The newDungeons & DragonsanthologyDragon Delvesis just around the corner, and as fate would have it, my first go-round at running one of the adventures happened with zero prep time. Last year, I took on this approach intentionally as a stress test for the2024Dungeon Master’s Guide’s sample adventures, which worked surprisingly well. I hadn’t intended to do the same forDragon Delves, which contains more robust offerings than the one-page affairs in theDungeon Master’s Guide, but a power outage two hours before the session had different plans in mind.
I was lucky enough to get the power back only a couple of minutes after the session’s planned start time, but with only digital access to an early copy of the book, that two-hour window had robbed me of the time I planned to spend in prep.Dragon Delvesdoesn’t demand much, however, laying out a table of key NPCs and a brief adventure summary as the only core demands for prep. With these essentials and a rough-sketch map provided for player distribution, I forged ahead, and I’m happy to report thatD&Dhas once again pleasantly surprised me.
D&D’s Dragon Delves Is Easy To Pick Up & Play
An Emphasis On Minimal Prep
For our first foray intoDragon Delves, we went with the book’s level four adventure, “The Will of Orcus.“EachDragon Delvesmodule focuses on a particular chromatic or metallic dragon, and “The Will of Orcus” features a silver dragon. Its involvement in the story isn’t immediately revealed, however, as the set-up focuses on a cult of the demon lord Orcus. The building blocks are all familiar, with an innkeeper asking the party to venture into the cult’s lair, take care of any threats, and retrieve a miscellaneous list of stolen items.
Thanks to the power outage, I had only a marginally better idea of what awaited in the dungeon than my players did. Per the module’s instructions, I had glanced over the key NPCs, and the adventure summary revealed the basic plot and the role of the silver dragon. Beyond that, I was learning about the contents of each hallway and room only moments before revealing them to the party, but aside from some “give me one second” situations to find appropriate passages,it didn’t cause major hang-ups.
D&Dmodules have generally trended toward long, complex adventures over time, butDragon Delvestakes theDungeon Master’s Guide’s back-to-basics approachseriously. While some of the included adventures have off-beat concepts,“The Will of Orcus” embodies a more classic design philosophywhere every key component is easy to immediately grasp. Descriptions of rooms hold more detail than theDungeon Master’s Guide’s quick adventure overviews, but they’re still legible at a glance, and NPCs have clear roles and occasionally interesting quirks that make them easy to quickly define.
Combat & Roleplaying Are Both Viable Paths
“The Will Of Orcus” Provides Diverse Opportunities
NPC interactions ended up playing a big part in the party’s journey, which started and ended in bloodshed but took a more erratically diplomatic approach in between these bookends. After slaying a cultist and a host of undead near the entrance to the temple,the players threatened, cajoled, and deceived subsequent threats. “The Will of Orcus” rides this line nicely, setting up plenty of potential combat encounters while providing enough leeway to avoid a long succession of fights. Ogres smashing up a library are obvious targets, but the nearby presence of a cultist overseer and a librarian’s ghost adds complexity.
With plenty of blood on their hands from the first encounter and some sufficiently high rolls,the party was able to talk their way into meeting the statue of Orcus, which had recently been giving unusual directives to the leader of the cult. It didn’t take them long to figure out that — module spoilers ahead — there was a bit of aWizard of Ozsituation going on here. The paladin broke open the statue, allowing the rogue to meet with the impostor inside, a silver dragon attempting to derail the cult’s activities with pointless and self-destructive commands.
D&D’s silver dragons are classically good creatures that are both highly intelligent and well-disposed toward humans.
It’s a simple but fun twist, andit has the potential to play out in a number of different ways. While the rest of the party was busy meeting the silver dragon, our monk had been spending his time doing a bit of relationship counseling with the cult leader, which was cut short a moment later by the rogue tossing a knife into her face. Rather than a big combat showdown, we wrapped things up quickly. The monk had a last emotional moment with the cult leader before the artificer’s bullet finished the job, a “misfire” in name only.
Simplicity Could Make Or Break Dragon Delves
A Selling Point For Some
You could easily get two sessions out of this adventure if you played out more combat encounters, but like the rest of the offerings inDragon Delves, you’re unlikely to stretch it beyond that. For some,the brevity and relative simplicity of the modules could be a serious turn-off, and more involvedanthologies likeQuests from the Infinite Staircasemight be more appealing. Those looking to string the adventures into a full campaign may grow tired of dragons, although the topics at hand are broad enough to avoid repetition.
Several of the adventures inDragon Delvesare designed to beviable for solo players, an interesting facet of the book that I haven’t yet dived into. If it works, that could be another big point of appeal for any group that wants something to run when everyone bails.The galleries of dragon art interspersed between the adventures are also nice, but they’re not a central enough feature to change the overall value prospect.
I think it’s great to get options that you can just throw down at the game table, though, andDragon Delvescould be like another strong way to answer that call. If you’re able to spend some time prepping an adventure, so much the better, and I’ll certainly be looking over the next few I run more thoroughly in advance. If your power does go out, however, pulling up a copy ofDragon Delvesright as the session starts might still set up a memorable night ofDungeons & Dragons.
