Great map making and description skills, the flow between scenes and locations is seamless. But far too many unnecessary boxed texts in my opinion (particularly every box that has exact dimensions of something - the DM should describe these in a more natural language and pull out a map with those dimensions when necessary). Some trigger warnings would have been useful, especially on page 10 for gruesome imagery and scenes of torture.

This was an excellent one-shot, albeit slightly longer than I expected. This could be because after the first few fights my players stopped underestimating the kobolds and fighting much more conservatively. I love using traditionally lower level monsters in a higher level game, and this is a shining example of doing it right.

Just finished this up a couple of days ago. This was a fairly action-packed adventure and my players enjoyed it. They probably had the typical response of "You're hiring us to kill kobolds? Did you run out of one-legged grandparents to do the job for you?" to "I'm going to genocide every kobold tribe I see in the future" by the end.

Pluses:

A variety of situations where the kobolds use traps and superior tactics to give the PCs a challenge, and a number of those situations where the PCs can use intelligent tactics to give them the fight right back. Starting descriptions of areas focus on the tactical stuff first, with loot and fluff at the end. This seems to work better than a lot of D&D descriptions, which have struggled with how to convey information on each location for different purposes (I think 4th Edition separated descriptions into combat stat sections and environmental sections, which was close, but slightly more confusing).

Criticisms I think there was a little too much padding for me around the middle, and I cut some of it out. Some of the parts were less "challenging" and more just "PCs get whacked and take damage". My favorite parts were the initial Crag Kragen estate and the keep entrance to the final dungeon because they were set up in a way to punish people blundering ahead but be perfectly reasonable if you used good tactics. For example, my wife's Cleric (Trickster Domain) used her stealth powers to sneak up to the keep, Stone Shape their way into one of the towers, and then take the towers out. The kobolds were split up and surprised, and thus easily killed. Simply charging the gates would (as the adventure pointed out) be a lot more dangerous to the party. Some of the other parts were a little more just "You see a shadow and get hit by bombs/sniper bullet, take X damage and roll for initiative!", which got old after a bit. I ended up narrating my way through 1-2 encounters of the Final Dungeon because it was also pretty similar to the beginning of the adventure at the Crag Kragen estate: "You follow the Sorcerer through several rooms where kobold commandos charge out at you from hidden locations, pepper you with arrows, and the Sorcerer lobs fireballs at you. After sustaining X amount of damage, you find potions on the kobold corpses that heal you for conveniently X amount of damage, and the Sorcerer has ran from you up into a room with four central pillars ahead".

I'm wondering if groups with melee-centric characters would enjoy this adventure less. My players rolled up their characters somewhat randomly, and they all ended up with ranged builds, even the Fighter and Rogue. The only real melee characters were the kobold zombies that my PCs kept animating (seriously, the Wizard, Cleric and Bard all had Animate Dead). Apart from the few drakes, the PCs mostly fight kobolds and dragons who attempt to ambush the PCs and attack them at range, and I'm thinking that a Monk or Barbarian might get frustrated with the whole thing.

Overall, though, lots of fun!

Just ran my group through the first phase. Love it! The inclusion of maps helps me run it on Roll20, unlike several other products.

A couple of minor things/preferences:

It would have been even sweeter if there were a scaled map for the canyon encounters. Those sound quite amazing!

Regading the estate area: The lack of a saving throw to avoid falling into the pit seemed a bit unfair (at least when a new DM like myself tries to narrate that for a group of veteran players). I understand I can "do what I want" but I want to confirm if the lack of a saving throw is an error. And if not, I'd just like to hear Tony's rational so I can try to make sense of it when I narrate it. Is it supposed to be a "floor underneath you collapses?" Perhaps an acrobatics check to grab onto the ledge and remain hanging? I don't know. I also wasn't sure what sort of distance to allow perception checks (when NOT in combat, of course) to notice them.

Overall, great stuff! The more you release products like these with maps, the more you will have me as a loyal customer.

killer kobolds is a fun and exciting Adventure packed full of action that my players and I loved playing through.

Lav it. We need moar kobolds. But. Guys. I am dm'ing mostly in vtt and now i need to pay second time to get FG mod and yes - i understand - it is lot of work to create mod in FG. but :-( if i could - i not bought pdf to save money for FG version. It will be very fine if this mod will be Adventurers League mod. I like it moar then Tamoachan, or Plume (HC). And i want moar such kobolds

Setup

The Adventure is written for characters between level 8-12. It uses the standard rules for experience gain. A small party of 8th level characters is going to probably have a hard time with this adventure, and a larger group of characters of that level is going to struggle with it, but it’s an interesting, entertaining struggle.

The hook is a fairly straightforward adventure hook, some kids have gone missing. The town knows who’s responsible. They need a party of adventurers to handle some business and make some coins for their trouble. With some easy directions, they are off and running to make some easy money off some trouble making humanoids.

The Adventure

This adventure is broken up into four primary sections, and each one features an escalating series of murderous kobolds. Each encounter area escalates in reasonable ways and each one presents a surprisingly credible threat to adventurers that you wouldn’t normally expect. Kobolds are devious, and with the right amount of time and prep work, they can be amazingly dangerous. The kobolds are up to something, and the recent disappearances are part of a larger plan at work. The characters have no idea what they’re walking into, but the money they make isn’t easy, but it’s definitely worth the effort to handle the situation before it gets more out of hand.

The Aftermath

The adventurers have stumbled into real deep trouble in this adventure, and they’ve likely created more problems than they ever expected. At the very least, an undead monstrosity has been created, and it’s loose in the world. What’s worse, it’s creator is aware of how to make more of them. This is a problem that will require some time and effort out of the party, or they can walk away and let all sorts of hell rain down on the locals. There are plenty of follow up adventures and encounters you can build out of this.

What I like about this adventure

The Author of this adventure puts on a masterclass in two key aspects. Putting together a complicated encounter area that has responsive enemies and reactive elements is a hard thing to do, and each one of these parts features an example of this. The monsters are extremely clever and act with thoughtfulness and are reactive to changes in their environment. This is an excellent example of how encounter areas like this should be assembled to provide creative and thoughtful challenges to players. (The Fact that they’re a blast is pretty awesome as well)

The Second major aspect that is superb is that this adventure takes what is normally a low level encounter (kobolds) and turns them into a credible threat for mid level adventurers. They do this by playing on the strengths of kobolds: cleverness and trap building. The kobolds also have a variety of useful allies, special members of their race, and some other very clever options at their disposal to be devastatingly dangerous to adventurers.

Issues with the adventure

I have a couple of minor concerns with this adventure. This adventure requires the DM to have an extremely firm grasp of how each encounter area triggers and what happens when. Rolling the encounters as they are written requires you to plan ahead and read, and trying to run these without planning is a recipe for disaster. Read a lot, make your notes, and understand how the parts interact with each other before you try running. The other half of that is that while the encounters themselves are fairly tightly scripted, there is room to improvise and make changes if the situation needs it.

Conclusions

Killer Kobolds is an action fueled romp that puts brave adventurers nose to nose with extremely intelligent adversaries. It’s an excellent showcase for how to put complicated encounters together and some insights into how intelligent monsters operate inside a dungeon. The complexity of it requires preparation and planning, but it’s a hell of a ride with the right foundation. Even better, it gives the adventurers clear ideas of what to do next, and a healthy respect for how dangerous even low challenge monsters can be in the right situation. I give this adventure 5 stars, and i enjoy Mr. Petrecca’s work. I am interested in perusing more of his work and i will likely be spending more time on DM’s Guild checking him out.

Pls write more adventures; this is great stuff! Kobolds have never been done so well.

Excellent adventure; my group of 4 Lvl 10 PCs is having an incredibly tough time right now. As a DM, I love the pacing and the many annoying NPCs that really make the PCs hate and hunt them. Highly recommendable!

Great adventure, very evocative and well designed. The kobolds are very challenging and effective against even min-maxed characters.

An excellent adventure filled with fun and dangerous encounters. Full review here.

stuff like this is why D&D is a thing... been playing for 30+ years at home, at college, at GENCON, and elsewhere... never played a more fun mod than Killer Kobolds. thanks Tony Petrecca!

A fun adventure that moves along at a nice pace and has plenty of action for players of all experience levels.

I been playing this game for just shy over 40 years and have had a love affair with kobolds since day one of 1e. I thought I knew everything about how these little blighters work ... oh how I can be so wrong.

Tony has reinvented the kobold in my eyes. If you think that 8th to 12th level characters are going to walk through this adventure unscathed, you better think again.

Killer Kobolds is one adventure you'll want to be very careful with that character you've come to love ... the grave is only one bad step away (LOL).

I have the pleasure of having Tony as a DM. This adventure is fun! But be forewarned, the kobolds are not your run of the mill kobolds! DM's out there...get ready to challenge your players! Oh, and make sure they have a cleric handy!!!