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CCC-OCC-02 Feast of the Moon
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Erich L. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/07/2019 06:49:42

Not since Once in Waterdeep have I had this much fun with ad lib on-stage roleplay! The Feast of the Moon is definitely a heavy roleplay adventure that really shines if your players take the creative effort and time to engage in the primary highlight of Moonfest -- the regailing of ancestors before the crowd! Ask them before the game to think about a famous ancestor and a tall tale, and let them inject as much fun and mirth or somberness as they desire! I'd warn players who are primarily seeking combat to not expect much of it here, but if they're willing to accept that, they're sure to have a grand ol' time!

Bring your low APL parties to this party and have a blast!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
CCC-OCC-02 Feast of the Moon
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CCC-WYC-1-1 Back to the Burning
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Erich L. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/07/2019 06:40:36

This adventure packet is an exceptional product! Despite the heavy Season 2 history and earlier module (BMG Elmwood) lore packed in here, I was able to run this module with extreme success when put on the spot and given only 10-20 minutes to read the adventure for the first time. The plot facilitates teaching players the necessary lore in a fun, innovative, and roleplay-heavy manner, but the fights are also thrifty and fun. What worked for me best was the spreading out of NPCs -- despite there being a good number of characters for the GM to portray, they're spread out in such a way that you never have to depict them all at once. This lets each character really shine and fulfil their purpose to the story!

Recommended only if you're going to go all the way through the trilogy, but highly recommending all of it!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
CCC-WYC-1-1 Back to the Burning
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Creator Reply:
Thanks for the kind words!
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CCC-UK-1 Call of the Elvenflow
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Erich L. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/24/2018 00:59:39

This was an excellent adventure, greatly evocative and atmospheric, really adding depth and character to the forested region of the Moonsea. Great formating with very clear guidance for the DM. Thoroughly recommended; look forward to more UK modules!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
CCC-UK-1 Call of the Elvenflow
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DDAL08-02 Beneath the City of the Dead
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Erich L. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/23/2018 23:02:17

Beneath the City of the Dead is perhaps the weakest of the Umbral Trilogy -- a strange dungeon crawl of unavoidable or straightforward encounters in the middle of great modules bursting with exploration and social opportunities. I appreciated it for giving me a definite barometer of what my player party could manage on the battlefield, but it remains a strange low point and artefact of older-style module writing.

That said, it contains two fantastic scenes for roleplay: Bonus Objective B and the final scene with the Baron of Blood.

  1. Perdida's plight in Bonus Objective B is mournful and poignant, and tasks sympathetic players with a unique and potentially difficult challenge. For maximum effect/effort, I recommend locking Suri in hybrid form, ensuring her adamance against revealing herself to her ghostly sister.

  2. The Baron of Blood is a key scene in explaining what has been happening in the story so far. He holds truths the characters have yet to encounter -- other maps, other adventuring parties -- and is thoroughly frustrated by all the visitors and would-be treasure seekers. This is an NPC capable of displaying great emotional depth as well as charisma -- which you will need to convince players to follow through with his task after he gives to them his evidence.

As usual, my suggestions for Waterdeep modules:

  • Cap your table at 4 players, seriously. The new modules and the roleplaying opportunities within all do best at this range, and for each player above 4, you get diminishing returns. This suits my personal style as well, as I've never enjoyed a 7-player table as either a DM or a player.
  • Be flexible and creative. Keep the different parts of the module and the attached modules (either Map with No Names or Dock Ward Double Cross) so you can use foreknowledge and elements from those modules to make portions of this one make sense. Explainations for some points are definitely hidden in the other two modules.
  • Prep for the many, many NPCs ahead of time as they are the key to bringing Waterdeep to life.
  • Use the props for tactile immersion.
  • As with any treasure hunt, reward smart players by letting them skip ahead. (Not as possible with Beneath the City of the Dead.)

Not the strongest module of the Trilogy, but a necessary flagstone to its completion.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
DDAL08-02 Beneath the City of the Dead
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DDAL08-01 The Map with No Names
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Erich L. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/23/2018 22:40:49

As with Once in Waterdeep, The Map with No Names is a Waterdeep module with plenty of space to roleplay and have your players write themselves into the millieu of the City of Splendour, but the usual warning applies: while these new modules definitely encourage sandbox play and exploration, the time of play is definitely NOT 2 hours; it may even go beyond 4.

With that in mind, my usual recommendations for the new Season of modules:

  • Cap your table at 4 players, seriously. The new modules and the roleplaying opportunities within all do best at this range, and for each player above 4, you get diminishing returns. This suits my personal style as well, as I've never enjoyed a 7-player table as either a DM or a player.
  • Be flexible and creative. Keep the different parts of the module and the attached modules (either Once in Waterdeep or Beneath the City of the Dead) so you can use elements from those modules. This is especially true of the last clue -- the full description of the painting is in the next module and NOT in the one page description of the final clue and its shopkeeper.
  • Prep for the many, many NPCs ahead of time as they are the key to bringing Waterdeep to life.
  • Use the provided props for tactile immersion.
  • Smart players will probably solve the cypher with only 2/3 of the clues, so let them jump ahead if they wish.

This was an extremely fun module to play and a great introduction to Waterdeep.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
DDAL08-01 The Map with No Names
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DDAL-ELW01 Murder in Skyway
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Erich L. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/23/2018 22:23:11

Murder in Skyway is a wonderful introduction to the City of Sharn in that it takes characters from all parts of the city, asks them why they were at a party in the uppermost district, and then tours them through the different strata on their quest to prove themselves innocent. There is plenty of opportunity here for those already familiar with Eberron to litter lore and flavour like confetti, and perhaps just enough written in to aid those who are running this as their first foray into Eberron.

My one concern with the module's structure is that the bonus experience points and scenes are written into the red herrings; clever and creative parties have more than enough opportunity to either skip those or to more incisively pick up the trail of the murderer without getting fooled by the sidequests. To lock advancement milestones in an adventure that tracks time behind red herrings is counter-intuitive design and fails to reward players for performing well.

Some notable things my party did to circumvent the issue:

  • The changeling took on the victim's face to gaslight sneeringly stoic Boromar gangsters into revealing their hand.
  • One of the characters had named a debt to the Boromar Clan as his reason for 200gp. To get information out of the head street enforcer, he willingly signed a (very good for the gangsters) deal with the Clan in exchange for information. Called in a House agent to notorise -- the roleplay was good and the Boromar became actively "helpful," so I replaced Bonus Object A's checkpoint with it.

The final scene has lots of opportunity for chaos and mayhem. My own party took down the Grin's lookout, thinking it was the Grin himself or that he was about to cast devastating magic (it was just Thaumaturgy to warn the Grin); the clockwork monster can be described to veterans of the Last War as a terrible meatgrinder weapon of the war -- and then be used to threaten civilians and a gaggle of school children in the same breath; the Grin can run into the stationary train and begin an iconic train-corridor chase scene in which booths and people all make excellent opportunities for bonus action Hides. Much can be done with the setting of that last scene, and it is a worthy climax with plenty to showcase about the world.

Excellent module. Looking forward to running and evaluating the rest.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
DDAL-ELW01 Murder in Skyway
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DDIA-XGE Underworld Speculation
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
by Erich L. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/03/2018 11:58:58

While I did enjoy the reveal and the initial interaction with Dawn's Beacon, I felt that the adventure was mediocre between the starting beach scene and the extremely dramatic whale fight scene. The cave network exploration was the weakest portion, but interesting horror. The reminder of DM Empowerment is extremely useful in this module -- use it judiciously to make each encounter entertaining. My players had a tug-of-war with a clam, stormed a fortress to hide from the whale, and finally caught the moby dick with a net trap until it broke free and licked its wounds out of reach.

Be unafraid to bend the rules for dramatic effect in this module and it'll turn out well. The Story Award shall be very interesting in Dragon Heist/Season 8.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
DDIA-XGE Underworld Speculation
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DDAL08-00 Once in Waterdeep
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Erich L. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/17/2018 00:56:48

A great module for people really looking to roleplay using the D&D system! It definitely puts the spotlight on the characters through the opening questions, and utilises more of the oft-forgotten rules with liberal reminders to award Inspiration and great sidebars on utilising the three pillars. Once in Waterdeep, however, really put my ad-lib skills to the test, so while I do find it a gorgeous adventure that really showcases the best of D&D, it may not be for everyone.

What made Once in Waterdeep click for me was not my experience as a D&D DM, but my time spent running other systems -- Dungeon World, Apocalypse World, Fate, Call of Cthulhu, etc -- as well as my profession as a teacher (who sometimes teachers theatre). There is a lot of facilitation that begins with setting up the story, and continues on especially if you go into the Traitor storyline wherein the players must put on a play (with you grading/evaluating their performance) complete with possible "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" moments. We had exceptional fun doing all of this, don't get me wrong! But I can see where other DMs, particularly those trained by the earlier seasons which were more heavily focused on combat prowess.

Running it might become easier later in the season when the roles of several of the ensemble cast of NPCs get revealed. Lots of great opportunity for foreshadowing and namedropping here. There's a real sense that many of these characters will return to cause trouble further down the line in S8.

In summation, a highly recommended adventure. As most of it takes place in the Yawning Portal, don't be afraid of telling your players to also imagine it as a stage upon which their characters are thrust. Framing it as theatre helped me a lot!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
DDAL08-00 Once in Waterdeep
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Rats of Waterdeep
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Erich L. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/13/2018 02:09:10

I ran Rats of Waterdeep as my Level Up adventure this year as well as a new party's prequel for the upcoming Dragon Heist. What a wonderful experience! My players praised the module for its mix of intrigue, noir atmosphere, delightfully stand-out NPCs, and character drama -- they even said it made them think they were playing a more investigation-heavy game than what the usual D&D typically allows for, and that's high praise. Dragon Heist has a lot to live up to after Rats of Waterdeep. Please make more like this, especially for this urban-focused season.

I was a little concerned about the strength (HP mountains) of the Thugs for a small group of level 1 characters, but the combination of a Grave Cleric and the support of the NPCs in the finale helped keep the adventurers (barely) standing.

Fantastic work! Looking forward to more!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Rats of Waterdeep
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