D&D 5E Justin Alexander's review of Shattered Obelisk is pretty scathing

[Ibrandul]

It does cover a much wider area, most of it not in the Triboar area. But, unless I'm misremembering entirely, there are at least a few bits overlapping with the LMoP/DoIP map.

Storm King’s Thunder includes a whole encounter set in Triboar, including a keyed map of the town. Although the encounter does involve giants, it is easily repurposed for campaigns other than SKT. If LMoP/DoIP players should decide to head to Triboar for whatever reason, that’s what I would run there.

 

[Cordwainer Fish]

Internet reviews have become yet another place you have to spend 20 minutes to an hour sorting out the crazies so you can get an accurate idea of a product or store.

It saves time and brain cells to look only at the one star reviews. The worse the spelling, grammar, and logic in them, the better the product probably is.

 

[Charlaquin]

It does cover a much wider area, most of it not in the Triboar area. But, unless I'm misremembering entirely, there are at least a few bits overlapping with the LMoP/DoIP map.

Makes sense, since IIRC it ranges all over the Sword Coast. While a truly comprehensive Triboar region sandbox would probably include some of that material, I do have to try to keep the scope of this project manageable for myself. Might be a good opportunity for later expansion but probably not the priority to focus on initially. Thanks for the suggestion though!

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Fully agreed. Dragon of Icespire Peak was definitely a less cohesive, less complete adventure than Lost Mine of Phandelver, but it did flesh out the same area to an extent.

But when I previously suggested that this new product should integrate both and make a thorough mini-setting of the Phandalin region, I got a lot of flak comments to the tune of “This book is already going to be 50% reprint and you want it to be even more redundant?!?!?” No, I want it to integrate and synthesize the existing materials. Big missed opportunity here by WotC.

I was thinking about the possibility that they didn't go with extending the previous adventure because there are a lot of DMsGuild product that does, but then I thought: "So buy THOSE (the good ones) and use them!"

I honestly think that one of the worst things about this adventure is that, while I really enjoy Cthulhu-esque adventures LMoP was NOT the product to kick that kind of story off. It's generic PG fantasy Save-the-Town was a Feature, not a Flaw. The heroism should have been kicked up a notch at higher levels, but it really didn't need a Tonal Shift.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

It saves time and brain cells to look only at the one star reviews. The worse the spelling, grammar, and logic in them, the better the product probably is.

One Star reviews, IME, are almost always incoherent rants by people with real problems of their own. Two and Three star reviews is where you'll find out where our honest failings lie.

 

[Ulorian - Agent of Chaos]

One Star reviews, IME, are almost always incoherent rants by people with real problems of their own. Two and Three star reviews is where you'll find out where our honest failings lie.

Well, not (almost) always. There are at times a crap product or service. But one star reviews is where the crazies come to roost, for sure.

 

[FitzTheRuke]

Yeah, I’m planning to incorporate the Essentials Kit and maybe the Icespire Peak sequels (haven’t read those yet, so I don’t know how easily they’ll fit alongside the Shattered Obelisk content), and maybe In Volo’s Wake. Hadn’t considered 4e’s NWCS, but that’s an interesting idea! I’ll definitely consider it.

I recommend it too. I used it when I ran a mosh-up of LMoP and DoFSP. I think that I actually used it more than I did DoFSP, in fact! (They players latched on to more of its hooks).

 

[doctorhook]

I was thinking about the possibility that they didn't go with extending the previous adventure because there are a lot of DMsGuild product that does, but then I thought: "So buy THOSE (the good ones) and use them!"

I honestly think that one of the worst things about this adventure is that, while I really enjoy Cthulhu-esque adventures LMoP was NOT the product to kick that kind of story off. It's generic PG fantasy Save-the-Town was a Feature, not a Flaw. The heroism should have been kicked up a notch at higher levels, but it really didn't need a Tonal Shift.

It would’ve been cool if Phandelver and beyond was fleshed out as a local setting, and then chapters featuring different genre-takes on the same setting. It seems like even WotC realized that the psionics and body-horror themes of Shattered Obelisk are a major break with the tone of LMoP, considering they actually spilled some ink discussing it.

not so sure, they already get flak for it being 50% reprint, doing a 90% reprint is not really making things better, and if I go by how well integrated the new material is with the old one, you are better off merging the two sets yourself…

Yeah I think my ideal version of this product would have been well-reviewed but probably would have been too niche to be a real success. Folks don’t want reprints. On the other hand, Curse of Strahd was popular and it got that deluxe coffin-shaped reprint, so…

I can’t shake the feeling that the new content in Shattered Obelisk was inspired to tie-in to BG3. (The trailer for that game was released a few year ago and features illithid ceremorphosis, so it’s not totally implausible.)

 

[FitzTheRuke]

On the other hand, Curse of Strahd was popular and it got that deluxe coffin-shaped reprint, so…

Yeah, but the Revamped CoS is considered a specialty product and has low turn-over expectations. They even keep the regular CoS in print (which I can tell you, sells FAR more often!)

This was a different product for sure. Not as good, but with much bigger expectations. It's been selling well, if anyone wonders about that! Even to people who have the Starter Set.

 

[Ancalagon]

Storm King’s Thunder includes a whole encounter set in Triboar, including a keyed map of the town. Although the encounter does involve giants, it is easily repurposed for campaigns other than SKT. If LMoP/DoIP players should decide to head to Triboar for whatever reason, that’s what I would run there.

the FR are huge - Phandalin to Triboar is almost 250 km, or about 7 days' travel on foot. It's definitely doable, but there needs to be a decent "hook" to go there. At low levels, the good old "caravan guard to make a bit of money" works, but higher level adventurers usually don't bother with this.

source: Forgotten Realms (Sword Coast) Interactive Map