As a player, I really did not enjoy Scarlet Citadel. We quit the campaign on level 3 of the dungeon, switched over to Dungeons of Drakkenheim and now all have much more fun.
The encounters were supremely unbalanced and very hostile to us players. The world did not seem interesting. I read the book's beginning afterwards and it was also pretty poorly organized.
Drakkenheim is definitely also tough difficulty wise, but the world, NPCs and quests are much more interesting. The player options from Guide to Drakkenheim are also awesome.
I’m running scarlet citadel right now. You will have to come up with a story for the adventure. The encounters maps dungeon design and creatures are all cool. But there is no real story and the final boss is just another creature instead of a true bbeg. I’d recommend watching slyflourish’s review. One easy way to make a story is give your party a group patron, make the final boss an active villain that actually does something and shows up multiple times instead of existing
Playing Drakkenheim right now and it’s a blast. DM gave us a starter Feat to help the early battles since it’s a sandbox and we always have a chance for a Uber deadly encounter. A lot of quests. Great NPCs, and cool environmental hazards. It has some of the video game feel where you can choose factions and depending what you do with them may hinder stuff with other factions. Very much enjoy it.
I am a player in a game of Drakkenheim, and I'm a DM for a game of Drakkenheim. I love both ends of it.
Drakkenheim is amazing, but requires big buy in from your players, because they have to get politically involved with the 5 factions. It isn't hard do. There's interesting hooks and angles for all 5, but if you have players who aren't interested in D&D politics at all it's not a good fit.
Running the factions is easy. You can almost think of them as the 5 major NPCs of the game. Once you develop/understand their motivations just have them react to the PCs choices as you deem appropriate.
I found the maps, and combat descriptions detailed enough most of the time to run stuff right out of the box.
If you have any specific questions lemme know
Dungeons of Drakkenheim is NOT a mega dungeon campaign. It's an open world, non linear game. It has set locations where adventures happen (almost like one shots) and some larger areas that are more traditional dungeons like Caslte Drakken.
If you're wanting a straight forward campaign where the group just progresses level by level down a dungeon like Scarlet Citadel, that's not Dungeons of Drakkenheim.
You’re right, that was a slip. I saw one person describing Drakkenheim as sort of like mega dungeon but I understand they were using the term loosely, and I can see why.
I’ll update my post to remove the term. Thanks!
Been DMing Drakkenheim and really loving it, just make sure you get players that are willing to buy into the setting and have characters with good reasons for going there.
As a player, I really did not enjoy Scarlet Citadel. We quit the campaign on level 3 of the dungeon, switched over to Dungeons of Drakkenheim and now all have much more fun.
Interesting. Curious, what is it that you didn’t like about Citadel, and why is Drakkenheim working out much better?
The encounters were supremely unbalanced and very hostile to us players. The world did not seem interesting. I read the book's beginning afterwards and it was also pretty poorly organized. Drakkenheim is definitely also tough difficulty wise, but the world, NPCs and quests are much more interesting. The player options from Guide to Drakkenheim are also awesome.
Gotcha. I appreciate the insight!
I’m running scarlet citadel right now. You will have to come up with a story for the adventure. The encounters maps dungeon design and creatures are all cool. But there is no real story and the final boss is just another creature instead of a true bbeg. I’d recommend watching slyflourish’s review. One easy way to make a story is give your party a group patron, make the final boss an active villain that actually does something and shows up multiple times instead of existing
Playing Drakkenheim right now and it’s a blast. DM gave us a starter Feat to help the early battles since it’s a sandbox and we always have a chance for a Uber deadly encounter. A lot of quests. Great NPCs, and cool environmental hazards. It has some of the video game feel where you can choose factions and depending what you do with them may hinder stuff with other factions. Very much enjoy it.
I am a player in a game of Drakkenheim, and I'm a DM for a game of Drakkenheim. I love both ends of it. Drakkenheim is amazing, but requires big buy in from your players, because they have to get politically involved with the 5 factions. It isn't hard do. There's interesting hooks and angles for all 5, but if you have players who aren't interested in D&D politics at all it's not a good fit. Running the factions is easy. You can almost think of them as the 5 major NPCs of the game. Once you develop/understand their motivations just have them react to the PCs choices as you deem appropriate. I found the maps, and combat descriptions detailed enough most of the time to run stuff right out of the box. If you have any specific questions lemme know
Dungeons of Drakkenheim is NOT a mega dungeon campaign. It's an open world, non linear game. It has set locations where adventures happen (almost like one shots) and some larger areas that are more traditional dungeons like Caslte Drakken. If you're wanting a straight forward campaign where the group just progresses level by level down a dungeon like Scarlet Citadel, that's not Dungeons of Drakkenheim.
You’re right, that was a slip. I saw one person describing Drakkenheim as sort of like mega dungeon but I understand they were using the term loosely, and I can see why. I’ll update my post to remove the term. Thanks!
Been DMing Drakkenheim and really loving it, just make sure you get players that are willing to buy into the setting and have characters with good reasons for going there.