D&D | Running The Tyranny of Dragons | DM Tips & Tricks 

I really liked Greenest In Flames. It is important to express that the cult hired a ton of mercenaries to help them get treasure.

The book actually goes out of its way to explain in the first chapter that there aren’t actually many cult members in the attack on Greenest, and that’s it’s mainly done with their hired mercenaries. Mercenaries who actually have no strong allegiance to the cult, and are shown in the book to divulge information readily to the players and ignore them in combat

The masquerade ball at the Hunting Lodge encounter sounds great. I'd love to see a video fleshing that out for DMs to run.

I’m starting this campaign in a couple of weeks and I was really overwhelmed by the opening. After watching your video I’ve decided to bring them there with a funeral. Their friend has died in a fire in their home under mysterious circumstances. They “hopefully” find lower rank cult robes in the rubble. Now they have to figure out if their friend helped the cult or was infiltrating it. It also adds a layer of mistrust from the council.

I’m currently running this and changed chapter one so the players arrived to greenest for a festival and as they were playing games and enjoy the festival they could notice shady cult activity. And when the fireworks start at sundown the dragon and cult attacks.

I feel like your ideas while it makes things more streamlined takes away the sense of scale the books are going for. To me it seems like the small scale hidden cult stuff is already over and they have the power that they can do a lot out in the open. Also don't see how the dragon eggs were an important to the cult at all, Hoard of the Dragon Queen is about them building a treasure hoard, possibly for the dragon queen. Who just may be Tiamat, who will then rise. It's all there in the titles, really...

This is a very good video on how to run "The Tyranny of Dragon" as a player I have seen this campaign suck the lifeforce out of the poor DMs that try to run it. Me personal always run this in a homebrew world and find it more fun. But after hearing what you said I feel a lot safer to run the game in Forgotten Realms now. Awesome work like always and I'm going drop this video link in discord for my DM to check out before he tries to run it again lol.

It's very nice to hear your thought process. However, most of your suggestions to change things are all based on the word 'cult'. The suggestions become invalid if the organization is no longer a cult. This is exactly, in my read, what has happened. The name 'Cult of the Dragon' was given to it/used when it was founded by Sammaster, back around 905 DR. The organization indeed fit the definition of a cult at that time. However, what has happened was that Tiamat hatched a plan to return to Faerun, and the opportunity came up when Severin, a member of the CoD (who wanted to raise dracoliches) independently re-interpreted the prophecy such that dragons would rule, not dracoliches. Tiamat saw her opportunity and gave him knowledge of the chromatic dragon masks. At this point, Severin both used his influence in the Cult to 'metamorph' current cult members towards his understanding of the prophecy, as well as starting relationships with other members outside the Cult. In other words, it's not a cult we're dealing with - it's a much broader organization, one of Severin's making. It certainly would have been easier for Severin to just limit his resources to 'cult activities' and cult members if that were an option - since he did not, he must have decided that 'a cult' would not have the resources to get the job done (e.g. ability to gather a treasure worthy of Tiamat, ability to learn/perform a summoning ritual requiring multiple skilled mages to open a gate to Hell, etc), and thus grew his organization into one that could pull it off. The presence of half-dragons already is strong evidence that this not simply a cult - unless the world is crawling with half-dragons (and the source says it is not), those would be the last individuals to bring into a cult, whose activities would rely on secrecy. Half-dragons are however, as individuals both ostracized by society and having ancestry traceable to chromatic dragons, the perfect individuals to help in an organization bent on getting bringing Tiamat to Faerun to wreak havoc.

Instead of changing major sections of the book, isn't it easier to rename the Cult of the Dragons to Legion of the Dragons and portray them to be a militaristic organisation? Maybe the DM can say something in the intro of the campaign that there was a cult working secretly for years before. I just purchased the book and am planning to DM it. Thanks for the video.

Funny enough, you mentioned "Against The Cult Of The Reptile Gods" as an inspiration for how to begin the campaign. I have actually literally been planning to run a campaign set in the Dragonlance setting of Krynn in the Age Of Mortals and converting "Against The Cult Of The Reptile Gods" as the opening adventure and then transitioning into a converted version of "Tyranny Of Dragons" (with alterations to the structure of course). I am watching several videos on suggestions for how to adapt the campaign for ideas on what to cut or re-order, so I really appreciate your perspectives in this video.

About to run this adventure and been looking for some great advise, thank you for the advise and I’ll make sure to try to adapt what I can to help my players better

That was probably the best advice you could have given for running this. I hadn't thought of it like that before. Thanks!

Eh, not to my taste already at 3 minutes in. But i think your ideas may help for other DMs. *side note: the force attacking Greenest is mostly mercenaries and don't openly advertise that they're a cult (granted its a little obvious from the dragon and kobolds that something's up, but the attack sets the stage that something big is starting to go down: the cult is ramping up collection of loot in a faster and more brazen way in order to get that last bit of treasure that they need.

As a new dm, and forced to play online, your insights and guidance are incredibly helpful!

You have great ideas for this adventure. Thanks!

Thank you and your commenters for a lot of inspiration for running this!

Thank u for this great video!! I don't entirely agree with the points about the cult being too open - it's been gathering forces for a while before the adventure starts. However I love the suggestions for more roleplay based encounters. Also I had a very strong sinking feeling in my gut when u suggested scrapping chapter 1.... I started the game 3 sessions ago and it's my first time dming a large campaign :///// ill try making the whole thing more manageable for me though thanks for the tips 😁

Thanks very much for this video, you've been a big help.

I appreciate the tip about Greenest! I just got this book for my birthday as a present from my little brother (I've been avoiding buying it due to its reputation), and I was planning running it for him. I think I'm going to keep the dragon attack part, but instead of cultists attacking the town it will be some opportunistic raiders/bandits who swept in during the chaos. There won't be as many and instead of the clunky "missions" part, the party will just fight their way to the keep through the raiders. When the raiders hear there's adventurers in town, they'll buzz off. They all level up to level 2, I have the dragon harass them for a couple rounds, and then fly off. I think this will be a big, dramatic way to get the party together in the first game, then have the mayor be like "sweet! Since you're already in town, do you want to investigate this weird group that set up camp to the south? I think they might have had something to do with the dragon!" And then they're off. No military cult activities that feel un-culty.

This was some of the best advice I've ever received as a DM. I ran the first 3 chapters as written and it was barely worth it

Why even run the module if you are going to home brew literally the entire thing

This is very clever. I started Hoard of the Dragon Queen with Against the Cult of the Reptile God. I also moved the starting City to Daggerford, the starting cult activity adventure hook town Orlane was merged with and replaced by Julkoun. The towns basically are of the same size and structure so it is a seamless fit. Chapters 1-2 is Cult Reptile Gods (now dragon gods). Chapter 3 small side quests getting to know the community, sidequests, shopping, group roleplay opportunities. Secomber is in flames in chapter 4 instead of Greenest in chapter 1, dropping the timecrunch hammer a bit later and starting the war-band part. This has the effect of cutting the crazy long road trip to a more suitable size. After that I went a different way and merged Tyranny of Dragons with elements from Red Hand of Doom and the 5e conversion of Pathfinder:Kingmaker Rivers Run Red. I made it a multi-group adventure with episodic switching between the players' two groups of characters, it also can run great as a choose your adventure. The party can choose to stay and help fight/evacuate the area or chase down the sneaky cultists hauling off the loot which makes the whole thing less railroad style. The other way I would run it is same as above to start and then probably skip the whole warband part (Chapter 1-4 of HotDQ) and replace it with investigation breadcrumbs, sleuthing in Waterdeep, followed by a heist pulled off by the dragon cult in Waterdeep (call it Waterdeep: Dragon Cult Heist), then just run Chapters 5+ of HotDQ as written as the players track down the cult. Honestly this one makes even more sense, (why would the cult sneak around as a caravan after you have assembled a warband??) In both I have the flying castle hanging out in the desert instead of Parnast, since that just seems a much better hiding place.

I agree with starting in greenest and seeing cult activity but them attacking the town and stealing all the gold is a major plot point and shows this isn’t the typical cult.

i have being running “tyranny of dragons” , both books with my group ( mixed some experienced , some new ) as a new dm . ( granted the prep work was enormous to make it work , and filling up the gaps) . what you sugested, the attack on greenrest and castle neriethar were hilights that the players loved. the council is difficult to run but its there to give players choices ... where they want to go, if you run it likethat it gives your pcs choices that the module lacks ... it is overall a beautifull and flawed module. if you dont put the work into it as a gm, it will suck , if you do however ... you can run the whole campaign as in the book with some wise work put in.

What you're saying is nice, you can tone down chapter one by having cult members doing specific things in the village, but the cult leaders learned from their past mistakes during the time of dracoliches. They need a well organised "army" to reach their goal.

for anyone that is going to run this campain what this campain needs the most in my opinion is a very good sesion 0 where you explain lore and the NPC that give the quest and tel them about stuff that is handy to know not al people wil know al about cults and about the factions in this game that wil later aid you. also adding in some of the npc and bad guys somehow to build up to them is very much liked and needed

You mention dragon eggs a few times as something the cultist they're pursuing is searching for, but I don't recall reading in the original module anything about dragon eggs being an item they're desperate to take. Are you referring to the eggs in the hatchery, and if so why would they be moving dragon eggs so openly if they can just teleport away (or is the Roadhouse meant more as a location for the Cultists to convene and attack the players before they find out more about their goals)? I like some of the ways you've altered HotDQ to be more RP-based and want to incorporate some of your ideas into my run of the game but this aspect you suggest is confusing me, as from what I've read what the cultists are transporting in the caravan is gold and other treasure.

I like the idea of not treating it as a war. But at the same time, if the council is trying to end the cult, then sending the players alone feels not real. One idea just occurred to me. The council could have recruited additional groups to track cult activities on different regions and given them a way to send word back to the council of any important findings, so that they can in turn direct the other parties. This way the players could receive information of other parties having found and killed some leaders, other parties having being killed etc. Then, perhaps on the final battle, if the players send word of the ritual having started the council could have one other remaining party teleported to aid them. What do you think?

As stated at the beginning of chapter 4 that Greenest is in an undeveloped field, it's reasonable for the cult to act aboveboard rather than sneak. But I do agree this is not a good way to start, especially the dragon would make tons of Lv.1 players stay away rather than go into the town. I'll try to cook a better one up.

As of late one can attest that a cult very much does work like that.

I had the same thoughts on the difference between a cult and military force but instead of changing player content I changed the cult to a para military organization that’s lead by a Paladin of Tiamat

I don´t know man, I runned the chapter 1 for two distinct groups and they all loved specially the part of the Half-Dragon Champion challenge. Maybe a "cult activity" doesnt always have to be subtlety and stealth, they can perform military actions too, if thats what it takes to reach their goals. Besides, it doesnt have to make perfect sense, as long as its fun! Its a world with dragons in it, for all that matter.

I think you can keep the big opening without showing the cult. If you read Lovecraft horror, something of this scale is not beyond cultists, especially at the height of their power and especially under the cover of darkness. You could even make it a stormy night to enhance the terror the blue dragon brings. Think the problem some people might have is that this adventure doesn't start when the Cult's plan does, but after they have been building for years and are now ready to strike. You could even let the attackers be the mercs and kobolds with the actual cultists flitting here and there committing acts of sabotage that they have previously prepared and the party can have chances to notice those and realize this is more than some bandit raid.

Another way to run this campaign but have a better experience is to run Red Hand of Doom in 5e...Tiamats being summoned, war band, lots of threats and pressures of time and its one of the best modules ever made.

Greenest In flames is when the cult has climaxed and become militarized. That’s why they’re so dangerous. That’s where the story begins

I wish you all the best but I really disagreed with your Tips & Tricks. Not going to run with any of them, but got ideas of my own and for that I thank you.

5:58. So no matter what the PCs do, the dragon eggs are gone? That’s a straight up railroad. No thanks.

1:10 "This is military activity..." Dude, this is how this cult works. They even have military-like ranks (Dragonclaw, Dragonfang, etc...). Also what you're describing is in essence the initial part of Princes of the Apolypse where the clans are clandestine. Cult of the Dragon is not "Would you like to hear the gospel of Tiamat", they smack yu in the face, take your gold and offer it to the big, scary 5-headed dragon.

I got it i fixed the kinda lame part of this adventure OK theirs two cults of the dragon the original and the branch tiamat. The original has fallen on hard times because of the dragon Queen cult is in power. You meet the original in the hatchery and they info the party the basiclly the enemy of my enemy is my friend. That leads into at the end you could call on the assistance from the original cult and skip the recruit a friend part before you raid the tiamat raising ritual. Lol edit 10 minutes later jim davis already suggested this. Its what i would do from the books and lore.

Its a cult of dragons bro. Chromatic Dragons to say that much. Dragons don't even exist like you explain. Chromatic dragons don't hide they are territorial.

Mans deleted 1/4th of the campaign

Off the bat, with regard to your problem with the word "cult", you might like to read a bit about IRL and fictional cults. Nothing out of the ordinary or out of sorts here.

You CHUNK out like a good 40% of the original content at that point are you even playing the same campaign idk this ain’t the solution I’m looking for personally. I’m more looking for Naruto without the filler