Tonight, my players will play what I expect will be our penultimate session of Eve of Ruin.
Or maybe it might be their last. I'm not sure how long the last chapter will take. (Just reading it, I'm pretty sure it'll be two sessions).
Overall, the campaign has been "fine", with some excellent chapters and some absolutely dreadful chapters.
Just going through it chapter by chapter, here are my ratings:
Chapter 1: Fine.
Chapter 2: Poor.
Chapter 3: (Spelljammer) Good (well, one-third good. the rest forgettable).
Chapter 4: (Eberron) Good (with reservations).
Chapter 5: (Ravenloft) Poor.
Chapter 6: (Dragonlance) Poor.
Chapter 7: (Greyhawk) Excellent.
Chapter 8: (Planescape) Very poor (some nice touches).
Chapter 9: Blink and you miss it. Poor.
Chapter 10: Excellent. As in, seriously good.
Chapter 11: We'll see!
It has been notable how few magic items have been given out - enough that my players have commented on the lack. And that the one chapter with decent items makes the players feel like colonialist scumbags if they take them. In other words, that portion of the design is horrible.
The adventure "works". But it doesn't feel that inspired. The involvement of Vecna is pretty much non-existent. (In retrospect, this may be good for the character; not being involved is far better than being involved and misused).
You can see my enthusiasm in all the blog posts I haven't written about the experience. (Or D&D at all, recently).
It's not like there isn't good design in there. I'm really pleased with the structure of Chapter 10, which allows multiple ways through and some interesting player decisions. And the Greyhawk "tomb" section shows that good dungeons can still come out of Wizards of the Coast.
But it's mostly on the dungeon level where they function. None of the higher-level scenario design that we expect. It's a collection of short stories, without that linking thread that made a lot of the early 5E adventures stand out.
Oh well. We finish the Monday before the 2024 PHB goes live for early access. We'll switch over to Kobold Press's Empire of the Ghouls for the next campaign, and we'll leave Wizards' underwhelming scenario design for a time.
Cheers,
Merric
Or maybe it might be their last. I'm not sure how long the last chapter will take. (Just reading it, I'm pretty sure it'll be two sessions).
Overall, the campaign has been "fine", with some excellent chapters and some absolutely dreadful chapters.
Just going through it chapter by chapter, here are my ratings:
Chapter 1: Fine.
Chapter 2: Poor.
Chapter 3: (Spelljammer) Good (well, one-third good. the rest forgettable).
Chapter 4: (Eberron) Good (with reservations).
Chapter 5: (Ravenloft) Poor.
Chapter 6: (Dragonlance) Poor.
Chapter 7: (Greyhawk) Excellent.
Chapter 8: (Planescape) Very poor (some nice touches).
Chapter 9: Blink and you miss it. Poor.
Chapter 10: Excellent. As in, seriously good.
Chapter 11: We'll see!
It has been notable how few magic items have been given out - enough that my players have commented on the lack. And that the one chapter with decent items makes the players feel like colonialist scumbags if they take them. In other words, that portion of the design is horrible.
The adventure "works". But it doesn't feel that inspired. The involvement of Vecna is pretty much non-existent. (In retrospect, this may be good for the character; not being involved is far better than being involved and misused).
You can see my enthusiasm in all the blog posts I haven't written about the experience. (Or D&D at all, recently).
It's not like there isn't good design in there. I'm really pleased with the structure of Chapter 10, which allows multiple ways through and some interesting player decisions. And the Greyhawk "tomb" section shows that good dungeons can still come out of Wizards of the Coast.
But it's mostly on the dungeon level where they function. None of the higher-level scenario design that we expect. It's a collection of short stories, without that linking thread that made a lot of the early 5E adventures stand out.
Oh well. We finish the Monday before the 2024 PHB goes live for early access. We'll switch over to Kobold Press's Empire of the Ghouls for the next campaign, and we'll leave Wizards' underwhelming scenario design for a time.
Cheers,
Merric
