As promised, the revised editions are not required to play through Dragon Delves, though they can be used if you wish. In fact, the “Running the Adventure” section in the introduction only specifies that “you need the Fifth Edition core rulebooks” without specifying the 2014 or the 2024 versions.
While dragons have been featured in plenty of prior D&D books—dragons are in the game’s name, after all—this adventure anthology focuses specifically on dragons in their lairs, both chromatic and metallic. My favorite, the gem dragons, are ignored as usual.
The 10 adventures are designed for characters ranging from level 1 through 12, with a range of lair types. The challenges vary from straight up “defeat the bad dragon” scenarios to working with good dragons, and some difficult moral dilemmas in between.
Dragon Delves gives several examples of how and why these adventures could be used as one-shots (The DM can’t make it at the last minute, someone wants to try DMing or testing out if a new group will play well with each other before starting a campaign, adding more adventures to a journey, etc.). It also provides three ideas for how to turn this adventure anthology into a full campaign. Two are solely based on material within Dragon Delves, modified as per the suggestions. The third method involves the earlier book, Fizban’s Treasure of Dragons. That book was developed by James Wyatt, who also handled game design for Dragon Delves along with Amanda Hamon (Phandelver and Below).
Easier DM Preparation
One of the stated goals for Dragon Delves is to make these adventures easy for a DM run on the spur of the moment. After all, sometimes a DM has to work late or a player key to the next segment of a campaign might be sick, etc. Instead of canceling, someone can run a Dragon Delves adventure without much prep time. The key elements have been given in prior adventures but not always consistently. I really hope this format (the prep page) becomes standard going forward.
It starts with a summary of key plot points. Next, it lists the steps the DM needs to take to run the adventure, including a list of all the Monster Manual stat blocks needed so they can be bookmarked in advance. Lastly, key NPCs are listed in a table, providing their names, roles, the stat blocks to use for them and the locations where they can be found.
Dungeon Delves also recommends the Player Assistance options detailed in the DMG. These are ways for players to help the DM by handling some aspects of game management. This is especially useful for new DMs.
The easiest is making a player the combat initiative tracker. My personal favorite is the rules consultant. Back when I was running D&D Adventure League, I referred to one of my players as “DM’s little helper” because he was so fast at finding the page number for anything that had to be double-checked. Since my table size was often larger than preferred due to walk-ins, it was extremely helpful.
Monster wranglers are useful but can be tricky in some groups, if some players are very competitive. One or two players handle the monsters, using the MM stat blocks. So long as everyone is on the same page and no one takes it personally if a monster run by another player does significant damage, it can make things more manageable for a DM.
Adventures Ahoy!
While all of the adventures are designed for the standard party of 4-6 players, three are listed as suitable, with modifications, for a single player and a DM. Those are the 3rd level adventure Baker’s Doesn’t, the 7th level adventure The Dragon of Najkir, and the 12th level A Copper for a Song.
One of the things that makes these viable as a single-player adventure is the supernatural gift (blessing, of course), Blessing of the Lone Champion. The blessing lasts for the length of the adventure and grants temp hit points equal to 10 times your level and Heroic Inspiration upon finishing a long or short rest. That’s definitely a good start. I can’t comment on whether it’s sufficient until I playtest it, but I love that they’re providing the option.
- Wizards of the Coast
