35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A solid B+ effort, November 6, 2009
This review is from: Seekers of the Ashen Crown: A 4th Edition D&D Adventure for Eberron (Paperback)
It seems to be generally agreed that most of the adventure modules produced thus far for 4E Dungeons and Dragons have suffered from similar problems: sparse roleplaying opportunities, large dungeon crawls, and a kind of oppressively generic sensibility. I mildly disagree in a couple of cases (Keep on the Shadowfell's town of Winterhaven is actually a reasonably robust stage for roleplaying and intrigue, and can be usefully expanded upon with minimal effort) but in general I concur.
That's why it is a pleasure to see a module that seems to have taken these critiques to heart, and that (despite the boilerplate advisory that it can be used in any D&D campaign) strives for, and mostly captures, the combination of high adventure and low intrigue that give the Eberron setting its distinctive texture.
Seekers of the Ashen Crown doesn't begin with a bang - its opening segment is a too-long dungeon crawl through a trap-laden and insect-infested tomb - but does a nice job of escalating the tension as the PCs and players slowly realize the true scope of the challenge before them, building up to a couple of very satisfying climactic encounters. The module is also intended to do double duty as a playable introduction to Eberron, and in my experience has functioned reasonably well in that regard, giving me an excuse to work the Emerald Claw, national politics, and warring goblin clans into my game.
There are a lot of well-made and interesting combats and traps laid out in the module, and enough characters, plot hooks, and little opportunities to branch into and out of the main story that running it has felt, for me, reasonably natural and freeform - there isn't quite as much scope for the PCs to act as in one of my own games, where the PCs are free to ignore or short-circuit entire plot arcs - but the module's progression flows in such a way as to not feel like a railroad. What really helps, I think, is that the game is explicitly paced in such a way as to move from roleplaying/investigation to combat to exploration to roleplaying again. As I said earlier, other modules have supplied interesting NPCs and locales to roleplay with - the Forgotten Realms "Tower of Spellgard" module had a great set of characters to interact with outside of its main dungeon - but the modules are structured in such a way that the roleplay is over here to the left, and the dungeon is over here to the right, and never the twain shall meet. Seekers of the Ashen Crown is more integrated, requiring the PCs to interact with NPCs and conduct investigations and explorations right up until the end, and it gets a big thumbs-up from me for that.
There are downsides, however. The mandate to produce a single adventure to carry PCs from levels 2-5 means the book is packed full of combat encounters; more, perhaps, than the amount of story supplied can reasonably bear. I am pleased to report that, in an improvement over previous modules, most of these combats make sense within the context of the story and don't feel utterly arbitrary - however, there is a glaring percentage that fall outside this and feel like xp-padding wastes of time.
The other issue is dungeon crawling. While there thankfully isn't one mega-dungeon the PCs are expected to hack through, the module instead substitutes a number of smaller ones. It's a step forward in the right direction, but it isn't enough. The big problem is that Fourth Edition really is not about dungeon crawling - period. Older editions of D&D had PCs hack their way from room to room in a series of small skirmishes, killing an orc here, a troll there, and hustling through even a large dungeon in a single night. 4E fights are meant to be big tactical setpieces, life-or-death struggles large and significant enough that a single fight is intended to take characters a tenth of the way to the next level. Filling a dungeon with ten of those epic setpiece battles, one after the other, is a recipe for the most extreme boredom. I like 4E's combat, but since it represents both a large investment of time and a large reward for the PCs, I make sure that every fight feels significant and is set up with a lot of story and characterization and avoid back-to-back encounters. The module designers still haven't fully come to grips with this new form of pacing, unfortunately, so Seekers of the Ashen Crown has a couple of spots where it can begin to feel like a grind. Thankfully much of this can be painlessly shortened, to everyone's benefit.
Overall the module represents a real step in the right direction for Wizards of the Coast, but there's more work to be done.
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25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
First Eberron 4e adventure, August 20, 2009
This review is from: Seekers of the Ashen Crown: A 4th Edition D&D Adventure for Eberron (Paperback)
I haven't actually played this adventure, just flipped through it a bit. I'm mainly making this 'review' to add some missing information: module level.
The module is designed for characters starting at 2nd level, and is designed to take them up to 5th level by the conclusion of the adventure. It's a good place to go after starting characters at 1 and running through the Mark of Prophecy in the back of the Eberron Campaign Guide.
It's also worth noting that in Dungeon Magazine #167 is another adventure starting at 7th level that directly plays off the events in Seekers of the Ashen Crown.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Time!!, January 9, 2010
This review is from: Seekers of the Ashen Crown: A 4th Edition D&D Adventure for Eberron (Paperback)
I'm running this adventure right now with a group of 5 people and can honestly say we're having a blast! It starts off as a pretty straight forward "bug hunt" under the city of Sharn, but quickly spirals into a political/religious war, directly pitting the characters against strong Goblin and Elvish clans and the Breland military when an ancient relic is found in an ancient tomb.
Two things worth mentioning:
First, the integration of action, puzzle-solving, city exploration, and NPC interaction in this story is amazing. The dungeons never get boring, for there is always some cool puzzle or bizarre encounter that will keep everyone up all night rolling dice. And whenever the characters do have to leave to get some well deserved rest, there is always a fun NPC event waiting for them in Sharn that further drives the story to its conclusion.
Second, the authors did an amazing job incorporating some of the best themes of Eberron into this one adventure, making it ideal to players new to the setting. Over the course of the story, players might see magical "telephones", ride in air ships powered by elementals, befriend a group of goblins, contribute a story of their deeds to a journalist for the local paper, and participate in a number of battles worthy of the silver screen.
If you bought the Eberron setting, do yourself a favor and pick this up as well.
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