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DDEX1-05 The Courting of Fire (5e) $2.99
Average Rating:4.3 / 5
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DDEX1-05 The Courting of Fire (5e)
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DDEX1-05 The Courting of Fire (5e)
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
by Brian D. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 07/30/2019 20:19:49

This is a pretty fun modules, as with the other DDEX season 1 mods I've run thus far. Players enjoyed it. To start, I really like how many of the modules are not only tied into the seasonal theme of dragons, but have common touchpoints (Mantor's library, for example). I was able to ad-lib in a NPC from DDEX 1-06 (we ran that first) named Casra and the PCs liked getting to work with her again. Nice touches like that.

As with many of these modules, there is some investigation at the outset, and then the last part winds up being a bit of a dungeon crawl. This isn't a bad way to do it. In this case, there are some NPCs who the players may/may not fight that are fun to role play, and my players had a good time interacting with them (Spernik and his kobolds). They used some guile to get him to help them, and I rewarded those efforts as much as if they had killed him.

Few issues: First, Spernik is written more like a thief than a cultist with spellcasting abilities. He's 19, talented but a bit impulsive, yet scared out of his wits of what the cult will do to him if he fails. I would expect a character with clerical powers and a reasonably high wisdom to make more measured decisions, or be truly fanatical. I changed him to be a rogue and it worked well. Second, in some of the fights, there are a lot of monsters (zombies in particular). We ran way over on time on this one, despite the fact that I did some DM "cleanup" when it was clear that the PCs were going to win the fight. Remember that Zombies have to be killed hard to be put down (they get a save to avoid dying and instead be reduced to 1 hp to fight on). This can drag a game on. Consider changing some of the zombies to ghouls and reduce their number. Lots of Kobolds later, as well. Fewer, more challenging monsters often means more memorable combats. Finally, there is some degree of confusion between "The Circle of Scale" and the "Cult of Dragons" -- make clear at the outset when running the game.

The trap rooms turned out to be a big non-starter because one of my players was an Arcane Trickster... mage hand FTW!

So, mixed bag to some degree, but again, plenty of fun to be had. The encounters offer some RP opportunities that shouldn't be missed. Remember, your PCs don't always have to kill baddies to overcome them. Encourage creative problem-solving!

-Brian

PS -- Never figured out what the bag of chalk and scrollcase were for. Did I miss something?



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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DDEX1-05 The Courting of Fire (5e)
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
by A customer [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/31/2018 10:37:47

Decent adventure. PCs managed to avoid speaking with the quest giver at the start and had no reason to solve the puzzle. Other than that, nice, simple and concise module.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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DDEX1-05 The Courting of Fire (5e)
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
by Jody J. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/26/2018 14:54:53

Enjoyable module with a mix of Phlan NPCs, puzzles, and combat. The finale encounter was not combat required which a group may find refreshing. This one played within the time alotted and it was nice to see the connection to DDEX1-6 The Scroll Thief and Mantol's Library to connect them together and generally to the Pool of Radiance plotline. The drawbacks are the 4 hour run-time for store play and the limited XP (tuned for level 2) but should work better in a convention or home play environment in Season 8.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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DDEX1-05 The Courting of Fire (5e)
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
by Andrea C. T. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/17/2018 17:20:08

I ran this module online via discord with little problem. There was enough RP avenues for the DM to provide the party clues and hints on where to go next. Though there is an exploration aspect, the layout of the dungeon was simple enough that it can be described without requiring visual aids. Even the traps and puzzles could be figured out with just the description in the module itself without needing to giveaway or be super obvious with the clues.

The combat might have been too easy for the party (despite going with the suggested APL difficulty) but that might be because party composition wasn't taken into consideration. Still, a good and fairly easy "pick up and run" type of module to run that's great for newbie DMs like me.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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DDEX1-05 The Courting of Fire (5e)
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
by Oskar R. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 07/30/2018 10:19:19

A pretty good adventure. I had already run The Scroll Thief (DDEX1-06) and that helped the book theft aspect of this. They players had established a relationship with Casara (who I made the Lady Sage of the library for conservation of characters reasons) and I had her joke about needing to reevaluate their hiring practices after so many book thefts. Players bought in with the transition and the adventure ran pretty smoothly. They got through the puzzle/exploration in Phlan without too much trouble and the dungeon delve in the temple was fun. I did alter some of the encounters but I do that with almost every module in this season to give my players the level of combat challenge they enjoy (and I enjoy).

Overall would recommend. If you are running most or all of the season 1 modules as a campaign, I would also recommend mixing up the order so there is at least 1 module between this one and DDEX1-06.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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DDEX1-05 The Courting of Fire (5e)
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
by Charles W. I. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 07/27/2018 20:37:46

Fun module with plenty of combat and some fun puzzles to figure out.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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DDEX1-05 The Courting of Fire (5e)
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
by Mikaela R. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 07/03/2018 00:55:33

I like the lore behind this module, but I wish they expounded on the cult that built the sanctuary for the claw. What I love the most about season 1's storyline (aside from its connection to Tiamat, our mother and strength) is how you can feel the immersion with how consistent the NPC's are.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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DDEX1-05 The Courting of Fire (5e)
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
by William F. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 06/27/2018 01:31:09

Shares a very similar story to The Scroll Thief DDEX1-6. Despite being numbered before the Scroll Thief, I feel that the whole campaign story works better if you run the Scroll Thief before this module. The investigation in the first section could go really short or really long. I think that there should have been more clues as to the location of the Temple of the Scale. There is a danger that the characters will kill the NPC Spernik who is refered to later in the season. There were some areas in the temple that didn't advance the story but overall I liked it. The run time for this adventure can be quite variable but I think that it is worth running in order to advance the season's storyline.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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DDEX1-05 The Courting of Fire (5e)
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
by Frank v. d. Z. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 06/05/2018 08:36:34

THe courting of fire brings to the table a nice connection to other villains in the season 1 modules. It also supplies a well balanced adventure between dungeon crawl and investigation. Be carefull as a DM not to let your players just run in circles for one of the pitfalls in the investigation is that the clue to the next stage is only hidden in one place. Even though it is in one place, it is very easy to find, so shouldnt be a huge pitfall.

The dungeon crawl is nice, I liked the flavor given to most rooms. It was very unfortunate that most puzzles could be solved as simple as using a cantrip (Mage hand). The final fight is very rewarding. My Druid took some of the ashes as a flavor item, so it's defeniatly a memerable foe.

Its a good adventure to run on an off-night where you know focus will be at a low. You can easily autopilot this adventure if the DM's stears you to the hint needed for part 2.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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DDEX1-05 The Courting of Fire (5e)
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
by Greg T. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 05/03/2018 17:29:16

A serviceable adventure suffering from some construction issues.

THE GOOD: Courting of Fire is a professionally-written adventure, divided (quite sharply) into an investigation half and a dungeon-crawl half. For the first time in the Season One Adventurer's League path it suggests story continuity, making good use of characters and locations encountered in previous adventures in the path. Some of the writing is really quite sharp, and I still love "WANTED! For thievery most cunning!" as a piece of phrasing. There's lots of talking, both with townsfolk and with villains, which I always love.

THE BAD: The module suffers throughout from some basic problems of flow and construction. The investigation component is basically the players trying to find the precise location of the dungeon they need to go to, but the adventure isn't as clear as it could be about what is or is not sufficient information to achieve this. As written, it will require hitting a particular conversation topic at Cockburn's Grocery. There's opportunity for a more lenient GM to let the players go sooner but doing so largely shortcuts the entire first half of the game. The writer could have benefited from the principle of "every clue should be offered in three places" in constructing RPG mysteries.

Likewise the dungeon-crawling portion has weird irrelevant rooms with potentially time consuming fights and no treasure, punishing players for exploring. Player motivation throughout the adventure is often unclear, with a weak plot hook for drawing players in, and a quest that can be adequately completed without engaging with any of the dungeon's puzzles or final battle. The artifact McGuffin at the end of the dungeon disappointingly has no clear powers and is apparently of little monetary value.

As a last point - it's not really this module's fault, but it's a little weird that both DDEX1-05 and DDEX1-6 deal with book thefts. It's a fairly specific plot point and it feels odd running them back to back, especially as none of the books end up being of any great importance.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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DDEX1-05 The Courting of Fire (5e)
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
by Steven G. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/11/2018 18:21:41

This one was fun to run. I liked that the adventure had non combat options to solve some of the things in the adventure. The players had a good time figuring it out and tracking who did it and where they were. It was nice to run something where Phlan was still standing. I just wish that I had been able to run it when it first came out and seen the story in more of a cohesive story.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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DDEX1-05 The Courting of Fire (5e)
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
by Heath B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/14/2018 18:40:48

An interesting setup for a recurring villain. The investigation section, once I understood it as the DM, was easy to run and the players followed the clues correctly. The dungeon was also a fun crawl with some thrilling encounters and ways for the players to "outsmart" the tricky parts. A simple cantrip avoids some traps, which I think is fine. I felt there were some loose ends that interested players more than they should have; I had to do some quick thinking to divert what could have been hooks for an entire invented campaign back to a swift AL wrap-up. The villain is resourceful for a Tier 1 adventure and will be a joy to play again later in the season. I still need to get more efficient about run time; having prepped all the maps and monster hit points I still ran this four-hour module in seven hours of game time spread into two sessions. The final room is a bit crowded of a chamber for a Strong or Very Strong party. I suggest adding 5' in each direction as part of the adjustment.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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DDEX1-05 The Courting of Fire (5e)
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
by Paige L. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/10/2018 10:52:39

The goals of this adventure are to have a brief investigation, and a brief dungeon crawl. Mission accomplished, but nothing here is really amazing. It is what it says on the box, and not a whole lot more. For all that, it's a good set of bones. A good DM and a fun party can make whatever out of it they want to. Or they can just kinda play it on autopilot. You get what you put into it.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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DDEX1-05 The Courting of Fire (5e)
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
by Jeffrey W. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/10/2017 00:40:14

A combination of both investigative roleplaying and short dungeon crawl, this module doesn't do anything exceptional, but remains both satisfying to play and run. The invistigation portion can push you over the standard run-time for these modules if the players aren't particularly into it, so a DM may need to be prepared to mitigate that. The short dungeon in the last half manages to tick all the boxes for a solid dungeon crawl, without any real standout moments.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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DDEX1-05 The Courting of Fire (5e)
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
by A customer [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 09/28/2017 17:02:12

This adventure would probably rate a 4/5 for playability in my book. I have both played and DMed this module. Not bad in the story. The combat is solid though. This module was my first attempt at including terrain in the adventure map. Get yourself some sculptable floamy stuff from Michaels and make the first encounter REALLY fun. I had one player go crazy in a dead end. "What do you mean there is nothing here???" The final fight actually seemed a bit of a let down, but that was probably more of a DM issue not up-scaling, then the adventure being less intriguing. I still enjoy playing this module.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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