D&D Waterdeep Dragon Heist HC (Dungeons & Dragons)

I recently dove into D&D Waterdeep: Dragon Heist HC, and wow—what an immersive ride! The storyline is gripping, the city of Waterdeep feels alive and teeming with intrigue, and every twist—whether you're tracking gold, navigating the underworld, or making surprising alliances—kept me on the edge of my seat. The hardcover format is beautifully designed, with vibrant maps, compelling NPC profiles, and helpful player/advice sections that make it easy to bring this adventure to life. Beyond the excitement, this campaign felt like a journey of faith and fellowship. Just as our adventuring party must trust one another through heists and hardship, Jesus calls us to walk in unity, courage, and truth. The adventure reminded me of Proverbs 27:17: “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” Whether you're battling dragons or navigating moral choices, the bonds you forge and the choices you make reflect the heart of Christian community—loyal, brave, and guided by wisdom. If you’re looking for a D&D storyline that delivers tension, creativity, and a sense of purpose, Dragon Heist is a treasure trove. It shows us that even in the midst of questing and chaos, there’s room to lean on God and on one another—just like a party should. Highly recommend—may your rolls be blessed and your fellowship strengthened! 🎲

This review includes spoilers. The good: the basic setting is truly excellent. A former lord of Waterdeep embezzled a massive amount of gold, and the PCs are hunting for a sentient stone that holds the secret about where the gold is hidden. At the same time, several nefarious groups in Waterdeep are also hunting for the stone/gold. So there's a great ticking clock element. The authors have also done a superb job bringing Waterdeep to life, with more than a dozen truly outstanding (often funny) nonplayer characters. For example, the players are likely: to own a tavern run by a moody poltergeist, to run afoul of the law embodied in the person of spluttering Capt. Hyustus Staget (and then to be tried for crimes in court), to be targeted by the slanderous accusations of a shrewd owner of a competing tavern, to be invited to join one of several really cool factions vying for power in Waterdeep (including factions run by the drow, a beholder, and devil-worshipers), and to discover that several powerful Waterdhavian nobles are deceitful or worse. My players -- particularly the ones that like role-playing as opposed to combat -- have absolutely loved all of these parts of the adventure. Even more than in Phandalin, Waterdeep feels like a place for new adventurers to make a real name for themselves in a complex, fully realized world. In this Waterdeep reminds me of Barovia in Curse of Strahd and the Underdark in Out of the Abyss. Perhaps it's not quite as memorable as either of those places, but it's close, and that's a MAJOR achievement in my view. The bad is that this book is difficult to DM. The main problem is that, as others have pointed out, the book primarily describes not places with maps to be explored by the players, but sequences of events for the players to witness, where the players are fated to remain one step behind the stone as various people run off with it through Waterdeep. I thought this setup denied the players any real chance to change how the story ends. In the case of my own campaign, my players did something really smart and got the stone before they were "supposed" to, which obviated my using a lot of the most interesting material in the book. Another little problem for DMs: I think urban environments, because they are full of NPCs who must be given interesting things to say to move the plotline along incrementally, are just inherently more difficult to DM than most monster lairs. The book also has lots of material that is bound to be discarded -- unless the DM comes up with her own way of integrating it into what's going on her game. In a way this is good, because I feel kind of proud that I've been able to make the material my own, but it is time consuming. Final quibble: players who like combat will at times get a little antsy, as it's hard to pull out swords on the streets of an apparently "civilized" place like Waterdeep. Anyway, overall I say it's still five stars. Clearly better than a good solid adventure like Storm King's Thunder, because more original and fully fleshed out, but slightly inferior to my favorites, which are Out of the Abyss and Strahd. It's more interesting than Lost Mines of Phandelver for 1st level characters, which is high praise as Lost Mines is really good. But at the same time, unlike Lost Mines, the DM must be prepared to do a lot of work!

We ran this module as a year-long weekly campaign and had a ton of fun with it in my group. The module is heavier on roleplay compared to other DnD modules due to the urban setting. Waterdeep is a fun city with lots of great characters and locations. The full-size tear-out map is wonderful and I had it framed after the campaign finished. The biggest downside of the book is the organization is weird and, if you run the book as it is intended, you won't even use half of the book (there is a chapter for each villian but you are intended to only run one of them). The chase sequence is also pretty silly and might be fun for some groups, but running it as more of a sequence of more complex and slow heists was more fun for our group. I ran a modified version of the Alexandrian remix so I could run three of the four villians (sorry Manshoon) and to extend the book from an adventure to a full campaign. If you want to run the Alexandrian remix, just be ready to spend a LOT of time reading and preping!

Before my copy of Dragon Heist arrived in the mail, I was skeptical. I'd heard the DM or players have to choose which season the campaign begins and which villains the players face off against. To me, that sounded like too much randomness for an adventure module. Boy, was I wrong. Dragon Heist takes everything I loved about the Lost Mine of Phandelver and pumped it full of intrigue, compelling back-stories, and a cityscape that is teeming with possibilities. Chris Perkins did a masterful job of curating the most interesting historical details about Waterdeep, the City of Splendors, while breathing new life into its old grandeur. In terms of balancing a linear storyline with creative freedom for DMs to improvise, Dragon Heist lands right in the sweet spot, giving DMs many colorful NPCs to choose from, faction intrigues and quests to stir up players' involvement in the heist, and a very well conceived relationship between the book's four major villains. If there is one thing to grouse about, it's the very simple black-and-white maps. At first, they struck me as amateurish and lacking detail. But, after using them in play, I changed my mind. The rudimentary just-the-facts depictions of the game's important locations are very handy and user-friendly. Polygon called Dragon Heist the "state of the art" in tabletop roleplaying. I tend to agree.

Probably the second best campaign you can run! Great replay ability Good intro for the ONLY campaign that goes to level 20 I bet it would be a good intro for the best campaign (Curse of Strahd) STRONGLY recommended reading entire campaign before running If you run Spring/Xanathar Guild I recommend VGM (this campaign references that book a lot) Great guide book to Waterdeep included, would recommend reading that mini book to your players. Your players WILL need to avoid most combat in the later sections. Definitely a Roleplaying/creative problem solving campaign. Most of your combat should be in Chapter 1. Chapter 1 feels a little railroady Chapter 1 is incredibly dangerous to level 1 players. Very fun! Yoy could run the same group thought it 4 times having it different each time. Check out Alexandria Remix for players who love to take notes. (very complicated) Check out The Faction Expansion when you reach Chapter 2

Great product and value

Muchos productos de D&D en ediciones pasadas, detallaron la ciudad de Waterdeep con énfasis en detalle y este nuevo libro/aventura, no es la excepción. Contenido: Los años han pasado tanto aquí como en los Reinos Olvidados, este suplemento no pierde de vista sus raíces y extiende nuevas ramas para dar frutos en futuros suplementos y en la historia de la ciudad. Personajes y lugares de antaño son re-visitados y actualizados. El trabajo y amor que han puesto en el contenido, desde un punto de vista de suplemento, es oro puro. El lado de la aventura como tal, tiene cosas MUY buenas que permitirán a los jugadores sumergirse en una interesante aventura llena de intriga. Los jugadores deben tener mucho cuidado al escoger sus "peleas" en esta aventura y se les da la oportunidad de iniciar una carrera (campaña) en Waterdeep al ser propietarios de una casa/negocio muy peculiar y llena(o) de oportunidades. Hay dos "encuentros" o eventos en la aventura que creo que podrían haber sido mejor diseñados, pero un Dungeon Master podría modificarlos sin problema para tomar ventaja de algunos de los personajes y locaciones y traer más vida a la ciudad. Arte /Diseño: Los mapas y el arte han dejado de ser el estereotipo de aquellos generados en computadora con diseño de 3D simulado que caracterizan a la mayoría de los módulos y suplementos recientes. El regreso al estilo clásico le trae mucha vida a las páginas del libro. Los artistas han logrado con éxito el incorporar detalle digital en planos y mapas. Wizards se lleva un 10 en este libro tanto en calidad como en originalidad al combinar elementos narrativos con imágenes y arte conceptual que el Dungeon Master puede compartir con los jugadores y también otra gran carga de material suculento que el DM debe guardar para sí, En resumen: Uno de los mejores suplementos de D&D 5a edición, quizá el mejor. Si tú y tu grupo de jugadores están en los Reinos Olvidados, este suplemento será de gran utilidad y debería estar en tu lista de siguientes adquisiciones (hasta arriba!). Muy recomendado!

Waterdeep offers a myriad of city locations, people, and adventures for those who take the effort to read through the pages!

Wa good adventure shorter than most DnD campaign as the book actually hold 4 adventures (one for each season you choose)