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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lanefan" data-source="post: 9637903" data-attributes="member: 29398">Though I could be wrong on this, I don't think it's supposed to be specifically a Dark Sun adventure - I didn't get that vibe from it anyway and I'm pretty sure it doesn't say Dark Sun on the cover - which might explain some or all of the not-Dark-Sun-suitable bits you found.  I thought it was intended as stock 4e.Some of that agrees with what I found when running it.  There's the bash-around-in-the-desert bit and the dungeon-y bit.  The desert bit could be a decent sandbox if you introduce unrelated elements and let the PCs find the breadcrumbs as and when they will, but running it stock could require some leading by the nose, for sure.There's a permanent sandstorm the PCs have to get through to get to the core dungeon bit.  The module wants to handle this with a single skill challenge, which seems a mighty waste of a good set-up to me.  I took that sandstorm and ran with it, not that they ever found any of the extra bits I put in there, lucky them. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />The dungeon's design is awful.  I put in a few extra connecting passages just to make it non-linear and that helped a lot.The encounters are nasty but I don't mind that.  I didn't get a true read on just how nasty, though, as the squabbling PCs were also busy killing each other at the time and doing some other crazy stuff - the high body count wasn't entirely the adventure's fault. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Of those I have two: Orcs, and Gardmore (and that plus KotS and Dune Sea is about it for my 4e module collection).  I was actually going to run Orcs (converted) and had laid down some in-campaign plot pieces to set it up, but the PCs in-fiction turned their noses up at the whole idea and went and did something else instead.  Oh well.  Now they're far too high-level for it; and if I've got to convert it and beef it up I might as well write my own.I haven't even tried to run Gardmore.  It's a while since I looked at it but my recollection is that conversion would be....let's just say daunting, and stop there. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />It comes down to one's reasons for playing, I think.  If one is mostly or entirely playing for the role-play aspect (i.e. taking on the persona of your character) and enjoying the story that's emerging and-or being told, it's possible to go forever without levelling.  We're not that extreme, but we do tend to see levelling as more of a pleasant side-effect of play rather than a core reason for playing.The pleasant side-effect from the DM side of the PCs levelling now and then is it allows me to throw a wider variety of opponents and challenges at 'em.A fine sentiment.Oddly enough, we almost made slow levelling work in 3e.  The main (and very early!) casualty was the wealth-by-level guidelines; other than that, our DM was able to spin out a single 3e* campaign for a shade over 10 years of mostly-weekly play (about 40 sessions a year, at a guess).  The highest level anyone got to was, I think, 14th; my main character got to 11th over 7 years before I bowed out in order to open time to run my own campaign.* - converted on the fly to 3.5 halfway through.It was their second adventure; they were mostly still 1st level but had somewhat better gear than raw 1sts would have, courtesy of their one prior adventure.  Spoiler for L1 follows:[SPOILER]In L1 there's an encounter that, if handled right, can grant the party a wish.  They used it to revive all their fallen, except - oops! - in their excitement they forgot they'd buried a couple of them, who of course quickly suffocated and died again.[/SPOILER]And at very low level that degree of lethality is more or less par for the course round here. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Truth be told, I don't mind weeding out those players.  The ones I want to keep are those who smile and say "Gimme that roll-up book, and this one's gonna last longer!".You've said in the past you don't like Rogue-likes, which makes your take here not at all surprising.I do like Rogue-likes, and see low-level D&D as pretty much just that.Trial and error while consistently using the same system can help immensely here through increased familiarity with a) what various monsters and foes can dish out and b) how resilient (or not) adventuring parties can be.  Even then, the dice can throw things for a loop but IMO that's exactly why we use them. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /></blockquote>

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