City of the Spider Queen.

[Evilhalfling]

Erm yeah ..
Just finished this beastie. Bleh. our group tried occasional intrigue and talking our way through
fights, most of which failed, We even tried a commune to see if the next beholder up ahead would be willing to talk, no dice it was allied with the villians and we had already made a name for ourselves.
We ended up tunneling past the last 2-4 encounters
on average we had 1 death per session with one poor guy getting killed every time in the last 5 sessions.

I got tired early and was going to purpose a side trek, but then the world went to hell and we lost even that option.

of course it was fun fully buffing a cleric and laying into a Balor. The most damage I have ever done, is listed in my sig. Not that it died until I crited it again for 101 damage, and I died as well in the blast.

 

[Pandion]

LOL. Thought I'd covered that.

The biggest problem with the module is that it concerns a plot by some very high-level statblocks to kill the world and reanimate it. Your PCs, if they are strategically minded or gluttons for destruction (of themselves), will be called upon to battle the statblocks, and all their statblock minions. Better Xerox those statblocks!

It could have (and should have) been titled, City of the Impressively-Templated Statblocks.

There is no real plot (beyond the obvious), no actual depth of character, and no point.

Well, unless the point is to teach your group the myriad ways D&D can suck.

Wow Tom, tell us how you really feel.

 

[GlassJaw]

I bought CotSQ and ran about half of it before the group decided we had had enough. Do I regret buying it though? Absolutely not. CotSQ is a beautiful product. The cartography of the map booklet is some of the best I've seen. Easily stealable for other adventures. You could also grab a multitude of encounters to put into another campaign.

But as a whole:

A staggeringly unimaginative addition to the Forgotten Realms.

Honestly, it is a statblock nightmare.

I also played through about half of the RttToEE and I hate that too. If you want a campaign-length series of modules, run the Dungeon Adventure Path. I'm running it now and it's awesome. CotSQ and RttToEE aren't even close.

 

[teitan]

Wow. Really, it's that bad? Why?

(Please forgive me, I haven't read it and now I'm damn curious about it.)

Like ANY module the adventure is only as good as the DM. A great DM can turn any crap adventure into a great adventure. Using NPCs imaginatively is key to this and other adventures out there and I don't think I've seen any D&D module that hasn't been accused of being a hackfest at any rate. I have even seen teh HOLY Dead Gods referred to as a hackfest.

Jason

 

[Bryan898]

Honestly, it is a statblock nightmare

I'm not sure if I would call this a problem of the module, or of high level adventuring in 3.0/3.5 D&D in general. Players and creatures have more abilities and options now, and with them comes more complexity. Truthfully I think a lack of higher CR monsters in the core books forces them to create leveled creatures, which results in large stat blocks. By the end the characters are 18th level, looking at the MM for CR 18+ we have dragons, nightcrawler, balor, pit fiend, tarrasque, titans, and a solar. You could always use monsters from other sources but doing so would require the DM to have the other source, or you to print the creatures in the back of the book. I truly think that writing a D&D adventure for 3rd edition is extremely difficult. There's not a lot of good ones out there, but I think this one is decent/ good. Then again, my opinion may be biased because I'm used to running high level / epic adventures and big statblocks.

We even tried a commune to see if the next beholder up ahead would be willing to talk, no dice it was allied with the villians and we had already made a name for ourselves.

This is a problem of the DM, not the module. Evil creatures tend to not be loyal, often turning on one another. It should be plausible to parley with this creature, if the characters can offer it more than its current alliance. Or perphaps said beholder is scared that he will die too, like many of his allies, and decides to take the safer route. I really think these type of situations are up to the DM. IIRC the two beholders in the adventure were particulary loyal to the drow. (Spoiler)One of them lives in the caverns outside, and isn't allied with the drow at all, he even has drow that he charmed to follow him. The other one is a ghost that doesn't seem particulary fond of drow seeing as the text says killing a drow in his chambers will appease his ghost and let it rest.(/Spoiler)

 

[Eremite]

At the risk of reiterating an point made in an earlier post I think that the biggest problem with the module is that it doesn't have a place like Mantol-Derith or other neutral zone for rest, recuperation and trading. The addition of an area like this would have made all the difference in the world to the quality of the module.

And to those posters who have commented that, really, it is up to the DM to make the module work, yes, that's true but the addition of a neutral trading town like Mantol-Derith (and I say that because the module should have been set under the Silver Marches as a business decision to tie it into the only regional accessory available at that stage) so that the RP and other opportunities would more naturally flow.

 

[Endur]

I think the author was assuming a high level Forgotten Realms party can rest where it wants and buy/sell magic items anywhere it wants (Waterdeep, etc.).

I know my party did.

 

[Eremite]

I think the author was assuming a high level Forgotten Realms party can rest where it wants and buy/sell magic items anywhere it wants (Waterdeep, etc.).

I know my party did.

How? Faerzress (sp?) tends to prevents teleport.

 

[johnnype]

Like ANY module the adventure is only as good as the DM.

I must agree. I had a lot of fun with it and contrary to what others are saying we did not find it to be a hack fest. It all depends on the party and the GM. YMMV.

Yes, it has a lot of Drow, yes it takes place underground, yes it is a long adventure and yes, the statblocks are long. If you have a problem with any of this then you shouldn't play it but I don't think you can honestly hold any of this against the module. It never claimed to be otherwise. What you are not being told is that the module includes as many (if not more) undead than it does drow. It also has a fair amount of demons. It's an ideal module for a party of drow if that's something that you've ever had any interest in. Your PC's should be ready for a challenge. As such the players should make sure they characters are as finely tuned as possible. Perfect for min-maxers. I highly reccomend a maxed out cleric (to deal with undead) and a maxed out rogue (to deal with the many traps).

The maps can be dowloaded from the WotC website. There's also a nice enhancement with additional monsters, encounters and such. Try to find that issue of Dungeon with the sidetrek. It's a nice addition to the adventure. Lastly I printed out the various illustrations from the art gallery when appropriate and used them to great effect.

Don't let others discourage you. The adventure is as much fun as you make of it.

 

[Endur]

My party used Shadow Walk, but there are several ways around 3e Faerzress.

How? Faerzress (sp?) tends to prevents teleport.