I have just DM-ed a group of 7 players through "The scouring of gate pass" in 5 sessions.
My first impression after running the module is that there are a ton of good role playing opportunities. The NPC's are well made, the story believable and giving the characters good reasons to go with it.
The module is quite flexible with regards to how the characters and the DM wants to run it. There are some scripted scenes and a good momentum, but at the same time it feels free. You have some objectives, you have been presented with enough information to solve them, but how you actually do it is up to you.
The encounter setup is quite varied with a wide assortment of encounters. From scary encounters with a nasty bastard holding a hostage to silly encounters like finding the weasel. You have also got encounters that aren't what they seem to be. Again the players have quite a lot of freedom in how they want to resolve the situations. How they resolve the encounters usually has a small or large side effect on later encounters.
The module is actually in many ways quite complex, but at the same time it's extremely logical and there are very few gotchas. The complexity also makes the module so much more believable which makes your job as a DM much easier.
I am not quite sure I liked the skill challenges and the skill challenge DC's seemed very low for the most part. Therefore I usually ran them as partial skill challenges but put more weight on the actual role playing than the roll playing. I had one playing going quite eloquent in one of the encounters which I haven't seen him do in about 10 years of role playing. So, even though I feel the skill challenge mechanic isn't good, the encounters in them self are meaningful and logical.
All in all it's a module I would thoroughly recommend.
My first impression after running the module is that there are a ton of good role playing opportunities. The NPC's are well made, the story believable and giving the characters good reasons to go with it.
The module is quite flexible with regards to how the characters and the DM wants to run it. There are some scripted scenes and a good momentum, but at the same time it feels free. You have some objectives, you have been presented with enough information to solve them, but how you actually do it is up to you.
The encounter setup is quite varied with a wide assortment of encounters. From scary encounters with a nasty bastard holding a hostage to silly encounters like finding the weasel. You have also got encounters that aren't what they seem to be. Again the players have quite a lot of freedom in how they want to resolve the situations. How they resolve the encounters usually has a small or large side effect on later encounters.
The module is actually in many ways quite complex, but at the same time it's extremely logical and there are very few gotchas. The complexity also makes the module so much more believable which makes your job as a DM much easier.
I am not quite sure I liked the skill challenges and the skill challenge DC's seemed very low for the most part. Therefore I usually ran them as partial skill challenges but put more weight on the actual role playing than the roll playing. I had one playing going quite eloquent in one of the encounters which I haven't seen him do in about 10 years of role playing. So, even though I feel the skill challenge mechanic isn't good, the encounters in them self are meaningful and logical.
All in all it's a module I would thoroughly recommend.
