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Message: <blockquote data-quote="eryndel" data-source="post: 6376536" data-attributes="member: 13120">Although I appreciate the effort of the OP; this critical review must have been a labor of love.  He has a number of fair points and there are numerous areas where the options given in the module don't really make a whole lot of sense.  I chalk most of that up to the Encounters aspect of the adventure.  For me, the adventure gave me enough to build a game around, even if I don't use all the boxed text verbatim.I'm also not convinced by the railroad arguments made by other posters.  The adventure was designed to cater to a number of different audiences.  The Cyanwrath (half-dragon baddie in Ep. 1) encounter was brought up.  Although it's likely a PC will be defeated by him, there are a number of potential scenarios that could transpire as described in the game:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">No one steps forward, nameless human guard fights and dies</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Player wins, minions grab half-dragon to try and save him so he can return.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Player wins and kills Cyanwrath outright</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Players all pile in - grand melee ensues</li> </ul>In one of those situations, there's advice that if Cyanwrath falls, try to save him for Ep. 3.  For Organized Play, this is kinda necessary because when you're running a group through Ep 3, you really don't know what the outcome of Ep 1 was.  If I were to run it in my home game, I feel I have a lot more ability to tailor it (replace the Ep 3 half dragon with his mate, as suggested above, or just remove him from the game).That said, I think some of the railroady concerns are really from the DM's end.  In a case where the module states that situation X happens no matter what the PCs do... as long as the party isn't aware of all the possible outcomes, I can usually run it where the PCs aren't aware of this.  Even if the adventure says the Adult Blue dragon will run away, I can run the scene where the party gets involved and actually do drive off the dragon (or they can hide, and I can highlight some other valiant hero outshines them... that can be fun too).All said, I thought Ep 1 and several Episodes towards the end were pretty well done, although much of the middle felt a little lackluster.  That's on a read through... still haven't run my group through it yet.XP'ed... this is excellent.  I've been brainstorming ways to tie this in with my current LMoP game and I will steal this.  Have the dragon and cultists raid Phandalin upon their return from Wave Echo and maybe even kill off some of the NPCs they developed bonds with.  Then they can track the cultists to the Mere and Carnath Roadhouse in Episode 5.  They may be a little high level (higher than level 6 after leaving the Mere), but will be pretty close.  Thanks!</blockquote>

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