Adventurer's League Monthly Roundup - April 2024

 

 

I read a blog article by my friend Patchwork Paladin, where she gives an overview of the week’s releases on the DMs Guild. I thought it was a great idea, there is so much on the DMs guild that it is impossible to even start sorting the good from the average without a guide. I’m primarily an Adventurer’s League DM though and Patchwork Paladin doesn’t cover AL adventures. I can’t say I blame her, if you aren’t into AL even dealing with the codes is a frustration, but that is where my interest lies so inspired by (totally ripping off, sorry) her idea I though I’d do a round-up of the month’s AL releases.

These are very much a first-impressions view based on reading the description and whatever preview is available. I will look at the art, layout and text to give a rating based on whether I think it is: 

• Excellent – comparable with a published hard-cover. 
• Good – well styled with art and readable layout. 
• Moderate – little to no art with basic layout, for example just the Dungeoncraft template of monochrome text and headers. 
• Poor – bad layout, hard to read or understand text. 

I am not sure there is a solid correlation between how fun an adventure is to run or to play and the production values of the product but I do know badly put-together modules tend to be harder to run and generally give me a headache.

I hope to use this research to find some adventures I want to run then I can come back and update my impressions and link to a more detailed review but I think if this is useful to me then hopefully it will be useful to other people too. I don’t think it is worthwhile or fair to give ratings to adventures I haven’t run but I have ranked them in a rough top to bottom order of how much I would consider running them based on the previews and descriptions.

In April there were nine new adventures published, six Forgotten Realms, two Planescape and one of Baldman Games’ Dreams of the Red Wizards. These are all playable in the Forgotten Realms Adventurer’s League campaign, nothing for Eberron or Ravenloft this month. Several were part of an ongoing series but they all seem quite loosely connected and would work as stand-alone adventures.

I’m not looking at bundles or roll20 conversions of existing modules, just original adventures published in the last month. 

Duke Ravengard Gets Sent to Hell (Again)

PS-DC-RAVENGARD-V
$4.99
Tier 4, 4 Hours, Planescape
 
A “satirical comedic adventure”. Duke Ravengard is kidnapped and sent to a hell themed movie set (run by actual fiends) and the characters have to help him safely home, the second part seems to proceed on very different paths based on player choices.
Excellent production quality, the art and design are of publishable quality. VTT suitable maps also included. Authors previous titles are well reviewed.

Sweet Dreams are Made of Peace

FR-DC-WATERDEEP-PCZ
$3.50
Tier 1, 2 hours, Forgotten Realms
 
Set in Waterdeep, the characters will help the House of Healing fix what is wrong with a family falling apart. An intriguing premise and I wanted to keep reading after the preview.
Moderate production values (no internal art), the design is more elaborate than the DC basic but is harder to read. Includes nice maps.

Now We’ve Done It

BMG-DRW-OD-05

$9.99

Tier 2, 4 Hours, Forgotten Realms
 
Part 6 of Baldman Games’ Obscure Devotions series the characters continue to try and thwart the Red Wizard’s plans. Consisting of a combat, some exploration and a short heist.
Production quality is excellent with professional design and art, it is a little unfair to compare this semi-official professional module with the Dungeoncraft ones.

Return to Mountain’s Toe Gold Mine

FR-DC-TT-201

PWYW ($4.99)

Tier 2 (optimised level 5), 4 Hours, Forgotten Realms
 
An expansion for Dragon of Icespire peak or Lost Mine of Phandelver. Aimed at new level 5 characters, particularly Paladins.
Moderate production quality, the basic Dungeoncraft template, and art is just very basic (MS paint style) maps.

 Sweet Dreams are Made of Keys

FR-DC-WATERDEEP-KYZ

$3.50

Tier 1, 2 Hours, Forgotten Realms
 
Second entry from Jamie Chan this month and another Waterdeep adventure. Wrongly accused of a crime and of being Golden Vault members the party are forced to investigate to clear their name.
Moderate production quality, they have not used the Dungeoncraft basic template but it isn’t particularly easy to read and can be quite verbose. Attractive maps are included.

Snakes on a Planescape 

PS-DC-CEG-02

$3.99

Tier 4 (optimised level 20), 2-4 Hours, Planescape
 
The people of Sigil are turning into snakes and the party needs to dungeon crawl to stop them. The description mentions handouts and maps but the preview is very short so it is difficult to make much of an assessment. Production quality looks Moderate (basic DC template) but there is only the Adventure Primer to go on. I’m not sure why the duration is so variable in a dungeon crawl.

Doom Reborn

FR-DC-LIGA-03

$6.99

Tier 3, 4 Hours, Forgotten Realms

The party accompanies Elminster to stop a ritual that could bring ruin.
There is a huge team involved with this and it works hard to be rich in lore while being careful to remain within established canon.
Good production values with nice design and layout. They say it will be updated to match the connected adventures which are excellent with attractive art and maps on top of the nice design.

Ruckus at the Reception

FR-DC-RPSG-09

$1.99

Tier 1 (optimised level 1), 2 Hours, Forgotten Realms
 
An introductory adventure designed to introduce all three pillars of play as the characters have to stop the Zentharim ruining a party.
Moderate minus on the production quality. The basic Dungeoncraft template but not used very well and the introduction is unclear, not ideal but still usable. No art or maps are apparent other than the cover.

Battlefield Blooms

FR-DC-ONI-02

$3.99

Tier 2, 4 Hours, Forgotten Realms
 
A monster hunt set on the Kozakura islands (fantasy Japan) off the coast of Kara-Tur inspired by classical Japanese history.
Moderate production quality with the basic Dungeoncraft template and no internal artwork. with lots of background on the inspiration which leaves it a little dense and wordy. The cover art is of a reproduction of a woodblock print that fits the subject well. It actually looks quite good and is only in last position because pronouncing all the Japanese names would kill me.