D&D 5E Problems with Tales from the Yawning Portal

[Zardnaar]

Derp ran Forge of Fury last year. Currently running Sunless Citadel

 

[MerricB]

Deep ran Forfe of Fury last year. Currently running Sunless Citadel

Wrong order!

 

[Zardnaar]

Wrong order!

Aware. I blame ze French.

 

[pukunui]

I’ve run The Sunless Citadel (didn’t like it) and The Forge of Fury (loved it!). Started running the frost giant adventure but didn’t finish.

Haven’t run any of the others.

 

[MerricB]

A couple of these things were addressed in an Errata however many have not. Also to add to the list I have found the following:

For The Forge of Fury, Aftermath - Track the Broke Blade section it states: "the +1 longsword from area 22, the +2 greataxe in area 53, the handaxe from area 14, and the warhammer from area 23. All bear Durgeddin’s smith-mark" however only the +1 longsword from area 22, the +2 greataxe in area 53 mention having the Durgeddin’s smith-mark. The warhammer from area 23 has no mention of the mark and only states its inset with a garnet. Furthermore there is no handaxe mentioned at all in area 14.

Stuff like this makes me want to check the original printing and see it's a change to the text or the original also had this error an no-one noticed!

Area 14 has no handaxe apparent in the original text description... however, Yarrack possesses a masterwork handaxe in his treasure (in an NPC appendix!) He's an orc, level 3 warrior in the original, not an orog.
Area 22 had a +1 bastard sword, but we're a kinder gentler people in 5E, so it's a longsword instead (mark noted in text).
Area 23 has a masterwork warhammer (no mark mentioned in the original - not even a garnet!)
Area 53 has a +2 dwarven waraxe bearing the smith's mark.

So, what happened is they preserved the text from the original adventure (keeping the rather odd ordering of areas), but didn't notice that the handaxe was in a monster stat-block, not in the area text.

Cheers!

 

[MerricB]

I’ve run The Sunless Citadel (didn’t like it) and The Forge of Fury (loved it!). Started running the frost giant adventure but didn’t finish.

Haven’t run any of the others.

I much prefer the Sunless Citadel to Forge of Fury, but that's mainly because I have a LOT of fun with the various humanoid races trying to ally with the adventurers against the others.

(Forge feels a bit dull to me. Of this series, I actually really enjoyed James Wyatt's The Speaker in Dreams the most).

Cheers!

 

[Zardnaar]

I’ve run The Sunless Citadel (didn’t like it) and The Forge of Fury (loved it!). Started running the frost giant adventure but didn’t finish.

Haven’t run any of the others.

Average and pretty darn good for me.

 

[pukunui]

I much prefer the Sunless Citadel to Forge of Fury, but that's mainly because I have a LOT of fun with the various humanoid races trying to ally with the adventurers against the others.

I just don’t like the random layout and the fact that the kobolds and goblins are squashed into such close proximity. I’d prefer it if the whole thing was more spread out. (One thing I like about Forge!)

(Forge feels a bit dull to me. Of this series, I actually really enjoyed James Wyatt's The Speaker in Dreams the most).

Yes, that one is fantastic!

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I’ve run The Sunless Citadel (didn’t like it) and The Forge of Fury (loved it!). Started running the frost giant adventure but didn’t finish.

Haven’t run any of the others.

I've run Hidden Shrine and White Plume Mountain for nostalgia reasons. Hidden Shrine doesn't make any sense from a monster ecology perspective, and you need to be aware that it's supposed to be a frantic race against time. WPM, in 5e the players had too many tools and too much genre savvy to be troubled by the obstacles, but the effrit at the end are party killers, somehow becoming much tougher in the years since it was written.

 

[pukunui]

I've run Hidden Shrine and White Plume Mountain for nostalgia reasons. Hidden Shrine doesn't make any sense from a monster ecology perspective, and you need to be aware that it's supposed to be a frantic race against time. WPM, in 5e the players had too many tools and too much genre savvy to be troubled by the obstacles, but the effrit at the end are party killers, somehow becoming much tougher in the years since it was written.

I’ve wanted to run Hidden Shrine, but this conversion has too many problems (as outlined in the OP) and too many old school gotchas for my taste. I also found it too hard to integrate into any settings because of its psuedo-Aztec trappings.

As for White Plume Mountain, it’s just too old school random dungeon for my tastes.