Secrets of Sokol Keep is overall a solid adventure in the AL Tyranny of Dragons questline. Played as part of a series, It wonderfully interweaves plot threads and interactions which hint at future scenarios, such as The Scroll Thief. While those hints risk weakening the plot when played on it's own, Secrets at Sokol Keep frames those foreshadowing clues in the present context, which can help keep the players engaged with the immediate problems coming from Sokol Keep.

Spoilers ahead By far, the weakest part of the adventure is the initial hook. The adventure presumes that the party already has an interest in Sokol Keep by beginning with the prompts which the players can receive by asking Markoth about Sokol Keep. The opening scene concludes after a bar fight between some sailors and a couple of mercenaries. The hook would be far better framed by beginning with the altercstion that leads to the bar fight. The party then has the information needed naturally to ask the local gossip about Sokol Keep if they so choose.

The ghost story aspects of the dead priestess are a charming addition, but the adventure refers to a tracker without giving much direction on the weight that certain actions should have on that tracker, leaving it up to the DM to create. This is not a bad thing on its own, but it would be useful to reference the DMG for recommendations on how to create said tracker.

That is the negative critiques out of the way. The story and NPCs are delightfully interesting, from the crotchety old sea biscuit ferryman to the well-meaning Keep servants. Attention to detail was given when leaving clues behind to show the story of Igan's expedition under the keep. The adventure's climax ends with a reasonable morale dilema, even if it is a little basic. At the end of the day, my group enjoyed this adventure almost as much as I enjoyed reading it.

This is an excellent product for new players and new DMs. It is my opinion that one of D&D's shortcomings in 5e is that their products do not contain enough training resources to instruct people who want to (or are forced to) DM. Defiance in Phlan successfully provides training to new DMs by providing a series of 1-hour "mini-adventures" which both provide a broad scope of the different kinds of basic and interesting scenarios which the DM could run--and it also provides specific instructional training to the DM for each adventure. I ran this with my two brothers online during the COVID pandemic with the idea that we would rotate the DM spot every new adventure, and this worked out really well for them, as neither had much DMing. They both did really well, and I contribute this to the excellence that this AL advnture provides to training DMs how to run the scenario.

All five mini-adventures contain interesting situations, and if a DM feels like an adventure is not quite what they are looking for, they are encouraged to either skip the adventure or edit it if it simply needs a couple of tweaks, which is a commonly useful (and commonly forgotten) skill for a GM to utilize. For example (Spoilers), the first mini-adventure involves participating in a black market trade that is about to get interrupted by a third party. It can go off without combat depending on player choice, but if combat erupts, it is indicated that the primary foe blcoks the doorway by stepping into melee. I noticed the stat block had a heavy crossbow attack and wanted the third party to feel more like mobsters than thugs, and so I adjusted the scene so that the NPC slammed down an automatic heavy crossbow and provided a "covering fire" attack, requiring a DEX save from any characters caught outside of cover on his turn. This kind of adjustment again is encouraged by the module, and does not lessen the value of the product (this actually made the first min-adventure easily my favorite of the five, with the goblin den coming in dead last).

Overall, Defiance in Phlan is a great product if you are looking for a condensed D&D experience to either train new DMs with or have an enjoyable hour when the group doesn't have enough time to commit to the normal 3, 4, or 8 hour game night. It is easily $3 well-spent.

All Part of The Game is a murder mystery scenario that is straightforward for the DM and slightly more complicated for the players. The pregens are fun to play with--especially the botanical baseball player--and the premise involves trying to solve a friend's murder while the deceased's servants (and the police) all insist that "it's all part of the game." This actually does encourage the investigators to step in and solve the mystery themselves, which (of course) is more esoteric than it seems.

Spoilers ahead, if you spoil yourself, you will realize that "it's all part of the game."

I had a lot of fun running around showing everyone the flowers I had succeeded a Botany roll to identify and asking people about the flowers. However, while it was clear they were connected to the death of Curtis, their connection to the sliggish symptoms of the staff was less apparent. There has been a wonderful inclusion of proposed optional events--under "The Plot Thickens"--which a Keeper may include to help the investigators along; perhaps an extra handout in the form of an empty bottle of poison which includes "extract of belladona" would be a helpful addition.

The final encounter is wonderfully grisley in a Lovecraftian way, and there is a plethora of options available for common ways to end the scenario.

All in all, pick up this scenario if you want to run a straightforward murder mystery with a Lovecraftian twist.

This was the first Regency scenario I played in as a player, and I enjoyed experiencing it in a convention setting: there are many clues that are available via rumors, PC backstory, and unique opening scenes for each character; so you can glean most of what is going on by simply interacting with the other players at the table. There is a kickoff which encourages the players to act on the rumors, which culminates to a wonderful confrontation with the pirate.

Spoiler ahead, be warned!

Reading the scenario does align with most of my player experience. However, there are some notable typos which can confuse a DM; most sognificantly is a paragraph which jarringly indicates that Tricky Jack is the pirate Red Carp throigh vague use of pronouns. This is compounded by Libby's hypnotic scene, where she believes that Tricky Jack is the Red Carp, and by the fact that the scenarionitself does not really define who Tricky Jack is, other than by giving his real name.

With that acknowledged, this is an excellent Regency scenario to introduce people to the rules and setting, and is definitely worth your time.

This solo D&D adventure is a simple and fun linear choose-your-own adventure experience. The premise is easy to buy into for most character builds (I ended up going for a simple Fighter build to make sure). The underlying conflict is interesting and I liked the idea of empowering anothe character while still having a chance to shine as a hero.

This is an excellent scenario to run if your group hasn't met in a while and you need to get your D&D itch scratched. I would not advise running this for someone else or for a party; this is advertised as a solo adventure, and unless you would like to make significant adjustments, it is best to keep it that way.

Rats of Waterdeep is an excellent and timely adventure for low-levelled parties in the Forgotten Realms. Its timeliness in the wake of the COVID pandemic makes it much easier to embrace the quarantine theme, as well as the prevalent issues with disease as a central theme.

This adventure goes beyond that by also being a noir-themed investigation adventure. Having the party followed by a monologuing detective creates a comical atmosphere which pretends to be serious enough to laugh at, which compliments the dark themes of disease and intrigue. Some of the impactful events intended to help drive the plot can be conveniently moved around with ease based on where in the small sandbox location the players want to explore.

The only downside I have with this adventure is that it offers two interesting subclasses, but they are only available at the end, and only if the party has a willing Druid or Ranger in its composition. It's a real shame that that kind of content can't be explored in this adventure as written, especially if it isn't intended to be a side adventure to a city-themed adventure such as Dragon Heist and is treated more like the one-shot it is advertised to be. A couple of workarounds include: Encouraging the party to have one or both of those classes present during Session 0; or giving the players a chance to level up to level 3 if they ally with one of the two individuals in the scenario who can teach the subclass (which gives the player[s] the chance to experience the subclasses during the adventure itself).

All in all, I would definitely recommend this to DMs and parties who want to play around with a disease and noir setting.

A Night of Masks and Monsters is a romp through a Venician city called Ibrido, joining a masquerade ball to uncover a secret war between two otherworldly factions. This is a great adventure to pull out if your players express a desire to use such a setting as a backdrop. The core magical items were very interesting for the party I ran this for. This scenario could be run in a single 4-hour session, but that would mean either rushing through the content or playing with three or fewer players; as a result, expect this to run for about 2-3 sessions, depending on your players.

With transparency, I tried running this as a side adventure to my main campaign from The Dragon of Icespire Peak, and while it was a relatively fun breath of fresh air, it felt a little jarring and out of place to run it that way. Be prepared to make revisions as needed to make it fit, or run it as a either a full campaign or a prequel to a campaign where the factions present can have a more lasting presence.

The layout and artwork for this product are very nice. Very solid design.

The Scroll Thief is a solid adventure entry in the A.L. series. It incorporates a basic investigation which is simple enough for a party and DM to be able to follow, and the early encounters hold to a theme of intrigue present throughout the first half of the adventure. In addition, there is some wonderfully subtle setup which prepares parties playing through DDEX1 from beginning to end for the plot twists that come in later adventures; this scenario even has one of these setups from an earlier adventure present as the central plot thread.

Like all A.L. adventures, there are very useful tools included in the scenario to guide and instruct DMs with encounter design, which is especially useful for combat encounters. This makes The Scroll Thief an excellent scenario to purchase if you are a DM who: 1.) wants to try running an investigation-centered game of Dungeons and Dragons 2.) wants to learn valuable tips and tricks on catering combat encounters to party composition.

What the scenario makes up for in its DM-instructional nature may also lead more experienced DMs to dismiss it as linear or restricting, which is the only reason it does not receive a full 5 star review.

All in all, a good buy. Pick this up and give it a run with your group and see what you think.