Coming Soon: The Wild Beyond The Witchlight

Finally. Wizards has officially announced the book that will (probably) include content from March's "Folk of the Feywild" Unearthed Arcana.  Releasing in late September (just in time for my birthday), "The Wild Beyond the Witchlight: A Feywild Adventure" sounds right up my alley.  

I know I've said this before, but my favorite splatbook for 4e was "Heroes of the Feywild", and I've always lamented that the book released shortly before I stopped playing 4e.  I'm not even slightly tempted to go back to 4e (*shudders*), but I do regret that I never got to play the Pixie race.

So I'm very happy right now, but my superstitious side is a little worried that this means we're close to the end of 5e's lifespan. It just seems like Murphy's Law that they release the book I want most right before I switch systems again.  But then, even if they were to announce 6e tomorrow, there's no law that says I can't keep playing 5e.  

According to the wizards website:

A wickedly whimsical adventure for the world’s greatest roleplaying game.

The Wild Beyond the Witchlight is D&D's next big adventure storyline that brings the wicked whimsy of the Feywild to fifth edition for the first time. Tune into D&D Live 2021 presented by G4 on July 16 and 17 for details including new characters, monsters, mechanics, and story hooks suitable for players of all ages and experience levels.

From the description, I'm a little confused as to whether it's a full adventure along the lines of "The Curse of Strahd", more of an adventure sourcebook like "Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft", or about 50/50 like "Waterdeep: Dragon Heist".  It sounds like a full adventure, but that could just be adspeak.  But it doesn't matter, I'm sold either way.  

My wishlist: 

1. I hope there's more fey races than were shown in the UA.  I played a Hamadryad in 4e, and really enjoyed it.  I'd love it if this upcoming book contained playable Dryads, as well as Satyrs, Nymphs, Nixies, Kelpies, Grigs, Sirens, and so on.  I mean, the UA's animal races were cute and all, but I want some real fey stuff.

2. I'm sorry, but I hope they limit Fairy flight.  Honestly, I don't like playing characters with unlimited flight.  It makes grid battles more complicated, and it means that some DMs won't let you play the character.  Argue all you want about whether those DMs should get over themselves, but personally I'd rather just pick a race that doesn't spark controversy.  I preferred the way 4e handled Pixie flight, where they would fall if they ended their turn higher than one square.

3. New Feywild-themed subclasses.  The nature themed classes - Druid, Ranger, and to some extent, Barbarian - could all benefit from a Fey makeover.  I could also see a Bard that specializes in fairy tales, or a Monk that communes with the Feywild to achieve inner peace.  Or how about a Wizard that works mechanically like the Necromancer, but instead of raising the dead, they summon an ever-growing swarm of fairies?

4. I hope the adventure isn't 90% of the book.  There's a lot I want from a book about the Feywild, so I hope it's not just 10 pages of options followed by the adventure.  I'd prefer something similar to "Waterdeep: Dragon Heist", which doesn't start the title adventure until almost 60 pages in.  That would give us more than enough room for some new races, classes, and general Feywild lore before diving into the campaign.  

5. The press release mentioned Story Hooks.  I hope that's not just their way of saying "different ways to start the adventure".  Van Richten's Guide had a ton of great writing prompts for DMs who want to create their own Ravenloft adventures, and I hope this book does something similar.

Anyway, those are just my thoughts.  I'm sure the book is going to be fantastic regardless of how they do it.

Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft

I like to think I'm pretty selective about which 5e books I buy, but every once in a while I look at my collection and think, "Whoah, how much have you spent?"  Of course I have the core books (PHB, DMG, MM), and I've bought some of the books that have new races/subclasses (Volo, Tasha, Xanathar).  I only buy adventures if they're relatively open world (Strahd, Frostmaiden, Annihilation) or if they're collections of short adventures (Yawning Portal, Saltmarsh, Candlekeep).  I did buy both the Waterdeep books (Dragon Heist and Mad Mage), but mostly for their connection to the Yawning Portal.

I don't usually buy setting books.  The Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide was informative, but it didn't do anything for me.  Eberron is a decent setting, but I don't need a book about it.  I'm sure Wildemount, Ravnica, and Theros are great settings, but I'm not interested in learning about them at the moment.  

The truth is, when I DM, I prefer to make up my own worlds.  I might set a campaign in the Forgotten Realms for ease of PC backgrounds, but rarely are my players going to be visiting official cities like Waterdeep or Baldur's Gate.  I just don't have that much need for other people's lore.  I'm not saying my ideas are better than WOTC's, I'm just saying that pre-established cities and kingdoms tend to get in the way of the story I want to tell.

That said, I wouldn't mind a "Campaign Setting Sampler" book, with overviews of the most popular settings.  Maybe 10 pages each devoted to Forgotten Realms, Eberron, Ravenloft, Greyhawk, Dragonlance, Dark Sun, Spelljammer, and so on.  It might be useful for deciding where to set my next campaign.

Well, "Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft" may not be that book, but if you're into horror settings, it does a great job of getting you started.  Nearly half the book is just descriptions of the various realms of Ravenloft.  For the uninitiated, Ravenloft is not a cohesive world like Toril or Oerth.  It's more like a collective of pocket dimensions, separated by the magical mists that keep its inhabitants prisoner.  Some of these domains are as large as a continent, while others are as small as a single city.

It devotes 4-6 pages each to to 17 of the more well-known domains, with maps, notable locations, and in-depth descriptions of each domain's primary antagonist.  Then it gives short summaries to another 22 domains.  So if you want to run a horror campaign and need a place to start, or even just enjoy reading about horror settings, this book is a great resource.

So what else is in this book?  

The introduction explains the concept of Ravenloft's Domains of Dread, and gives a few tips on running horror games.  Next up, we have three new Lineages - The Dhampir, Hexblood, and Reborn.  Unlike the standard races, these lineages can be switched to after 1st level, to represent things horrible things that have happened to your character.  Maybe you were bitten by a vampire, maybe you were cursed by hags, maybe you died and were brought back "wrong"... or if you are 1st level, maybe you were just brought into this world in an atypical way.

The Hexblood didn't do much for me - I didn't care for the lore or the features.  The Dhampir was kind of interesting, with a (somewhat underpowered) vampiric bite and the ability to climb walls.  The Reborn has some features that make it hard to kill, which is obviously pretty useful.

Next it has a section on Dark Gifts.  These options give a character both advantages and disadvantages.  The book suggests having players select one at character creation, but they also work as plot rewards.  These are not the same as the "Adventurer's League" Dark Gifts that characters might receive after being resurrected in Curse of Strahd.  These are more in-depth, and they don't seem to be as detrimental to the character.

The Dark Gifts don't seem very balanced with each other, and some are very specific to Ravenloft campaigns, so make sure you know what you're doing if you use these.  For example, the "Mist Walker" gift is designed for characters who want to travel through the mist between domains.  Another one that stood out to me was "Deadly Touch" which gives your unarmed attacks some extra necrotic damage, with no downside.  Well, no mechanical downside.  Roleplay-wise, it means you'll never get to touch another character's skin without hurting them.  But if I were playing a Monk with a vow of celibacy...

Next up we have two new spooky-themed subclasses.  For the Bard, we have the College of Spirits, and for the Warlock, we have The Undead patron.  I don't see myself using either one, but they do fit the book's flavor quite nicely.

The book also contains two backgrounds: Haunted One (which previously appeared in Curse of Strahd) and Investigator. It also has an expanded version of Curse of Strahd's Gothic Trinkets table.  

There's a chapter on the Genres of Horror.  It has an in-depth look at the following genres: Body Horror, Cosmic Horror, Dark Fantasy, Folk Horror, Ghost Stories, and Gothic Horror.  For those genres it includes tips and tables for selecting the right plots, settings, and villains for the story.  Then it has a more abbreviated look at four other genres: Disaster Horror, Occult Detective Stories, Psychological Horror, and Slasher Horror.  This chapter is useful both for idea mining, and making sure your campaign keeps a consistent tone.

There's a section called "Travelers in the Mists" which describes some of the more notable characters  and groups you might run into during your travels.  This includes some minor retcons to Ezmerelda d'Avenir and the Vistani, in response to changing cultural attitudes.  Of course, now the less enlightened players are blasting WOTC for being too "woke", so you can't please everyone.

Then we have a chapter on Horror Adventures - More tips for running horror, including pacing, atmosphere, and setting boundaries.  Then we have a look at Tarokka decks and Spirit Boards, followed by a Horror Tookit - detailing rules for curses, fear, stress, and haunted traps.  There's also a section on "Survivors", which are basically simple characters that the PCs can control during expository scenes.

Next there's a short horror-themed adventure, "The House of Lament".  The PCs explore a haunted house, perform seances, and learn of the house's troubled history.  This is one of those stories where the horrors start out small but build over time, as the evil entities slowly awaken and become aware of the PCs' explorations.  And it is most definitely an adventure that should be run on Halloween, by candlelight, while spooky ambience MP3s play in the background.

And finally, we have "The Monsters of Ravenloft" - a mini bestiary with about 30 horror-themed monsters.  This includes tips on describing horrific creatures, and coming up with disturbing tactics that will keep your players on their toes.  I could be wrong, but some of these monsters look familiar, and might be republished from other modules.  My favorite monster in the book is the "Unspeakable Horror", which is a very customizable, amorphous... thing that is sure to make the PCs jump when they glimpse it in the mists.

All-in-all, it's a pretty useful book if you like running horror campaigns.  Despite the new lineages and subclasses, there's a lot more here for DMs than for players.  There is some repeated content, especially if you own Curse of Strahd.  But there's more than enough new content here to justify the purchase, in my opinion.  

Candlekeep: Afterthoughts

I already posted my first impressions of Candlekeep Mysteries, but now I've finished it, and I thought I'd post my impressions of the individual stories. Overall, it's one of my favorite adventure books. A lot of the chapters could be expanded into their own campaigns, and I like how most of the quests favor mystery over combat.

Note, there will be spoilers. If you plan to run these as a DM, feel free to read on. But if there's any chance you might play in them, skip this blog.  

I'm listing them in the order that I liked them, and I've given each story a star rating of 1 to 5.

Shemshime’s Bedtime Rhyme (Level 4) *****
I covered this in an earlier blog, but it feels like one of my favorite Doctor Who episodes.

Sarah of Yellowcrest Manor (Level 7) ****
You find the diary of a servant girl, which gives clues to some unsolved murders. You befriend her ghost and try to track down the killer, who is about to perform an evil ritual.

A Deep and Creeping Darkness (Level 4) ****
You investigate a ghost town that was abandoned after a mining collapse. Following the disaster, the townsfolk experienced nightmares until they fled the town. This one has more combat potential than the earlier adventures, but the mystery is still pretty cool.

The Curious Tale of Wisteria Vale (Level 11) ****
The PCs are hired to rescue a bard from a demiplane. This tiny dimension was designed to emulate a peaceful village, populated by enchanted mannequins that look and act like townsfolk. It has shades of Pleasantville, WandaVision, and several episodes of the Twilight Zone. And that's not even the main plot, which involves a Beholder trying to make the dimension its own. I can't wait to run this one just to roleplay the NPCs. I might have given it five stars if not for a couple of unfair encounters toward the end, including a "save-or-die" item that only serves to punish the curious.

The Book of Inner Alchemy (Level 12) ****
Some pages are stolen from a book of martial arts and mysticism. Hired to recover the missing pages, the party must fight their way through a martial arts camp. It's a fun adventure, but I would only run this chapter if there was a monk in the party.

The Joy of Extradimensional Spaces (Level 1) ****
I think this is a great, low key introduction to the book. The PCs get trapped in a Magical Mansion spell, and have to solve a puzzle to get back. Short and simple, but fun.

The Price of Beauty (Level 5) ****
A book teleports you to a temple of Sune. It's a spa where people can have all their physical flaws corrected, but these treatments come with an unexpected cost. It's run by a trio of beautiful elves, who are secretly hags in disguise. It has elements that remind me of Dorian Gray, and the hags remind me of the newest Resident Evil game. I'm a sucker for Sune, so I really enjoyed this story.

Kandlekeep Dekonstruktion (Level 9) ****
This one is kind of crazy. A secret cult in Candlekeep attempts to launch one of the towers into space. It's also interesting because once the action starts, the PCs only have an hour to stop the countdown. So no resting between fights, or attuning to any treasures they find. The story has several possible outcomes, including the PCs getting trapped in outer space, so that could be interesting.

Lore of Lurue (Level 8) ***
The PCs enter a storybook and have to play their way through the tale. This one is kind of interesting because there's no real danger - if you die in the book, you are ejected back into the real world, where you can take a long rest before you jump back in. You're also unable to explore areas that are beyond the scope of the story, which reminds me of video games when you see messages like "You can't go that way." So it's kind of railroady, but somehow it works.

Alkazaar’s Appendix (Level 15) ***
A famous adventurer retired before he could complete his final quest. The PCs pick up where Alkazaar left off, on a mission to help a lost golem fulfill its destiny. Finding the golem is easy, but returning the golem to its master involves a trek through the desert, confronting a purple worm, helping a Dragon Turtle, and battling a Dracolich for possession of a powerful relic.

The Scrivener’s Tale (Level 14) ***
The PCs accidentally open a book that curses them. They have a limited amount of time to break the curse, or they are doomed. Also, the cursegiver speaks to PCs telepathically, attempting to mislead them. All in all, it's not a bad story, with a fairly epic boss battle at the end.

Mazfroth’s Mighty Digressions (Level 2) ***
You have to track down some counterfeit books, which leads you to some jackalweres, who have problems of their own. You can help them with their problems, or bully them into making amends. I like that there's more than one way to complete the adventure.

Zikran’s Zephyrean Tome (Level 10) ***
A book turns out to hold a trapped djinni, who offers to grant the characters a wish if they agree to kill his master. Along the way they might put a couple of ghosts to rest, parley with a dragon, and explore the ruins of a Cloud Giant fortress. My only problem is that the villain, while of evil alignment, isn't given much opportunity to show that he deserves to be killed. It seems like the PCs pretty much agree to kill him just so the djinni will grant them a wish.

Xanthoria (Level 16) ***
A terrible fungal plague is spreading through the land, affecting both plants and animals. Infected humans act like zombies, chant "Xanthoria" over and over, and eventually collapse into a puddle of goo. It turns out that Xanthoria is the name of a Druid who went insane and became a lichen lich. I hope your PCs have strong stomachs, because this adventure hits them will all kinds of molds, fungi, spores, and the like. It concludes with a heartbreaking choice, as the only way to permanently defeat the lich is to destroy her phylactery - which is in the form of a living sprite, who must be convinced to sacrifice herself.

Book of Cylinders (Level 6) **
You have to help a tribe of frog people who have had their village taken over by yuan-ti invaders. It's an okay story, but nothing to write home about.

Book of the Raven (Level 3) *
A treasure map leads you to an old house where you meet some wereravens, and... that's pretty much it. I do like the atmosphere - it's really cool having PCs hear creepy noises (like children laughing) from other areas of the house. But there's not much of an actual story here. I'm afraid it would leave the players wondering if the adventure was actually complete. It would be a good jumping off point for another adventure, though.

The Canopic Being (Level 13) *
There's a book that describes a dark ritual involving Mummy Lords and organ transplants, and the PCs' names are included on the list of future participants. I'm not much into Divination magic, and this adventure is full of it. Plus it's got some rooms that are hard to visualize, and some important items hidden in places PCs aren't likely to look. Overall, the adventure just didn't work for me.

Candlekeep: Shemshime’s Bedtime Rhyme

I'm only about six chapters into Candlekeep Mysteries, but I wanted to throw out a special mention of chapter 5: Shemshime’s Bedtime Rhyme.

I love this one.  It feels like a Doctor Who episode (specifically, "Midnight").  The adventure features a small cast of characters, confined to a basement beneath Candlekeep.  The party and the NPCs are all afflicted with a killer earworm.  Everyone gets the same nursery rhyme stuck in their heads, and they self-quarantine so it doesn't spread.  

It's the kind of story where things just seem a little off at first, only for the weirdness to escalate to disturbing levels.  Like Midnight, it's the type of story a TV series might pick when they need a low budget episode to flesh out the season, only to find it becomes one of the most beloved episodes of the series.

Unfortunately, it needs the right kind of DM to pull it off, and maybe the right kind of group to enjoy it.  Hack-and-slashers need not apply.  This is a story that requires the proper use of tension, and players who enjoy investigation.  

Candlekeep Mysteries has already proven worth the money, and I'm not even a third of the way through it.  I hope it has at least a couple more stories of this quality.

Candlekeep Mysteries

I think one of the more underrated books for 4e was "Dungeon Delve."  It was basically a compilation of 30 mini adventures, one for each party level.  Each adventure had about three encounters (and let's face it - given the length of 4e battles, three encounters could easily take multiple sessions).  Of course they were light on plot, but that just meant you could drop them into any campaign.  The main draw was that you always had a quick adventure ready if you decided to hold an impromptu game.

5e's "Candlekeep Mysteries" is a lot like that.  It contains 17 standalone quests, one for each party level 1-16 (there's two for level 4).  But unlike Dungeon Delve, CM's adventures center more on plot than fighting.  I'm about three adventures into it, and so far, I'm really liking it.

The book opens with a chapter describing Candlekeep - a huge library containing rare books from all over the world.  It's a short chapter, but detailed enough that it could inspire many adventures.  Each of the 17 short adventures involves a book in some way.  Maybe you're hired to recover a stolen tome of eldritch lore.  Maybe an absent-minded wizard attempted an unfamiliar hex he found in an ancient spellbook, and you have to clean up the mess.  Maybe an old diary contains a map to a mysterious treasure.

In an odd way, it kind of reminds me of "Friday the 13th: The Series" (no relation to the movies), where the owners of a cursed antique store had to hunt down several lost artifacts, each episode centering on a specific artifact and the trouble it caused.  

If you were to build a campaign around this book, it might start to feel a little repetitive after a while.  Although if you were specifically wanting a "Librarians" themed campaign, this would be a good start.  Otherwise, you might want to pick and choose which adventures to use.  Save this book for a night when you don't have anything prepared, and run whatever chapter is appropriate for your group's level.

My only complaint is the map.  It comes with a foldout map of Candlekeep, which is not fully repeated in the book itself (the courtyard part is repeated, but not the Inner Ward).  I keep my maps separate from my books, so they don't fall out while reading them, and I honestly would have found this map more useful if it were inside the book.  

It's not a particularly useful map for campaign strategy, like the overland map in Rime of the Frostmaiden or the hex map in Tomb of Annihilation.  This map seems to be more for flavor, and I'm surprised they bothered to make it a foldout map at all. 

But despite that little nitpick, I think it's a great book for any DM to have.  These adventures require a little more prep time than the ones in 4e's Dungeon Delve - and by that, I just mean you'll actually have to read ahead a little.  But it's still a lot more "grab and play" than the adventures in "Ghosts of Saltmarsh" or "Tales from the Yawning Portal".  

Definitely worth a read.

Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden

I'm currently reading the module "Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden."  I don't read every module, just the ones I think I might run someday, assuming I ever DM again.  So far I own the following 5e modules:  The Curse of Strahd, Tomb of Annihilation, Tales from the Yawning Portal, Ghosts of Saltmarsh, and both Waterdeep modules.  

I've read through most of them.  A couple of them lost my interest about halfway through, but I think I can still use some elements of the book.  My favorites are the non-linear ones.  Curse of Strahd and Tomb of Annihilation are especially good about giving players the freedom to explore, and different playthroughs will undoubtedly feel like entirely different stories.

Rime of the Frostmaiden is also very good about this.  You can start the adventure in any one of ten different towns (collectively known as "Ten Towns"), and each town has its own minor quests.  Some of these quests encourage you to explore the other towns and the outlying areas.

As you gain levels, you start exploring the farther reaches of Icewind Dale, heading into the more dangerous tundras and facing deadlier enemies.  You'll pick up harder side quests, but you still have the freedom to accept or ignore certain plot hooks.  However, you will start to notice some common threads to some of these quests, hints at greater evils at work.

Of course, everything gradually leads up to the main quest, which involves defeating the goddess Auril.  She has been keeping the sun from rising in Icewind Dale, making the harsh land even harder to survive in.  I noticed that it shared a plot point that is similar to Curse of Strahd - once you find yourself in Icewind Dale, it's difficult to leave until the final boss is defeated.  I suppose this keeps you from fleeing, leveling up a few times somewhere safer, and coming back with fresh supplies and magic items.

Also like Curse of Strahd, Rime of the Frostmaiden has been described as a horror-themed adventure.  While it certainly does have some horror elements, I fail to see the overall theme.  Curse of Strahd is full of horror icons like vampires, zombies, and werewolves.  Icewind Dale has a harsh environment, and a few shout-outs to movies like Alien and The Thing, but for the most part it seemed about as horror-themed as any other D&D module.  Tomb of Annihilation is much scarier, IMO.

Still, it's a decent adventure.  I think the most notable selling point is the freedom.  It's practically an open world MMO given how much leeway characters have to forge their own path, especially in the early levels.  It's not my favorite 5e module, but it's probably in the top five.

Dungeon of the Mad Mage

There are two kinds of Dungeons.

Type A: Dungeons that make sense.  These dungeons take into account the function of the structure, as well as the ecology of the denizens.  There will be a theme to your foes: If it’s a goblin cave, you will mostly fight goblins, their pet wolves, and their hobgoblin bosses.  The layout will be functional: You’ll find sleeping areas, kitchens, storage rooms, and so on.  Traps will be minimal and will only protect valuable areas, such as the room where bandits store their loot.  If you’re exploring a Type A dungeon, you may not even have to clear out the entire thing.  A sensible hideout is easy to navigate, so you might break in at a point closest to your goal, clear out a few rooms, grab your MacGuffin, and head back out.  Type A dungeons are efficient and realistic, but potentially boring.

Type B: Kitchen Sink dungeons.  You never know what to expect in a Type B dungeon.  You could clear out a room full of manticores, then open the next door, and find yourself facing a room full of orcs.  Then you turn a corner and come face-to-face with a bugbear, a vampire, and a harpy.  You may find yourself wondering how these monsters get along, what keeps certain ones in their rooms, and who feeds them.  You’ll encounter traps that are designed to kill explorers, rather than to protect treasure.  You’ll complete complicated puzzles just to open doors to what look like high-traffic pathways.  Do the orcs that live here have to solve this “pour the right amount of water into the basin” puzzle every time they visit the kitchen?  Type B dungeons are less believable, but also less predictable, which makes them exciting.

Some Type B dungeons actually do have an explanation.  (Note, this paragraph contains possible spoilers for classic modules.)  The Tomb of Horrors is full of crazy traps, because the demilich Acererak likes collecting the souls of dead adventurers.  White Plume Mountain houses an unlikely menagerie of monsters, but the entire dungeon turns out to be a test of heroism, designed by an evil mage who requires a true hero for a blood sacrifice.   Dead in Thay has the Doomvault, a bizarre dungeon designed for magical experiments... or something; that module has never made sense to me.

Many dungeons are a mix of A and B.  The Temple of Elemental Evil is a pretty good balance of the two.  Each of the elemental-themed areas has their own reasonable ecology, but having it all so close together makes the dungeon as a whole seem pretty random.  I would have to say that the best dungeons are the ones that can straddle that line, by giving you a unexpected encounters while maintaining a consistent theme.

Dungeon of the Mad Mage is a bit of both.  The Undermountain’s dungeons were obviously designed by a lunatic (hence the title), but there is some logic to the denizens.  Different areas of the dungeon have been taken over by certain organizations or monsters, so there’s a lot of variety, but it’s not like each room has a completely random monster.  Given the popularity of this dungeon, the party will find a lot of the early areas have already been picked clean by previous adventurers, which is a realistic touch.

The ecology of each level usually makes perfect sense, but moving from one level to the next can feel like an entirely different module.  Why do the monsters and factions respect the concept of "dungeon level"?  All that divides this level from the one before it is a slanted tunnel, why do the kobolds suddenly get replaced with kuo-toa?  

A few levels down, you start finding unusual environments for a cave: cities, enchanted forests, floating castles, and so on.  A couple of levels are actually 5e conversions of older modules.  Sometimes you will often find keys on one level that unlock doors on another, so there is some connection between levels.  Occasionally someone will give you a side quest, and you’ll find the MacGuffin three levels later. 

This dungeon is big.  Probably the largest single dungeon published for 5e, at least by WOTC.  It goes down 23 levels, and even has a few hallways that lead nowhere, in case you want to add your own expansions.  The 320-page book devotes 289 pages to the dungeon, making it one of the largest dungeon-to-lore ratios I’ve seen.  

I honestly can’t imagine taking a party through the entire thing.  I think they would develop “dungeon fatigue” after a while (and a vitamin D deficiency).   The good news is that it’s designed so you can leave and come back, with lots of teleportation portals for quicker travel.  So some parties might keep returning to the Undermountain between other adventures.

While the book does contain a few plot hooks, it doesn’t need them.  This is the infamous dungeon beneath the Yawning Portal, and adventurers need no other reason to delve it than “because it’s there.”  But once the party starts exploring the passages, they will find other small quests to keep them busy.  So it’s not just “let’s kill all the monsters and find all the treasure”, though it certainly can be if that’s all the party wants.

Dungeon of the Mad Mage is a great companion to Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, but you don’t need either one to enjoy the other.  There is no strong plot connection between the two.  Grab Waterdeep: Dragon Heist if you want the lore of the area, and grab Dungeon of the Mad Mage if you just want a big ol’ dungeon.

Waterdeep: Dragon Heist

One thing I find interesting about fifth edition is that a lot of the books seem sort of unfocused.  Volo’s Guide to Monsters is about 45% lore, 10% player options, and 45% Monster Manual 2.  Mordenwhatever’s Tome of Foes is half lore and half Monster Manual 3, with a tiny sprinkling of player options.  Xanathar’s Guide to Everything is basically whatever extra notes they had lying around at the D&D offices.  Which is not to put down any of the above.  I love all three of the aforementioned books, especially Xanathar’s.  Yeah, it can be a bit of a rip-off for non-DMs who only want character options (I admit that the Tabaxi race is like 50% of the reason I bought Volo’s), but they are solid books.

Still, those are all lore/options splatbooks, not adventure modules.  Waterdeep: Dragon Heist is about 50% lore, 50% adventure, which I find unusual for a module.  Sure, Curse of Strahd gives you all sorts of details about Barovia, but it does so by taking you there, over the course of the adventure.  W:DH is divided into three sections: lore, adventure, and more lore.  The adventure itself is arranged so that it can be played four times and deliver a different experience each time.  The four options – based on which season it is when you start the adventure – determine the identity of the villain as well as the order of events.

I haven’t run or played it yet, but it looks like it’s not a very long adventure.   Not only is the adventure section only about 77 pages, but since the adventure can be run four ways, a lot of the events are described four times.  So while replayability isn’t a problem, longevity is.  Still, the right kind of DM and/or group can probably draw it out for months, simply because there are so many things to see and do in the City of Splendors.

It also doesn't look like the adventure is heavy on combat, though that probably depends on how your party tends to handle things.  Personally I love that, but it won't be everyone's cup of tea.  There's a lot for rogues to do in this adventure, but some fighters might get bored.

One thing I love is the diversity.  Before the book even hit the shelves, bigoted neckbeards were already complaining about how PC it is.  "Oh my goodness, there's a non-binary elf!" they exclaimed, clutching their pearls, while somehow simultaneously accusing SJWs of being too easily offended.  That's not the only example of inclusiveness in the book, but it's the one that stands out the most.

Obviously a city as cosmopolitan as Waterdeep is going to be diverse.  Anyone who says it ruins D&D for them is playing D&D for the wrong reasons. The whole idea is new universes filled with fantastic locales and exotic creatures means leaving human preconceptions behind.  If all you want to play is "Archie Bunker: The RPG", that's fine, you be you. But please stay off the message boards.

Anyway, I also really like the maps.  They are incredibly detailed, and they make me want to abandon the cities I've been designing in my head and just use Waterdeep for my next campaign.
 
Overall, I feel like the book is less an adventure module, and more of a "Waterdeep Campaign Setting" with a sample adventure thrown in.  But that's not a bad thing, and all things considered I think it's worth the money.