This adventure, and the advice that accompanies it, are perfect for a Halloween one-shot! I found that the tips for building up suspense and allowing it to dispate with humor before bringing it back up again were really great advice. The story itself has an interesting backstory which is easily revealed to the would-be heroes, spicening up this horror-themed one-shot. I really love the use of a Doppleganger to lull the party into a false sense of security and trust, only for it to be shattered when that extra person is needed the most. As for my own group (as as per the suggestion of the author), I plan on getting one of my players to play the traitorous backstabbing Doppleganger to help me thoroughly scare the party at the climactic final showdown with the disguised Oni. There are numerous components to this adventure that are really well planned out. So get it and find out for yourself!

This adventure is a great way to kick off a D&D Campaign at the location where it takes place: Ore Town. I love how numerous races are co-existing together peacefully in this community. I really appreciated the thoughtful manner in which the NPCs are scripted; it's obvious that a lot of time and effort went into creating this adventure. My one regret is that at the time of this review (September 9th, 2020), there are no other adventures available on the DMs Guild for the Ore Town setting. I'm looking forward to the next installment! Keep up the good work!

A very interesting addition to the Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure!

This author does a great job of finding extra interesting encounters for the Tresendar Manor ground floor level. I really like the idea of the tie-in with Sister Garaele to help release the spirit from its misery. I love how the enemy is attempting to cover the ground-floor entrance using Holg, the mastiff, and the 2 other Redbrands, and how the ghost doesn't interact with them: the ruffians know better! I also loved how the ghost of Selise Tresendar haunts the ruins still, waiting for her prince charming to rescue her. Not bad! I do think that the author should have made a short section about what Selise talks about while she is dancing with the PC. Small talk such as "Where is your family's estate?" or "How do you like my dress?" or "I hear the Fairinholds vineyard (another estate 3 days travel from Phandalin that was destroyed 500 years ago) has grown to full maturity this year. Have your tried their vintage yet?" You know, some chitchat. The reason why I gave this product 4 stars is that the English spelling and grammar leave much to be desired. The author really should have asked someone else to read over and correct his work before posting it online. But I really like the premise for this adventure and it does fit in nicely as a prequel to the Redbrand Hideout encounters!

This adventure is great. It presents a good challenge for new players, but there is one little problem; if the players are using the pre-generated characters with their backstories, this encounter doesn't work. The halfling rogue is headed away from Phandalin to regroup in order to get revenge on the Redbrands and the dwarven cleric (who is a cousin to the Rockseeker brothers) doesn't need any introduction to Gundren nor his brothers. Also, Gundren and his brothers have already discovered the lost mine of Phandelver, explaining why the two other brothers were in the mine to get captured/killed. If Gundren didn't make it to them with his newly acquired map, then the story for within the mine wouldn't be the same thing at all and the Black Spider wouldn't be already in the mine digging around. Or if the Black Spider used Gundren's map to find the mine, that would mean that the players attempt to rescue him (although heroic and just) would prove pointless in the attempt to find the mine. If the writer of this supplement intended Gundren's brothers to leave Neverwinter first to get to the mine (after all, several days is definitely enough time to copy a map and get a head start), why weren't they at the Dwarven king's tomb helping Gundren? And more importantly, why didn't they wait for Gundren so they could all travel together...? Safety in numbers after all. Anyway, none of this is explained in this supplement, which is why I'm rating it 4 stars instead of 5.

I kinda figured out a work around for this; well, at least for me! I will still try and work in this adventure for when my players set off from Neverwinter towards Phandalin, but instead of Gundren that they rescue, I will have another unrelated Dwarf present who will grant the characters a boon of the spell Aid (+5 temporary hit points each) after they have completely cleared out the tomb and long rested outside of it. This Aid spell will only be necessary if they haven't reached level 2 yet, of course. Then next up for them will be Goblin Arrows!

English is not a well known language to the author of this adventure, and it shows. Plenty of spelling and grammar areas throughout. Also the premise for this adventure to be interlaced into the storyline is not too well thought out. The necromancer could not have been there as long as the author mentions because the Black Spider only recently captured the Dwarven brothers in the Lost Mine of Phandelver. This necromancer artist idea is a good one though. Just need to find another angle to put him into the Goblin caves complex. Also please note that you could easily insert the necromancer's complex into any adventure for low level characters and it could still provide a great deal of fun. I also liked the detail that the author tried to go into to describe the unique artworks, but the author really should have kept it simple as English is not his first language. I mean, I would have to rewrite all of the descriptions for the entire adventure because they are so poorly written and they don't flow naturally as they are. Another thing that bothered me is that the cave entrance out of the necromancer's cave complex would not work in a 3D space in combination with the location of the goblin cave complex; it would be far too low when compared to the goblin's cave entrance map. It would make a lot more sense if there was a winding upward passageway back up to a covered entrance hidden by some briar bushes or something. Furthermore the idea of the adventuring party having to crawl down some unknown underground stream passageway to find a bigger boss on another enemy's word seems foolish. I mean, if they left Klarg alive, he could easily release the water from the 2nd dam on them, and they could possibly be drowned or shot out of the stream's exit to be crushed on the ground beneath the waterfall. I think it would make far more sense if the entrance to the necromancer's cave was above the stream bed level at area 4 in the Cragmaw Hideout. Have an offshoot of the original stream (or another stream entirely) connect with the cave on the way down to the necromancer's complex. Anyway, I rated this 3 stars because there is a base of a wonderful idea in here.

After reading through this adventure, I gotta say I totally LOVE this!!! The old school look and difficulty of the adventure is magnificent, as it is very cleverly designed. The tailor-made riddles are fantastic, as they require the party members to be on their A-game. I'm really looking forward to running my group through this one! Thanks for this!

Quite a fascinating read. I found this exploration into the use of a necropolis for underhanded designs a wonderful addition to any starting homebrew campaign that deals with the undead. I definitely recommend a perusal of this material!

I found this adventure to be just what was needed to peek my daughter's interest in D&D. The adventure was short and exciting for her, and it left her wanting more. Next time she wants to try her hand at DMing! I'm all for it, and I am looking forward to seeing what she comes up with. I'm adding a little bit of background to help the reader see possible ways to make it work for them: for years now, I have always gone out once a week to play D&D with a group, leaving my daughter and wife home to have a "girl's night." This has always been a thing, and my daughter has always been curious to see what D&D is like. In preparation for this adventure, I got my 9 year old daughter to help me paint the figures, and this really seemed to increase her level of fun, building up her anticipation for actually playing the game. For the adventure, I also looked up kid-friendly images of the creatures that she and my wife encountered during the game. This was a great assistant to their imaginations, especially for my daughter as kids tend to be visual learners. But the best thing I did for this adventure was to use a battlemat to sketch out trees, a pathway and bushes for the goblin encounter and then also for the ogre encounter. If you are interested in getting children to play and appreciate D&D, I highly recommend doing this in combination with using this adventure (as well as others like it). For the adventure, the minimum you will need is approximately 4 goblins and one ogre figurines. You should be able to easily find these on an online store and get them shipped directly to your place. I forgot to mention that my daughter has ADHD.

I really love what this does to augment the D&D 5e experience for my players: Thanks! I'm going to test this one out shortly in game with alcohol consumption to see how things go... TOTALLY looking forward to this!

I got this character sheet to assist new players with finding the essential data. It's really great! Thanks for creating this!!!

I'm a long time player/DM and was looking for a way to easily and quickly explain the game to new players; this guide really helped us out! Thank you!!!

I found this to be a very well thought out alternative to the standard rules for death and dying in 5e D&D. I liked the fact that each separate alternative has the potential to change a character's personality/state of being, and how each one felt unique. These ideas put forth never felt cheap, as the real mechanical alterations were both impactful and meaningful to game play (and not just a proverbial slap on the wrist). I especially liked the two examples at the end which served to illustrate how one might actually incorporate "Tales of the Low Roads" into a regular D&D session. I look forward to trying out these rules with my group of players, and also look forward to seeing what else this author comes up with.

On the negative side, there were quite a few typos and emissions of words which served as a distraction to the reading over of these fine ideas. But as I feel that these distractions can easily be edited/corrected, I am still rating this product 5 stars.

Truly a masterpiece! It's always a pleasure to read your work!!!

I just finished check out the "Tavern Workers" supplement and am quite pleased with the adventure ideas presented and characters within. I especially liked how the characters are interwoven with one another, forming a somewhat easy to use yet complex network. The only thing that I don't like about it is the lack of mobility of the majority of the characters; these ten characters are meant to be interacted with in or near this particular tavern (I had hoped for solo or duo pairs that could be placed in various establishments within the bounds of one city.) Still, a wonderful work that I'm rating 5/5!