Dungeons & Dragons Tales from The Yawning Portal

If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to dive into the greatest hits of D&D history, Tales from the Yawning Portal is the ultimate playlist of legendary adventures. This book is a collection of seven iconic dungeons, lovingly updated for 5th Edition, and it’s perfect for players and Dungeon Masters alike.From the infamous Tomb of Horrors (a.k.a. “character graveyard”) to the Sunless Citadel and beyond, each adventure is packed with traps, monsters, and enough twists to keep even the most seasoned adventurers on their toes. Whether you're looking for a quick one-shot or a mini-campaign, there’s something for everyone here.The production quality is top-notch. The book features gorgeous art, clean layouts, and well-organized maps that make running these adventures a breeze. As a DM, I appreciate the way the challenges are balanced for different levels, giving you options for a variety of party strengths.The highlights?The Forge of Fury for some good ol' classic dungeon crawling.Dead in Thay, which will test your players’ strategy and endurance.And of course, Tomb of Horrors, for when you’re feeling a little too nice to your players and want to spice things up with a TPK.Final Verdict: This book is a must-have for anyone who loves D&D, whether you’re a DM looking to torture entertain your players or a player ready to tackle the best dungeons of all time. It’s a blend of nostalgia, challenge, and epic storytelling that will keep your table talking for weeks. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Pro Tip: Don’t mention you’re running Tomb of Horrors until it’s too late for them to back out. You’ll thank me later. 😈

My favorite DnD book! Good anthology. Easy to run for the DM. The Sunless Citadel is a must for any new player introduced to DnD. Highly recommend!

I was brand new to D&D in 4e when my friend ran his own campaign. When 5e came out, a different group of friends wanted to play D&D, but I was the only one with any prior experience, so I became the DM. We've been going through the 5e starter set, and as they are finishing that up, I'm looking for the next step for their characters. The standard published campaigns are somewhat problematic in that they all start at level 1. If your players want to keep playing the same characters (up to level 20, or whenever they die), its going to take a bit of work on your part.Enter Tales From the Yawning Portal. I have not personally run my players through any of the adventures yet, but I have read through each one pretty extensively. The way they are set up is brilliant, and even as a new DM it seems that they will be very easy to run. Tyranny of Dragons has a good story from what I've read through, but it doesn't seem to be set up in a way that is easy to DM, with a lot of fill work required on your part.Tales is a little different however from the other full campaigns in that they are meant to be sprinkled in bigger campaigns/adventures, not necessarily stand on their own as one over-arching campaign. That being said, you can do that, as the levels of the adventures compliment each other; the first one is 1-3, the second 3-5, then 5-8, etc. There won't be any over-arching story, but that doesn't matter too much. My personal plan is to run Horde of the Dragon Queen next (I will have to modify it as my characters are level 4) and when they are done with that, I will run them through one of the Tales adventures before moving onto part two of Tyranny, Rise of Tiamat. I had already bought those books, and their characters tie in nicely with the story. For the most part though, I can't wait to get to the Tales adventures. After the full campaign is done, I might run them through Tomb of Horrors, the last adventure in Tales. I am doing that last, because of the looks of it, it will kill them.The last thing I wanted to mention about Tales from the Yawning Portal is that the adventures feel very much like they were taken from past editions, but that's not a bad thing. I have several AD&D books that I've skimmed through, and the adventures seem very similar in terms of traps, puzzles and choices the characters can make. Also, most of the adventures seem, at least to me, that they are deadlier than the current 5e lineup. Many sections require smart thinking on the part of the players, not something that is easy to hack and slash their way through with min-maxed characters. The last adventure, Tomb of Horrors, looks especially devious. It was originally created by Gary Gygax himself, as a way to humble even his strongest players. These adventures are tough, but look to be extremely rewarding for those who survive.All in all, this is a solid, easy to use product that adds much needed content beyond first starting level. I highly recommend it.