What makes "King of the Trollhaunt Warrens" stand out?

[Aberzanzorax]

I noticed that, of all the 4e adventures (drawing both from WotC and third party publishers) that could have been picked, "King of the Trollhaunt" was selected.

(Yes, I'm aware that Expeditious Retreat Press also got a nomination).

Now, I've been under the impression that, while not terrible, the WotC adventures were fairly "generic" or "vanilla" or "nothing special".


So, my question to you all is, what makes "King of the Trollhaunt Warrens" (KotTW) stand out as exemplary (both from the other WotC adventures and, say the Goodman Games adventures?)


I might just have to buy this one (I've been avoiding WotC modules after Keep on the Shadowfell).

 

[vagabundo]

I prefer Thunderspire Labyrinth myself and I have both.

But I know a lot of posters here really liked the module.

 

[diaglo]

i'm standing out right now IYKWIMAITYD


diaglo "ah, it's good to be the king" Ooi

 

[Jhaelen]

I got both Thunderspire and Trollhaunt - based on the reviews and my personal preferences I think they've been the best 4E WotC adventure modules so far.

What I like best about Trollhaunt is the poster map with the city wall - very useful (if you like using poster maps).

 

[Jack99]

Edited: Removed because it could sound confrontational, which was not the intent.

Trollhaunt has gotten some excellent reviews in various places, and while I think there is one WotC 4e adventure that is better (but it might have been out in 2009, I keep forgetting), it's definitely one of the better ones out the last year that I have read. There are far, far worse adventures on that list, which made me question the decisions of the judges.

 

[Sir Robilar]

I'm one of those that found Trollhaunt Warrens just as bland as the other WotC modules, and I have read them (and tried to give them a fair chance) up to Demon Queen's Enclave, after which I resigned. They are - in my opinion - lacking great characters and a good story and are mostly dominated by monster-bashing. Not even comparable to some of the great 3.x adventures like Red Hand of Doom or the late Castle Greyhawk. Which is why I found the nomination a strange decision.

 

[Dykstrav]

I also find the nomination of King of the Trollhaunt Warrens strange.

Keep on the Shadowfell was pretty cool, if basic, it has a classic D&D setup and feel to it. Thunderspire Labyrinth has been the best of the modules so far in my opinion, as it introduces a settlement inside of a huge dungeon complex with the possibility for infinite expansion.

 

[wayne62682]

My group just finished playing through Trollhaunt; I have to say I found it to be average, but not great. Nothing really jumped out as being amazing, but that might be because aside from myself everyone else in the group are "beer-n-pretzels gamers" and don't really immerse themselves into the adventures, so if there was any detail we kind of glossed over it to get to the real action.

 

[OchreJelly]

Here's why I like it (slightly spoilerish):
- A pretty decent crawl. It's not overly long and the locale is an interesting subterrainian area with good tactical maps. If you're into combats with good terrain features, then this adventure is for you.
- opportunity for the main villain to attack early on to surprise the party when they don't expect it.
- a nice shift away from the crawl to a cool drawn-out town defense.
- the third act involves traveling to a different plane.
- It's not quite as open as H2 or P2, but there are opportunities to strike bargains with varying denizens of the crawl.

 

[morgul97]

I'm going to be DM-ing for the first time ever in a couple of months. I think I want to at least partially use a published mod to at least get some plot points / interesting encounters. I'm considering Seakers of the Ashen Crown or Revenge of the Giants, but obviously those aren't out yet, so I have no idea what they are like.

Does anyone have any good suggestions? Would Trollhaunt be a good one? Is there some 3rd party stuff that would be good for a 1st time DM?

I would say our group is not a heavy RP group, but I would like a good balance of intersting combat encounters and plot.