I'll add one that's missing in here. Spoilers ahead:
Acquisitions Incorporated
Running it right now. So far it's a brilliant starter adventure. You have to buy into the sense of humor of Acq Inc, and you ALSO have to realize that the franchise officer abilities and items that the players get access to even early on are SIGNIFICANTLY powerful.
Flaw #1: it hits early on, while the PCs are still level one. First job, you go down into a series of caverns (opened up by a recent magical earthquake) to locate and extract two Waterdeep City Watch officers who have gone missing while investigating the series of caverns.
AS SOON AS the PCs recover the (surviving) missing Watch officer, the first question out of their mouths is "HOW DID YOU GET PAST THE ROOM FULL OF TRAPS, THE ZOMBIES, THE POO MONSTER FROM THE FILTH DIMENSION, AND THE BIG GODDAMN LOCKED DOOR? YOU'RE IN ON THIS AREN'T YOU?!!!????!?!?"
My fix: Fortunately, the PCs had skipped over a minor puzzle encounter that would have provided them with a big honkin' key to the locked doors. I immediately retconned it that the Watch member had successfully completed the puzzle, received Big Shiny Key (complete with Legend of Zelda sound effects) which unlocked the door and also deactivated all the other nasty encounters. This may not work for your PCs, though, so have an answer ready.
Flaw #2: This one's more general. As written, your PCs start off in Waterdeep - the biggest city pretty much anywhere - and are told their objective is to acquire wealth on behalf of Acq Inc. They are NOT going to want to head off to podunk Phandalin and set up their base of operations in nowheresville.
I'd recommend either dropping this entire adventure into your own homebrewed world (a bit of work - you'll need to relocate Waterdeep, Neverwinter, Luskan, Phandalin, AND Red Larch) or just be ready to set up their base of operations literally anywhere other than Phandalin.
Hell, after they hit level three offer them Trollskull Manor back in Waterdeep instead. Offer them a bizarre carriage that's way bigger on the inside than the outside as their base and they can travel anywhere. Do whatever. Once they clean out Tresendar Manor again, Phandalin is largely irrelevant anyway.
Acquisitions Incorporated
Running it right now. So far it's a brilliant starter adventure. You have to buy into the sense of humor of Acq Inc, and you ALSO have to realize that the franchise officer abilities and items that the players get access to even early on are SIGNIFICANTLY powerful.
Flaw #1: it hits early on, while the PCs are still level one. First job, you go down into a series of caverns (opened up by a recent magical earthquake) to locate and extract two Waterdeep City Watch officers who have gone missing while investigating the series of caverns.
AS SOON AS the PCs recover the (surviving) missing Watch officer, the first question out of their mouths is "HOW DID YOU GET PAST THE ROOM FULL OF TRAPS, THE ZOMBIES, THE POO MONSTER FROM THE FILTH DIMENSION, AND THE BIG GODDAMN LOCKED DOOR? YOU'RE IN ON THIS AREN'T YOU?!!!????!?!?"
My fix: Fortunately, the PCs had skipped over a minor puzzle encounter that would have provided them with a big honkin' key to the locked doors. I immediately retconned it that the Watch member had successfully completed the puzzle, received Big Shiny Key (complete with Legend of Zelda sound effects) which unlocked the door and also deactivated all the other nasty encounters. This may not work for your PCs, though, so have an answer ready.
Flaw #2: This one's more general. As written, your PCs start off in Waterdeep - the biggest city pretty much anywhere - and are told their objective is to acquire wealth on behalf of Acq Inc. They are NOT going to want to head off to podunk Phandalin and set up their base of operations in nowheresville.
I'd recommend either dropping this entire adventure into your own homebrewed world (a bit of work - you'll need to relocate Waterdeep, Neverwinter, Luskan, Phandalin, AND Red Larch) or just be ready to set up their base of operations literally anywhere other than Phandalin.
Hell, after they hit level three offer them Trollskull Manor back in Waterdeep instead. Offer them a bizarre carriage that's way bigger on the inside than the outside as their base and they can travel anywhere. Do whatever. Once they clean out Tresendar Manor again, Phandalin is largely irrelevant anyway.
