cachet," respectively, and not "cashe" and "cashet."
Thanks, as a french person (these words are french) I was very confused.
jihanj Indeed! Darn autocorrect. Tried to get the accent in there, and forgot to fix it.
frank sinatra Get ya Yellow vest on buddy!!!! Time to take back our planet
I would just use this book to flesh out the cities in my home brew world.
Keep up the good work Nate!
in the dnd camp, my friends and i ran, jarlax was our quest giver. after we became so bad ass, he "hired" us to do works for him.
we rode around on a magical flying sand/submarine/space/ship. how cool that the book says he does the same...
Man I just love that music at the start of the vids
I bought this on D&D Beyond. The book is an amazing read (something that e5 gets right: they make it fun for the DM to read). I love the concepts and the flavour of the adventure (while I have players who try to kill everything, this is more my style). I have yet to run it, though, but I am very excited!
Only downside with the digital version is no fold-out map. Real bummer, but other than that, all good.
I`m already saying this for more than 2 years, but never change the final music!
:D
Thanks so much! Your review helped me decide on my next campaign. My players were craving more roleplay, and I think Dragon Heist is the answer! Wish us luck and thank you again!
How did it go?
I think the levels for the book are based on the new progresion system, as there are items you can only unlock at tier . There's even the option of slow progression (crazy, who would've thought)
Just got the book a few weeks ago and am super stoked about how the book is laid out. I personally love the flow of it. I think it's a great intro story book. Due to the liner flow of it. Thanks for making content keep up the great work
Now, THIS is a book in my taste.
I can't wait to run this campaign!
I love the honesty in this review Nate. Extremely helpful and down-to-earth. Well done!
I'm usually a DM for players that love combat, exploring, and dungeon crawling, so I was a bit disappointed to hear that it may not fit our current playstyle. However, "Dungeon of the Mad Mage" sounds like it will be right up our alley, so I bought Dragon Heist and we'll give it a go. Hopefully, it will tie-in nicely with the Mad Mage. Plus, I need to work on my DM role-playing ability anyway. :)
Super stoked about the Map, the history of Waterdeep, and Volo's 30 page guide at the back of the book. I own the 2E "Volo's Guide to Waterdeep" so I can't wait to compare the two.
If I were gming this, I’d probably play it as the backbone of a somewhat ongoing campaign. This becomes the homebase of plenty of out-of-town adventures which can be as murder hobo… ey as you like. Those adventures then help to finance some of the expensive things being done in town.
My brother did this campaign at level 3, and ended at level 9, and killed Xanathar all by himself, soooo, all the other villains a re impossible to beat, but Xanathar should be easy enough to beat, you just have to be lucky on your rolls for when he shoots his laser beams.(BTW, he was a human fighter)
I expected this book to be a pretty short low page count book and that kinda put me off of it for a full price 50 dollar book. After this I definitely plan to buy it as soon as possible
I just picked up my copy today. Planning on reading some of it this weekend and possibly doing my own review. Enjoyed your review Nate.
Good video! I'm not a D&D player (just here out of curiosity!) , but the adventure looks well dome and lots of content.
Regarding the multiple antagonists and replayability, I agree I doubt you could replay with the same group without it being a little samey, but perhaps it is intended for GMs in that they csn rerun with different groups? With the different branching structure, it would be more interesting for the GM than a straight rerun.
Good review! Thank you.
That’s a great point.
Do you think this book would make for a good “Urban Adventure” framework?
Is there enough tips and mechanics for running the politics of the city and the different enemy factions and ally factions all in one city?
You know, I wish I had talked more about that. There's a lot here that would certainly help, but not as much as I'd hoped for when I first heard about this book. I think there's room for improvement from WotC in terms of giving tips for GMs who homebrew more. Might make their modules more appealing for a wider audience. Still, you get A LOT of info on Waterdeep in general here, so there's a fair bit of material for an urban sandbox.
WASD20 hey thanks that’s good to know!
This is tbe best review I have ever seen! Thank you so much from Russia.
Another great video Nate and thanks for that! I have decided to steer away from published adventures for my students and now I am having them tell me what they want to see in an adventure. Werewolves seem to be a popular theme! We tried running ToYP last year but it took way too long as we only met during lunches once a week. If you have any suggestions for brief adventures it would be much appreciated. We have begun to meet (will meet tomorrow at lunch) and we are developing new characters using DND Beyond (and me setting up a campaign so they can access all the content for free...thank you DND Beyond!). Great video and keep them coming!
This book is interesting to me because I've been planning my first proper campaign for YEARS and the thing that would often get me stuck is the nature of my campaign: you start in a city that you cannot yet leave because it's effectively under siege by a giant herd of goliaths. You're looking for a way out of the city which takes you through its criminal underbelly and where you must join one and navigate the other various factions residing there, winning favors until you're trusted enough to join one of the small, elite escorts through the goliath blockade.
In other words, a 1st through 5th level urban campaign with an emphasis on criminal factions, each with their own unique leader, could be god sent for me in terms of fishing ideas. As such, I'm curious how you found the actual encounters in the book? Would I be able to use those for inspiration in my campaign or are they too tied to the dynamics of the adventure and Waterdeep? One of the encounters for my own own campaign that I had been struggling with are a bank heist a la Harry Potter breaks into Gringotts (because one of the crime syndicates also own the largest bank in the city), but I haven't been able to find much help in that regard. Is the dragon vault anything like a bank befitting a fantasy setting?
Getting ready to run my first real campaign in a few weeks! I’ve been reading this module like crazy!
I'm thinking of running this or curse of strahd for my group. A couple questions which is easier to run as a dm and approximately how long is each one?
a pretty late answer, but strahd is a lot harder. I'd suggest you to run this, and try to learn strahd in your free time because dragon heist is a lot easier to understand and you only need to read certain chapters for certain sessions, while you'll need to pretty much know everything about barovia while strating CoS.
Just got done running the first chapter of Dragon Heist. It's been
almost 20 years since I played, playing mostly 2nd AD&D with THAC0
before migrating to the new d20 system that I played for about a year.
Jumping back into it, though it had been quite a while was a cinch.
Yeah, small rule changes here and there, but when you have a repository
of the past, the changes are simple to grasp. What I found to be the
most discouraging, even though primarily having been a player all my DnD
life and with the large gap in playing, was the plethora of information
given to the DM and the lack of information and set-up given to the
player. I've been in many games where people run it off the cuff, and it
rarely goes well and leaves players confused as to what to do next. So
I did what any good player, who was actually trying to make a first
time, concerted effort into DMing(not b.s. dming) would do. Make shit
make sense. All the players I played with were brand spanking new new.
Never having visited any world within the forgotten realms, Faerun
seemed as good a place as any. I put together an introduction, spelling
out their sub-continental location, the city in which they were
located, the time of the year, local authorities, fighting amongst the
black network and other criminal organizations, and pinned the player
side of the map on the wall, because even though they were familiar with
the layout of the town, being locals for the most part, they wouldn't
be able to see the street names or the location of anything too
important without asking me to check(which cost them a dc check). They
were able to acclimate quite well and I was able to give a good, 5
minute introduction to Waterdeep. What killed me as a DM trying to take
his job seriously was the fact that hardly any relevant information is
given to the players. Not a description of the yawning portal, nothing.
They went out of their way to build a story, but not a world, nothing
to actually capture the imagination of the players, and left it bare
minimum with text dialogues. To work out the first chapter into
something that was playable and keep the new players interested on the
path laid out took almost as much time as it did for the players to
progress through the chapter. The development time for the entire
chapter 1 took a total of 6 hours, including printing out NCP's,
additional maps, extra code law sheets, ect to make it work.
Thankfully, I was able to get about 7 hours of gameplay out of it.
Though it was a great experience, I feel someone new to the game in
general will not be able to run a game that leaves any impact on the
players, or leave them coming back for more.
I finished this campaign TODAY and I never went to xanathars lair. We basically just fought a fuck ton of gazers to make up for it.
This is very helpful! Thank you!
Thanks Nate, another great review!
I wasn't going to buy this book, but your review might have changed my mind. Thanks a lot. ;)
Great video!
I got a party of 4 players who are excited about playing this. Three of the players have never played D&D before. How is the story for new players?
I think it would be a lot of fun! As long as they’re ok with a bit less combat and more rp and creative problem solving.
I just got this today together with the Mad mage $15 2nd hand.
Thanks for the review!
If a group wants to have a campaign that focuses more on diplomacy than combat, then doing it with lv 1heroes is great since at that point the heroes are quite weak and they don't have many options in combat anyway. For that reason alone, I like that it is a starting campaign. I am a huge fan of Matthew Mercer and Critical Role, so when I learned he was involved in the creation of this adventure I was hyped. Alas, right now I don't have anyone to play it with as my group's members drifted apart 1-2 years ago, but I would love to try it out at some point. Very interesting setting and ideas.
Looks great. Thanks Nate!
Thanks for watching! :)
Love your review... I'm getting ready to run this campaign and have run into a snag. One of my Player characters is DragonBall. How do you handle Ahghairon's Dragonward? I'm guessing this would also ward off dragonborn as well. And you can't get a pass unless touched by the dragonstaff which is held by gold dragon outside the vault. Thanks in advance for your insights.
Part of my biased opinion is based on this being an urban setting and how hyped I was for that but I think this is a great adventure. If you can’t improvise then sure you will go down one path or another but this is your adventure as a DM group! Maybe the main villain is caught or your players expose him/her for breaking the law and the main villain changes during the adventure!
Maybe Mashoon and the Zhents decide to work together with the drow to take over the city and destroy Xanathar and use your party as chess pieces to take out the opposing villain. There are ways to incorporate the lairs and the various parties to make the whole thing more complex. Since Xanathar likes the status quo but also wants to put a thorn in the side of Mashoon maybe he decides to create an uneasy truce with the Cassalanters. No one trusts anyone and they are all after power and wealth and the party is just trying to survive and keep the gold out of the hands of evil. There are ways to expand on this to go past while including everything in the book so you don’t have any “wasted content” so to speak.
May favorite aspects of this are the incorporated of how well or much the world acts as a character through guilds and factions and how they affect the party and what they do. Alliances are a huge factor. Downtime plays into some of the early chapters. This is the kind of campaign that helps players - old or new - use their brains to role play more instead of becoming murder hobos due to the threat of arrest and other political moves that could hinder your party. You still kill things... in the first few moments your party is thrown into combat at the Yawning Portal and get your first gig because you helped kill a monster. This is still D&D. However it also asks you to your brain and reasoning to find alternative solutions to get what you are looking for and I love that.
So if you are worried about wasted content then use your imagination and find a different way to include it. Later on in the story, the party has to find keys to access the dragon vault and maybe they haven’t obtained all of the necessary items so a NPC mentions seeing such item at one of the lairs. It’s a great purchase and the fact that it leads into Undermountain and you see the entrance to it from the get go had me hooked immediately. Purchased it and no regrets whatsoever.
I can't get over the maps... 😢 Black and white.... Plain... It seems like WotC was going for a vintage throwback to old-school maps or something. I don't know, they just don't do it for me.
I’ve been a player in this and found it frustrating. I kinda think our DM struggled running role play heavy stuff/ which is a shame as that’s how we like to play.
More than a couple of times we found ourselves with no idea where to go next
Saw this as a common mistake DMs make. When I DM this , will probably help guide the players a lot more.
Great review, thanks Nate :)
Thanks. :)
The maps could atleast have some parchment'ish color shading, texture etc...
Now its just black/white...
Or even in a heist theme, as if you'd acquired the maps from spies, with their personal notes on them, etc. I expect the volume of maps they had to commission compared to other books made a difference in their choice. These are easier on a printer if you're going to copy them, but it sucks for people who stream or play online.
Not only that but they don't look polished to me, but like something _I_ would draw. I guess it's authentic for some DMs but it just looks worse overall in my opinion.
would this be a good adventure for a beginner group and dungeon master
I’m a new DM running it with 3-5 new players and one very experienced player and former DM. Things are going smooth so far.
@@petercarlson2680 thank you for this must try and get a group now and give it a go
Huge thanks for a brilliant review, Nate. The book looks amazing and I can't wait to get my hands on it and run the adventure.
Do you have any idea whether the old City of Splendors box set would make a fine expansion to the city materials in Dragon Heist?
Thanks so much, Anton.
I don’t know anything about that boxed set, but I imagine any previous waterdeep material would make a great addition in terms of lore and fleshing out the city for possible sidequests and such.
well i am getting that in my birthday soon
it looks cool
This sounds like it’d make an awesome Telltale style game.
Sad that the company is gone now.
Good vid, very helpful
I’m considering bringing my plane walking party of level 11 lunatics to run through this, mostly because they need the cash and I have a plan for Xanathar as an multiversal villain. I’m tempted to leave a few of the encounters as trivially easy, to get them to use their brains rather than cut their way through. Or I could scale it up , but I’m not sure it would be believable.
You'd better think again. Unless you have at least one player character allied with the correct faction, they come away with nothing.
@@KdogPrime It went well!
@@sammcgurran8142 Well, I'm glad you had fun with it. The only part of it I enjoyed was the part where it was over.
I'm currently wondering how easy it would be to move from from dragon heist into ghosts of saltmarsh, I've not read this book but maybe if you used jarlaxle as your villain it could be possible?
scared to rip the map out of the back, don't want to break binding, its stuck in there good
I'm a 2nd time dm whose currently running Lost Mines of phandelver but my PCs made characters that really fit an urban environment more. I'm planning on skipping lmop final dungeon and some side quests and nudging them to waterdeep. For people new to the backgrounds of waterdeep and dn d are the villains still fun? memorable
Pretty cool review. Thanks. I am really looking forward to my own copy of the book.
I am one of those who do not like Dyson's Logos maps XD
Regards!
I feel its too railroady. But I like alot of the mechanics and story.
Me at 17:43: ..... *cough* “Horde of the dragon queen.” *cough*
Hey I really enjoy your reviews. I've seen your review of Curse of Strahd, and am aware you have done one for Tomb of Annihilation (but I am trying to avoid spoilers for that one just in case). Did you ever read the Rise of Tiamat books or Out of the Abyss? If so I was wondering if you might give your opinion on those. I feel like many have gotten into the hobby after those were released. As such they have kind of fell to the way side. I am just wondering if you have read them and like or dislike them.
I don't know anything about Rise of Tiamat, but I do own Out of the Abyss and like it. Here's a video I made with my impressions: ua-cam.com/video/7zTw86zY8jI/v-deo.html
Спасибо за обзор, я уверен что тебе придется использовать переводчик чтобы понять что я пишу , но я слушаю тебя чтобы улучшить свой английский , но писать ещё не научился ) книга действительно крутая )
I want to run this, is there a pdf copy out somewhere with it shorted down about what happens in each chapter
Is it possible to have more than one of the villains? Maybe all of them at once?
Sure! Could be fun, but definitely makes things a bit more complex. :)
Hello, I'm a new DM and I'm looking for a good adventure for newbies to play after LMoP. Which one should I choose, please ?
Any chance anyone with the book can give the measurements for the map of Waterdeep? Looking to get a frame for mine when I order the book.
It seems pretty good so far, but no talk of the Plot Rock? It kind of sullied it for me in general.
Good ! Congratulation.
Reminds me of the Curse of the Azure Bonds.
That book should include an DM screen...
I disagree. You can buy these separately. amzn.to/2WtFlaa
Do you think you could plug in some of the dungeons from Tales from the Yawning Portal as side quests?
Absolutely.
Hi, would you suggest getting the specific dm screens for each adventure, or are they unnecessary and will the main dm screen work across board?
Personally, if I were running one of these campaigns I would probably get the screen. I have not run a full published campaign, and usually get these books for inspiration and collection. Therefore I don’t buy the screens.
Question could you per say use all the villains instead of choosing one ?
Manshoon feels like a bit of an afterthought. I also don't like that Xanathar's guild is prominent throughout, makes him feel like he's the intended main villain. Otherwise I love this adventure!
I can see why you would say that. I certainly framed Manshoon to a bit that way in my review, simply because I don’t know that much about him. I don’t think The book itself treats him that way.
Anyway, Xanathar is very central to the story, but if someone wasn’t using him as the villain, I actually think he would make a great potential ally. Still, he’s probably the least avoidable villain for sure.
Thanks for the comment!
A diffeerent approach but looks interesting even if I dont use the adventure a good looking resource for Waterdeep nonetheless.
This is mostly a summary... I say this after watching half the video. Thank you for the info early on, but, as I don't want to know to much going into a buddy's campaign, I will be stopping half way through lol.
Ah. Yep. I think it was pretty clear that the section after 2:30 was only for DMs. Even put big spoiler text across the screen.
And I get that, but doing a chapter by chapter summary is not a review... If the review is at the end, then... I guess? And, I personally am not a man that cares about spoilers, I just don't want to much in depth knowledge that would then possibly lead me to metagame. Literally the only reason I stopped watching.
I personally know nothing about the Faerun world, and want to know a bit of the basics of the Waterdeep lore going into my buddy's campaign of Dragon Heist just so I can build a character that would actually belong. So I have been looking up reviews and lore videos to listen and watch in my spare time since I do not own the books. Don't have the money for it lol.
Again, thank you for the info, and thanks for the summaries of the first few chapters that I did watch. But, if it is going to be a chapter by chapter summary and not a review of how this campaign will affect Waterdeep... Well, I will stop watching for now :) as stated above.
Keep up the good work, you actually did a good job of summarizing the info to where even I could understand with my limited world and lore knowledge ^^
Oh yeah, I totally get that. That's my style of review for the new D&D books. Summary and flip through with evaluative comments sprinkled in and a couple minutes of only evaluation at the end. And I can see that that's not for everyone.
Sidenote - Have you seen the channel Jorphdan? He's an internet friend of mine and has a great video on Waterdeep. ua-cam.com/video/fBiQ1Ft5MJ8/v-deo.html and his focus is primarily Forgotten Realms Lore. Really great stuff.
Just found a playlist from the Forgotten Realms Lore channel, but I will give that one a look in a little while.
I mainly just need to know the basics of the world so I can do this character I am working on, but then it will come down to me sitting down with the DM and hammering out the rest of the fine details.
Because, let's be real, a Changeling going with the Clan Crafter background can be done in so many interesting and potentially funny ways ;)
(Changeling + Dwarves lol)
Haven't gotten my copy yet, but I'm trying to find a way to transition to this from Curse of Strahd without level draining the whole party... I wonder if you could swap Strahd with Asmodeus for the child soul arc? Also, is the Volo's Guide chapter spoiler-free for players?
The players can actually gain access to the volos chapter in book somehow, I forgot how but the "enchiridon " is player friendly
From what I can tell, it is.
I'm going to be running and playing it. It's Going to be hard to not metagame. im making a tiefling fiend packed warlock, i hope its in summer, that should be fun!
Nice. Enjoy!
Ok, I have a question. My group has just gotten tomb of annihilation, and it's hard to navigate for me as the dm. Should I look into this first? It seems easier to read through. Also, if I play tomb of annihilation (level 1-11) and THEN I go out and start playing this,(level 1-5) would it be too easy for my players?
Usually you'd start a new campaign with new characters. Play one adventure book, and then if you want to play another roll up some new characters. That's what works best imo.
I can't say this is any easier to understand than Tomb of Annihilation. If you've never run DnD before and you are looking for a good starting point for a published adventure Lost Mine of Phandelver is quite good (And you can get the starter set for pretty cheap).
@@WASD20 Ok. I've made a bunch of extra character sheets that I'm looking forward to having my players use (or make their own). Thanks. I'm excited for ToA
It seems like calling gold coins dragons in a world that dragons actually exist in would get confusing.
Especially in a world where GOLD dragons specifically exist!
jarlaxx cant be a bad guy! otherwise known as jarlaxle
WHAT! That manta ray ship! Is THAT what I think it is!?...WHAAAAAAAAAAAT!!!
Some one please confirm.
It is a manta ray ship/submarine. And I think players have a chance to borrow it.
Into space? Spelljammer style? Because that looks like a particular type of ship from that setting. To bad if it isn't.
Nah, just a submarine. I wasn't a Spelljammer player (I basically skipped 2e completely) so wasn't aware that there were manta-shaped jammers when I drew this.
You just made me sad. :( Cool pic though. Looking forward to reading about it.
Hey nate, I've just began to start playing dnd and I know this has nothing to do with what you are talking about but how go about using tools? Particularly theives tools. edit example being 1 d 20 + skill mod + prof?
Its 1d20 + dexterity mod + proficiency bonus (if applicable). one does not need proficiency in thieves tool according to Mike Mearls but DMs may say that ones does.
@@danieldurham5891 awesome thanks man
Well......you just spoiled the whole adventure for me. Now I have no choice but to GM it for others. :)
Would this be good for a new players or would MOP be better. Some of the players already played half of MOP that’s why I’m asking bc they might ruin it for the new ones
Can you choose more then one villain?
Looks like thanos on the front
Agreed. That’s Manshoon.
How portable is this adventure to other settings? Like could this be ported over to Sharn in Eberron?
Somewhat. There are some well-known Waterdeep figures you may want to rename, and obviously find replacements for the various places. There are also some peculiarities of life in water deep here, but if your players don’t know Sharn all that well, you could probably get away with just the name changes.
@@WASD20 Whoah a helpful response. Thanks my dude.
It'd be interesting to play the Cassalanters in a more empathetic light. They made a stupid mistake and they just want to save their family.
I like it.
Thanos on the cover ;)
Samuel Haight yas me too
Not really the best for total noobies but still a lot of fun. Having a hard time having my players "care" about anything NPCs, Laws, and Enemies alike. But I think that comes with time.
Hey there! Is it possible to run this with a group which already reached 4th level?
It would take some adjustment of combat encounters for sure, but once you're comfortable with that it wouldn't be too bad.
Thank you very much for the answer. BTW: You make great and helpful videos! Thank you for that, too!@@WASD20
I know this video was posted some time ago, but I was hoping for some peoples’ opinions. I’m looking for suggestions on published, role play heavy adventures. I have one player who likes crime stuff and another who likes role play. anyone know of any books that might offer this combination? It doesn’t have to be about heist, but they’re not too excited about just killing monsters
I think this would be a better fit than most other adventures.
I own this book and it is great fun, how cheesy though is it that Matt Mercer, listed as a story consultant in the credits, inserts himself in the Yawning Portal illustration? Very cheesy I guess, it's WOTC's blatant attempt to grab the Critical Role crowd. I like the rest of the book though
só nerd nos comentários 😎👌
En-kai-riddy-on
What is everyone's opinion on the best villain / season to run the game in? Starting in a month or so.
I love Jarlaxle, but the Cassalanters present a really big moral dilemma to the players, and knowing Jarlaxle, he would be the type of character who could find a way to insert himself regardless of what other villain you choose, so if you're up for editing stuff a bit, that could be interesting. But I love Jarlaxle and he's the kind of guy who would be very fun to play.
Christian Bonet jarlaxle and cassalanters hands down
I liked the villains, but not as part of the adventure. More as a campaign setting. Which is my issue with the book. As a campaign setting to adventuring in Waterdeep it’s a decent start. The actual adventure is actually pretty bad, with a lot of stuff the players cannot possibly handle if they do end up at a lair, and terrible timing problems and railroading in the adventure itself.