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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Canada_K" data-source="post: 2008994" data-attributes="member: 3735">Bottom Line: Worth owning.  This installment was mediocre, but the trilogy improves as it goes along.  A professional looking product that suffers from some silly mistakes and awkward pacing, it is pretty good overall.The Nitty Gritty Review: First of all, the look and the artwork are absolutely top notch.  I'm far more willing to overlook minor deficiencies when the book looks as good as this one.  A huge thumbs up to the production group!Now my complaints about The Longest Night may seem picky, but they are born of being subjected to the rather brutal editorial staff over at Dungeon Magazine.  There are a few things about this adventure that would curl my editor's ears.(1) Spelling and grammar errors.  ACK!(2) The players are expected to follow the path the game designers have set out for them… come hell or high water.  The entire trilogy is essentially a long series of neatly packaged encounters, strung together by an ongoing plot line.  Each new scenario is completely independent from the last.  The problem is that the segues from one encounter to the next are stiff, and often contrived.  In almost every case, once the PCs have wrapped up one scenario, they MUST go to one of the major NPCs before they have enough information to get to the next scenario.  This would be frustrating to me as a player because it means I am always beholden to the NPCs.  It wouldn’t have been very hard for the game designers to leave clues so that the players could draw some of these conclusions for themselves.(3) The game, in many cases, requires the DM to force a particular event to occur, or to impose a particular ending to a combat regardless of what the players do.  In some places, the text of the adventure actually gives the DM advice on how to railroad the players without making it obvious to them.  I think it is a sign of a poorly planned game if the designer has to force something to happen.  Besides, players are a sophisticated bunch, and they can usually sniff out an artificial plot development a mile away.  There is always a way to set-up an encounter so that no one has to be made to do anything.  Hell, the people at WotC have many times insisted I rework an entire manuscript to ensure this sort of thing does not happen, and if I can do it anyone can.The good points, though, are very, very good.  The individual encounters are clever, the mood is appropriately creepy, and the environment is certainly engaging.  I like the city of Corvis, and the swampy environs.  The writing style is also very free and open, a welcome relief compared to the sterile precision that smothers most WotC products.If you are going to invest in The Longest Night I highly recommend getting the entire trilogy.  I think each book is stronger when taken in context of the whole story.  The three books cost me $50 Canadian, which is a pretty good deal given how much material you get.</blockquote>

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