D&D 5E Boing Boing reviews Princes of the Apocalypse and calls it D&D's killer app.

[DaveDash]

I didn't find it hard to read at all. Nor did I find it poorly organized. What put me off it, though, is its extremely repetitive nature. Having to do essentially the same series of adventures four times - with slightly different window dressing each time - doesn't sound all that enjoyable to me. I would've been happier if the lairs and the cult's abilities were more noticeably different.

I can understand this, but I think the devils in the details.

Each lair does offer different opportunities, some are more RP focused, others hack'n'slash is basically your only option. Also, it does have those side quests to break up the dungeon crawl.

I've almost finished City of the Spider Queen after 8 months though, so PoTA seems like its filled with amazing variety compared to that.

 

[pukunui]

I can understand this, but I think the devils in the details.

Yes, and my complaint is that the details aren't varied enough for my taste. It still feels like you're doing essentially the same thing four times over. The surface lairs are different enough, but once you get underground, everything starts to feel very samey-same - probably because the four temples are all part of the same complex. It would've been nice if they'd spread them out a bit more ... maybe put the fire temple in the Mt Hotenow volcano, while the water temple is in the Mere of Dead Men or the Lizard Marsh. The earth temple could've stayed more or less where it is, while the air temple could be up in the clouds. Meanwhile, the water node could've been fully underwater, while the air node could've been more than just a windy cavern, and so on.

They should've also used the concept art for the elemental beacons as the surface lairs. Those things are wicked!


FWIW: I read the two Tyranny of Dragons modules and Princes of the Apocalypse back-to-back and found myself wanting to run the former more than the latter. Part of the reason was ToD has a helluva lot more variety than PotA does.

 

[DaveDash]

Yes, and my complaint is that the details aren't varied enough for my taste. It still feels like you're doing essentially the same thing four times over. The surface lairs are different enough, but once you get underground, everything starts to feel very samey-same - probably because the four temples are all part of the same complex. It would've been nice if they'd spread them out a bit more ... maybe put the fire temple in the Mt Hotenow volcano, while the water temple is in the Mere of Dead Men or the Lizard Marsh. The earth temple could've stayed more or less where it is, while the air temple could be up in the clouds. Meanwhile, the water node could've been fully underwater, while the air node could've been more than just a windy cavern, and so on.

They should've also used the concept art for the elemental beacons as the surface lairs. Those things are wicked!


FWIW: I read the two Tyranny of Dragons modules and Princes of the Apocalypse back-to-back and found myself wanting to run the former more than the latter. Part of the reason was ToD has a helluva lot more variety than PotA does.

Fair enough. I can see where you're coming from.

I despise HoTDQ, so there you go. Some of my least fun D&D experiences in 20 years have been because if that module. Different strokes' I guess!

 

[TerraDave]

Exactly.

I have never understood the nostalgia that attends ToEE as anyone I know who has enjoyed playing it has had a DM who basically rewrote it both to finish it and to make it actually feel elemental.

I think its not ToEE its T1, the village and the moathouse. Some of this is just timing, as that did come out early on, and was the only low level AD&D adventure for a long time. Beyond that, given a seemingly simple set up, there is a lot going on. Not all groups may quite use it to the fullest, but there is a lot there.

Of course, there is a lot in the Temple, but in a different way.

 

[Iosue]

I'm really liking PotA, as both a player and DM, as much as Lost Mines. It is almost the perfect kind of design to work with folks who like more setting-based play and those who like story-based play. It's exactly what I want to see more of in the future.

All that said, I still think this article was kinda crap.

 

[pukunui]

All that said, I still think this article was kinda crap.

Indeed. The author doesn't even get all his facts straight. At one point, he conflates the archomentals with their prophets, for instance.

 

[Henry]

WoTC provide a free PDF where you can print out all the creature stat blocks (including MM stuff) and have them sitting next to you, which makes more sense when you're actually running a module.if you want to quickly read through a section while running the game, not having the stat-blocks getting in the way is cleaner.

You mean the the supplement that puts them in alphabetical order instead of order of appearance, AND which excludes The ones in the basic rules PDFs? To me, that's almost as unhelpful as not printing them at all. I should be grateful that at least they're in some form of copyable format, even if I have to make a totally separate document that puts them in order of encounter. There are companies that make prep work a heck of a lot easier, and Wizards really should be open to looking at better ways to present this, especially if it's only one of two adventures per year.

 

[DaveDash]

You mean the the supplement that puts them in alphabetical order instead of order of appearance, AND which excludes The ones in the basic rules PDFs? To me, that's almost as unhelpful as not printing them at all. I should be grateful that at least they're in some form of copyable format, even if I have to make a totally separate document that puts them in order of encounter. There are companies that make prep work a heck of a lot easier, and Wizards really should be open to looking at better ways to present this, especially if it's only one of two adventures per year.

How hard is it to print out pieces of paper and then have the ones ready for the next encounter? Last I checked you could print out the basic PDF as well.

I find this system superior to having stat blocks intermingled in the middle of adventure text, by far.

 

[pukunui]

How hard is it to print out pieces of paper and then have the ones ready for the next encounter? Last I checked you could print out the basic PDF as well.

I find this system superior to having stat blocks intermingled in the middle of adventure text, by far.

While it would be nice for them to release pdfs where the monsters are organized by encounter, it's not that much of a hassle for me to cut out the statblocks I want in photoshop, copy them into Word, arrange to taste, and then print them out.

 

[DaveDash]

While it would be nice for them to release pdfs where the monsters are organized by encounter, it's not that much of a hassle for me to cut out the statblocks I want in photoshop, copy them into Word, arrange to taste, and then print them out.

Lol, I just arrange the paper to taste

I guess doing it your way gives you all the statblocks on one page.

But yeah, it's really not that hard either way.