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

[SakanaSensei]

I've read lots of them and they just baffle me. It is not necessarily the adventure, IDK. I just can't find a fruitful way to use a published adventure. Feel free to suggest one to me, lots of people have, but I just can't seem to get a hang of any of them. I've tried many times and get make any hide nor hair of good nor bad adventures (ranked by others - not me). I much prefer running my own game.

Have you looked at The Arcane Library’s adventures for 5E? They’re put together really well from a usability standpoint.

A lot of the best adventures I’ve seen from the perspective of “give me what I need and make it easy to use” come from the OSR. Black Wyrm of Brandonsford is really easy to make sense of, almost all of Necrotic Gnome’s dungeons are fantastically laid out.

 

[Ancalagon]

I think people are getting hung up on the hydra not making sense, or the keying of the map. Those are, ultimately, minor issues.

What about "the fragments not really mattering", and 4 of them already been in the hands of the mind flayers, and ultimately having them (or not) only makes a mild difference?

What about a genius mindflayer not being able to solve a fairly simple puzzle?

What about the other NPCs not being able to get to where they are?

Rooms description not matching the map?

Maps for players but you can't give it to them because it has info for the DM only?

And I'm going to stop there because there are several other issues too. We know no adventure is perfect, there are always mistakes, things that could have been done better. But there are MANY such issues. Are they all made up by Alexander?

(I'll also note that no review is perfect and it's quite likely that Alexander is objectively wrong about a point or two... but that doesn't invalidate the review as a whole).

 

[dave2008]

Have you looked at The Arcane Library’s adventures for 5E? They’re put together really well from a usability standpoint.

A lot of the best adventures I’ve seen from the perspective of “give me what I need and make it easy to use” come from the OSR. Black Wyrm of Brandonsford is really easy to make sense of, almost all of Necrotic Gnome’s dungeons are fantastically laid out.

I have several of Arcane Library's adventures in my "Wishlist" on DriveThruRPG but I haven't pulled the trigger on any of them yet. Any suggest for the best one to look at?

 

[ersatzphil]

Baker's presence at WoTC was underappreciated in terms of quality. I really think the talent that was there in 2014 is forgotten by a lot of people, and I don't think the WoTC of today could produce Lost Mine of Phandelver.... as this adventure (and Dragons of Stormwreck Isle) aptly proves.

At least the D&D team got James Wyatt back from the MTG side of the fence. Bruce Cordell also had a hand in the 5e core books and left soon afterward. I do find myself missing Mearls - say what you want about him, he’s a great game dev.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

At least the D&D team got James Wyatt back from the MTG side of the fence. I do find myself missing Mearls - say what you want about him, he’s a great game dev.

Can't say I've been terribly impressed with Mearls' work. His name was on several of the absolute stinker adventures in early 4e, and his love of rolling fistfuls of dice directly contributed to the Fighter design crunch among other issues during the Next playtest.

What would you say are examples of his work that show his strengths?

 

[MonsterEnvy]

Baker's presence at WoTC was underappreciated in terms of quality. I really think the talent that was there in 2014 is forgotten by a lot of people, and I don't think the WoTC of today could produce Lost Mine of Phandelver.... as this adventure (and Dragons of Stormwreck Isle) aptly proves.

While Dragons is nothing special. I legit think this adventure is decent, it's not super connected with the original lost mines part, but I think it stands well on it's own.

I am going to start running it soon, so I will find out how well it works in play soon I guess.

 

[ersatzphil]

Can't say I've been terribly impressed with Mearls' work. His name was on several of the absolute stinker adventures in early 4e, and his love of rolling fistfuls of dice directly contributed to the Fighter design crunch among other issues during the Next playtest.

What would you say are examples of his work that show his strengths?

I’m actually not sure they exist anymore, but I was thinking specifically of his old “Happy Fun Hour” streams.

 

[Micah Sweet]

While Dragons is nothing special. I legit think this adventure is decent, it's not super connected with the original lost mines part, but I think it stands well on it's own.

I am going to start running it soon, so I will find out how well it works in play soon I guess.

Wasn't the whole point of it to expand upon LMoP? If it can't do that well, I can't see how it can be considered a quality product.

 

[SakanaSensei]

I have several of Arcane Library's adventures in my "Wishlist" on DriveThruRPG but I haven't pulled the trigger on any of them yet. Any suggest for the best one to look at?

I have several of Arcane Library's adventures in my "Wishlist" on DriveThruRPG but I haven't pulled the trigger on any of them yet. Any suggest for the best one to look at?

I just tried to check if the Bundle of Holding with her stuff was still up, but unfortunately it isn’t.

Masque of the Worm is really neat, I’m excited to try out Crypts of Azarumme. Secrets of Skyhorn Lighthouse is well regarded, though I haven’t read it yet.

Even the Secrets of the Basilisk Cult, her free adventure, is probably enough to show the layout though. For a bigger dungeon, take a look at the Lost Citadel of the Scarlet Minotaur, also free in the Shadowdark RPG QuickStart kit.

I also used to fall pretty heavily in the “these adventures might be pretty but seem to not be the effort!” camp, but seeing what things are like outside of the WotC/Paizo-esque “big story book” style has really brought me to the conclusion that no, modules can actually be really useful, it’s just the big company style that I don’t like.

 

[Staffan]

Baker's presence at WoTC was underappreciated in terms of quality. I really think the talent that was there in 2014 is forgotten by a lot of people, and I don't think the WoTC of today could produce Lost Mine of Phandelver.... as this adventure (and Dragons of Stormwreck Isle) aptly proves.

Richard Baker left Wizards in late 2011, but he did Lost Mine and Princes of the Apocalypse as a freelancer (the latter via Sasquatch Game Studios).

He's also the main designer on IMO the best 2e-era adventure, Dragon's Crown. I really wish Princes of the Apocalypse had been more like that one.