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Big Mac
- Giant Space Hamster
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by Big Mac » Sun Jun 03, 2018 8:38 pm
Wizards of the Coast have a page up for
Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage. Here is the blurb:
dnd.wizards.com wrote: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.
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Zeromaru X
- Scion of Arkhosia
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by Zeromaru X » Sun Jun 03, 2018 9:17 pm
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.
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Dread Delgath
- Cloud Giant
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by Dread Delgath » Sun Jun 03, 2018 10:14 pm
One adventure for 1-5th levels for $50.00? That's a little steep.

A big THANKS! to Giant Space Hamster & Chimpman for the cookies! (Dark Side be damned!)
My D&D 5th edition Dakan Mar Campaign setting
Conspectus and
Campaign Rules here at The Piazza Forums, a Fool's Errand WIP.
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Tim Baker
- Axe Beak
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by Tim Baker » Sun Jun 03, 2018 11:52 pm
Zeromaru X wrote: ↑Sun Jun 03, 2018 9:17 pm
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.
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willpell
- Black Dragon
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by willpell » Mon Jun 04, 2018 9:08 pm
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.
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Dread Delgath
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by Dread Delgath » Tue Jun 05, 2018 2:22 am
willpell wrote: ↑Mon Jun 04, 2018 9:08 pm
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.
A big THANKS! to Giant Space Hamster & Chimpman for the cookies! (Dark Side be damned!)
My D&D 5th edition Dakan Mar Campaign setting
Conspectus and
Campaign Rules here at The Piazza Forums, a Fool's Errand WIP.
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finarvyn
- Gnoll
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by finarvyn » Wed Jun 13, 2018 10:01 pm
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.)
Finarvyn
Earl of Stone Creek, C&C Society
OD&D Discussion player Since 1975
I'm partly responsible for the S&W White Box
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shesheyan
- Cardboard Hero
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by shesheyan » Wed Jun 13, 2018 10:18 pm
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.
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finarvyn
- Gnoll
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by finarvyn » Thu Jun 14, 2018 1:45 pm
shesheyan wrote: ↑Wed Jun 13, 2018 10:18 pm
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?
Finarvyn
Earl of Stone Creek, C&C Society
OD&D Discussion player Since 1975
I'm partly responsible for the S&W White Box
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shesheyan
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by shesheyan » Thu Jun 14, 2018 2:00 pm
finarvyn wrote: ↑Thu Jun 14, 2018 1:45 pm
shesheyan wrote: ↑Wed Jun 13, 2018 10:18 pm
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.
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shesheyan
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by shesheyan » Thu Jun 14, 2018 2:47 pm
finarvyn wrote: ↑Thu Jun 14, 2018 1:45 pm
shesheyan wrote: ↑Wed Jun 13, 2018 10:18 pm
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.
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willpell
- Black Dragon
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by willpell » Thu Jun 14, 2018 9:41 pm
shesheyan wrote: ↑Thu Jun 14, 2018 2:47 pm
[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.
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shesheyan
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by shesheyan » Thu Jun 14, 2018 9:50 pm
willpell wrote: ↑Thu Jun 14, 2018 9:41 pm
shesheyan wrote: ↑Thu Jun 14, 2018 2:47 pm
[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.
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willpell
- Black Dragon
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by willpell » Fri Jun 15, 2018 11:15 pm
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.
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shesheyan
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by shesheyan » Sat Jun 16, 2018 12:44 am
willpell wrote: ↑Fri Jun 15, 2018 11:15 pm
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.

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Cromstar
- Hobgoblin
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by Cromstar » Sun Jun 17, 2018 1:14 am
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.