Funny story when my friends and I played Cragmaw Hideout. We learned that one of the goblins wanted to overthrow Klarg, so we said "Yeah sure, we'll help.". After going in and killing some goblins, we managed to get Klarg outside where he was accompanied by his pet wolves/dogs. While we were taking care of the wolves, The goblin went toe-to-toe with Klarg on top of a small cliff about 15ft high nearby. Klarg managed to roll unbelievably bad, missing every single attack while the aspiring goblin was slowly whittling away at his health. Finally, after missing nearly every attack, Klarg gets a crit and one shots the goblin. Then the DM said "After Klarg kills him he jumps down from the cliff and attacks", and then one of us said "Wait, would he hurt himself from that high jumping down?" And our DM said "Oh yeah, he would....shit...". He rolls a D6 and says "....Uh yeah, Klarg jumps down the cliff and once he hits the ground he immediately collapses. Klarg is dead." Apparently the goblin did enough damage to leave Klarg on about 3-5HP and the one d6 roll from fall damage was enough to kill him. We couldn't stop laughing. Easily one of the best moments of the campaign.
Welcome to the museum of goblin history. This relief is a depiction of Klarg the Mighty, he bested all of his opponents during an attempted coup lead by its treacherous lieutenant. Only to fall to his demise while jumping down from the platform the battle took place on, remember future conquerors to take note of your hp before attempting acts of reckless might.
(Spoilers in case you haven’t played LMOP. ) We had a first time player, a ranger rolled high enough to befriend the dogs and set them free. Then, our warlock Eld blasted the bridge and took out 3 goblins in one shot. And after the flushing, they pulled the rope from the outside to try to get them come out.
@@rcschmidt668 That's cool, and not to be a spoilsport, but Eldritch Blast can only target creatures. Objects are off-limits. One of the rare downsides to an otherwise broken cantrip.
For Dragonheist (in progress) I tweaked the ending such that characters had to acquire something from 3 of the dungeons as a key to the Dragon Vault (instead of the inconsequential ones in the book): a feather of Zariel from the Cassalanters, a dragon egg held on one of Jaraxle’s ships, and one of Xanathar’s eyes. Kolat towers being a secret dungeon. So far my players are really enjoying it.
Yeah, I heavily altered dragon heist too. In my game players need to find 3 keys as well. One can be found in Neverember'd mansion, 1 in Xanathar's lair and 1 in Kolat Tower. Also, the target isn't 500.000 gold, but multiple enemies are trying to find the Blackstaff in order to gain power over the Walking Statues.
I'm running Dragonheist using the Alexandrian Remix. Fixes so many of the issues with that module, including the lack of use of those faction headquarters.
I've run the Cragmaw Hideout five times, and the parties have taken five very different approaches. Good when players (and/or the DM) are beginners, but also usable if the players are just getting to know each other and feeling out their characters' personalities.
Having basically played 98% custom campaigns, having a list from the trusted Dungeon Dudes, I'll be keeping all of these in mind for giving my brain a break and running a printed campaign. 👍
The Sunless Citadel is such a great module, and an excellent kick-off for the entire 5e-adapted "Yawning Portal" series. We definitely rescued Meepo, and after he scored two Nat-20 kills with his sling in one session, we officially renamed the module "The Rise Of Meepo"...from that point forward, WE were the supporting characters in HIS story. 😂 99% sure our DM will be bringing Meepo back as a conquering hero in a future session.
Rescued? My players put Meepo in chains and offered him to the goblins as tribute to ingratiate themselves to the goblin king. 😂 Literally their first session of DND ever.
I had that happen to a random halfling prisoner that I just described as having nicer hair than the others. He was handed a sling to help kill some zombies that kept getting back up and then hit three consecutive nat20s … and thus started the tale of Como the halfling Bard.
Kelly's hair is getting to the point that he looks like the swashbuckling Rogue type that will steal your gems and charm the pants off you while he does it. And I am here for it
Nice! Got a Drakkenheim ad before the episode. Leaving a comment and like for the Algorithm, but bowing out of this one. I don't want to risk any surprises my DM might have in store.
I wanted Acererak to be more of a presence, so I would routinely have players dream of him outside the tomb, then when they got in the tomb the moment they laid eyes on one of the plinths on each floor that gives clues, a spectral hologram of him appears and he would read it out with me putting up my hoodie and doing my best Palpatine impression. Players were super excited to meet him by the end.
I love dungeons with traps and puzzles and below are a few of my favorites so far: The Hidden Shrine of Tamaoachan Eye of the All Father from Storm Kings Thunder The Plunging Torrents from Princes of the Apocalypse
I ran it in 2019. It was just like Monte explained! I totally agree its likely among the best of all time!! Chris Perkins did an amazing re-write of an already amazing bad guy!!!
There is a Patreon creator (who also releases on DrivethruRPG) who is steadily creating the entire world of Barovia for 3D printing. He just released Van Richden's tower, and already created the Bonegrinder, Baba Lasaga's hut, Death House, and one of the other castles, among other locations. He's working steadily towards Castle Ravenloft. Can't wait.
In my group (it was everyone's first time) we ran the start of Phandelver as an intro, so when we found the Hideout, we had an unorthodox attack plan. I had (for some random reason) bought barrels of oil, some flour to make bread and had a lot of extra cloths (some might see where this is going). So we rolled the flammables int the hideout and gassed out and burnt almost everyone. It has been many years since then and I have always, no matter what level of play, carried around oil and flour.
Must be a Thursday. Never could get a hang of Thursdays ... (btw, congrats on a million dollars! Glad to have contributed to such an amazing kickstarter. You guys have epitomized quality content from day 1!)
I just backed your project. Thanks for the last few years of solid D&D content on RUclips. Usually I consider your videos some of the most useful, especially the DM advice. Thanks.
I’m currently running the OAR series. Keep on the borderlands, isle of dread, expeditions to the barrier peeks -our current adventure-, the lost city, and castle amber. Oh oh! And very shortly temple of elemental evil is soon to be rereleased!
I just got The Lost City, I still own The Keep on the Borderlands and Isle of Dread I bought in 1982, but I'm going back to run some old school stuff again! A lot of the new stuff is amazing and I agree that the curse of strahd is probably one of the best of all time.
Kelly, your shirt reminded me of the music cue in your monster of the week games, think we're gonna see more of that? Really fun system and your GMing was great!
You are my favorite d&d content creators. Thank you for all of the hours of entertainment and tips for improving my DM game. My players will never realize how much better you made the experience for them.
Forever DM here and quite happy to be. I was honestly nervous about running Curse of Strahd (still have yet to) because everyone kept telling me that it's extremely roleplay-heavy, and that intimidates me a little. But listening to you two basically fangirl about how amazing Castle Ravenloft is has inspired me to give it a whirl. Granted, I already have a game in its preparation stages, but I think you've just placed Curse of Strahd as one of my next, if not THE next, game I'm going to run :)
Two years later so maybe you’ve already done this but as someone currently running Strahd, it helps when prepping for a session to recognize if this is a roleplay session, a combat session, or an exploration session, and then get myself in the mindset for that kind of session. Of course, just cause it’s an RP session doesn’t mean combat can’t happen as nowhere in Barovia is truly safe, but that’s just where my head’s gonna be for the session. The game world is extraordinarily well fleshed out and about the only thing you really have to be careful of is overwhelming your players with the very dangerous combat scenarios that might occur. Also if you run death house, the optional 1-3 dungeon at the start of the campaign, do your players a solid and be careful with the combat encounters, as well as describing certain monsters in a way that gives your players a hint as to whether or not this is a stand and fight scenario or a run for your life one.
And my run-through of sunless Citadel... Oh God, meepo got bitten half by the Dragon. Also, my DM did the exact thing that you guys were talking about when it came to the Galthias Tree in Sunless Citadel. But he worked it into curse of strahd in a way that was actually really cool. In his version of strahd, the tree that was in barovia, the one with the Berserkers all over the place, was what was connecting the valley to the Prime Material. How? More slight homebrew. This was way before Van Richton's, so we didn't know much as to how the Demiplanes of Dread worked. So Barovia was a copy of everything that happened before, and cast adrift between the Shadowfell and the Prime. The real Strand died, disgraced, and was buried under the Galthias tree, while the vampire one ruled over the valley in the Demiplane. Led to us freeing Barovia at the end and redeeming Strahd. Probably one if the best games I've played in.
It's amusing to get a Kickstarter ad for Drakkenhiem before the video starts. XD DRAKKENHYPE!! 1 million US kickstarter hype!! 300k subscriber hype!!! -I've only played a little of Curse of Strahd for 5e, but haven't made it to the castle yet, (ran many 3/3.5e pre-made adventures) -Note to self: if playing Sunless Citadel, don't kill Meepo. -Is blowing holes in the wall Kelly's answer to dealing with vampires? I'm pretty sure the last Shadows episode there was talk of blowing holes/blowing up a tower. XD (though I think Joe was the one more pushing blowing everything up).
I love your Dungeon for you can play it many times and find new things and so many different outcomes. It is so unique that you don't fall into the "been there done that..." even if you played it multiple times.
This video will need to be updated when the Drakkenheim book is released! Congratulations again on the amazing Kickstarter Monty, Kelly, Jill, and Joe. I can't wait to dip my toes in the DM pool for the first time come April 2022.
This channel always makes me a better DM every time I watch a video. Dungeons I've played include one which I made up myself, a flying castle called Stratis, and Magus' Tower from an old adventure called The Book With No End which I adapted to 5th edition for my game. I've also done White Plume Mountain more recently as a part of a greater adventure that I've made up.
You guys absolutely nailed this list. The top three are my favorites as well for basically the exact same reasons you described. I’ve never run Sunless Citadel but I enjoyed your take on it plus the history of the gulthias tree and blights.
fun and informative to follow your advice and examples about these published 5e modules! thank you for sharing! i like how you mentioned the parts that could be modified and expanded with original ideas and creativity
I used Kolat Towers and the attached extra-dimensional sanctum from Dragon Heist as an insert for a Waterdeep / Zhentarim-focused side-story in the middle of Storm King's Thunder. My players loved both the tower and the sanctum, and I had an absolute blast running them. Having read the rest of the lairs in Dragon Heist, I can't wait to run them all.... they're amazing.
The part at 18:30 where you talked about the Sunless Citadel being a great jumping off point for DMs rang so true. My first ever campaign i ran started with the Citadel and the lore behind it being a draconic temple was so interesting to me that i scrapped my ideas for the rest of the campaign and made it about the dragon the temple was built to worship returning as a dracolich and wreaking havoc across the sword coast, ending in a climactic battle with the dracolich in the caverns below the citadel, nicely bookending the campaign in the same place it all started. This dungeon holds an incredibly special place in my heart and I recommend it to new DMs constantly.
Not a licensed WotC module, but been preparing to run the Stonehell Megadungeon recently for a campaign. Absolutely stellar design, background, intrigue, with a major emphasis on cosmic horror gonzo-ness the further you delve towards its heart. Highly recommend it.
I ran Ravenloft as a stand-alone, multi-session dungeon crawl where I still fed them some of the Barovia lore throughout. I did alter some things about Strahd’s stats and spells because the players wanted to be a little higher level, but everyone seemed to have a great time. Was my first foray into DMing and learned a lot that I can improve on, but I really want to do this again.
I'm just about to finish my last Curse of Strahd campaign, having run it for three seprate groups in then past year or so, and I am STILL finding things to love about Castle Ravenloft. You guys nailed the idea that it is an extension of Strahd himself -- fascinating, mysterious, twisted, and deadly. Gearing up to run the Tomb of the Nine Gods, so I am ticking off the classics!
As a new DM I chose to run Lost Mine of Phandelver for my grandparents who have played D&D since 1st edition but had never played 5th edition and my 2 cousins who had never played. I had read the whole booklet for Lost Mines of Phandelver a couple times, but when setting up to play our first session I ONLY read through the part 1 as a refresher thinking I wouldn’t need more than that this session- these guys go on and find the ambush location and say “we’ll come back after we deliver these provisions” AND SKIP RIGHT ON INTO PART TWO 🙃. I learned very quickly with this group to never EVER assume what a party will do. I did find my BEST DMing style this way though so I guess it worked out 😂
This video was so relevant to me. My buddy and I are both new DMs and each have our own campaign that includes each of us as a PC. I am running a mix of LMoP with DoIP and my buddy ran Sunless Citadel. In my Cragmaw cave sessions the PCs attempted to sleep inside the cave after killing off the guards outside which was then noticed by the goblins (missing guards, PC campfire at the mouth of the cave, them standing watch on top of the cave instead of inside... etc). Due to my inexperience and some poor rolls they were nearly TPKd and chased out. Eventually, returning to be ambushed near the displayed remains of Sildar who was left at the mouth of the cave as a warning and a distraction. In his Sunless Citadel sessions, our group insisted Meepo enter the room with the dragon alone (despite his obvious hesistation) and attempt to animal handle it so we could return it to the kobalds and he was immediately killed by it. Later, after discovering the Night Caller whistle, my witch doctor influenced sorcerer-warlock has since kept him as a zombie. I had no idea until this video that Meepo was a beloved NPC!
The same complaints I read about Strahd are the complaints I see about rashasas. Makes me wonder if the DM isnt being creative enough. Rakshasas can nope out of most spells, they’re immune to non magical weapons, and they’re not gonna sit around and fight toe to toe. They’re going to stalk for days, like a tiger, like Strahd. They’re going to attack from invisibility or disguised as someone else, charm and dominate the fighters, and run away and let their curse work for days. If the party has true seeing and lift curse, well, the rakshasa has detect thoughts so they can find out who your family and friends are, while disguised, and go attack them instead.
My friends and I played and really enjoyed Waterdeep Dragon Heist. On another note, I feel inspired with this list, with Lost Mine of Phandelver being mentioned right off the bat. This weekend I will GM (For the first time) this game with my friends. So with reading, watching a number of videos on the topic I feel ready. After seeing the list by the Dungeon Dudes, I am interested in playing (or running) the Sunless Citadel.
Of the yawning portal dungeons my favorite was actually the doomvault. I didn't expect that but it was true at least as a DM, I think my players enjoyed that one as well, since they didn't just sprint to the end like they often did with a few of the other dungeons in that module.
I ran Dragon Heist not too long ago and it is great. I took my players through 3 of the villain's locals. We just completed Storm King's Thunder with The Kraken Society thrown in, and I liked it as well. I just got out Out of the Abyss, so in about a month I think it's next. 5E does have great pre-rolled adventures .. with just a tad of "home cooking" thrown in. Good video guys, thanks. My all time favorite dudgeon to run, despite its inconsistences is probably The Assassins Knot.
As a player: I loved playing Tomb of Annihilation, the titular dungeon was *amazing* As a DM: I loved running my party through the Dungeon of the Mad Mage, as it was a clustertruck of madness and confusion that made itself cohesive enough to let the players be in control, yet chaotic enough to keep them on the edge of their seats whenever they entered a new floor, or even a new room.
Speaking of blowing holes in Castle Ravenloft, my players used Stone Shape to wall hack their way into places they knew they wanted to get to more easily, for instance having the Tarokka reading reveal that something of value was in the catacombs and using Stone Shape to make a hole in the wall of the staircase in the south of the chapel.
I have run Cragmaw Hideout a number of times for new groups with all kinds of previous fantasy experience. It is always a great place to start for new players and new DMs and I can't recommend it enough!
Our campaign just finished the Sunless Citadel. We probably only slain less than a dozen foes through the whole adventure. We negotiated our way through everything else. Meepo is now a Dragonwrought Kobold Paladin of Bahamut. The dragon is now leaning towards good (we’ll be returning later to collect cast-off scales). The Kobolds have taken over the place with our blessing and the Goblins have moved to Oakhurst with out party rogue to open a Brewery...
The one time I ran Sunless Citadel a player drank the potion of fire breath and used it on the white dragon - but Meepo was trying to calm it down and got incinerated.
Matt Colville’s Delian Tomb is also a very fun, quick dungeon for newbies that can be re-flavored to match any setting. Running CoS currently and I just replaced the Delian Order with the Order of the Silver Dragon. Little bit of expo, and it was a great way for my players to see what DnD is all about.
We'll be running a side game of Lost Mines of Phandelver soon, my first time DMing. I'm combining the adventure with Dragon of Icespire Peak and some settings from the Beyond Icespire Peak trilogy since it's the same setting. It allows us to open up the exploration/sidequest options, and I've some exciting ideas for how to combine the stories. I'm a little freaked out though for that opening dungeon and other conflicts with the Cragmaw goblins, because coincidentally my group's face is a goblin paladin on some mission to teach honor to the rest of her kind. Should be fun!
The first 5e we ran was Dragon of Icespire Peak. Some of those locations were fun... Another of my groups started LMoP. Cragmaw has had the most replay value for low level characters so far... The encounters and missions in DoIP seem to have been more enjoyable overall.
Agree 100% that Sunless Citadel is a great adventure, and has lots of fascinating lore a DM can work with. I used it as the starting point for my Tyranny of Dragons campaign, and added lots of Cult of the Dragon background. It also got the PCs to 3rd level, which helped with the difficulties with the opening chapter of Hoard of the Dragon Queen. But my Meepo, alas, was also cruelly struck down! The ranger was trying to befriend him, but the rogue ran him through with a rapier. I told my group "Nobody kills Meepo!". Apparently I was wrong...
We've been running the 3.5 version of the sunless citadel series for years at this point, we're well beyond that. Meepo is still part of the party and the only original member of the party left from the sunless citadel. Tomorrow (3/25/22) we are going after steel predators on some cube thing.
The best dungeon published for 5e is the megadungeon of Ptolus 5e. It comprises the sewers, an underground river and structures that access it, natural caverns, Ghul's Labyrinth, the Banewarrens, Dwarvenhearth, drow city states, and more. The fact that the presence of all this is logically explained, and actually quite important to the setting, is part of what makes Ptolus so amazing.
Sunless Citadel was my first introduction to D&D and is what got me hooked. Meepo was someone who I almost killed by accident by making him set off a trap instead of one of us. He later helped us with various things and put in a good word to Yusdrayl for us and we allied with the Kobalds. Meepo actually joined us as an npc and is with us currently! Our two half orc barbarians gather random things and ask Meepo to make potions out of them and right now he drank a concoction to make himself stronger so he could help us but is currently unconscious as we hope he pulls through.
Our group also has a Druid and we ended up getting a cockatrice egg that eventually hatched and our Druid is raising it along with our fighter as the two are in a relationship
I'm currently playing the Sunless Citadel. We quickly befriended Meepo and he became almost a part our team. Than he died to some goblins we were fighting on our way to rescue the white dragon for the kobolds. Yeah, we had a lot of reasons to be in that dungeon, but avenging Meepo became almost instantly the main goal for everybody. It's amazing how well designed this kobold NPC is.
When I ran the sunless citadel in 3rd, the party killed Meepo but Erky Timbers joined the party and became a very popular NPC. My fond memories of sunless citadel and forge of fury are why I picked up Tales from the yawning portal. I had fond memories of running them for groups as a DM and as a player exploring them.
Sunless Citadel is one of my favorites. Meepo lived through the first time I ran it. The second time he got killed by Goblins. I like to use Sunless Citadel as a jump into Hoard of Dragon Queen / Rise of Tiamat. I portray the dungeon as a classic dungeon that all the locals go into to carve their names and adventuring bands into wall of the dragon statue on the bottom floor, before setting out on their journey's. In that room I place two dragon cultists and tie it into RoT. I'd also like to give an honorable mention to the Tomb of Diderius, a class zany dungeon that offers a lot of tips and tricks for building dungeons and for players on how to navigate them.
If anyone is looking for fresh intro campaigns, adapting the first island of pillars of eternity 2 which does take a bit of work was a really cool experience. It takes being in an archipelago or coastal setting where your heros need a boat and changimg monsters and factions and such but its one of the best 1-4 contained experiences in a dnd game I've had.
You should do a video looking at some of the best OSR Dungeons / adventures. Tomb of the Serpent Kings is AMAZING. Maybe the best intro adventure I've ever seen. Hole in the Oak is also fantastic.
Of these, I have run Gragmaw Cave a few times, with most of the players all leading a goblin revolution, one fed Klarg to his underfed wolves though. I am about to run Sunless Citadel this wednesday with a few small edits to tie it into Tyranny of Dragons (like how Dralmorrer Borngray will be in the dungeon since he got demoted), and I have run Dragon Heist and the players infiltrated Xanathar's lair and had an absolute blast with it. I ran curse of strahd before but the players never made it to the castle, and I plan on running Tomb Of Annihliation next year some time. One dungeon I want to shout out that you didn't mention though is the Castle In the Clouds from Hoard of the Dragon Queen, which as written is ridiculously difficult to just invade but has so many cool npcs that the party can find ways to turn against each other. Or if the party got assistance from other factions, those factions can lead an invasion while you have the party go through and deal with all these amazing setpiece bossfights
When I ran the Sunless Citadel, the players befriended Meepo, but he tried to set the dragon free after they captured it, simply because he didn't want to be condemned to be its keeper any longer... after all, the damn thing kept biting him! In another campaign where I played the adventure, Meepo was presented as a kobold mercenary who we had to hire as a guide to lead us to the dungeon, and then use his influence to convince the kobold chieftess to let us enter and deal with Belak and the goblins. In this adventure, Meepo was the worst DMPC I'd ever seen... the DM had him out-fighting, out-shooting, and even out-negotiating the entire party. At one point I remember we were all sitting around bored while the DM had a lengthy monologue between Meepo and the chieftess, but since none of our characters spoke Draconic, we weren't permitted to participate. Later on, after we eventually cleared the dungeon, Meepo assassinated our party barbarian using a rare poison he apparently concocted. Just my opinion, but that was the worst DM I ever played under since high school... but having said that, I was still grateful to get a chance to be a player for a change, since I'm a career DM for our group.
The water deep dungeons sound perfect for my home-brew campaign that I've been thinking of. I'm using the "rod of seven parts" idea (to defeat "The Evil Overlord" who has caused an "Age of Darkness"), so having them designed to be sneak around and steal something is perfect! Now, I just am faced with the impossible decision of which one to use
All this reminds me why Volo's is essential reading with it's extensive lair design stuff. I once made a banger of a green bag lair where they were a prophecy coven that was always watching and could pass through walls and came and went like the wind.
Cragmaw hideout.. First DnD campaign ever for Total newbies basically... Spent 4 sessions at the first couple of rooms xD then made too much noise later on, which had us end up fighting nearly everything in there at the same time xD Left a leasing impression on me
when I DM'd Cragmaw hideout, the PC's burned the bridge crashing it into the stream. So later on, when they were going from the west to the east part of the hideout, I made them make an athletics check to jump across. Most of them fell and took bludgeoning damage.
The Tomb of Horrors is actually really good and still is IFF you use it in the same way it was intended. But you can’t if you are a player today. It was intended to kill players that thought they were better the anything the DM/game designer could make. It was for a play-style and mindset that is all but totally extinct. The D&D of today is not about challenges but about stories. It is not the dm/game designer vs the players but the game designer and the players having fun. And honesty this module seemed to me to be the beginning of that change. After this module AND THEN Dragonlance series, you heard a lot less about beating the game and a lot more about enjoying the story.
IMO, it is good for each group to find a good balance between story and challenge. The story gives the party the context, but there is limited engagement in the story without the battles and challenges. Our latest group has RNG characters. Unbalanced parties, random weapons, and difficult encounters means we have had death since level 1. Our DM asked, and we agreed to do this after we cakewalked through the last campaign. Maybe today’s preference toward stories is a trend, and the pendulum will swing back over time.
@@rcschmidt668 I don’t know myself. The one thing I gleaned from the 4e that I had seen was that it was tactical. And that was not something retained or most seem to want back. Tactical game play is a bit undervalued in most of the games I have seen. Once that is no longer the case then maybe it will swing back but I don’t think that will happen. The success of 5e screams out that a simple system is preferable to a tactical one. And that tactical element was a key point to that play style. Great chatting with you.
I played through Dragon Heist and my DM pretty much engineered it so that we encountered the big villains and had to fight. Even with scouting and finding the time that the big villains were gonna be away and the path of least resistance was found, it was "surprise they're there anyway, roll a save or die". That and wave after wave of the sub-villains and minions, all of which were deadly encounters. Even the random nameless minions were on our level so everything was a bloody fight with almost all our resources expended each adventure day. It got to a point where we wanted to just stay home and not participate in the shenanigans. Even the random watch members were all above our level and were not afraid to toss out spells we couldn't even cast. I do want to use the four dungeons, just not the module. I don't know how much of the jank was DM VS module.
Meepo lived. Our party didn't have the heart to kill him. Thank you for showing the problems with the Waterdeep Dragon Heist and I may have my party revisit these hideouts at another campaign in Waterdeep.
Of the adventure books I've run, I can give a few recommendations. Only one level of Dungeon of the Mad Mage really stands out, and that's Vanrakdoom (level 18). It's a level that rewards exploration in a way that is rare, and I wish there was more of in that book. I also loved basically every dungeon in Ghosts of Saltmarsh: *super* underrated book in my opinion.
Funny story when my friends and I played Cragmaw Hideout. We learned that one of the goblins wanted to overthrow Klarg, so we said "Yeah sure, we'll help.". After going in and killing some goblins, we managed to get Klarg outside where he was accompanied by his pet wolves/dogs. While we were taking care of the wolves, The goblin went toe-to-toe with Klarg on top of a small cliff about 15ft high nearby.
Klarg managed to roll unbelievably bad, missing every single attack while the aspiring goblin was slowly whittling away at his health. Finally, after missing nearly every attack, Klarg gets a crit and one shots the goblin.
Then the DM said "After Klarg kills him he jumps down from the cliff and attacks", and then one of us said "Wait, would he hurt himself from that high jumping down?" And our DM said "Oh yeah, he would....shit...". He rolls a D6 and says "....Uh yeah, Klarg jumps down the cliff and once he hits the ground he immediately collapses. Klarg is dead."
Apparently the goblin did enough damage to leave Klarg on about 3-5HP and the one d6 roll from fall damage was enough to kill him. We couldn't stop laughing. Easily one of the best moments of the campaign.
Welcome to the museum of goblin history. This relief is a depiction of Klarg the Mighty, he bested all of his opponents during an attempted coup lead by its treacherous lieutenant. Only to fall to his demise while jumping down from the platform the battle took place on, remember future conquerors to take note of your hp before attempting acts of reckless might.
That’s a good dm.
(Spoilers in case you haven’t played LMOP. )
We had a first time player, a ranger rolled high enough to befriend the dogs and set them free.
Then, our warlock Eld blasted the bridge and took out 3 goblins in one shot. And after the flushing, they pulled the rope from the outside to try to get them come out.
@@rcschmidt668 That's cool, and not to be a spoilsport, but Eldritch Blast can only target creatures. Objects are off-limits. One of the rare downsides to an otherwise broken cantrip.
@@ShrankTheFirst Maybe our DM let it happen a la the rule of cool?
For Dragonheist (in progress) I tweaked the ending such that characters had to acquire something from 3 of the dungeons as a key to the Dragon Vault (instead of the inconsequential ones in the book): a feather of Zariel from the Cassalanters, a dragon egg held on one of Jaraxle’s ships, and one of Xanathar’s eyes. Kolat towers being a secret dungeon. So far my players are really enjoying it.
Yeah, I heavily altered dragon heist too. In my game players need to find 3 keys as well. One can be found in Neverember'd mansion, 1 in Xanathar's lair and 1 in Kolat Tower.
Also, the target isn't 500.000 gold, but multiple enemies are trying to find the Blackstaff in order to gain power over the Walking Statues.
Same.
I'm running Dragonheist using the Alexandrian Remix. Fixes so many of the issues with that module, including the lack of use of those faction headquarters.
@@cwengel22 Agreed. This is what I think Aaron is referring to. The Alexandrian remix fixes so many flaws.
@@cdfreester actually I hadn’t heard of it prior to this video
the dungeon dudes talk about dungeons in dungeons and dragons.
Up next: Five best dudes who are also dragons.
@@utkarshgaur1942 underrated comment
Dudes!
I've run the Cragmaw Hideout five times, and the parties have taken five very different approaches. Good when players (and/or the DM) are beginners, but also usable if the players are just getting to know each other and feeling out their characters' personalities.
Getting a RUclips add for your Kickstarter just before you tell me about yourself is funny.
Right dude isnt that amazing
I also laughed
Same
Here also! Hope it spreads to videos from others.
Did I travel back in time before ad blockers? What year is it?
Having basically played 98% custom campaigns, having a list from the trusted Dungeon Dudes, I'll be keeping all of these in mind for giving my brain a break and running a printed campaign. 👍
Currently playing the Tomb of Annihilation and I can vouch for it that's good.
69th like
@@morganbush7775 😄 nice
The Sunless Citadel is such a great module, and an excellent kick-off for the entire 5e-adapted "Yawning Portal" series.
We definitely rescued Meepo, and after he scored two Nat-20 kills with his sling in one session, we officially renamed the module "The Rise Of Meepo"...from that point forward, WE were the supporting characters in HIS story. 😂 99% sure our DM will be bringing Meepo back as a conquering hero in a future session.
Rescued? My players put Meepo in chains and offered him to the goblins as tribute to ingratiate themselves to the goblin king. 😂 Literally their first session of DND ever.
I had that happen to a random halfling prisoner that I just described as having nicer hair than the others. He was handed a sling to help kill some zombies that kept getting back up and then hit three consecutive nat20s … and thus started the tale of Como the halfling Bard.
My bard adopted him cause meepo reminded her of her little brother
Kelly's hair is getting to the point that he looks like the swashbuckling Rogue type that will steal your gems and charm the pants off you while he does it. And I am here for it
He is akin to the Biblical character Solomon. His power is already Saiyan level. He may hit Demigod if he grows it long
Off topic, but Kelly, the hair is getting truly legendary. Love it
Totally agree 😂
Nice! Got a Drakkenheim ad before the episode. Leaving a comment and like for the Algorithm, but bowing out of this one. I don't want to risk any surprises my DM might have in store.
I wanted Acererak to be more of a presence, so I would routinely have players dream of him outside the tomb, then when they got in the tomb the moment they laid eyes on one of the plinths on each floor that gives clues, a spectral hologram of him appears and he would read it out with me putting up my hoodie and doing my best Palpatine impression. Players were super excited to meet him by the end.
I'm so stealing this.
I love dungeons with traps and puzzles and below are a few of my favorites so far:
The Hidden Shrine of Tamaoachan
Eye of the All Father from Storm Kings Thunder
The Plunging Torrents from Princes of the Apocalypse
Love to see that the earliest comments are still so full of meaningful content.
WOAH! this is the first Dungeons of Drakenheim ad I have seen ... Though with only 28 hours left to go...
Good thing I got my book a few days ago.
God damn I wanna play Curse of Strahd at some point. With a DM that can bring Castle Ravenloft to (un)life like that.
I am a new DM and been thinking about running it... modified with Grim Hollow.
@@Lrbearclaw That sounds awesome.
I ran it in 2019. It was just like Monte explained! I totally agree its likely among the best of all time!! Chris Perkins did an amazing re-write of an already amazing bad guy!!!
There is a Patreon creator (who also releases on DrivethruRPG) who is steadily creating the entire world of Barovia for 3D printing. He just released Van Richden's tower, and already created the Bonegrinder, Baba Lasaga's hut, Death House, and one of the other castles, among other locations. He's working steadily towards Castle Ravenloft. Can't wait.
@@cristiaolson7327 Where can I get the stl's??!!
Kelly killed Meepo?!?
*goes to an IKEA showroom and flips ALL the tables!!*
ikr ?
My party got sick of Meepo’s whiny bullshit and let him run off and probably get killed. Twice.
In my group (it was everyone's first time) we ran the start of Phandelver as an intro, so when we found the Hideout, we had an unorthodox attack plan. I had (for some random reason) bought barrels of oil, some flour to make bread and had a lot of extra cloths (some might see where this is going). So we rolled the flammables int the hideout and gassed out and burnt almost everyone. It has been many years since then and I have always, no matter what level of play, carried around oil and flour.
I have a family member in the icu on life support and watching your videos helps me to destress and think about something else, thank you guys!
Must be a Thursday. Never could get a hang of Thursdays ... (btw, congrats on a million dollars! Glad to have contributed to such an amazing kickstarter. You guys have epitomized quality content from day 1!)
100%
I just backed your project. Thanks for the last few years of solid D&D content on RUclips. Usually I consider your videos some of the most useful, especially the DM advice. Thanks.
Wow, thanks!
I’m currently running the OAR series. Keep on the borderlands, isle of dread, expeditions to the barrier peeks -our current adventure-, the lost city, and castle amber. Oh oh! And very shortly temple of elemental evil is soon to be rereleased!
Just picked them all up as well. Can't wait to run them
I just got The Lost City, I still own The Keep on the Borderlands and Isle of Dread I bought in 1982, but I'm going back to run some old school stuff again! A lot of the new stuff is amazing and I agree that the curse of strahd is probably one of the best of all time.
Love the topic for this one, dungeon design is one of my favorite parts of DnD. Good video!
Kelly, your shirt reminded me of the music cue in your monster of the week games, think we're gonna see more of that? Really fun system and your GMing was great!
You are my favorite d&d content creators. Thank you for all of the hours of entertainment and tips for improving my DM game. My players will never realize how much better you made the experience for them.
Climb the chimney is clearly the best way in cragmaw. Only to catch a mace to the face upon reaching the top
Slipped in right before the buzzer for the Kickstarter. Looking forward to it!
Forever DM here and quite happy to be. I was honestly nervous about running Curse of Strahd (still have yet to) because everyone kept telling me that it's extremely roleplay-heavy, and that intimidates me a little. But listening to you two basically fangirl about how amazing Castle Ravenloft is has inspired me to give it a whirl. Granted, I already have a game in its preparation stages, but I think you've just placed Curse of Strahd as one of my next, if not THE next, game I'm going to run :)
Two years later so maybe you’ve already done this but as someone currently running Strahd, it helps when prepping for a session to recognize if this is a roleplay session, a combat session, or an exploration session, and then get myself in the mindset for that kind of session. Of course, just cause it’s an RP session doesn’t mean combat can’t happen as nowhere in Barovia is truly safe, but that’s just where my head’s gonna be for the session. The game world is extraordinarily well fleshed out and about the only thing you really have to be careful of is overwhelming your players with the very dangerous combat scenarios that might occur.
Also if you run death house, the optional 1-3 dungeon at the start of the campaign, do your players a solid and be careful with the combat encounters, as well as describing certain monsters in a way that gives your players a hint as to whether or not this is a stand and fight scenario or a run for your life one.
Our party ended up using our only healing potion to save Meepo after he was injured by a trap. We also had to stop our monk from killing him off
Loving the Douglas Adams 'Hitchhiker's Guide....' t shirt. Need a Dirk Gently one next!
now to do top 5 dragons in D&D
And then top 5 dungeons containing dragons
And my run-through of sunless Citadel... Oh God, meepo got bitten half by the Dragon.
Also, my DM did the exact thing that you guys were talking about when it came to the Galthias Tree in Sunless Citadel. But he worked it into curse of strahd in a way that was actually really cool. In his version of strahd, the tree that was in barovia, the one with the Berserkers all over the place, was what was connecting the valley to the Prime Material. How? More slight homebrew. This was way before Van Richton's, so we didn't know much as to how the Demiplanes of Dread worked. So Barovia was a copy of everything that happened before, and cast adrift between the Shadowfell and the Prime. The real Strand died, disgraced, and was buried under the Galthias tree, while the vampire one ruled over the valley in the Demiplane. Led to us freeing Barovia at the end and redeeming Strahd. Probably one if the best games I've played in.
Just backed the kickstarter! Thank you so much for all your super helpful videos which have upped my player and DM game immeasurably! Y’all rock
It's been almost a year and Meepo is still with the party :-D
Nice! I had a guest player to run Meepo for me, he got eaten by the dragon whelp at the end of the session.
We bargained with the dragon wormling and got it as a mascot. Unfortunately.. meepo hadda die for it to happen 😅😝
11:45 totally agree. One of the best intro / first adventures, with a good theme and villain.
It's amusing to get a Kickstarter ad for Drakkenhiem before the video starts. XD DRAKKENHYPE!!
1 million US kickstarter hype!!
300k subscriber hype!!!
-I've only played a little of Curse of Strahd for 5e, but haven't made it to the castle yet, (ran many 3/3.5e pre-made adventures)
-Note to self: if playing Sunless Citadel, don't kill Meepo.
-Is blowing holes in the wall Kelly's answer to dealing with vampires? I'm pretty sure the last Shadows episode there was talk of blowing holes/blowing up a tower. XD (though I think Joe was the one more pushing blowing everything up).
I've been trying to get back into making my world, and one of the things I cannot wait to get into is the dungeon making.
I love your Dungeon for you can play it many times and find new things and so many different outcomes. It is so unique that you don't fall into the "been there done that..." even if you played it multiple times.
30:40 true Strahd the barbarian is being played wrong. Strahd the game hacker is the correct play style.
If Strahd isn't playing with his food and slowly whittling down the resolve of the characters, he isn't Strahd.
This video will need to be updated when the Drakkenheim book is released!
Congratulations again on the amazing Kickstarter Monty, Kelly, Jill, and Joe. I can't wait to dip my toes in the DM pool for the first time come April 2022.
This channel always makes me a better DM every time I watch a video.
Dungeons I've played include one which I made up myself, a flying castle called Stratis, and Magus' Tower from an old adventure called The Book With No End which I adapted to 5th edition for my game. I've also done White Plume Mountain more recently as a part of a greater adventure that I've made up.
You guys absolutely nailed this list. The top three are my favorites as well for basically the exact same reasons you described. I’ve never run Sunless Citadel but I enjoyed your take on it plus the history of the gulthias tree and blights.
fun and informative to follow your advice and examples about these published 5e modules! thank you for sharing! i like how you mentioned the parts that could be modified and expanded with original ideas and creativity
I used Kolat Towers and the attached extra-dimensional sanctum from Dragon Heist as an insert for a Waterdeep / Zhentarim-focused side-story in the middle of Storm King's Thunder. My players loved both the tower and the sanctum, and I had an absolute blast running them. Having read the rest of the lairs in Dragon Heist, I can't wait to run them all.... they're amazing.
I definitely want to work the different sanctums (sancta???) into other campaigns and scenarios!
The part at 18:30 where you talked about the Sunless Citadel being a great jumping off point for DMs rang so true. My first ever campaign i ran started with the Citadel and the lore behind it being a draconic temple was so interesting to me that i scrapped my ideas for the rest of the campaign and made it about the dragon the temple was built to worship returning as a dracolich and wreaking havoc across the sword coast, ending in a climactic battle with the dracolich in the caverns below the citadel, nicely bookending the campaign in the same place it all started. This dungeon holds an incredibly special place in my heart and I recommend it to new DMs constantly.
Hearing you guys talk about Meepo reminds me of my players and Droop.
Love to hear your thoughts on Dungeon of the Mad Mage
One of my new favorites is the frozen city from Rime of the Frostmaiden.
Not a licensed WotC module, but been preparing to run the Stonehell Megadungeon recently for a campaign. Absolutely stellar design, background, intrigue, with a major emphasis on cosmic horror gonzo-ness the further you delve towards its heart. Highly recommend it.
I ran Ravenloft as a stand-alone, multi-session dungeon crawl where I still fed them some of the Barovia lore throughout. I did alter some things about Strahd’s stats and spells because the players wanted to be a little higher level, but everyone seemed to have a great time. Was my first foray into DMing and learned a lot that I can improve on, but I really want to do this again.
I'm just about to finish my last Curse of Strahd campaign, having run it for three seprate groups in then past year or so, and I am STILL finding things to love about Castle Ravenloft. You guys nailed the idea that it is an extension of Strahd himself -- fascinating, mysterious, twisted, and deadly.
Gearing up to run the Tomb of the Nine Gods, so I am ticking off the classics!
Thanks for this. I'm definitely using the Villa from Dragon Heist for a Merchant Prince in Tomb of Annihilation.
Can't wait for your Kickstarter to be in my hands!!
I really appreciate DM content like this. Great stuff!
Thanks for this list dudes! Now I know what ones to pick up, they all seem right up my alley.
As a new DM I chose to run Lost Mine of Phandelver for my grandparents who have played D&D since 1st edition but had never played 5th edition and my 2 cousins who had never played. I had read the whole booklet for Lost Mines of Phandelver a couple times, but when setting up to play our first session I ONLY read through the part 1 as a refresher thinking I wouldn’t need more than that this session- these guys go on and find the ambush location and say “we’ll come back after we deliver these provisions” AND SKIP RIGHT ON INTO PART TWO 🙃. I learned very quickly with this group to never EVER assume what a party will do. I did find my BEST DMing style this way though so I guess it worked out 😂
Just pledged and I can’t wait for it to arrive!
This video was so relevant to me. My buddy and I are both new DMs and each have our own campaign that includes each of us as a PC. I am running a mix of LMoP with DoIP and my buddy ran Sunless Citadel.
In my Cragmaw cave sessions the PCs attempted to sleep inside the cave after killing off the guards outside which was then noticed by the goblins (missing guards, PC campfire at the mouth of the cave, them standing watch on top of the cave instead of inside... etc). Due to my inexperience and some poor rolls they were nearly TPKd and chased out. Eventually, returning to be ambushed near the displayed remains of Sildar who was left at the mouth of the cave as a warning and a distraction.
In his Sunless Citadel sessions, our group insisted Meepo enter the room with the dragon alone (despite his obvious hesistation) and attempt to animal handle it so we could return it to the kobalds and he was immediately killed by it. Later, after discovering the Night Caller whistle, my witch doctor influenced sorcerer-warlock has since kept him as a zombie. I had no idea until this video that Meepo was a beloved NPC!
The same complaints I read about Strahd are the complaints I see about rashasas. Makes me wonder if the DM isnt being creative enough. Rakshasas can nope out of most spells, they’re immune to non magical weapons, and they’re not gonna sit around and fight toe to toe. They’re going to stalk for days, like a tiger, like Strahd. They’re going to attack from invisibility or disguised as someone else, charm and dominate the fighters, and run away and let their curse work for days. If the party has true seeing and lift curse, well, the rakshasa has detect thoughts so they can find out who your family and friends are, while disguised, and go attack them instead.
SHeeet I just noticed the 300k. I remember subscribing when you had something like 30k. Good job boys
My friends and I played and really enjoyed Waterdeep Dragon Heist. On another note, I feel inspired with this list, with Lost Mine of Phandelver being mentioned right off the bat. This weekend I will GM (For the first time) this game with my friends. So with reading, watching a number of videos on the topic I feel ready.
After seeing the list by the Dungeon Dudes, I am interested in playing (or running) the Sunless Citadel.
Of the yawning portal dungeons my favorite was actually the doomvault. I didn't expect that but it was true at least as a DM, I think my players enjoyed that one as well, since they didn't just sprint to the end like they often did with a few of the other dungeons in that module.
I ran Dragon Heist not too long ago and it is great. I took my players through 3 of the villain's locals. We just completed Storm King's Thunder with The Kraken Society thrown in, and I liked it as well. I just got out Out of the Abyss, so in about a month I think it's next. 5E does have great pre-rolled adventures .. with just a tad of "home cooking" thrown in. Good video guys, thanks. My all time favorite dudgeon to run, despite its inconsistences is probably The Assassins Knot.
I actually needed a noble mansion for an upcoming Eberron game, I'm definitely going to look up the Cassalanter Villa and see if I can repurpose it.
I love Eberron…gonna have plenty of locations in Sharn after my campaign is done…
As a player: I loved playing Tomb of Annihilation, the titular dungeon was *amazing*
As a DM: I loved running my party through the Dungeon of the Mad Mage, as it was a clustertruck of madness and confusion that made itself cohesive enough to let the players be in control, yet chaotic enough to keep them on the edge of their seats whenever they entered a new floor, or even a new room.
Speaking of blowing holes in Castle Ravenloft, my players used Stone Shape to wall hack their way into places they knew they wanted to get to more easily, for instance having the Tarokka reading reveal that something of value was in the catacombs and using Stone Shape to make a hole in the wall of the staircase in the south of the chapel.
Brilliant!!
Monty looks wired off crack here
Great work, keep it up
I have run Cragmaw Hideout a number of times for new groups with all kinds of previous fantasy experience. It is always a great place to start for new players and new DMs and I can't recommend it enough!
Our campaign just finished the Sunless Citadel. We probably only slain less than a dozen foes through the whole adventure. We negotiated our way through everything else. Meepo is now a Dragonwrought Kobold Paladin of Bahamut. The dragon is now leaning towards good (we’ll be returning later to collect cast-off scales). The Kobolds have taken over the place with our blessing and the Goblins have moved to Oakhurst with out party rogue to open a Brewery...
The one time I ran Sunless Citadel a player drank the potion of fire breath and used it on the white dragon - but Meepo was trying to calm it down and got incinerated.
Matt Colville’s Delian Tomb is also a very fun, quick dungeon for newbies that can be re-flavored to match any setting. Running CoS currently and I just replaced the Delian Order with the Order of the Silver Dragon. Little bit of expo, and it was a great way for my players to see what DnD is all about.
We'll be running a side game of Lost Mines of Phandelver soon, my first time DMing. I'm combining the adventure with Dragon of Icespire Peak and some settings from the Beyond Icespire Peak trilogy since it's the same setting. It allows us to open up the exploration/sidequest options, and I've some exciting ideas for how to combine the stories. I'm a little freaked out though for that opening dungeon and other conflicts with the Cragmaw goblins, because coincidentally my group's face is a goblin paladin on some mission to teach honor to the rest of her kind. Should be fun!
The first 5e we ran was Dragon of Icespire Peak. Some of those locations were fun...
Another of my groups started LMoP. Cragmaw has had the most replay value for low level characters so far... The encounters and missions in DoIP seem to have been more enjoyable overall.
Agree 100% that Sunless Citadel is a great adventure, and has lots of fascinating lore a DM can work with. I used it as the starting point for my Tyranny of Dragons campaign, and added lots of Cult of the Dragon background. It also got the PCs to 3rd level, which helped with the difficulties with the opening chapter of Hoard of the Dragon Queen. But my Meepo, alas, was also cruelly struck down! The ranger was trying to befriend him, but the rogue ran him through with a rapier. I told my group "Nobody kills Meepo!". Apparently I was wrong...
I'm old enough to have DMed the original Ravenloft when it came out and its sequel
We've been running the 3.5 version of the sunless citadel series for years at this point, we're well beyond that. Meepo is still part of the party and the only original member of the party left from the sunless citadel. Tomorrow (3/25/22) we are going after steel predators on some cube thing.
Oh nice- Cragmaw was the first dungeon I ran as a DM. I too was completely surprised by my players path.
Kelly, always on point with his shirts! The Thing is one of my all time favourite movies!
The best dungeon published for 5e is the megadungeon of Ptolus 5e. It comprises the sewers, an underground river and structures that access it, natural caverns, Ghul's Labyrinth, the Banewarrens, Dwarvenhearth, drow city states, and more.
The fact that the presence of all this is logically explained, and actually quite important to the setting, is part of what makes Ptolus so amazing.
Great video, tons of inspiration for my next dungeon
Sunless Citadel was my first introduction to D&D and is what got me hooked. Meepo was someone who I almost killed by accident by making him set off a trap instead of one of us. He later helped us with various things and put in a good word to Yusdrayl for us and we allied with the Kobalds. Meepo actually joined us as an npc and is with us currently! Our two half orc barbarians gather random things and ask Meepo to make potions out of them and right now he drank a concoction to make himself stronger so he could help us but is currently unconscious as we hope he pulls through.
Our group also has a Druid and we ended up getting a cockatrice egg that eventually hatched and our Druid is raising it along with our fighter as the two are in a relationship
I'm currently playing the Sunless Citadel. We quickly befriended Meepo and he became almost a part our team. Than he died to some goblins we were fighting on our way to rescue the white dragon for the kobolds. Yeah, we had a lot of reasons to be in that dungeon, but avenging Meepo became almost instantly the main goal for everybody. It's amazing how well designed this kobold NPC is.
When I ran the sunless citadel in 3rd, the party killed Meepo but Erky Timbers joined the party and became a very popular NPC.
My fond memories of sunless citadel and forge of fury are why I picked up Tales from the yawning portal. I had fond memories of running them for groups as a DM and as a player exploring them.
Sunless Citadel is one of my favorites. Meepo lived through the first time I ran it. The second time he got killed by Goblins.
I like to use Sunless Citadel as a jump into Hoard of Dragon Queen / Rise of Tiamat. I portray the dungeon as a classic dungeon that all the locals go into to carve their names and adventuring bands into wall of the dragon statue on the bottom floor, before setting out on their journey's.
In that room I place two dragon cultists and tie it into RoT. I'd also like to give an honorable mention to the Tomb of Diderius, a class zany dungeon that offers a lot of tips and tricks for building dungeons and for players on how to navigate them.
If anyone is looking for fresh intro campaigns, adapting the first island of pillars of eternity 2 which does take a bit of work was a really cool experience. It takes being in an archipelago or coastal setting where your heros need a boat and changimg monsters and factions and such but its one of the best 1-4 contained experiences in a dnd game I've had.
You should do a video looking at some of the best OSR Dungeons / adventures.
Tomb of the Serpent Kings is AMAZING. Maybe the best intro adventure I've ever seen. Hole in the Oak is also fantastic.
Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, nice. One of my most favorite books and a core drive behind my DM skills lol.
Of these, I have run Gragmaw Cave a few times, with most of the players all leading a goblin revolution, one fed Klarg to his underfed wolves though. I am about to run Sunless Citadel this wednesday with a few small edits to tie it into Tyranny of Dragons (like how Dralmorrer Borngray will be in the dungeon since he got demoted), and I have run Dragon Heist and the players infiltrated Xanathar's lair and had an absolute blast with it. I ran curse of strahd before but the players never made it to the castle, and I plan on running Tomb Of Annihliation next year some time. One dungeon I want to shout out that you didn't mention though is the Castle In the Clouds from Hoard of the Dragon Queen, which as written is ridiculously difficult to just invade but has so many cool npcs that the party can find ways to turn against each other. Or if the party got assistance from other factions, those factions can lead an invasion while you have the party go through and deal with all these amazing setpiece bossfights
Kickstarter over a million. So cool guys. Can't wait to get it
When I ran the Sunless Citadel, the players befriended Meepo, but he tried to set the dragon free after they captured it, simply because he didn't want to be condemned to be its keeper any longer... after all, the damn thing kept biting him! In another campaign where I played the adventure, Meepo was presented as a kobold mercenary who we had to hire as a guide to lead us to the dungeon, and then use his influence to convince the kobold chieftess to let us enter and deal with Belak and the goblins. In this adventure, Meepo was the worst DMPC I'd ever seen... the DM had him out-fighting, out-shooting, and even out-negotiating the entire party. At one point I remember we were all sitting around bored while the DM had a lengthy monologue between Meepo and the chieftess, but since none of our characters spoke Draconic, we weren't permitted to participate. Later on, after we eventually cleared the dungeon, Meepo assassinated our party barbarian using a rare poison he apparently concocted. Just my opinion, but that was the worst DM I ever played under since high school... but having said that, I was still grateful to get a chance to be a player for a change, since I'm a career DM for our group.
The water deep dungeons sound perfect for my home-brew campaign that I've been thinking of. I'm using the "rod of seven parts" idea (to defeat "The Evil Overlord" who has caused an "Age of Darkness"), so having them designed to be sneak around and steal something is perfect! Now, I just am faced with the impossible decision of which one to use
All this reminds me why Volo's is essential reading with it's extensive lair design stuff. I once made a banger of a green bag lair where they were a prophecy coven that was always watching and could pass through walls and came and went like the wind.
My party brokered peace between the kobolds and goblins in the sunless citadel. So cool.
Cragmaw hideout.. First DnD campaign ever for Total newbies basically... Spent 4 sessions at the first couple of rooms xD then made too much noise later on, which had us end up fighting nearly everything in there at the same time xD Left a leasing impression on me
when I DM'd Cragmaw hideout, the PC's burned the bridge crashing it into the stream. So later on, when they were going from the west to the east part of the hideout, I made them make an athletics check to jump across. Most of them fell and took bludgeoning damage.
I like how not a single level of Dungeon of the Mad Mage didn’t make the list.
Because their scale and number. You’d need to play an entire campaign 5-20 to give a viable opinion haha
This sentence was a roller coaster, and it’s still incorrect.
“Not a single level didn’t make the list” is an obstacle course of a sentence that means “every level made the list”
@@kev_whatev I’m sorry to have deeply offended you through my use of language. Obviously I’m not as smart as you.
@@jmsiener But none of the levels made the list tho…
The Tomb of Horrors is actually really good and still is IFF you use it in the same way it was intended.
But you can’t if you are a player today.
It was intended to kill players that thought they were better the anything the DM/game designer could make. It was for a play-style and mindset that is all but totally extinct.
The D&D of today is not about challenges but about stories. It is not the dm/game designer vs the players but the game designer and the players having fun. And honesty this module seemed to me to be the beginning of that change. After this module AND THEN Dragonlance series, you heard a lot less about beating the game and a lot more about enjoying the story.
IMO, it is good for each group to find a good balance between story and challenge. The story gives the party the context, but there is limited engagement in the story without the battles and challenges.
Our latest group has RNG characters. Unbalanced parties, random weapons, and difficult encounters means we have had death since level 1.
Our DM asked, and we agreed to do this after we cakewalked through the last campaign.
Maybe today’s preference toward stories is a trend, and the pendulum will swing back over time.
@@rcschmidt668 I don’t know myself. The one thing I gleaned from the 4e that I had seen was that it was tactical. And that was not something retained or most seem to want back.
Tactical game play is a bit undervalued in most of the games I have seen. Once that is no longer the case then maybe it will swing back but I don’t think that will happen. The success of 5e screams out that a simple system is preferable to a tactical one. And that tactical element was a key point to that play style.
Great chatting with you.
@@leodouskyron5671 I appreciate your views.
I played through Dragon Heist and my DM pretty much engineered it so that we encountered the big villains and had to fight. Even with scouting and finding the time that the big villains were gonna be away and the path of least resistance was found, it was "surprise they're there anyway, roll a save or die".
That and wave after wave of the sub-villains and minions, all of which were deadly encounters. Even the random nameless minions were on our level so everything was a bloody fight with almost all our resources expended each adventure day. It got to a point where we wanted to just stay home and not participate in the shenanigans. Even the random watch members were all above our level and were not afraid to toss out spells we couldn't even cast.
I do want to use the four dungeons, just not the module. I don't know how much of the jank was DM VS module.
Meepo lived. Our party didn't have the heart to kill him. Thank you for showing the problems with the Waterdeep Dragon Heist and I may have my party revisit these hideouts at another campaign in Waterdeep.
Amazing video my dudes. Had to skip number 1 though because I am currently IN strahd's castle at the very end of the campaign.
I'm thrilled to hear Strahd's castle is so high on the list since my party is running CoS right now!
Of the adventure books I've run, I can give a few recommendations. Only one level of Dungeon of the Mad Mage really stands out, and that's Vanrakdoom (level 18). It's a level that rewards exploration in a way that is rare, and I wish there was more of in that book. I also loved basically every dungeon in Ghosts of Saltmarsh: *super* underrated book in my opinion.