My group will be running Hoard of the Dragon Queen soon and I am looking for a better start to the campaign. The campaign starts expecting the players to run straight into a town being attacked by an adult blue dragon, which is too powerful for these levels. To anyone who has run or is going to run the campaign how can I make it make the party more likely to go into the town?
*Railroad warning* Start the party in town in the evening after their caravan arrives. Sitting at the inn when the attack starts, or visiting with PCs family members that might live in town.
That said, I'm a huge fan of allowing the PCs to decide what kind of heroes they are/aren't going to be. If memory serves, there is a paragraph about developments at the end of chapter 1 that provides some prodding should the PCs decide they don't want to risk their lives, be the heroes they said they were and enter a town under siege. As has been suggested, try to tie one of your PCs backstory to the town, or maybe make the sights and sounds of the attack terrible to behold. Think of the children! Think of the people being dragged off as slaves, food or worse!
To be clear, I'm not advocating for putting these things front-and-center in your narrative, but a veiled reference to the possibility (maybe a veiled description instead) of innocents being killed in the streets and dragged off to become slaves should be enough to prod the PCs into action.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
The collector's edition of Tyranny of Dragons included something the original did not: milestone leveling. Using this, the party is supposed to reach 2nd level as soon as they're inside the keep. I don't like this because it denies prepared spellcasters the opportunity to prepare a new set of spells. A cleric, druid, or wizard is automatically short 1 spell, and paladins have none. That said, I do think you can reasonably approach this two ways and have the players start at 2nd level, instead of 1st, so nobody is denied options.
Start the adventure in media res with them just getting inside the keep. Not only is it a strong start, but if someone would have argued with the NPC caravan not to intervene on behalf of Greenest they don't have to. They can just be someone caught up in bad circumstances. And someone who wants to be a hero can still play the hero.
Another strong start is to delay the caravan's arrival and have the party come across what's left of Greenest the following morning. You can't see more than 3 miles over the horizon, so 24 miles out they wouldn't have seen the raid. It's just a gut punch.
The collector's edition of Tyranny of Dragons included something the original did not: milestone leveling. Using this, the party is supposed to reach 2nd level as soon as they're inside the keep. I don't like this because it denies prepared spellcasters the opportunity to prepare a new set of spells. A cleric, druid, or wizard is automatically short 1 spell, and paladins have none. That said, I do think you can reasonably approach this two ways and have the players start at 2nd level, instead of 1st, so nobody is denied options.
Start the adventure in media res with them just getting inside the keep. Not only is it a strong start, but if someone would have argued with the NPC caravan not to intervene on behalf of Greenest they don't have to. They can just be someone caught up in bad circumstances. And someone who wants to be a hero can still play the hero.
Another strong start is to delay the caravan's arrival and have the party come across what's left of Greenest the following morning. You can't see more than 3 miles over the horizon, so 24 miles out they wouldn't have seen the raid. It's just a gut punch.
#2 is a great way to do it IMO.
Starting a game with why its high stakes when it comes to dragons is a good way to set the tone for the campaign.
The collector's edition of Tyranny of Dragons included something the original did not: milestone leveling. Using this, the party is supposed to reach 2nd level as soon as they're inside the keep. I don't like this because it denies prepared spellcasters the opportunity to prepare a new set of spells. A cleric, druid, or wizard is automatically short 1 spell, and paladins have none. That said, I do think you can reasonably approach this two ways and have the players start at 2nd level, instead of 1st, so nobody is denied options.
Start the adventure in media res with them just getting inside the keep. Not only is it a strong start, but if someone would have argued with the NPC caravan not to intervene on behalf of Greenest they don't have to. They can just be someone caught up in bad circumstances. And someone who wants to be a hero can still play the hero.
Another strong start is to delay the caravan's arrival and have the party come across what's left of Greenest the following morning. You can't see more than 3 miles over the horizon, so 24 miles out they wouldn't have seen the raid. It's just a gut punch.
That first night in Greenest was one of the most memorable group of sessions I have had in D&D in marked contrast to the one the road section which was pretty much a railroaded series of random encounters going on forever. If the Pcs are the type that would run away when they see Greenest than I can see the benefit of starting with them getting inside the keep but I think a stronger start is to start as in the book. I do not like the idea of them arriving the next morning.
I am not aware of any official ruling of what to do if players level up without getting a long rest but the normal approach in the games I have been involved is is you get to make yourself up to your new level. So you HP go up the same amount as your max HP, Prepared spellcasters at least add extra spells to get up to their new number of spells prepared (you could possibly allow a whole new set of prepared spells), monks get an extra ki etc.
We went straight into HotDQ from LMoP. If I had it to do over again, I would have just set the first episode in Phandelver instead of getting the party to Greenest. What I did do is I made Leosin an associate of one of the PCs. He sent the PC a letter (having used Harper resources to find the PC in Phandelver) along with a teleport scroll that I flubbed and it activated as soon as he started reading the scroll. (Newbie DM with two noob players and one who hadn't played in a decade or two. Live and learn.) That got them I think to either Baldur's Gate or Elturel. I can't remember off-hand but could look it up in notes. The letter had asked the PC to come to Greenest where Leosin thought they'd be attacking soon. Played up the life debt aspect of the character hooks from the appendix which drew the one PC in. The rest were along for the ride having been teleported along with him to the southern reaches of the Sword Coast.
In various readings online of how people have changed this module to run more smoothly, I've seen various changes to the setup. Most of them have the PCs there in Greenest when the cult strikes, making it an obvious choice of fight or risk dying.
My recommendation is to do a little of both. Put the party in Greenest already and give at least one of them one of the hooks from the appendix.
A couple other things I did for this first episode. (Other than scale things up for a 3rd or 4th level party.) First, I gave them the option of trying to approach the keep by water. It's not specifically outlined in the book but I knew that my brother would probably pick up on the water and might suggest using that as an approach. They did end up going there and it let them bypass the hordes of enemies surrounding the keep on the other sides. (The module seemed to indicate that the cult was not watching the water facing side of the keep. If I misread it then so be it. Made for a moment of the players feeling smarter than their enemies.) Second, I laid out in my notes a logical order of the missions and events so there was a bit of a narrative flow. Nighthill immediately saw the value of the party and tasked them with getting a prisoner they could interrogate. Before they could set out on that mission, the dragon attacked. This upped the urgency of any future missions (because the dragon flew away but the party doesn't know if or when it'll be back). I tried to make it feel like things were happening in reaction to player actions.
Hi,
My group will be running Hoard of the Dragon Queen soon and I am looking for a better start to the campaign. The campaign starts expecting the players to run straight into a town being attacked by an adult blue dragon, which is too powerful for these levels. To anyone who has run or is going to run the campaign how can I make it make the party more likely to go into the town?
The town might be the residence of some dear friends of the PCs?
The town might be their own place of residence - establish this in Session 0, have the players create relationships with other people in town.
Or... I've just had a quick look at the campaign ... get each player to roll or choose on the table in Appendix A.
*Railroad warning* Start the party in town in the evening after their caravan arrives. Sitting at the inn when the attack starts, or visiting with PCs family members that might live in town.
That said, I'm a huge fan of allowing the PCs to decide what kind of heroes they are/aren't going to be. If memory serves, there is a paragraph about developments at the end of chapter 1 that provides some prodding should the PCs decide they don't want to risk their lives, be the heroes they said they were and enter a town under siege. As has been suggested, try to tie one of your PCs backstory to the town, or maybe make the sights and sounds of the attack terrible to behold. Think of the children! Think of the people being dragged off as slaves, food or worse!
To be clear, I'm not advocating for putting these things front-and-center in your narrative, but a veiled reference to the possibility (maybe a veiled description instead) of innocents being killed in the streets and dragged off to become slaves should be enough to prod the PCs into action.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” - Mark Twain - Innocents Abroad
The collector's edition of Tyranny of Dragons included something the original did not: milestone leveling. Using this, the party is supposed to reach 2nd level as soon as they're inside the keep. I don't like this because it denies prepared spellcasters the opportunity to prepare a new set of spells. A cleric, druid, or wizard is automatically short 1 spell, and paladins have none. That said, I do think you can reasonably approach this two ways and have the players start at 2nd level, instead of 1st, so nobody is denied options.
#2 is a great way to do it IMO.
Starting a game with why its high stakes when it comes to dragons is a good way to set the tone for the campaign.
That first night in Greenest was one of the most memorable group of sessions I have had in D&D in marked contrast to the one the road section which was pretty much a railroaded series of random encounters going on forever. If the Pcs are the type that would run away when they see Greenest than I can see the benefit of starting with them getting inside the keep but I think a stronger start is to start as in the book. I do not like the idea of them arriving the next morning.
I am not aware of any official ruling of what to do if players level up without getting a long rest but the normal approach in the games I have been involved is is you get to make yourself up to your new level. So you HP go up the same amount as your max HP, Prepared spellcasters at least add extra spells to get up to their new number of spells prepared (you could possibly allow a whole new set of prepared spells), monks get an extra ki etc.
We went straight into HotDQ from LMoP. If I had it to do over again, I would have just set the first episode in Phandelver instead of getting the party to Greenest. What I did do is I made Leosin an associate of one of the PCs. He sent the PC a letter (having used Harper resources to find the PC in Phandelver) along with a teleport scroll that I flubbed and it activated as soon as he started reading the scroll. (Newbie DM with two noob players and one who hadn't played in a decade or two. Live and learn.) That got them I think to either Baldur's Gate or Elturel. I can't remember off-hand but could look it up in notes. The letter had asked the PC to come to Greenest where Leosin thought they'd be attacking soon. Played up the life debt aspect of the character hooks from the appendix which drew the one PC in. The rest were along for the ride having been teleported along with him to the southern reaches of the Sword Coast.
In various readings online of how people have changed this module to run more smoothly, I've seen various changes to the setup. Most of them have the PCs there in Greenest when the cult strikes, making it an obvious choice of fight or risk dying.
My recommendation is to do a little of both. Put the party in Greenest already and give at least one of them one of the hooks from the appendix.
A couple other things I did for this first episode. (Other than scale things up for a 3rd or 4th level party.) First, I gave them the option of trying to approach the keep by water. It's not specifically outlined in the book but I knew that my brother would probably pick up on the water and might suggest using that as an approach. They did end up going there and it let them bypass the hordes of enemies surrounding the keep on the other sides. (The module seemed to indicate that the cult was not watching the water facing side of the keep. If I misread it then so be it. Made for a moment of the players feeling smarter than their enemies.) Second, I laid out in my notes a logical order of the missions and events so there was a bit of a narrative flow. Nighthill immediately saw the value of the party and tasked them with getting a prisoner they could interrogate. Before they could set out on that mission, the dragon attacked. This upped the urgency of any future missions (because the dragon flew away but the party doesn't know if or when it'll be back). I tried to make it feel like things were happening in reaction to player actions.
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