[UPDATED AGAIN!] PRINCES OF THE APOCALYPSE - First Review!

The first comments on Princes of the Apcalypse are in. Fildrigar is the first to rate and comment on the adventure in EN World's ratings system, and gives it a score of 5/5. The adventure doesn't technically hit the shelves until April 7th (or March 27th - next Friday - in preferred stores), so I'm not sure how Fildrigar got hold of one, but there it is!

[UPDATE -- the author has deleted his review.]

UPDATE 2 -- he has kindly reposted it!

Click on the image below, read the comment, and as soon as you get your copy be sure to rate and comment on it yourself!

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[MonsterEnvy]

You reviewed the AP before it was made public and I must prove how you got it?

You make very little sense.

No he's annoyed that your asking him to prove it.

 

[Kramodlog]

The ~40k figure is actually considerably lower than the "known" values from this thread. I was never 100% sure those values were accurate, but had no specific evidence to suggest they weren't, so...

Those are the subscribers for the paper mags. Not sure they can be used for the emags.

I suspect the $15m for the industry never included DDI at all.

I think so too. ICv2 never had access to take kind of info. This would mean DDI had even more value if it generated "extra" revenues.

And, yes, it's something I would make a priority, especially if they want to provide support for hardcore gamers without causing the "Wall of Books" problem or bloating the game for 'casual' players. But WotC appear to have chosen a different route, which is their prerogative I guess.

I ment back in the day, when 4e was still being supported.

 

[Kramodlog]

No he's annoyed that your asking him to prove it.

I didn't ask to prove anything. Just asked where he read it. We're all curious. No?

 

[Morrus]

I didn't ask to prove anything. Just asked where he read it. We're all curious. No?

Obviously there's a reason why he feels he doesn't want to share that information with you. I can think of at least a couple of very good reasons.

 

[Fabio Andrea Rossi]

In the meanwhile, Fildrigar deleted his own review...du-du-du-dun! The mistery gets deeper...anyway, I liked the review! It served the purpose to tell me this is nearer to LMoP than anything else, and I loved LMoP!

PS
The precise numbers of STARS imho is something only important to Nemesis in RE3, I think

PPS
edit: typo

 

[delericho]

Those are the subscribers for the paper mags. Not sure they can be used for the emags.

If you look through the thread you'll find various updates giving the number of DDI subscriptions. It seemed to be somewhere over 50k in the first post up to ~70k by the end.

That said, I'm not sure I can really recommend wading through all that.

I think so too. ICv2 never had access to take kind of info. This would mean DDI had even more value if it generated "extra" revenues.

Yep, and I think it did.

As far as I can see, DDI had tens of thousands of subscribers, something which would have delighted anyone else in the industry. But I think Hasbro's management was sold on DDI on the basis of hundreds of thousands, which it of course failed to achieve. And so, despite being huge in terms of RPGs, it still counted as a "failure", albeit against absurd expectations. (Worse, I'm pretty sure DDI must have canibalised sales of the books at least to some extent, and especially of the splatbooks, which should have been the "safe bets" as far as supplements are concerned.)

I ment back in the day, when 4e was still being supported.

Ah, I see. I thought it was the priority, at least for several years there. I may be wrong - I was very much an observer in the 4e days.

 

[Waller]

It's been deleted but its on Facebook and other places.
-----

Let's get this part out of the way right up front: This is not THE Temple of Elemental Evil. It was clearly *inspired* by ToEE.

It details four elemental cults attempting to summon the Princes of Elemental Evil, but Tharzdun/Zuggtmoy/Iuz are not contained within this adventure in any way shape or form. What you find instead is a fairly sandboxy adventure set in the Sumber Hills of the Sword Coast of the Forgotten Realms.

The adventure is designed for levels 3-15, although it contains a number of initial side treks that you can use to get a party up from level one to level three. Since it is set a hop skip and a jump away from the Neverwinter area, it is really easy to direct your party there post Lost Mines of Phandelver.

The adventure details Red Larch and the surrounding environment, and has brief descriptions Beliard, West Bridge, and Womford. There are four temple areas on the surface, and each has a trail, tunnel, or path to get to a deeper dungeon under the hills. Each dungeon then leads to an Elemental Node. ( In addition to a connection to the other dungeons. ) The adventure also contains a number of other, unrelated side treks, which can be dropped here and there into the recommended order of running the adventure. There are also a number of responses to intrusion that the elemental cults will take, designed to be dropped in depending upon which temples get taken out first. The cultists will lash out at the surrounding area, causing mayhem.

Some DM work will be required to make everything fit together perfectly. There is one of each air/water/earth/fire of each set of areas. ( Surface, dungeon, node. ) Each is designed for a slightly different level. Luckily, 5e has a built in mechanism ( bounded accuracy ) to make it so that ending up at the areas of a slightly different level than your party is won't end up being a complete TPK tragedy. Some DM work may be required, however, in some cases. I suspect that shortly after release, some enterprising people will go about making some guides to help newer DMs realize the biggest areas to watch out for if done out of level range. This is my one criticism of the module, but it's not bad enough to drop an entire star from my rating. And unlike 5e, I don't automatically round down.

p.s. The adventure also includes an eight page appendix with ideas for setting the adventure in worlds besides the Forgotten Realms.

 

[Mercule]

Thanks MonsterEnvy. I haven't really been up on 5E since we tried playing part of HotDQ and basically stopped.

If we'd started with HotDQ instead of LMoP, we probably wouldn't be playing 5E, right now. I can't put my finger on it, but I just didn't like HotDQ. LMoP was a blast, though.

Yep. If I don't like something ( HotDQ ) I'm just not going to review it. I'm not a professional reviewer, just someone who loves games. And this module blew me away. I quickly shelved the plans I had for my campaign, and pushed the party towards the Sumber Hills. My review is deliberately a little vague, because the book isn't out yet, and I don't want to get anyone in trouble. ( I shouldn't have it yet, not until Friday. ) I will try to expand it more this week.

While I get you're not a professional reviewer, I'd love more information. I appreciate that you've come in here and given a bit more detail. Thanks. The fact that you were less than awed by HotDQ already lends weight to your review, IMO.

What I'm (personally and selfishly) interested in is:
- How ready is it to play "out of the box"? I didn't run HotDQ largely because it looked like a story outline with a couple dungeons. If I need to fill in the details and/or "wing it" for half the chapters, I might just as well roll my own.

- How tied to the Realms is it? This is the other reason I didn't run HotDQ: I strongly dislike the Realms and didn't see any way to neatly decouple the adventure from the setting w/o massively rewriting portions.

- Corollary: Could it be move to Eberron? You said there was a small conversion guide. Does it have advice on integration or just where to file off the serial numbers?

- Is it a campaign or a big adventure? The difference is in including a place for the PCs to have some downtime and a base, as well as an opportunity (vs. requirement) to branch out from what's present and add a side quest or two.

 

[Iosue]

The higher-ups at WotC and/or Hasbro probably don't give the thumbs up on announcing 5e early and shutting down all print material during a two-year open playtest unless DDI is bringing in a nice chunk of revenue.

 

[darjr]

I have doubts about those (speculated) number of subscribers. That would mean revenues of 2,880,000 dollars a year. In an industry that generates 15 million dollars of revenue a year, DDI would be almost one fifth of the industry. It is something I would support and develop, heck, I would make it a priority.

I think mostly confirmed in designers & dragons. Though that book does draw from these very forums.