Seems to provide too much of what's not needed and not enough of what is. For example, there a part at a magic academy that just seems unnecessary and forced. However, there is a dearth of information about the city the PCs are supposed to care about.

A Great introduction to the adventure! We started on new years eve with this campaign till 0:00. When it was time to roll iniative, real life fireworks started. My group had a blast but I did had to modify some bits and pieces.

NPC's Boy there are tons of those and they are all really worked out! Big props!

Backgrounds By using the player companion my players were already quite invested in the City and knew what was there. Again this makes it easier to motivate players who can often fall to: "why are we doing this?"

-Spoilers beware-

First battle There are some things in this campaign that were a bit.. odd The first battle: The mobs have way too much hp for my 5 -3rd level party. [4E monks, Ancients pally, Wizard, Swords Bard, Alchemist class] I reduced those mobs to around 30 hp each. My group tailed it out of the tavern ofcourse.

In betweens There is tons to do in little time! My group went for the case first. We did a rooftop chase scene. They got the case and when they open it they found paper. My players love mystery but perhaps and idea: Vigenère ciphers! This gives the players something to do in their downtime!

Lot's of portions were skipped in this adventure by my players. Rantle, the elfsubplot etc, so can't comment on those. However the sense of Urgency made it feel like my players did not "have enough time to do all that. We have to make choices! What is most important know? " -Made me smile as a DM

Final chapter Again, all the characters have way too much hp. My players had a long rest before leaving the city but batteling against those blackhorse thugs with their original hp. That's rough! After they killed 1 of their leaders, I did a morale check and most left. The group picked up on this and killed the 2nd leader due to nova'ing him.

Short rest in the house with Haddin and then the Inquisitor attack. Once again, tons of hp with his orc bodyguard. It sure put the fear for the Inquisitors in my players but with the original hp values it felt.. unfair.

My group did not know I adjusted but boy o boy. They LOVE this adventure already. It keeps them on their toes, deep tactical thinking and the mystery with the briefcase.. Now we are in the forest and I will write a review later when they finished that chapter.

TL:DR Great introduction for this campaign. Needs some extra work for the DM and it seems written for optimised charachters. Make sure your players know their classes! [Start a lvl 1-3 oneshot? I did not and it showed]

As the introductory adventure to the War of the Burning Sky adventure path, The Scouring of Gate Pass manages what official D&D products struggle to do: to be simultaneously thoughtful, engaging, challenging and funny. It is rare to find an adventure that strikes such a great balance between action-packed cinematic setpieces and giving players the freedom to interact with the obstacles in a way unique to their gaming group. While the adventure does present the reader with an expected progression for the party, the social nature of many of the encounters allow for plenty of improvisation from the players. This, combined with the complex motivations of the NPCs, helps lend a sense of identity to each and every character and brings to the forefront their humanity, something crucial in a story about war. The conversion to Fifth Edition by Brian Criswell is superb and although I would consider the artwork of varying quality, it gets the job done. Particularly noteworthy is the stunning illustration on the front cover, as well as the black-and-white image of the ragesian inquisitor on page 35. The maps are clear and easy to understand and the city itself seems to come alive thanks to the detailed descriptions of its locations. My only real quibble is that the text is not justified, which makes it look somewhat messy, and that a lot of the artwork would have looked better if it had been left in black-and-white.