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Awesome adventure. My players both decided to be dwarves, and about half the time was spent discussing/rolling about their beards and how said beards might be useful or grant advantages in the encounters with Tygrun and the Echoes. Top-shelf content.
Now, to get specific; this is a good module; it has some interesting and unique mechanics going on, making sure the characters feel like heroes at the end is easy as pie, and (this one's rare), it's appropriately short and low-combat for a low-level one-shot. I liked it a lot and said "oh, cool!" a whole bunch while reading it.
That said, there are some things that I think work less-well than others, and a few that, if changed, could make the document itself easier to use. My gripes are few and minor, but I think they're worth mentioning, especially as the authors specifically note that it's their first adventure and that they're looking for constructive criticisms. I grabbed this one quite a while ago, so possibly some or all of this is old-news, but here's my two copper pieces, for whatever they're worth.
(I should disclaim that I didn't run this adventure using 5th edition; I ran 3 Bones by Brain Binh, but beyond the mechanics of HOW skill checks and combat were managed, I think the result at the table is comparable enough to if I'd used 5e that I can still make informed comments on it.)
One thing I noticed, that I think could hurt the adventure if unchanged, is that the module requires a skill check to enter the dungeon; either to bust down the door or find the key. If they negotiate with the bullywugs (unlikely if run as-written, since they attack immediately), the froggies can also show them a secret way in. Three ways forward isn't terrible, but I feel the bullywug-guide route is unlikely as-written, and there's no fallback if the rolls to bust the door and find the key both fail.
This is something most Dms/adventure-writers learn the hard way. When the result of failure is that the players simply keep trying until they succeed or the DM just hands success over, it's better to not have total failure be a possibility. In this case, the party has to enter the dungeon. You could run the "whatever they roll succeeds, but if they roll bad there's still a consequence" route. E.g., if they'd rolled badly to knock down the door, say they knock it down, but it falls TOWARD them. The other possibility is to offer even more potential means of passage and trust the odds. I opted for both; multiple ways through and no matter what they tried, they'd get in, but failure would mean Bad Times.
The other adventure-mechanics change I'd make is with the boss fight. He's a really cool encounter, though I wish his relation to Helmoot and his hall was more specified, many parties will take "angry jealous asshole ghost" on its face. And ghosts are fun encounters; posession is a fun ability, though I recommend not locking a player out of their character for too many consecutive turns unless they're the type who particularly likes to roleplay their character's experience of being a passenger in their own mind. The potential for the Echoes to get involved for or against the PCs depending on how respectful they've been in their explorations is really fun, too.
My main concern with the fight is that a single ghost can be a really nasty encounter for low level parties, especially if it succeeds on a posession and/or none of them have divine magic abilities or magical weapons. Remember that since ghosts resist nonmagical damage, most PCs will be doing half-damage, if they even hit. Adding 2-3 Giant Bats makes it a bloodbath. I think they'd work better as a scaling suggestion for higher-level parties (there is a pretty significant power diferential between 3 1st-level PCs and 5 4th-level PCs). I did appreciate the tactical notes on Tygrun's battle behaviour though, those were good and more adventures should have them.
My last gripe with adventure content is 99% a personal preference. I had some confusion over the story as-written, but I doubt most parties would have tripped over it. I wondered how the bullywugs got there if the fissure just opened recently, and decided the underground lake connected to a swamp that they'd been forced to flee. I also wished for more detail on Tygrun and why he hated this beloved king so much. I decided he was a noble of one of the clans that Helmoot made peace with, and he resented the loss of the oportunity to become a conquering empire. He was also a racist shit who didn't like Helmoot allowing other species into the Halls. Lastly I was confused at how an earthquake could bury a hall without smashing it to a million pieces in the process, so I said instead that Tygrun and his ilk had done their best to erase all memory of Helmoot after his death, including using dark magic to relocate his halls where no one could visit them.
I know that tweaking an adventure for your and your party's taste is part of running modules, but personally I find filling in gaps of logic/story different than specifying an NPC's personality or rolling treasure for the reward. YMMV, obviously lots of parties wouldn't even notice these slight weirdnesses, and plenty of DMs are more comfortable filling in the story blanks than I am.
My formatting gripes, if you can even call them that, are even more minor. The player map of the halls is half the image size of the other maps, which I'm sure was unintentional, and the NPCs introduction would be more skimmable if each character had their name bolded or even got a subheader. Also it would have saved me some back-and-forth scrolling if the cavern rooms were all before the Halls rooms, rather than some caverns, then halls, then the rest of the caverns. Other than that the document is very polished and easy to quick-prep. And the original art is very charming, with the print-out minis being a really exciting bonus that I will certainly deploy if I run this at a table (I ran TotM via Discord)
I want to end the full review by talking about the Echoes because wow I love that a lot. The idea of having ghosts that aren't Ghost Encounters but voluntary spirits lingering to preserve the legacy of the person interred here is very cool, and allows social encounters in a dungeon without the tension of combat or suspicion of trickery that happens when you discover an NPC in the middle of a dungeon. It was very fun! My only tweak is that if/when I run this again, I'm going to change their challenges from opposed rolls into Skill Challenges, and that's not a critique, actually. The encounters as-written were good, I just wanted more of them; both in quantity and duration. I feel that way about the adventure as a whole, which was why I was delighted to see there's another from the same authors! I'm heading to the download page as soon as I finish tipping for this one. (edit: apparently this wasn't a PWYW; genuinely disappointed.
In summary:
The good:
- unique noncombat encounters with the echoes, which are really fun especially if your players like social encounters and/or have characters who want to learn about the Halls and their king.
- content suited for combat-oriented, social-oriented, AND investigation-oriented characters
- golden opportunity to flesh out dwarven lore and history in your setting
- Using a ghost as the boss is really fun, I feel like ghost combat is underused in a lot of modules.
- Tell your players it's about a dwarven ruin; they'll likely roll dwarves and take a greater interest in the ruins and it will be a good time. Just be prepared to spend most of play time describing beard-braids.
The could-be-better
- hyper-minor formatting issues
- potential for the game to hit a standstill at the front door unless adjusted
- ghost + giant bats seem overpowered for 1st or 2nd level characters
- some gaps to fill in the story if you've got players who notice that kind of thing
Overall a great module though; I'd run it again :)
Edit: I'm not kidding about how fun it was for the players to be dwarves rediscovering a dwarven heritage site. Her'es some MSPaint art one player did of his dwarf's beard when they were rolling to see who had the best barbs: https://imgur.com/G178HGf
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Balanced, flavorful, and despite the emphasis on water, useful even if a character isn't on a ship or beach. I'm definitely using this in all my maritime games going forward.
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**THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS***
This is a pretty fun little dungeon delve, but if you were looking for a mystery it's not that complex. Not that it isn't challenging, but there's not really much of a mystery to solve. To be fair, it's not advertised as an investigative or socially-focused module.
The PCs arrive in or are summoned to Morfalcon, a great desert town of scum and villainy. It's got four temples to evil gods, and the clergy of these temples don't get along. The PCs need to investigate the murder of one of the high preists. They can talk to different villagers who all have their own idea of who's to blame. If they search the dead priest's temple, they find an underground complex full of undead. If they press on, they find the bad guy, Adalgrim (the dead man's successor), who tries to kill them. It's pretty simple for a group to solve the mystery without more effort than just searching the crime scene, so this is more of a dungeon crawl with mystery flavor than it is an actual mystery. And that's fine!
The adventure is totally fun and playable as-is, but if you were looking for a head-scratching mystery, it's not that. It could be, though! I think all you need to turn this from a dungeon crawl with mystery dressing (as-written) into a proper investigation adventure is to do 3 things:
1) Have Adalgrim try and prevent them from discovering the basement. Maybe put the entrance in his room, or lock it with a key that he wears around his neck.
2) Make sure the PCs know that there's something fishy happening with the Brandobaris temple. Roll up some more NPCs and have them share reports of strange sounds (undead moans etc) from the temple be reported by the villagers. Some of the resident undead are incorporeal - maybe they sneak out for a snack and can be seen phasing through the temple's foundation? Rumours that the new high priest insisted on personally embalming the deceased (or maybe he wanted to take posession fo the corpse but hasn't had a funeral yet, or the funeral was closed-casket for no apparent reason). So long as the PCs know there's something fishy and it's under the temple, they'll work to find a way in.
3) Make sure their mission is to ARREST the perpetrator, not to find them or avenge the dead man. It's a pretty seedy town, and if they don't need evidence or a confession, PCs might feel comfy simply killing whoever they suspect.
But you don't need to do any of that to have a good time :)
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A very socially-focused adventure that works well. It has structure, but leaves enough room for improv and player freedom. If you were looking for a 1-3 session adventure (depending how thorough the PCs are and how tough you set the challenges) that features a lot of roleplaying and social challenge, this is a good one.
It might be a good idea, if you run this, to advise your players to keep notes (if they don't already), at least of NPC names and how they know each other. Otherwise I could see players getting confused or forgetting important info. Not because it's laid out poorly (the adventure is organized very well!) but because there's just so much of it.
But if your players are paying attention and don't mind a lack of combat, this is great!
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A useful lore supplement. If you're using the Rod, referencing the Wind Dukes or the Queen of Chaos, or otherwise incorporating this famous artifact's history, this is a nice collection of the known info.
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This is floor 1 for my Megadungeon campaign, and it's worth every penny. The rooms are pre-numbered, thank crap, and have just enough icons for inspiration while still leaving room for creativity. The maps are high-res and the grids uniform enough that you could upload the images to a VTT without running into alignment problems, though sheer size might cause lag, so you're better off uploading the section maps instead.
The map has a few dead-ends near the edges that look like collapsed tunnels, making it easy to expand the delve even further if you so desire. Just grab another great Paratime map and hook it up!
I can't say enough good things about Paratime Design. Grab this map if you need a big dungeon - it won't disappoint.
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Well-balanced, gorgeously illustrated, and expansive. I recommend the Goblin Thesis to any DM who wants to expand their bestiary!
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This is fantastic. For an old adventure, it still suits the sensibilities of modern d&d players quite well. Also, who doesn't want to fight a vampire lizard king?!
The maps are high quality, the text is easy to read, and if you're running a different edition, conversion is about as simple as it gets. Most of the 1e monsters have pretty intuitive 5e replacements. If you're comfortable adjusting damage and hit points behind the screen to keep things balanced, you can just replace the monsters with whatever makes sense.
The setpieces are evocative - a troubled lord in his hall, a burned village, a murky swamp, an ancient tomb! The monsters are fun and classic: cultists and dragons and vampires! There's opportunity for social classes (bards and rogues and paladins will shine in the opening scene and the village) as well as more boot-and-loot styles (most of the module IS a dangerous dungeon). Really something for everyone and a lot of fun.
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+1 star because the maps do look cool, but -5 because they're unusable. The quality is low - really low. If you zoom in even a little, things blur. These could be used as inspiration, but they can't be used as maps unless your players are ants.
OP, if you can fix the image quality I'll be more than happy to adjust my review! These maps do look interesting, I just can't see them at all :(
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Creator Reply: |
Oh my bad, I didnt know, I will see if I can find the maps and upload a higher qualtiy version. |
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Cannot believe anyone would have the gall to charge money for this. You can make it yourself in Word if you know how to put a table together. It's not even formatted pretty, for pet's sake.
Tetracube is free online (not a sponsor), use that instead. Or Homebrewery. Or literally anything else.
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It's fine. The descriptions are weirdly long and specific, but that's whatever. Custom backgrounds are something the PHB gives you directions on how to do, and a lot of these are clearly just reskinned from existing backgrounds like Thief and Soldier.
Some of the background features are overly-powerful for backgrounds. THey do things like make a character automatically succeed on stealth checks while on a ship (which, if you're using this background, is likely the setting of 99% of your campaign), or make you semi-aquatic. There's also some dubious wording about how villagers will give you a free place to stay, as opposed to the PHB's "may" that some players will definitely abuse, so DMs beware.
These don't sound like overly-powerful, but consider that official background features are generally either "a place to sleep if you and your crew don't act too offensively" or "some contacts who either know useful info or know how to find it." Compared to that, 120 ft diving depth, a swim speed, and doubled "hold breath" time (essentially becoming semiaquatic), with no downside, is incredible. You'd be daft to choose anything else, which is the surest sign of a broken feature.
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The main consequence of using these rules will be that your boss monster gets to attack more often and can weather more hits. If that's what you're after, this supplement provides it in easy-to-read, easy-to-adapt language, complete with an example monster.
If you were looking for something closer to what's described in Matt Colville's Action-Oriented Monsters video, this ain't it. It really is just about giving the monster more attacks and hit points in a balanced way. If you want it to really feel like a dynamic boss fight, with options like manipulating minions, using the environment in a way similar to lair actions, etc., you need to come up with those ideas yourself.
To be fair, the PDF does encourage you to think up your own actions, but doesn't provide guidance for how many action points something like "giving all my goblin buddies 1 free attack" or "shake the ceiling so a bunch of rocks fall" would balance out to.
The star off is for how limited the use is: more hit points and more attacks for the monster in question. The star off is because there's so much more that could've been done.
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Creator Reply: |
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Pretty fun, but a bit of a mixed bag. YMMV depending on your table style.
My main disappointment is that a lot of these are "gotcha" items. The PC finds it, thinks its a cool or at least useful item, grabs it, and suffers an ill effect, either immediately or when they try to use it. They then have to deal with the ill effect until they can get the curse removed, which usually takes more than a "remove curse" spell.
I don't find this kind of curse particularly fun, because all you've done, as a DM, is trick a player. Often lethally. Which is incredibly easy to do. If you run the kind of game where schadenfreude defines a lot of the comedy, then the non-cursed players will have a great time with this.
There are a handful of more interesting curses though. Some that a clever PC could even turn into a break-even benefit. And a bunch that are just funny.
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Creator Reply: |
Hello and thank you for the review! It's always cool to get well thought-out feedback.
I think it's definitely true that a lot of these items won't be a good fit for some tables. Looking back, we neglected to emphasize something that could add more value to the document - a lot of the items might be better used as quest hooks, as something that you find on an unfortunate NPC. Quite a few could be involved in a crime or a misfortune that the party could solve, perhaps as a part of a trial or just as a background flavor, something that makes an otherwise normal village more magical. It can add more preparation and the players might get around to being cursed anyway, but it's a change that could add the cursed flavor to the games without the players feeling like it's at their expense.
All the best,
Greenbird |
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I'll give it credit where it's due: the map is huge, beautiful to look at, rendered in hi-def, and has lots of room for notes so you can make it your own. Unfortunately, I don't ever see myself using it.
The map is big, but its design is bad. It's full of dead-end branches and single-entrance rooms. This might not seem like a big deal if you've never run a big dungeon before, but "we enter the room, we deal with the stuff in the room, we return to the corridor and go to the next room down" can reduce a dungeon delve to monotony real fast. And in a megadungeon, it's imperative that exploring the dungeon doesn't get old. The way around this is simple: make sure the PCs always have at least 2 ways forward. Connect dead ends into loops, and make sure rooms connect to each other and to other corridors, rather than one corridor connecting all the rooms like houses on a street. This map fails to do this, and as such would be pretty monotonous to explore - I want to offer my PCs better.
The other gripe isn't a deal if you have access to a printer and don't mind running from a printed copy, but I don't and do, respectively. The PDF is not form-fillable.
I really recommend generating a map and then tweaking it instead of grabbing this. It's much easier to tweak a simplistic map like the ones on Donjon into a good design than it is to edit something graphically detailed like this one. Otherwise, just roll and sketch out your own. There's a lot of methods for generating a dungeon quickly, and lots of easy (free) software like Dungeonographer and DungeonDraft to help you get it digitized.
Pretty as it is, I just can't recommend this.
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What a wild ride. Oodles of fey, and lots of goofy shenanigans. Bit too zany for my tastes, but there's nothing fundamentally wrong with it. It'd be nice to have a player-friendly map for VTTs, and I think the plot would be a little easier to run if it was more straightforward - there are a LOT of characters and layers involved for a short adventure), but it's overall good.
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