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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lancelot" data-source="post: 5502349" data-attributes="member: 30022">Similar experience. To elaborate on some of the points made above...<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The encounters prior to reaching the mountain are fairly random. They're not really in the same theme of the mountain itself. This is both good and bad. The variety is welcome given how "same-y" the mountain is going to get, but they don't really create much of a theme.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The pre-mountain encounters are also a railroad. Like most 2e modules, it isn't a sandbox or an attempt at simulating an environment. You do encounter 1... then you do encounter 2... then you do encounter 3. And so on.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">While I respect the effort to make kobolds deadly, I personally feel it was taken to the extreme. 2e kobolds are pushovers at low-levels (THACO 20, 1d4 hp). It would have been an interesting intellectual exercise to make them tough opponents at mid-levels. But Dragon Mountain tries to make them legitimate opponents at high-levels... and it's a bridge too far. It's achieved in two ways: 1) giving the kobolds access to extreme magical (and other) resources, thanks to the dragon; and 2) gimping the PCs. The former is a little unrealistic, and led to my players staring at me with some disbelief ("Seriously... how did a 3-hp creature get a wand of wonder?"). The latter is the opposite of fun. I'm all for interesting environments and situations, like tossing the PCs naked into the dungeons of the Slave-Lords and letting them figure out how to get out. But area and encounter design that is specifically intended to screw with PC abilities can get frustrating after a while.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">And, despite the attempt to give the kobolds every advantage, it's all too easily defeated by magic at that level. Simple spells like fireball (expanding to fill rooms), cloudkill, death spell... they wreak absolute havoc on large numbers of low-level creatures. This also creates a disproportionate play experience for different classes. A wizard will generally have a field day in Dragon Mountain. Other classes, not so much.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The module introduces a number of new creatures, but none of them are particularly memorable.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The mountain map is not a masterpiece. It's functional. It also clearly established the size and scope of the crawl. It is BIG (i.e. the map is color-coded to show regions of the mountain). Unless the DM trims out areas or glosses over them, the PCs could spend a lot of time in the mountain... and a lot of it will begin to feel awfully familiar after a while ("Kobolds... again").</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The final encounter is a bit of a saving grace - the dragon is very tough (for 2e) and smart. It also has one heck of a dragon hoard, which makes it feel like a worthy reward for the slog to get there. However, it's still prone to the usual 1e/2e problems: the dragon is a single opponent, and a lucky attack (save-or-lose spell, hasted fighter with a belt of giant strength, etc) could still take it out in a single round. Which would make a great story for the player, I guess... but still strikes me as anti-climactic.</li> </ul>Overall, I'd rate the module as "poor". It needs a lot of work to make it enjoyable for the players. Of the 2e boxed sets, I much preferred Night Below and Return to the Tomb of Horrors. Both had much more variety, more level-appropriate opponents, richer theme, better "player props" (illustration booklets, handouts, etc), more interesting NPCs, and better final encounters (neither of which is likely to be over in a single round, and the PCs will have had to overcome some horrific fights against terrifying opponents to even get there).</blockquote>

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