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Dohwar Heist (SJ-DC-DWR-01)
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Eric B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/13/2023 11:03:29

I've run this a few times and the players have had a great run each time. Everything seems to be firing on all cylinders in this adventure. Even the chase is fun and they are notoriiously sketchy in 5e.

I would like to call out the Heist Flashback mechanic optional rule on page 7 as a great contribution to the game overall. Every heist should use it. I applied it in the Suncorp's Bounty series and it really improved the experience to help generate a proper heist atmosphere. I handed out heist tokens so they could spend them to trigger their flashbacks. Note, you will probably need to prod your players about this option as they will tend to get locked into the narrative and forget they can think up a flashback.

Similarly, the complex skill test for the vault is in my opinion exactly right for this kind of adventure. Many might be temped to put a puzzle in here for the players to solve, but I find those rarely work as a source of fun D&D play. Whereas the complex skill test embedded in a narrative gives everyone a chance to shine using the character they brought to the table, instead of relying on how good the players are at solving puzzles.

ps. Might be worth publishing the heist mechanic as a stand alone supplement, maybe with a few other heist mechanics, as a way to help people amp up the new Golden Vault book, as it lacks any real heist mechanics and pretty much every adventure in it would be better with the Flashback rule in play.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Dohwar Heist (SJ-DC-DWR-01)
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Creator Reply:
Hi Eric, thanks so much for your kind feedback. I'm so glad you and your players enjoyed it. I can't take too much credit for the Flashback mechanic as it's based on the concept from John Harper's brilliant Blades in the Dark. I just wanted to develop that mechanic into an AL legal optional rule as I think thematically it can help a lot. I've found the same thing that often players will forget to use it if they aren't reminded, but they seem to enjoy having it as an option even if things don't always require it's use. That was exactly my line of thinking with the vault as well, I tried to develop the traps in this module to give everyone a chance to feel like they're contributing. My goal with this adventure was to hopefully make everyone feel like a badass pulling off a heist, no matter who they brought to the table. That's a fantastic suggestion, I think I may have to flesh the flashback mechanic for 5e out a little bit more to be able to publish it if the Golden Vault book doesn't already feature anything similar, but I think I could tidy it up into something useful to DMs. Thanks again!
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CCC-BMG-24 PHLAN 2-3 The Royal We
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Eric B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/28/2020 00:27:30

I ran this and we all had a good time. It is mostly a combat centric module that is on some heavily reinforced rails, but it's a pretty good chain of slug fests. If you're showing up to a module centered around Bane and didn't expect a lot of combat, you need to go reread the Bane entry in the source books.

I'll note the module has extensive support for running a mass battle where the players run a unit level combat. I can't speak to how well those rules actually work in practice. My players show up to the table to play their characters. The store hosts really elaborate games for unit level fantasy combat on a different day. Some people play both, but in my experience, this is not a chocolate + peanut butter situation. More like a why did you put pickles on my ice cream situation. Someone who ran it the mass combat way should write a review relating how that went.

The module offers up a well configured substitute encounter for the big battle that works quite well. This is followed by a well thought out gate busting encounter. There are just enough shenanighans going on to make your players rethink and adjust.

The puzzle is pretty well set up thematically and provided the right level of challenge. It also lays down some good foreshadowing for the final battle.

The finale is a fun battle scenario featuring some interesting terrain, mostly for the enemy to exploit. It also integrates in a fun mechanic that encourages the party to explore the area during the fight. There is a somewhat odd choice here to use acid pits. Probably to give the characters a reward for pushing enemies into it. However, at Tier 3 you usually need to tilt the table more heavily towards the monsters. Replacing the acid with lava, or other fire damage, works better for the enemy as they're all immune. I'd recommend that as an adjustment for groups that need a sterner challenge.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
CCC-BMG-24 PHLAN 2-3 The Royal We
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DDAL-DRW03 Saving Silverbeard
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Eric B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/14/2019 19:28:11

There is a lot to like about this module. Several optional encounters are set up so careful adventurers can pick and choose whether they really want to take on those opponents. The storyline extends several elements from the earlier parts of the series. We pick up with Zehira, continue the investigation into the barnacle encrusted club she found, find some freinds of Mipik, and have another run in with the murderer from DRW02.

These are undercut by several flaws that may severely diminish your enjoyment if they aren't managed carefully.

--Spoilers--

The most dire problem herein is that the module is entirely dependent on the opening encounter being a forced failure for your adventuring party. If the party does not fail to prevent Zehira's kidnapping, the entire plot falls apart. The motivation to face the dire challenges of Dragon Isle pretty much evaporate. So, for the module to work, your party has to fail to prevent the kidnapping of an NPC who they probably like.

As written, this plays out in an exhausting multiple wave of boring opponents encounter to distract them, while the real business happens elsewhere. Despite the fact that many adventuring parties would have innumerable ways to not be entirely distracted by these not very challenging foes. Again, if they do tumble to the actual shenanighans and prevent the kidnapping, you have zero module support for continuing the adventure.

My advice is for you to not play out the forced failure. Tell the players that the narrative has a forced failure, invite them to narrate why they failed to notice and/or prevent her kidnapping. Reward the players with inspiration and work with them to weave a fun and character consistent little story for why this all went wrong. You'll save a bunch of time that would have been wasted in a not very interesting fight. That time will be better spent playing through one or more of the bonus objectives.

After that, you can have a good time figuring out how they manage to get onto Dragon Isle. The opposition there is entertaining to circumvent, or challenging to fight.

If your party has a way to just fly over to the volcano, you'll find that there isn't really anything preventing them from skipping a bunch of fights. The volcano itself has an interesting map, though the scale is not given and parts of it seem too small for the huge adult red dragon. The event chain for the volcano scenes is a little confusing, but if you read it carefully you can come up with a reasonable interpretation.

The Malenti murderer's plot protected ability to follow them around is very badly supported by its stat block. I advise you to reward a paranoid party with catching him before the finale.

Similarly, the theoretical boss is just not set up to give a T3 party any real challenge, so the fight with him is only tough if the end fight becomes a multi-way chaotic mess between him, the dragon, and the Malenti. However, the actual map doesn't seem to provide a viable way for the dragon to really participate, so I don't know how one would actually deliver on that. Realistically, the Malenti would be caught early by any party that wasn't just reckless murder hobos. The dragon can't get to the bosses lab, so you really need them to end up fighting the dragon and have the boss come up behind them in order for him to be effective. However, the dragon is actually a real challenge, so adding more stuff to that fight could TPK and land you in a different kind of not fun resolution.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
DDAL-DRW03 Saving Silverbeard
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CCC-BMG-22 PHLAN 2-1 Demagogue
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Eric B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 07/22/2019 01:27:43

This is a rollicking good time. The interactions with Bane and the Bane-ishment work well. The dystopian future Phlan is a brilliant triumph.

The fights are designed to make even a tricked out party of munchkins experience some serious anxiety. I think a few of my players may still be traumatized by the tag team operations of the Destroyers.

The fights can run long, so if you're in a tight time slot, definitely worth allowing whatever shenanighans are necessary to get the group through the sewers with little to no enemy contact. You will need a good amount of time for the last battle.

The final battle is a lot of fun. The energy field mechanic is over the top, but prevents the usual issue with the boss getting dogpiled to death in round one. Module authors, buy this read this, take inspiration from it. Combat encounter design needs more thinking along these lines. This particular mechanic may be a little strong on the cheddar, but the general issue of having ways to keep the dangerous foes active requires careful forethought.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
CCC-BMG-22 PHLAN 2-1 Demagogue
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CCC-BMG-23 PHLAN 2-2 Hatemaster
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Eric B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 07/22/2019 01:00:58

This is very lore heavy adventure, so it plays well for those who like that, and is not as engaging for those with less appetite for a history lesson with a side of dungeons of dragons.

The first fight is effective at humbling a party that is not ridiculously tough. That isn't necessarily a good thing, as they're basically set up to lose and the outcome of the fight literally does not matter. They must all be ushered into the next section no matter how the fight ended. Its like a combat crunch amuse bouche thrown out to give the murder hobos something to sink their teeth into.

The roleplay skill challenge while glamoured works pretty well overall, though the check DCs are very tough and a bit more thought regarding avenues other than persuasion would help. The followup in part 4 where they all take a run at the candidate is a bit monotonous. By that point everyone has already thrown out their best pitch in part 3.

The final fight for the Neither option (fairly likely if the party was split, or not up to the epic DCs) is lackluster. It lacks a second wave to spice it up. The candidate is basically a sack of hit points to get dogpiled, his bodyguards have no interesting ways to actually do the job of bodyguard. The phaerimm provide some interesting abilities, but are chock full of save or suck powers. If they work the afflicted player has the fun of showing up to play some D&D, but gets to spend their time watching everyone else play while they literally do nothing. If they don't work, that phaerimm first round accomplishes nothing, which leaves us with the aforemention dull as ditchwater opposition.

Not as strong as the prior entry in the trilogy.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
CCC-BMG-23 PHLAN 2-2 Hatemaster
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DDAL-DRW01 Breaking Umberlee's Resolve
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Eric B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 07/21/2019 23:36:15

The many strong and flavorful nautical adventure elements come together to produce a pretty good adventure overall.

However, it falls short in several ways that motivated rating it four stars out of five.

The narrative through line is a bit muddled. The characters are dropped into Ayakar and we are presented with a picturesque fishing town by the sea for them to explore. That is a peculiarly whimsical motive for a ragtag band of deadly adventurers to assemble. Assuming we get them engaged with the quaint shops of the bazaar, we immediately sink Mezhar's adventure hook in and cast them onto the waters to carry them away from the entire setting we just built up in their minds as there is no further development of people or locations in Ayakar. There is no obvious reason why a creature as high powered as Mezhar needs to hire anyone to do this. We lack any further information regarding the mystery behind his involvement, so once he sets the adventure hook we have to be prescient enough to yank him out of sight before the players notice there is a giant pile of unanswerable questions surrounding him.

The main storyline works fairly well once the hook is set, optional objective A flows naturally. Objective B is not well motivated. Its a little underpowered and the module doesn't provide any story award documentation for Mipik.

The sea encounter is pretty flimsy if optional objective A is not being pursued. The benefits accrued of bonding to the ship are good, but once you get them, you don't need them, because the story carries you off the ship you bonded to for the rest of the adventure.

The island and its creepy atmosphere are exceptional. A+ for that. Very evocative. This part is firing on all cylinders.

It would be nice to know exacly how stealthy the Corpse Flower is for the purposes of opposed checks. It would also be nice to have some encounter scaling guidance. I found two of them worked ok as a barely adequate fight at very strong.

The final fight has sufficient mechanics based on the monster itself, but the adventure fails to showcase it properly from a combat design perspective. The lair has no map. All we have to go on for the pinnacle encounter is three lines describing a very simple cave. There is no underwater component. Which is simply bizarre considering that the monster stat block itself indicates that its lair should be mostly underwater and Axar would be a far more dangerous foe if the party had to cope with him in his element.

None of these defects are that hard to workaround, but the extra work required of the DM is the difference between four and five stars.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
DDAL-DRW01 Breaking Umberlee's Resolve
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DDAL07-11 A Lesson in Love (5e)
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Eric B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 06/11/2018 09:49:54

It starts off with a fun hook, find the daughter who has been missing for 100 years! I think the initial investigation phase is generally good.

The plot is inconsistent and weakly connected from there:

  1. Can't cast water breathing? Adventure fails.
  2. Why doesn't this module have a sidebar regarding underwater combat and the constitution saving throws required of long term exploration in the chilly high pressure depths?
  3. Head into the ship before talking to the merfolk? Adventure fails because you don't know how to save the only creature that can unravel the mystery.
  4. Why are merfolk warlocks pact of the fiend? It's a completely thoughtless choice.
  5. Aremag doesn't have legendary actions? Aremag is literally a legendary named denizen of the Bay of Chult, but his stat block is so boring as a solo opponent for a T3 party that I simply can't continue on the subject and remain civil.
  6. Aremag's motivation and scripted behavior regarding Dalnira and his lair is nonsensical.
  7. There isn't enough time in a 4 hour block to run the Order of the Gauntlet mission.

Many aspect of the module are solid. The underwater settings are pretty well detailed for encounter purposes. However, the monster generator on the ship is problematic for encounter length as it keeps adding fairly low threat monsters.

There are too many ways to fail this before you start by not having the right party. Too many ways to fail in game due to making reasonable choices based on available information. Too many creature design/selection flaws for the fights to make sense for the underwater milieu.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
DDAL07-11 A Lesson in Love (5e)
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CCC-WWC-03 Tyrant of the Forgotten Forge
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Eric B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 05/01/2018 14:04:17

Great blend of exploration, role play, puzzles and combat.

The player's expectations regarding what they'll find in the mine are delightfully subverted. I found the module to be well designed to reward deeper engagement with the material, without railroading the party into any one approach.

Do note that King Arkus is potentially quite deadly, though in a way that I found refreshingly fun for Tier 1. Adjust the gruesomeness of the Derro based on your table's appetite for such things and their sympathy for the slaves.

The extra optional combat is a fun add on. Also note that you can reduce the difficulty by timing the confrontation so that the back line of the party has cover. That way they're still facing a convincing opposition, but will be in a better position to cope.

The map pack is really nice. I found it made setting everything up quick and easy. Just cover and reveal as you go.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
CCC-WWC-03 Tyrant of the Forgotten Forge
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CCC-WWC-02 Dark Waters of Hate
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Eric B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 05/01/2018 13:51:33

Ever seen an underwater adventure in Tier1 before? This is well designed to take a party deep into the Moonsea in pursuit of another of the Tenets.

Good background material and a thorough description of underwater combat rules make this a joy to run. Do make sure you provide your players with a summary of what to expect so the martial types can borrow some appropriate weapons. Pretty easy for them to borrow some spears from the crew.

I ran this with the battlemats and found they worked very well. One thing to watch for is the unfun death spiral of failing constitution saving throws and exhaustion levels, combined with the underwater penalties. As the module suggests, it is totally fine for party to get some extra long rests before Part 3.

I found this module to be unusually thorough in handling a wide variety of different approaches to the challenges within.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
CCC-WWC-02 Dark Waters of Hate
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CCC-WWC-01 In the Face of Fear
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Eric B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 05/01/2018 13:37:06

Well designed module with a good mix of roleplay, exploration, and combat.

The background story is detailed enough to mine for hints if players go deep. Players who internalize it will be better prepared to cope with the Tenets, but a group of combat crunchers can muddle through just fine. Do note that if a low APL group just runs headlong into fighting the entire village, that combat could be long and end badly for them. As it should. The end cap chase/combat is a fun way to adjust the playing time, use it if you have time, skip it if you don't. Though I could see it taking longer than the estimated 20 minutes for a scaled up group.

The battle maps work well and I didn't find anything lacking.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
CCC-WWC-01 In the Face of Fear
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CCC-LINKS-01 Champion of the People
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Eric B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/25/2018 11:18:26

This module is packed with excellent role playing and investigation opportunities. A careful DM can run it to provide a great time for all.

Several flaws in execution create some hurdles to a good time. It is a whodunnit mystery that contains too little information about how they did it. It barely even covers why they did it.

  • It is driven by a plot armored villain with no stat block and scant detail to provide to the players that try to interact with him in combat.
  • The movements of that villain prior to the start of the module are important to the investigation and they are very weakly detailed.
  • The details of how the villain set the wheels in motion, and continues to drive the plot, are never described.
  • The agenda of characters central to the story is barely described.

To prep this you should

  • Sort out for yourself what the cast was up to before the ball gets rolling. Determine their motives and how they would make them likely to respond to off book PC actions.
  • Be prepared to have to invent many answers on the fly for PCs whose investigation leads them into one of the many plot holes.
  • Be prepared to give hints, a lot of hints, as your players wander around Phlan bumping into things that go bump in the night.
  • Think through how you want to play the major characters. The plot will lead the PCs to go deep into the weeds of conversation with one or more of them.

I deducted 1 star for flaws that make running the investigation more awkward than it should be.

The second star was deducted for the use of a plot armored villain. Just say NO to plot armored villains. If you're writing an adventure and feel like you need one, go for a walk and rethink it. Couldn't it be handled by projected image, clone, dominate, simulacrum, or having a dupe do all the footwork? Or any other approach that is actually within the rules of the actual game we're playing? This is a shared story telling role playing game. Plot armored villains do not belong.

This is a fun adventure with some really amazing stuff in it, it just has a few too many flaws.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
CCC-LINKS-01 Champion of the People
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