D&D: Is ‘Tyranny of Dragons’ Getting Another Update?
An Amazon Product listing reveals a “rebalanced” Tyranny of Dragons — 5th Edition’s 1st adventure module—due out in January 2023.
Over the weekend, a new Amazon product listing seems to have revealed a “rebalanced” version of Tyranny of Dragons. According to the listing, WotC has designs on a January release, with a few details about what might be different.
It’s an interesting listing, because Tyranny of Dragons, first released in 2019, was actually just a reprint/update of both Hoard of the Dragon Queen and The Rise of Tiamat. These two adventures were the first foray into 5th Edition. They were so early, in fact, that the design team didn’t have the full 5th Edition ruleset.
It’s why, if you have one of the early printings, you’ll find some language that doesn’t quite match with WotC’s more established parlance. However, the 2023 Tyranny of Dragons promises to be “easier for a new Dungeon Master to run.”
No details on what this means, exactly. And interestingly enough, this wasn’t on WotC’s list of upcoming products for 2023, which includes a new Planescape book. So let’s take a look at the listing and see what we can learn.
Tyranny of Dragons – 2023
For comparison, here’s the 2019 Tyranny of Dragons blurb:
Tyranny of Dragons is a single special volume re-release of the two-part adventure from 2014 featuring a new cover designed by Hydro74. The 224-page adventure combines the two previous titles (Hoard of the Dragon Queen and The Rise of Tiamat) into one book, taking players from level 1 all the way to level 16 as they contend against the Cult of the Dragons plans to bring their queen Tiamat to the Forgotten Realms.
The newer version only seems to go to level 15 instead of 16. And then we have the “rebalancing” which could just mean bringing the monsters in line with the guidelines in Mordenkainen Presents: Monsters of the Multiverse, which has been a sort of soft rebalancing of 5th Edition.
From MPMM onward, spellcasting monsters work much differently. Monsters are, in general, a little more straightforward. And slightly beefier too, at higher CRs.
No official announcement, at press time. But check back for more info as the week goes on.
Happy Adventuring
