Review of A0 - Danger at Darkshelf Quarry | DM's Blog

A Review of A0 - Danger at Darkshelf Quarry

Dungeon Master's Review

So, we finished A0 - Danger at Darkshelf Quarry. All in all, it was a pretty fun couple of sessions, and a great way to get new players interested in the game, and work out the bumps that might show up in your gameplay. It was pretty easy to adapt to a world, so you could fit it in anywhere that there is a port, thought it seems to fit most well with the Against the Slave Lords modules.

One missing thing to make it complete was a better middle step to the Slave lord campaigns. If your players are like mine, or if your gameplay is like mine, the chances of the same characters being around by the time your players have someone of high enough level to take on the remainder of the Slavers' campaigns. But I will get to that momentarily.

The Good Parts

First, I would like to say that the guardhouse itself is an exceptionally well designed dungeon layout. It is engaging, and it is organic, meaning the room layouts make sense. There is a mess hall, sleeping chambers, and all of the things you would expect to find in a guardhouse, and elements that are often sorely missing from other dungeon designs.

Bazili is a fantastic villain, and if you allow him to escape, he has enough personality to become a good recurring villain. Personally, though through my own fault as a poor DM, I found him to be very compelling. A half-orc with a hunch-back, a fierce fighter with some thieving skills, some mild amount of charisma and intelligence to pull of his scam with the villagers, and a chip on his shoulder from his unfortunate parentage or his disability.

The mud tigers are a really interesting new monster. Mysterious, even experienced players won't predict it, and for an old seasoned DM who might be running out of ideas, he might find inspiration in a new monster type. It has elemental abilities that make it more difficult to fight, and the way it left the villagers' bodies mangled on the beaches and banks of the rivers left at least a little bit of mystery to the adventure.

Also, even though we as a party didn't go in there, there is the room with the puffball mushrooms, which is fun in an old-school d&d sort of way; they seemed to be elements that you would expect to see in a cave or cavern, so it fit perfectly. Also, they are unexpectedly dangerous, in a fun, explode-y kind of way.
,br /> Finally, the open-ended nature of the adventure, with no direct path was also fun. There were multiple choices to make, all of which could be good or bad. Like when the party decided to enter the mines via the vent shaft, it dropped them right into the middle of the mess, which was fun, and could have worked out great for the party, had they not split up.

The Bad Parts

There was waaaaay too much treasure. As a player I might find it fun to be in a Monty Haul campaign, but as a DM, it makes it much too difficult to manage.

Second, there is no hook for the next adventure. It seems slightly implied that your characters should run off to the Village of Hommlet next, and then off to the Temple of Elemental Evil after that, which will leave them in high enough spirits and levels to face off against the Slavers, likely right before they go Against the Giants (long time Old School D&D guys will see how convenient that is, but again, my above note comes into play...the chances that a party makes it with any original characters for that length is less than slim). Personally, I threw in a different campaign before Hommlet, The Forge of Fury, and I will amp up Hommlet when they get there. To get them to Hommlet I had a player's help to make a hook, when in the middle of the forge of fury he turned on the party, and went all evil necromancer on them, now they want revenge. But it is that kind of creative work that will be required to hook your players into the next campaign, if you would rather not railroad them into it.

Finally, there was no intrigue in town. Everyone you talk to just suggests that something strange is happening at the mine. Maybe you should go talk to Bazili. Or maybe just investigate the mine. Seriously, if that was the only purpose of the town, to hint at mud tigers and get people to the mine, when why not just write it in as starter text, and not allow the players to even wonder if they should keep taking to citizens of the village? Also, the NPCs are flat and bland. Expect to add your own personalities to them.

Players' Review

The Good Parts

I interviewed my players after completing this one. Here are some of their comments about the campaign as a whole.
The guardhouse was awesome. Great design, felt like a real place with real intent. There were guests' rooms, dining rooms, kitchens, etc.
An assault on a fortified position, too, was great They elected a full on assault on the place, I have to admit it was pretty fun).
Multiple methods of egress (during the assault) made for a fun attack. The murder-hole from the roof above the gate was a good surprise, etc. Also, interesting terrain was great as well. the crevasse was used by the dwarves (the Bad Cheese and Clyde both attacked someone near the crevasse to their advantage), and then avoided by the halfling (Oliver was eventually on the receiving end of an attack like that as well)

The Bad Parts

They all agreed with the same sentiments I have about the bad parts in this module.
Railroady. There just weren't many plot options for something that at first seemed like a mystery.
There was no intrigue in the town, every npc basically said "I don't know, maybe you should go to the mine."

Feel free to peruse how the party handled this module by going over the various episodes
• Part 1; Arriving at Darkshelf
• Part 2; Headed to the Guardhouse
• Part 3; Combat in the Guardhouse
• Parts 4 & 5; A few Deaths, some New Characters & the Concludion