Post by Gilvan Blight on Jun 24, 2009 13:40:46 GMT -5
S P O I L E R - A L E R T
NOTE THIS REVIEW WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS. IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ SPOILERS AND/OR MAY PLAY IN THIS MODULE AT SOME TIME I SUGGEST YOU READ NO FURTHER.
Summary: This adventure is the first part in a trilogy of modules that were some of the absolute last things to be released for the 3.5th edition of Dungeons of Dragons.
Barrow is the first module and is for 2nd level characters. The players find themselves in the city of Kingsholm investigating some disappearances. The investigation leads them to uncover a long lost burial tomb north of the city under the statue of the Forgotten King. Once into the tomb the party finds out they aren't the only ones there and the rest of the module becomes a chase trying to catch the defiler's of the Tomb.
As the module takes place first in a grave yard and then in a lost tomb you can expect lots of Undead. In addition the party will face some evil humanoids, mostly in the form of Hobgoblins and Verags. Along the way the party also has a chance to befriend a couple of creatures including a Water Elemental and a Fossergrimm. Most encounters are combat based, with very few talking encounters. There is one puzzle to be solved as well. The end of the module ties directly into the next module The Sinister Spire.
This module follows the 3.5 'new format' with all of the text and room descriptions in the front of the book and all of the encounter details at the back. The encounters give a lot of detailed and include rules for interacting with the environment as well as tactics for the enemies to use.
The Good: I liked the feel of this module. It ran well and the hook was a good one at the beginning. I found my players really were surprised to find everyone they were looking for dead and weren't expecting a race against time through a dungeon. Everything seemed very well written. I especially liked the encounter pages with nice in close 1" square maps with details on furniture, traps, and even mob tactics. This was invaluable as this is my first 3.5 campaign. The difficulty on this seemed just about right. There were a few close calls but never anything that threatened to cause a TPK.
The Bad: The puzzle at the beginning was lame. It was neat that it was a beholder and all but knowing anything about beholders was useless. Also there was a riddle with it that actually told the characters nothing. They just had to arrange some tiles on the floor to match the pattern on a door. It could have been a number puzzle and it would have been just as hard. I am not a fan of the Legacy item in this. Now I don't have Weapons of Legacy so I'm not sure if it's all Legacy Weapons or just the ones in this module. The character who got the main Legacy Weapon in this module spent the remaining three modules bitching about how crappy his sword was and how he was going to toss it in a lake (see the session reports). Some player handouts would have been nice, especially for the puzzle. I ended up scanning a couple of pages to hand out and making some counters, but it would have been a lot nicer to have that included.
The Ugly: I really don't like the whole divided book system. I found myself constantly flipping between room descriptions and encounters, always loosing the page of one or the other which really slowed down gameplay. I did like the encounter pages, but keep them in line with the rest of the text, not at the back (I'm guessing others complained about this as well as all of the 4e adventures seem to do just that now). The monsters in this are tough in an almost cheating way. They are obviously set up to fight against an experienced group of 3rd edition players, as they have a ton of abilities that negate the best abilities of the characters. Things that negate crits, flanks and have resistance to various types of damage are very common. Now this wasn't that bad in this module but is a trend throughout the trillogy that just gets worse as the modules go on.
Overall: this was a good module. I liked it and I think my players did as well. They definitely wanted to continue on at the end, which is always good to see. Besides one person not being too happy with his Legacy item, monsters immune to lots of attacks and a pretty annoying puzzle I didn't really find much wrong with the adventure, story or difficulty. What I really wasn't a fan of was the format. Unfortunately it looks like all later 3.5 modules follow the whole 'story section followed by encounter section' format. On it's own I do suggest this module pretty strongly. Just be warned that if you plan on running the whole trilogy you will want to do some modification to it as it has a horrible ending. You may want to pick up all three books at once, so you can start linking the changes right from the beginning.
NOTE THIS REVIEW WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS. IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ SPOILERS AND/OR MAY PLAY IN THIS MODULE AT SOME TIME I SUGGEST YOU READ NO FURTHER.
Summary: This adventure is the first part in a trilogy of modules that were some of the absolute last things to be released for the 3.5th edition of Dungeons of Dragons.
Barrow is the first module and is for 2nd level characters. The players find themselves in the city of Kingsholm investigating some disappearances. The investigation leads them to uncover a long lost burial tomb north of the city under the statue of the Forgotten King. Once into the tomb the party finds out they aren't the only ones there and the rest of the module becomes a chase trying to catch the defiler's of the Tomb.
As the module takes place first in a grave yard and then in a lost tomb you can expect lots of Undead. In addition the party will face some evil humanoids, mostly in the form of Hobgoblins and Verags. Along the way the party also has a chance to befriend a couple of creatures including a Water Elemental and a Fossergrimm. Most encounters are combat based, with very few talking encounters. There is one puzzle to be solved as well. The end of the module ties directly into the next module The Sinister Spire.
This module follows the 3.5 'new format' with all of the text and room descriptions in the front of the book and all of the encounter details at the back. The encounters give a lot of detailed and include rules for interacting with the environment as well as tactics for the enemies to use.
The Good: I liked the feel of this module. It ran well and the hook was a good one at the beginning. I found my players really were surprised to find everyone they were looking for dead and weren't expecting a race against time through a dungeon. Everything seemed very well written. I especially liked the encounter pages with nice in close 1" square maps with details on furniture, traps, and even mob tactics. This was invaluable as this is my first 3.5 campaign. The difficulty on this seemed just about right. There were a few close calls but never anything that threatened to cause a TPK.
The Bad: The puzzle at the beginning was lame. It was neat that it was a beholder and all but knowing anything about beholders was useless. Also there was a riddle with it that actually told the characters nothing. They just had to arrange some tiles on the floor to match the pattern on a door. It could have been a number puzzle and it would have been just as hard. I am not a fan of the Legacy item in this. Now I don't have Weapons of Legacy so I'm not sure if it's all Legacy Weapons or just the ones in this module. The character who got the main Legacy Weapon in this module spent the remaining three modules bitching about how crappy his sword was and how he was going to toss it in a lake (see the session reports). Some player handouts would have been nice, especially for the puzzle. I ended up scanning a couple of pages to hand out and making some counters, but it would have been a lot nicer to have that included.
The Ugly: I really don't like the whole divided book system. I found myself constantly flipping between room descriptions and encounters, always loosing the page of one or the other which really slowed down gameplay. I did like the encounter pages, but keep them in line with the rest of the text, not at the back (I'm guessing others complained about this as well as all of the 4e adventures seem to do just that now). The monsters in this are tough in an almost cheating way. They are obviously set up to fight against an experienced group of 3rd edition players, as they have a ton of abilities that negate the best abilities of the characters. Things that negate crits, flanks and have resistance to various types of damage are very common. Now this wasn't that bad in this module but is a trend throughout the trillogy that just gets worse as the modules go on.
Overall: this was a good module. I liked it and I think my players did as well. They definitely wanted to continue on at the end, which is always good to see. Besides one person not being too happy with his Legacy item, monsters immune to lots of attacks and a pretty annoying puzzle I didn't really find much wrong with the adventure, story or difficulty. What I really wasn't a fan of was the format. Unfortunately it looks like all later 3.5 modules follow the whole 'story section followed by encounter section' format. On it's own I do suggest this module pretty strongly. Just be warned that if you plan on running the whole trilogy you will want to do some modification to it as it has a horrible ending. You may want to pick up all three books at once, so you can start linking the changes right from the beginning.