Anyone else read this adventure yet? On a scale of Great to Terrible, I'd give it an Okay. Overall, it's a simple but entertaining plot, looks fun to run, but seems to need more editing.
Read only if you don't care about...
The Bad: There is decided lack of detail. For example, when I think of the twisted detail Nic Logue had at the farmhouse in the Hook Mountain Massacre and the details at the farmhouse in this adventure, they don't even compare. Perhaps this is purposeful, so the DM can embellish at will, but I miss the richness of a Paizo setting.
The Ugly: My biggest complaint is that the adventure seems to lack some very important details, seems not entirely well thought out, and some of the scenes are a little confusing. I have several example.
The first skill challenge to find the Black Marches requires combined Nature and Endurance checks. Why? It would make sense if the consequence of failure was starvation, etc., but it's not - the consequence is not finding the Black Marches. If the Questers have a tent and food, they have what it takes to survive. A simple Nature check should be all they need. And why is it that when they are in villages, a good Diplomacy check to find out from villagers where the Black Marches are located isn't considered a victory for the overall skill challenge?
Next - the battle with the Steel Keepers. The scene itself is confusing - how many full plates of armor are there on the floor and standing up. At one point the scene describes the Steel Keepers as piles of armor. Another point it says, "the suit of giant-sized plate closest to you beings to move. Two more suits detach from the walls..." So it is a full standing suit attached to the walls or a pile of armor?
In that same scene, the Steel Keepers have a power called Iron Defense, which is a ranged attack (not a reach attack, mind you) that immobilizes the target. So what is this power? What are the Steel Keepers doing to use it? What is the flavor text?!
Lastly, some of the creatures were obviously Copied and Pasted from the Monster Manual. Two fanatical human berserkers attack the PCs in the last room - one assumes these berserkers to be fanatic followers of Bane and the demon Naarash. Yet the Alignment shows, "Any." This is just carelessness.
My hope is that in the future the adventures continue to have great combat encounters with dynamic settings, but that plots are a little more complex and original, some areas are given more detail, and more thought is put into the adventures. While I liked the adventure overall, I'm not sure this level of quality would be worth the price of DDI subscription when I can get better stories through Paizo.
Sidenote: Not sure if this kind of thread belongs in 4e or Dungeon area.
From a glance through it seems alright. I do hope the AP takes advantage of the extra space in each adventure to develop the implied setting a bit more.
I boxed up my old dungeons, how many pages were the last few paper mags? The one positive about the online model should be the ability to include more content but I am waiting to see if it actually happens. The info for adapting KotS was good and extensive so hopefully that will be the norm.
It's a neat adventure, but it needed more editing. I found clear omissions in sections of it and the ending part for what if someone in your party went the not good route was lacking. Overall, I'd give it a B and it does show promise for what Wizards can do with a 4E adventure.
Gah! I haven't read it yet, but if they can't start putting out engaging stories that have been edited well... that's going to really suck! Because I like 4E a lot, but I was VERY disappointed with KotS.
At 30 pages this is definitely better than the odd Side Trek that popped out in the past months. I havent read it over completely yet (started last night), but it looks like it would be a fun run.
Since virtually everyone is gunning to be a DM now, I'll probably toss this out and see what they do with it, giving me a chance to actually play.
This PDF is definitely not printer friendly. What's with the black ink-devourer top of the page, exactly?
I agree...I dreaded the decision to go online content for Dungeon and Dragon, and that is the main reason why. It is going to cost me more to print it then it did to actually but the magazine! And that is before they start charging us for it!