The start of the ANIME trilogy. This is a nice balance of combat and role play. The pacing was smooth, and the combat is more cinematic than TPK. If you can get a party of high 4th level characters to play this adventure, then this flows smoothly into the rest of the ANIME trilogy, which are both Tier 2 adventures. I enjoyed running it with ample opportunity for DM role play.

Here's a question. A module is set at APL 3. But considering its place within the trilogy it's a part of, it would be better run with players at level 4. Yet because of its design, it's a near perfect game for level 1.

Does this represent a lack of clarity, for which the module should be scored down? Or a remarkable versatility, for which it should be marked up? I went back and forth on this. So to be a bit different...

Why this module is perfect for a first level party. Because you can't die in it. No, really! Any combats in the second act don't kill you, you just fail the mission. The boss fight in act 3 pointedly KOs you rather than kills you. Think about how great that is. You can run through a whole party of level ones, that level where dying is so easy from one bad crit, and at the end of it everyone's levelled up and at the far more survivable level 2. It's great!

Edit: Under season 8 rules, of course, this is no longer true. But clearly that was at least partly the original intent.

Why this module is kind of a problem for a first level party. The first bit isn't a big problem; act 2 can be done without any combat, so smart players will not miss any story. It's just... you're going to get destroyed by the boss fight. Even if it doesn't kill you, there's no real way to downscale it and it's just going to be insanely disheartening.

Also, you then have to earn another three levels before you can play this storyline again!

Why this module is great for a third level party. Well, that's where it's balanced for. The encounters are clearly targeted at this level and they're pretty well put together for it. If I were to criticise I might suggest making the lower level attacks in level a little stronger, but nothing too dramatic. It's a fun act 2 in particular with a neat gimmick. It's not too hard to ace the whole section if you pay even a little attention, but I've run this for groups who failed even that modicum of care.

Why it's kind of a problem for a third level party. It's just kind of a no-man's land. It doesn't flow naturally into its story like it would with a party at level 4. But flip side, the safety features that help it work for a first level party feel redundant and negate the threat and danger at level 3. Nothing here feels designed for level 3... even though it's designated at APL 3.

Why this module is great for a fourth level party. The story starts here in first tier, then transitions to second tier for parts 2 & 3. That's a great way to bridge the two tiers, raising the stakes while keeping a consistent story between the tiers. Really nice!

Why this module is kind of a problem for a fourth level party. It's way too easy here. They won't have a problem with the second act even if they're careless, there's no penalty to being careless, and the final fight (with them rested and fresh) is likely to be pretty easy as well.

But then... All this is very mechanical talk. What about the story?

It's... fine. It's fine. But it's got a bad case of the world buildings. In addition to having to set up its two direct sequels, it's also busy building in (at least!) three direct extra storylines and referencing a fourth. Nothing in it feels whole or complete, and while the trilogy as a whole fares better, not everybody (especially those at lower levels!) will get to do the whole trilogy. Every module, I firmly believe, should stand alone. And this one only sort of does that, though I've seen worse in this regard.

In the end, while I love some of the weirdness of this module (no dying! Weird time travel goodness!) the mechanical issues and the clunkiness of the story are enough to put me off it, and I can't give it the high rating I want to.

Also the module uses the word 'tuff' instead of 'tough' at one point and honestly I considered docking it a point for that alone.

I liked the module, especially since it seemed designed to set up the rest of the trilogy. However, I feel like it was too top heavy on just standing around and watching events. If you have a group that loves to role play and intermingle with the townsfolk, this is a nice little module for you. If your group prefers to exercise their tactical and battle skills, this may not be the module for you.

TL;DR: A module with great roleplay potential, marred by lousy editing, bad combat planning, and an overly unforgiving mechanic.

Well, this one was a mixed bag.

From a roleplay perspective, I liked this module. Travelling to a visions of the past to find out the truth was a neat concept. The progression of the story in town was passable. There are a few options for the players to explore, but the information they provide is too similar. Not too much incentives for them to visit the whole town, and if they did, the information they can learn is quite repetitive.

My personal favourite part of the adventure is by far the "memory bottle". Giving players a chance to flesh out their character's backstories is always a great thing. Often times people spent a lot of effort to write their character's backstories, but there aren'e enought opportunities for them to showcase their stories.

Now, the bads:

First things first - if the possibility of fighting a Shadow Ogre exists, please at least include the stat block of a Shadow Ogre in the module.

Typos. The proof-reading job of this module was horrible. Just look at the cover page of the mod: "find out what when wrong during the Festival of Stars". It's "what WENT wrong", not "what when wrong". Similar typos exist throughout the module, and many of the grammar structure were very clumsy.

Combat, specifically the "What if they intervene" mechanic. Basically, if the players did anything that would hinder the original history from playing itself out, time would reset itself, and the players will be attacked by Shadows. The first occurance of this was accpetable, possibly due to them interacting with the NPCs in the vision in an inappropriate way.

But when it comes to investigating the theft at the temple, there are too many ways for the players to act in a way that would prevent the theft from happening. It took my players four trials to figure out they were "supposed" to hide, let the theft happen, and then follow through. That means my players are supposed to have fought the Shadows FOUR times, which was easily a TPK.

It is an extremely unforgiving mechanic, and the players have nowhere close to enough clues to figure out what went wrong, until it's too late. The "recording" freezing and turning back time is a great concept, but the Shadow Attack with EACH AND EVERY reset should never have made it through playtest.

The final Night Hag fight made absolutely no sense. There is no incetive, no lore reason, NOTHING, that would provoke the Night Hag to fight the players. If she was to be hostile from the beginning, she could have easily attacked and killed the players when they were lying in the pool. It was a horribly written and extremely forced combat at the end of the encounter.

Besides, my table went through one Shadow Attack, and that was already enough to earn them max xp, alongside with the other roleplay objectives they accomplished. The Night Hag fight served ZERO purpose.

To sum up, the roleplaying aspects of the module were good. But typos, formatting, and bad combat design could potentially completely ruin the player's experience. The pros failed to cover the cons.

I love the central religious festival at the heart of this mod, and the legend that the writer has created for it. This is one of the more immersive takes on FR religion I have seen in an organized-play mod. The players had remarkable fun in a 10-minute theological discussion about the underpinnings and implications of the upcoming ritual in the adventure.

There are also some fine NPCs in the town of Hawksroost. The main mission of the PCs is also inventive and interesting. However, the mod would be helped by being a bit less formless in Act I and having a few more branching points/red herrings in Act III. It is a minor quibble, but the copy editing could be improved. Still, a creative mod with an unusual mission and some nods to Kozakuran culture.

This is a good little mod. It could run long depending on what your characters do, so be aware of that. There are lots of opportunities for roleplay, and a neat concept. I am interested to see where the next 2 in this series go.

I love that this mod gives so much opportunity to role-play. Great job in showing us that AL mods don't have to be just for murder hobos. There is a few spelling and grammar errors that can be easily taken care of. I liked the story so much that I overlooked them the first read but caught them as I read through again for this review.