I've played this adventure once and run it twice, once online and once in-person, and it's one of my favourite adventurer's league modules. The roleplay and exploration of the house is loads of fun; I loved all the games and sneaking around trying to investigate while also keeping Abby happy. The combat at the end is fun and hard enough that powerful parties don't just trounce it immediately, and only having one major combat gives you plenty of time to explore and play in the house. I felt it was a really good balance of roleplay, exploration and combat. I also like that the adventure accounts for how the DM should react to parties refusing to participate or becoming aggressive towards Abby.

My only little qualm is that it can be difficult to play on a VTT - I ended up having to recreate the maps in external software to be able to put them into a VTT, and it'd be great to get a copy of the map as a separate image file rather than just in the PDF. Some of the map also doesn't match the description, i.e. the dining room map says the chairs and table are pushed up against the wall. But these are pretty minor complaints about an adventure that's otherwise lots of fun.

I ran this Tuesday past and it went over great. The roleplay/games at the beginning kept the players interested (even our resident fight everything guy took part). They skipped asking around at the Inn so I pieced the clues throughout the mansion which made for fun discovery. The final battle was challenging and even a little scary (after the Cleric rolled a natural 1 on his Death Gaze save) but they pulled together and prevailed. All in all this made for a happy and satified party as well as DM.

This was a pretty fun mansion crawl adventure. My players kept trying to figure out what was going on, but had no idea until the very end. Definitely roleplay involved and a epic combat finish at the end.

I really enjoyed running this adventure. Lots of role play in this one, so as a DM you should bring along your inner actor! The mystery is not terribly difficult to ferret out, but I did enjoy how the story unfolded. The final fight can be easily scaled up or down to match your party’s strengths. An enjoyable and different adventure.

My players LOVED the main character in this book and were fully engaged in the adventure. Their "compassion" ended up having serious long-term ramifications...

The module is very clear and easy to run, there is a great map, and a decent combat. I'd suggest adding some mooks to balance that combat a bit better... otherwise it works great. A must-run for 5E, especially if you're tired of high fantasy hack and slash.

Ran this a couple weeks ago, and the players loved it. They were excited for a game with such a moral quandry. Live or kill? Looking forward to completing the trilogy, it's sure to be awesome.

Did you enjoy running Death House during the CoS storyline? Then this module will probably be just your style.

Eerie victorian manor where everything is not quite right, complete with a creepy little girl, it has all the makings of a cliche horror movie. Good roleplaying opportunities, and if your players are anything like mine they will love solving the mystery.

The drawback for this particular module is simply in the tone, it will be perfectly suited to Barovia, but if your characters are used to the high-fantasy setting of Faerun, it may feel off or even goofy to them.

Rob,

I have reached out to you personally, but I wanted to leave this review. This mod may be one of my favorite Tier Two module. The story was great! The NPCs were great. I like that you touch on cultural diversity with the Finklesteins and Abby. I am a narrative and voice actor DM so I enjoyed portraying Abby's character in that way.

I think the players got the most excitement at the end of hte module when they .. well they discover the main big baddy and some stories conclusion. It left the characters in a morale dilemma, and allows the DM some flexibility in presenting it. I actually had one of my players, a paladin (of Mystra) intervene on behalf of Abby at the end!

I could run this module over and over and not tire of it.

Great Product. It will be in my back pocket for pickup games at every con I travel to in the future.

Resp

Marcello De Velazquez

This module is a lot of fun. The magic item is not particularly useful, but is adorable. I enjoyed the mini-games and the general plot. A couple small issues: The party can completely screw up the story fairly early on by not engaging with the little girl and this makes for some improvisation by the DM.The girl has gay parents (which actually was a problem for a person in one group, but they got over it) but has a long convoluted sentence about how "Some girls have a mommy and a daddy and some girls have two mommies and some girls have two daddies". I turned that cloying sentence into "Oh, they are gay".

I have a couple recommendations for the final battle. The map shows the two rooms in a straight line, this allowed a wizard to cast Knock and then stand in the back casting fireballs while the party blocked the door. One simple 15 foot hallway with corners made this a challenging fight. I also made a couple of the enemies appear behind the party.

All in all, a lot of fun. It feels like it will go faster, but it is a 4 hour adventure.

A well written adventure with a great amount of roleplaying a much less fighting than most AL mods are focused on. The flow and build up is great, sadly D&D 5e doesn't have a good "courtier" system otherwise the ending moral dilemma part would be so much better to play out.

Played it once and DMed it multiple times. Never had anyone complain it wasn't interesting.

Attention to detail provides a well-coordinated play experience. The author successfully manages player expectations to transform the experience to target state. Written in a way that successfully manages conflict, this module prioritizes problem solving and party coordination. From adventure initialization all the way to goal implementation, this module delivers best-in-class role-playing.

I enjoy a good story with moral quandries and consequences. Life (or a kind of life) is rarely just black and white, and we all know this, but we rarely get to see it in action.

This module is a great chance for Roleplay, and not just combat, thus you will find it far more to my personal liking than the typical mod. You can make a real impact on the lives of the NPCs and have to live with that impact. Your choices matter. Any good story drives from exactly that point.

I think this module is a solid value, and excellent for playing with those who are interested in deeply exploring the nature of good and evil, innoccence and corruption.

Well done.

Stellar adventure. Good RP. Good puzzles. Challenging combats. It's a real mod where choices have consequences, which makes it perfect for new and experienced players.

Rob Silva's first foray into Adventure League content begins as a fairly light-hearted role-play encounter. His unqiue ability to challenge players and bring moral decisions to the forefront offers a play experience not usually experienced in a D&D session. The story elements presented are well thought out, providing the players (and their characters) a chance to decide the consequences of their decisions. My understanding is that this is the first in a three scenario plot arc. I highly recommend this adventure if your looking to play something out of the norms of 'kill & loot'.