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Rise Of The Drow is Three Good D&D Books In One
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<blockquote data-quote="mrswing" data-source="post: 8402178" data-attributes="member: 9984"><p>I'm literally in the middle of this campaign. </p><p>Things you need to know:</p><p>The first seven or eight levels of play have a very clearly structured storyline. It's not a railroad because there are several paths offered to reach the objectives, and how your party achieves them is also completely up to them (they can go full stealth or full fight or anywhere in between). </p><p>Then when you really hit the Underdark/Underworld section of the adventure, it turns into a giant sandbox. The final chapter in the adventure can be run as a huge dungeon crawl, but also as infiltration/raid/espionage... Once again, many options are open. </p><p>The Underworld of Aventyr is a very weird place with truly bizarre races popping up and some unique encounter locations. Not all of these are integrated into the main storyline, some are even so far off the beaten path it's unlikely your players will end up there. Which means the book can be used for other campaigns or can continue in the Underworld if your group is up for it. </p><p>Now, personally, I had expected a fully written-out adventure all the way through as I'm 55 and don't really have the time & desire to dream up entire campaigns on my own. I'm really looking for good plug and play. The first part of the adventure absolute provides this (there are some logic gaps here and there but the pace is so swift that my players never started asking questions). The second main part, however, will take a lot of work for the DM, as there are many levels to fill before the group has a chance of success during the finale. The adventure goes up to 15th/16th level and there is a fairly big epilogue which goes up to level 20 (a stretch goal during the kickstarter). There is a LOT of information here, but also a lot which is not provided and which to be fair I am missing. Such as: the exact(ish) military might of Holoth, the Drow City, the details of their military campaign, how the major Drow NPCs are used during the assault on the Underworld, what the plan with regards to the Upper World is... Now, for many (most?) DMs, this will be a positive thing, they are not bound by the ideas of the developers (no railroad) and they can craft their own path depending on the actions/choices of the PCs. For DMs who want to have a more explicitly developed story progression (which still can be altered of course), running this biggest part of the adventure becomes more difficult, especially since there was a lot of good support at the start and the many, many options can feel overwhelming (which is the case for me). </p><p>There is a lot of material from AAW which provides extra material for this adventure: there are the Stoneholme modules which you could integrate into the story (the campaign focus on a Dwarven trade city, Embla, Stoneholme are their military-minded neighbours who are not inclined to help against the Drow, using these modules can change that situation if you adapt them to the campaign plotline), there are many of their smaller dungeons which are directly tied into the locations of the book (many already out on FGU if that's how you run it), the above-mentioned Races and Classes and Occult Secrets book provide tons of extra information and options on and in the Underworld (and to be fair are nearly mandatory, you can do without but will not get a number of references/species/cultures used in the campaign). If PCs die you can even give them the opportunity of playing some of the truly weird races living below the surface world. The recent kickstarter about Spelunking provides lots of material on running campaigns underground, and it also had a Drider supplement which is perfect extra material for the book (with great art though the most impressive and scary Drider variant monster is not portrayed, unfortunately). And the newest kickstarter extra Applied and Aggregated Spelunking offers a new Drow location and three adventures. </p><p>There's also the Underworld Encounters set which is a bunch of cards with encounter ideas on them, many of which directly tie into the RotD story. However, encounter ideas is all these are: no stats, no development, just a basic idea for an encounter which could develop into a complete storyline or just be a one-scene event. Very good for stimulating ideas but not plug-and-play.</p><p>You can also graft parts of Out of the Abyss onto this campaign, and the DM Guild Encounters in the Savage Underdark provides a bunch of extra short adventures, some of which fit very well into this Drow campaign. </p><p>So all in all: very attractive book with tons and tons of material, very well supported by the publisher (if you like this, join their discord where they are very active and very friendly and helpful), but not a 'I'll read this through and be ready to run it from end to end'-book. If you or your party likes Underdark & Drow adventures, it is undoubtedly the best major campaign available on the subject.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="mrswing, post: 8402178, member: 9984"] I'm literally in the middle of this campaign. Things you need to know: The first seven or eight levels of play have a very clearly structured storyline. It's not a railroad because there are several paths offered to reach the objectives, and how your party achieves them is also completely up to them (they can go full stealth or full fight or anywhere in between). Then when you really hit the Underdark/Underworld section of the adventure, it turns into a giant sandbox. The final chapter in the adventure can be run as a huge dungeon crawl, but also as infiltration/raid/espionage... Once again, many options are open. The Underworld of Aventyr is a very weird place with truly bizarre races popping up and some unique encounter locations. Not all of these are integrated into the main storyline, some are even so far off the beaten path it's unlikely your players will end up there. Which means the book can be used for other campaigns or can continue in the Underworld if your group is up for it. Now, personally, I had expected a fully written-out adventure all the way through as I'm 55 and don't really have the time & desire to dream up entire campaigns on my own. I'm really looking for good plug and play. The first part of the adventure absolute provides this (there are some logic gaps here and there but the pace is so swift that my players never started asking questions). The second main part, however, will take a lot of work for the DM, as there are many levels to fill before the group has a chance of success during the finale. The adventure goes up to 15th/16th level and there is a fairly big epilogue which goes up to level 20 (a stretch goal during the kickstarter). There is a LOT of information here, but also a lot which is not provided and which to be fair I am missing. Such as: the exact(ish) military might of Holoth, the Drow City, the details of their military campaign, how the major Drow NPCs are used during the assault on the Underworld, what the plan with regards to the Upper World is... Now, for many (most?) DMs, this will be a positive thing, they are not bound by the ideas of the developers (no railroad) and they can craft their own path depending on the actions/choices of the PCs. For DMs who want to have a more explicitly developed story progression (which still can be altered of course), running this biggest part of the adventure becomes more difficult, especially since there was a lot of good support at the start and the many, many options can feel overwhelming (which is the case for me). There is a lot of material from AAW which provides extra material for this adventure: there are the Stoneholme modules which you could integrate into the story (the campaign focus on a Dwarven trade city, Embla, Stoneholme are their military-minded neighbours who are not inclined to help against the Drow, using these modules can change that situation if you adapt them to the campaign plotline), there are many of their smaller dungeons which are directly tied into the locations of the book (many already out on FGU if that's how you run it), the above-mentioned Races and Classes and Occult Secrets book provide tons of extra information and options on and in the Underworld (and to be fair are nearly mandatory, you can do without but will not get a number of references/species/cultures used in the campaign). If PCs die you can even give them the opportunity of playing some of the truly weird races living below the surface world. The recent kickstarter about Spelunking provides lots of material on running campaigns underground, and it also had a Drider supplement which is perfect extra material for the book (with great art though the most impressive and scary Drider variant monster is not portrayed, unfortunately). And the newest kickstarter extra Applied and Aggregated Spelunking offers a new Drow location and three adventures. There's also the Underworld Encounters set which is a bunch of cards with encounter ideas on them, many of which directly tie into the RotD story. However, encounter ideas is all these are: no stats, no development, just a basic idea for an encounter which could develop into a complete storyline or just be a one-scene event. Very good for stimulating ideas but not plug-and-play. You can also graft parts of Out of the Abyss onto this campaign, and the DM Guild Encounters in the Savage Underdark provides a bunch of extra short adventures, some of which fit very well into this Drow campaign. So all in all: very attractive book with tons and tons of material, very well supported by the publisher (if you like this, join their discord where they are very active and very friendly and helpful), but not a 'I'll read this through and be ready to run it from end to end'-book. If you or your party likes Underdark & Drow adventures, it is undoubtedly the best major campaign available on the subject. [/QUOTE]
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