This intro module provides good bite-sized adventures for people new to DnD. I ran parts of this adventure for seven different groups of entirely-new-to-DnD players.
The frame story was compelling, each of my groups felt motivated to pursue the quest and didn't feel railroaded into the story. That's a strong point for me. Also, thinking of the chapters as negotiation, infiltration, wilderness, or resuce helped me as a DM make them feel different from each other--not just fecth-n-kill--and to encourage different styles of play for each one. The challenge of the icy slope and surprising bushes was particularly fun and all my groups enjoyed it.
My big objection is to chapter 4 with the recurring character, JG. Especially for players who are playng DnD for the first (or nearly first) time, it is confusing and frustrating to encounter a foe who is clearly evil and nonetheless to have to decide 1) they can reasonably rely on her word when they make a bargain, 2) the task she sets is reasonable, and 3) it would be a complete waste of time to fight or trick her. Having run this several times, each time the party almost "failed" becuase they made totally reasonable guesses that she wasn't to be trusted, what she was asking them to do was wrong, and/or they could fool her if they were clever enough. Very bad material for an intro adventure.
Given the bullet list in chapter 4 of ways for the DM to "overcome" the party's objections to the task set by JG in this chapter, I think this problem must've come up in a playtest or two. It would've been better to substanitally re-write or drop this chapter. Advice to DMs running this module, skip the JG chapter. (Sadly, this chapter often seemed to be the most importnat one to my parties becuase of the hook with the comatose/cursed/poisoned cook's assistant.)
Otherwise, again, I had fun with this adventure. It was flexible and not railroaded, had options for different play styles, and at least one engaging challenge. Overall, a good adventure.
|