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

[Charlaquin]

It’s only one room.

We can argue semantics about what counts as a room or not, but the point is, there are three distinct portions of this map, and placing their descriptions under separate numbered headers would objectively have been a more efficient way to present the relevant information.

Is it that big of a deal? I don’t think so. But it definitely is slightly less efficient formatting than it could have had.

 

[Charlaquin]

This thread has turned into talking about “Where did that hydra come from?” and “This map doesn’t need a key!” for so many pages that all the other criticisms are being drowned out.

Personally, the point from the review that concerns me the most is that the new content isn’t integrated in an intelligent way. Alexander points out a lot of missed opportunities for foreshadowing, but instead glowing goblins just kind of appear for some reason. Why haven’t we spent 20 pages talking about that instead?

This is definitely one of the things I plan to address in what I’m thinking of calling “Building a Phandbox.” If it seems like there’s interest maybe I’ll just get myself a PDF copy now so I can get started instead of waiting for Christmas.

 

[MonsterEnvy]

We can argue semantics about what counts as a room or not, but the point is, there are three distinct portions of this map, and placing their descriptions under separate numbered headers would objectively have been a more efficient way to present the relevant information.

Is it that big of a deal? I don’t think so. But it definitely is slightly less efficient formatting than it could have had.

I don’t agree and will leave it at that.

 

[Parmandur]

This is definitely one of the things I plan to address in what I’m thinking of calling “Building a Phandbox.” If it seems like there’s interest maybe I’ll just get myself a PDF copy now so I can get started instead of waiting for Christmas.

OK, that name is brilliant and I am in

 

[AnotherGuy]

Personally, the point from the review that concerns me the most is that the new content isn’t integrated in an intelligent way. Alexander points out a lot of missed opportunities for foreshadowing, but instead glowing goblins just kind of appear for some reason. Why haven’t we spent 20 pages talking about that instead?

Because internet.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

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[Whizbang Dustyboots]

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[Clint_L]

Who actually cares about the dungeon keying thing? I think we all agree that it was a nitpick in the original article, and arguing about the degree of nitpicking is...whatever.

As I previously posted, I am currently playing the campaign, and I picked it because the starter area is such a classic. It is such a good, traditional fantasy starting adventure, somewhat like an updated and improved Village of Hommlet. So I am worried that this is the setting that WotC chose to turn into a psionic freakshow, and will likely stop once the original path is done, because psionics...not for me.

It just seems like a really random direction to take a classic starter zone.

 

[Parmandur]

Who actually cares about the dungeon keying thing? I think we all agree that it was a nitpick in the original article, and arguing about the degree of nitpicking is...whatever.

As I previously posted, I am currently playing the campaign, and I picked it because the starter area is such a classic. It is such a good, traditional fantasy starting adventure, somewhat like an updated and improved Village of Hommlet. So I am worried that this is the setting that WotC chose to turn into a psionic freakshow, and will likely stop once the original path is done, because psionics...not for me.

It just seems like a really random direction to take a classic starter zone.

Yes, I agree, this is a much more reasonable criticism.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Who actually cares about the dungeon keying thing? I think we all agree that it was a nitpick in the original article, and arguing about the degree of nitpicking is...whatever.

As I previously posted, I am currently playing the campaign, and I picked it because the starter area is such a classic. It is such a good, traditional fantasy starting adventure, somewhat like an updated and improved Village of Hommlet. So I am worried that this is the setting that WotC chose to turn into a psionic freakshow, and will likely stop once the original path is done, because psionics...not for me.

It just seems like a really random direction to take a classic starter zone.

Yeah, the obvious move would have seemed to have been to combine it with the Essentials Set box (and put out a replacement Essentials Set to make Target happy) and maybe follow the dangling threads from the original adventures to higher level. (Seriously, what is the Spellforge for?)