| Tarhalindur |
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Hi! I ran Menace under Otari with some friends, and I wanted to give my thoughts and experiences with it. As a note: my players did not use the pregens (instead using Wanderer's Guide to create characters), and I ran online, communicating primarily over text chat but using programs like Wanderer's Guide and Owlbear to provide additional utility.
The general premise of the dungeon was quite good in my opinion. The players always had a clear goal they were focused on, and they enjoyed exploring and finding out more about the kobolds and the true nature of the "monster" as they progressed.
My only real complaint here is there isn't really any information on why the kobolds are doing all of this or way for the players to figure it out. In my run, I took inspiration from Otari's backstory in Abomination Vaults and made Zolgran's motive be to "retake Otari" after the kobolds were driven out, taking inspiration from cults of personality for the group dynamics under her. It was honestly a lot of fun! I had the kobolds not attack on sight to allow the players to talk with them, and my players were very engaged figuring out what made the kobolds tick and trying to negotiate and banter with them, culminating in my fighter convincing them to rebel against the dragon - but more on that later.
The encounter design of the dungeons is good for the most part. I would prefer a way to more gradually introduce the basic combat mechanics, as the first combat was a bit of a mess, but beyond that the challenges all were interesting and unique.
We had a great moment where the rogue, trying to sneak past the spider, was suddenly spotted and almost killed, and the fighter had to scramble to negotiate with a shopkeeper outside to loan a healer's kit after she was stabilized (since they all forgot to buy one).
I feel I'd like an answer for why all the shrines are in the dungeon (I had to bullshit a little for this one), but beyond that it's a very fun dungeon to explore. I'd be curious to know Paizo's thought process for designing the dungeon.
The one big issue with it, I feel, is that if the players go directly to the dragon without ever taking side paths (which my players did), they will not gain enough XP to level up rules as written, and the book never seems to acknowledge this as a possibility or provide workarounds. This resulted in my players struggling to even harm the dragon. While my fighter did manage to even the odds a bit by convincing the kobolds (whose belief in Zolgran's and the dragon's benevolence had been broken by this point) to fight alongside them, they died once the dragon deployed its breath weapon at half health, and the players wiped soon after.
This is a pretty big oversight in my opinion, and I'm curious if this was noticed or if there's something I'm missing here?
Overall: a pretty decent framework, even if there's room for expansion (and making sure the players actually level up).
I'm curious to hear the design team's thoughts and maybe some insights on how they made the adventure!