Extended Dragon Heist

System: D&D 5e – Forgotten Realms, Waterdeep: Dragon Heist
Platform: Online, Voice + video
Time zone: GMT+1/2 (Central Europe)
Schedule: Friday evenings
Looking for: Dungeon Master

Prerequisite: We prefer to play with someone around the same age as ourselves (30s?) and we are looking for a friend, not a paid, professional DM.

(PS.: One (1) player is familiar with Dragon Heist, and she is also writing this post.)

Imagine Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, but alongside the chase for gold there are numerous complex schemes and conflicting interests between the factions. Are the Harpers experiencing disappearances in their ranks? Have members of the Order of the Gauntlet become corrupted and are sabotaging their organization’s purpose from within? Were the suspicious Luskan visitors not quite as shady as they first appeared?

Bring in all the factions and all the villains in one extended political intrigue campaign where the chase for the treasure of Lord Neverember is only one small portion of the rising tensions between factions – if not revealed to be a small side-plot all along hiding a much more complex game!

We are aiming for levels 1 through 15. A slow, intricate story we can build together over what we hope can be years of storytelling, roleplaying, plotting, and scheming. This is a campaign of heavy roleplay! If you are a DM who enjoys delving deep into the many mysterious and compelling NPCs in Dragon Heist – then you have come to the right place.

We want to make friends. With you --- yes --- but also with Renaer Neverember, the courageous and loyal noble, or the elusive and charming Davil Starsong…! Let the story unfold, with all the drama that ensues with warring factions – lawful and criminal – where the players can navigate the spectrum and try to make the right choices, whatever they may be!

And sometimes, this means blood must be drawn. But let us use Waterdeep for the metropolitan setting that it is – the consequences for murder, after all, can be very damning indeed. Let the players navigate the laws of the land and try to toe the line where they find that the rules become shackles and doing The Right Thing becomes a challenge.

We are interested in developing an exciting and interesting story with you, where each player character has unique goals and ambitions that can be tied into factions, interests, and specific NPCs. We are looking for a DM who will help us weave character backstory and ambitions into the plot, expanding and engaging with character choices.

Knowledge of Waterdeep, Dragon Heist, the Forgotten Realms, the Factions, and general D&D lore is important, but it is just as important that the DM is comfortable expanding on these themselves. Make creative choices with the material, take creative license and work in your own interpretation of the people and organizations. Make it your own.

We are looking for a story that very slowly unveils itself and an organically evolving story that is driven by character motivations and their choices along the way. We are concerned with roleplaying as true to character we can, navigating their reactions based on their personality, interests and ambitions, fears and trauma, biases, and prejudices. All while trying our best to make sure everyone is having a good time! 

TLDR.

• An extended Dragon Heist plot using all the villains, and a whole lot of DM-creativity to build the factions into even more complex and intriguing players in the game. (Perhaps the game is much larger than simply the chase for gold…?)
• A plot that makes PC-backstory relevant. Working with the players to find interesting and cool ways to incorporate their personal story into the plots and schemes (and NPCs) of the campaign.
• A roleplay-heavy approach and a slow pace. Building relationships. Becoming friends. Betrayal. Arrests. Kidnapping. Bribing. Romance. Drama.
• Some creative license regarding content. As in allowing a feat or spells from Unearthed Arcana in character-creation, for example

Bonus:

• I have bought a number of sourcebooks on dndbeyond, which I am happy to share with the players.
• I have bought the Dragon Heist module on Roll20 which I will give the Dungeon Master access to.

The players:

• Julie from Norway is playing a deceitful and alluring half-elf bard named Jade who has made all the wrong choices. [Familiar with DH]
• Helen from the UK is playing a sweet and compassionate elf druid named Faestina with a mysterious destiny still unclear to her. [Not familiar with DH]
• Chris from the UK is playing a spoiled and apathetic tiefling wizard or warlock (class undecided) named Hubris of a dangerous lineage. [Not familiar with DH]

Sounds like an amazing setup you have going there. Sadly, I´m just a returning DnD player, after YEARS of absence from the game, and in no way able to DM such a setup.

But, if ever you are in need of another player (danish, born in the late 70´s (yes... im OLD ::) ) - I would love to jump abord. :)

Best of luck in your search

Ha -- not that old. And I hope so! I've been working to prepare some things for the DM to use once we find a good match.

We're looking forward to setting up a game that can run for a while - and thank you for your well wishes! x

Hhmm. Well you certainly know what you're looking for. I will tell you that the kind of game you describe is going to require a DM with experience, a lot, and intricate knowledge of the forgotten realms.  Not to toot my own horn but I do have both. Interestingly this is the take. I developed Dragon Heist for my regular players. All the intrigue and faction friction included. I have all the supplements and have read all the old forgotten realms books. My friends inadvertently murdered some ppl who didn't need to be killed. I offered them a way out but they wanted to get back to their heavy handed merc 8th lvl pc's. We play evenings and they don't do too well with intricacies once they're half sauced. I have all the source books as well as ...

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/183821/Faction-Folio-Waterdeep--Players-City-Guide

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/253110/A-Friend-in-Need--a-Waterdeep-Dragon-Heist-DMs-Resource

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/280248/WATERDEEP-BUNDLE-PACK-BUNDLE

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/254853/Fireball--a-Waterdeep-Dragon-Heist-DMs-Resource

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/261857/Waterdeep-Background-Hooks-A-Dragon-Heist-supplement

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/269514/Waterdeep-City-Streets-Pack1

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/251839/Selunes-Gaze-Class-Options-for-Dragon-Heist

and more.

The best one I can't find the link for but it is a Waterdeep softcover supplement that has quests and encounters. I think I'm up for the challenge :) 

[Raiden]syantific#8508

Player since 1980. I am slightly older but would like to play and as I am retired I can pretty much play whenever. I’m seriously looking for a long term game. Meeting new people around the world and playing D&D. My discord is Xaels Greyshadow#4679.

Heya, syantific! I sent you a direct message so we can have a chat!

And Xaels_Greyshadow htank you for your interest! I'm going to add you on Discord so we can chat!

This still up? Been looking for a group to play with after my previous dm left because of RL issues

discord is Azen#8156

^ Hello there, Azenroth

Thank you for your interest! We are looking for people who are closer to our own age for this campaign, and I saw that you're a little young. The players are between 30 and 37 years old.

Our group is still looking for a Dungeon Master @everyone!

Hi! If more players are welcome I'm Swedish and would love to play! I might be too young (born 1998) and if that's the case or if you cannot fit any more players I will of course understand. Discord is Quelleda#9475 :)

If you still need people I’m always down!

Quote from JulieGris >>

^ Hello there, Azenroth

Thank you for your interest! We are looking for people who are closer to our own age for this campaign, and I saw that you're a little young. The players are between 30 and 37 years old.

Our group is still looking for a Dungeon Master @everyone!

 Sounds like you should DM because what you are looking for is something very very specific for your self and your group. If you just said looking for a DM for DH and that was that, I think you would get more DM's willing to DM your group. But you have hamstrung them with your over the top expectations. 

Hello there, sgtscott658!

Thank you for your input! I think it's best if we communicate clearly what we're looking for. I realize the post is a little long, which can be intimidating, but the expectations are really down to (1) roleplay oriented approach where NPCs are significant characters, (2) an expanded storyline with factions set in Waterdeep, and (3) inclusion of backstory.

But we are happy to wait for a good match.

Heya Quelleda and Shadowofdeth, I am primarily looking for a Dungeon Master, and not additional players. Good luck in the campaign hunt!! All the best x

Quote from JulieGris >>

Hello there, sgtscott658!

Thank you for your input! I think it's best if we communicate clearly what we're looking for. I realize the post is a little long, which can be intimidating, but the expectations are really down to (1) roleplay oriented approach where NPCs are significant characters, (2) an expanded storyline with factions set in Waterdeep, and (3) inclusion of backstory.

But we are happy to wait for a good match.

 The problem dude is that you have read the adventure and leave little to no room for the DM's creativity. Most DM's are loathed to make NPC's on par with characters, that takes away from player agency. I could DM it for you but it would be my creative vision of the adventure not yours. So I am free on tuesdays anytime  cant do fridays (DM'ing a ravemloft campaign).

Thank you for the offer! I don't think it's a good fit. We'll keep looking!

Hey there! I've read through your post, and this kind of campaign definitely seems like the sort of thing I'd be interested in taking up.

I've been running D&D 5e on a regular basis for the last five years, and so far most of my campaigns have been set in the Forgotten Realms, either as homebrew or as modules, including Lost Mine of Phandelver, Tyranny of Dragons, and -- most significantly -- three different versions of Waterdeep: Dragon Heist with three different groups. Each of those campaigns was a completely unique experience, with one group splitting their loyalties across four factions, one group exclusively joining the Zhentarim, and one particularly memorable group of all-evil characters who turned the adventure on its head by joining with the intended enemy (the Xanathar Guild) in session one! So you could probably say I'm fairly familiar with expanding on the source material. I'm also well-versed on Faerûnian lore in general (I actually have the map of Faerûn from Storm King's Thunder set as my desktop background).

That said, I've never run Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage, mainly because I don't consider it to be a particularly satisfying follow-up to Dragon Heist. I'm all for hundred-session-long dungeon crawls (I'm running Tales from the Yawning Portal right now as a continuous campaign in a homebrew setting), but Mad Mage seems to completely abandon most of the faction-based plots of the first book without leaving much room content-wise to homebrew them back in. So your vision of a extended version of Dragon Heist that draws on all of its (often unused) content is a campaign concept that I'd be excited to run.

I'm also extremely comfortable with roleplay heavy campaigns. My first, and still ongoing, gaming group is made up of either hobby or professional actors (with myself in the former category), and we often go multiple sessions without rolling Initiative (I think our record is six sessions). That said, my other gaming group is a bunch of game designers, and it's pretty much all combat, all the time in that one, so I'm confident with running the occasional dungeon delve, too. My personal preference is for campaigns that are player-led, with the PCs deciding their own path through the adventure. It takes a lot of the storytelling pressure off of me!

I'm UK-based, so the time zone and weekday aren't an issue, but I'll confess here at the end of my spiel that I'm 23, which puts me outside of your desired age range. I had initially seen your post and not replied because of that restriction, but seeing as it's been a few days without success I thought I might at least offer in case you wanted to give me a chance. The players in my Tales from the Yawning Portal campaign are actually also late 20s - early 30s, if that helps to alleviate any concerns!

My Discord is HMSTheseus#1956. Feel free to message me there. If not, I hope that you and your group find the DM you're looking for in the future.

Hiya, HMSTheseus! This is looking super interesting - I'm going to add you to Discord so we can have a chat! x

Hey, Julie.
I was sent here by our mutual friend Hege, Regarding a spot as a player. 

I've read over the post, and I think I'd be a good fit. My Discord is Nif#6914 

Hello! :D She told me this! I added you on Discord.