Waterdeep: Dungeon of the Mad Mage review

Ponder me this, ponder me that, I would like to ponder about the bold move by Wizards of the Coast to do something that is completely different to any other D&D 5th Edition hardcover adventure to date.

That is; not including an overarching story narrative for the Dungeon of the Mad Mage (DoMM) campaign hardcover.

There is no world ending death curse, there is no crazy cult trying to free an evil dragon goddess from the 9 hells, heck there isn't even an obvious main quest line for the heroes to follow into the Undermountain. But does that make this campaign any lesser in design than those that came before it?

I think not, in fact, I think this hardcover is the best designed campaign book for D&D 5th edition yet. And here's why.

Firstly, I should point out that this is purely an opinion piece. These are my experiences, and thoughts, and can be completely different to what you think, and that is A-Okay! There is no wrong opinion here - I would love to hear what hardcover your favorite is, and why!

Right! Now the disclaimer is out of the way, why exactly do I think that the lack of overarching story is why the Dungeon of the Mad Mage hardcover adventure is the best designed official release by WoTC for the 5th Edition of the world's greatest roleplaying game?

First, let's start with my initial thoughts about the book when I excitedly received it as a 30-something-th birthday present a few years ago.

"They made an adventure campaign, and they forgot to include the ADVENTURE!"

I was miffed! I was outraged! How could they do this?! They made an adventure campaign and they forgot to include the ADVENTURE!... I then started to read deeper into it... and the fact that it starts at level 5 for the PCs placed this perfectly for my group (at the time level 4 after completing the Lost Mines of Phandelver). 

But how was I to hook them into delving down the well? THERE IS NO MAIN ADVENTURE HOOK! I had to stretch my creative muscles... create a hook, a reason why they would want to travel to Waterdeep and descend into Undermountain... So, I had Halaster show up in Phandalin, explode it all to bits killing everyone in search for Carp (the young halfling boy) who the party had become fond of. A letter was found indicating Carp had gone to Skullport to search for his long-lost father and alas, Halaster was after him for some reason. The entire party was invested, hook, line and sinker, and I had complete control over the narrative - mwahaha!

You see, for my DMing style, I always seem to feel the game is restrained by the main world-ending quests published in the books and I feel that this can sometimes dull the player agency and options available for my group. What happens to the game when the players are in Chult and learn about the Death Curse only to decide not to help and go chasing some other story thread or want... Accererak succeeds and the gorgeous hardcover book that you paid $50+ for is almost pointless? I also feel that it restricts my ability to really stretch those creative storytelling muscles. If I feel the urge to randomly change something in the adventure, is that going to cause continuity consequences later in the adventure? Likely.

In DoMM, we are starved of any long term narrative for the adventure, but I feel that what we ARE given is so much better. With the space left due to the lack of overarching story, we are given so much more content with a ton of locations, relationships between different dungeon dwellers and factions, and plenty of places to explore.

Really, what DoMM actually is, is a living breathing ecosystem... almost a setting book. This encourages me to weave my own world ending story, one that I can change the ending consequences at a whim and in the moment, as the PCs make decisions that my narrative hadn't accounted for - but it's mine, and not yet set in stone. What DoMM really gives me is FLEXIBILITY - and that, my fine fellows, is one of the most powerful tools a DM can wield.

This is why I love this book and why I believe that WotC, and their amazing designers, taking this sharp left turn in their design philosophy was the right choice... for me.

What do you think of the Dungeon of the Mad Mage hardcover "adventure"? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments!