Review of The Scouring of Gate Pass (Spoilers)

I agree 100% with the review.

And I think it's right on the spot about the necessary tweaking that is necessary for the encounter numbers.
Having said that, the story and the layout are selling points of this AP.

I was really upset at first because of the Dead Rising encounter, but since I see such a good vibe from the authors I set myself with the goal of making these adventures better by providing errata and fixes in the things I manage to catch.

The Gauntlet Run run perfectly on one of my three groups (the other two haven't reached that part yet).
I've made a tactical map with zones instead of squares, so they could picture where they were related to each other.
They even asked for History checks on how others have dealt with this gauntlet in the past, and "run through it" was the suggested course of action.
The run makes perfect sense in that the players either:
- go on foot, with lots of free ranged attacks upon them, plus bandits on warhorses making runs on them
- go slowly, and face xbow fire with impunity, plus harassment in their rear flank
- run through it and deal quickly with Kathor or face the entire group

I made the bandits on foot advance at 1/2 of a zone per round (or two moves)
This also put some pressure on them to bring down Kathor as quickly as possible.

First time DM here (just completing my first module "the sunless citadel"). I am just about to start this adventure and I hope my players have fun with it. I am glad to see all the advice and have some ideas to fix some of these issues, although not sure on the gauntlet. I know literally nothing about skill checks, and we are playing 5e as well. I chose this particular module because I want to spend less time in prep. I am currently spending a full day or minimum 8 hours (maybe even 12 sometimes - ugh) on prep for 3 hours of play lol. But as I learn more about D&D, and settle into a DM role it has gotten a bit better. Thanks for the review and the additional comments, and the maps as well.

Oh wow, old thread to bump, but welcome!

hilaria said:

First time DM here (just completing my first module "the sunless citadel"). I am just about to start this adventure and I hope my players have fun with it. I am glad to see all the advice and have some ideas to fix some of these issues, although not sure on the gauntlet. I know literally nothing about skill checks, and we are playing 5e as well. I chose this particular module because I want to spend less time in prep. I am currently spending a full day or minimum 8 hours (maybe even 12 sometimes - ugh) on prep for 3 hours of play lol. But as I learn more about D&D, and settle into a DM role it has gotten a bit better. Thanks for the review and the additional comments, and the maps as well.

Click to expand...

There are a lot of parts of GMing that get intuitive once you've done it enough. A big part is - like jazz - deciding what not to do.

The focus of The Gauntlet is that you're being hounded by people up top and driven toward a threat up ahead. I personally wouldn't even bother these days will tracking precise positioning or over-focusing on making checks or whatever. Just have them roll to see if they can control spooked horses, and if the horses bolt, sketch out the broad shape of the canyon and just track broadly where everyone is until anyone gets into melee.

Good luck. I'd love to hear broad strokes of how the adventure goes for you.

Do note, though, that the original 3rd edition version of the adventure was smaller. Encounters were added in the 4e version (nominally, I believe, to provide more XP because 3e went to 20th level and 4e went to 30th), and many of those encounters stick out as not being as narratively meaningful. But I think the 3e version was used as the basis for the conversion to fifth edition, so it won't have those encounters.

Yep. When Tormyr did the 5e conversion, he tried to gather the sweet parts of the 4e conversion (mostly story and background bits) and include them in the original 3e encounter structure. Unless something needed editing.

And up to this day, I'd rate it maybe the best AP ever written for my own taste. It may be not as cinematic, detailed or scripted as Zeitgeist, and yes, it would really benefit from a more detailed Campaign Gazette, but for a person that's both lazy and creative at the same time, it provides just enough nooks, hooks, and ideas to have a basis while also giving you complete freedom regarding story, pacing, and player choices. Lost an NPC due to a screw-up in adventure 2? Yes, you'll feel that in later chapters. Did something incredible that wasn't even accounted for? You can do this without killing your overall campaign story. You have roadblocks that are large enough that players don't venture into areas they're not supposed to go to (yet), and still enough small paths that they may take or skip.

Did I mention that it has 2-3 adventures at max level? What other AP besides ZG allows you to gain level 20 and use these sweet perks for real?
(Well, Way of the Wicked does theat as well... a damn good and unique AP, but it has way more flaws than WotBS or ZG)