Great introduction to AL for my new players and easy to DM :)

There are already a lot of reviews accurately extolling the excellences of this mod, so I would like to specifically mention a feature of this mod that contributes to its awesomeness.

The maps. The maps are simple little graphics, but they precisely describe the quantitative and spatial relationships of encounter location components—and they have several such components, which expand the tactical and story-telling potential of each encounter that takes place there. There's so much going on in these locations, that some of the maps are even presented from multiple angles!

This level of detail inspired my players to take more creative approaches to encounter resolution, making use of terrain in clever and daring ways to raise the stakes, raise the tension, and raise the excitement.

For this feature, and many others, 5/5.

P.S. I used this mod as an intro for a new D&D player, and he—and everyone else at the table—said they had a awesome time.

Very thorough and interesting. Fun time for everyone!

Just read it and it seems really well designed! (disclaimer: haven't played it yet).

The Black Road is the first campaign I have ever DMed. It was a great starter campaign and introduction. My players, all of whom are more experienced than me, had a great time and can't wait to find out what happens next!

This adventure is a FAVORITE of our local play-group. It's a tightly packed two hour story for tier one, which I am always in need of. (I'm going to try to avoid major spoilers, but there are some minor ones contained here.)

It also serves as a great introduction to season five, specifically the town of Parnast which is the shared setting for the tier one portion of the DDAL05 series.

It makes the good decision to have you be new to Parnast so you can learn about it along with your character, you get introduced to Azam, the caravan-master and Hsing, a golden psuedodragon. Both characters make appearances in other adventures, so you get a nice introduction there. You're going to be travelling across the Anauroch desert.

This happened right during season five, where the campaign in general shifted location. I have a big map printed of the sword coast which includes the Moonsea over in the corner, and ... Once you see the scope, you can't appreciate. I point my hand up at the far right of map, "you're starting out here..." and then wave my hand "and going alllllll the ways over here." And in this huge map is this IMMENSE expanse of tan. The map is big, but I can do this hand gesture from across the room and people can see clearly, it's that big. (and enough players in our group have gone through this adventure that ... People know when I'm running this one.)

Apart from the fact you're in this caravan bringing necessary supplies across a wasteland, it is open-ended. You can insert colorful things throughout, and the adventure encourages that. You have DAYS of travel, and the events are open-ended when they happen. But, the wasteland allows you to keep things from getting lost, they have a GOAL and they get invested in having this caravan arriving safely.

Also, the encounters give you options for what to do, for instance one of the early encounters gives you one circumstance for what to do if the players set up watch AND succeed at a perception check, and another for if the fail. Another encounter/hazard (based around skill checks and saves) is even more open ended, giving you the ability to invite the players to describe what they want to do to help the caravan. (the text literally encourages you to work with the players to find creative solutions, I love that.)

In the old rules, one of the encounters had the number of successes or failures determine the gold reward at the end, the newer rules don't have that option, but it speaks to the strength of the story that I haven't seen the players change behavior at all.

EVERYONE gets invested in doing everything that they can do to save that caravan, they FEEL those losses. I've run it Sooooo many times, and yet it never fails, people get invested.

The final encounter has a flowchart for what happens depending on players choices, making sure that they still get an exciting outcome but still providing the ability for their choices and rolls to make a difference. This is much more common in season eight, but I love this ability to have the adventure be just different enough from one table to another.

There is an optional encounter in the middle, I have never run it! This is a good thing, the adventure gives you this encounter to help with pacing, if everything goes super quickly, you can add this to help fill the two hour slot, but I always have the RP and skill challenge fill up time just about perfectly. This adventure fills the time RELIABLY, if I have my watch handy I can keep pace and the players engaged without fail.

Finally, at the end you have an interesting story award (everyone remembers the caravan master's name, or at least they can recall it when I mention "Caravan Master"), a decent unlock that makes some people happy, and they're in a new town.

And I am always asked at the end by someone, "When are we playing the next one?" Isn't that the mark of a great introductory adventure?

Ran as a standalone oneshot, the adventure can seem barebones and short. But the adventure structure and NPCs can be transplated and reskinned easily to fit a campaign that might inlcude a desert in its play area. A useful adventure.

I really like this adventure.

From a player's persepctive it can open up the exciting campaign that is AL Season 5 modules. It touches on RP, Exploration, and combat and can focus on any of those as the group and DM decide.

From a DM's perspective, the module offers options on how to allow PCs to use skills for 'other than basic' tasks! The story is straightforward and has lots of action, ambushes, intelligence gathering and just surviving in a sand desert.

This adventure is my go-to for nights where I did not expect to run, but end up with a group of new players.

-GNOME

The story line was emmersive and interactive. Being a new DM myself however, I struggled to understand how to bring the story to life. My players think I did okay though. Overall, I would recommend this adventure.

Was a great template for our beginners group and provided some nice lore points for me to work in as the DM!

The Black Road is such a good example of a short, low-level adventure. Although it's linear (for a 2 hour session it has to be!) characters have important choices to make that will really shape the outcome of the adventure. There are two particularly great,standout, aspects: the use of terrain and weather as a danger every bit as pressing as a monster, and the smart use of ability checks - with well-reasoned outcomes for different levels of success - that help to flesh out choices and give characters an edge.

Just all around, a lot of fun.

Very well put-together little module. Does a great job of outlining the possible outcomes at the end. Easy to read and run in a pinch with very little prep time. Well written also.

I enjoyed running this adventure a lot. The combats were really close due to some low rolling on my party's part. My major complaint is the sandstorm in the middle of the adventure lacks guidance on what the NPCs do - they come accross as completely hopeless which is worrisome for people who apparently make the journey often.

The final encounter is sort of shoe-horned in with the party having no real way to avoid it without getting into another big fight where they are on their last legs.

It seems that I have a lot od negatives but this module is great for everyone, first timers and experienced DMs alike.

A fairly easy module for both players and DM. Even someone who never play D&D before would feel comfortable with this. DM also have a lot of space to modify the module, make it more interesting.

This was the first module I played in AL as a player, and it was a great experience and thus a natural choice for my first module to DM. It's straightforward, includes both combat and skill challenges, rewards player creativity, and sets up the story for the following modules in season 8 tier 1.