A Dragon’s Breath recap/review
A Dragon’s Breath is a convention created oneshot with the code CCC-GSP01-01. I DMd it today, and (since I’m still in the winding down phase after the DM-adrenaline) decided to review it.
In short? This oneshot is INCREDIBLE. It’s fun, it’s epic, play it.
This was maybe my best DM experience to date (roll20 is nice and all, but playing in person is leagues better), one of those times when everything works out in your favor. I had a fantastic party of four (barbarian, bard, ranger, warlock), great friends and players, I only made a few small mistakes (and only in combat), finally had the good sense to really prepare the music, the module was awesome, and the players interacted with the world in great ways.
Length: officially 4 hours, with a few small breaks we played for about 6 hours. Sacrificing some elements it definitely could be played under 4 hours, at the cost of some of the fun though.
The introduction worked as intended, it was a nice change to start in medias res and still have the necessary information communicated. I think it saved the beginning from the “ok, let’s just get over with it and go to do the real fun stuff” feeling.
The flight part ended up working very well, after a bit of prodding one of the characters tamed the griffon, and it was just as epic as it seemed written down. The pixies couldn’t make them fall so that encounter was cut short, but that wasn’t a problem.
They had a ranger with forest as his favored terrain, so they didn’t need to make survival checks, it made the navigation a lot easier, and I don’t think it took away anything important from the experience.
They triggered the traps then fought the redcaps (which are very dangerous for 2nd level characters, their damage output is insane), and they found the map there.
They visited the rainbow leaves, the bard played for them and they found the paths. They met Temman then scared him away (if not entirely intentionally), and took a short rest there. After that they visited the golden elk’s pond and the animal crossroads, had some nice atmospheric rp (the bard found a pearl necklace in the pond). The warlock was an eladrin with an archfey pact and detect magic invocation, so we played around with the fey presence in the forest, the seelie-unseelie aspects, I gave her some lore (mentioned Jeny Greenteeth, for example).
They visited the Xvart camp, but the ranger spotted the traps, so they left without a fight, and proceeded to Victor’s area.
Bard bonding through music ensued, he told them the story of Ragvala and Rokstasha as he knew it, mentioned his scheduled performance in Madame Freona’s Tea Kettle (three out of four players are from the same group I’m currently DMing for the AL oneshot series, so it was a nice shoutout), then they took a long rest before going to retrieve Dragon’s Sorrow.
The Oni fight was insane, they all rolled really high, it was over after maybe three or four rounds. They pulled out the lute at first try, and went to give it to Ragvala. (They didn’t look at the text, though.)
There was some mid-air bonding, then the roc fight, which was EPIC. The ranger rode the griffon, and the barbarian got the killing blow. I’ve got Witcher music for it, and it worked so well, I don’t think I’ve ever played a fight like this, as DM or player.
In the end the original ending didn’t feel appropriate, so I had Ragvala retire with his friend. The bard and the ranger accepted the Five-Leaf Clover initiate offering, and the bard got the magic cittern.
General:
We were lucky with the characters, they meshed well with the setting. The party had great rp the whole time, I loved to listen to it, the characters were all memorable. The bard had a whole mini-arc through the game, but the others had their moments to shine, too.
Maybe one of the greatest aspects is how epic is this oneshot, considering the characters are 2nd level. It really gives a unique feel to it.
This is my DM point of view... I’d love to hear how my players experienced it, though, it was late when we finished, so all I know is they liked it. Which is the point, so I’m happy, but if someone would like to add to this post...