So this thread is going to be a DM's ramblings on the Hoard of the Dragon Queen game we are running. I will be posting party make up, choices I made with my reasoning sometimes posted and what I have found that works, is enjoyable or not. I always appricate constructive feedback and mostly ignore trolling, but the reason for this post is to help others that are new to running games by both listing what to do and showing what not to do at times. Learn from my mistakes 
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FYI, My spelling and Grammer suck, I already know this.
First off Charc creation. I used the 27 point buy with 15 being maxed as suggested in PHB. After playing the Starter set game and looking through the released material on the WotC website it is obvious that Stats play a larger role in the new version with less ways to increase them. With Saves, Ac's and DC's not commonly being no where near as High as in Pathfinder and earlier editions of D&D this works well. I find that I realy like this direction. I also opened up any race and/or class from the PHB.
After each person informed me of what they were playing, I added a bond from the HotDQ book on top of their creation picks. The players had already picked their bonds before I found these listed in the back of the book. I found the added ones added to the game. While the book suggest that they replace charc bonds I did not do this and could see no downside to allowing them to keep what they had already picked.
On to the Players, There are 6 in total.
Loki Human Monk with Sailor Background, Also added Ship was destroyed by a dragon bond.
He wanted the bad rep and I agreed only if he has a visable wound from the dragon
attack that most people have heard about.
Cyrls Tiefling Cleric of Kelemvor, War domain. Acolyte background. Given the was rescued by Leosin
Erlanthar bond. I had no issues with the War domain being taken, The domains do not seem to be
as hardcore set as in previous games. Some would not make sense but this was a good fit with
what Cyris wants.
Malacere Human Warlock, Great old one, Sage backgroun, took Warcaster feat. Given the dreams bond.
Nothing very special in charc creation on this one, The bond of the dreams seemed to fit ok but
did not jump out at me like the others did.
Malilia Human Paladin of Bahamut. Soldier background, Given Golden dragon bond. Took tough feat.
When he told me he was a Paladin of Bahamut, how could I not give him the Golden dragon
bond?
Alyssa Moon Elf Rogue, Urchin background, Hit List bond. I was going to give her the Grandchild of
a dragon slayer bond, but I offered up the Hit list one and she just loved it. Works very well
for her charc background concept.
Allegra Wood elf Ranger, Outlander background, Given the Missing friend bond. I was iffy about the
friend bond at first, then I found Talis in the book. I can not wait for that encounter. I even added
in that they use to play Hunters and Dragons (Similar to what use to be Cowboys and Indians)
and that he would be a bow carring hunter and she would always play a dragon. She would
always pick a white dragon due to it being pure as the snow.
Before the game was to start the party was informed that they had all traveled from WaterDeep to Candlekeep togeather and had learned that they were each heading to Greenest, if not for what reasons. They had been traveling for weeks and had gotten to know each other and what they can do. Its my hope that this will help cut back on some of the in party drama that has occured during other games we have started. Got to get past the whole (Why would my charc want to start travling with this person?) thing.
First nights game will be posted next.
K-Ray
First game. Thursday Aug 28th. Start 4pm End 9pm.
It was decided to do the Milestone EXP for this game.
Though I say the game started at 4, as all other games that was just when we got togeather and just talked and joked around for awhile. 4 of the 6 players were part of my Starter set game and were telling the other 2 about it. Once they got to the part about fighting a Dragon someone joked that this game would start with fighting a Dragon. Que DM intro, "You guys crest a hill and see a very large blue dragon attacking a town". After reassuring the party that this was indeed the start of the game it got a bit more serious.
The party is able to tell that humanoid shape and sized creatures were also attacking the town. The party was able to tell that the dragon was only half heartly attacking and was just mostly flying in circles above the town. They could see several fires and could also see defenders in a Keep. The party conversation was stearing to either avoid the town or to atleast wait out the attack, until they figured out that it was Greenest, the very town they were heading to. The party headed straight to the town with a plan to enter in the housing area to try to rescue any survivors.
At this point I should point out that I completely ignored the random encounters table. I had decided to do one easy combat followed by the rescue mission in hopes that the party would make it to the Keep. I had also decided that leaving the Keep mulitiple times to do redundant missions would bore my group. You will see things that have been added and a bunch of stuff has been taken out.
Once inside the town the bulk of the party just walk down the main street with Loki and Allegra sneaking (scouting) ahead and to the left flank. They could hear some noise coming from a house. The party is able to sneak up on the back of the house to find the back door locked. They can see through a window 6 kobolds tearing the house apart and stealing stuff. The party start to get into ambush positions when some of the Kobolds start leaving, so the group starts the surprise round. Loki covers Allegra as he cuts down Kobolds from range. Alyssa picks the lock on the backdoor to allow Cyris access to the ones inside. Malacere cuts the one in the front door down with a Eldritch blast to allow Malilia just walk in and block any escape for the rest of the Kolbolds. Only 2 were left after the surprise round and they were finnished off before their turn on the first round. Over all a good first combat to get the players pumped, with no damage taken. During this first game we played the surprise round granted advantage, but I could not find anything that supported that. I know advantage should not be given freely and with surprise granting a whole round of actions plus taking away any reactions, advantage seems a bit too much. Now if the charc is hidden that is diffrent, and we are following the rule that if you can be seen you are no longer hidden.
As the party does more of the same with their search of survivors they run into the mission to rescue the family. The family ended up cornered with 2 Kobolds heading in their direction while the other 6 headed straight towards the party. While most of the party took the 6 kobolds head on, Cyris used his entire turn to get between the family and the 2 kobolds. Allegra took advantage of the run from behind a house, shoot at a kobold and then run back behind a house. Malilia went to the first kobold and swung away. Loki found some reason to want to protect Allegra and stayed between the ranger and any kobolds. Alyssa just kept wishing she had her cunning action already and stayed as close as she could to the palladin, while Malacere just blasted things with his eldritch blast. The party got to feel the full effect of pact tactics this encounter. Before they could kill all the Kobolds, both Alyssa and Malilia took damage. Cyris was down and making death saving throws. Malilia used his Lay on hands to get Cyris back on his feet, if only at 1 hp. The family was grateful and suggested that the Keep would be safe. The party agreed and were able to make their way to the Keep with no other issues.
Inside the Keep the party meet the Dwarf Castellan Escobert the Red, Governor Nighthill and one other NPC. The extra NPC I described and a hulking beast of a man with not much clothing on and tattoos all down his body. He was waving a greatsword and yelling curses at the Dragon as it flew overhead. I made it clear that the man was several levels higher then the party. They never asked for his name, so I never made one up. He would come in play latter and was someone I added. The party noticed the guards failed attempts to do any harm to the dragon. Due to taking damage they were asking Nighthill if there was any healer around. Nighthill told the party that there was a Priest of Chauntea but he feared that the clergy was trapped in the temple. The party tells Nighthill that they will go check on the temple, and he ask them to try to bring back a raider for interrogation. He also tells the party that Castellan may be able to help them get out of the Keep.
After speaking with the Dwarf and learning about the secret entrance the party has a very long conversation about marching order and light sources. Since half the party is unable to see in the dark. In the end I allowed the warlok to cast light on a coin and shield it enough to give dim light around him enough to see without falling on his face. The marching order decided was Alyssa, Malilia, Cyris, Allegra, Malacere and then Loki. They all rolled sneak checks, The palladin and Cleric at disadvantage due to their armor. As Alyssa was trying to figure out why the grate would not open, Malilia and Cyris are set upon by rat swams. The rats remained on those two and Cyris even fell to 0 hps before combat was over. This combat was a bit longer and felt dragged out. There was no room to move and the rats only took half damage until they reached a HP ammount. All in all, this encounter started out fun but ended up boring. Afterwards I allowed the party to exit without any issues and let the scouts make it to the Temple without any other encounters.
The Temple encounter. Both Allegra and Loki scouted out the temple and were able to figure out the three diffrent groups. I did not put any pressure on the party about the door at this point. After a couple minutes of discussion they decided that it would be easier to take out the back group in a surpirse attack once the roaming group was far enough away to not hear, but to give them enough time to get any survivors out before they make it back to the door. With all that was going on I allowed the party to put themselves anywhere they wanted up to 60 feet from a kobold before starting the surprise round. There were 6 kobolds and 2 cultist, with 1 cultist holding a torch. It took the surprise round and the whole first round before they were able to dispatch the group, saving the human with a torch for last, just in case the light source might be lost. They were able to get the people inside to open the back door for them with ease, once they enter the temple was when I put the pressure on about the front door.
I kept the same initative from the combat and told them they each get to move and do 1 thing per round. Allegra was keeping watch through a window on the front group while Alyssa and Cyris try to figure out how to secure the front door. Malilia was trying to talk the scared people to follow him to saftey while Malacere assisted him. Loki watched the back door. And at the end of each round I would roll 1d20 followed by 1d6 and describe how the front door would bulge in almost to the breaking point. The 1d20 and 1d6 were just to add pressure, I had no target AC or HP i was aiming for. I would have for sure broke the door down at any point if I thought it would make for good story. Instead, during the 3rd round I told Allegra that he sees the large roaming group just approaching the front door and would have to face them as well as the smaller group if the door broke soon. The following round the Paladin managed to convice the frightened townsfolk to follow him out the back door. Cyris leads the way and drags the dead body of one of the cultist slain at the back door with him, in hopes of finding some useful information or atleast clothing for future use. As the party is leading the group of 20 some odd people to the secreat entrance, Loki, Allegra and Alyssa break off to find someone to capture. They all three give me great sneak rolls so I allow them to find a human cultist that is buring some stolen goods in hopes of returning to get it at a later date. They all three sneak up on him. He drops as Loki and Allegra clobber him, while Alyssa is busy taking his ill gotten gains. And so the party returns with survivors of the temple and a prisoner to interrogate.
As the party is on the top of the Keep talking to Nighthill I start the Dragon attack. It starts with the dragon flying by and eating the hulking human in one gulp. The party all ran back inside and hid from the dragon. It took three fly by dragon breath attacks killing guards before the party decided to attempt attacking the dragon. They let it do its third breath attack then ran out to shoot at the dragon. I rolled the 1d6 each round to see if its breath weapon had recharged. If it would have rechaged one of the PC's would have died this night. It took 2 rounds for the party to do the damage needed to make the dragon leave with no further breath weapon attacks.
At this point Alyssa notices Frulam Mondath, a name thats on her hit list. She ask me if there was a way to sneak up on her and assassinate her. Sadly I had to tell her that there did not seem to be a opening for her to do so at this time since the Keep is being surrounded by hundreds of attackers.
A healing potion is used to wake the captaive up and the party allows Castellan to do the interrogation. As that is going on the Half Dragon Cyanwrath makes his offer to allow a family live if a champion faces him in One to One combat. Everyone is looking at Malilia and even start giving him advice when Loki steps up and says that he has to do it. Since one of his flaws is to never back down once his courage is questioned. Cyanwrath did ask "Is there none among you brave enough to face me?" As Loki and Cyanwrath prepare, Cyris ask if he could do a prayer over the combat site and Cyanwrath agrees to allow it. Cyris blesses both combatants. Cyris is allowed to escor the two children back to the keep before combat begins. The monk falls on round 2. True to his word, the half-dragon and the army he is with leaves town. Malilia is able to heal Loki before he has to make his second death saving throw, he was one failure from death.
The party spends the rest of the night resting.
The next day several things happen. First, 2 groups have formed in the town. One group hero worships Malilia for saving them from the temple, while another group is following Loki around for facing the half-dragon and saving the family. Tensions grow between the group as the Maliliaites point out the Loki is nothing but a Pirate that is known for being as bad the looters. And the Loki followers point out that Mailila hid in the Keep instead of standing up to the evil Half-Dragon that was attacking the town. Both charcs were given 2 healing pots each and the priest of Chauntea dedicated a spot in his temple to the followers of Bahamut. Allegra was unable to find out any information about his friend. Loki is feared due to the dragging of a dead body, but he does find out that leosin was captured during the raid. Nighthill offers the party 250 gp each to track the army and to find out as much information on them as they can. The party agrees and sets out to do just that.
The party finds the Stragglers easliy and starts to set up a surprise attack. The Palladin attempting to be sneaking and not waiting on the others fails his disadvantage stealth roll by a lot and starts the encounter off before the rest of the party is ready. Though they missed out on the surprise round the party is able to dispatch the stragglers with minor damage taken but fail to take any prisoners. Some had died to range attacks, and Alyssa just has no intreast in knocking people out. So they walked right into the Rearguard ambush.
Alyssa takes half damage from the rock and Malilia is almost knocked down to 0 hps. The first part of the fight is easy with the cultists dropping like flies. Once the Guard and the acolytes are fully engaged it gets a bit harder. Sanctuary is a awsome spell. None of the front liners were able to target the Guard and only a couple could target the acolytes. I had allowed the warlock to cast Hex on one of the acolytes since it was my first encounter with Sanctuary and had read it as damage spells could not target the warded creature. The party got to try new Actions, such as Help this encounter. In the end the party won and it is where we stop the game for the night.
All in all we are enjoying the game. No major rule issues came up and besides one boring drawn out encounter the combat was fun and fast paced. I am looking foward to expanding on the two building factions in Greenest even though the party is about to say goodbye to this town. I dislike the Railroad feel of this campaign but it is good for my group to get use to the new rules. We do have issues that we have the rules from pathfinder so hammered in that we tend to think in those terms and it does throw us off from time to time, but I am sure that this will pass.
Hope some people enjoy this and find it helpful. If there is intrest I will post more.
Thanks,
K-Ray
Sounds really good, look forward to hearing more.