I was brand new to D&D in 4e when my friend ran his own campaign. When 5e came out, a different group of friends wanted to play D&D, but I was the only one with any prior experience, so I became the DM. We've been going through the 5e starter set, and as they are finishing that up, I'm looking for the next step for their characters. The standard published campaigns are somewhat problematic in that they all start at level 1. If your players want to keep playing the same characters (up to level 20, or whenever they die), its going to take a bit of work on your part.
Enter Tales From the Yawning Portal. I have not personally run my players through any of the adventures yet, but I have read through each one pretty extensively. The way they are set up is brilliant, and even as a new DM it seems that they will be very easy to run. Tyranny of Dragons has a good story from what I've read through, but it doesn't seem to be set up in a way that is easy to DM, with a lot of fill work required on your part.
Tales is a little different however from the other full campaigns in that they are meant to be sprinkled in bigger campaigns/adventures, not necessarily stand on their own as one over-arching campaign. That being said, you can do that, as the levels of the adventures compliment each other; the first one is 1-3, the second 3-5, then 5-8, etc. There won't be any over-arching story, but that doesn't matter too much. My personal plan is to run Horde of the Dragon Queen next (I will have to modify it as my characters are level 4) and when they are done with that, I will run them through one of the Tales adventures before moving onto part two of Tyranny, Rise of Tiamat. I had already bought those books, and their characters tie in nicely with the story. For the most part though, I can't wait to get to the Tales adventures. After the full campaign is done, I might run them through Tomb of Horrors, the last adventure in Tales. I am doing that last, because of the looks of it, it will kill them.
The last thing I wanted to mention about Tales from the Yawning Portal is that the adventures feel very much like they were taken from past editions, but that's not a bad thing. I have several AD&D books that I've skimmed through, and the adventures seem very similar in terms of traps, puzzles and choices the characters can make. Also, most of the adventures seem, at least to me, that they are deadlier than the current 5e lineup. Many sections require smart thinking on the part of the players, not something that is easy to hack and slash their way through with min-maxed characters. The last adventure, Tomb of Horrors, looks especially devious. It was originally created by Gary Gygax himself, as a way to humble even his strongest players. These adventures are tough, but look to be extremely rewarding for those who survive.
All in all, this is a solid, easy to use product that adds much needed content beyond first starting level. I highly recommend it.
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Tales From the Yawning Portal (Dungeons & Dragons) Hardcover – April 4, 2017
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Reading age12 years and up
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Print length248 pages
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LanguageEnglish
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Dimensions8.52 x 0.67 x 11.12 inches
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PublisherWizards of the Coast
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Publication dateApril 4, 2017
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ISBN-100786966092
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ISBN-13978-0786966097
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Product details
- Publisher : Wizards of the Coast (April 4, 2017)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 248 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0786966092
- ISBN-13 : 978-0786966097
- Reading age : 12 years and up
- Item Weight : 0.039 ounces
- Dimensions : 8.52 x 0.67 x 11.12 inches
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Reviewed in the United States on May 18, 2017
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Reviewed in the United States on October 3, 2018
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I am quite pleased with the updates for previous edition adventures for D&D 5e. they make it easy for me and others to run classic D&D adventures.
That being said, the title, "Tales From The Yawning Portal" describes the well known entrance to one of the more famous dungeons in Forgotten Realms that is often referred to as the Undermountain Adventure.
"A certain infamous inn near the docks in Waterdeep, The Yawning Portal's proprietor, one Durnan the Wanderer, is the only widely-known entrance to Undermountain easily accessible to the general public. Rather, it is the only known entrance accessible to those elements of the general public desperate or deranged enough to attempt entry into the underways."
Thus, Tails of the Yawning Portal starts by giving you a description of the Yawning Portal Inn, and it sounds very cool. Now I guess the point of including the Yawning Portal is to give you a location that the included adventures can originate from, but the problem is that I know my players and the first thing they are going to want to do is to go down that well. They give you this unique location that literally has direct access to the Undermountain that is evidently full of eminence wealth and magic but then there is no way to play the Undermountain dungeon (short of making it all up yourself or converting some old version).
That being said, the title, "Tales From The Yawning Portal" describes the well known entrance to one of the more famous dungeons in Forgotten Realms that is often referred to as the Undermountain Adventure.
"A certain infamous inn near the docks in Waterdeep, The Yawning Portal's proprietor, one Durnan the Wanderer, is the only widely-known entrance to Undermountain easily accessible to the general public. Rather, it is the only known entrance accessible to those elements of the general public desperate or deranged enough to attempt entry into the underways."
Thus, Tails of the Yawning Portal starts by giving you a description of the Yawning Portal Inn, and it sounds very cool. Now I guess the point of including the Yawning Portal is to give you a location that the included adventures can originate from, but the problem is that I know my players and the first thing they are going to want to do is to go down that well. They give you this unique location that literally has direct access to the Undermountain that is evidently full of eminence wealth and magic but then there is no way to play the Undermountain dungeon (short of making it all up yourself or converting some old version).
56 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on May 21, 2018
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As an someone who started back in 1983 I really like seeing a couple of the old classic AD&D adventures updated for 5th ed. In the past I have updated some of the older adventures on my own, but it is nice to have someone else do the work. While I mostly have always built my own adventures in the past, my work life had prevented me from having as much prep time as I used to. So it is nice to have these pre-made adventures to play my player through right now. I just need to modify the adventure a little bit to make them fit into my campaign and work with my players.
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Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2018
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The Sunless Citadel is a PERFECT first level adventure and leads seamlessly into Forge of Fury. With these two campaigns you can get characters to level five pretty quickly if you want. Great stories too!!
Personally didn't like the feel of The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan, so doubt I'll ever DM that one.
Saving the rest of the book until I have a more advanced group of players.
Gave the Tomb of Horrors a whirl with some newbies, but it took them most of a session just to find the entrance!
The creatures and items in the appendices are a nice little bonus that I'll be using for our next home brew.
Personally didn't like the feel of The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan, so doubt I'll ever DM that one.
Saving the rest of the book until I have a more advanced group of players.
Gave the Tomb of Horrors a whirl with some newbies, but it took them most of a session just to find the entrance!
The creatures and items in the appendices are a nice little bonus that I'll be using for our next home brew.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2019
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So I'm running to waterdeep campaign and I would see by this book if you want to have a mini adventure for the adventures to level up before going into the mad mage book which is the continuation of the story line. The waterdeep book only goes up to level five so this is a great point of the adventure when it's done for the ventures to come back and go on a mini adventure before taking on the mean one after which is mad mage to do a little bit of leveling up for the characters if you want them to start at level 6 if they are not already or to give him one higher level up to level seven.
Or if you want this to be a source as just a One-Shot adventure then this is also another great book cuz they just have a lot of very classic adventures from older campaigns in the additions including that I had one of these avengers which is blue mountain which I ran before and also D and is another great adventure which can be dumb down very easily. Even stated at the beginning of all the adventures is it needs to be done down for certain levels or it's only diet for certain levels for players to initiate
Or if you want this to be a source as just a One-Shot adventure then this is also another great book cuz they just have a lot of very classic adventures from older campaigns in the additions including that I had one of these avengers which is blue mountain which I ran before and also D and is another great adventure which can be dumb down very easily. Even stated at the beginning of all the adventures is it needs to be done down for certain levels or it's only diet for certain levels for players to initiate
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Ramiro Luis
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ótimo livro, se julgado pelo que ele pretende ser, não pelo que ele poderia ser.
Reviewed in Brazil on August 25, 2017Verified Purchase
Provavelmente é o suplemento mais injustiçado da 5E. Ele cumpre exatamente o que promete, nada mais, nada menos. E ainda assim, muita gente reclama do livro por ele ser justamente o que se propõe a ser: um compilado "greatest hits" de módulos de aventura de diferentes edições do D&D.
Sim, o livro não traz nada novo pra quem já tem as aventuras incluídas nele (eu possuo o livro original de "A Cidadela sem Sol" e tirando textos relativos puramente à conversão da 5E, a aventura é exatamente a mesma, com textos identicos), e pra esse público, Tales apenas serve como um poupador de tempo pra quem não quer converter tudo na marra.
Mas a maioria do público da 5E não tem esses materiais em mãos, e por esse motivo, o suplemento vale a pena. Leva aos novos jogadores algumas das mais famosas aventuras do D&D (algo que já tem sido feito através de outros livros, como Curse of Strahd e Princes of the Apocalypse, mesmo que em forma de releituras), e dá aos antigos jogadores que retornaram ao D&D na 5E uma oportunidade de rejogar aventuras clássicas, muito provavelmente com gente nova que nunca nem ouviu falar nessas aventuras.
Por não ser um livro de campanha, e sim de aventuras soltas, o livro se torna muito mais interessante, pelo fato de que, com excessão da aventura da caixa básica (Lost Mine of Phandelver), não há outra fonte de aventura oficial que não seja parte de uma campanha longa, que nem todo mundo tem interesse em jogar. Além disso, o estilo das aventuras que estão presentes em Tales é puramente dungeon crawl, bem diferente dos livros de campanha já lançados na 5E.
Sim, o livro não traz nada novo pra quem já tem as aventuras incluídas nele (eu possuo o livro original de "A Cidadela sem Sol" e tirando textos relativos puramente à conversão da 5E, a aventura é exatamente a mesma, com textos identicos), e pra esse público, Tales apenas serve como um poupador de tempo pra quem não quer converter tudo na marra.
Mas a maioria do público da 5E não tem esses materiais em mãos, e por esse motivo, o suplemento vale a pena. Leva aos novos jogadores algumas das mais famosas aventuras do D&D (algo que já tem sido feito através de outros livros, como Curse of Strahd e Princes of the Apocalypse, mesmo que em forma de releituras), e dá aos antigos jogadores que retornaram ao D&D na 5E uma oportunidade de rejogar aventuras clássicas, muito provavelmente com gente nova que nunca nem ouviu falar nessas aventuras.
Por não ser um livro de campanha, e sim de aventuras soltas, o livro se torna muito mais interessante, pelo fato de que, com excessão da aventura da caixa básica (Lost Mine of Phandelver), não há outra fonte de aventura oficial que não seja parte de uma campanha longa, que nem todo mundo tem interesse em jogar. Além disso, o estilo das aventuras que estão presentes em Tales é puramente dungeon crawl, bem diferente dos livros de campanha já lançados na 5E.
Sol Glos
3.0 out of 5 stars
Hit and miss dungeons but still worth the buy.
Reviewed in Canada on January 16, 2020Verified Purchase
This book is hit or miss for me. It's a collection of "classic" modules. You can run the book as its own adventure but the modules aren't really related to each other and have pretty different styles.
I should specify that these are all dungeons, complete with off the wall traps and gimmicks of old.
The first two adventures aren't bad. They tie together and get you to level 5. The only issue with these now is that there are so many better options from 1-5 now. You have Lost Mines, Dragon of Icespire, Dragon Heist, not to mention the other published adventures 1-5's, most of which are a little more fun and free-ranging.
Tamochan is just alright. White Plume seems a little outdated and is a hodgepodge of puzzles and traps, which actually makes it pretty cool. I'm actually really excited to run White Plume.
The Doomvault is just great. A huge dangerous dungeon made with 5e in mind with a cool setting and story that some of the other modules lack a bit.
Against the Giants is... Weird. The dungeon layouts look like they were made to fill up a rectangular warehouse, and the flavour is just lacking somehow. You'd think that if you were running something like "Storm Kings Thunder" that this module could be added in but it just... doesn't jive. It's like it's inhabited by giants from another era.
Tomb of Horrors is just a meme dungeon. If you think that this is going to be some epic challenge for your veteran players think again. It's not designed for how we play D&D anymore and if you play it as written your players are going to have trouble even finding and getting inside of the dungeon. It's not even Dark Souls challenging/rewarding, it's more like blindly stumbling around and guessing random things while dying inexplicably. "Tomb of Annihilation" does its own version of this and they do it perfectly. I guess if you are running this it's with fresh characters for the novelty, in which case have fun.
Anyway, the good modules make it worth the buy for me.
I should specify that these are all dungeons, complete with off the wall traps and gimmicks of old.
The first two adventures aren't bad. They tie together and get you to level 5. The only issue with these now is that there are so many better options from 1-5 now. You have Lost Mines, Dragon of Icespire, Dragon Heist, not to mention the other published adventures 1-5's, most of which are a little more fun and free-ranging.
Tamochan is just alright. White Plume seems a little outdated and is a hodgepodge of puzzles and traps, which actually makes it pretty cool. I'm actually really excited to run White Plume.
The Doomvault is just great. A huge dangerous dungeon made with 5e in mind with a cool setting and story that some of the other modules lack a bit.
Against the Giants is... Weird. The dungeon layouts look like they were made to fill up a rectangular warehouse, and the flavour is just lacking somehow. You'd think that if you were running something like "Storm Kings Thunder" that this module could be added in but it just... doesn't jive. It's like it's inhabited by giants from another era.
Tomb of Horrors is just a meme dungeon. If you think that this is going to be some epic challenge for your veteran players think again. It's not designed for how we play D&D anymore and if you play it as written your players are going to have trouble even finding and getting inside of the dungeon. It's not even Dark Souls challenging/rewarding, it's more like blindly stumbling around and guessing random things while dying inexplicably. "Tomb of Annihilation" does its own version of this and they do it perfectly. I guess if you are running this it's with fresh characters for the novelty, in which case have fun.
Anyway, the good modules make it worth the buy for me.
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Adrian Cervantes
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dungeons & Dragons Greatest Hits, Vol. 1
Reviewed in Mexico on May 24, 2017Verified Purchase
No hay forma de describir este libro mejor que lo que dice el título. Esta es una compilación de varias de las mejores aventuras para D&D que se han publicado, tomadas de todas las ediciones del juego y actualizadas para 5th Edition; una pieza imperdible en la colección de cualquier fan y DM.
El libro está muy bien estructurado, haciendo que un DM sea capaz de crear una campaña alrededor de todas las aventuras en él o tomando solo una o dos para incorporarlas en su campaña actual. El arte interior es excelente y las descripciones de cada encuentro dejan muy claro al DM y al jugador que sucede. El único punto en contra es que carece de mapas desprendibles, lo cual habría hecho a este suplemento perfecto.
El libro está muy bien estructurado, haciendo que un DM sea capaz de crear una campaña alrededor de todas las aventuras en él o tomando solo una o dos para incorporarlas en su campaña actual. El arte interior es excelente y las descripciones de cada encuentro dejan muy claro al DM y al jugador que sucede. El único punto en contra es que carece de mapas desprendibles, lo cual habría hecho a este suplemento perfecto.
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars
If you're looking for dungeons, this book is for you.
Reviewed in Canada on December 28, 2017Verified Purchase
There is a good variety of dungeons and they all are ''classics.'' Some of them are just dungeon crwaling at his best while some others are more of a puzzle challenge. If you're looking for a dungeon and don't have the time to create one, this is a good book.
There is also some magic items, for the majority cursed. Always funny to give some shiny loot to a player and it turns out it wasn't that shiny after all.
There is also some magic items, for the majority cursed. Always funny to give some shiny loot to a player and it turns out it wasn't that shiny after all.
3 people found this helpful
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wralt123
4.0 out of 5 stars
Translations to 5e
Reviewed in Canada on April 24, 2017Verified Purchase
I haven't yet had a chance to bring these adventures to my table but it is interesting to see how WOTC designers have translated classic modules into current game design (5e). In most cases they have managed to maintain the general atmosphere of the originals -- although the deadliness of a certain Tomb is no longer what it once was. It would be great if this became an annual thing, I would love to see additional translations/upgrades to more classic modules.
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