This was an interesting and fun adventure for our table. I wanted to share some of the challenges we faced and how we tried to overcome them. Some may be on us as players.

• The players were unclear about their motivations and relationships despite the handouts. It might have helped to have a chart that laid out the connections that I (as DM) could give to the different players that included very concise reasons for the way folks would interact. Also, some quotes that the characters might say. A number were used to doing those party mystery games and it may not hurt to have an "easy mode" that gave a bit more guidance to players.
• I had no idea how to deal with insight checks and deception checks when players were lying to each other. We ended up giving up on trying to insight check things and have the players do their best to lie and discern for themselves.
• We had skill checks to find clues but if the players failed their check, I knew I still had to give them clues or they would be stuck. My solution was to penalize failed checks by using up 10 minutes of in-game time. I'd recommend a longer amount of time, 20 minutes to really ratchet up the tension.
• the game ended in PvP combat which was dramatic but a little weird for our table.
• The players decided they had no real reason to go to the back cars and so they missed the encounter with Blue Shield and second class.
• We were forced to play this online (due to the pandemic of 2020- for those of you reading from the future), we did this over two two-hour sessions. The first session was kind of a mess with folks talking over each other and doing too much theorizing and less dialogue with each other. The second one I set up a loose initiative order which helped give players some structure so everyone could speak.
• All of us liked the story and the challenge of trying to get away with murder. We all left the table thinking the D&D rules actually made this harder than if we had run it without them.
• The wife was the murderer after a rolling on the table. As DM, if it had been anyone else, it seemed like the clues were fairly vague and everything would have still pointed to the wife.

I think we could have used a little more perscriptive directions- specifically on how to manage the progress of time, some more detail on how characters relate. It could be that much of the challenge would have been solved if we could have run it in person.

Hopefully this is constructive and useful as you run this adventure. It's a fantastic change of pace from the usual and would recommend it as something new and different.

The quality of these encounters is top notch. It was very easy to incorporate them into my home game. I am impressed with the variety of the content and how it is easily organized by locale.

I used this as a starter adventure for new players and it was easily written and very well paced. We played through the adventure over three short sessions and there were natural places to break it up and not scare my new players off!

The materials of the printed journal were a great prop, even though I only could print them up on regular basis. My players had the opportunity to read through it together and try to piece together the mystery.

The only thing I had to add was to have a scene character (who is mentioned in the module) at the end to help the players understand the back story. They had almost everything figured out already, but they could fill in any missing gaps.

Special kudos to the writers for creating a back story that could fit into virtually any campaign and for making an engaging mystery that is a great intro for new players.

As a new DM, this gave me great ideas for my first dungeons. i enjoyed the variety of traps and the presentation was excellent? This collection is a cost effective way to get new ideas for your home game or just get you out of the "TEN FOOT WIDE PIT" rut.

The plants included are a nice way to add some flavor and very specific features to my home game. I enjoyed the look and feel of the pdfs on my ipad. i would love to see some sort of sortable list of these plants to help figure out the ecosystems of the different areas.

i hope this will give my players some "natural" solutions to pesky in-game problems.

My two daughters, ages 7 and 5, enjoyed their first tabletop RPG experience with the rat adventure the mechanics were easy for them to grasp. The setting and classes are all fun to play and inspired their imaginations. i think it hit the mark for the older kid. the younger needed some guidance at first.