Customer Reviews

Barrow of the Forgotten King (Dungeons & Dragons d20 3.5 Fantasy Roleplaying)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Publisher Wizards of the Coast has been keeping up their trend of releasing new products for the Dungeons and Dragons game every month, and interspersed between all the source books and campaign expansions have been a few new official adventures. Barrow of the Forgotten King is one of those adventures, designed to seriously challenge a group of second level characters and take them all the way to fifth level by the time the entire adventure is concluded. This is also the first in a set of three adventures that all follow the same background story, each of which will be released several months apart to coincide with the release of a source book that the dungeon master may find useful in running the adventures.

The story arc presented in Barrow of the Forgotten King is interesting both to dungeon master and player alike, and can very easily be modified to mesh with an already existing campaign. The basic plot revolves around a group of grave robbers, working for an unseen evil organization, who have come to the sleepy town of Kingsholm to plunder an ancient tomb under a giant statue of a long forgotten king. Besides the obvious lure of riches buried with a deceased monarch, the tomb raiders are also motivated by an age old prophecy which the characters will become embroiled in. A dungeon master wanting to run the adventure in the middle of a campaign could easily swap out the organization behind the robbery with whatever evil group dominates his campaign world. Likewise, the section regarding the prophecy of the forgotten king, which ties into the next adventure in the series, could easily be dropped out or changed to better fit a game that has already been running.

The art in this module is the same high quality that has come to be expected of Dungeons and Dragons products. The cover art alone is outstanding, perfectly capturing the feel of one of the combat encounters towards the end of the adventure. The interior art is equally good, showcasing some of the more fearsome creatures that the characters will be pitted against. The jacket around the actual book pulls off and doubles as a map of the entire dungeon, minus any details the players shouldn't know such as locations of secret doors or monsters, which means the dungeon master doesn't have to take the time to re-draw a player friendly version of the map.

At its core, Barrow of the Forgotten King is a dungeon crawl, and a very well thought out one. The mausoleum and it's hidden under levels, where most of the action takes place, isn't so large as to cause the players to tire of searching room after room, nor is it small enough to hamper the illusion that this is an actual complex people built long ago to honor their dead king. The dungeon has a good mix of straightforward combat, traps and puzzles, and opportunities for role-playing. One of the shining moments of this module is a puzzle that the actual players will have to decode by puzzling out a riddle sequence, rather than their characters overcoming the obstacle by making a couple of dice rolls, which is a very nice change of pace. Being set in a mausoleum also allows for several creepy moments that will remind the players that they are very much in a dark and scary place where less adventurous souls wouldn't dare to tread.

Barrow of the Forgotten King is presented in a new format that Wizard's of the Coast has been toying with recently. The first quarter of the book is a straightforward synopsis of the overall plot, and then each area of the adventure is presented in chronological order with flavor text to read to the players as they progress through the dungeon. The last three quarters of the book explain in detail each encounter or tactical situation in much greater detail, including all the statistics for the monsters or non-player characters in the area. The reasoning behind the change in format is that it theoretically reduces page flipping and the amount of time the dungeon master has to search through the back to find a particular creature's statistics during the course of a battle or role playing exchange. In practice it doesn't actually reduce the amount of page flipping, it just changes the circumstances under which the dungeon master is forced to search around in the book for a particular piece of information. Rather than trying to find statistics, the dungeon master will now be searching for room descriptions and notes on what's going on in the next areas. The only real problems with this adventure are a couple of glaring typographical errors that never should have been missed, and the time it will take the dungeon master to get used to the new format.

Barrow of the Forgotten king is a great dungeon crawl that will challenge players and allow characters of all classes to use their special abilities. It's excellent art, ease of transition into existing campaigns, and well fleshed out setting make it a highly recommended module.

The Barrow of the Forgotten King is a D&D adventure for four to six 2nd level characters that should advance to the 4th or 5th level upon completion. It can be easily modified if the characters are somewhat higher in level. The adventure is set in the village of Kingsholm whose most notable feature is its ancient cemetery that is said to have existed even before the village. The most prominent landmark in the cemetery is the statue of an unknown, ancient king. The hook for the characters is that a family of mourners has vanished from the cemetery, as has the guards who went in search of them.

Enter the PC's who can be hooked into the adventure by being hired to investigate the disappearances or perhaps by the legend of the unknown king. Beyond the village' Inn where the players will learn of the cemetery and the disappearances, there are no other aspects of the village that are explored. It's pretty much just head right to the cemetery and into the great mausoleum. The players will descend into the tombs and catacombs beneath the cemetery to begin their exploration.

The Adventure locations will key several different encounters that the PC's will face. For some reason, rather than present the encounter information to the DM as you get to them, the adventure keys instruct the DM to turn to a particular page to set-up and complete the encounter. Each area also has its own mini map. To me this is a little awkward and unnecessary but doesn't hinder the game play too much. The adventure is fairly linear but a solid dungeon crawl anyway. I'd say that 2nd level characters may be a little weak and I'd at least allow 3rd level characters to start things off. It should take a few sessions to complete. I do like the detail presented by writer Ed Stark. It's a dungeon crawl but at least its not a featureless one. It's not all hack-n-slash either, as there are also a fair amount of puzzles and other obstacles the players will have to face.

The art is the usual high quality work that fans have come to expect from Wizards of the Coast with a solid cover by Steve Prescott and interior art by Wayne England and Joel Thomas. The book's cover is actually the players version of the map should the DM not want to take the time to have the whole thing mapped out by hand (although it's really not all that big).

This is actually the first installment of what will eventually be a trilogy set within the same landscape. The second adventure, The Sinister Spire, will continue things and will eventually make for one large, epic campaign.

All in all, a fairly solid low level adventure. A good drop in and go module that can be utilized with any D&D setting. They recommend the use of miniatures but it's hardly a necessity.

Reviewed by Tim Janson

Barrow of the Forgotten King sounded like a great adventure to use to get characters high enough in level and skill to go to more interesting adventures such as "The Red Hand of Doom" and "Expedition to Castle Ravenloft" and for that it works great. My main problem with the adventure is the fact that the city of Kingsholm isnt very fleshed out and it recommends that you can use some of the Npc's to help in the adventure and it doesnt flesh them out hardly at all. The puzzles or "roleplaying encounters" are not very challenging and a party of 3 2nd level characters had no problem with most of the regular encounters. So i'm guessing a full party shouldnt have any trouble with most of the encounters before the regular levelling up point that it recommends in the book. Most the adventure didnt seem very challenging and i had to "fix" a lot of things in order to make it so as well as adding in my own dungeon rooms and traps to make it a more thought out process than travelling room to room and killing whatever is there. A pc with track is also a must as i had to introduce another character later on because with no track the magical maze is nowhere near as fun as it could be. Also, if you want to run the module exactly as it reads then be prepared to pick up the 2nd and 3rd modules in the series when they come out.In conclusion, this is not a 5 star module, there are better modules out there...even for low levels, however if you are looking for a standard dungeon crawl with a low level puzzle or two (easy stuff with an experienced group of players) then this module is for you. It wasnt bad but then again it wasnt that good either.

One last thing i would like to talk about is weapons of legacy which WoTC seem to be pushing with each product. Legacy items are a cool idea but the way i understood them were that they were few and far between and very rare. It seems like every adventure they publish now...even the low level ones have weapons of legacy in them. I bought the "weapons of legacy" book off of amazon used and overall the book gave some decent quest ideas as well as the weapons but its extremely annoying when every module i buy gives a sword of legacy out at the end or in the middle thats used to defeat the main boss...this is part 1 of a 3 parter and it will add more legacy items each time i am sure and i am sure that the legacy sword in this one (which is an awesome weapon for paladin/fighter types)will be replaced by the sunsword in the expedition to castle ravenloft when my party goes through it. Artifacts were good enough...legacy items are just being overused and with a limit on using them they will soon be thrown away and upgraded with other ones.

S P O I L E R - A L E R T

NOTE THIS REVIEW WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS. IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ SPOILERS AND/OR MAY PLAY IN THIS MODULE AT SOME TIME I SUGGEST YOU READ NO FURTHER.




Summary: This adventure is the first part in a trilogy of modules that were some of the absolute last things to be released for the 3.5th edition of Dungeons of Dragons.

Barrow is the first module and is for 2nd level characters. The players find themselves in the city of Kingsholm investigating some disappearances. The investigation leads them to uncover a long lost burial tomb north of the city under the statue of the Forgotten King. Once into the tomb the party finds out they aren't the only ones there and the rest of the module becomes a chase trying to catch the defiler's of the Tomb.

As the module takes place first in a grave yard and then in a lost tomb you can expect lots of Undead. In addition the party will face some evil humanoids, mostly in the form of Hobgoblins and Verags. Along the way the party also has a chance to befriend a couple of creatures including a Water Elemental and a Fossergrimm. Most encounters are combat based, with very few talking encounters. There is one puzzle to be solved as well. The end of the module ties directly into the next module The Sinister Spire.

This module follows the 3.5 'new format' with all of the text and room descriptions in the front of the book and all of the encounter details at the back. The encounters give a lot of detailed and include rules for interacting with the environment as well as tactics for the enemies to use.

The Good: I liked the feel of this module. It ran well and the hook was a good one at the beginning. I found my players really were surprised to find everyone they were looking for dead and weren't expecting a race against time through a dungeon. Everything seemed very well written. I especially liked the encounter pages with nice in close 1" square maps with details on furniture, traps, and even mob tactics. This was invaluable as this is my first 3.5 campaign. The difficulty on this seemed just about right. There were a few close calls but never anything that threatened to cause a TPK.

The Bad: The puzzle at the beginning was lame. It was neat that it was a beholder and all but knowing anything about beholders was useless. Also there was a riddle with it that actually told the characters nothing. They just had to arrange some tiles on the floor to match the pattern on a door. It could have been a number puzzle and it would have been just as hard. I am not a fan of the Legacy item in this. Now I don't have Weapons of Legacy so I'm not sure if it's all Legacy Weapons or just the ones in this module. The character who got the main Legacy Weapon in this module spent the remaining three modules bitching about how crappy his sword was and how he was going to toss it in a lake (see the session reports). Some player handouts would have been nice, especially for the puzzle. I ended up scanning a couple of pages to hand out and making some counters, but it would have been a lot nicer to have that included.

The Ugly: I really don't like the whole divided book system. I found myself constantly flipping between room descriptions and encounters, always loosing the page of one or the other which really slowed down gameplay. I did like the encounter pages, but keep them in line with the rest of the text, not at the back (I'm guessing others complained about this as well as all of the 4e adventures seem to do just that now). The monsters in this are tough in an almost cheating way. They are obviously set up to fight against an experienced group of 3rd edition players, as they have a ton of abilities that negate the best abilities of the characters. Things that negate crits, flanks and have resistance to various types of damage are very common. Now this wasn't that bad in this module but is a trend throughout the trillogy that just gets worse as the modules go on.

Overall: this was a good module. I liked it and I think my players did as well. They definitely wanted to continue on at the end, which is always good to see. Besides one person not being too happy with his Legacy item, monsters immune to lots of attacks and a pretty annoying puzzle I didn't really find much wrong with the adventure, story or difficulty. What I really wasn't a fan of was the format. Unfortunately it looks like all later 3.5 modules follow the whole 'story section followed by encounter section' format. On it's own I do suggest this module pretty strongly. Just be warned that if you plan on running the whole trilogy you will want to do some modification to it as it has a horrible ending. You may want to pick up all three books at once, so you can start linking the changes right from the beginning.

Well, after finally finishing it, it was actually a fun adventure, but getting there was no walk in the park. First off, for $20, I really expect more, and a lot better. The first thing you'll notice is that behind the shiny cover, you have something that looks like it was photocopied on paper barely better than news paper quality. C'mon, I paid $20! Oh well... beyond that, the most annoying thing is the layout, which is something that WOTC started doing with their adventures... the main 'story' is in the first part of the book, the 'encounters' are in the second half of the book. I don't like this format. It's supposed to make encounters easier to run, but the fact is it divides the information in a bad way. It ended up creating more work for me as the DM, which sucks.
Another thing that created a lot of work for me is that this adventure was obviously rushed out the door without anyone reading over it, which is a real shame. There are gaping omissions, incorrect references, and you'll even see references to page 'XX', where they didn't even fill in the info at all. The bad thing is that a lot of this is at the beginning of the adventure (or maybe I just got used to it by the end). I was very close to just calling it quits on this one and moving on to a different adventure, but after spending a good amount of time revamping the adventure a bit, giving it a more fitting background story for my campaign (which is set in Eberron), and changing some of the encounters and the ending, it actually ended up being a lot of fun. There are some really fun encounters in here, but be aware that a lot of them are kinda dangerous, and I had a few characters die. Again, a lot of that came in the beginning of the adventure. Had WOTC spent more time refining this one, I think it could've been great. It's still pretty good, just be prepared to spend a LOT of time prepping.

I am now playing this adventure,and after three 8 hour gaming sessions it has become apparant this module is better suited for experinced and higher level characters.It is hard to judge if my assessment is correct being as I am a player as oppossed to a DM,but the creatures,puzzles and
encounter backdrops are difficult to overcome with standard character types-which in our case includes a gnome rogue,dwarf monk,dwarf fighter,human cleric and human illusionist.If your campaign is a stickler for in game knowledge only, your encounters will be overwhelming.
Our Dm says in the forward that the module specifies that it is designed for experienced players(I'm a 25 year playing veteran),I can't understand the premise of "experienced" 1st level characters/players.I have played/Dm several new WOTC modules including castle ravenloft,demon web pits and temple of elemental evil,and outside of the demonweb pit module the recommended character levels seemed appropiate for those campaigns.
If your group tends to play warforged,dragon born or other monster races in your group then this moduleis just for you,it's encounters will be more suited for your varied additional abilities-a Dm should be prepared to downplay encounters for standard group makeups.

"Barrow of the Forgotten King" is a 64 page 2nd level module (the first in a series of three, continuing with "The Sinister Spire" and "Fortress of the Yuan-ti"). It's a classic dungeon crawl with a twist. Something strange happens at the graveyard of the sleepy town of Kingsholm. Enter the player characters... An ancient mausoleum has been breached by a group of ne'erdowells and soon the module turns into a heated pursuit, with the players characters fighting both against the intruders amb the tomb defenders. A well developed plot and memorable villains make for an excellent adventure. Kudos to Ed Stark for a work well done. Also attractive interior illustrations by Joel Thomas.

To sum it up: a must. After reading the adventure I changed my planned campaign to include it. Hope the next module keeps up the good level. From the name of the third and final module "Fortress of the Yuan-ti", you can guess who will be the cold-blooded villains behind the intricate conspiracy...

Great adventure. It ttok us a little over 12 playing hours to get through it, but it was fun and it had a decent challenge level for 2nd level characters, the story links perfectly to the next module (and the third one) so it seems to be more of a single adventure. Allowing a chance for the characters to level up is needed, but I still think it is a little "weak" for the character levels recommended (and it seems the XP awards end up with the characters being a little below the level for the next adventure). Overall a great though out module. I have one issue and it is with having all the encounters at the end, which makes for crazy page flipping all the time (otherwise I would give it 5 stars).

Great for when I get too busy to write a respectable campaign, or am feeling lazy. Well organized with exceptional illustration.

Solid overall. Story line is good and the new layout for encounters is growing on me. Nice mix of encounters.