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Little Shrine of Horrors - Adventure $1.95
Average Rating:4.6 / 5
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Little Shrine of Horrors - Adventure
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Little Shrine of Horrors - Adventure
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Stephane S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 06/19/2022 03:10:25

THIS is exactly what a tricky trap-dungeon should be like. Some puzzles are easier, some are harder, but it is all designed with the goal of letting the players have FUN solving them. The "so super deadly you have no chance to get through" dungeons are just plain silly and no fun for anyone. This one here strikes a good balance of being challengeable and entertaining. Puzzles are solveable and allow some experimenting and research, they are not of the "come up with some obscure trick or you all die" variety. It also adds some good twists in the story and makes for an overall very pleasant experience for everyone at the table. Highly recommended!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Little Shrine of Horrors - Adventure
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Jeffrey P. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 11/30/2019 10:55:56

Just played a one-shot with 4 5th-level characters, rolled up for the occasion (2 out of my normal 6 players couldn't make the day after Thanksgiving)

Overall, we had a great time. The mostly linear puzzle format provided a welcome break from the normal "where do we head next?" or "roll for Initiative" of the regular campaign. The adventure is nicely set up so that the party may well believe they are trying to find the mysterious "amulet of lost dreams" up until the very end with its Wizard of Oz "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain" ending.

My suggestions as such would be for those who run it:

  1. It's going to take 6-8 hours regardless, unless you slash out the introduction and just deposit the party at the entrance to the Shrine with a quick history. I think that would be a mistake because the character of Gunther is important to establish at the Inn so that the ending makes sense. For us it took 6 hours, with about 5 of that spent in the tomb. And that was with prepping the one-shot characters prior to the actual play day. My group was VERY smart and solved most of the puzzles within minutes (but still had a lot of fun doing so). They were also cautious, because getting constantly zapped by missed traps tends to make you so. Given all this, if it's a one-shot you may have to play over two sessions (I planned this for an early start on the Friday after Thanksgiving)
  2. The group enjoyed the Wizard of Oz references, but most of the Tomb of Horrors shout-outs were unknown. That's ok, but you might want to "spoil" the adventure by suggesting they read Tomb of Horrors first
  3. Use a 4th or 5th level party. Honestly I don't think level is that important, or party size. Mostly they just need to be able to tolerate the occasional unsaved 3d6 of damage and a few golems that can hit hard. Given that short rests are fine and even a long rest might be taken, you can be flexible. If you're using 5th level, you might want to max the HP on the monsters. I do NOT suggest turning the custom monsters into real golems given their immunities to non-magical damage.
  4. Speaking of which, don't give your party a lot of magic. I recommend non-magical weapons (so that the golems' resistance to non-magical damage matters) and most of all NO FLYING (which would make the Gods puzzle moot and the collapsing stairs or pit traps trivial)
  5. There are a few omissions in the text which you might want to prepare for. In the Passage of Bones (#5) It is not clear if the party can see the real door; if they can it's not clear why they would take the fake one (a. Slamming Door). In #12, be prepared for what to do if the party approaches the gargoyle with some still in the hallway (I had the door close as soon as they were next to the gargoyle head).
  6. Think about why the Shrine might still be operational after other parties have been sent here. I try to modify deadfalls and other one-way traps by mkaing them reusable. Do mummies get back into their sarcophagi and close the lid again. Do entrance doors somehow raise themselves again? I like to use sliding doors - fortunately in this adventure the presence of magical electricity makes reusable traps easy.
  7. You might want to prep slightly harder version of the later puzzles if the group quickly solves the earlier ones
  8. Lastly, but most important I suggest replacing some of the late puzzles (like #11. The Opal Room, #12. FLower Hall and #13. Ruby Closet) with combat. it will take longer, but is a relief when you're brain dead after 5 hours of puzzles and other stuff. You could embed the gems in reduced-thread golems or make the gargoyle real and crumble away leaving the gems .

Have fun! And thanks to the author for a unique adventure!



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
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Little Shrine of Horrors - Adventure
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Nicolas B. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 07/23/2018 12:16:04

This adventure is a great example of classic-style content carried out in a competant way. A straight-up, largely single-location dungeon crawl is the comfort food of 5e, and this adventure is a nice reminder that comfort food, when done right, is something we're almost always in the mood for. The puzzles are well-balanced, and the environments within the dungeon change just enough to keep things fresh.

If you're looking to treat your players to a simple dungeon one-shot, this will absolutely not dissapoint. I would recommend it most of all for parties that have just reached level 4 after finishing a more open-world experience, so that the dungeon environment feels nice and snug.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Little Shrine of Horrors - Adventure
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Phil D. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/30/2017 09:56:17

Ever since I first brought and read though this adventure, I have been looking forward to my players hitting fourth level so that I could run it.

The entire campaign so far has been MT Black adventures, with the party based in Longsaddle.

All have been great so far, but this for me was the highlight. I should add that I do enjoy trap filled dungeons and this delivered that in spades.

During my prep I was very concerned that a player could contract Mummy Rot with no real chance of getting rid of it, and almost certain death. My solution was to work in an item I found in another product, that I decided would cure Mummy Rot, but in exchange for a different non-life threatening curse. Because the affected character is now using this item at odd times, my other players are questioning what is going on. Very pleased with how that has turned out.

Certainly there is an acknowledged Tomb of Horror vibe here, but one that can be played to completion, and not an all but guaranteed TPK!

I can’t recommend this enough, even without boxed text for the room descriptions. ;)

I think up next will be Expedition to the Lost Peaks, and then hoping MT Black will put out adventures for level 6 and up. Hint, hint.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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Little Shrine of Horrors - Adventure
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Jeff S. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 12/31/2016 13:34:49

This is a great adventure module with some very interesting puzzles that will surely tickle your players' brains. I do have a couple problems with it:

  1. There didn't seem to be any tension with my PCs as they went through the dungeon. This is primarily because any damage they took from the various traps could be mitigated by a simple long rest. I know that the module suggests throwing a couple specters their way if they rest too much, but since the players camped out in the smaller rooms whenever they rested, it hardly made for a compelling or difficult encounter.

If I were to run this again, I would put a damper on the players' healing resources somehow. Perhaps there is some magical effect in the shrine that makes it to where their health die don't recover? Or maybe they risk suffering a level of exhaustion every time they decide to rest? Anything like this would have made my players more careful with how they manage their health and approach the various hallways.

  1. Most of the puzzles were great, but I thought a couple of them could have been done better. In particular, I'm talking about the Gargoyle head puzzle and the Symbol room puzzle. I don't like the Gargoyle head puzzle since there's no way to figure out how to solve it other than by guessing and an act of faith. As for the Symbol room puzzle, trying to recognize each tile by virtue of a religion check makes it to where the PCs have to either roll high enough every time or just guess their way through. This then becomes a puzzle that you do not solve by wit, but rather, a puzzle you solve by rolling a dice with a high enough value. Both of these puzzles seemed pretty unsatisfying in my opinion.

Again, this is a really well done module, but with a few tweaks, I think it could have been fantastic. In the end, though, my players and I enjoyed it.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
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Little Shrine of Horrors - Adventure
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Edward M. H. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 12/11/2016 04:17:52

This was an epic adventure module. I just ran it for my players and it was a blast. It also showed me how far the 5-Room-Dungeon design can go with a few twists and extensions. Out of all the modules I've purchased here this one definitely takes the cake. It's well designed, the handouts are done right and the map is just expertly crafted. It feels, looks and plays like an official module.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
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