First take - Crown of the Kobold King

[Celeblas]

@Zaukrie
The picture in question can be found on the Paizo Blog (link). To be honest I didn't even notice the gag.

The picture of the halfling on page 15, looks pretty strange in my opinion but all in all the artwork in D1 is pretty decent .

 

[Zaukrie]

That's the art I was worried about? It isn't anything I wouldn't show my kids. I see nothing sexual there at all, even with someone else putting that thought in my head. Feel free to ignore my first post....

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

So does this mean that my module submission, Sex Dungeon of the Hobgoblin Dominatrix, isn't going to get published?

 

[Zaukrie]

Not necessarily, but it does mean they know I won't buy it

 

[roguerouge]

Also, I ordered Crown of the Kobold King on July 3rd with priority mail and did not receive the adventure until July 17th. By comparison, when I order items from Kenzerco with priority mail they come in a few days later.

Count yourself lucky, then. I ordered a back issue of Dungeon 34 days ago and it has STILL yet to arrive. When they sent me the wrong issue, they didn't offer to send it priority mail, preferring to have me wait.

 

[ColonelHardisson]

Second, while I like grim and gritty as much as the next guy, I found the "Kids after the Kobold King" sidebar a bit too grim for me.

Besides the general quality of the module, this is the exact thing that jumped out at me on my first reading.

SPOILER ALERT

While the "what happens later" material was given as suggestions for what might happen with any given kid later on in their life due to the events of the module, it would've been nice if even one of the suggestions was positive. As you note, I can easily ignore this stuff (which I'll do if I get the chance to run this module). However, it made an already fairly grim module even more of a bummer. But, after all, the town the module is based around is evil in nature.

Another thing I disliked is that, as written, the PCs aren't supposed to save the half-elf who gets his heart cut out. I hate that kind of thing in an adventure, where no matter what the PCs do, they simply aren't "meant" to save a particular NPC. The classic example from past adventures is the dying old man or soldier the PCs find along the road who, after providing a n adventure hook, can't be saved no matter what kind of healing the PCs use on him. I really, really hate that kind of railroad tactic.

END SPOILERS

All that said, it's a good, solid module. It looks great, I love the "Designer Notes," there are plenty of opportunities for the PCs to network, and future adventure hooks grow easily from the entire setting. The two flaws I picked on aren't that tough to fix, which bodes well for future modules in this line.

 

[Shroomy]

I don't have the adventure in front of me as it at my new house (stupid move), but I thought that two or three of the possibilities are somewhat positive:

SPOILERS







I don't remember their names, but the Gavel's son repudiating his father's ethos and becoming a good aligned adventurer seems to be somewhat positive, even if he does become estranged from his father. The butcher's son discovering his latent talent for magic doesn't seem so bad given his current mental status. And while he got kicked out by his father because of his aversion to undead, does Falcon Hollow really need another necromancer?

 

[Zaukrie]

Aren't there spoiler tags on this site?

 

[KingCrab]

I'm tired of "family appropriate" modules. It sounds to me like the bits of tragedy could make this module much more entertaining. I'll have to pick it up.

 

[Soel]

Josh is being coy here, but since we have already announced it, I shall confirm it. We are releasing a 64 page full-color Campaign Gazetteer in January 08. The book will give a broad overview of one large chunk of our setting as well as serve as a handy reference for the gods, peoples, and kingdoms of our world.

Sounds cool. Even though I'm using Wilderlands, I'm gonna check this out.