This was my first campaign as a new DM. My husband and I played it so I could get some experience DMing and he could play through his backstory. Having played through all 3 modules now, I feel that overall, this could use some polishing to really help out a new DM. My thoughts are below.

The Pros: -I liked the NPC descriptions and the information they were able to offer. They provided plenty of opportunity for roleplaying

-The adventure hooks were fun and engaging for my player.

-The linear style in this one helped me figure out what to do as a DM and how everything should go

-I liked the settings and the included maps were very helpful

-It was easy to adjust everything in order to work my player's backstory into it.

-The frost giant escape was a good exercise in thinking on my feet.

-It helped me figure out how I like to have my notes organized and how to run a campaign.

The Cons:

-There are many questions raised in this module that are never answered by the authors, even in the following modules. Why did the amulet pull the PC through the portal? How exactly did Garren get turned into crystal and why? Why was the frost giant in the cave with him? I ended up making up some answers and working them into the character's backstory, which was more work than I was prepared to put into my first time DMing.

-Garren was overpowered for the Level 1 PC he was with. Combat in all 3 modules was too easy thanks to Garren's huge damage numbers and my husband as a fighter felt he had nothing to do. I guess I could have changed Garren around, but that would have meant creating a new backstory for him and again, more work than I wanted to put into a premade module.

-As a new DM, playing Remmy and Garren and the monsters during combat was exhausting and difficult. Figuring out combat is hard enough when there's a group of enemies, but throwing in 2 NPC companions made it harder. Eventually by the third module, my husband agreed to play Garren in combat and I would play him during roleplay.

-Speaking of companions, where is Remmy? He's mentioned in the beginning as someone possible to take along and then only mentioned as an afterthought in the second module. I kept forgetting he was even there except during combat and again, it was a lot for a new DM to handle.

-It was very text-heavy, describing exactly what the player should do and assuming the PC will follow the steps in order. It's not so bad in this one as it's short, but is more pronounced in the other two modules following this one.

What I changed: -I ended up rewriting this to be less linear and give the player more agency. For example, I split the module into parts like "If the PC does this, then..."

-I added a PER check to find the Ring of Protection in the training ground and some fun items for the PC to find in the lake after failing perception checks.

-I added more descriptions of the areas in general, especially combat areas.

-Made use of the Ice Mephit's "False Appearance" ability and made the PC roll a PER check on a seemingly ordinary icicle.

Love these duet style adventures. Am able to play with a family member with just me as DM and him as a player.

Really enjoyed this. Thank you. It was a great introductory adventure for only 2 players.

I'm surprised this has gotten such high reviews. It's certainly not bad, at least not compared to other unofficial content along the same lines, but I wouldn't consider it good. There are quite a few continuity issues for something so brief. I love the duet format but I think the whole set of adventures could benefit from some editing.

Great adventure for newbies. Some practice at the start which is a part of the storyline. Then into the main meat of the game. Thanks

An easy-to-run and engaging generic fantasy advenutre, ideal for new DMs and players. You'll be up-and-running after a read-through.

Paired with a sidekick guide, this is fine for a single player and DM.

I ran this duet with my son, and we had a blast. He now has a best friend, a magic door. Easy to run. Well written.

Great adventure! Very easy to run for an inexperienced DM. We had a lot of fun playing it.

Bought this to introduce my girlfriend to d&d, we never got round to playing it in the end, but I read through it and it looked like a great 1 to 1 introduction game. Starting with some role playing and a tutorial type introduction to ability checks, saving throws and combat then opens up a great story.

I bought this series of adventures with the hope of running a duet campaign with my brother. Having read First Blush and the beginning of Second Glance, I'm not sure I will actually use it, though.

The first module is full of errors, inconsistencies (including between the maps and description), unexplained/unexplainable coincidences (Why on earth would you build a prison and then make it so easy for exactly the person you imprisoned to get out?), and essentially ends with a cutscene/deus ex machina. If I do use it, I will be rewriting/rearranging and fixing almost every part of the 'real' dungeon in particular. I resent having to do the job of editing, proofreading, and playtesting a module sold as finished.

But the real issue I have has to do with the 'DMPC' that the player PC is saddled with for the series. I'm not sure why the creators thought that it was a good idea to give the DM their own avatar in the game to outshine the player and become the center of the plot, but it was a terrible, terrible idea long before they even decided to make him an immortal LG paladin with memory issues. (And no, it doesn't help that the player can control him - the player chose/made their own PC for a reason!)

And that's the other big problem. You are given pregenerated characters, but told that you can create your own. However, the hooks into First Blush are significant, and make very serious demands on the PC's backstory. The adventures are also supposedly standalone, but there is no real way that they can stand alone while also revolving around the DMPC introduced in the first adventure, at least not without very significant surgery.

This was a great start as someone who had never DM'd before, with a player who has very little experience playing D&D. It was easy for me to follow the instructions, and the information that was given and the player enjoyed it as well. My only thing was I didn't know what some of these festivals were, and all that so I had to do my own research on few parts but nothing too hard or annoying. Thank you for making a good guide/adventure.

I'd really love to give this adventure a 5-star rating, as it does a good job of introducing combat, skills and it essentially works like a "video game tutorial".

However, there are two major problems with the module that could be rectified with just a bit more work. I personally believe the re-cap on the DMPC/Duet rules should have just been an appendix, rather than re-stating materials in Tasha's at the front of the adventure.

First, there are a large amount of details missing from the beginning which a starting DM should sort of be given (since the sourcebooks aren't present), and it forces the character into a specific role (member of a noble house) rather than give two or three options for the character's role in that house. The setting occurs in Amn, but doesn't really define a city where it takes place. There's very little description to the area in which the adventure takes place. The Fey Day and Fleetswake information has to be retrieved from external sources (IMO, this should have been present). This required nearly an entire re-write of the beginning or opening scenes, which any DM SHOULD be able to do, but it really should not be neccessary for an intro module. Especially because the first "encounter" is all about those events.

The areas are well designed, and getting to the "final room" has multiple avenues, there's a decent amount of treasure and the characters are easily made memorable and can be swapped out without too much difficulty depending on who you need for future adventures. Those are all positives, and the actual dungeon part of the adventure is superbly written.

I think my last complaint is, for a first time DM, the ending is a complete railroad. There is no defeating the last enemy, the events MUST play out in a certain way, and player agency is removed. My SO came up with a brilliant idea, which should have been pretty obvious, but I had to invent the mechanics on the spot. As written, it would tend to create bad habits for new DMs in my personal opinion, letting them think that they just dictate what happens and the player has few options is a regular practice in DND (which would be a huge faux paux in a regular table game). A few additional paragraphs on alternate methods to deal with the end guy would have taken about half a page, and would not turn the encounter into a literal ending cutscene with a few "quick time event" difficulty checks for the adventure.

A fun short introductory module! It's a relaxing and effective tutorial adventure for 5th edition. We ran it on a day when we had some absences in our group for our ongoing campaign. While the plot has little room for player agency since its so short and relaxing, we didn't mind. We had two players take on the role of the two friends rather than run it solo. It required almost no preparation, at least if you are an experienced referee. I would consider running it again to introduce a player to 5th edition and I am curious about the sequel. If you are brand new to roleplaying games, this could be a fantastic entry point. It is easier for a new DM or referee to run than most modules. Its easier to find a group of 2 people than a group of 4+ and in many ways easier to run a game for a 1 player than 3 or more. And its lower pressure to run something like this than to run something longer, more complex, or open-ended like the Start Set or Starter Kit. I have run the Starter Set, completed a three year published adventure for 5th edition, and run probably over 35 modules over the years. If I was advising a brand new Dungeon Master or referee who wanted to learn 5th edition (the currently most popular edition), I would recommend they begin by preparing and running this short module. Then maybe run its sequel. These making great stepping stones. And then trying to run the Starter Set or Starter Kit. And then after that I would suggest they follow their interests, whether they are homebrewed or published.

I ran this duet as an impromptu one-shot with my dad, who hasn't played D&D in forty years. I've been playing D&D 5e for a little over a year, and was excited to run this module for him to show him how D&D has changed and stayed the same (hopefully).

I admit I didn't get a chance to do more than skim through this module and print the maps before we started playing, and we didn't have time for a session zero, so I highly recommend DMs read through it fully. He said it was entertaining and is interested in playing the sequel, but his PC had a lot of questions for the NPCs that I didn't know, so had to scramble to find information. This was my first duet, and I usually am able to plan the next moment better as PCs roleplay. Since it was a solo player, it was a lot of waiting for me to go back and forth between pages to find the information he needed.

All in all, he enjoyed it, had fun, and wants to play again. So that's what matters.

TL;DR: Fun duet one-shot, took about three and a half hours. Requires a thorough read-through and preparation with your PC beforehand, or several story elements will be confusing. Nothing wrong with that and isn't the creators' fault, just wasn't what I expected based on other reviews.

was a great starter adventure. My husband nor I had played DnD in almost 30 years, so there was a big learning curve for us both. This adventure was put togehter to allow for that and introduce may aspects. We did it in about 2 1/2 very slow moving hours (we were learning).