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The Tomb of Black Sand
Publisher: Swordfish Islands
by Arseni K. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 05/30/2022 10:22:51

Pros:

  • Interesting NPCs, quest hooks and the story behind the dungeon
  • Awesome layout, I love having the relevant sections of the map and the description of the rooms in that section all on the same page or spread
  • Interesting encounters and traps that can be overcome by clever thinking and good roleplaying - combat or simple checks are not always the answer!
  • I personally really liked the art, though I know not everyone else might
  • Awesome random encounters, sights & sounds, and other random tables. I love random tables!
  • This adventure can be easily dropped into most existing settings and games
  • Although just shy of a megadungeon, it can provide for many sessions of gameplay and players can go through it at their own pace
  • Can be easily looted for parts (i.e. you can just take some of the encounters and NPCs and traps and sections of the tomb and adopt it in your own game, rather than running Tomb as a whole)

Cons:

  • Although there are handy flowcharts and explanations of the ritual and the sacrifice, I still found parts of it rather confusing because some of the crucial information to the main plot is buried in throughout the book. Take notes or highlight as you are reading through it!
  • I was not a fan of the writing style in the module and it could've used a lot more editing and proofreading (incomplete sentences, other frequent grammatical mistakes, some spelling errors). The rest of the module is so polished that the lack of proofreading stands out like a sore thumb
  • Players have to be warned ahead of time that this is not a "fair" dungeon. They are not expected (in fact they are strongly discouraged) from trying to defeat every threat in the dungeon. This may feel quite unsatisfactory to many players, especially those who have not played the oldest editions of D&D. While I am used to and fully expected this approach from this module, I was still taken aback a bit by some of the deadliness. It's not quite as deadly and sadistic as Tomb of Horrors, but it may not be to every DM and player's liking.


Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
The Tomb of Black Sand
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Izirion's Enchiridion of the West Marches
Publisher: The Goat's Head
by Arseni K. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 05/04/2022 12:24:53

I received this product after the Kickstarter. I think it is simply superb. It is packed with all the tools, advice and options that a GM may need to run a sandbox campaign, or a West Marches campaign more specifically. It is very clear, well-organized, well-written and well-illustrated. There are many optional new systems in this book that can be easily used in non-sandbox games as well; in particular I really liked the crafting rules and using monster parts and scavenged parts - it was crunchy enough to be interesting but wasn't too complex like some other systems I've seen floating around. If I have any (very minor gripes) about this products it's that the DCs for certain survival-based tasks seem inconsistent (too low or too high), and that I almost wish it was a little bit more generic so I could use it more easily with OSR games (like Worlds Without Number does for example). The other very minor gripe is that while I really like the art in the book it didn't particularly invoke in me a sense of a D&D fantasy campaign. It's really good art, but tonally it didn't quite fit. Otherwise this is an amazing product and every DM should get it and use it extensively.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Izirion's Enchiridion of the West Marches
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Fantastic Adventures: Ruins of the Grendleroot for 5e
Publisher: SlyFlourish
by Arseni K. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 07/05/2021 13:48:40

This is such a fantastic product. Not only are the adventures themselves well written, easy to run, have gorgeous illustrations and good maps, but the setting itself is such a treat and easy to adapt into other published settings! I've now adapted three adventures from the book into my own campaigns with great success and I hope run the whole thing as a mini-campaign later this year.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Fantastic Adventures: Ruins of the Grendleroot for 5e
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Caul of Winter
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Arseni K. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/24/2021 20:49:38

I really wish I had this supplement before I began my Frostmaiden campaigns! I'm glad to see that I arrived at some of the same ideas as the author about the necessary changes and additions to the modules - great minds think alike and all that. :) The adventure in the book is well-written and seems like it would be easy to run and would be quite a good introduction to Icewind Dale and the overarching story of the campaign. I mostly got this product for the non-adventure parts and was not disappointed. The map with travel distances and the map with the summary of the Ten Towns alone would make this product worth it! Excellent work!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Caul of Winter
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Rime of the Frostmaiden Ythryn Map Pack
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Arseni K. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/24/2021 20:47:03

Fantastic resource for anyone running Rime of the Frostmaiden campaign, or even anyone who just wants a bunch of good tower maps. I'm honestly flabbergasted that the module itself did not include maps like these, so I'm glad this resource exists! The only thing that I wish this product included were guidelines on importing these maps into a Virtual Table Top (such as Roll20) to more easily align the grid.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Rime of the Frostmaiden Ythryn Map Pack
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Eberron Confidential
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Arseni K. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 12/31/2020 14:31:39

Fantastic supplement. Eberron, being a game of pulp noir fiction, simply demands player characters to have too kinds of shady secrets, and this supplement is a great tool for me to help my players come up with great secrets! I highly recommend this product for anyone planning on running or playing in an Eberron campaign.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Eberron Confidential
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Creator Reply:
Thank you Arseni!
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Coldblood - Survival guide to frozen wasteland of Icewind Dale
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Arseni K. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 12/31/2020 10:38:23

There are a lot of things I like about this product, but I think it could use some expansion or clarification on certain things.

What I liked:

  • Good organization, very user friendly, the references and player questionnaire at the back are great;
  • Abstract supplies and being able to use abstract supplies to pull out a needed item in the middle of the adventure is a great idea (but see below);
  • Character death and becoming Cold-Blooded is a great idea and mechanic and one I'm adopting in my Frostmaiden campaign right away;
  • Three new monsters are very good and tie in very well into the type of horror that Frostmaiden is going for. I'm definitely using them, since most of the new monsters in Frostmaiden are rather boring.

What I didn't like:

  • Abstract supplies sounds great in theory but other systems (like Five Torches Deep) did it better. What happens if a player character has negative strength, or strength of zero, how many uses of Adventurer's Pack do they get? For that matter, isn't the amount of uses of Adventurer's Pack a bit ludicrous? A character with a Str modifier of 1 can have two uses of a pack? So that kind of implies that they can only carry two rations? That seems quite silly to me. The number of uses of Adventurer's Pack needs to be upped or based off of something other than Str modifier (maybe it should just equal the character's Str score);
  • Related problem with the abstract supplies and Adventurer's Pack: what about mounts and goliaths and magic items like Handy Haversak or Bag of Holding, or other ways to carry additional weight? I think a bit more thought could go into this;
  • The optional long-rest mechanic is too punishing. I played in a game that homebrewed a very similar rule (clearly inspired by Darkest Dungeon) and all it did was punish the spellcasters and made the game a lot less fun. In Frostmaiden, especially Chapter 2 and beyond, it's often difficult or even flat out impossible to return back to a town or it could take upwards of a week to do so. I can see this optional mechanic really breaking the module and players' enjoyment as soon as they get into serious wilderness exploration.
  • I like the idea of PCs succumbing to vice and madness if they fail to get a proper rest or indulge a little too much during rest, but the optional rule presented here just wasn't for me personally. Make a new character because your existing character is missing on a bender? I think a lot of players would have a major problem with this. I'd use short-term madness mechanics from DMG instead;
  • This is purely subjective and YMMV but the product could use some additional proofreading and the author's tone isn't something I personally liked. But again - different strokes for different folks.

There are many excellent ideas in this book that I will definitely mine and tinker around with for my Frostmaiden game. I recommend this book for the new monsters and for these ideas, but personally I don't see myself adopting the new systems and optional rules from this book wholesale - they will require significant tinkering before I do. I don't regret purchasing this product however.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Coldblood - Survival guide to frozen wasteland of Icewind Dale
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DDAL10-00 Ice Road Trackers
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Arseni K. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/26/2020 21:24:41

Excellent excellent adventure and a much better start to Rime of the Frostmaiden than the starting quests in the actual module, especially if the party are all newcomers to the Dale. The awakened animals are quirky, cute, and my players were instantly very protective of them; I also had a ton of fun coming up with voices for them. The four mini-adventures were well-written and well-organized and the read-aloud text was not too long or too annoying (which is often a problem even in WotC published modules). You can easily take any of the four mini-adventures and stretch it out into one session - I did and it worked out great. I specifically ran the Warm Bodies adventure and it went over very well with my players. The only point of criticism I have is that the maps in the module are not included as separate image files so that I could import them into Roll20 or jamboard or share them virtually with my players. I did a work-around using print-screen and Paint but I think it's something that the authors could've done beforehand.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
DDAL10-00 Ice Road Trackers
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Encounters in Theros
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Arseni K. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/26/2020 21:20:04

This is a seriously stellar product. So many encounters for almost every type of encounter (encounters in the Underworld would've been a really nice section to have), with interesting NPCs, interesting ideas, and some that are almost fully-fleshed out adventures (I ran the Deus Ex Machina encounter and it was very easy to turn it into a full small adventure). Nor is this product something that can be used only in Theros: many encounters in it can be very easily adapted to any fantasy game (doesn't have to be a mythic Classic setting either).



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Encounters in Theros
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Meletisian Games
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Arseni K. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/26/2020 21:16:28

There are some interesting ideas and fun flavor in this supplement; however, it could've really used another coat of polish, editing and revising. English isn't the author's first language and unfortunately it shows. There are also several places where there are words or perhaps phrases missing, sentences that are difficult to parse, and so on. The author has put effort and thought into this module and it has given me ideas for running an athletic event set in Theros, but it feels more like a rough draft than an unfinish product. With better editing and proofreading and a few more interesting NPC athletes for the events I'd easily give this supplement four or five stars instead.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
Meletisian Games
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Creator Reply:
Thank you for review! You are absolutely right about my english skills, but i did best that I could, and hope, at least, it don't have misprints and has a sense. About interesting NPC athletes, i consider it's not as supplement, but as small module, and wanted to make more focus for PC, which will be participating. Druid with Bear Endurance spell, or dwarf with poison resistance, can make very memorable situation during events, better than any NPC.
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