Is The Sunless Citadel a well-designed adventure module?

[RFisher]

Why I voted No:

The d4 abandoned farm houses. This might have been a joke, but Bruce didn't pull it off as one.

While the idea of showcasing the new rules is good, in too many cases the situation to do so seemed too contrived.

When the only door into room X is in room Y & there is something special about the door between rooms X & Y, the description of that door should be in Y's entry.

Way too many errors. In the first adventure for a new edition, an adventure intended for low-level character in which nothing gets too complicated, you've got to triple-check those numbers.

The description of the passage from the 1st to the 2nd level killed it for my group. We couldn't take the module seriously at all after that.

WotC already had the notion that adventures couldn't be profitable. (Based on data from late-TSR, whose product strategy was widely considered flawed. If the strategy is flawed, that taints the data.) The Sunless Citadel confirmed that opinion by underwhelming people so that the later adventures in the line didn't sell as well.

I think it's a servicable adventure, but not well designed. OK designed. Unfortunate that it was choosen to be the first module many people would experience under the new edition.

 

[Hussar]

However, Keep on the Borderlands was also short and focused,

Now there's an interesting idea.

A module without any guidance on how it should be played out. Pretty much entirely non-linear and allows for a plethora of character choices.

How is that focused? Sure, you have the Keep here and the Caves here and maybe a couple of things in the middle, but, other than that, there's pretty much no focus other than go to the dungeon and kill stuff. Come back when you've had enough, rest and do it again until there's no more stuff to kill.

Not exactly pinpoint focus.

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

After reading all the comments, I am now possibly interested in running Sunless Citadel for a group of people that I am going to be teaching to play D&D, instead of running my own home made adventure. I've had it since it came out, read it a few times, but have never run it. So, with the possibility of running it soon, what resources are out there for the adventure? I know Claudio Pozas has a few pictures on his website depicting NPCs and scenes, but what else is out there?

 

[Mark]

After reading all the comments, I am now possibly interested in running Sunless Citadel for a group of people that I am going to be teaching to play D&D, instead of running my own home made adventure. I've had it since it came out, read it a few times, but have never run it. So, with the possibility of running it soon, what resources are out there for the adventure? I know Claudio Pozas has a few pictures on his website depicting NPCs and scenes, but what else is out there?

Most of Oakhurst could be handled by the Map Folio 3-D from WotC, if you like that sort of thing (like I do). You could use some WorldWorks stuff for the Sunless Citadel interiors. D&D Minis finally came out with a Twig Blight mini. Get your hands on about a dozen of those, one of the early incarnations of Meepo, and most of the other minis should have some representation. Not sure about the water mephit or the Medium fire elemental. Maybe pick up a bonzai plant for the Gulthias Tree.

 

[Cthulhu's Librarian]

Most of Oakhurst could be handled by the Map Folio 3-D from WotC, if you like that sort of thing (like I do). You could use some WorldWorks stuff for the Sunless Citadel interiors. D&D Minis finally came out with a Twig Blight mini. Get your hands on about a dozen of those, one of the early incarnations of Meepo, and most of the other minis should have some representation. Not sure about the water mephit or the Medium fire elemental. Maybe pick up a bonzai plant for the Gulthias Tree.

Ah, I guess I should have been a little more specific. I was thinking in terms of online resources (3.5 conversions-although I can do that on the fly, story hours, errata, that sort of stuff) that people have developed while running it on their own. I've got more miniatures than I'll ever need to cover it, and the same with terrain.

 

[Spatula]

As it's so low level, there's not much needed in the way of conversions. There's only one NPC that I can think of that might need updating... well, his animal companion needs updating, anyway.

 

[rounser]

Why must everything be a mini-campaign to some? Its easy enough for any DM to expand on, How hard is it to toss in an NPC here and there or a side-trek? Its this style of thinking that kills the classic/basic module design. Everything has to be huge and in-depth, blah, blah.....

The module was exactly what it was .... a focused, introductory module.

Sure. It indoctrinates new players into being railroaded, and given that the rest of the adventure path is also a railroad, it's probably best not to get their hopes up as to actually having some meaningful player choice about the direction of the campaign.

 

[Pants]

Sure. It indoctrinates new players into being railroaded, and given that the rest of the adventure path is also a railroad, it's probably best not to get their hopes up as to actually having some meaningful player choice about the direction of the campaign.

Eh? What was so railroady about it? I played in TSC and I don't remember ever being railroaded.

 

[Numion]

Sure. It indoctrinates new players into being railroaded, and given that the rest of the adventure path is also a railroad, it's probably best not to get their hopes up as to actually having some meaningful player choice about the direction of the campaign.

I've played through it, and it wasn't railroaded.