the Jester
Legend
I haven't seen any chatter about this book since it released a few days ago. Does anyone have it yet? How is it?
D&D 5E Quests from the Infinite Staircase: How Is It?
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Parmandur
Book-Friend, he/him
I got it a couple weeks ago, on the FLGs street date.
It is very good. The 6 modules are legit, and improved by WotC being willing to change them (Barrier Peaks is essentially a new module using moat of the interesting locations from the original in a new 4-floor spaceship, with a new main antagonist).
The cartography is from Mile Schley and a few other similar, detailed style maps (the Barrier Peaks maps are the most interesting and unique maps in 5E, bar none).
The loose anthology optional frame...seems to me the best one yet. Could use Nafas and his Genie agenda as a patron for lots of other Adventuresm
I'm working my way through it (only own it on DNDBeyond). It seems very solid, Excellent maps, as mentioned above. Most of the adventures seem quite dungeon-crawly and combat-heavy, with relatively simple situations and NPCs by modern standards. The Infinite Staircase framing device is very lightly and broadly drawn (not necessarily a bad thing, but far less text is devoted to it than to Saltmarsh in Ghosts of Saltmarsh or to the Radiant Citadel).
As opposed to Yawning Portal and Saltmarsh, there's been more of an effort to re-work some stuff in the older adventures as opposed to mainly re-printing with some updated mechanics as was largely the case with those two books. For example, the first adventure, The Lost City, has an entire new 6th level of its dungeon that was not in the original module.
The adventures are not one-shots. Most of them I'd say would take 6-8 4-hour sessions for most groups to complete.
As opposed to Yawning Portal and Saltmarsh, there's been more of an effort to re-work some stuff in the older adventures as opposed to mainly re-printing with some updated mechanics as was largely the case with those two books. For example, the first adventure, The Lost City, has an entire new 6th level of its dungeon that was not in the original module.
The adventures are not one-shots. Most of them I'd say would take 6-8 4-hour sessions for most groups to complete.
I'll be surprised if I don't run almost all of these. The best anthology yet, as they really updated things.
dave2008
Legend
I've only looked through it a bit and what surprised me the most was what @Burnside mentioned about length. There is more to do in each of the adventures I looked at than I expected. Not one-shots like I was thinking.
I will disagree with @Parmandur in that I found the Barrier Peaks map hard to read and potentially use. It seems more like graphic art to me than a RPG map. That being said, it does seem very interesting to run.
I would also say that there was more about Nafas and the infinite staircase than I was expecting (though once I got into it I thought there might be a map of his palace and there wasn't). It only lightly touches each adventure, but it is something that could easily work into anyone's campaign. I didn't think I wanted another method to connect to different worlds/planes, but evidently I do! Seems easier to drop into any campaign than Sigil or the Radiant Citadel or the Rock of Bral
Oh, I should also add that I am barrier familiar with the originals and have never run any of them.
I will disagree with @Parmandur in that I found the Barrier Peaks map hard to read and potentially use. It seems more like graphic art to me than a RPG map. That being said, it does seem very interesting to run.
I would also say that there was more about Nafas and the infinite staircase than I was expecting (though once I got into it I thought there might be a map of his palace and there wasn't). It only lightly touches each adventure, but it is something that could easily work into anyone's campaign. I didn't think I wanted another method to connect to different worlds/planes, but evidently I do! Seems easier to drop into any campaign than Sigil or the Radiant Citadel or the Rock of Bral
Oh, I should also add that I am barrier familiar with the originals and have never run any of them.
Parmandur
Book-Friend, he/him
It is interesting to note that the lead for this book, Juatice Ramin Arman, said in one of their interviews that a major goal of this collection was to celebrate Dungeons, specifically (with Wjem a Star Falls chosen because it added a Dragon toothed equation, which was rare in early Modules).
Parmandur
Book-Friend, he/him
As a parent myself, I appreciate the question, but kind of hard to answer in the abstract: how ild are your kids, what sort of media are they comfortable with, what sort of media are you comfortavle with for them, etc.
Firm PG-13, I would say, these all have pretty old school pulp influences going on
Parmandur
Book-Friend, he/him
Yeah, these come from an era when the modules were meant to be the bones to build a whole campaign around.
Big matter of YMMV here, for sure, bit at least these look nothing like any other map theybhave published, which is nice in thst the original was a pretty classic blue plain map:
Yeah, it was quickly apparent how you could take any Adventure, from any book, and work it into thus framework, or even mix him into a long campaign.
Fairly familiar with Lost City and Barrier Peaks (thanks, Goodman Games!), have read through Pharaoh and own a second hand copy.
They did a very good job respecting the originals, but feeling free to change things around in a positive way (only Barrier Peaks is Essa rewrite, the original was 6 Levels, and rhe Levels were bigger with tins of empty rooms, and no antagonist at all).
FitzTheRuke
Legend
I agree that this seems to be (I haven't run anything yet) the perfect sort of anthology. One of my problems with Candlekeep was that, with them cramming 13 adventures in, they cut them all "for space" and made most of them fairly generic. (I like the actual Candlekeep part, though!) I've been suggesting a "middle ground" ever since, as far as length-of and quantity-of adventures. This book has that.
I also found myself disappointed with Yawning Portal's lack of doing any updates or improvements to the old adventures. Even in cases where the updates were available to them (for example, Chris Perkins had done a huge update to the Against the Giants Adventures for 4e, that included very nice Schley Maps, more named NPCs, and a whole new Stone Giant part, but they just colorized the original maps and dropped it into 5e, largely unchanged.
This is not like that. You get the "feel" for the classic adventures without it being a simple retread. They're a good "medium" length. I don't think they have some of the "trouble-spots" of recent adventures (though further review will be required to be sure.)
It's a good book.
I also found myself disappointed with Yawning Portal's lack of doing any updates or improvements to the old adventures. Even in cases where the updates were available to them (for example, Chris Perkins had done a huge update to the Against the Giants Adventures for 4e, that included very nice Schley Maps, more named NPCs, and a whole new Stone Giant part, but they just colorized the original maps and dropped it into 5e, largely unchanged.
This is not like that. You get the "feel" for the classic adventures without it being a simple retread. They're a good "medium" length. I don't think they have some of the "trouble-spots" of recent adventures (though further review will be required to be sure.)
It's a good book.
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