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I received my copy of King of the Trollhaunt Warrens yesterday, and I have one word to describe it: Fantastic! (imagine Christopher Eccleston saying it for best effect).
I love the evocation of Celtic mythology (I should; my last big campaign used some of the same roots), and it really feels like a great, significant adventure. I'm going to go out on a limb here and pronounce it the best adventure Wizards have produced... for any edition of D&D.
Beats me if I'll feel that way in a week or so when I sit down to review it for real, but my initial impressions are incredibly favourable.
Hey Merric.
Do you think it'd be an easy convert to other systems/editions? It's just that I'm a bit of a grognard...
I think it's an easy convert, but that's mainly because I just throw out the monster stats and put in the stats from the older editions. (I do exactly the same thing with Castle Zagyg for C&C/1e->4e conversion). Conceptually the encounters can be run as written. Balance-wise, may give more problems. Just pay attention and you should be fine.
There are allready to well fitting "plug ins"... Dark Heart of Mithrendain and Claws of Tyranny. (I will try to use both of them) They add some nice RP opportunities, too.
I received my copy of King of the Trollhaunt Warrens yesterday, and I have one word to describe it: Fantastic! (imagine Christopher Eccleston saying it for best effect).
I love the evocation of Celtic mythology (I should; my last big campaign used some of the same roots), and it really feels like a great, significant adventure. I'm going to go out on a limb here and pronounce it the best adventure Wizards have produced... for any edition of D&D.
Beats me if I'll feel that way in a week or so when I sit down to review it for real, but my initial impressions are incredibly favourable.
Cheers!
That place, for me, is occupied by Red Hand of Doom. But I'm eager to see what P1 is like. Didn't quite like H2 and H3.
I liked H1.
Didn't like H2.
Haven't gotten to H3 yet, but I think I will like it just because its so darn retro.
I don't think I'll be doing P1, unfortunately, because I'm about to break the campaign and start a homebrew campaign. And my homebrew campaign is going to use the shadowfell and the feywild as major elements. Because my players are all new to D&D, they have no preconceptions about either of these places. This means that I have a blank slate to work with, and it will be easier for me to invoke a sense of wonder. I don't want to ruin my chances by running some of them through a different version of the feywild before the homebrew starts, so I won't use P1.
Except that... now MerricB has me curious. I actually respect his opinions, and now I'm worried that I may be missing out. Is it worth buying just to read and learn from? And if so, why? Hurry up with that review.
This one looks like it might have promise; I'll check it out for converting to my Saga game. The main problem for me, assuming it's good, is finding some way to make it more than "Red Hand of Doom -- with trolls!" considering we're just finishing up RHoD.
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I liked H1.
Didn't like H2.
Haven't gotten to H3 yet, but I think I will like it just because its so darn retro.
I don't think I'll be doing P1, unfortunately, because I'm about to break the campaign and start a homebrew campaign. And my homebrew campaign is going to use the shadowfell and the feywild as major elements. Because my players are all new to D&D, they have no preconceptions about either of these places. This means that I have a blank slate to work with, and it will be easier for me to invoke a sense of wonder. I don't want to ruin my chances by running some of them through a different version of the feywild before the homebrew starts, so I won't use P1.
Except that... now MerricB has me curious. I actually respect his opinions, and now I'm worried that I may be missing out. Is it worth buying just to read and learn from? And if so, why? Hurry up with that review.
I really don't know if I want to run H1 to E3. I've started them, and I bought them up to P1 now (I haven't taken a deeper look that, though). But I also really want to flesh out and run a homebrew campaign!
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That place, for me, is occupied by Red Hand of Doom. But I'm eager to see what P1 is like. Didn't quite like H2 and H3.
Yeah, although i never ran it, RHoD looks like one of the top adventures (although my tippy top fave is probably Return to the Tomb of Horrors).
I liked H1 a lot, and i plan to run H2 and maybe H3. I received Trollhaunt yesterday, and after a cursory glance through it, yes, it does look very cool. It takes us a while to get through campaigns though, so at the rate we're going, assuming I run H2 and H3, we won't get to P1 for probably another 6-9 months.
H2, however, seemed haphazard -- like "here's a collection of cool encounters; we can't be bothered to come up with a coherent explanation for them so we'll just shove 'em in the Underdark and call it a day."
Haven't got H3 or P1. But I, too, respect Merric's opinion and would like to see a full review of it (P1).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nebulous
Yeah, although i never ran it, RHoD looks like one of the top adventures (although my tippy top fave is probably Return to the Tomb of Horrors).
You're my kindred spirit, then. Those two adventures represent the cream of the crop for 3e and 2e, as far as I'm concerned.
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Yeah - I have one group which I'm running through the H-series pretty much straight up, and I'm finding it a bit boring. I'm cutting out certain pieces and adding bits in, but in general their main weakness is that they don't really have any story. Red Hand was nice because the story was right up in your face - be a hero or this entire vale dies.
On the other hand, while H1 + H2 haven't blown my socks off as adventures yet, the H series has definitely been worth the purchase for me. In my home-brew campaign, which started with H1 and then went homebrew, I've thrown in many of the new monsters and items - Eaters of Knowledge from H2, the artifact from H3, the Norkers from H2, etc; I'm also planning to lift the Well of Demons encounter out of H2, re-flavor it for a Yeenoghu theme, and run them through that as part of the story next session. So I'm definitely enjoying the H-series, even if I don't think they're great adventures so far. P1 sounds more intriguing now that you mention it - I was going to buy it anyway in a couple months, but I guess I'll have to pick it up now.
__________________ Rick Reroll -- Deadly Rickster Utility 26 Daily
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I do think the P1 foldout map is really cool too. One is a big cavern (the cavern to the Great Warren), and the other is a combat map for a town. Very very re-usable.
(On the topic of best adventures, I would say Speaker of Dreams. It was probably the first honest module I ever bought.)
For H1 and H2, i was planning on linking them with a demonic theme, and probably tying Orcus/Kalarel back into H2 a little bit, just for some cohesion.
H3 looks even more like a mish-mash of encounters put together than H2 does. I might not even run that one yet, i don't know. One thing i do like about H2 is that there is plenty of room to create new encounters.
The thing about the H series is that its not really a series. Each one is designed to be used with existing campaigns, and in the absence of each other.
The thing about the H series is that its not really a series. Each one is designed to be used with existing campaigns, and in the absence of each other.
The thing about the H series is that its not really a series. Each one is designed to be used with existing campaigns, and in the absence of each other.
I'm aware of that. I just feel that each has its weaknesses. H1 has a fairly strong villain and plot-hook, but the adventure itself is pretty much a straight up dungeon crawl, and it starts to drag after a while. H2 has a very nice setting, with a lot of creative room to tweak and customize it, but the "plot" isn't very compelling -> "Congratulations Mario! I'm sorry, the slaves are in another section of the dungeon!" H3 I haven't looked at in detail yet - I like the concept a lot, but 3 levels feels like a very long time to be basically caught in an arbitrary trap. The pyramid sucks you in, and you don't get out for 3 levels worth of play (7.5 sessions by general estimation, aka 2 months for most groups).
I'm not bashing the series intentionally - like I said, I've gotten great use out of them. I just feel that each one has some major weaknesses.
__________________ Rick Reroll -- Deadly Rickster Utility 26 Daily
Choose one: you reroll one die roll you just made and keep the higher result; or the DM rerolls one die roll he just made and keeps the lower result.
I just got my copy! Skimming through it briefly, it seems cool!
I haven't been able to find any direct connections between this adventure and H3 though, which I would've liked. Lemme know if you've spotted one!
Also, I really hope to see a Side Trek for this adventure in Dungeon!
If there were, hypothetically, a Side Trek article, I think it would, hypothetically, have some encounters that tied into P2, but maybe not anything that ties into H3.
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