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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jester David" data-source="post: 7815075" data-attributes="member: 37579">After succumbing to sandbox fatigue, my expectations for Descent into Avernus were low. I was expecting more of the same… but in the Nine Hells. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised how the adventure presented a linear adventure with a solid story that has an assumed climax and dramatic ending but is still flexible and allows exploration while accommodating PCs who attempt an alternate conclusion.But… and it’s a “big but” the adventure is also deeply and inherently flawed. You start the game with characters rooted in the background of one city, characters built for one kind of campaign with potentially book-supplied backgrounds anchoring them to that city, and then you’re just expected to put all that aside as the campaign does an abrupt 180 and completely changes in tone. It’s almost like a campaign where the first two or three sessions are all about piracy and all the characters are provided naval backgrounds then the adventure dumps them in the middle of a landlocked desert for the remaining 10 levels.  It might be tempting for DMs to surprise their players with the trip to Hell, and not tell their players the name of the adventure. I’d advise against this; Descent into Avernus is a perfect example of why most campaigns need a “Session Zero” where the DM tells you what the campaign is about.It wouldn’t take much work to make Descent into Avernus an amazing campaign. A different opening with the adventurers sucked into Hell and spending their first few levels helping to save people and stabilize the city before being tasked with investigating and finding a way home. Or building off the introduction where you face off against the cults of the Dead Three into a homebrew campaign of intrigue and corruption in the heart of Baldur’s Gate. But it’s super weird that those two very different campaigns are supported by the same product. And the amount of homebrewing required to make a focused campaign is incompatible with the reasons Dungeon Masters purchase pre-published adventures.FULL REVIEW: <a href="http://www.5mwd.com/archives/5792" target="_blank">Review: Descent into Avernus</a></blockquote>

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