I hosted A Night of Masks and Monsters as a one shot for new D&D players to introduce them to 5th edition. We had a group of six 3rd level players; a ranger, 2 fighters, a cleric, a barbarian, and a wizard. Everyone had their own motivations for being there, and I had a lot of fun setting up this story for them, complete with wax sealed invitations and papercrafted packs of gear. The adventure was straight forward and simple, and I was all set up for the drinking game but the group didn't trust the alcohol here which was pretty funny. Hilarity ensued with Piccolo, and things turned sinister when the masks couldn't come off. Not many of my players used their masks special abilities, but the final boss fight was well paced and balanced for newbies trying to figure out how to do the combat. The surprise wererat was an excellent first fight for them since it had a lot of immunities and everyone got a turn to attack and try to problem solve together to figure out what to do. Everyone pulled out torches and just charred him to death! This is a highly recommended adventure, with lots of room to improv or omit or add as you see fit. The maps were excellent and I greatly enjoyed being able to take my players on this adventure! I highly recommend this for a fun side adventure at level 3 since it can be completed in a few hours. It took us about 4 hours with short breaks and two extremely new players.

This was my first DMing experience and I appreciate the straight forwardness of how to present the adventure to my table full of new players. The NPCs were fleshed out enough for the improv of extra questions to be relatively easy. My group ended up trying to sneak into the forest in day time to stake out the "beast" but it was fun to make it elusive to their tricks and cunning. I had an excellent time springing the SHILO SURPRISE, and that's when several at the table knew EXACTLY what the reference was. Well designed for 3rd level newbies trying out D&D for the first time. As a first time DM, I can speak to it personally being an intuitive to follow guide for a 3 hour adventure with newer players alike. Highly recommended, thanks for the fun adventure!