Dungeons and Dragons Adventurer Magazine Issue Eleven

Issue eleven marks the end of the first Adventure and nearly the end of my review series. I plan to get issue twelve to see exactly what the transition to Adventure two is (different area? Level increase? New characters?) and also to get the Magic booklet, which hopefully will be as useful for my players as the combat one was (if a bit late).

Sage Advice

A look at temporary hit points and maximum hit points. 

Useful, as I've certainly known players who got confused over this.

Then articles on Treasure, discussing the many and various forms this can take, and Food and Drink. Although the latter article lists common inn prices there's nothing on cost of living.

Then the DM gets a couple of pages on Monsters. An overview of the different creature types and an explanation of how to read a stat block. 

Interestingly it mentions Challenge, which isn't included in the published stat blocks as the Encounters use milestone advancement.  It's nice that they are explaining how to read stat blocks, hope you didn't struggle too much for the first ten issues.

Character Creation

The only Character Creation page is another Background, the Acolyte. 

Once more filling in the stuff for the pre-gens.

Lore

A look at the city of Yartar and a page on Mummies. 

This is very general background stuff, no stats for the mummies.  I wonder what creature will feature in this issue's Encounter?

Freebies

another dice set and another dice tin.

Conclusion

More stuff on more stuff. I can't argue with the usefulness of it all, but I find myself constantly frustrated with the piecemeal nature of the role out. As an example, I previously knew nothing about the city of Yartar. I now know a bit about the leadership, the fact that the city is associated with piracy and a bit about five notable locations. It sounds interesting and suggests several adventure ideas. However, if I were running a Sword Coast campaign I'd want more, probably starting with a map of the city.

It's great to see more stuff aimed at the DM, but by now the DM's in the group have run eight or more Encounters, and should be able to read a stat block by now. Another example of pages that should have been included earlier in the run.

Encounter Cat's Cradle

Can the adventurers help out at an auction? They act as ushers during the sale and then guard the items overnight.

There are some issues with the Encounter, but I did enjoy it. It should be fun to run. The potential final encounter could be nasty for second level characters, but I bet the players will remember it for a long time.  The events leading up to it are all interesting and entertaining, and help foreshadow the main action.  All in all a superior Encounter.

That's the positives, now a few minor grumbles 

A better map of the location would be useful, as would a more in depth description (neither the map nor the introduction mention the skylights that play an important role in the adventure). Again I'm thinking that a website with downloadable content such as maps and handouts would really improve this series.  Would it cost a lot more to run?  I don't know, but it would certainly improve the usability of the magazine, especially if it included digital maps for virtual table-tops.

I do find Phandolin an odd place to hold such an important auction, and apparently the Miner's Exchange is now the closest place to a town hall in Phandolin, despite there being a mayor, as mentioned in the Queen of Scars Encounter.

Also, the Encounter goals states that the adventurers are to guard or steal the gem. If they do take it for themselves there's no indication of what the repercussions might be, though as this is the last Encounter in the first adventure, perhaps the second one begins with them avoiding justice? Given that Halia, the NPC running the auction, is a member of the Zhentarim, I would think that the adventurers might be facing repercussions if they take it. There is a lot of potential for spin off adventures (sorry, Encounters) here. My favourite idea is if at least one of the party is already affiliated to the Zhentarim. Their superiors might be impressed with the party's cunning and replace Halia with one of them.

It's not really the place of the magazine to cover in detail such fall out, but some hints would be good. Also there is no mention of the value of the Star of Khonsu (the value at auction, 2d10 x 100 GP, is laughably low for the effort put in by everyone involved) nor any magical properties it might have. They actually use a picture of the gem of brightness for the Star, but of course this could be simply reusing artwork (if you decide that the Star is a gem of brightness but don't want the characters to have immediate use of it, it does require command words to activate).