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RMH-09 The Deadliest Game
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Cameron E. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 11/07/2022 09:04:40

For context, I have not yet run RMH-10, but I have set it up and am planning on running this adventure and RMH-10 with the same group of players to provide some needed context and cohesiveness. I was a bit hesitant based on the mixed bag the "Part 1" adventures in each Domain have been so far, but The Deadliest Game exceeded my lowered expectations, and I would recommend it to be run!

What I liked: The overall content is great here. Once you get to Oselo the party has a clear goal: survive the Trial of Hearts. This gives immediate incentive to the players to have their characters interact with the other teams, the Oselo citizens, and try and gain information. This was a great hour spent doing character stuff and planning strategy.

The encounters themselves are a great group of options. The structure of a real time aspect to the adventure with Chakuna hunting the party, the competing groups, and the individual encounters to deal with. I like that there is a good mix of combat, exploration (kind of also puzzle solving in a more natural way which is great, example: 'cross the bridge with these restrictions'), and some social stuff. The fact that resting takes up a resource is also great.

Meeting one of the teams at the end of this adventure is also a nice touch, and I highly recommend running the encounter with that particular team leader beforehand to enable some tense encounters.

The encounters work to drain party resources so the later encounters feel dangerous and deadly. I also liked the math behind Chakuna hunting the party, before I ran the adventure I thought it was too likely to get amputated, but the party managed to barely avoid her so it was more tuned than I thought, and I ran 6 encounters. I think a more traditionally heroid party would get punished more, but I think this is a good thing for a Domain of Dread.

What I didn't like: The very start of the module is thematically fun, but takes away player agency. The presentation makes it seem like an encounter when it is actually just character introductions. I think I would recommend just having the party know ahead of time that there will be werepanther citizens and then let them do introduction in a tense social encounter. Having the players describe escape and then winding up at Oselo anyway feels frustrating.

I would have liked a keyed map for DMs on the encounters, that way I could give a map to players and have their encounters be determined by player paths. I think that would have added a lot to player agency. I ended up doing that myself, and having the players roll survival checks to navigate the jungle, success and failure determining how lost they get and time taken, allowing more time for Chakuna to catch up to them.

The adventure needs an opportunity to long rest at the end, if you are running this back to back with RMH-10 then there needs to be time to long rest and level up between adventures, but the ending of this module implies a great time constraint which makes that feel like a poor decision. Some sort of storm or choppy waters to keep the characters on the penninsula for 8 hours would be a good inclusion.

Also, this is super minor, but there is a T-Rex in part 2 of Valachan, but no other dinosaurs in part 1. I ended up adding 2 more dinosaur encounters. 3 Allosaurus' stalk and hunt the party, 12 Velociraptors are attacking 2 Triceratops' that the party runs into, and if the party flies up to the top of the treeline the party a Quetzalcoatl attacks.

THE BIG PROBLEM: The beginning of the adventure has some vague reasons to go to Valachan. We know there is an Amber Sarcophogus there, but still don't know why we care about it or what's in it. Other than vague reasons that the bad guy wants it. With 9 adventures in, more concrete details are needed to motivate players across the overall story.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
RMH-09 The Deadliest Game
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RMH-07 The City of Dreams
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Cameron E. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 11/07/2022 08:04:43

For context, I have not yet run RMH-08, but I have set it up and am planning on running this adventure and RMH-08 with the same group of players to provide some needed context and cohesiveness. I was pretty excited about these adventures because I'Cath is a domain of dread I'm not familiar with and as we're past the halfway point in this adventure series I was looking forward to getting some answers in what was going on in the overall plot.

What I liked: I think most of the individual encounters are pretty fun. I REALLY liked the bagman idea, a super useful item that has a chance to turn into an encounter is a very cool idea. The theming of I'Cath and the four daughters of Tsien Chiang is interesting. Moving the starting local to Darkon from Dementlieu is also a nice change of scenery. The adventure does provide an immediate goal, get to the palace of bones to get the Urn of Dreams. Madame Rotblossom is a fun character to interact with, my party didn't fight her, but she was still neat.

What I didn't like: This module is overall pretty weak. Starting out, there being no real way for the player characters to navigate the city is a MAJOR damping factor. They don't have any real choices to make as characters. Instead of wandering aimlessly the characters should have been given 3 landmarks to try and navigate towards, and which landmark they picked determines the encounter in part 1. The Jiangshi chase needs a lot more complications, as is it's very short and feels pointless, very much just a time killer. And again, if the city is impossible to navigate what is the value of a chase across the city, the player characters were feeling frustrated as I was just saying, "here's the palace, yes you're getting closer to it" and trying to give them some milestones for their characters to have a feeling of progress in the adventure, but it was pretty underwhelming. The Dream-City doesn't play a big part in the adventure despite it being discussed a lot in the module. The NPC local doesn't do anything in the story. The adventure feels fragile. If the NPCs avoid Rotblossom Madame, how do they know to seek out the 4 daughters? What are they seeking out the daughters for?

The daughters are the weekest part of the adventure. The ending part is 4 mini info dumps, but they don't seem to function to do anything. The players just wander and talk to each of them? Unless the play is getting extended? And the players are looking for a way into the palace. The adventure literally just says, "The last daughter spoken to tell them how to get into the palace." THAT IS LAME! How about some sort of puzzle or 4 clues the players put together, and then some skill check to get into the palace would make more sense. And the encounters with the daughters need more fleshing out, this is more work for the DM. It ended up feeling like busy work and the daughters are such interesting monster designs that they should have been more involved with the scenario.

Finally, the Bagman deserves his own stat block, isn't he trying to grab PC's and drag them into the bag? How does a Venom Troll represent that? What happens if they get sucked in the bag? This stuff impacts the adventure.

THE BIG PROBLEM: This adventure kind of mentions some dark presence/spirit is following the party? But in passing? And nothing is explained to the DM? What? Still don't know what the Urn of Dreams is for, still don't know who the bad guy is, how am I supposed to be running this adventure series without knowing where it is going!



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
RMH-07 The City of Dreams
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Curse of Strahd - Death House - TaleSpire Edition
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Cameron E. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 11/07/2022 08:01:33

Exactly what it says! The author has since come out with an even better version of Death House that features larger rooms to make moving models around even easier, but this version still works great. I used this board and the book to run my first game in Talespire and helped me get familiar with how to run things as a DM in the game before I started worrying about building things. It also helped prep for things to think about when I started building my own maps!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Curse of Strahd - Death House - TaleSpire Edition
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RMH-09 Expanded Maps (The Deadliest Game)
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Cameron E. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/20/2022 08:40:56

Good map pack, I liked that there was a map for Oselo to do NPC interactions and stuff during the feast. Minor complaint being the gruesome graveyard didn't feel so gruesome, but other than great a great set of maps to run RMH!



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
RMH-09 Expanded Maps (The Deadliest Game)
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RMH-09 - The Deadliest Game Map Assets
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Cameron E. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/20/2022 08:39:27

Solid map pack, felt it was missing some sort of map or visual for village of Oselo however. Other than that all the relevant battle maps you may need are here and a great price for it too.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
RMH-09 - The Deadliest Game Map Assets
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DDAL10-10 Burying the Past
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Cameron E. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/17/2022 09:28:44

For context, I have now run all of the DDAL season 10 adventures except the epic. My table is in Chapter 6 of 7 in Rime of the Frostmaiden. My party was all level 10, so I ran the adventure as a Tier 2 adventure with the exception of leaving the Star Spawn Seer in for the final encounter. I also played Prook myself as none of the players were interested in controlling him.

What I liked: Overall this is a very solid adventure. Things pick up quickly where DDAL10-09 left off, the bombs are assembled, the party gets into Xorvintroth (my table flew quickly on Griffon back having helped out the Akannathi Tribe and made piece between them and the Thuunlakalagas). And starts exploring. The structure is essentially:

  1. Quick combat encounter and investigation in the entrance to Xorvintroth (also confusingly the main building?)
  2. Venture out to 2 towers to plant bombs in any order
  3. Come back the way you came, get lostish, plant a bomb with another combat encounter

I think for a 4 hour oneshot this structure worked well. The first combat encounter is a fun puzzle of navigating between the Gibbering Mouthers and investigating the map room before more enemies attack. As my party had high perception I gave them clues that Manglers were coming to help incentivise a quick look at the map and continued forward momentum.

Both of the tower encounters were a lot of fun. The north library involves some investigating, skill checks, and a fun social encounter, how much will the PC's trust the ghost Dragonborn? There is some great roleplay opportunity here. The south workshop is a FANTASTIC combat puzzle and brutal. The mirror trap combined with the Crystal Golem abilities is a very deadly encounter that helps instill the danger of Xorvintroth. A monster statblock that blinds and slows is very tough indeed! And having the Dragonborn ghosts come back and assist in the final fight is a great reward.

The final fight is also a brutal affair. Again, I didn't weakend the encounter for my party, and it was more fun for not doing it. The Star Spawn Seer's ability to hop around and get the Hulk to tank shots made for some very dynamic action. A poor roll to save against a Polymorph is what ended up saving the party, but this was a very close one. The fountain's ability to teleport was also fun to play with. Saving Nararhak felt very good, and overall brought the Xorvintroth storyline to a satisfying conclusion.

Also having run more recent AL modules like Mist Hunters, the inclusion of maps in season 10 is commended, I felt like I got much more value paying half the price than I do from the RMH modules.

What I didn't like: Just some minor things. The Xorvintroth madness didn't really threaten the party, just one player got some unlucky rolls and the short term madness wasn't that interesting of an effect, some customized madness effects on a table would have been nice. In addition there seemed to be missing from the module some sort of inclusion to satisfy the player desire to confirm that they saved as many Goliaths as possible. Without that I ended up making up some details on the fly to confirm they had found all the dead bodies they could so they didn't stick around too long looking for more survivors.

The arcana checks for setting up the bombs don't do anything, feel vestigial, like something to do with them got removed in editing but the check is still there.

Also including some sort of large scale map of Xorvintroth would have been a nice visual aid, kind of like what is there for Ythryn, but for Xorvintroth. I ended up including my own visual aid, and this is a minor nitpick, but still would have been nice.

Overall a great adventure and satisfying conclusion to the Xorvintroth storyline (for now) looking forward to the conclusion of the Goliath tribe politicking and then seeing what the Red Wizards are up to!



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
DDAL10-10 Burying the Past
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RMH-08 The Palace of Bones
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Cameron E. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/17/2022 09:10:20

For context, I ran RMH-07 last week with the same group of players that did RMH-08 over this past weekend. I discussed with them afterwards what they liked and didn't like.

What I liked: The setting of the Palace of Bones is very creepy, the random encounter tables are a nice addition to the exploration and I like the race that the player characters are in against Darcalus' latest victim for the Urn of Dreams. The individual encounters are fun, and the character that Darcalus possessed is a real threat, she killed on of the PC's in a dramatic fight to escape with the Urn.

What I didn't like: This module as written is fine, but the BIGGEST weakness is lack of a map. The Palace of Bones is a large area to explore with multiple subsections, 2 floors, and interior and exterior, and THERE IS NO MAP IN THE MODULE to show how it all fits together. Especially for the price being asked for the module this is a BIG MISS. Despite this module overall being stronger than RMH-07, the lack of a map is frustrating. I ended up purchasing the map pack from Triden Games which is a very big help, but it's extremely frustrating that I needed to do that to get any map at all.

The post Darcalus encounter is also very vague. The module kind of shrugs its shoulders and gives up at the end, "If you spoke with the daughters in the last adventure" as part of the solution to escape I'Cath is VERY WEAK. This is adventurer's league, you can't assume PCs even played the last adventure, just have the final encounter be a cat and mouse race into the mists against Darcalus or something. Have something there at the ending. If the daughters are important to the escape, then they should have been included in the adventure somewhere, or an alternative escape provided if they weren't put to sleep in the last adventure.

Also, Tsien Chiang is a very weak Darklord, she woke up in our adventure, and the party just kind of jumped her. I made up some things about how temporarily killing her weakened the dream and the city falling apart made for a dramatic set piece for the party to race to find the Urn, but something should have been in the book if they gave her a statblock that made her so killable.

Finally, the Bagman deserves his own stat block, isn't he trying to grab PC's and drag them into the bag? How does a Venom Troll represent that? What happens if they get sucked in the bag? This stuff impacts the adventure. He wasn't present in this adventure since the party killed him in RMH-07, but the same criticism applies.

THE BIG PROBLEM: This adventure kind of mentions some dark presence/spirit is following the party? But in passing? And nothing is explained to the DM? What? Still don't know what the Urn of Dreams is for, still don't know who the bad guy is, how am I supposed to be running this adventure series without knowing where it is going!



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
RMH-08 The Palace of Bones
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RMH-08 Expanded Maps (The Palace of Bones)
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Cameron E. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/17/2022 08:58:54

A very nice map pack that helps run The Palace of Bones in a very simple manner. I really like the in inclusion of the FULL exterior palace map as an option along with the individual room maps. I ended up setting both versions up but the group enjoyed the dungeon crawl through the large full map so much that we kept using that until we got to the library.

One tweak that I would suggest is in addition to having the Full map with the roof on or off, also include the 1st and 2nd floor divide. It took a bit of communication with my players to help them understand the theater on the 1st floor and then the gallery overlay on the second, but it wasn't a big deal, other than that it's a great map that helps this adventure function.

I would say this map pack in necessary to run the adventure if you don't want to hand draw your own maps, because the module itself doesn't provide any and the descriptions are not strong enough for me to have figured out the layout without the help, thank you very much!



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
RMH-08 Expanded Maps (The Palace of Bones)
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Wyrmdoom Hunt - expanded maps and content for Rime of the Frostmaiden
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Cameron E. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/11/2022 14:17:21

This is a great adventure! a mix of scenarios with exploration and survival up the mountain, then 3 different potential social/combat encounters.

The player choices in the adventure help the next encounter they have change very organically. Do you make friends with the Kobolds? Well then you learn something about the White Dragon! Do you go up the path directly to the summit or explore the cave? Whichever you pick first colors the options you may have in the path you chose not to explore!

It also really helps give a more sensible path to opening up Skytower Shelter. This adventure answers the chicken and the egg question of getting into Skytower shelter even if you've made friends with Old Goat and don't want to take her coat.

EASY Recommendation for a Rime of the Frostmaiden campaign, will be including it from the beginning when I run the adventure again.

Some minor tweaks I made:

  1. I didn't just ask to be rid of the White Dragon, Ogalai said she would give up her white cloak to the party (for them to give to Arn to get into Skytower Shelter) IF they traded her a White Dragon cloak so she would be negotiating from a position of power.
  2. I added some backstory with the Frost Giant having been part of the army that participated in the war of Silver Marches, and having some loot from Silverymoon (and added a second Giant in the cave for my higher level party).
  3. I added some White Dragon Wyrmlings to the Adult White Dragon to add some difficulty for the encounter. My party was mostly level 9s and 10. I made the Wyrmlings part of the brood, and explained the Frost Giant's ability to control the Adult White Dragon by having her brood hostage. This gave the party a tough choice as some members were sympathetic to the dragons plight, and some were very aware of the danger a white dragon and her brood would pose wherever they went.
  4. I made Frostfang the daughter of Arveiaturace whom the party had encountered before to add some more connections in our campaign.

It was really great fun, and gave us a good 6 hours of adventuring. Now the players have to figure out how to make peace with the Goliath tribes!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Wyrmdoom Hunt - expanded maps and content for Rime of the Frostmaiden
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RMH-07 - The City of Dreams Map Assets
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Cameron E. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/08/2022 09:27:47

Lovely set of maps! I really like that they are small and feel claustrophobic, while are still beautiful to look at. Very much catches the feel of I'Cath. Thanks!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
RMH-07 - The City of Dreams Map Assets
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DDAL10-09 Recipe for Retribution
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Cameron E. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/08/2022 03:11:08

This is an adventure that definitely struggles with middle adventure syndrome. In DDAL10-08 the adventurers start a plan to blow up Xorvintroth and bury it beneath the mountain. This adventure is the execution of the bomb building.

What I liked: For players that are playing through Rime of the Frostmaiden, this is a fun little "Best Hits" type adventure. Venturing back to Sunblight Citadel, The Chardalyn Dragon, and Lost Spire are fun opportunities. The encounters are a good mix of combat and puzzle solving to challenge the players.

What I didn't Like: The pacing of the adventure left a lot to be desired. We ended up spending 2.5 hours on one encounter, having to squeeze in the other 2 before the bomb assembly. Because the adventure isn't handwaving travel it's misleading to the players how much time should be spent on it.

Verdict: This was an ok AL adventure. I think the bits and pieces are fine, it's hard to squeeze into 4 hours and doesn't have a good individual payoff. Run as a part of a campaign it's stronger, but as part of the AL drop in drop out experience the stakes are hard to explain to the characters.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
DDAL10-09 Recipe for Retribution
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RMH-06 Amber Reclamation
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Cameron E. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/29/2022 14:39:37

For context, I did end up running this adventure and RMH-05 back to back with the same group of players to provide some needed context and cohesiveness.

What I liked: Exploring the Amber Temple is fun, meeting the Lich and interacting with monsters that aren't immediately hostile was fun for the players. The number of Vestiges was also interesting, although getting that information earlier so that they could have interacted with the players in Barovia ahead of time would have been nice.

What I didn't like: The resolution through a chase is pretty anti-climactic. A single monster trying to flee 3-5 level 5 characters will have a very hard time. Magic users in the party will have access to spells like Web, spike growth, etc. The return of the Lich's memory should have an alternate method to accomplish than just greater restoration, some sort of subquest maybe. The Dark Invitation Story Award from RMH-05 didn't appear here, I don't know if it will appear in the future.

THE BIG PROBLEM: 6 adventures into the series, halfway through it all. The DM still has NO IDEA what is going on. What's up with Darcalus, the apparatus, etc? Why would Player characters care about the Vestiges and their dark gifts? What is their motivation for investigating further? Radaga has been found, there needs to be some threat presented to the players but it's all so cloaked in mystery that I struggle to get them engaged in what that could be.

Especially for the price tag (which I recognize is not set by the authors in this case) you're just not getting much for the $10 you're spending. Instead of buying this, go buy a bundle of 4 adventures from the Arcane Library for the same amount of money, even if they are presented with less polish.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
RMH-06 Amber Reclamation
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RMH-05 Unexpected Hospitality
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Cameron E. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/29/2022 14:25:06

For context, I did end up running this adventure and RMH-06 back to back with the same group of players to provide some needed context and cohesiveness. I think for a little adventure in Barovia these two adventures do a nice tour of things. I'm surprised by the use of werewolves instead of vampires as the big fight in the adventure, but there's some nice roleplaying and a very difficult fight. The guidance to do tasks for room and boarding in Krezk with the time limit of nightfall and a storm provided some urgency to players.

What I liked: I enjoy the following up on another team into Barovia, I really liked the honored host greeting the party at a nicely dramatic point in the big fight. 6 werewolves and a Loup Garou are indeed a harrowing fight for the players! And we got some magic items to use for the players nicely done! I'm going to be adding the NPCs in Krezk to a future Curse of Strahd campaign should I run it! I like the story award, I hope it pays off later in the adventure series.

What I didn't like: The module suffers from being in the middle of an adventure where the scenario is being kept a mystery from the Dungeon Master. I don't really know myself what the mystery here is. Something about Darcalus, something about the White Oasis, something about the Amber Temple. But I don't know what to emphasize to my players because I myself don't know. I also don't know what clues to provide regarding the fate of the original team leader, since we don't know that as well. As part 1 of a 2 part adventure this is fine if not exceptional, but I would NOT run this just by itself. There's not a very satisfying result for the players actions here.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
RMH-05 Unexpected Hospitality
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RMH-05 Expanded Maps (Unexpected Hospitality)
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Cameron E. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/29/2022 14:08:30

Some nice maps to fill out Krehzk and surrounding areas for the adventure! I especially like the split of the werewolf ambush and the tanner's camp, nicely done! The fog, day, and night options are great variations to include!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
RMH-05 Expanded Maps (Unexpected Hospitality)
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RMH-06 Expanded Maps (Amber Reclamation)
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Cameron E. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/29/2022 14:07:23

Great alternative if you don't have Curse of Strahd to grab the map of the Amber Temple from!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
RMH-06 Expanded Maps (Amber Reclamation)
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