I've run Path to Omu three times now (I tend to advoid running anything but Tier 1 adventures), and it's always been a good time at the table. There are some issues here, but the positives far outweigh them.
Pros:
If you're running Tomb of Annihilation, the PCs could focus on exploring Mezro for weeks without running out of material. It's meatier than the page count might indicate.
The random encounter tables are great. I really appreciate that each entry has a little context to go with it. I suggest picking something appropriate for yourPCs instead of rolling, though.
Because of Path to Omu's reliance on the Tier 1 random encounter table for the PCs' first encounter in Mezro, it's a different play experience every time.
Mezro is just really cool and the variety of encounters, random and otherwise, is impressive. Reminds me of Dwellers of the Forbidden City.
Con:
Character motivation seems pretty thin to me unless the PCs are bringing their own motivation to the table (which they should be, don't get me wrong -- it's just that the hook for the adventure is "Hey, I'll pay you to do a thing," which doesn't work great for every character.)
Some of the ostensibly Tier 1 encounters are maybe a little above what an actual group of Tier 1 PCs can handle (looking at you, Dinosaur Nest). Don't just roll randomly and assume they're all of relatively equal difficulty.
As written, Path to Omu may have a bit of a pacing problem if you expect to run it in two hours. Specifically, I'm talking about routing the party to Promise before teaming up with Kes.
Player rewards are unusually low.
While it's entirely possible to run this independent of ToA, if you don't have ToA you may have to gloss over some stuff.
The adventure wants you to keep Brokenbarrel alive to fight another day. This has been rather difficult in practice. Players don't like to let enemies run away.
My Experiences:
It's been wildly different every time I've run it, but the one thing they've all had in common is that I've had Kes recruit them for her mission without taking them back to Promise first. I've played her as the only sane commanding officer around; she knows Brokenbarrel's unhinged and she's only sticking around because she thinks Mezro has the answers she seeks. I've found that building up Brokenbarrel as tough and/or unstable leads to a good introduction of her character when she and her mercernaries show up in the library to stop the PCs from leaving.
Rating: [5 of 5 Stars!] |