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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Messageboard Golem" data-source="post: 2011444" data-attributes="member: 18387">This is not a playtest review. This review contains spoilers.I am not quite sure what to make of The Lost City of Gaxmoor, whether it is supposed to be a mega-adventure or a campaign setting. Sadly, it fails to live up to what I expect from either of these genres. The adventure claims to be adapted to beginning players and first level characters, but then the adventure is very tough indeed and would require a party size of at least eight, and even then PC deaths would be rather frequent. The initial encounters are quite good, but more appropriate for a party of about level 3.The background story is that the city of Gaxmoor was placed in a sort of stasis by the god of travel (an inconsistency in itself) but a demonic power managed to return it to Erde (or any campaign world), where it was invaded by evil humanoids. So the city is situated far out in the wilderness and full of evil humanoids.This is where the trouble begins. There is no kind of home base for the adventurers to rest and recuperate and spend some of their hard-won treasure. Considering the challenges of the city proper, this is a major drawback, and it pushes the necessary character level even higher.The bulk of the 134 pages is devoted to fleshing out the city (and some outlying areas) and its various locations. There is a large pull-out map included, but it lacks a proper scale. There is an appendix with generic maps over larger building, but mostly the locations are not very detailed. Many of them contain scores of humanoids, like orcs or hobgoblins, so it would be reasonable to detail some of their locations and tactics.For a low-level party, the only viable option is the sneaky one, negotiating with diverse clans of humanoids and generally trying to stay alive while exploring a hostile environment. Paladins and good clerics are definitely at a disadvantage here. While the areas in the centre of the city are more dangerous, there isn't really any pointers about where to go or what to do. On the other hand, some of the other encounters are very weak for a party that could handle the humanoids. Probably the DM will have to lead the party by the hand around town until they hit 5th level or so.The main villains are very very dangerous, ranging in CR from 12 to 20. Probably they are best played as working behind the scenes, but the DM isn't given a lot to go on as to their motivations - except that they want the Staff of Urnus, the artifact the players will be looking for, which is hidden in their very own palace! Given the intelligence and power of the bad guys, it's just silly that they haven't found it by now.There are some suggested house-rules that have no connection to the adventure, and that to me seems to betray a lack of understanding of 3e mechanics, like allowing a spell caster to use a higher level slot in order to increase the maximum damage. There are feats to do that, and they are in the core rules. Likewise the new spells are generally unusable. The variants of Ignore Distraction spells that allow a caster to cast spells in adverse circumstances ignore the rules for Concentration checks entirely.On the other hand, some of the new monsters are interesting, like the Sobekki, reptilian humanoids, and Shroom men, people magically transformed into mushrooms.On the whole Gaxmoor is an interesting idea executed poorly, and a DM with lots of time on his or her hands could make an interesting campaign setting out of the information on the competing groups, but except for the initial encounters en route to Gaxmoor, no encounters are properly detailed, so it's practically unplayable as it stands, except in the hands of a very skilled DM. But if you're not intrigued by the concept of a lawless town overrun by monsters, you'd be better off buying some other product.</blockquote>

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