I'm a new DM looking to run my first full campaign, and I've got my eye on Tyranny of Dragons. Right now, my group and I are playing through Heroes of the Borderlands to get a feel for the game and learn the basics—it's our intro to D&D. My players and I are complete beginners, and we're all starting from scratch with just the 2024 version of D&D 5th Edition rules (no older books or supplements). Once we're done with that, I want to launch into this big campaign as our next step to keep the momentum going.
I'm excited but a bit nervous! We have 3 players plus me as DM, so could anyone share advice on:
Is Tyranny of Dragons fully compatible with the 2024 rules? Are there any major changes or updates I need to make to encounters, monsters, or mechanics to make it work smoothly?
Tips for running this adventure as a first-time DM with newbie players? For example, how to handle the pacing, balance difficulty, or adapt it for a small group of 3 players?
Any common pitfalls or house rules that work well for this campaign?
Resources or guides specifically for updating it to 2024 rules?
Thanks in advance for any help! I've heard this is a classic adventure, and I want to make it fun for everyone.
I haven't played this with 2024 rules, but I haven't really seen any occasions why it wouldn't be compatible. I'm currently DMing the same campaign and we started straight from Dragons of Stormwreck Isle as level 3 characters using the 2014 rules. But I've still used some of the 2024 rules, partly because I don't own the 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide or Monster Manual. Dragons of Stormwreck Isle was my first campaign as a DM, so I'm also very new to DMing.
We started level 3, so I skipped the first 2 chapters of the Tyranny of Dragons and just made the players receive the players receive the info another way. We're currently in chapter 4 and so far I must admit that the book leaves too much up to the DM in terms of encounters, travelling, and pacing. There's a soonish 6 day travel to Elturel -- with some random encounters if the DM wants. Then it's a 3 day travel to Baldur's Gate -- again with no encounters. After that, it's x days of waiting in Baldur's Gate (up to the DM to decide) with practically nothing to do according to the book, and it continues with a 2 month trip to Waterdeep with several planned and a table of several random encounters. And once in Waterdeep, the characters need to quickly advance to another week of travel where "nothing really needs to happen". It also railroads quite heavily and makes assumptions that the players would obviously choose certain routes. It might be because we skipped the first two chapters, but I had to invest quite a bit of work to make the players actually want to take the campaign suggested path instead of me simply saying that it's how the story goes.
The book does invite to add own encounters, but depending on how familiar you are with that and how much you enjoy it, it might just be a bit too much for the first half of the Hoard of the Dragon Queen. I very much enjoy homebrewing encounters and story, so I don't really mind it that much, even though I'd want a bit less travel and bit more plot. I've asked advice for this in another thread here and based on that and other threads I've read around the internet is that DMs have just fastforwarded the boring travel and focus on plot.
For balancing encounters and especially with new players, I'd recommend starting easy to see how the party handles those. Then you can add a bit more difficulty once the power levels are sorted out. The book also decently explains (on some occasions) how many monsters to use in an encounter based on player count. The book is balanced for 4 players, so maybe drop a monster or two in each encounter to balance it out.
There isn't really much that changed that drastically between 2014 and 2024, mostly just stat blocks. The balance isn't very disrupted in combats, though you may need to use 2014 stats at some times because they changed some things like the lizardfolk around, but you can just look up a PDF for the 2014 monster manual. They also do have a PDF that they made specifically for ToD, I think there's a link in the first few pages, so you can have an easy reference for 2014 stats they changed.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
He doesn't have much besides the skin on his bones. Me: I'll take the skin on his bones, then.
"You see a gigantic, monstrous praying mantis burst from out of the ground. It sprays a stream of acid from it's mouth at one soldier, dissolving him instantly, then it turns and chomps another soldier in half with it's- "
"When are we gonna take a snack break?"
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Hi everyone,
I'm a new DM looking to run my first full campaign, and I've got my eye on Tyranny of Dragons. Right now, my group and I are playing through Heroes of the Borderlands to get a feel for the game and learn the basics—it's our intro to D&D. My players and I are complete beginners, and we're all starting from scratch with just the 2024 version of D&D 5th Edition rules (no older books or supplements). Once we're done with that, I want to launch into this big campaign as our next step to keep the momentum going.
I'm excited but a bit nervous! We have 3 players plus me as DM, so could anyone share advice on:
Thanks in advance for any help! I've heard this is a classic adventure, and I want to make it fun for everyone.
I haven't played this with 2024 rules, but I haven't really seen any occasions why it wouldn't be compatible. I'm currently DMing the same campaign and we started straight from Dragons of Stormwreck Isle as level 3 characters using the 2014 rules. But I've still used some of the 2024 rules, partly because I don't own the 2014 Dungeon Master's Guide or Monster Manual. Dragons of Stormwreck Isle was my first campaign as a DM, so I'm also very new to DMing.
We started level 3, so I skipped the first 2 chapters of the Tyranny of Dragons and just made the players receive the players receive the info another way. We're currently in chapter 4 and so far I must admit that the book leaves too much up to the DM in terms of encounters, travelling, and pacing. There's a soonish 6 day travel to Elturel -- with some random encounters if the DM wants. Then it's a 3 day travel to Baldur's Gate -- again with no encounters. After that, it's x days of waiting in Baldur's Gate (up to the DM to decide) with practically nothing to do according to the book, and it continues with a 2 month trip to Waterdeep with several planned and a table of several random encounters. And once in Waterdeep, the characters need to quickly advance to another week of travel where "nothing really needs to happen". It also railroads quite heavily and makes assumptions that the players would obviously choose certain routes. It might be because we skipped the first two chapters, but I had to invest quite a bit of work to make the players actually want to take the campaign suggested path instead of me simply saying that it's how the story goes.
The book does invite to add own encounters, but depending on how familiar you are with that and how much you enjoy it, it might just be a bit too much for the first half of the Hoard of the Dragon Queen. I very much enjoy homebrewing encounters and story, so I don't really mind it that much, even though I'd want a bit less travel and bit more plot. I've asked advice for this in another thread here and based on that and other threads I've read around the internet is that DMs have just fastforwarded the boring travel and focus on plot.
For balancing encounters and especially with new players, I'd recommend starting easy to see how the party handles those. Then you can add a bit more difficulty once the power levels are sorted out. The book also decently explains (on some occasions) how many monsters to use in an encounter based on player count. The book is balanced for 4 players, so maybe drop a monster or two in each encounter to balance it out.
There isn't really much that changed that drastically between 2014 and 2024, mostly just stat blocks. The balance isn't very disrupted in combats, though you may need to use 2014 stats at some times because they changed some things like the lizardfolk around, but you can just look up a PDF for the 2014 monster manual. They also do have a PDF that they made specifically for ToD, I think there's a link in the first few pages, so you can have an easy reference for 2014 stats they changed.
He doesn't have much besides the skin on his bones. Me: I'll take the skin on his bones, then.
"You see a gigantic, monstrous praying mantis burst from out of the ground. It sprays a stream of acid from it's mouth at one soldier, dissolving him instantly, then it turns and chomps another soldier in half with it's- "
"When are we gonna take a snack break?"