Review: Hoard of the Dragon Queen is Better Than You Thought

I recently agreed to write a “Top 10 5th Edition Modules” article for FlutesLoot, but abruptly realized that I hadn’t actually read every 5th Edition module. Obviously, this meant I had to go out and read every single one that I’d missed so far—starting with Hoard of the Dragon Queen.

Hoard is infamous among the 5th Edition community for being 5e’s first adventure module and (as common knowledge dictates) its worst. But as I began to read more deeply into it, I found a lot of my preconceptions being challenged—and often for the better.

In this and subsequent reviews, I’ll be employing a six-point review scheme:

1. Clarity of Purpose. Does this module know what it’s trying to do? If so, how well does it do it?

2. Writing Quality. How accessible, readable, and well-organized is the module’s prose?

3. Narrative Quality. How well does the module develop and present the PCs’ story, as well as its own?

4. Ease of DMing. How easy is the module to pick up and run out-of-the-box?

5. Depth of Play. Does the module offer meaningful and interesting gameplay choices?

6. Narrative Adaptability. How well does the module react and adapt to unexpected player actions?

Let’s get started.

I. Clarity of Purpose

Let’s make something clear upfront: Hoard of the Dragon Queen is clearly aimed at old-school D&D players (which makes sense, given that it was the first 5th Edition module to be released).

By “old-school D&D player,” I mean the kind of player who enjoys optimization and system mastery, but who doesn’t really mind death or defeat. This is the kind of player that I would call a “Challenger” on this chart:

Hoard of the Dragon Queen is not a campaign for the faint of heart. If you’re the kind of player or DM who prefers any semblance of “balance” in your combat encounters, Seek Ye Elsewhere. Over half of the combats in the first three chapters alone are either highly competitive, unfair, or downright impossible—and that’s before factoring in how many resources the PCs will spend over the adventuring day!

If they want to survive, the players will need to avoid fights wherever possible, and fight dirty and/or smart wherever not.

This campaign also generally assumes that its players have “read the manual”—that is, that they’re familiar with classic fantasy tropes, especially those found in pulp novels and old-school epic fantasy. On top of that, its reliance on medieval logistics—from supply caravans to road reconstruction, sally ports, and grain stores—might bore modern players, but are sure to immerse classic fantasy fanatics.

With that said, Hoard ultimately can’t be evaluated in a vacuum. Due to the slow slog of its later chapters (which we’ll get to in a bit!), Hoard of the Dragon Queen ultimately serves as little more than a seven-level prologue to Rise of Tiamat, its sequel, which might frustrate players who’d like to get to the action a little more quickly.

With that said, what Hoard does present is a fascinating, slow-burning travel/conspiracy story that’s stuffed to the gills with factional politics. Mystery-minded and intrigue-loving players are sure to have a good time.

Clarity of Purpose: A-

II. Writing Quality

Surprisingly for a 5th Edition module, Hoard is actually fairly well written! The introduction does a perfectly cromulent job of laying out the adventure’s background and stakes. Information on factions and NPCs is presented to the DM upfront, with little held back. Unlike later 5th Edition campaigns, Hoard of the Dragon Queen is a technical document, not a storybook, and its readers will thank it for that.

Its dungeons and chapters are similarly well-written—but do face one fundamental flaw: Hoard is a stunningly ambitious module, raising multiple long-term plot threads that involve factions from all across the Sword Coast and beyond. We’ve got cultists, rebellious cultists, evil wizards, exiled evil wizards, friendly paladins, friendly bards, friendly druids, devils, giants, dragons, and—for some reason—a vampire. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but much of this lore is presented as an overwhelming infodump, which makes it somewhat hard to digest. A few charts or other visual aids would go a long way in making this epic-sized adventure manageable.

With that said, the writing itself is accessible, thorough, and insightful. From time to time, it even slips into casual terminology or outright breaks the fourth wall in order to deliver a few words of wisdom to its reader. From a technical standpoint, Hoard is easily one of the cleanest official modules I’ve had the opportunity to read thus far.

Writing Quality: B+

III. Narrative Quality

The story of Hoard of the Dragon Queen leaves something to be desired.

Let’s start with the good bits. The first three chapters are energetic, action-packed scenarios that give players a real opportunity to jump into action and start building their own legend. The fourth chapter is a slower, transitory travel stage that really gives the narrative a chance to breathe. Scattered throughout is a bundle of random encounters and side-quests that give the DM a lot of flexibility to build each adventuring day and really make the world come alive.

From there, though, everything drops off a cliff—once Chapter Five starts, the pacing crawls to a halt and never picks up again. At no point after Chapter Three are the players put on a meaningful timer, or really given a clear objective. While the locations, factions, characters, and lore are fascinating, and while the players are given exceptional freedom to set their own standards for success, the story itself slogs badly as a result. DMs are left with a point-to-point crawl with some wonderfully fascinating dungeons, a lot to do in them, and no particular reason to do much of anything.

Narrative Quality: C

IV. Ease of DMing

Hoard of the Dragon Queen is, if anything, even more dedicated to playability than the novice DM’s Lost Mine of Phandelver. It does an excellent job of teaching small DMing skills, whether it’s whether and when to provide advantage or disadvantage, staying flexible when assigning story roles to generic NPCs, or the different kinds of bonuses that might apply to different kinds of skill checks.

It also provides helpful tactical advice from time to time, including a line that should have been in the Monster Manual: “A dragon never fights on foot where enemies might hack at it when it can soar majestically out of reach and slaughter foes with its breath weapon. Only in its lair will a dragon typically engage in melee and then only if its hoard is threatened.”

On top of that, many combat encounters come with built-in scaling for larger parties, which is a major plus when you’re trying to deal with combat balancing.

Above all else, though, this adventure is remarkably well self-contained. The DM won’t need to do major improvisation or independent creation, but there’s room in Hoard for modding if you’d like to take a crack at it. It’s got a broad scope, but a remarkably manageable scale, and I think that speaks highly of it.

Ease of DMing: A

V. Depth of Play

This is where Hoard of the Dragon Queen really shines. Nearly every chapter offers a magnificent set piece with multiple opportunities for interaction, plus meaningful choices, setbacks, and comeback stories. Combat is far from the only tool that players have for solving problems, pushing them to rely on roleplay, skill checks, and lateral thinking wherever feasible.

The players are frequently empowered to decide not only how they’re going to approach a certain area, but what degree of danger they’re willing to take and what route they’d prefer to take. On top of that, these dangers are often high-risk, high-reward—players can frequently win great rewards, both financial and strategic, by being observant, recognizing opportunities, and ameliorating risk.

Hoard of the Dragon Queen really puts the “game” into “tabletop role-playing game.” It’s flexible, empowering, and designed with a surprising amount of love and care.

Depth of Play: A+

VI. Narrative Adaptability

In contrast to Depth of Play, Narrative Adaptability is where Hoard of the Dragon Queen tends to fall apart. In addition to its second-half slog, Hoard often relies on very weak or very vague dramatic questions, and therefore relies heavily on specific player choices or personalities. 

The entirety of Chapter One—and everything that follows—assumes that a group of first-level PCs will willingly leap to save a burning town from an adult blue dragon—a monster with challenge rating sixteen—plus its literal army of raiders. Later on, the transition into the second half of the adventure assumes that the PCs will act in a very specific way around a very specific NPC—and if they fail to impress him, the entire adventure comes dangerously close to derailing.

Now, Hoard does deserve some credit: Its optional campaign bonds and background features, found in Appendix B, go a long way toward resolving these problems. It’s a lot easier to see why a PC might jump into a dragon-terrorized village, chum around with a drunken paladin, or accept a mission to defeat an evil dragon cult if they’ve literally dedicated their lives to fighting the Cult of the Dragon.

But Appendix B is presented as an optional addition, and it’s tucked away at the very back of the module. Hoard would be a lot better off if these optional features came highly recommended—if not mandatory—and were situated as an upfront hook, similarly to the Lost Things adventure hook found in Wild Beyond the Witchlight.

But that doesn’t wholly solve the problem of its weak dramatic questions. Hoard ultimately assumes that its players will want to go through its adventure for the Sake Of Having An Adventure. And while that’s fine as a metagaming motivation, it doesn’t make for the most robust campaign design.

Narrative Adaptability: D

VII. Conclusions

I came into Hoard of the Dragon Queen expecting it to be a poorly made rush job of a campaign. Instead, I found some of the best adventure design this side of 5th Edition, plus some very real diamonds shining through some (also very real) muck.

Hoard has some real flaws: It’s infested with fragile plotting and degenerates into a narrative slog by the time the campaign is halfway over. But it also brings some fascinating set pieces, a real focus on character agency, and some excellent technical writing and organization.

Hoard of the Dragon Queen is by no means a “great” adventure—but I’m happily surprised to say that I’d certainly call it a “good” one.

If you’re a DM for a modern or inexperienced playgroup, I’d advise you to pass Hoard by or, at least, heavily retune it to fit their sensibilities. If you’re DMing for a group of old-school players and/or fantasy nerds who’re hungry for a challenge, though, I’d highly recommend giving Hoard of the Dragon Queen a second look. It might not be the crown jewel of every table’s hoard, but it may well be yours.

Overall: B

Have you run Hoard of the Dragon Queen? What did you change or keep? Let me know in the comments!

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DragnaCarta is a veteran DM, the author of the popular “Curse of Strahd: Reloaded” campaign guide, a guest writer for FlutesLoot.com, the developer of Challenge Ratings 2.0, and the former Dungeon Master for the actual play series “Curse of Strahd: Twice Bitten.”

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