Wizards of the Coast is setting a classic fantastical tone with the first anthology of adventures that it has decided to publish so far, Dragon Delves.
Dragon Delves is a series of ten adventures collected together. Each adventure tells a different story involving a dragon, where the players will have to deal with the impact that the draconic denizens of this world are having around them. The adventures vary in style, whether it is entering an ancient temple to stop a blue dragon from returning to destroy a region, or entering a magical bakery to save a gold dragon.
Dragon Delves is the first anthology published by Wizards of the Coast after the release of the 2024 rules, which means that it plays a vital role in setting the standards for fans when it comes to future content. But how does this collection hold up?
The adventures are as follows:
- Death at Sunset: Adventurers travel into the woods to investigate the source of corruption, which continues to plague the region after the death of a green dragon.
- Baker’s Doesn’t: Players must track down a gold dragon who accidentally burnt down a shop, only to find themselves at a candy cottage.
- The Will of Orcus: Cultists have taken up space at a local temple of Orcus and a local innkeeper has asked the players to take action against them.
- For Whom the Void Calls: The players receive a telepathic distress call from a sentient Bag of Holding that is in the lair of a dragon and are asked to rescue it.
- The Dragon of Najkir: Adventurers are called to look for a missing person at a monk’s monastery, only to discover a dragon is behind it.
- The Forbidden Vale: A red dragon is causing wildfires in a local town, and adventurers are called into help.
- Before the Storm: Pirates are raiding a local town, and the adventuring party has been asked to retrieve magical gems from the raiders that are designed to protect the town from storms.
- Shivering Death: The ancient remains of a white dragon are the key to a ritual required to end a heat wave. Unfortunately, frost giants want it too.
- A Copper for a Song: A hunt for a lost verse leads the party into the lair of a copper dragon.
- Dragons of the Sandstone City: Players are urged to enter an ancient city to stop a blue dragon from decimating the region.
The first aspect that stood out to me was how the book’s philosophy around art contrasted with past anthologies (Candlekeep Mysteries, Tales from the Radiant Palace). Each adventure adopts a unique art style, whether it is the Candyland-esque Baker’s Doesn’t or the old-school fantasy energy of The Forbidden Vale. It’s a nice change from the standard fantasy art that most of D&D’s modern books rely on.
Each chapter offers a wealth of maps, resources, and guides for running a one-shot or a short adventure, depending on how long the players may take. There is also plenty of variety when it comes to adventuring, from level one to level twelve. The guidance offers DMs plenty of ideas for how to approach the story, although a lot of it will depend on the play style of the table. Some might need more built-in story hooks to make the experience thrive, or they might divert in ways that the book doesn’t expect. I found that a lot of the story hooks were somewhat railroad-y at times, but that’s to be expected when it comes to one-shots in my experience. The maps hold a lot of depth, and the guidance around how to handle combat and non-combat encounters is pretty well developed.
At least two of the adventures are designed for ‘solo play’, or for setups where a DM is running the campaign for a single player. These rules are pretty easy for DMs, as they require the DM just to give the player additional feats and extra levels so they’re better at holding their own when facing off with monsters. It’s a solid option for DMs and will hopefully be expanded in time.
The book is relatively small compared to past D&D anthologies, with only 192 pages of content. Almost all of that content is dedicated to the adventures. DMs who might look to this book for homebrew supplemental material (such as monster stats and items) will be very disappointed.
The book does contain another addition: a short section dedicated to the ‘history’ of the dragons in D&D at the end of each adventure. While the art here is a nice addition for collectors, it felt like an addition that should have been its own separate book, rather than the few pages at the end of each adventure.
Dragon Delves is a solid first anthology for this new era of D&D, and I think there are a lot of interesting ideas represented within the book. While some of the adventures do require additional modifications from DMs to make them fit their table’s playstyle, the overall vibe that the campaigns offer sets a high standard for whatever comes next from Wizards of the Coast.
Disclosure: A free copy of Dragon Delves was provided to The Fandomentals for this review.
Images Courtesy of Wizards of the Coast
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