Hoard of the Dragon Queen [5e]Wolfgang Baur & Steve Winter. WOTCD& D 5. ELevels 1- 7. In an audacious bid for power the Cult of the Dragon, along with its dragon allies and the Red Wizards of Thay, seek to bring Tiamat from her prison in the Nine Hells to Faerun. To this end, they are sweeping from town to town, laying waste to all those who oppose them and gathering a hoard of riches for their dread queen. The threat of annihilation has become so dire that groups as disparate as the Harpers and Zhentarim are banding together in the fight against the cult. Never before has the need for heroes been so desperate. This is an 8- episode adventure that is, generally, not very good.

It’s not the episodic nature, that I can accept. WOTC wants to run D& D at game stores every week and to do that they need episodic content.

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I get that. I might quibble that they could do better at the episodic nature and making it feel less railroad, but I get it. No, the adventure is of lower quality because it feels like a 4e episodic adventure.

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Due to no response from tech support I have yet again had to add another page. With delays in our funds our knew website will come later then we wanted! Wolfgang Baur & Steve Winter WOTC D&D 5E Levels 1-7. In an audacious bid for power the Cult of the Dragon, along with its dragon allies and the Red Wizards of Thay. Now just stop looking for other movies in Documentary niche because one of the best of them all, The Death and Life of Marsha P Johnson is found by you now!

Here’s a monster. Go fight it. Next! A potentially exciting and dynamic environment is introduced!

And then they screw it up with the details … or lack thereof. As a DM & player you have a lot choices in what system you play and which of the tens of thousands of published adventures you play. There is no reason to play this except for “it’s what everyone else is playing at the game store on Wednesday night.” That’s a shame.

I see a few major issues with the adventure. First, it’s generic. It’s very non- specific, so much so that it seems like the designers are actually afraid of offering details. They will provide reams of data on the over- arching story and plot but then when you get to the actual adventure there are words like “throw a couple of encounters at the players” … with nothing else present. Or they clearly have an idea of how the adventure should proceed, like with the lizard man allies in episode 6, but are terrified of being accused of railroading.

This extends to the descriptions, which are almost universally uninspiring. They feel flat and boring. The magic items are completely generic “ 1 sword”, and the titular HOARD of the Dragon Queen is actually abstracted throughout most of the adventure.

The text does not inspire you, the DM, and that may be the most important sin. It is very rare for me to complain in a review about formatting I care much more about the content and the imagination present in the adventure, but this time I feel I need to.

They have chosen a very conversational style that contributes to a Wall of Text issue. There is not enough use of offsets and bullet lists and the like to allow the DM to reference important information quickly. This conversational style confusion tends to mix with some some poor choices for organization of text. In episode 8, for example, the first part involves getting in to the castle, but this information is scattered throughout the text of the first part. Three ARE issues with railroad, with lack of player agency, with villain monologues and “pass a skill roll if you want to go on the adventure”, but these are minor and more easily fixed, both by the DM and by the designers in the next adventure.

Episode 1 – Town under Siege. While pursuing the most generic hook known to man: caravan guard. In the first 2 D& D products that’s twice now that it’s been used. Time to maybe branch out and try a hook with some life to it? And both times it’s been a complete throwaway. The hook is literally “maybe the players are caravan guards.” That’s pretty lame. So lame that it makes me think they are pushing some kind of agenda.

Idle speculation is idle though; in the end the hook is lame and reflects badly … but accurately foretells what it to come. Generic Lameness. You come upon a town being looted by monsters! Mercenaries, kobolds, and a dragon zoom about through the streets! Oh’s No’s! You’re then presented with 8 little encounters to run, one of which should be done first. The first is a family being chased by kobolds. Watch Adele Live At The Royal Albert Hall Streaming.

The goal is to rescue the family and then they’ll tell you to take them to the central keep, where in you can pick up the rest of the missions. The kobolds ignore you, thinking you are their allies. If you escort the family to the keep then you are the last ones through before the gate is barred right before the keep is surrounded by enemy forces.

It all smacks me as a little … forced. Look, yeah, I know why. You want to give the players missions to do. But there should be LOTS of ways to do that without forcing them in to the keep and setting up some kind of EPIC MOMENT when the gates are barred behind you. What about the same thing in the church? Or a family in a cellar?

Or any of a dozen other things that could have been added? But no, rather than the thing being run as a dynamic environment with brief suggestions it instead has to be run as a railroad. BULL. SHIT. Like I said earlier, I could quibble with the nature of how the episodes are done, and make comments on how they could be less railroady … but … ok, I guess I just did.

The GENERIC content though is what breaks this. There is something that quite literally looks like a skill challenge. To sneak through town you need to make stealth checks.

For every two you have a random encounter. Ok, that’s not bad. It even makes sense!

But then the encounters … ug! That’s what passes for CREATIVE CONTENT from Wolfgang & Winter. Seriously? You get exactly one interesting option: 1d. That’s it. That’s something a DM can work with. But just a generic list of monsters?

Why the hell did they even both? Give the thing some life! How about those 6 kobolds have a wagon piled high with bed frame and dressers?

Of the bandits are rolling some kegs of ale down the road? It wouldn’t kill you to add a single sentence each and it would do WONDERS to help bring the scenes to life. This same thing is the problem with the rest of the first episode. The encounters are presented as generically as possible. Yes, the DM must bring the encounter to life, we all know and accept that. But the designers job is to give the DM the tools to do that.

To help them. This don’t do that. The vast majority of the text is spent on bullshit superfluous text instead of communicating an evocative and dynamic encounter. The Cult of the Dragon led by d. KJSDFKHD KDFgwk. DGF the high K: WDH: KE: H of K@WGKEGKE@ is …” Ug!

How about instead you tell me that the encounter with the dudes at the stream bank has them about to drown a group of townsfolk? That would be cool! That create something to work with! The issues extends to the maps, or lack thereof.

The church, mill, stream bank, are all supposed to be exciting encounter locations. I can understand not want to enable the tactical miniatures boardgames crowd, but it wouldn’t kill you to provide a small map of the environment with some interesting shit on it for the players to key off of.

Reeds to hide behind! Slippery bank! Steep dropoff! Pile of hay, smoldering! If you put “the party will encounter 3 groups of kobolds on the way to the inn” in the adventure then that is exactly what is going to happen in AP. The asshat DM is going to say “ok, you encounter kobolds, Roll init” and then they are going to say it twice more. I know the rules can’t cure stupid, or a bad DM, but you can at least give the tool something to work with.

You encounter a group of kobolds rolling ale barrels down the road.” That provides SO many more options! You get glimpses every now and then that they are trying. The Governor, wounded, trying to marshall a desperate defense … but it’s just a glimpse and then it’s gone. Rather than coming across as a desperate town under siege with a beleaguered leader instead you get generic- ville, population YOU. I don’t get it. Standards & Practices maybe? I’m not asking for full on gore mode but there’s hardly any flavor here at all.

Oh, wait, wait, I forgot. Governor MORON gets pissy at you if you’ve done something that caused the death of one of the townsfolk.

Journaling — Pamela Anderson. AM: You’ve shot a few campaigns with Vivienne Westwood and Juergen Teller, can you tell me a little about the atmosphere on set? PA: It’s always fun to spend time with friends on shoot photos. Watch A Mulher Do Meu Amigo Streaming there. I love shooting with them because it’s like telling a story: Vivienne and Andreas are always conveying a message – maybe Vivienne more than Andreas, Andreas loves fashion and Vivienne is political and motivated by the end of the world. We need to do something.

I know that’s what I’m thinking in the photos: utter despair, the apocalypse, love, hope, giving up?, frustration, anger, relief… HELP? AM: What is it you’re trying to conjure then? PA: I think it’s quite interesting to have these beautiful clothes on all different types of people: the models usually participate in some kind of interview. What is their story? Where are they from? What are their concerns for the planet? What can they do to make a difference?

That sets the tone. AM: Any favourite shoot memories or locations? PA: I loved our last shoot on the Island of Hydra in Greece… with all its sentimental history; you can feel the artist energy there. But I also love our other very spontaneous shoots- when I’ve just happened to be in London, and they are shooting - the three of us dressing each other in a small space. I remember just the three of us in our underwear or less pulling on stockings, then Vivienne narrating the shoot: “We are warriors…” from a specific time etc. AM: What do you have in common with Vivienne and Andreas?

PA: We care deeply about the world. We believe that engaging in the world is important, that artists are the freedom fighters of the world.

AM: Is her blend of fashion and revolution important to you? PA: I think it’s very important, and a great billboard for important messages she is trying to convey. She reaches many this way. AM: What is Vivienne’s impact on fashion?

PA: Her impact on fashion has been tremendous: she has such a unique vision, punk, it’s beautifully tragic. It is such a dichotomy, to have this couture brand, and the world falling apart at the same time. AM: Why is it important? PA: It is her voice, her vehicle. It is education, trying to free the world by educating it: we must switch to green energy, we must support whistleblowers, we must save the rainforest, Venice… and treat refugees with respect. We need to turn all the prisons vegan – food politics and poverty, it’s an endless battle. And it’s important to use our strengths to help.

We are hanging by a thread at our own hand: we are all climate refugees and it’s not going to get better while people don’t want to understand what the governments are doing. As complex as it is, it is simple: we must learn. Intellectuals unite! AM: Can you describe working with Vivienne and Andreas as a couple? PA: They are so in love, it is beautiful.

I know how proud Andreas is of Vivienne and she of him. It is sweet when I am with each one of them alone, they gush over the other.

We should all be so lucky to find our soulmates, they are truly the perfect match. AM: Does their personal relationship emerge? PA: They are a normal couple full of passion and disagreements. They have separate interests and Vivienne is a force for culture, and Andreas too. They both know so much about so many different things: Andreas is very calming too and reminds us to still enjoy the world as messy as it is – it is beautiful.

And we must live joyfully, you can see that in his collections as well: JOY. I love being around them, I take a lot of notes.

You must pay attention to her blog Climate Revolution and you can get a peek into their world: they travel, read, ride their bikes, they walk the talk and are constantly learning. They inspire me to do the same. What we must consume is art and literature, not things: fill our brains, not our closets, Vivienne and Andreas would agree. Buy one beautiful dress a year, don’t consume crap! AM: What do you think they bring together in their collaboration? PA: Well they are very different and very the same, it is magic.

Andreas says if there are no tears it’s not good enough. They work very, very hard and live simply, they do not over indulge. It is unnecessary when you are passionately living. They balance each other – this is only my observation but I feel close enough to them that I can ramble on a bit – they will be one of the fascinating love stories that history will remember.

This interview was conducted for the Autumn/Winter 2. An. Other Magazine, on sale now.