I'm running this with one of my groups. The adventure is well written and has plenty of stat blocks, diagrams, and maps. However, I feel it's a little light for an adventure that is supposed to bring the characters from first to third level. I used this adventure as a base and then supplemented with a lot of other side quests. Luckily, there are many places to add hooks to side quests and fit them in the overall narrative.

I think that, as written, this adventure wouldn't take much more than 10-15 hours to play, which for me is only 3-4 sessions total. I'm working with a wide mix of experience levels, so I want to take the beginning levels much slower than that. The other adventure that I'm running took close to 10 sessions (~30 hours of play time) to get to third level.

As a fairly new DM, the information that's included in the adventure (maps, diagrams, stat blocks, etc.) are helpful. I just wish there was more to the story - more options for the players, more background or story choices, etc.

we played 2 of 3 chapters last night of "trouble in waterdeep". my players consists primarily of old time d&d gamers who have returned to the game after years of absence. this was our second 5e session, comprised of a party of 3 second level characters. my players loved the city setting. the flow of the scenes montage perfectly with little embelshment from me.

i knew i had a winner right off the bat, as the players first question after being rebuked at the gates was "well how are we suposed to get into the copper district?" and from there it just wrote itself.

the only significant change i made was the opening of chapter 2. i had the family that was seperated from thier son take the party back to the councilman's home as opposed to starting in the infirmary.

we are looking forward to the final chapter.

if you are looking for a fun, easy to run, well written urban adventure for low level characters, i heartly recommend "trouble in waterdeep".

my thanks to the author(s) for publishing this adventure.

This has the bones of a good adventure, but the follow-through is a bit lacking. The basic plot of it is fine for an introductory adventure or one-shot. The scenarios presented therein usually only have one possible solution, and if the players can't figure out this solution or fail the check, they can't proceed. Obviously, a decent GM can work around these flaws, but it strikes me as lazy in several places. While I thought that the adventure was extremely linear, my PCs told me that they didn't see it that way after we finished.

For instance, the first obstacle involves the PCs trying to help a dwarf get his cart out of the mud so he can give them papers to get into the Copper District. What happens if the PCs fail the check, or don't want to help him? The adventure is silent. What happens if they try attacking the guards? The adventure has no stats for them or mention anything about consequences (does the Watch call for reinforcements? Do the PCs now become criminals seeking refuge in the Copper District? Who knows!). It would have improved the adventure tremendously if the writer had included an alternate means of entry into the district (sewers, breach in the walls, etc). Later in thesame act, the PCs run into an identical gate, only this time it's guarded by a pair of enforcerers. Again, the adventure is silent on possible ways for the PCs can get around this. Including a blub about the PCs having the option to fight, persuade, or bribe the guards would make this run a lot smoother for a novice GM.

I also didn't like how the PCs are assumed to just hop to the next location at the start of each act. It breaks the immersion and further leads the PCs to believe that they're being led by the nose. This was the only major structural flaw of the adventure. Including some type of red herring may have made the adventure more interesting, because otherwise all of the evidence points at exactly one NPC.

This new adventure is sure to give your players an interesting challenge to add to their city adventures. Its definitely going to be lots of fun for your players to uncover the masses of rumours and intrigue that exists around the central storyline.

I really liked the layout, its very clear and colourful. To the point and simple, while visually very strong. The information is presented in the order that you need it, so you don't need to flick about the pages. The monster stats are right there, so you can scribble the combat results as you go rather than having to dive for the monster manual.

The atmosphere is well generated by the NPCs, all the information the players can discover, and the setting. The events give planty of leverage for integration with a wider story arc.

As a modification I would add an extra challenge - the players must break their own way through B4 to B5! This principle could apply to any of the challenges in the adventure. If your players are finding it easy or running through too quickly, make them work harder with challenge rolls at each step. Motivate role playing by giving advantage where appropriate.