TL;DR: Amazing ending, mediocre process.
Yes, telling my players they were trapped in a fish bowl was the biggest grin I've had as a DM, ever. It was one hell of a plot twist, and kudos to the author for thinking of this.
On the flip side, the adventure itself wasn't very memorable. Apart from the initial interaction with the orb, the core of the module was just trying to find their way out of the fish bowl, with encounters written in to spice things up. With the lack of skill checks or exploration objectives, it became a very combat heavy module, and felt very repetitive very soon.
To improve the module, the roleplaying and the combat need to be spaced out to keep things fresh, and the exploration element need to be heavily improved. The employment of the players to investigate Xanathar and the process of investigation should be fully fleshed out (instead of as a very rushed hook). The orb and its blessing should appear deeper into the fish bowl (instead of the very beginning) to space out the combat encounters.
Rating: [2 of 5 Stars!] |