Tales Trees Tell

[Raddu]

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[Riley37]

4 out of 5 rating for Tales Trees Tell

"Tales Trees Tell" is clearly written with the novice DM in mind. Each encounter has variations for scaling the CR up or down, and many rulings are made in advance, such as "if the party does X, they will get advantage on Y". This is especially appropriate for those starting D&D with 5E. The story's sequence is basically linear, with some possible forks in the road during early exposition. The setting is well-described, including multiple senses (what PCs will hear, see, smell, etc.) Several NPCs get highlighted thumbnail paragraphs on how to roleplay them, with a "tag line" quote to convey their personality. Treasure and XP are detailed for each scene, and then summarized at the end. However, the guidance will not slow down experienced DMs, and the overall tone and the NPC motives are clear enough that a creative DM can fill in extra details to supplement the adventure as written, or respond appropriately if the players explore in directions which diverge from the planned storyline.
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There is an NPC who can be the PC's guide into the forest, and can also serve as the "Voice of the DM" if the DM wants an easy way to give extra hints or background information. In our group's playthrough, he simply provided early exposition and did not accompany the party into the forest, and that worked fine; he's not necessary to the middle or end of the story. He's helpful if your players and/or their PCs need extra guidance, if they're scattered or forgetful about the mission's background, or if you'd like someone with the party who can make backup skill checks when dice are unkind to the PCs and the DM wants to give them a break.
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TTT is more or less a horror story. Initial clues lead to a variety of possible avenues of investigation. I'd say the best writing of TTT is front-loaded, in the PC's arrival and exploration of the village of Kabel's Hill, and particularly one informant who will come as a surprise. The clues converge in a single direction: to learn more, the PCs must enter the forest, and there's literally one path they can follow. There's plenty of ominous foreshadowing, and unpleasant realizations the players may come to in their own time. The forest is creepy (possibly varying depending on what impression the PCs make on some pixies), the unavoidable Big Fight is against a classic D&D unnatural monster, and the final encounter has some classic horror-story aspects. There's an explicit advisory for DMs to downplay those aspects if they would be too much for the players. Players for whom the mission is just a pretext for combat will miss a lot of the story's implications. Players who are interested in the larger Cult of Dragons storyline will recognize certain references, and/or have leads to follow for later stories.
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TTT includes one unavoidable Big Fight, PCs crossing paths with hungry monsters. However, the encounter also includes a clever tactic by the monsters, so it's not JUST a static toe-to-toe, front-and-back-rank fight. In our runthrough, PCs and monsters both climbed trees during combat, with a variety of interesting and amusing consequences, such as a PC using Thunderwave to push a monster off a tree branch. There is an optional combat in which rude or bloodthirsty PCs can get into as much trouble as they can handle, while nonviolent PCs can get some information and XP for talking their way out of trouble. The final encounter can be handled violently if PCs so choose, but the most complete success requires resolving the scene without making a powerful enemy in the long run. The basic D&D rules mention 6-8 combat encounters as a daily average; that won't happen in TTT.
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The story includes a problematic stereotype. The final encounter is a hag, that is, an ugly, evil, malevolent, deceptive woman with claws and magic abilities. Well, in game terms she's a Green Hag, which is a Neutral Evil medium fey. She may remind you of Baba Yaga from Russian folklore, or the witch from Hansel and Gretel. Whether her nature suggests that unmarried female humans of middle years or older, are also inherently ugly, evil and deceptive... and whether hag equals witch equals pagan... is up for interpretation or argument. (In Forgotten Realms, there are human witches who rule Rashemen; it's not clear to me whether they're associated with the Warlock class, with the Fey, or something else.) If TTT is an early episode of a D&D group's experience with the Forgotten Realms, then this story may give the players the idea that "fey" is synonymous with "evil", rather than including both the Seelie Court and the Unseelie Court.
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If your group is participating in the larger Cult of the Dragon storyline, then TTT has some hooks connecting it with other events in Phlan (and Phlan's history in previous generations), an explicit link to one faction and events of interest to other factions. If not, though, TTT's story is not dependent on those story arcs; it would do fine as a stand-alone convention story, and it could be adapted to another setting and/or system. (Permission to do so, however, is not mine to give!)
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[greekramos]

4 out of 5 rating for Tales Trees Tell

A good adventure filled with many chances for roleplaying. Cool locations, too. Unfortunately the clues and events made it hard to know what we should do. When we did finally figure out what was going on, it made me feel like I didn't want to engage in combat, but it went that way anyway. I appreciate the action, but I wished we'd talked first, instead of starting off by swinging swords.

 

[lfeder]

2 out of 5 rating for Tales Trees Tell

I'll try and review without giving up spoilers. I didn't get this module. It meandered and misled the PC's. At my table we were convinced that the problem we needed to solve was with one NPC and it turned out to be with another that we couldn't defeat that ran away. It was unclear and the conclusion did not satisfy me.

 

[transplantasian]

4 out of 5 rating for Tales Trees Tell

Featuring heavy RP and little to no combat (depending on how the players tackle each encounter), this Expedition stands out as an oddball among the more straightforward DDEX adventures. The right DM will play up the atmosphere and quirky NPCs, which provide ample opportunities to entice/goad the players forward. Less seasoned DMs may find the PCs meandering and lost.

 

[Growing Brains]

5 out of 5 rating for Tales Trees Tell

It's a fun if dark outdoor mystery mod with various solutions from negotiation or to kill 'em all. The NPC's are interesting and the combats are varied and somewhat optional.

 

[DiscerningDM]

4 out of 5 rating for Tales Trees Tell

This adventure has a great introduction, with the players arriving at a village living under the terror of the neighboring faerie forest. A few hijinks later, the players head into the forest to either broker a truce, or else defeat the evil fey within.The only negative to this adventure (to take it to a 4 instead of a 5), is that the ending "boss" is not remotely a challenge for most adventuring parties. About half of my run throughs of this adventure are a little anti-climactic.