How to Choose Your Next 5e Dungeons and Dragons Campaign: Tyranny of Dragons

I've been DMing, playing, and reading fifth edition adventures since the launch of the edition. I decided to write some guides that DMs can use to can use to choose their next adventure. I'll post one at a time, then tackle them as a whole at the end. 

Hoard of the Dragon Queen/Rise of Tiamat

Summary

The Cult of the Dragon is trying to summon Tiamat to the Realms. The adventure starts with an attack on Greenest, then the characters shadowing cultists in a caravan before arriving in a cloud castle. After defeating the cultists (and a white dragon) in the castle, the characters work with the Council of Waterdeep to thwart the cultists' plans. The adventure culminates with the characters trying to prevent Tiamat's summoning at the Well of Worlds. 

My Experience

I started DMing this adventure as soon as it came out at the start of 5e, and ran it to conclusion over the course of a couple years. I have not read the updated version of this adventure. 

Why You Should Run It

• It is the first fifth edition adventure, and it hits some of the best tropes of fantasy role playing, like dragons, cloud giant castles, and war councils, with a dramatic finale. 
• The caravan chapter has a lot of fun NPCs and encounters. I've stolen it to use for travel after we finished Dragon of Icespire Peak in another campaign. 
• The finale is cool, though you will want to beef it up with some dragons to make it challenging. 
• The updated revision has likely evened out some of the early fifth edition warts, particular the early dangerous combats. 

Why You Should Skip It

• If you aren't interested in a pretty standard fantasy campaign, it probably isn't for you. 
• Rise of Tiamat gets a bit repetitive. Unsurprisingly, there are a lot of dragon combats. 
• Hoard of the Dragon Queen is pretty linear. Rise of Tiamat is a little better, but if you want a sandbox adventure, I'd look elsewhere. 
• Its an early edition adventure developed at the same time as 5e, so it has some warts, some of which are supposedly fixed by the reprints. Things like early encounter balance are easy to fix, but adventure design has evolved over seven years and newer products tend to be more polished. 

What You Should Repurpose From It

The caravan chapter. The characters are trailing cultists in a caravan. There are a bunch of interesting NPCs to meet, encounters to have, and a mystery to solve. If you are doing travel in the Sword Coast from level 3-7, you should still this chapter, and the setting descriptions in Storm King's Thunder, to create an exciting and interesting journey.