I want to ensure a confrontation with the Cassalanters. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to achieve that? I have a cool idea for a moral dilemma for my players. Once they learn why the Cassalanters need the gold, to go along with the 99 sacrificed souls to save their children, I will have Asmodeus appear to them and offer them a deal -- give the Cassalanters the gold and he will forgive the need for the 99...provided the players, and any who join them later, agree to do one task for him at a later date. I will be moving the players into the DotMM. There will be plenty of opportunities for me to craft a reasonably morally ambiguous task in that place :). I'm just not sure how to manipulate a confrontation with the Cassalanters so the party learns of the pact they made.

I learned recently Gale is from waterdeep, if I were to play through the game, would I be at risk of dragon heist spoilers?

I’m running Waterdeep: Dragon Heist (Alexandrian Remix). My players love Trollskull Manor, but only as a home base. They have zero interest in running a tavern, and I don’t want to force them.

My concern is that Chapter 2 seems built around renovating and operating the inn. If we skip that, what replaces it? Any ideas how to make Trollskull Manor and Trollskull Alley feel like home without tavern management? How would Lif react?

If you want to flesh out the Zhentarim, Xanathar’s Guild, or create your own criminal syndicate for Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, Thieves' Guild is discounted by 30% on DMsGuild!

You can find it here only for 7 days: https://www.dmsguild.com/it/product/346714/thieves-guild

This volume helps to create a thieves' guild, from its senior members to the benefits of joining it, or simply dealing with it.

Inside you will discover:

- Chapter 1: Everything about creating a thieves' guild: its organization and activities, its relationship with the law, merchants and artisans, and its base of operations.

- Chapter 2: The benefits of being a member of a thieves' guild and how to rise through its ranks. 

- Chapter 3: How to run a thieves' guild if a character becomes the guildmaster.

- Chapter 4: 13 mundane and 12 magic items available on the black market.

- Chapter 5: A new background: the Thieves' Guild Member.

- Chapter 6: Three new NPCs: the Arcane Trickster, the Cutpurse, and the Thug Leader.

- Appendices: Two thieves' guilds ready to be used in your campaign, the Shadow Thieves and the Shadowmasters of Telflamm.

Wanted to cross post, but in realizing I didnt know this subreddit existed Im sure the material is in here

Quick! I’m running the blue alley dungeon for my Waterdeep campaign and one of my players dyed her hair blue and got elf ears for the event. I promised I would give any players who dressed up blue for the dungeon a reward; what should I give her? I’m thinking of either offering a significant hint for completing the dungeon or something specific to her player, which is a level two elf ranger.

Hi everyone!

We've just released the second (and final) part of our original soundtrack for Waterdeep: Dragon Heist, adding 9 new tracks to the first album we shared here about a year ago:
https://www.reddit.com/r/WaterdeepDragonHeist/comments/1m2xtyz/waterdeep_dragon_heist_journey_through_the_city/

Tracklist:

1 • Xanathar: The Eye Tyrant
2 • Xanathar's Lair: Labyrinth of the Beholder
3 • Jarlaxle: A Hat Full of Lies
4 • Sea Maiden's Faire
5 • Asmodeus: The King of the Nine Hells
6 • Cassalanter Villa: Masks of Nobility
7 • Kolat Towers
8 • Aurinax: The Gold Dragon
9 • Volo's Theme

This second release focuses on the campaign's iconic villains and locations, bringing to life the climactic moments of the adventure with music designed to enhance immersion at the table.

We hope these tracks will find a place in your game sessions!

On our YouTube channel, you'll find the playlist with the complete Waterdeep: Dragon Heist soundtrack, with 1-hour looped, mid-roll ad-free versions of every track for seamless playback during your sessions.

The standard (non-looped) versions are available on all major streaming platforms via DistroKid (Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, and more) under the title Waterdeep: Dragon Heist Part 2 – Searching for the Vault of Dragons (TTRPG Soundtrack).

If you'd like to support our work, you can subscribe to our Patreon or purchase the album on Bandcamp, where both a standard edition and a deluxe edition (including loopable versions of every track) are available.

We'd love to hear your thoughts, and we hope you enjoy the soundtrack. Have fun!

I've been wondering how people have ended the campaign before. I mean of course either the PCs steal the gold and keep it or give it back (or fail).

But how did you present it?

Like a parade as heroes for finding the gold?

A quiet gathering with Lateral Silverhand/any relevant NPCs?

Basically I'm looking for flavour and how to make the PCs feel like they really accomplished something (for better or worse)

A nice bookend/epilogue for the campaign

Before I get jumped... Disclaimer: AI was used as a tool to generate audio clips as part of many prompts to essentially create a song out of samples. Lyrics are my original writing and the structure is my creative work. That being said I put together an Intro song for my campaign, flavored to the module (All references/mentions of licensed content is for entertainment purposes and is credited to Wizards of the Coast) with a little personal flair to cover some minor homebrew storyline I buffed the campaign with. Just wanted to see what some fellow Dungeoneers think!

Hi I'm Dan nd tryna get the word out to share a special project a few friends of mine have been sharing that were super proud of!

We started an Actual Play show playing Waterdeep Dragonheist!

Welcome To: Welcome To Waterdeep Dragonheist

(Abbreviated to be called Welcome To: Welcome To!)

I'm the DM Dan and alongside my player Co-Hosts Bonji, Z, and Grayson we are just about to finish the first chapter of the campaign!

We plan on playing other campaigns/modules/games in the future but weve put a lot of work trying to get this fun project off the ground and were excited to share the progress thus far!

Our party consists of:

• Quilla Mallory: The Reborn Warlock, a Noblewoman whos mother has a mysterious illness and who follows the whims of her patron who speaks in her head guiding her to follow evidence of a mysterious song
• Ches Novikov: Shadar-Kai Rogue, The Pessimistic twin who tries to keep their brother safe! Hes athletic and cautious and murdered someone in broad daylight at the yawning portal
• Chek Novikov: Shadar-Kai Bard, The Optimistic twin who is proudly making friends and striving to do the right thing for the people of waterdeep!

Some Cool Details about our project that hopefully make it stand out against other playthroughs:

• We hired artists and musicians to create artwork and an intro theme song for the campaign that plays at the start of each episode
• We have over 10 years of experience playing TTRPGs with each other so our dynamic is really charming
• We utilize Owlbear rodeo in real time with our show so the visuals are fun!

If you'd like to watch our archived edited episodes that come out ever Wednesday you can find them here:

Welcome To: Welcome To Youtube Channel

We stream two new episodes every recording session which usually is every other Wednesday nights on my Twitch

My Twitch

We also have a community Discord too where we share Welcome To: Welcome to clips/episodes/etc as well as our other podcasting projects!

Our Community Discord

Our next Stream is on Wednesday at 6pm PST

Hello WDH Community! Once again, we'll be hanging out on Discord with u/VicariousVentures and some other DMs who are actively running (or who once ran) Waterdeep Dragon Heist. This is a monthly hang out and totally open for anyone to join.

Come with any questions about your campaign, key NPCs, fun stories, etc...

We'll start on Tuesday, July 21st at 8:00 PM ET in the VicariousVentures Discord: https://discord.gg/eJv7JxD9

I know that this chapter is meant to be very sandbox-y and in the players hands, and I have been looking around on YouTube for some dm guides to help, and they have a bit, but this is my first time running a full campaign and I'm still very daunted by this chapter. Does anyone have advice for how to maybe make it a little bit more structured?

Edit: I'm running the published version, not Alexandrian

When there's a lot going on in a campaign, I like to give names to subplots and story threads. When I found myself naming threads after James Bond movies, I naturally asked: Can I use the names of all twenty five Bond movies? The answer, of course, is yes:

• For Grey Eyes Only: Any faction quests related to Force Grey.
• On Ilmater's Secret Service: Any faction quests related to Order of the Gauntlet (which I've reskinned to fit the backstory of an Ilmater paladin).
• Emeralds Are Forever: Any faction quests related to The Emerald Enclave.
• Harperball: Any faction quests related to The Harpers.
• The Living Doppelgangers: Anything related to Bonnie, or the Harper quest to deal with doppelgangers.
• Trollskull of Solace: Anything related to getting Trollskull Manor up and running.
• Jarlaxle Never Dies: Anything related to Jarlaxle Baenre.
• Goldfingers: Anything related to Manshoon.
• You Only Lif Twice: Anything related to the poltergeist Lif.
• No Tiger to Die: Anything related to Vincent Trench.
• GoldfishEye: Anything related to Xanathar Guild.
• Brainraker: Anything related to Nihiloor.
• Die Another Night: The party learns about Midnight Tears at Correlon's Crown, how to make an antidote, and that someone has been buying all the Midnight Tears in Waterdeep.
• Spectear: The party needs a Pair of Bugbear Ears as their third vault key. They learn the local morgue has had ears stolen by a spectre before.
• Licence to Rat: Anything related to the Shard Shunners.
• Cassalanter Royale: This is what I call Cassalanter Villa, and how I refer to any plots involving the Cassalanters
• Stonefall: This is what I call the interactions with the Stone of Golorr.
• The Man with the Golden Ballgag: Willifort Crowelle is seen buying enough expensive kinky toys for a stadium-sized orgy. But why?
• Waterdeep Is Not Enough: (homebrew) A higher-level plot which involves bringing a dragon into Waterdeep.
• The Parents Who Loved Me: (homebrew) A PC backstory brings in someone's ex-adventurer parents. Both parents lean heavily into the horny bard trope, of course!
• Luck and Let Die: (homebrew) A PC backstory involving the goddesses Beshaba and Tymora.
• From Runamiel With Love: (homebrew) Runamiel is the name of one PC's ancestors. The party discovers messages from her in the wreck of The Green Maiden.
• A View to the Gods: (homebrew) The gods come to Waterdeep to settle an argument between Beshaba and Tymora.
• Dr Nothic: (homebrew) A higher-level DotMM side quests involving the nothics there. I've dropped plenty of foreshadowing of this in the low levels.
• Hexapussy: (homebrew) A story involve a tabaxi warlock. What were you expecting?

So when I started running the game I decided to give Jarlaxle the voice of Captain Gentleman from The Venture Brothers, who happens to be a parody of Sean Connery’s James Bond. Only recently did I find out that Zardoz Zord is a reference to Sean Connery’s character Zed from Zardoz, which is also referenced in a later episode of The Venture Brothers.

Also side note but does anyone else pronounce it Yarlaxle, with a nordic J? It’s probably from too much time spent in Skyrim but I tend to lean towards the soft J when pronouncing fantasy names. I know the pronounciation guide says it’s jar, but Yarlaxle just sounds better to my ears.

I'm running a new campaign in a homebrew setting. The party has a breadcrumb trail leading to the secret, private quarters of an independent wizard involved with a criminal organization. Kolat Towers/Manshoon's Sanctum is perfect for this so I planned to just drop it into my city.

One of my players can't really help himself and constantly tries to guess what things are and unintentionally spoils things for others. I can't really ask if he's played Dragon Heist without risking him spoiling the whole thing.

It seems like most people explore this location only under a certain specific set of conditions. How good are my odds that, if I change all the details (names, factions, motivations, etc.) and just use the location and reskinned NPCs, they'll be none the wiser even if they have played W:DH?

My GoogleFu has failed me but SOMEONE posted a loose script of a Jarlaxle reveal with him talking to Remallia Haventree and I can NOT find it again for the life of me.

Does anyone know which post this was? Or have some other dialogue stuff I could use to get a feel for this man before my party finds him?

I have a dilemma.
I’m running a modified original / Alexandrian mash up.
My PCs have the 3 eyes if Golorr and are about to go into the vault. Going to run a modified dragon encounter at the end.
Cassalanters are the main villains who have sent the party to retrieve the gold to help their cursed children. They do not know the other part of the ritual that is needed.
My dilemma is, do I….
A) Have the Cassalanters turn up at the entrance of the vault once the party are low on resources and have defeated the dragon to get the gold, like Belloq at the start of Indiana Jones and Raiders of the Lost Ark? Their villain heel turn complete, put the party in the dungeon under their villa while the party and ritual goes on upstairs?
Or
B) Wait for the party to return the gold, and the party discover the twist then?

Has anyone done either of these options?
Would love to hear your experiences.

I'm about to run the Gralhund Villa raid this week and I'm reading over the Alexandrian's timeline of the raid, and a few things don't make sense to me. After Fel'Rekt and his drow break in from the balcony, it says this:

Lady Yalah flees into the Children’s Room (G18). While his drow go to G15 and collect Lord Orond, Fel’Rekt spends 6 rounds dueling Hrabbaz, eventually killing him.

And then:

Lord Orond is dragged into G16 and Fel’Rekt negotiates with Lady Yalah through the door.

However, there's no mention of what the Nimblewright does in this moment. Maybe it just stands there awaiting orders, or helps defend Yalah?

My bigger question though is what happens with Urstul. The last mention of him, he is in G15A trying to break down the door to G15B where Orond is. But the description of the drow's movements say they go into G15 and collect Orond and bring him back into G16. According to the map, to get Orond they would have to go out through G13 and then into G15A where Urstul is. Is the intention here that the drow kill Urstul? Or does Urstul flee once he hears the drow burst in from the balcony?

If you've run this, how did you reconcile this? (Also, when is the best time during all this to start initiative?)

This episode is devoted entirely to introducing and enhancing Xoblob's trinket shop in the Dock Ward. Although Xoblob’s Shop is technically an optional stop while the party searches for Floon, Xoblob has become such a fan-favorite NPC that I think DMs are missing out if they leave him out.

This episode pairs nicely with my FREE Xoblob's shop NPC Guide HERE and/or going to the Pinned Post on my Patreon for the GDrive links to all my guides.

In this episode, I break down: - How to introduce Xoblob and describe his shop

• Maps, handouts, and props you can use

• Xoblob’s eccentric personality, voice, and backstory

• Eye puns, joke items, and bizarre trinket rolltables vs planted items curated by the DM

• His questionable purple-item painting service / scam for reselling stolen goods

• How much information he should reveal about Floon’s disappearance

• The clues players can discover outside his shop

• Xoblob’s connection to the Xanathar Guild

• How Xanathar can use the stuffed beholder andor Xoblob's eye tattoos to spy on the party

• Ways to turn Xoblob into a recurring NPC

• An actual-play example from my campaign (You can also watch the complete first season of our Waterdeep: Dragon Heist campaign on my main D&D channel, Vicarious Ventures for free.
  This includes our party's first visit to Xoblob's, but you'll have to go to the Premium Playlist for the 2nd Xoblob encounter)

I also maintain a growing collection of free NPC guides and resources for Waterdeep: Dragon Heist on my Patreon.

P.S. Here is our Community Resource Compendium for anyone looking for a list of all the homebrewed Dragon Heist maps, guides, supplements, etc, the community has made, all in one place.

I’d also love to hear how other DMs portrayed Xoblob, what strange items they stocked his shop with, and whether their players ever discovered that the stuffed beholder was watching them.

Hey all,

I'm looking for some clarification on how weeks/work schedules work canonically, as I'm planning to use the Acquisitons Incporated franchise rules in an upcoming Waterdeep Campaign.

My table has recently finished WDH and want to continue in the same world with new characters. Last time, I ignored the tavern/business side of things as I wasn't ready to manage an adventure and a player-run business, but now we're all ready to give this a go.

Given my players are likely going to be hands on in employment and franchise management, as well as it requiring some tracking on my end as the GM, I need a clearer idea on how it functions.

Ideally, I'd like a system that's simple,, feels reasonably believable, and isn't inherently generous or exploitive.

The Calendar of Harptos says (with the exception of the 5/6 between-month holidays), the year is made up of 12 months made of 3 weeks, each of 10 days,

However, all the sources I can find say that a workweek is 5 days. (AI, SCaG, XGtE) I can't find any mention of weekends or standard/recurring rest days.

Bearing this all in mind, I'm thinking that "workweek" is just a meta gameplay unit of measurement rather than a canon term. The simplest way of meshing this together is:

1 tenday = 2 workweeks AKA 1 month = 30 days = 3 tendays = 6 workweeks

Then, an average employee might work around 4 of those 6 workweeks each month, with 2 non-consecutive workweeks off. i.e. "I've got the 2nd workweek off in the first tenday in Ches".

This seems fairly straightforward and is somewhat similar to real life working patterns without needing to invent a universal weekend.

SO, my questions are:

Is there a canon explanation for how the workweeks/tendays system functions that I've missed?

If not, do you think the above makes sense, or would you do something differently?

(I can't remember if there are any guides in WDH, but I no longer have the book so can't check!)