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What makes "King of the Trollhaunt Warrens" stand out?
I noticed that, of all the 4e adventures (drawing both from WotC and third party publishers) that could have been picked, "King of the Trollhaunt" was selected.
(Yes, I'm aware that Expeditious Retreat Press also got a nomination).
Now, I've been under the impression that, while not terrible, the WotC adventures were fairly "generic" or "vanilla" or "nothing special".
So, my question to you all is, what makes "King of the Trollhaunt Warrens" (KotTW) stand out as exemplary (both from the other WotC adventures and, say the Goodman Games adventures?)
I might just have to buy this one (I've been avoiding WotC modules after Keep on the Shadowfell).
I prefer Thunderspire Labyrinth myself and I have both.
But I know a lot of posters here really liked the module.
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I got both Thunderspire and Trollhaunt - based on the reviews and my personal preferences I think they've been the best 4E WotC adventure modules so far.
What I like best about Trollhaunt is the poster map with the city wall - very useful (if you like using poster maps).
Edited: Removed because it could sound confrontational, which was not the intent.
Trollhaunt has gotten some excellent reviews in various places, and while I think there is one WotC 4e adventure that is better (but it might have been out in 2009, I keep forgetting), it's definitely one of the better ones out the last year that I have read. There are far, far worse adventures on that list, which made me question the decisions of the judges.
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Last edited by Jack99; 14th July 2009 at 03:33 PM..
I'm one of those that found Trollhaunt Warrens just as bland as the other WotC modules, and I have read them (and tried to give them a fair chance) up to Demon Queen's Enclave, after which I resigned. They are - in my opinion - lacking great characters and a good story and are mostly dominated by monster-bashing. Not even comparable to some of the great 3.x adventures like Red Hand of Doom or the late Castle Greyhawk. Which is why I found the nomination a strange decision.
I also find the nomination of King of the Trollhaunt Warrens strange.
Keep on the Shadowfell was pretty cool, if basic, it has a classic D&D setup and feel to it. Thunderspire Labyrinth has been the best of the modules so far in my opinion, as it introduces a settlement inside of a huge dungeon complex with the possibility for infinite expansion.
My group just finished playing through Trollhaunt; I have to say I found it to be average, but not great. Nothing really jumped out as being amazing, but that might be because aside from myself everyone else in the group are "beer-n-pretzels gamers" and don't really immerse themselves into the adventures, so if there was any detail we kind of glossed over it to get to the real action.
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Here's why I like it (slightly spoilerish):
- A pretty decent crawl. It's not overly long and the locale is an interesting subterrainian area with good tactical maps. If you're into combats with good terrain features, then this adventure is for you.
- opportunity for the main villain to attack early on to surprise the party when they don't expect it.
- a nice shift away from the crawl to a cool drawn-out town defense.
- the third act involves traveling to a different plane.
- It's not quite as open as H2 or P2, but there are opportunities to strike bargains with varying denizens of the crawl.
I'm going to be DM-ing for the first time ever in a couple of months. I think I want to at least partially use a published mod to at least get some plot points / interesting encounters. I'm considering Seakers of the Ashen Crown or Revenge of the Giants, but obviously those aren't out yet, so I have no idea what they are like.
Does anyone have any good suggestions? Would Trollhaunt be a good one? Is there some 3rd party stuff that would be good for a 1st time DM?
I would say our group is not a heavy RP group, but I would like a good balance of intersting combat encounters and plot.
Does anyone have any good suggestions? Would Trollhaunt be a good one? Is there some 3rd party stuff that would be good for a 1st time DM?
I would say our group is not a heavy RP group, but I would like a good balance of intersting combat encounters and plot.
I'd recco Goodman Games'- DCC#55- ISLE OF THE SEA DRAKE
You can find more about it (including some links to reviews) HERE
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Here's why I like it (slightly spoilerish):
- A pretty decent crawl. It's not overly long and the locale is an interesting subterrainian area with good tactical maps. If you're into combats with good terrain features, then this adventure is for you.
- opportunity for the main villain to attack early on to surprise the party when they don't expect it.
- a nice shift away from the crawl to a cool drawn-out town defense.
- the third act involves traveling to a different plane.
- It's not quite as open as H2 or P2, but there are opportunities to strike bargains with varying denizens of the crawl.
I agree with all these points.
There's also an undercurrent of Celtic folklore to it. Very slight, but just the king of the trolls and the Feywild, and the Warren, it feels more... folklorey.
I disliked that the part in the module in the Feywild is fairly walled in; doesn't allow branching out, much. However, the module mentions that the PCs could approach the Trollhaunt from the Feywild side, and that excited me a lot.
Also, what really won me over with the module were the random/side encounters and side-treks in Dungeon.
1. Good roleplaying opportunities to help connect the PCs to the Eladrin city. You've got an old mentor character, a militia in dire need of training, and a couple other points of connection. Our group trained the militia, which gave them a much greater investment in the invasion of the city.
2. The crawl in the trollhaunt has some good points to help connect the PCs to the plot as well. Our group negotiated with the dragon, and essentially worked for/with him in kicking out the trolls. This added both roleplaying and structure to the invasion of the trollhaunt.
3. The three-encounter battle on the Old Troll Wall poster map is quite cool, and while it works even better with some militia members around to provide flavor, the module does suggest that you add them if adding them is appropriate for your group.
That's as far as I've gotten so far. I've been pretty happy with it.
While I liked King of the Trollhaunt Warrens, I thought that Demon Queen's Enclave was a superior adventure and was more deserving of a nomination.
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To those who have played/read it: please tell me it doesn't have the letter to next bad guy plot item, please? I am getting sick of those in WotC modules!
To those who have played/read it: please tell me it doesn't have the letter to next bad guy plot item, please? I am getting sick of those in WotC modules!
If it did, then my DM ignored it. Actually except for a vague hint to Pyramid of Shadows he put into KotS (and I'm not sure it was really in the adventure to begin with) none of the published adventures have had a real "Ha ha you beat me, but my master will destroy you!" type plot. Well, Thunderspire was somewhat related to KotS due to the whole slavers thing.
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Known as ObiWayneKenobi (formerly WayneTheGame) on the Wizards forums.
This is the internet, not kindergarten. If you can't deal with what people say, get off the playground.
If it did, then my DM ignored it. Actually except for a vague hint to Pyramid of Shadows he put into KotS (and I'm not sure it was really in the adventure to begin with) none of the published adventures have had a real "Ha ha you beat me, but my master will destroy you!" type plot. Well, Thunderspire was somewhat related to KotS due to the whole slavers thing.
Oh yes they did, KotSF and TSL all had bad guys with incriminating (and rather helpful to the PCs) letters in their pockets (EDIT: or chests). I had to do a lot of fixing to make them go away.
Maybe my DM did the same thing, then, because all I remember was:
* A letter from the Bloodreavers to Kalarel talking about slaves
* Some writings from Kalarel talking about a "place of power" that turned out to be the Pyramid of Shadows (I think he added this one in himself)
* Some indication of an alliance between the Paldemar, The Bloodreavers, The Grimmerzhuls and the gnolls (I forget their clan) in TSL
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