I started running Hoard of the Dragon Queen on Roll 20 for some friends and family. I haven't posted on here in a while, but I felt like writing a bit about it so here I am. ? For those of you who don't know, Hoard of the Dragon Queen is one of the first (or maybe the first?) D&D campaign/module for 5th edition. And Roll 20 is an online tool for virtual table top RPG's. On to the post! This whole endeavor is going to be one big spoiler. If you want to play this module one day, you might want to find some other reading material. Here's a link to our first session:

Cast and Crew

• The DM - Played by me
• Kyla Nightgem - Human Dragonblooded Sorceress - played by Kaylee
• Ignatius Uri - Dragonborn Paladin - played by Doug
• Karen Bramblefoot - Halfling Warlock - played by Alli
• Ugg - Half-orc Barbarian - NPC
• Yllianna Kirandoor - High Elf Cleric - NPC

Doug and Alli also run a podcast for a custom Savage Worlds setting they created. It's over at https://rpgforyouandme.com/​​​

Here's a link to the YouTube video. There's some links to the ambient sounds I was using in the comment section.

Session Notes

Here I'll talk about some of the changes I made, and some of the resources I used along the way. I started the players at level 2 with max hp. I found that the early parts of the module (and 5th edition in general) is just super deadly. This gives PC's a little more wiggle room if a Kobold gets a lucky critical.

The written opening seemed risky to me. It's night time and the party is cresting a hill. Instead of a peaceful village, they see an army of raiders pillaging the town and a blue dragon launching bolts of lightning into it. I've been in plenty of groups that would just NOPE on the edge of town, turn around and wait for that situation to work itself out. Instead the party encounters some kobolds attacking the owner of a wagon. Once they save him, the party finds out he's the owner of the inn and he brings them into town as heroes. He and his wife shove food on their plates and drinks in their mugs and it's basically a little party celebrating the adventurers' heroic deeds. This does a couple of things. It colors the PC's as heroes, and hopefully gives the PC's someone to care about in town.

After festivities die down, I wake the party up with a fire alarm. The situation is a: couple of fire-happy kobolds started the raid a little too early. So one building is burning in the town. The cultists and kobolds are arguing with each other. This pulls the party out of the Inn and into the action. After the fight is winding down, that's when the Blue Dragon shows up circling the town.

Kyla can tell the Blue Dragon's heart isn't in this fight, so she REALLY wanted to talk to him and try to get the dragon to go away. They try to get his attention. I tell the group okay, let's see what kind of mood he's in and I roll a d20 saying high is good. Natural 1… On his next pass, he just throws a bolt of lightning in the center of them. Now if I'm doing this “by the book” that's 12d10 of lightning to 1 or 2 characters are now a pile of ash. That's lame. Instead He just throws a minor bolt 4d6, and everyone can save for half. Still serious business!

After that, they STILL want to talk to him though some of the other players are wisely hiding in a newly abandoned building. At this point the Dragon is thinking, “Alright - this might be interesting. What the hell do they want?” He makes a deal with them. Promise to get his egg from the Hatchery to the south east, and he promises he won't kill anyone tonight. He'll get in touch with them later. Since my players might read this I won't give the reasons for why the egg is there and why he can't go just take it back. (stay tuned for next session)

The module wants the players to hate the blue Half Dragon Langdedrosa Cyanwrath. It does this by humiliating one of the PC's in a one on one fight. Instead (or possibly in addition to) during the raid, On their way to the keep, I show the the PC's Cyanwrath gutting the innkeeper, burning the inn to the ground, and capturing the wife and tavern goers. I made sure to put overwhelming odds there so players didn't just charge in to save him.

Once in the keep, Karen starts GRILLING the governor about where the dragon egg is. The governor has no idea what she's talking about and demands she show him some respect. So she casts charm person… This could have gone very poorly, but the dice were in her favor. If it had failed, he probably would have thrown her in jail and then demanded the parties help with other issues.

Other Resources

• http://hackslashmaster.blogspot.com/p/hoard-of-dragon-queen-index.html​​​ - some great details on different cults and indepth dive into each part of the module
• http://thecampaign20xx.blogspot.com/2014/10/tyranny-of-dragons-guide-to-hoard-of.html​​ - good overview and links to other sites
• http://detectmagic.blogspot.com/2014/08/hoard-of-dragon-queen-cultist-generator.html​ - Interesting cultist generator

Mini Review of the Print Module

There's a bunch of good stuff in the module: cool maps, interesting locations, jerk villains, some cool descriptions, etc. But some of the motivations and reasons for why things are happening can be weird. It's a bit on the rail-roady side, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Writing modules is hard, and you definitely can't write something that will work for every group. The early parts of the module definitely suffers from this. And like I said before, I could see some level 1 party's sneaking back into the forest and waiting for it to be over.

For some groups it's going to take quite a bit of tweaking to get an adventure suited to their needs, but all-in-all, I think Hoard of the Dragon Queen can be a fun adventure. And there's plenty of posts on the internet to explain how they've changed things around. I'll be using a few of these resources and adding my own stuff as well.

Mini Review of the Roll 20 Module

You can also buy a digital module of Hoard of the Dragon Queen for use in Roll 20. I've played in a few of these, but this is the first module I purchased. It saves SOOOO much time. All the maps are right there lined up with the grid. Encounters are setup on the GM layer. Notes are everywhere. It's very cool and I love it. In Tyrany of Dragons (both Hoard of the Dragon Queen and Rise of Tiamat) there's a ton of stuff. So much that it can be tough to find sometimes. And there isn't a map for EVERY possible encounter (like wandering monsters in town). But I very much love everything else being pre-setup. HUGE time saver.

Cast and Crew

• The DM - Played by me
• Kyla Nightgem - Human Dragonblooded Sorceress - played by Kaylee
• Ignatius Uri - Dragonborn Paladin - played by Doug
• Karen Bramblefoot - Halfling Warlock - played by Alli
• Ugg - Half-orc Barbarian - NPC
• Yllianna Kirandoor - High Elf Cleric - NPC

Tips from your Uncle Eck

Failing a roll doesn't necessarily mean failing the action, but that's how a lot of DM's run it. And when they do, it sometimes means the story stalls out. If the failure state isn't interesting, then take it off the table. Make the roll failure still succeed at the action, but give it a cost. I also like to explain what the failure state is before the roll so it builds a little tension. I did this a few times for different skill checks during the session.

A good Session 0 can help with things like player expectations. How heroic a campaign is this? If we see a town under siege by a blue dragon, should we charge in or wait it out?