Psion said:
Eh. Night Below seemed like such a waste to me. Good beginning, good end, but the middle part shares what IMO is the weakness of RttToEE: A stream of tedious combat encounters. That will forever keep Night Below out of the classics in my book. I haven't played RttToEE in actuality, but if it plays like it looks (i.e., a lot like book 2 of Night Below), that is also a strike against it.
I've run it as far as the Crater Ridge Mines, where the players are making their third foray in. The investigation into the mines and subsequent determining of their (to outsiders) nonsensical operation is a major part of the midsection of the game. It is in this part, the uber-dungeon, that it's left to the DM to make or break the central part of the module. I like the suggestions Monte offers for customizing and changing the module, and the 'living, breathing' environment as presented. It's incumbent on the DM to make things like troop reallotments and dynamic changes happen, or else it
will degenerate into a tedious Bataan-like death march.
The issue with meat-grinders isn't necessarily one of lethality as much as expectation. After Tomb of Horrors gained a reputation, players entered and played the module differently than when it was an unknown quantity. HoNS is a major shift in emphasis from the previous four modules (the later two of which I purchased and didn't use most of) But the expectation has always been that cautious, clever players will not get arbitrarily slaughtered. I would guess that Numion and BlackMoria's fellow players might have been soured on the game if they were 'Finger of Death'ed once too often by an Improved invisbled Sorceror on the other side of a magic portal.
My players entered Nightfang Spire with almost military precision, and steam-rollered everything in their path...for a while. No one was expecting read a plaque on a statue and then just keel over and die. That aside, there were logic problems in the modules design that simply were too distracting...like why the villains would invest time, energy and money into creating a teleportation closet to take you...60 feet away. In a room easily reached by foot. I had less time rationalizing the diabolical traps of Acerak's chambers.
As for 'The Standing Stone'...I'm not sure why such praise gets occasionally heaped upon it. I found it to be tottally unworkable as a concept. There were far too many problems with it as a module for me to consider using, without having to rewrite the module to accomadate my party. The module is designed to decieve the players, and spends a large amount of time stacking the deck against them (forgetting the fact that the players won't be fooled for five minutes). Suffice it to say that I agreed with dinkeldog's assesment.
