A great sequel to a great first part. The story and artwork were, once again, well reveived at my VTT game, and the ease of going from Verse I to Verse II was very nice for me as DM. I love any adventures that keeps track of player's decisions (especially when they actually have real decisions to make), and the background information was a very nice bonus.

I DMed this the week after DMing Verse I and both are really very good! I mentioned it in my other review, but I'll say it here again as well, I think this module really shines when not in the confines of the AL mode. There isn't a whole lot of guidance in terms of to-read block text or exactly what NPCs will do--most of it is more suggestions or broad strokes. Which, on it's own, is excellent! And really gives the DM some liberty in how things flow. That liberty, however, doesn't always work out as well in AL. So if you're planning to run this as an AL module, be sure you read it thoroughly, ahead of time, and have it ready to go. This pair is not easy to just pick-up and run with, though this second one is easier to do that with.

Despite this being almost exclusively battle-oriented, the fights never felt overly labored. The variety of monsters and the atmosphere did a lot ot keep things from being boring or bogged down. Of course, if you have an overly cautious table, they're likely to miss some of the fun things like the exploding bone barrels, or tipping over the acid vat, or touching the skulls (which, again, good example of something tough to on-the-fly at AL without prep).

The final encounter was really interested and had my players 50/50 split on who was their real target, which made for excellent moments. I also brought back Orianna/Mordakai/Nurfenpurf for the final fight--they appeared very "Team Rocket" style which everyone really got into, hahah! The freedom to bring them back (and Ser Tidus in ghost form) gave a lot of flavor to the adventure and also showed some consequences from the previous adventure, which doesn't always happen in AL modules.

My only issues are how easy it would for players to just sit in the doorways and snipe enemies before truly entering. I had the "evil" of the place just make the rooms dark and no one could see until they entered. Quite railroading, obviously, but players rolled with it good naturedly, hahah! Also, as I think someone else mentioned, I had the Paladin's Divine Sense be a little on the fritz in the inner room so as to not completely give away the intrigue. He could sense that the creature was something from that list, but since the room was so inundated with undead energy, it kept him from being able to get a good read. It worked well and kept everyone on their toes, which was the point.

All in all, a really fantastic adventure. From the support material to the custom art, to the excellent story, I couldn't be more pleased. My players and I are all avidly waiting the next installment!

An epic conclusion to Verse I. Whereas the first part was mainly focused on the interaction with the main factions of the series, this module focuses on the actual confrontation with the evil forces of Orcus. Very high stakes for a Tier 1 adventure, you usually see this kinda stuff in late Tier 2 -> Tier 3 only.

Depending on who the party allied with during the first Verse, difficulty can range heavily from super easy to incredibly difficult because of the party's allies (or lack thereof). The encounters are fun and there's some neat environmental things to play with but I do have some problems with the overall map design. It's very easy for the encounters to bog down at two respective chokepoints (bridge and temple doorway) because of the way the temple area is layed out, making the fights play out in weird ways (not sure if this was intended or not).

The overall retro feel of these adventures is a nice breath of fresh air and I hope we get to see more of this soon!

(Also check out Verse I for my full review on the first two verses.)

Going to run this for my LGS next Monday, but I wanted to leave my thoughts here as a DM. Again I'll say that I not big on frills. If I normally see a CCC with alot in the presentation I often move on. I picked up the first part of this adventure, ran it last week, the players enjoyed it and I left them with a cliffhanger ending. They want this one too! I read through it and saw some areas where I might adjust what was provided. Primarily in the Pillars of Play. I see alot of combat in the four hours that this adventure is estimated to run. Some of the Pillars of Play feel like they do not belong under their respective Pillar or belong somewhere else in the layout. Some of the pillars do not have associated checks to go along with that; easily remedied. Frequent big damage consequences that will decimate characters on the lower end of the Tier. This adventure can go in so many different directions! There were even some that I was thinking, "I wonder if my players will do X? instead of Y?". This adventure looks like it will be a fitting conclusion to its predesessor. Somehow Joyce has captured an adventure that should by rights be a higher tier adventure and perfectly fits it within the framework of a Tier One module. ... and the rewards do justify the effort .. especially if you catch the designer's homage in the uniquely flavored rewards. I was going to append my review after my players game, but I think it will be a no brainer... WELL DONE. Buy Verse I and II!

My players had a lot of fun with this adventure, the fact that it's combat most of the way through kept the table entertained. All the video game references (exploding barrels, Doom magic items, etc) were not only entertaining, but changed the tactics my players used. The combats are tough, though, had my table not had a few level 4 PCs in it a lot of characters could have perma-died through several in-game mechanics. From behind the screen, the biggest difficulty I found was running encounters with three or four kinds of enemies--each with different special abilities and resistances. It lead to a lot of page juggling with even simple actions, like PCs dropping an AoE on a mixed group of enemies. I also really wish there was a story award for touching the skulls (much as I wish there were a story award in PT 1 for Nurfenpurf's potato stew recipe).

I know this author, and he puts the same thoughfulness into his adventures as he does into everything else. The pairing of player choice with art is exquisite. This and Verse 1 are worth their price a few times over again.

My only complaint is that he isn't running this at the D8 SUMMIT this year with all the other authors running their games.

I highly recommend this adventure. It's a beautiful module, which throws adventurers into a battle of cosmic proportions and consequences.

What I liked:

I look forward to seeing future iterations of this series.

AWESOME! These adventures are so great, from the art & characters to the tokens and bonus content!! All the players that I know have played these love them!

Fantastic Mod! Very well thought out, and written. Love, love the distinct art style. Our ragtag group of adventurers had a great experience playing this module. It is very clear the author is very passionate and focuses on creating quality content, rather than pumping out fluff modules. I can't wait to see what's next!

Wow...just wow. The Heir of Orcus is one of my new favorite modules. I played is with a DM that was very passionate which made all the difference. Cult ending was so awesome. Very cool and fresh ideas by the author. I can't wait to see the next path he takes!

Pros:

• The unique pixelated art style is well-utilized and looks fantastic, from the isometric maps to the pixelated head-shot portraits.
• Maps are provided for all the areas in the module, including gridded and non-gridded, as well as nifty card handouts depicting the NPCs and tokens for VTTs.
• Each Scene has a concise method for tackling the problem in three different ways that highlight the major D&D pillars: Combat, Exploration, and Social
• Excellent use of monsters, including rutterkins, spawn of kyuss, and a tricky cambion.
• Exhaustive appendix that includes all NPCs and monster stat blocks.

Cons:

• The temple is very short and linear (~ 7 pages).
• Verse II should have been combined with Verse I to create one complete adventure package.

THE VERDICT: WHILE ITS DUNGEON IS DISAPPOINTINGLY SHORT "THE HEIR OF ORCUS: VERSE II" CONTINUES THE DETAILED DESIGNS AND EXCELLENT PIXEL ART, MAKING FOR A SATISFYING ENDING TO THE ADVENTURE.

Full review: https://roguewatson.com/2018/12/05/dms-guild-review-the-heir-of-orcus-verse-ii/

Video review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AYoAp2XImU

This is a good mod, although a change of pace from Verse 1, as it is much more combat-focused.

There are a few unresokved question. Do the PCs have to kill the Spawn in the sacrophagus to fulfill the quest? Does a paladin's Divine Sense work in the temple? As otherwise it could make the final decision the PCs have to make rather easy.

Still five stars, but Verse 1 is the better half of this series.

After DMing the first part of module, I've great expectations regarding this one. And to be honest, they were fullfilled! Unlike the previous one, Verse II is more combat-focused, but with a big chunk of exploration and strangeness. The possibilities for non-so-good characters are great and I hope to run this module again in person (which means that I will have to make a lot of printing to save the unique pixel-style, he-he).

Part 2 takes place in predominantly one large location, with a variety of great fights, and some role playing. Player choice is still strong in this one, though some effects from part 1 will be felt here.

Mixed alignment parties will have less issue with this adventure versus part 1, though there is some potential for party conflict with very strong opposed alignments, so players should try to remain on their best behaviour when dealing with each other.

Players and DM's that aren't into roleplaying may prefer to skip part 1 and only do part 2 for the interesting and challenging combat, as part one is strongly dependant on roleplaying and player action. While I prefer this, it is not necessarily to everyone's taste.

The art style is great in both adventures, and gives them a look that stands out from many other modules.

Looking forward to more adventures in this series in the future. They would also, as they are now, make a fun campaign springboard for non-AL DM's.

The Heir of Orcus adventures are unlike any that I have ever seen on DMs Guild. For starters, they are Adventurers League titles and I don’t normally play or review AL content. But there is something more that differentiates these products. Each comes with several tokens to use in Roll20 as well as sound files for creating nice background music. I also got to poke around in the Roll20 sessions and was thoroughly impressed.

read more here: http://www.nonzerosumgames.com/the-heir-of-orcus-a-dms-guild-review/