D&D 5E Justin Alexander's review of Shattered Obelisk is pretty scathing

[Charlaquin]

Oh, it has changed and evolved...but of you attend to the fundamentals of each Class Mearls laid out, and look at the '24 playtests, I think you will find the core has remained quite consistent.

Even the statement “there’s not enough design space for both fancy weapon tricks and spells” kinda checks out with how they described the weapon mastery system as “like martial Cantrips.” You can follow the logic, where they created the design space by shifting their thinking around weapon tricks, to conceptualize them as essentially spells you cast with weapons.

 

[mamba]

Even the statement “there’s not enough design space for both fancy weapon tricks and spells” kinda checks out with how they described the weapon mastery system as “like martial Cantrips.”

I am not even sure I agree with the premise, unless they were thinking of a hundred maneuvers or so of various levels, but yes, the 2024 is pretty barebones

 

[Charlaquin]

I am not even sure I agree with the premise, unless they were thinking of a hundred maneuvers or so of various levels, but yes, the 2024 is pretty barebones

Oh, I don’t agree with the premise at all. Just saying, the weapon mastery system doesn’t necessarily mean WotC’s thinking around this subject has changed completely.

 

[Staffan]

Princess of the apocalypse sadly had similar problems in dungeon design. I really do find that annoying and it prevents me from seriously running a product as I can't ignore it.

That's what I find disappointing. Dragon's Crown shows that Baker can write a big adventure that's fun and varied. Other than the plot involving one class being nerfed for the duration of the adventure, Dragon's Crown is pretty much my ideal Big Adventure. But Princes is essentially a little surface investigating followed by One Huge Dungeon.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

Definitely not anyone I blocked, I checked and my blocklist remains empty. Must be someone blocking me.

Well shucks, thanks mate! You too! I’m gonna be riding that compliment all day.

Don’t feel bad he blocked me too, and by the sounds of it has quite the curated feed.

 

[QuentinGeorge]

since it was pointed out, if you use an anonymous window, do not engage them.

To me that part was obvious, for one you cannot, as you are not logged in, and for another they would not see your post anyway… did not think this needed saying because of that

You can see it if you log out too, and that removes the temptation to try and respond.

 

[Retreater]

Sadly, our library system falls into this. Most of the books in our local "big city" library is at least 20 years old (for example, they do have a D&D PHB, but its the 3.0 version). The library in my nearby rural town (about 8 miles down the road) is rocking titles from the 50's and 60's, and their "new" books are from the 80's. I don't know if they even have access to an intra-library exchange service.

That's a shame. When I became the head of purchasing for our library, I made sure that we started getting more gaming books.
You can likely check the website of your library to see if there are online request forms for Interlibrary Loan. I may end up sending you a book from our library.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

That's a shame. When I became the head of purchasing for our library, I made sure that we started getting more gaming books.
You can likely check the website of your library to see if there are online request forms for Interlibrary Loan. I may end up sending you a book from our library.

Librarian is a noble calling. My hat is off to you.

 

[Ancalagon]

So I got curious to see what was available here (Ottawa, Canada), and this adventure is not available at the library...

That being said, their 5e collection is pretty decent, so I was happy to see that at least. Basic 3 books, a number of supplement, half a dozen adventures... you could 100% run a game with what's available. Maybe they will get the shattered obelisk later?

 

[Mannahnin]

Having read his response on the keyed dungeon point, I think it’s a matter of him being very passionate about dungeon design and feeling that WotC is moving in a direction that doesn’t value that as much (or at least not in the same way) as he does. Perhaps he’s overstating the seriousness of the issue, but it seems to be out of genuine concern that the art of dungeon design and keying is being deprioritized, which may lead to a loss of that generational knowledge.

Yeah, layout and information presentation is a thing.

I tend to agree with Bryce Lynch and the designers over at Necrotic Gnome that efficient, pithy presentation with evocative descriptors, putting key info up front and using bullet points, bold, and indentation to help make the info easy to absorb at a glance is best for my usage.

Key info buried in paragraphs is a pet peeve. A map showing three rooms and text describing three rooms but without labeling for easy reference of which is which is an error, IMO. I can sort-of get it if their intent is for players to use a digital image of the map on VTT and they don't want to put a number in the middle of the room where it's visible to the players in that use-case, but you can still put a numeric label or title OUTSIDE the image in that case.

I have several of Arcane Library's adventures in my "Wishlist" on DriveThruRPG but I haven't pulled the trigger on any of them yet. Any suggest for the best one to look at?

I've only run their Secret of Skyhorn Lighthouse, which was free or dirt cheap, and I liked it.

I see your point from the perspective of veterans like us. However, as this is a new book I feel the review should be oriented towards a prospective customer, and they don’t know or care about what was published when; they care about “how good is this product I am thinking of buying?”. IMO

I think Justin's audience is more experienced players. I don't think he's someone newbies would naturally go to. And I think his rating explicitly reflects that; that he's grading it with the assumption that his readers already have had access to LMoP, and so the review is to assess how good the expanded material is.

And yeah, the dropped threads and discontinuities seem much bigger issues. No telling us what the heck the Spellforge is. A nonsensical way of tying in the psychic goblins with the regular ones. NOT making the NPCs relevant later. Etc.