For what it's worth, here's a few comments from the author of the work in question:
Krug - No doubt about it, the Challenge of Champions series is definitely skewed toward the puzzle end of the spectrum. If puzzle-solving isn't really your thing, then you're probably not going to enjoy the adventure, and that's perfectly all right. The Challenge of Champions series was specifically created with those who like the puzzle-solving aspects of D&D in mind; after all, if hack-and-slash is your thing, it's usually not too difficult to whip up a quick combat encounter, but it's usually much harder to whip up a quick puzzle on a moment's notice. Plus, I wanted to come up with an adventure that could be used with PCs of any level. Even if you don't ever use any of the full adventures, you might cannibalize a puzzle or two to throw into your next dungeon.
Crothian - Think of the Challenge of Champions series as an obstacle course, or perhaps even as a sort of game show, with the PCs as the contestants. They go through ten different scenarios where they're given some equipment and a goal that they must accomplish in 15 minutes. At the end of the 15 minutes, they earn so many points for their team depending on how many of their team members have accomplished the goal. And when all of the competing teams complete all ten scenarios, their total scores are tallied to see who won.
Bramadan - Sounds cool! How have your PCs fared on the previous Challenges?
Dark Psion - I'm looking forward to The Book of Challenges myself.
Incidentally, I got a big kick out of the four NPCs provided in this adventure. (They're on page 21.) If you look them over, you'll note that several of them aren't quite sure of their own names! There's a reason for that: the editors changed the NPCs' names on me, but apparently forgot to update their new names in their descriptions. That's why, for instance, the gnome bard is called "Mirkysh" in the stat block but "Khrys" in the description. See if you recognize any of the NPCs' original names:
Daevyd "the Gross," half-elf Sor1
Khrys "the Perky," gnome Brd1
Jhessye "the Decker," half-orc Bbn1
"Pierced" Watters, dwarf Rog1
I guess I can't really blame the editors for changing the names--the hokey-meter was going off the scale!
Johnathan
Krug - No doubt about it, the Challenge of Champions series is definitely skewed toward the puzzle end of the spectrum. If puzzle-solving isn't really your thing, then you're probably not going to enjoy the adventure, and that's perfectly all right. The Challenge of Champions series was specifically created with those who like the puzzle-solving aspects of D&D in mind; after all, if hack-and-slash is your thing, it's usually not too difficult to whip up a quick combat encounter, but it's usually much harder to whip up a quick puzzle on a moment's notice. Plus, I wanted to come up with an adventure that could be used with PCs of any level. Even if you don't ever use any of the full adventures, you might cannibalize a puzzle or two to throw into your next dungeon.
Crothian - Think of the Challenge of Champions series as an obstacle course, or perhaps even as a sort of game show, with the PCs as the contestants. They go through ten different scenarios where they're given some equipment and a goal that they must accomplish in 15 minutes. At the end of the 15 minutes, they earn so many points for their team depending on how many of their team members have accomplished the goal. And when all of the competing teams complete all ten scenarios, their total scores are tallied to see who won.
Bramadan - Sounds cool! How have your PCs fared on the previous Challenges?
Dark Psion - I'm looking forward to The Book of Challenges myself.
Incidentally, I got a big kick out of the four NPCs provided in this adventure. (They're on page 21.) If you look them over, you'll note that several of them aren't quite sure of their own names! There's a reason for that: the editors changed the NPCs' names on me, but apparently forgot to update their new names in their descriptions. That's why, for instance, the gnome bard is called "Mirkysh" in the stat block but "Khrys" in the description. See if you recognize any of the NPCs' original names:
Daevyd "the Gross," half-elf Sor1
Khrys "the Perky," gnome Brd1
Jhessye "the Decker," half-orc Bbn1
"Pierced" Watters, dwarf Rog1
I guess I can't really blame the editors for changing the names--the hokey-meter was going off the scale!
Johnathan
