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A Smattering of Swords
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Jonathan K. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 10/08/2021 14:31:04

This is a great product, first an foremost the art is excellent and worth the asking price alone. Each sword is interesing and unique that will be worthwhile including in any campaign, or even building a campaign around.

Mechanics wise I would say it's 80% there, there's some places where the language used could do with some tightening. For example, as written several swords will give a character (while attuned) a bonus to hit with any attacks. This should probably instead read "You have a +X bonus on attacks with this weapon." to avoid any unforseen...synergy.

Again I love this product and will be keeping a close eye on the author/artist for their future work!



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
A Smattering of Swords
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DDAL09-20 Where Devils Fear to Tread
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Jonathan K. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/25/2020 09:23:53

Ran this with a heavily optimised party, in hindsight there are several changes I probably should have made.

Before that though, I would like to thank the author for finally spelling out Dara's mission in the call to action. Previous modules appear to be missing this, instead using vague ideas of what she is doing in the Hells. There's a few inconsistencies between this module and 09-19, namely it's implied that Mahadi has left the company of Dara's entourage. His emporium reappears without explanation which is a bit jarring.

The first part is intersting with the use of Advancing and Delaying encounters. I didn't like how there's half a page of "These abilities simply do not work" something that has cursed high level content since its first release. Would be nice if it is spelled out that a paladin's divine sense identifies a path of consecration.

I didn't realise that the encounters must be played in order, the way the text reads "Play an advancing encounter" implies that they can be mixed up slightly. For future DMs of this adventure, don't mix them up, it works a lot better. The delaying encounters are far more detailed and intersting than the advancing encounters. the third advancing encounter doesn't read like an encounter at all, there's a non-threat that is hidden but there's no reason the party would interact with it. That encounter certainly needs more work.

The Battle at the End of Part 1 is definitely set up as something of an epic scale, however it didn't play out that way in teh slightest. This is where I would have made some changes since the big bad appears by themself in the second round. And (despite maxing their HP) within a round they are dead. Single targets are too easily ganged up on to place in a field by themselves. Instead, for strong-very strong parties, the second and third waves should arrive at the same time to try to prevent the party from being able to focus fire upon the boss.

Part 2 is a bit of a blur, I love the stakes but I don't love the encounters. The first encounter with four Rocs is an exercise in attrittion, and parties hate the 28 wizards. The second encounter with the balor is ok, but still nothing to write home about. The rune in the center of the encounter is interesting, but not interesting enough to make use of.

I'd like it if there was clarification on what happend with Elturel exactly. Is it still in hell at the beginning of the adventure? At the end? My players had questions and I had no answers.

Tier 4 content is tough to design for, players simply have too many resources to be able to drain them within a 4-6 hour module. If tables seek a challenge without having to make too many adjustments to the modules I would suggest that 09-19 and 09-20 are run back-to-back with no long rests. That should provide a gaunlet of a challenge where players actually have to manage their resources and not just use them all at once to blow away encounters.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
DDAL09-20 Where Devils Fear to Tread
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DDAL09-19 Fang and Claw
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Jonathan K. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/08/2020 17:37:30

This module isn't bad. It's a much better example of tier 4 play than the season 8 modules and has a great background to it that will probably make it memorable. Hwever there are several short comings that result in the 3 star review.

Firstly, the opening. While it's jarring, shocking, and scary to open with a major combat in the Call to Action. The exploding head ability feels downright cheap to the players. One of my players, when targetted using the rolling system as written, had to then sit on the sidelines for the rest of the battle while the party fought off the foes. This sucks, especially in the rare tier 4 game. I honestly would reduce the hit point threshold to half of what it is currently, then at least the majority of characters would have at least two turns to act before being no-save killed. The priests offering raise dead is kind of a slap in the face when you read the spell and realise that it wouldn't work. Is this a bug or a feature?

Combat in tier 4 is typically difficult to balance, with the winner generally being dependant upon who rolled initiative first and does anyone have surprise. I would say that the combats within this module are genrally balanced, but strong, well played characters will probably render the majority of them trivial. There's no getting around that tier 4 characters simplly have too many resources for 4 hour modules.

The graphic descriptions of gore are presented without content warning, something that in 2020 we should really be doing by now. This is especially pertinent considering the current discourse about what is appropriate to be on the DM's guild. Should an appropriate content warning be put into the module's description I would be happier to grade this adventure at 4 stars.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
DDAL09-19 Fang and Claw
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CCC-GEL-01 Bedlam at the Benefit
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Jonathan K. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 12/04/2019 17:24:03

This is a great adventure though I would peg it at best being run in 4 hours rather than 2. The opening roleplay chapter works pretty well, but takes some understanding to clarify what checks should be made when. The second half is pretty deadly for tier 1 parties and the skill challenge DC perhaps a little too high. Either way an enjoyable adventure and one I bring out often.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
CCC-GEL-01 Bedlam at the Benefit
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CCC-TRI-31 Out of Time
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Jonathan K. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 12/04/2019 17:10:28

Excellent adventure. The opening scene gives the players plenty of reason to care about the adventure, and drive the narrative forwards. One of the few adventures that I will run more than once.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
CCC-TRI-31 Out of Time
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The Art of War for D&D Players
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Jonathan K. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 05/23/2019 09:01:53

Solid product worth sharing with your group. There has clearly been a lot of effort put into this work which I appreciate.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
The Art of War for D&D Players
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CCC-OHAYOCON-01-03 Fiendly Competition
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Jonathan K. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 04/09/2019 17:08:19

This adventure is solid, if slightly flawed in execution. I love the use of bounties and allowing for the non-chosen bounties to be used as bonus objectives. My only issue came up with Episode 3, it isn't neccessarily clear which encounters should be used when and having a single enemy as the final boss leads to problems where action economy is not in their favour.

I enjoyed it though and will probably run it again in the future!



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
CCC-OHAYOCON-01-03 Fiendly Competition
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Creator Reply:
Hi, thanks for the review and the feedback! It seems that there was an numbering error in the first scene of episode 3 that directed to which resolution to use. I've updated the file with the correct numbers. So please re-download if you're going to run it again. Appreciate you bringing this up! Regarding the final fight (without spoilers), this is indeed the peril of a single monsters. There are some tactical options it can take advantage of that can make it more challenging, but once it's vulnerable, it's likely to go down quickly. A bit of trivia: it initially had more uses of its special item, but early playtests showed that this had too much potential to TPK parties before they ever got a turn.
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DDAL08-15 Forge of Fangs
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Jonathan K. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/24/2019 20:53:41

Annd wrapping up this trilogy, which started out so well, we have the forge of Fangs.

All content was completed in 1.75 hours, a lot shorter than the listed run time of 6 hours. Admittedly the characters had access to wall of force and dawn, completely trivialising the forge encounter.

The final encounter has some potential, but the players had access to a sunsword which again trivialised the encounter. The Cleric spell list is a bit short and contians spells inappropriate to vampires (Revivify?), it could do with some tweaking, I would advise people who run in the future to change up the spells to make it more competitive. To the author I suggest having some method of reducing sunlight's effectiveness against vampires that the players had to circumvent in some way.

This module again suffers from the lack of varied vampire mobs athat can challenge a tier 3 party. had the encounters leading up to the final encounter been more challenging I suspect that my group wouldn't have had it so easy.

Compared to 8-14, this module has potential to be fixed, make the encounters prior to the finale tax the player's resources, and fix the spell lists and this might manage to make it to the 6 hour run time.



Rating:
[2 of 5 Stars!]
DDAL08-15 Forge of Fangs
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DDAL08-14 Rescue from Vanrakdoom
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Jonathan K. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/24/2019 20:41:51

Oh Dear.

This is a 6 hour module, we finished in 1.5 hours, completing all the content. Admittedly this was partly due to resolving certain combats narratively as, well, there isn't a single creature witha CR greater than 5 in the module as written, with only suggested vampires for stronger parties.

Did the Author miss the memo that this is supposed to be an adventure for level 11-16?

The magic item was hidden in the wrap up. it could have been given to a dangerous antagonist to offer some variety but instead it is awarded at the completion of th eadventure... yawwwn

There a shadow dragon, that can breathe out a teleporting mist? Kind of neat but I must have missed something in the memo because that isn't explained at all. Why does the dragon work with the vampires? Why would it help the party and the prisoners? None of these questions are answered in the adventure.

The bonus objectives have a promising start in BO A, but then it all falls apart in BO B with CR2-5 threats, and then an inane backstory that can't be reconciled, ugh.

My ony reccommendation for this adventure is that it can be run in so short a time, while being worth 6 advancement checkpoints. so if you need to level someone quick, you can run 8-14 and 8-15 in the time it takes to run a standard module.

Poor show on the Admin's front for allowing this through the approval process.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
DDAL08-14 Rescue from Vanrakdoom
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DDAL08-13 The Vampire of Skullport
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Jonathan K. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 03/24/2019 20:28:51

Out of the three tier 3 season 8 adventures, the is the one that is most worth playing, the only one worth playing more than once.

The characters are led on a fun excursion to figure out why citizens of Waterdeep and Skullport are going missing. The investigation is a lot of fun and the bonus objectives fit more or less seamlessly into the main adventure. If I could change anything from episodde 2 it would be to expand slightly more on the NPC's character an give them a bit more to say.

This module, like the other two but to a lesser extent, suffers from the lack of vampire options. The problem being that there is only really two options for vampires - CR5 spawn or CR13/15 vampires. The author here has dealt with that issue by bringing in other potential enemies such as war priest and blackguards, though they could use a little more augmenting to bring them up to tier 3 competitiveness. Alternatively this would have been agreat time to add a couple of new vampire based NPCs to the menagerie.

The Maps are great, the second bonus objective contains a little more combat-combat-combat than I would like, though if it was played out fully the module may have run closer to the 6 hour runtime rather than the 4.5 that we managed it in (Fast DM, experienced players, many magic items)

Overall I enjoyed this module a lot, it's a shame that the following tier 3 modules do not hold up to the same standards.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
DDAL08-13 The Vampire of Skullport
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CCC-DRUID-01 The Scourge Unseen
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Jonathan K. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/26/2019 13:28:46

This is a solid dungeon crawl with some issues that prevent getting the top marks. Some of the puzzles rely heavily on player knowledge of Forgotten Realms lore, which can be an issue depending on the players you have at the table. I ran with a very weak group and the encounters were difficult to balance - they found themselves often overwhelmed by the lack of available resting points. The final encounter is a bit hazy and could do with clarification on locations of the enemies, thoughI think if I ran with a more competant group the balance would be less of an issue.

Overall I enjoyed this adventure and would probaly run it again.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
CCC-DRUID-01 The Scourge Unseen
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CCC-KUMORI-01-01 Wreckers
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Jonathan K. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/26/2019 13:23:59

Fun two hour adventure that has a satisfying conclusion. Highly reccomend for both first time players and DMs.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
CCC-KUMORI-01-01  Wreckers
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CCC-MACE01-02 A Panthers Peril
Publisher: Dungeon Masters Guild
by Jonathan K. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/26/2019 13:22:38

Passable adventure, frustratingly it suffers from the curse of being the second part of a trilogy where the hooks and the ending are weak unless you are planning on running all three parts in succession. There's also an issue of the characters being given far too many long rests inbetween not very difficult encounters. This doesn't really follow the balance of 5e and means any resources used during an encounter are quickly regenerated leading to a disparity between short rest classes and long rest classes.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
CCC-MACE01-02 A Panthers Peril
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DDAL05-02 The Black Road (5e)
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
by Jonathan E. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/07/2019 23:09:45

I enjoyed running this adventure a lot. The combats were really close due to some low rolling on my party's part. My major complaint is the sandstorm in the middle of the adventure lacks guidance on what the NPCs do - they come accross as completely hopeless which is worrisome for people who apparently make the journey often.

The final encounter is sort of shoe-horned in with the party having no real way to avoid it without getting into another big fight where they are on their last legs.

It seems that I have a lot od negatives but this module is great for everyone, first timers and experienced DMs alike.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
DDAL05-02 The Black Road (5e)
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DDAL07-11 A Lesson in Love (5e)
Publisher: D&D Adventurers League
by Jonathan E. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 02/07/2019 23:03:14

This adventure leans heavily on

a) the DM having the ToA book

b) there being a wizard in the party

Big no-nos in AL writing so the score reflects that. If it were not for those major issues this adventure is pretty good with potential for plenty of combat and social interaction, less chance of the exploration builds being able to flew their muscles.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
DDAL07-11 A Lesson in Love (5e)
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