Thunderspire Labyrinth (Dungeons & Dragons, Adventure H2) Reviews

• Very encouraging second showing.

  
  By A1BFG0RTKZJVHQ on 2008-07-17
  The Wizards adventure team had me worried with Keep on the Shadowfell. The poor quality material, recycled maps, multiple discrepencies between module rules and the core books, and overall poor production value had me concerned about the future of the adventure path. Thunderspire Labyrinth goes a long way to ease those fears.
  
  First thing I noticed was the booklet material. MUCH nicer than the KotS booklets. The pages feel firm, and both the cover and interior pages are much more resistant to smudging and ink transfer. This was a huge problem for me with KotS, and I'm glad to see it corrected.
  
  The map was both exciting and dissapointing. On one hand, it is a very nice map with multiple important areas from the adventure on it. On the other, it is only one double-sided map. KotS boasted 3 double sided full color poster maps, impressive even if they were mostly reprints of D&D miniature's maps with new markings.
  
  The booklets are nicely organized. Book One contains the adventure hooks, first encounter, new monsters, important NPCs, a bird's-eye map of the area the adventure takes place, and a map with call-outs of the adventure's 'town'. It's nice to see these laid out all in their own section, as it makes the module much more useful for folks who just want the locations for inspiration. Book One also contains a random encounter table for overland travel, something sorely missed from the first adventure. Most eye-catching is the final 5 pages, which contain artwork of the area arrayed in an easy to cut out or photocopy section. This adds a great layer to the read-aloud text in the booklet, as you can hand your players a picture showing some of the most important locations in detail. There is also a section giving some direction in expanding the area around the Labyrinth, giving short descriptions of areas not directly covered by this adventure.
  
  Booklet two is somewhat less impressive. Right off the bat, I noticed that it suffers from the same problem as the KotS adventure booklet: there is no back cover. The rear of the booklet is dedicated to details of the final encounter. The adventure's conclusion and aftermath is handled on the same page, in a single 7-line paragraph. While this is sufficient for the module, some might wish for more.
  
  The bulk of Booklet Two is given over to details on the encounters in the adventure. Each area is presented much as it was in KotS: an overview, with full map and description of general features, followed by individual encounters. The overall maps have clearly marked features detailing encounters, and you could easily copy them and chop it up to hand to the players as they explore. The maps in general feel as if they were designed with a maximum of utility in mind: 10 foot wide halls are the norm, and everything looks as if it would be easy to recreate with a drawn playmat or with Dungeon Tiles.
  
  The encounter entries are fairly standard. If you enjoyed the layout in KotS, you'll like these. They have been polished, brought to a higher standard of conformity. Seperated into sections for Setup, Roleplaying, monster stat blocks, Tactics, Features of the Area (including treasure), and Conclusion for lingering details that need handling, the encounters seem made to run smoothly out of the box. I anticipate very little advance prep-work needed for these encounters.
  
  Overall, the adventure seems well written. I'll know more after we've been through it, but I'm looking forward to running it at this time. There is still room for improvement. In my opinion, the lack of a back cover, inclusion of only a single map, and heavy focus on combat encounters drop this product to 4 stars.
  
  

• Average hack and slash adventure,

  
  By A3N9HH6JJVDLCH on 2008-07-20
  The other posters explained this in detail but I wanted to add a few items. H2 still comes in the folder form, probably printed before complaints about the first one arose. Compared to H1 this one has less maps, less role playing and less reason to participate (in my opinion).
  
  The quality of the products is comparable. The paper is similar in quality as H1.
  
  In the adventure book 1 there are some neat pictures of the rooms to help descriptions, some DM's will like this, I thought of it as filler. Book 1 also introduced some new monsters, which were valuable. 31 pages.
  
  The second book is basically a series of combat encounters, maybe 2 skill challenges and a lot of trap-like challenges for the PC's. 64 pages vs 80 for H1: KotS. Your group may differ, but usually after the Pc's get caught in one trap the game slows to a crawl and becomes a tedious series of perception tests and thievery skill checks.
  
  Pros: easy to run, many types of combat/trap encounters, new monsters
  Cons: more work for the DM to include role playing opportunities, skill challenges, cost.
  
  Even at the pre-order price, I feel I paid too much for so little material. The numerous H1 maps (while pre-released elsewhere) were helpful and useful outside of the module. The SINGLE double sided map in H2 is not really useful outside of the H2 adventure which is basically a dungeon crawl with lots of traps.
  
  If you're looking for a great adventure for a good price, check out Red Hand of Doom. It would be worth the effort to take the time to modify the monsters in RHoD to 4th ed. and play it that way. The $25 list price for a module that is half of H1 is not worth it.
  
  

• H2 has its flaws but is far superior to H1

  
  By A1T8N18XKDLJO4 on 2008-07-25
  Thunderspire Labyrinth is an epic adventure taking place in the deep mazes and caves below Thunderspire mountain. In other words this is an underdark type adventure and has many creatures such as duergar that you would find in the underdark. It is heavy on combat for the most part, but I feel this will be a major criticism of all 4e dnd modules. It seems like the way they are releasing their products is put just enough roleplaying material in there and give the players a series of encounters (some aren't combat) the dm uses to level them up or advance the story. If you look at most modules released by wizards of the coast they are also combat heavy with minor roleplaying stuff in there. This one does a better job of giving out the roleplaying info for the 7 pillared hall than H1 did for Winterhaven and there is more of it. In fact nearly the whole first booklet describes the hall and its citizens and gives a basic overview of the adventure. I can see tons of roleplaying possibilities with each of the citizens but they don't map all of these out. In other words a beginning dm may run the 7 pillared hall as a bland excursion in a bland city and bypass most of the roleplaying fluff. This is sad since the roleplaying info here is pretty good and each of the npcs motivations would make for good roleplaying encounters. This is a problem with wizards modules in general dating all the way back to 3rd edition. I don't see why this surprises everyone. However, that being said there are some really cool skill challenges as well. There is even a simple find the items to open the door puzzle as well.
  
  The paper quality is much better than H1. Just compare the two. No ink smudging but as another reviewer said there is still no back to the 2nd adventure booklet. I have no clue what Wotc's reasoning is behind this. It doesn't make sense why they didn't add a back to the actual adventure, but I guess they have some kind of reasoning. There is only one map and I don't see the reason for the folder setup if you are only going to have only one map. Red Hand of Doom worked great as a book that the map could be removed from. There are some handouts but these have to be torn out of the adventure booklet or photocopied to be used. The Shattered Gates of Slaughtergarde had similar handouts but they weren't in the adventure books and were separate which makes much more sense.
  
  SPOILERS Below
  
  The overall adventure is actually quite good in my opinion. It far surpasses the bland storyline in H1. It deals with goblins,duergar, gnolls and even vecna (really cool skill challenge with this one). It gives numerous roleplaying opportunities if the dm uses them. The npcs are really fleshed out. I have always been a fan of mazes and underdark type campaigns and this one is actually pretty decent. Despite it's flaws I would recommend it to anyone who has played through H1 or just skipped H1 for that matter but wants to give a premade campaign in 4th a shot.
  
  END SPOILERS
  
  The main issue I had with it was the fact it could have been a whole lot better had they just packaged it with the handouts separate and added more maps as well as mapped out a few more roleplaying encounters. The campaign is pretty long but one would expect it to be when taking pcs from levels 3-6 which roughly equates to about 30 encounters plus roleplaying fluff. It should keep a gaming group busy for a while. I was pretty satisfied with the overall package and actually feel that it was well worth the price. However, this good campaign could have been great if only Wotc had put a little more effort in it.
  
  
  

• An excellent adventure!

  
  By A2REDHRM31ACE2 on 2008-08-08
  An excellent adventure. Nice writting and and interesting history, first...shadowfell, and now...underdark?
  I would have like this adventure more, if it had a better relationship with H1.
  
  

• H2 = Hack N' Slash 2

  
  By ADORV9ANYTPAC on 2008-08-08
  Too much fighting and not enough role-playing. This adventure is typical of the new 4E paradigm which is great if your under 13 but not so much for adults. Still better than H1 but that isn't saying much.
  
  
• Well it looks Good!
  By A1HSNRNJKRDKIG on 2008-07-16
  this is my first D&D4E module purchase, I never picked up H1 because of all the negative reviews on it and so I got the one, from the looks and quick run through, it looks very good and I cant wait to really read it thru and thru and then run it with my group (when they reach 4th level at least, there all 1st still). Product overall is very well made, I wish it was a HB book but oh well, for what it is, thats cool. 4 stars IMO since its not a book.
  
  
• The coolest!
  By A2XLLPSKMKY6IL on 2008-08-08
  I love 4e and this sequal to Keep on the Shadowfell is awesome! The illustrations and the story are fantastic!
  
  
• An interesting module, but poorly packaged
  By A2O5DPB9MNJX43 on 2008-08-05
  The basic module is fine. It is a continuation of the story from the module "Keep on the Shadowfell." The module looks to play well, and just like Keep, it contains 2 soft cover books and several maps. You can buy this and play it, and it feels pretty good.
  
  The only complaint I have lies in the packaging. The picture you see is the cover of what I consider a "folder" that holds the 2 books and the maps. This folder is made of very thin cardboard, so thin that it easily bends and tears, leaving the meat of the product damaged. For the cost of these adventures, I feel they should have gone in one of two opposite directions - make a larger, single book with a pocket for the maps, or produced a small box to hold all the materials.
  
  
• Keep it moving
  By A3MI8NOURQT6VE on 2008-08-18
  I have been waiting for 4e D&D for a year. I was at the Con last year when they made the official announcement for 4e (and the demise of Living Greyhawk campaign). At first I was upset that my books were no longer valid for RPGA campaigns but I got over it soon enough. I still didn't want to spend another $100 on books. But after following the development and teh changes they proposed I was admittedly curious. I bought the books, and pl;ayed a few games. That changed my mind. The game is streamlined and fast moving. The DM's job is easier, even designing a campaign of your own is streamlined.
  
  As far as this product is concerned. I have to say it is a well written adventure with plot twists and surprises for every D&D fan. The encounters are easy to follow. the NPC's are easily identifiable and easy to run. The story makes sense in the context of the gameworld. I give this adventure a thumbs up!
  
  
• Very Satisfied
  By A1IN3VVPOZSBTN on 2008-09-17
  It came in a very timely manner, well packaged and the booklets are of much better quality than the last published adventure, H1: Keep on the Shadowfell, of which the booklet for that adventure had some printing issues in that the ink rubbed off on whoever was reading it mid-session.
  
  This adventure is really an overall improvement over Keep on the Shadowfell in every aspect. You're able to improvise all parts of the story rather than being stuck with the encounters that are written. And there are more NPC character personalities described than H1: KotS, so out-of-combat situations are more interesting. It's a great buy if you're looking for an adventure with intrigue and depth, without having to spend the time writing it out yourself.
  
  

• Pyramid of Shadows (Dungeons & Dragons, Adventure H3)
• Keep on the Shadowfell (Dungeons & Dragons, Adventure H1)
• Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Master's Screen
• Dungeons and Dragons Core Rulebook Gift Set, 4th Edition
• Adventurer's Vault: A 4th Edition D&D Supplement