Waterdeep: Dragon Heist Thoughts and Tribulations - Adventure Review (session 1)-

The below post will contain my up-to-date review of the published adventure, as well as notes for future sessions. It includes spoilers gallore, so if you are a player, please turn back now, while you still can!

- Following Session 1 (Chapter 1) -

1. Tall order for new DMs

Waterdeep: a city about which there have been novels written. 

As a DM that just started DnD a few years ago, has mostly played homebrew (and Curse of Strahd) and is not an avid gamer, talk about scary!

There is basically no amount of prep I could put into this that would really get me "ready" for Waterdeep. 

So what do I do: some prep and then, improvise!

Also Youtube videos: roll20 presents, Dice, Camera, Action, other streamers (still getting around to watching them all)

Waterdeep Interactive Map: life-saver https://www.aidedd.org/atlas/index.php?map=W&l=1

Volo's Guide to Waterdeep: life-saver 

2. Didn't like the abrupt beginning, so I changed it

I thought characters that get thrown together in a bar brawl do not a great party make. 

-How did they come to be in the Yawning Portal in the first place?

-Do they already have some inkling of what is about to unfold?

So, instead of starting with the Yawning Portal, I started with how the characters meet: at a party ("soiree" if you prefer).

I didn't want it to be any party though, but a party that offers them some clues to the plot that will unfold. So, the Gralhunds it is. (I know, normally they seem too snobbish to open their house up like this, but hey, DM privilege and all that.)

3. Playing up the seasons 

Weather effects in chapter 4 are pretty cool mechanically but then again, will there be wind whistling through the streets every day? And what about before that chapter?

Also, I really loved having an adventure with a time-frame extending over months. That way, characters get downtime, run their own business in Waterdeep, join factions etc. Neverembers gold has stayed in a vault for a while, a few weeks more or less won't change much, and if it runs according to plan, it will give the characters more room to investigate more. 

Also, festivals! Those are amazing in spicing up the season mechanics from the beginning of the game and bring flavor.  

4. Factions, backstories and goals

Flesh out the characters better before going for the factions. Maybe even get the characters to already interact with factions before they are invited. 

Also, if some characters are already affiliated with guilds, have goals etc. for in-game, it's easier to choose a faction for them. 

Too many factions will fracture the story. Choose one or two, and other than that, work on side-quests and characters backstories. 

Still working through this, but I'm thinking:

-City Watch affiliation party member, looking for revenge and protecting the city

-Money-lender with clear goal to get rich fast

-Gnome that chases money and nobility thinking they are the key to securing love and respect

-Eladrin that loves good and beauty and is researching human nature

-Changeling with Genie warlock patron, wants to get back home, and with a keen eye for investigation and interrogation

Suitable factions:

Harpers / Force Gray / Lords' Alliance, but I'm leaning mostly towards Lords' Alliance, eliminating the part where you have to be a Waterdavian citizen

Side-quests to pursue:

-Track the Black Viper (and capture)

-Establish contacts in the nobility 

-Right a wrong (goblins) 

-Birds of a feather flock together (brash, impulsive characters take shine to each other) - one of the key NPCs befriends the eladrin

5. NPCs galore

Family members, guild masters, shop owners etc., try to figure that out before you accelerate the plot towards the evil mastermind. You could tie those in quite neatly with the overall plot. 

Gralhund Villa - Zhentarim (lots of clues left there for the players)

City Watch affiliated character knows Barnibus and Saeth (when they show up later, the watch will likely ask the party for their active help, instead of just forbidding them to dig in deeper)

6. Choosing the villain

Boy, what a conundrum!

Still working on deciding that (just because you choose a season doesn't mean you can't change  your mind about the villain)

Cassalanters: cool AF, but the characters are only faced with impossible choices (after Curse of Strahd, that feels maybe a bit much)

Xanathar: too chaotic, too few points of inter-lapping with the party

Jarlaxle:  amazing NPC, but clearly aimed at experienced in intrigue players (also, no draw)

Manshoon: seems like a great fit; pure evil, slow reveal, it's key to get the faction on your side to face him

But beware of letting high-level henchmen get caught easily because bye-bye big reveal. Keep that till as late as possible, or better yet, try to convert one of the "bad Zhents", or one of the "Masked Lords" he has been bribing. 

7. Linear Plot in Floon Investigation

Does it seem like maybe it is too easy?

First of all, I separated the Zhentarim dragging Floon and Renaer. Some were headed towards the Candle Lane warehouse, other towards another stash house in area. (Both groups got ambushed by Xanathar's, but in Floon's case, he actually got dragged to the sewers.)

Go there - ask around - find where the bad guys are...

Me thinks maybe after they get arrested, the trail runs cold. They have to figure out how to get to the sewers, and there's a couple of ways:

   *get to the kenku, but they are in prison (the guards will probably not question them properly about Floon, or at least not with due-diliggence)

   *bodies in warehouse - signs of having recently emerged from sewers (CSI)

   *an object that Floon dropped finds its way to Volo and using that, the party traces the other Zhentarim hide-out or sewers entrance

   *ask around (last resort)

8. What happened to Volo's Guide to Monsters?

I figured: what's its role here? It didn't sell well, so Volo is a bit light on cash... Yeah, ok, but what if Volo gets the inspiration to write Volo's Guide to Monsters by befriending the characters? 

Already this session Volo got a couple of suggestions, one of them making a guide about monsters. 

   * work goblins in plot (check)

   * orcs in plot (done, several NPCs)

   * Beholders, mind-flayers etc. (work in plot, maybe Xanathar's guild at some point manages to capture one or more of the characters and the mind-flayers interrogate them  mwahaha)

Reason he's out of money: used all his money to help a friend a couple months back, he's running low on cash / or gambling  

9. Initiative and DM Free-pass

I tend to forget to give initiative. So, players that make notes and share those with me and the group, get initiative. 

Also, end of the session, players get to decide who gets a "make the DM change the story because we're gonna get slaughtered" free-pass. This doesn't just retcon everything and the players have to have some cool ideas on how the situation could be turned around, but they could literally request anything.

I'm curious to see how this goes...