# Hoard of the Dragon Queen



## Morrus (Aug 26, 2014)

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## Michael Long (Nov 12, 2014)

*5 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

So the adventure starts with a clear layout and takes the players through some pretty hard encounters.The DM needs to read through this book a few times to prepare for playing it, so that It doesn't appear like a big railroad campaign.  There are a lot of options that the players can make, and they can always circle around and find themselves in another part of the storyline.   So just prepare and understand what events are happening during the timeline.


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## Neuroglyph (Nov 12, 2014)

*4 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

Hoard of the Dragon Queen is a spectacular first campaign release for the new edition of D&D - and if this is indicative of future releases, 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons is off to a grand start. The adventure series is well written and presented, and balanced to offer multiple resolutions to encounters. The art and maps are lovely, and the illustrations are totally evocative of scenes and personages found in the adventure. Given that this campaign arc is designed to take place over eight levels of D&D play, there are a goodly number of sessions and hours of play in these adventures. The price for the content and quality are more than reasonable, and Hoard of the Dragon Queen has definitely gotten the launch of the new D&D with a mighty dragon’s roar!


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## Waller (Nov 13, 2014)

*2 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

I didn't think much of this adventure. It's very railroady, and some things just don't make sense, and the adventure drags in places.  On a more positive note, it is very pretty.


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## Chimpy (Nov 13, 2014)

*2 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

Having run through the first half of this adventure for the Encounters season, I am very disappointed with this adventure. For a start there are no plot hooks for the characters. They just arrive in Greenest and are expected to help. The flow of the adventure is very much "go here, do this" and it feels like every combat encounter is "1d6 kobolds and 1d6 cultists". Maybe if you're lucky there will be a guard drake as well! There are few maps, and the maps there are lack detail. The adventure notes seem to assume the players will go down a certain path. NPCs don't have many guidelines on how to roleplay them or what personality traits they might have. There isn't much in the way of non-combat encounters or challenges.As other people have stated, with work from the DM, these holes can be filled in. But if buy a published adventure, I expect all of this to be done for me and the adventure to be great as printed.


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## ashockney (Nov 13, 2014)

*4 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

Like it!  Using it!  Some REALLY great nuggets (ala the PF adventure paths) but certainly requires a healthy amount of tweaks to run and customize to campaign.


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## koga305 (Nov 14, 2014)

*3 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

Hoard of the Dragon Queen has a lot of good adventure ideas, but poor editing, lack of some key information, and some suboptimal design decisions make the adventure clunkier than it needs to be. It can still be a lot of fun to run, but definitely requires some DM prep time to smooth things out. I'd also check around the internet for advice and suggested fixes to some problem areas.


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## Weird Dave (Nov 14, 2014)

*4 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

Hoard of the Dragon Queen is a fun adventure that suffers a bit too much from travel issues in my mind. Some of the early chapters are a little heavy handed in what you can and can't do and are light on actual objectives, but those can be corrected with ease. The scope of the scenario runs the length of the Sword Coast in the Forgotten Realms setting, and a large portion of that scenario is contained in a caravan ride from point A to Baldur's Gate, and then from Baldur's Gate to Waterdeep. This is a long trek, which introduces some NPCs that can become important, but I feel that this part is what drags the scenario down. After the caravan trek, the adventurers begin to hop from place to place via portals - wait a minute! Portals? Where in the Nine Hells did all of these portals appear? Portals are a cheap way to circumvent actual travel and I feel should be used sparingly, otherwise you lose the sense of scale for the setting. Long trek and portal hopping aside, the adventure presents a lot of really cool set piece moments, some interesting villains, and the promise of a greater showdown in the second book.


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## Alphastream (Nov 14, 2014)

*4 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

This adventure tries to do a lot... and it manages most of what it sets out to do. It is full of great scenes, cool action sequences, great potential for player ingenuity and RP, and is fun to play and DM. However, it lacks the information to the DM to help enough tables have a smooth run without a lot of expertise and a lot of time thinking through the scenes before running them. I suspect that advice was hard to add because the team was already dealing with many changes due to the rules still being in flux as it was written. With that in mind, this is really a very good adventure. It also is far better than the quality of most of the published 4E adventure series that were released at 4E's start. Overall, it is an adventure worth owning and worth running.


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## aramis erak (Nov 14, 2014)

*4 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

This adventure can be run as a straight-up railroad of fights, or with considerable roleplaying. It showcases the difference between tiers in much the same way that the old B versus X module lines did. It has several "you cannot win" encounters, where the goal is to simply avoid being the target, and showcases some alternate approaches to actions that aren't actually in the Rules-As-Written.It has a few issues. Namely, mapping issues, some rules changes from the playtest, and some changes that didn't get made fully in the text.The dungeon maps are in 3 scales, and the overland maps in 4 scales as well. Some of the "dungeons" are 5' grids, some 10', some 20', and the grids look to be about 1/4" and 1/5" on the maps. One overland map is combined with a dungeon, at 20' squares, and is about 1/5" per square. One is about 1"=50', one is  and one is about 1"=100', another  1"=120mi, and most of these are both ungridded and not clearly labeled for scale. None of the maps are easily photocopied, either, making the making of battlemat maps from them a process of redrawing. The rules changes affect one scene severely - there's a scene where an NPC kicks an unconscious PC as part of the planned action. Unfortunately, this now does two failed death saves, since the effects of unconscious are higher than in the playtest rules. Several other situations are affected as well; one monster used to be a lot less dangerous than its 5E release version; it can, and given the chance, will, make mince of the probably 3rd level PC's who face it. On average, it will drop 4 per round...The traps are not all clearly defined, but there aren't too many of them, and they are thematically appropriate.Several of the encounters are beyond the ability of the characters to "win" them - there's nothing wrong with this approach, but it's fairly old school. Sometimes, the only way to win is to walk away.... other times, it's to fight like you can, and hope the enemy is a coward. There are encounters of both kinds here.It also makes use of the factions. It's a solid, well written, slightly rushed, and very pretty module. I'd rather have PDF, and have maps that can be easily blown up and printed out on a B&W printer.


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## froth (Nov 15, 2014)

*3 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

Decent adventure, but having to dl an additional document and the myriad errors (I printed off several pages of errata from Winter answering questions at the WOTC forums) really hurt the value.


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## SpaceOtter (Nov 15, 2014)

*3 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

A grand premise, some excellent concepts, but lamentably laden with errors (including missing map entries) and woefully lacking in flavour and that spark that elevates the mundane to the good. Some flavourful random tables for various locales and events would've helped tremendously. The authors could bear to spend some time looking at what makes some of the best OSR modules shine.


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## gweinel (Nov 16, 2014)

*2 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

The story has some very good ideas and concepts but they are ill-presented. Also there is no life in it. It is dull written. Also it has many mistakes in it and you have to rely in extra material from the net. I think the adventure is half-worked. It needed more material in it, more flavor and more polishing.I run this adventure and i have to re-written much of it in order to make it presentable to my players.


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## talien (Nov 16, 2014)

*3 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

Like Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle, this adventure seems to be way too hard for a well-equipped group of adventurers. It's almost as if nobody wants to make an actual 1st-level adventure and instead opts for something more suitable for 5th level characters. The adventure has a distinctly different feel from a dungeon crawl, but it throws a lot of random encounter fights that seem more like a grind. Between the dragon attack and the showdown, it seems 5E design is brutal for newbies. Our 4th-level party (three PCs, a ranger pony and a dragon) were hard pressed to survive all of the challenges -- and Lektra STILL lost to Langdedrosa.


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## machineelf (Nov 17, 2014)

*3 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

The book itself is great, with nice non-glossy pages that work well for highlights and notes, and beautiful art. But the campaign itself was lackluster and too much of a railroad.


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## Jhaelen (Nov 17, 2014)

*2 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

This module has a lot of problems. It's full of errors, it's incomplete, and it's a basically a railroad with little to no reasonable incentive for a party to follow. If it wasn't for the pretty nice presentation this would be a complete dud.


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## gnarm gimblegear (Nov 17, 2014)

*3 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

There are far too many editing errors for this first grand foray into the new edition of Dungeons & Dragons and that is likely due to the release schedule and the back and forth Kobold Press had with WoTC as the rules kept being refined at the same time this adventure was written. Those uncertainties show in the final product.The adventure itself seems to have a good framework, but it is going to take a loving DM to bring it home for his players. It is a large scale adventure without a lot of meat. I can only compare it to the 1st edition Dragonlance series and it pales in comparison to those classics.The next book in this adventure, Rise of Tiamat, however, seems to be a homerun. If the right DM can get his group through this part of the campaign, the later half will blow them away.


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## Lord_Blacksteel (Nov 17, 2014)

*3 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

Full review is in the link but the short version is that there is nothing especially memorable about this adventure. Add in some technical errors and it's not a terribly impressive first big adventure for 5th Edition D&D.


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## chibi graz'zt (Nov 17, 2014)

*5 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

Lets face it, few modules are perfect. But Hoard is an example of a fantastic module. This is the module that sets the storyline for the return of Big T herself and it starts off with a bang. I admit I will not run my group through this until they wrap up the Starter Box set module "The Lost Mine of Phandelver" which gives some story seeds for what is to come in the epic Tyranny of Dragons storyline (of which this module is part 1 of 2). The NPCs are clearly described, and the scenes are set up with a few minor corrections. Im of the opinion that not every module should be a bible, the intrepid DM should use it as a guide to change and modify as she's sees fit. The module offers these options, allowing DMs to tailor the combat to prescribed levels. In terms of production values, this module is beautifully laid out in full color with high quality paper that is thick enough for me to write on, and to scribble on margins. The book could use some pull out maps, but I dont mind because I have a Mega Battle mat that I can whip out. Excellent and highly recommended.


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## Midknightsun (Nov 17, 2014)

*3 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

I can see the book it wanted to be.  There's a lot of good stuff in there- but the errors and poor formatting really detract from the overall adventure.  A new DM would have their hands full pulling this off effectively.


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## Kaychsea (Nov 18, 2014)

*4 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

From a thematic point of view I have very few problems. As the first half of an epic quest it does what it needs to and, for me, in a fairly entertaining form. The issues that stop a 5 star rating are twofold: there are a number of production issues, mostly to do with maps, and some features of the game that didn't make it to the final version. Both, while annoying, is probably due to an aggressive time frame to get the adventure out there as soon as possible after the launch of the PHB, although the first should have been caught in proof.  As a figurehead it was never going to please everybody, and while I enjoy running it so far, I can see where things may grate with some. It does highlight a lot of the changes in the new system, non-balanced encounters, newly lethal combat.


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## Krypter (Nov 19, 2014)

*3 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

A great read but very difficult to run. You'll have to read this 2 or 3 times before you grok all the moving parts as most of it is written in a conversational style that makes it tricky to pull out key info during the game. I suggest you take notes while reading so that you have a summary of the most important NPCs, items and locations as the book doesn't do that for you. Monster stats are scattered across 3 products: this book, the monster manual and the online supplement (downloadable from wizards.com). Very confusing layout, though the illustrations are quite good and the quality of the physical book is excellent. Not the most amazing storyline but it does contain iconic monsters like dragons, giants & bullywugs along with locations like Baldur's Gate (only 3 paragraphs of detail), Waterdeep and Elturgard. You'll probably need to spice up the scenario locations as a lot of them amount to little more than dungeon-clearing exercises and the beginning episode is particularly difficult for 1st level characters and newbie GMs. The story can feel like a railroad and players will sense it and some of the railroad choices don't make much sense even in the context of the greater plot. The story design is definitely unpolished and seems to have suffered from multiple revisions before the core D&D 5E books came out (eg, weird references to "readiness" and monsters challenges being inappropriate for player levels). Overall: good production quality, difficult to run and only an average story (but it gets better in The Rise of Tiamat). Only recommended for experienced and creative DMs willing to do a lot of work.


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## Prism (Nov 21, 2014)

*4 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

Each of the episodes is pretty open ended in the ways you can deal with the problems set before the group. Plenty of skill, roleplaying and combat options. The links between the episodes are narrow though and like many adventure paths pretty linear. The actions starts hard and rewards cautious players


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## gorpybleeder (Nov 21, 2014)

*3 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

I will keep it short - first half is poor, second half is pretty good. Solution - play Lost Mines to get to level 5 - then jump in at the Mere of Deadmen part - problem solved. One thing that really bothers me is after they playtested 5E for so long - they still rushed the release of this adventure.  There are references to game mechanics (awareness) that did not make the cut, a bunch of map issues (missing numbers, numbers in wrong locations) and other errors.  A few can be expected and tolerated, but in this case they really stand out and ruin what is otherwise a finely presented book. Rise of Tiamat is much better. Still - the only true measure of worth is how much fun it will be to play.  I'm sure it will be a hit with my group and they aren't missing anything by jumping in half way. Glad I bought it from an online store at a big discount - not worth the full cover price.


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## GullyFoyle (Nov 24, 2014)

*4 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

Not for DMs that need hand holding, but a great storyline.


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## Warmaster Horus (Nov 24, 2014)

*3 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

[Some spoilers]

My party of 5 did were well challenged by most of the adventure but it is very scripted with little space for PC roleplay development or 'downtime'.The book is nice but has issues as noted in previous reviews. 

 The 'Wagon Train' portion drags on and on.  Also once if its' established that the PCs are hostile to the Cult their presence in the caravan becomes difficult to rationalize.  Post-Waterdeep they decided to just trail the wagons from a distance because it was just too much of a coincidence that they were still tagging along.

My favorite part was the swamp castle.  The PCs were able to ally with the Lizardfolk (after displaying their prowess to a significant NPC) to drive out the Bullywugs.  A night-time foray into the castle involving seizing the barbican & capturing the Bullywug leader was exciting where pre-planning and tactics paid off nicely.

The ending involves several CR 12+ creatures where the party are supposed to be ~7th level.  This is a significant issue as surviving that unevenly matched an encounter is likely a TPK.  There are ways to finesse some creative work arounds but if they don't work out the party is in trouble.  I still haven't run my group through the final chapter and inserted my own tangent to give them additional experience and downtime before throwing them to the final battle (which I won't allow until I feel they can handle it).


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## sgtscott658 (Nov 24, 2014)

*4 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

I thought the adventure was good solid D&D.


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## Bugleyman (Nov 25, 2014)

*2 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

WotC bravely brings its tradition of mediocre adventures in the era of 5th edition with this wholly unremarkable product. Unfortunately, it does so on ground which has already been tread by (the superior) Red Hand of Doom.

Pros: 

High quality full-color book with heavy paper.
Most of the art is good.
First major adventure available for the new edition.
Cons: 

Plenty of editing mistakes, some seemingly related to the fluid nature of the rules during development; Others...not so much.
Punishingly difficult in the early going. Zero PDF/eBook availability (at least at the time of this writing) is a MAJOR disappointment.
*(**---)*


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## Netherstorm (Nov 26, 2014)

*3 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

This is a flawed but ultimately very fun adventure. It kicks off in a truly epic fashion, but becomes a very, very long caravan journey as the PCs follow the illogical trail of the treasure (and by the way, the actual hoard of the dragon queen is the most pathetic dragon hoard in existence). There are a lot of great "classic" d&d tropes that are presented in a fresh manner. Too much is glossed over, and we could have used a few more memorable NPCs, but I assume that when you need to put 8 chapters in under 100 pages that there's not a lot of room for extra details. I have written about all of this extensively in my blog, Power Score.


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## The Escapist (Nov 29, 2014)

*3 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

While a few parts of the play experience are a major drag, Hoard of the Dragon Queen has plenty of top-tier play. DMs who like to cannibalize a good adventure for parts will find a lot to love inside Hoard. Groups that focus on big action and big excitement will also find a lot to enjoy, but those who want a lot of characterization might be left out in the cold.


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## Stormrazor2000 (Nov 30, 2014)

*3 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

I've been running this module for encounters at my FLGS and have had some very fun sessions. Primarily by doing some significant modification of it to make it memorable and challenging. In the hands of a less experienced DM who might run the adventure exactly as written, it would be an average adventure at best. As others have noted, this adventure as written is really more of railroady framework, which to a point I can forgive because it is clearly designed with Adventure League play in mind. What is less forgivable is how lifeless it can be and how little it helps novice DMs in running it. It relies far too heavily on the DM to recognize the really rough spots and to smooth them out or make them come alive.    With that said there are some very cool ideas in the adventure, and with the right DM and players it can be a lot of fun. Novice DMs should avoid this one and run the module in the starter set.


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## daringdirk1 (Dec 2, 2014)

*4 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

I like this adventure. I've read the common railroad complaint, but it's designed for Encounters. Casual players who show up at a store for a couple of hours to sling dice. they don't want a complicated open-ended hook, and there's not time for that anyway. Some rough patches technically, but it was being designed without the benefit of completed core books. It's a fun introduction to the Tyranny of Dragons storyline with memorable NPCs and well-balanced encounters.


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## Nikmal (Dec 10, 2014)

*2 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

There are just to many ambiguous encounters and such. To many things that the DM needs to do as far as random this or random that. To me if I wanted to do that as a DM I would make my own adventure instead of buying this book.


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## Mad Zagyg (Dec 14, 2014)

*2 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

Lots of bad decisions in the making of this product. Its heavily scripted and linear narrative keep the adventure from being very interesting. Also, an impossibly difficult and poorly constructed opening chapter leaves a bad taste right from the beginning.It would also be great of adventure designers could let go of the hardcover book format and go back to the "folio-style" adventures of old. Furthermore, I would greatly prefer the writing style of these adventures back off from the overlong instruction on NPC motivations and keep things down to the bare facts. These products should read less like instructive mini-novels and more like cliff notes.


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## delericho (Jan 10, 2015)

*3 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

The adventure is structured as eight parts that PCs basically have to follow in order, and there is minimal guidance for if they try to leave the path. However, that's not unexpected, nor necessarily a problem: this is an Adventure Path after all! I was pleasantly surprised, however, in how open many of those individual parts were to the PCs taking different approaches (they could fight through, they can evade some encounters completely, they can sneak around, they can negotiate). Parts 2, 6, 7, and to a lesser extent 8 are all strong here.

BUT... An Adventure Path that follows a strong story lives or dies on the quality of that story, and I'm sorry to say I found "Hoard of the Dragon Queen" deadly dull in that regard - for most of it, the PCs are in pursuit of an ill-defined treasure taken by some ill-defined cultists. Indeed, it feels like "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part One" or "Hunger Games: Mockingjay: Part One" in that regard - it's the first half of a story, where all the "good bits" are in the second part.

Ultimately, I can't recommend this adventure. It has some nice features, and isn't as bad as I'd feared, but it's still a Miss.


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## Bugbear70 (Jan 17, 2015)

*2 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

I really wanted to like (nay, love!) this adventure, as it was the maiden (adventure) voyage for the newest version of D&D.  But after completing the book with my players, I must say it is-at best-a hot mess. As with tRoT, there are inspired bits here, and parts that make me think "I can't wait to run this section."  But the majority of the adventure consists of inconsistencies, illogical situations, and entire chapters that can be skipped without missing a beat (I'm looking at you, hunting lodge). I totally get that Kobold Press was probably working with an incomplete, ever-changing rule-set as the release date approached, but I can only judge based off of what I spent my thirty bucks on. Now that the DMG has been released, just roll up a random adventure on the tables provided within-you'll come up with comparable quality at a much more affordable price.


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## Ezequielramone (Jan 20, 2015)

*4 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

I'm running this. it have some rule issues, but it goes very well.


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## barasawa (Jan 27, 2015)

*2 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

To keep it short, each chapter or encounter is written in a different style. Some have description boxs, some don't.  The editing is lousy, and more than once it was a metaphorical equivalent of "cut the red wire, turn page, only after you've reconnected the blue switch". There are things marked on maps that aren't listed. There are even more things that are listed but aren't on the maps. There are bizarre repeats of things on the maps as well. An example of that last one is Room 18, Talis's Bedchamber, of which the map shows three of them. Heck, they even change the orientation of the maps of different levels/floors without giving direction indicators.  That's only the tip of the problems with this adventure. One has to wonder if the playtesters and the editor even looked at the same document that was published.


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## EthanSental (Feb 3, 2015)

*4 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

I enjoyed pouring over the adventure, excellent art and over all feel to the book.


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## Flexor the Mighty! (Feb 9, 2015)

*2 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

Like any AP its quite railroady, but it goes beyond that.  Often the actions of the players have little to no effect on later encounters. The half dragon in E1 is a prime example.  E4 is quite poorly constructed and doesn't really revolve around the actions of the PC's in any event. And veteran players without a sense of plot immunity may just refuse to bite on the hooks in any event.  And errors abound in the writing.  A lot of work is required to make this playable, too much work.  I'd avoid Kobald Press written products in the future I think.


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## mxyzplk (Feb 11, 2015)

*2 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

I can see how they came to the decisions they made when devising this adventure.  "It should have a dragon!" "It should be epic!" "It should have some old school feel, but you know, with some 4e style setpieces!" "New gamers will be playing it, don't confuse them!" Unfortunately, what results is a bit of a mess.  Super railroaded to the point where they come out and say "it doesn't matter what they do here, this is what happens..." Weird repetitive grind. A barest nod to roleplaying, character hooks, etc. It could be converted into a good adventure.  But it might be less work to convert a good adventure to 5e.


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## Slamm-O (Feb 22, 2015)

*4 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

All the players had a great time. DM said he needed to read ahead and make plenty of notes but good adventure


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## JEB (Apr 9, 2015)

*3 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

This first half of Tyranny of Dragons tries to be both a series of standalone episodes and a continuous storyline, but doesn't quite manage either. Most of the segments are just OK, although there are some better bits in a few sections (the caravan, the swamp castle, and the finale).


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## scrubkai (Apr 10, 2015)

*2 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

Over all this is at best an average adventure.The production value is very good, but editing errors abound and you can tell that it was developed while the rules were not locked down yet.There are numerous areas where the encounters are not well balanced, and some places make references to uses of skills that don't really match the way the final rule set uses them.However for me the most disappointing part of the book is that the story is just average at best.   There's very little that is memorable outside of brief references to major Realms locations.  However even those locations are never detailed, they rely on you having prior knowledge/books.Overall a disappointing entry to the 5E line and well below the Kobold Press standard I am used to.


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## Talmek (Apr 27, 2015)

*3 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

There are quite a few editing errors within WotC's adventure, Hoard of the Dragon Queen. In order to circumvent these a DM will have to prepare in advance (approximately 2 hours dependent upon the DM's experience) per session in order to flesh out and catch them prior to actually playing the module. If your intent is a ready-to-play adventure straight out of the book then this will most likely leave you disappointed. If, however, you prefer to add and modify adventures then HotDQ will be right up your alley. Our group has started playtesting and have had a number of opportunities to customize and add to the overall experience.


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## Donny Rhye (Apr 30, 2015)

*5 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

Starts off with throwing the players right into the action. Alot of little things the DM can play with right at the start. Has great pacing never hit a part where I was like just have to get past this to get to the good stuff. Anyone could take bits and pieces of the adventure and just run those by themselves episode 4 gives a great example of things to do with caravan guard duty. Episode 5 and 6 could be rolled into a separate adventure about missing people. Episode 7 and 8 could be combine into another adventure. Was very pleased with this.


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## Dvaldin (Jun 11, 2015)

*3 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

4 Stars for Experienced Players, 2 stars for Beginners bring this to my 3 star rating.  As our little group does not meet that often, we just finished this one recently. This adventure is apparently set up to be an introductory to tabletop and role-playing, but I don't know just how good of an introductory it is, judging by other things I've read.  Any adventure is only as good as its DM and their improvisation reacting to what the players do. Hoard of the Dragon Queen (HotDQ) is great with a good DM, but for new DMs and players, I can see it being a nightmare. "Oh, there's a blue dragon. We obviously have to fight it..." No, at first level, you run and hide unless you've got some gimmick going on. Heck, even at higher levels you run and hide from adult dragons. I'd guess around level 8-10 you might have a chance of everyone living...maybe. Those of us who've played for a long time well know this, but video game mentality does not -- and should not ever -- translate to table-top RPG's.  Then again, maybe deciding to fight a dragon and learning that it's a big deal is just what they need.  The biggest problem with HotDQ is the layout, and I know I'm not the only one to say this. The book is so scattered, it's a real pain for the DM to have to be flipping back and forth between the pages, and I can see new DMs especially struggling with that.  The module format works better for maps and all. I don't know why you change that. D&D 5E has so much going for it with the new rules, Monster Manuel and DM Handbook. I remember one comment from WotC that they were surprised most of the player input they received was for less rules not more. Which just goes to show how designers just don't seem to 'get it.'  The DM is the game master. The rules should always take a backseat to their choices. Rules-laden rpg's take too much time. I don't want to have to be solving a freaking math equation when I'm playing. HotDQ has a lot of great encounters if the DM studies up beforehand, and Episode 8 is fantastic and a real Epic ending. It's the best session our group has had, and not everyone lived through it.  So, if you're experienced, I'd say go for it. If not, you should probably wait until there's more agreement on "If you're new, buy this one." Otherwise, I'd recommend new DMs use their imagination and create their own little adventure. That's the best experience they'll get.  If they can't do that, they need to reconsider being the Dungeon Master.  If the old Keep on the Borderlands converts well to 5E, that's a good place to start also.


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## born2streak (Jun 17, 2015)

*3 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

It's a bit sparse, but overall not bad. Certainly not the friendliest adventure for the inexperienced DM. It's going to need some work to really get the most out of this product, but it gives a decent framework to hang things on.


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## Jester David (Jul 31, 2015)

*2 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

This is a quick, partial review, as I reviewed this product alongside it's sister, Rise of Tiamat.

 I wanted to like this product, but it was deeply flawed. Much of it is unlikely the fault of the authors and more the changing rule system, unfinished encounter design rules, and shifting monster statblocks. Regardless, the product provides some nice sources of inspiration and many episodes that could be pulled out of the narrative and effortlessly dropped into a larger campaign like a self-contained module. 
Despite the complaints of being a railroad adventure, the episodes provide a lot of freedom for players to tacking the presented trouble however they want. A good DM could probably turn this into an excellent adventure and a lot of fun for their players with some moderate effort. 

Read my full review of Tyranny of Dragons here:http://www.5mwd.com/archives/2890


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## Mercule (Nov 2, 2015)

*2 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

There are some fantastic ideas in this book. I mean really, really great ones. I wanted to like the adventure. I tried really, really hard. Ultimately, though, I couldn't even run it. Others have said it's a bit railroady. That's a huge understatement -- like saying a Micheal Bay movie "might require some suspension of disbelief". Hoard of the Dragon Queen is about as friendly with free will as Game of Thrones is with prudery and pacifism. Because of that, the adventure, as written is of little use to any group that doesn't love following the dots painted on the floor. A good DM could take the various encounters and other ideas out and reconstruct them into a great adventure, but they're connected by too fine of a thread, in the printed work. As a "Book of Lairs", it has reasonable quality of content, though very sparse quantity for that. As an adventure, it fails utterly, requiring enough work to spoil the whole point of buying a printed adventure (save on prep time). It gets no stars from me, for an adventure, but the encounters and story outline give it an unintended two stars. Even then, it's not worth more than a few bucks at the used book store. Save your money.


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## RadarMonk (Nov 7, 2015)

*3 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

When I ran this adventure with my group, I found it a bit railroady. It kind of assumed the PC's would follow the adventure in a linear fashion, which of course my PC's didn't. I also think the monsters, especially unique ones and bosses, should be harder. My group of three moderately optimized PC's destroyed all the bosses easily, Overall not bad, but it could be improved.


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## SailorNash (Dec 18, 2015)

*3 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

I liked how it starts off with a bang, and introduces some core thematic elements early. But a good portion of the story is riding along on generic caravan duty, and the vast majority of the monsters are "kobolds again?!?" I wasn't bored, but at points did feel like I was simply following the tracks.


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## Evhelm (Dec 26, 2015)

*4 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

Hoard of the Dragon Queen is best thought of as a middle-man. Play it after the Starter Set (and carry the characters over), and use it to lead into Rise of Tiamat. As a stand-alone adventure, it fails to shine. Worth doing, but it does have its problems! The production values (artwork, binding, etc.) are what move this from an average product to a good one.


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## Shagamemnon (Feb 20, 2016)

*3 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

I ran this campaign shortly after it came out (including its sequel, Rise of Tiamat). There have been a lot of complaints written about it, but I think that it is a good starter adventure for gamers returning to the table after a long time away or for completely new players. It is not the best adventure I have played in or run, but it certainly not the worst. It is simple, fun and quintessentially D&D.


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## 5Shilling (Apr 28, 2016)

*2 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

I was rather disappointed with this book. Other than the various dungeons there is not a lot for a DM to work with. NPCs are given hardly any description or characterisation (the best descriptions appear in the wagon train chapter, for NPCs who are unlikely to appear anywhere else). Likewise little insight is given into the actions of the villains until the very end. Very little help is given to the DM for running the city and HQ sections of the adventure (it seems to have been written with the expectation that the DM would also buy the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide). The individual dungeons have some nice layouts and set-pieces, but everything connecting them is very weak. While the larger illustrations and maps are attractive some of the individual character art is very poor.I would recommend this only for experienced DMs who can adapt and fill in the gaps, and who really want to run a heavily dragon-themed campaign.


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## Gradine (Feb 15, 2018)

*4 out of 5 rating for Hoard of the Dragon Queen*

Hoard of the Dragon Queen was much maligned in its day, and in some cases rightfully so. I hope to make the case, however, that it's actually a great product for new players and experienced DMs. Experienced players and new DMs, on the other hand, may wish to pass on this one.

For starters, this is a not a "run-this-right-out-of-the-book" module. It has a lot of holes and gaps that could easily be glossed over, but an experienced DM will know to fill with their own or adapted material. As a result, HotDQ is one of the most adaptable APs WotC has yet to produce. An incredibly popular choice is to add the Murder in Baldur's Gate adventure to Chapter 4 when the PC's arrive in that city, for instance. The module does not really hold the hands of the DM in any way; and newer DMs or DMs who are buying a module to avoid all of that extra work will understandably want to choose another AP. DMs that do put in that extra work, however, are sure to find themselves (and their players) greatly rewarded for the effort.

The module, at least in its first half (Chapters 1-4), _does_, however, hold the hands of the players. It's not quite as railroad-y as many of the AP's detractors like to claim, but it does provide a very firm structure that loosens up only slightly until the reins slip entirely by Chapter 5. Experienced players should still find plenty of opportunities to stretch out their limbs and accomplish their goals as they see fit during this period, but newer players will definitely not find themselves at a loss for what they're supposed to be doing and how they're supposed to accomplish it. This is actually part of the ingenius design of this AP for new players: each of the first four chapters presents a very different mode of play (combat-focused mission-based, infiltration/subterfuge, dungeon crawl, and primarily social encounters, respectively) that allows new players to experience a lot of what D&D has to offer, and enveloping all three pillars of play.

As I mention, the reins slip entirely by the time the players get to Chapter 5 (and certainly by Chapter 6). There's still a very definite trail of breadcrumbs to follow and it is, strictly speaking, a fairly straight line. But each of these four chapters are primarily site-based. Each one has a definitive goal (typically, find out where the Hoard went next) but it no longer holds the players' hands; they're free to use any of the skills they've learned (both as players and as PCs) to try to accomplish this. Players can choose to either fight or talk their way through each and every one of these chapters, with varying degrees of difficulty and outcomes. Naerytar and Skyreach (Chapters 6 & 8) in particular provide great playgrounds for new players to practice what they've learned about the game in the earlier chapters. 

The plot, such as it is, is fairly bare-bones. A cult wants to resurrect an evil god and is raiding the countryside gathering a great treasure hoard with which to appease her. There's nits to pick to be sure. Their route is senselessly complicated, mostly out of subterfuge to throw off their enemies. Hardcore FR lore-nerds may bristle at the re-purposing of the Cult of the Dragon in completely changing their beliefs and methods (though the resulting schism does play a minor role in the story). There's some pretty major issues that should have been caught in editing: you'll at least want the official errata, if not the fan-compiled errata and clarifications document that's been floating around the web. The maps are not particularly useful and full of errors; there's game design and rules issues due to last-minute rules changes before all of the core books were published that shouldn't have made it to print; if you've done even a cursory bit of research about HotDQ you're aware of all these. Other quibbles you'll hear are merely matters of subjective play-styles, owing primarily to the nature of the first half of the book (you'll hear about how Chapter 1 or Chapter 4 are some folks' favorite or least favorite parts of the adventure, for instance). And that's bound to happen with any module that zips back and forth between such drastically different modes of play. But given the intent, to introduce new players to these playstyles, I think this has unfairly dragged down the overall opinion of the module.

So no, it's not perfect. But it's got combat, exploration, and social encounters in spades. It holds new players hands, but gives experienced players plenty of room to show off what they can do. It demands a lot out of DMs, more than most published modules certainly, but it has a lot to reward for the effort put in. The story might not make much sense to a diehard Forgotten Realms fan, but to a new player (or as an adaptation) it's a pretty classic setup with a good deal of payoff. 

Ultimately, it's got dungeons, and it's got dragons. What more could you ask for?


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