New adventure - Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage

[Big Mac]

Wizards of the Coast have a page up for Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage. Here is the blurb:

Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage
Adventure for levels 5-20
By Wizards RPG Team

Product Overview



The Greatest Dungeon of Them All

Explore the mega-dungeon of Undermountain in this adventure for the world’s greatest roleplaying game.

In the city of Waterdeep rests a tavern called the Yawning Portal, named after the gaping pit in its common room. At the bottom of this crumbling shaft is a labyrinthine dungeon shunned by all but the most daring adventurers. Known as Undermountain, this dungeon is the domain of the mad wizard Halaster Blackcloak. Long has the Mad Mage dwelt in these forlorn depths, seeding his lair with monsters, traps, and mysteries—to what end is a constant source of speculation and concern.

This adventure picks up where Waterdeep: Dragon Heist leaves off, taking characters of 5th level or higher all the way to 20th level should they explore the entirety of Halaster’s home. Twenty-three levels of Undermountain are detailed herein, along with the subterranean refuge of Skullport. Treasures and secrets abound, but tread with care!

Item details

Price: $49.95
Release Date: 13 November, 2018
Format: Hardcover

So that's an entire campaign in two books!

And Chris Perkins said there might be something else going on...although he was probably joking.

[Zeromaru X]

100 dollars for the whole experience? (I mean this one and the other) Converting that to my country's currency and it wouldn't be wise to buy this... I have a feeling that 5e is the elitist edition of D&D

OTOH, glad to see an adventure that goes up to 20th level at last.

[Dread Delgath]

One adventure for 1-5th levels for $50.00? That's a little steep.

[Tim Baker]

100 dollars for the whole experience? (I mean this one and the other) Converting that to my country's currency and it wouldn't be wise to buy this... I have a feeling that 5e is the elitist edition of D&D

OTOH, glad to see an adventure that goes up to 20th level at last.

While I want to support friendly local game stores, if the full price is restrictive, especially given currency conversion, you may want to look to see if you can find a less expensive somewhere like Amazon (not sure if they sell products where you're at).

And with D&D Beyond, there's a digital option that usually runs around half the price of the physical book.

[willpell]

Hm. Another two-parter like Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat? Given that the books are fifty bucks each, I hope there's some damn compelling reasons why you'd want to buy both of them, but that you're not utterly punished if you only get one.

[Dread Delgath]

Hm. Another two-parter like Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat? Given that the books are fifty bucks each, I hope there's some damn compelling reasons why you'd want to buy both of them, but that you're not utterly punished if you only get one.

Given the choice, if I were to only get one of them, I'd get the 5-20 level one, since I've yet to run any adventure of any edition for characters higher than 10th level. I kinda want to see how WotC handles the monster & encounters, and see if they do anything I might be able to use.

*Two exceptions: in 1981 when I first got G1-2-3 "Against the Giants" for 1e; it combined the 3 classic giants modules into one green slip-cover module (for which I only had Holmes Basic rules and BX to run it with!) and my current 5e campaign that has 4 10th level characters.

[finarvyn]

Well, if I understand correctly, the first hardback is all about city adventures in Waterdeep and is probably full of intrigue and such as you work your way up to 5th level. Then the second hardback is the megadungeon crawl of the Mad Mage. I assume that one could have fun with one or the other without both, but together they form a consistent storyline. (Sort of like the Tomb of Annihilation, where the first stage is a wilderness sandbox and the second stage the Tomb, but in two volumes instead of one.)

[shesheyan]

Very intrigued by both products. I'll wait for reviews. I was disappointed by the transition between Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat.

[finarvyn]

Very intrigued by both products. I'll wait for reviews. I was disappointed by the transition between Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat.

The big thing for me is that I loved HotDQ but felt like RoT was a totally different power scale. Maybe my characters didn't level up enough before trying to second book. What about the transition didn't you like?

[shesheyan]

Very intrigued by both products. I'll wait for reviews. I was disappointed by the transition between Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat.

The big thing for me is that I loved HotDQ but felt like RoT was a totally different power scale. Maybe my characters didn't level up enough before trying to second book. What about the transition didn't you like?

Same as you. Rise felt like a different type campaign. Plus, the last encounter of Hoard ended with a big battle on a sky forteress. Then, in Rise, the characters start in Waterdeep with no explanation. I had to make up a 4-hour sessions of transition. Wasn't happy about that.

[shesheyan]

Very intrigued by both products. I'll wait for reviews. I was disappointed by the transition between Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat.

The big thing for me is that I loved HotDQ but felt like RoT was a totally different power scale. Maybe my characters didn't level up enough before trying to second book. What about the transition didn't you like?

Here is our original review/discussion about HotDQ : viewtopic.php?f=81&t=12546

My campaign collapsed soon after the start of Rise. We lost a player. With only two players it wasn't viable anymore. They didn't want to play 2 characters each and I understand them completely. And I never run more then one NPC for the group.

[willpell]

[My campaign collapsed soon after the start of Rise. We lost a player. With only two players it wasn't viable anymore. They didn't want to play 2 characters each and I understand them completely. And I never run more then one NPC for the group.

Why not just have a party of two PCs? Fahfrd and the Gray Mouser comes to mind.

[shesheyan]

[My campaign collapsed soon after the start of Rise. We lost a player. With only two players it wasn't viable anymore. They didn't want to play 2 characters each and I understand them completely. And I never run more then one NPC for the group.

Why not just have a party of two PCs? Fahfrd and the Gray Mouser comes to mind.

Its all fine for a novel (which I love), but I find its difficult with D&D to have less than three characters. More so with the Dragon Queen series of modules which is very combat oriented. As soon as one character is down there is a real chance for TPK even if you adjust the encounter rating. Not enough dice are being rolled. Note that I roll in front of the screen - no fudging of dice.

[willpell]

Well, the traditional dragon slayer doesn't even have one buddy to help him get back up if he goes down. You need to shift your thinking away from the traditional D&D approach, and have players willing to take the danger more seriously, instead of being like "I have six whole hit points, it's fine". But it can work.

[shesheyan]

Well, the traditional dragon slayer doesn't even have one buddy to help him get back up if he goes down. You need to shift your thinking away from the traditional D&D approach, and have players willing to take the danger more seriously, instead of being like "I have six whole hit points, it's fine". But it can work.

I understand you are trying to help. But been there, done that. Each time, even with super cautious and cunning players, there comes a time, at higher levels, when only 2 characters just doesn't cut it. Every time we ended with 4 characters played by 2 players. Two main characters and two secondary characters that don't role-play. The best attempt was with a Wizard and a Druid of level 8+. The wizard had a cleric «follower» and the druid had a «fighter» follower (a bit like Ars Magica). If you want to play 2 character groups its best to play another system that supports that type of play. Granted 5E characters are more robust because of HDs self-healing and the Rest system but mechanically the system is not balanced for 2 characters. In any case I prefer having 3 or 4 players around the table. The dynamic is more fun than with just two players.

[Cromstar]

Its easily doable...you just can't run the same kind of campaign you would for a large party. The key is to write adventures fit for the party size, whatever size that party is. So, say, I wouldn't send a party of 2 PCs after a dragon to kill it in combat. 2 characters could, however, run a thief-style campaign in a city just pulling off fun and elaborate heists, where they don't have to worry about ever-increasing combat encounters like a larger party might.

That does mean you probably aren't going to run a lot official adventures for a party of 1 or 2 players, of course. Or at least, not without some serious modding.