A very good resource. It's important to note it shouldn't be considered a straight-jacket -- it's not rules that must be followed but guidelines you can adopt, if helpful to you. It's clear and well considered.

An almost classical style D&D mod, this adventure brings in combat, puzzle solving and a chase in a hunt for a dangerous artifact. And it's pretty darned fun! The combats themselves have some nice variety to them (I like the use of the archers in the first fight, and the 'wake up' mechanic in the second.) The puzzle is classical, a good old fashioned riddle.

If I had to criticise this adventure, I'd offer two points. The first is that it feels like it's lacking a social play element, and the premise seems to have an obvious point as to where to put it: Rather than a chase sequence as the bonus objective, a role-play/social negotiation with the fear aura hitting one character would have been super fun. A missed opportunity. The second is that the final chase scene's rules feel a little confusing, and I'm not quite sure how it was meant to be run.

Still, I had fun with this. Thumbs up.

Phew. I really wanted to like this adventure more. And don't get me wrong, there's a lot to like. And it's all for a good cause! However, as it plays in the adventure, the ending is simply, well, a problem.

The adventure clearly plays for fun, and runs to exciting, silly scenarios. While the final scenario offers a straight up combat scenario, it's clearly meant to be the hardest way to win, it's not silly and funny like the other paths, and it's designed to deter this direction rather than encourage it, given the volume of opponents and frequent reinforcements. All of these are correct decisions, trying to funnel the players into the stealth and social directions. And both of these almost nail it... but don't quite get there.

The stealth section, for instance, starts off great. The map provided is wonderful, it's easy to show where the patrols are, and the whole thing offers really fun, sneaky yet goofy possibilities. The suggested social 'get out of jail free' recovery (with story award!) is a great twist on these kind of scenarios and lends itself to the goofy feel.

In addition, the social scenarios are hilarious, mechanically interesting challenges. Some more express wording on how, say, water breathing affects one challenge would be nice, but overall they're great.

But. But. Then we have the joust and melee.

Guys? This isn't a winnable fight. A level four barbarian might have a shot, but that's it. It's unreasonable to expect the players to win, and the prior challenges also don't lend to having a ten plus point lead going in either. Yes, you'd expect it to be tough. It makes story sense. It's also a total downer for players and punctures the goofy, feel good vibe of the adventure to that point. It's massively tonally inconsistent and given how likely it is for the adventure to end in this point, that's a huge problem.

I do like a lot of this adventure. I really do. But I would strongly suggest weakening King Timrek in the duel alone, if you want this to play out on that jolly tone the module otherwise strives for.

If you'd asked me before "What would it take to craft the perfect introductory module?" I don't think I'd have answered, "Some of the most rigid three-pillars of play structure I've ever seen" but it turns out, that's a really good idea, and it results in Into the Border Kingdoms into nearly the perfect intro-to-D&D module in Adventurer's League.

The whole story is very well divided into pieces with clear goals and styles of play. It begins in a tavern and there's a shifty guy to investigate, a curious crew of other characters and a clear signal to the players: Social play. Then undead attack, and importantly, they're undead — No reasoning with them, no social possibilities. Only one way out: Combat play.

That combat ends and it's back into a quick round of social play, then another round of combat, but this time with multiple enemy types, environmental hazards and more tactics. In some groups you'll have just enough time for one tricky moral question (What to do with the amateur necromancer?) before launching into the bonus objective, with its own clear play style: Exploration.

Basically, this adventure doesn't ever force the players to figure out how to play, just how to approach this particular scenario. As such, it does dictating their play style without quite holding their hand.

If I did have to criticise, I'd argue that 3 hours is a very disappointing run length as it means in AL you would not level up after finishing it, but I wonder if that's more a product of the shift to Season 8. Either way, this one is great and should be pre-prepped and left at every AL game store in case you get a flux of new players. 4/5, highly recommended.

While I do love a map pack, this one is simply far too small and would need to have been rendered at a considerably higher resolution to work. At the suggested dimensions, the map winds up being maybe half the size of the map as depicted in the book. (Simple test of this: The front patio (A1) is 4 squares vertically. Size the map to take this into account and it's clear how small the map is designed for.) Cannot recommend.

Pudding Faire may be my favourite module ever. It's got an inventive premise, an entire hardcover's worth of quirky characters shoved into a single module, a villain who can be played as a Joker-esque trickster, a seething dark god or a Saturday morning cartoon bad guy (hint: Do the last one, you should run with the last one, seriously, he's way too much fun as the last one) and it's just in all ways a blast.

And yet I can easily see this one being an unpopular module.

It's almost entirely based around social play, using a broad series of ability checks and saving throws. There is some combat, but it's fairly rare and even the various encounters in the woods (the 'combat zone' of the module) usually have non-combat solutions. And in many cases, almost to parodic proportions, the rewards for the various challenges are provably not worth it. (One contest costs 1 silver per entry with the promise of a prize worth... 2cp.) It depends almost entirely upon your players' good-willed nature and/or mischievous streak.

In addition, it's one that really kind of demands a DM who can run to its strengths. Funny voices are a near must (if nothing else, you've got a whole bunch of halflings and gnomes with squeaky voices who still need some form of differentiation) and big, flamboyant performances play neatly into its flavour. There is a chance to jump out of the chair and dance and do bad standup, and your DM can and should do this.

But there's just nothing like this around. It's vibrant and wonderful and fun. The characters are distinct, the role-playing hilarious, and it just feels warm and fuzzy to play. I can honestly say I've never had this much fun running a D&D module.

Every character feels lively, the over the top nature of the module giving them each a chance to make an impact on the story despite brief presences, and their quick, quirky nature makes them endearing and ties into the 'help everyone out' story design. The challenges in each scenario are pointless, but fun and varied. It's easy to get into the spirit of the adventure and just enjoy the faire... even before everything falls apart. At the end of the adventure, my group were keen to get back to the Pudding Tent to find out if their ruse to make Wellington Sparrowind Pudding King.

The final scenario mixes social play with a fight breaking out when it all falls apart. It feels satisfying and climactic, and then has the opportunity for a heartwarming finish as you see the Faire play out correctly.

I just... I love this module. It's a classic. It's amazing. I love everything about it.

This adventure is basic. It's vanilla. It's the incredibly typical, exactly what you'd expect from D&D adventure that you yawn at the description of. It implements the three pillars in exactly the way you'd imagine in D&D: Exploration by scouting ahead and one opportunistic puzzle, combat by almost all of the adventure, and social not at all. Y'know how D&D has spent a long time trying to broaden its base from the tactical combat side, with Always Chaotic Evil monster races and obvious encounters? This is the wholesale rejection of those very good ideas.

It's basic. But it ain't bad.

The structure of the adventure is clear and well defined: Go to this place, stealth these dudes, rescue this guy, oh no, here's a bigger monster. And I can't even say 'But it's sort of perfect at that' because it really isn't: The adventure lacks some very key components that would be needed to make this work. (A map, above all else, is sorely needed in this adventure, and more guidance on how and why to use the final monster. More foreshadowing of said monster would likewise have been an obvious improvement.)

And yet, I ran this for five utter newcomers to Adventurers League and for a few, newcomers to D&D in general. And it's kind of great for that? The utter lack of complication throws everything on the systems. And don't get me wrong, this could be better even for that purpose: More environmental challenges, better storytelling even within its own basic strictures, a MAP. But it's still just so lovely as a First Time D&D game that I can't really hate on it too much. It's full of faults. My rating is going to be very low, probably a 2/5.

I'm recommending it anyway! It's a definitely recommended 2/5. Could be a lot better. You'll have fun running it.

The Vampire Hunt trilogy is a direct continuation of the Umbral Aristocracy trilogy; and I found that prior trilogy to be a mostly weak affair anchored by at least one pretty good module in The Map with No Name. Beyond that, though, it was an unremarkable set of modules with no real stinkers in the crop, but nothing to write home about either.

The Vampire Hunt trilogy is like that, but without The Map with No Name to at least start off things strong.

If nothing else, the essential premise of the module is fine. It's a decent excuse to go into the Undermountain. But beyond that, it's filled with odd choices that weaken the strength of the module. Why separate the path down into two completely disconnected paths? You could have instead had one much stronger one, with a centrally located lift descending around a spiral ramp. Why reduce the labyrinth into a skill check instead of actually letting the players explore? Heck, why not have the descent be down the well of the Yawning Portal, with that iconic visual, than through some cave outside of town?

The entire adventure feels completely inconsequential, a side story and nothing more. It's technically adept, and the encounters are all pretty well balanced, but it's disappointing nonetheless.

Much like Into the Dark, Crypt of the Dark Kiss feels completely inessential. There's no firm antagonist, nothing of import, and the entire affair can be summed up with a shrug.

But, I must confess, I like it a lot more than Into the Dark for the way it rewards players who ask for perception checks. There are multiple encounters that demand asking the DM for environmental information, and that paying attention to such information creates strong chances for victory in what are otherwise fairly demanding scenarios.

However, in the end, it's a dungeon crawl, not a very inspired dungeon crawl at that, and it lacks much in the way of substance or memory. It feels, like the entire trilogy, insubstantial.

If the entire Vampire Hunt trilogy feels insubstantial and thin, at the very least it ends on a bolt of genuine weirdness. The final villains are a weird, wonderful idea and give this module a touch of gonzo that at least make it stand out and feel honestly memorable in a trilogy of adventures that felt anything but.

Unfortunately, that gonzo weirdness is itself constructed around a puzzle scenario that doesn't provide any real mechanism for solving its own puzzle (what possible clues do you get that give you the chain? How do you fail to solve the puzzle, invoking a penalty? None of this is answered) and a pair of bonus objectives that feel like DCEU world-building: Weird offshoots not designed to further this story but somehow set up a later trilogy.

While its portal hopping froggy weirdness is at least memorable, it none the less still fails to hold up, and its final boss suffers from a total lack of foreshadowing and menace. It's a disappointment.

Fiendly Competition is a module built primarily on the three pillars of exploration, combat and social play: It's comprised of four vignettes, one of which is designed as the climax an the other three that are more or less aimed with one of those three pillars in mind as the likely way to resolve it. ("STOP RACISM!" being most obviously handled with exploration; "The Braklau Gang" with combat, and "Drunda the Gut’s Court" being socially inclined.) However, all three of them have been also designed with clear hooks for ways to handle the encounter in other forms — although it must be said that The Braklau Gang is the one most clearly set up to be a combat encounter, and it's hard to imagine a social solution to it.

The end result is a very flexible module, designed for a wide variety of parties. (Excellent for adventurers league!)

If I had to criticise, I'd argue that the final encounter is possibly either too frustrating or too easy for the players. It's possible to play the final encounter extremely ruthlessly, using invisibility and actions to decimate a party with little capacity for the party to respond in any meaningful way. On the other hand, if not played in this fashion, the final encounter isn't particularly challenging. It takes a lot of DM perception and handling to make the last encounter work. Also, the structure of the adventure (Optional > Climax > Optional > Optional) makes the story feel a bit anti-climactic. In addition, it can all feel a bit jangly and loose — there's no real recurring NPCs or story arc here, just a trio of loosely connected vignettes. It's fun, but it can feel a bit empty. None the less, it's a high recommendation from me for its versatility alone.

And Drunda the Gut is GREAT.

A concept can only take you so far, but to be fair, this one is a really terrific concept; an express Pokémon parody within D&D. And to what extent this module succeeds, it's all because of the attention to detail within the concept.

All the monsters are divided into 'types' with each type being strong to another type and weak to a third? Check! Pokéballs? You know it! A finale involving a clear parody of Team Rocket? Of course! A story award called 'Caught 'em all!' and another called 'The Very Best'? Almost! (Seriously, the name of that second story award really is a missed opportunity.) A reference to the trading card game? You'd better believe it!

The laughs come well in this module, and that's the best thing about it. Anyone who has played or watched Pokémon as a kid is going to at least smile out of recognition at a lot of these tropes and honestly, that ain't nothing. This module leaves an impact, and that's something that many can't say.

But, unfortunately, it can't quite turn it into an engaging experience.

For starters, many players are simply going to be flummoxed by the capture experience. Even after cajoling, hinting and trying anything I could to teach my players that they could literally use any technique to capture monsters, players either fell into using the same trick every time, or just fighting when they couldn't think of a trick. And while I know the module offers some tricks for running Pokemon battles simultaneously, it forces the players to choose between something that feels like Pokemon but fails to be fun, or something that doesn't but still isn't that much better. It's not a surprise that the game mostly comes alive in its traditional battle sequences vs. the Wayseekers and Team Shade.

It's not a terrible module, and one out of the two times I ran it it went great. But this is a module for a very specific group of people. I love it, but I do not blame people for whom it falls flat.

I am of two completely different minds about this mod.

On one hand, I think Lysa Chen did an amazing job with the design and challenges of this module. She excels at creating complex, interesting NPCs and this module is absolutely no exception, with characters like Mumpena Miggledy, Elsa Gost and (the ever present, bewilderingly timeless) Joy Hultmark all succeeding brilliantly in cutting through and being unique and interesting, especially tricky in the new format where text boxes and the like are de-emphasised. Chen's got a knack for putting a lot of character in very little text, and it serves her incredibly well. (I actually wonder if it would have been smarter to put her on Wrinkle in the Weave, where character was the most important goal.)

The challenges are all interesting and fun. My players had great fun snooping around Gost estate, finding an unexpected emotional connection moment with Joy Hultmark and gossiping with Mumpena. It helps that the whole thing is ridiculous in a lovely, unforced way. It's a bunch of grown adults all pretending to be vampires because it's trendy. That's fantastic, goofy in a very real way.

In addition, I think these bonus objectives may be the best implemented I've ever seen. They fall seamlessly into the narrative and yet can be perfectly removed as well. With them, the players go investigate personally and come away with exact locations. Without, they get the word they need and report to Artor. Both ways, it works well. This is the rare time I'd consider making the bonus objectives genuinely optional with the DM not knowing if they'd be used or not, but relying on the players actions to see if they are pursued.

But then... we have the actual resolution. Which is nonsense junk. And it's clearly, blatantly not Chen's fault.

You simply can't build a villain like that without some kind of foreshadowing in prior modules, and it's not there in the slightest. There's no symbolism, no logic, no characters that call forward to this finale. It's just... dumped into the adventure with no rhyme or reason.

And it kills the mod. It's infuriating.

As a module about dealing with a bunch of hipster vampire wannabes, this gets a 4/5.

As the ending to the trilogy, well... you can see the rating above.

So, this is kind of frustrating. Something went very badly wrong in the translation of this module, in a very frustrating way. As a concept, there's nothing wrong with it: Discover the origins of the fake maps, gather allies to help you fight the villains, and then get into a rousing battle to finish it off.

In practice, however, it's kind of a mess.

The final battle is a good place to start. It is worth noting right off the bat that the module does give the DM a lot of very good ways to tailor the difficulty mid-fight to adjust the difficulty; primarily in giving the enemies smart or not so smart attacks. For example; the main boss deals an average of 20.5 damage on any successful pistol attack, but only 15 attacking with a shortsword. The thugs and spies, meanwhile, do only 5.5 damage per pistol attack, with melee being substantially more damaging. Smart DMs can adjust accordingly to keep the fight tense without being insanely lethal.

But it absolutely can be insanely lethal. While unlikely, it's entirely plausible that a single shot from that cannon could be a one-hit insta-kill on a squishier player, even at level 3.

Is that bad? Well, to my way of thinking it kind of is. D&D should not be perfectly safe for PCs. Characters can, and do, die. But to my way of thinking that kind of instant scenario feels unfair and more often leads to the players feeling cheated than fairly killed. That in turn means this scenario absolutely requires a DM who is aware of the danger and is careful with it.

Now, that's a matter of taste, I concede. But other aspects are more difficult to resolve as taste issues. For example, bonus objective A has a few points that are poorly worded or flatly difficult to integrate. Plague Rats Help or Hinder has the Help action see one of the drow attack the other drow instead of the players, but a hinder action which sees them target... the players. Which they were already doing. (One might interpret this to mean they exclusively target the players rather than the guards, but that's still a very odd decision.) And the Red Sashes card provides no way for the players to even think of them. Unless the players happen to know of the Red Sashes, they will never consider seeking them out because nothing in the adventure prompts it, and they're the only group for whom a random encounter makes no sense. (You could imagine running into the guards, or a resident, or the dung sweepers, but not the Red Sashes.)

Not everything here is bad! Bonus Objective B is very fun, with some cool little details. (I love that you can bribe the drow to leave, for example.) And the complications are all fun, interesting ideas.

But the whole scenario feels disconnected and piecemeal. The final fight is, to my mind, far too hard. And several components of Bonus Objective A feel both essential and utterly unworkable.

In short, it is kind of a mess.

To unapologetically steal from Mike Rugnetta: Here's an idea — No matter if it's divided into three chunks, something that only comprises one story cannot be considered a trilogy, and it will always be weaker for having been unceremoniously hacked to pieces. Usually in the middle. But how do we know if something is a set of stories or just a single one? Well, the answer here is to ask, "What's the tension? Where does it resolve?" A story always needs a tension; this is what gives it us sense of beginning, middle and end: A tension is introduced, played out, and resolved.

By this logic, The Umbral Aristocracy Trilogy isn't a trilogy at all. At best, it's a duology, but even that's stretching it. From start to finish, the tension comes in the form of the question, "Hey, what's up with this map?" and that tension is only resolved at the end of the third module. The 'trilogy' only has one tension and true to form, it's the middle chunk that suffers.

When you think of it in these terms, it's clear to see why Beneath the City of the Dead feels lacklustre in spite of some pretty great individual moments, particularly in its bonus objectives. Helping out a dwarven gravedigger with what seems like a scavenging dog ripping up corpses, but turns out to secretly be a pack of ghouls? Nice twist! Helping a wererat's ghostly sister find closure? Cool scenario! But neither feel connected in any real way to the main adventure. They feel tacked on.

And really, could they be any other way? Beneath the City of the Dead has a lot going for it; the combat encounters are actually really neat in the way they make use of tight spaces and numbers to feel claustrophobic and powerful. (Only one fight involving swords, armour and portraiture misses its mark.) But it can't tell any other story beyond: You come into this crypt. Oh hey, you made it through the crypt.

Beneath the City of the Dead is a flavourful but otherwise by the numbers dungeon crawl. It lacks compelling story, has a hum-drum quality to the entire proceeding and cannot help but feel like it's padding time within a trilogy that is only one story rather than a trio of stories that tie together. While it is undoubtedly a victim of the structure of the entire trilogy it also cannot escape the sense that it could have been much more.