Authors: Steve Winter with Wolfgang Baur, Scott Gable, and Victoria Jaczo
Artists: David Auden Nash, Jon Pintar, Miguel Regodón Harkness, Marcel Mercado, William O’Brien, Sam Perin, Florian Stitz, Bryan Syme, and Egil Thompson
Year: 2021
Genre: Old school styled Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying adventure
Pages: 202 pages
MSRP: $39.99 for the hardcover, $44.99 for the hardcover and PDF, or $24.99 in PDF at DriveThruRPG
I share my thoughts about the new 5E Dungeons & Dragons adventure, Scarlet Citadel, from Kobold Press. Is this old school inspired dungeon delve a must have to add to your D&D adventure collection? Or will you find your face be turning scarlet in anger when you learn about the circumstances around getting the most out of this adventure? You’ll find out!
TGG SCORE
6.5TGG SCORE
5.5VISITORS' SCORE(2 votes)
Summary
The Scarlet Citadel adventure itself is good yet not great. I found a lot to like about it but the ecosystem of the dungeon seems scattershot and disconnected. Five of the six levels are good but I'd make wholesale changes to the final level. Where I had a big problem with the adventure is in the fact that there are no fewer than five other Kobold Press products you need to own in order to get the most out of this adventure and nowhere is that ever indicated to a potential buyer. If you already own the Creature Codex and Tome of Beasts from Kobold Press, I'd say this adventure is worth picking up. If you don't own those two titles you've either got a ton of work ahead of you adapting this adventure or, in my opinion, are better served just taking a pass.
Founder/Editor-in-chief of The Gaming Gang website and host of The Gaming Gang Dispatch and other TGG media, Jeff tackles any and all sorts of games but has a special fondness for strategy, conflict sims, and roleplaying games. Plus, he's certainly never at a loss for an opinion...
I recently picked this up along with the supplementary battlemaps pack, and whilst I like it very much, I do wish it had been more generic fantasy setting rather than Kobold Press’ own Zobeck / Midgard setting.
Ultimately what I do like about it is that it’s like a miniature mega-dungeon. So you get that old skool dungeon crawl campaign setting but you aren’t just endlessly going chamber to chamber fighting monsters.
The levels are each designed to fit on one or two standard-sized battlemaps (similar to the Paizo battlemaps) and they can be cleared in a couple sessions (depending on your group’s play style).
The chambers are well developed, detailed and evocative. The encounters are diverse and there is room for different tactics and play-styles.
None of the Kobold Press proprietary elements are overwhelming and I think its slightly unfair to suggest it would take a long time to rewrite them. Replace a monster or a noun here and there and you will be fine. Don’t most DMs do some personalising when they run campaign modules?
I purchased the Fantasy Grounds version and all of the monster stat blocks and tokens are available. If you wish to see an image of the monster you need other books from Kobold press.
Im in the middle on this product and have already converted it to the Forgotten Realms (changed Gods etc).
Not really interested in several books for a new setting. Probably last Kobold press product ill buy.
5 Comments
I recently picked this up along with the supplementary battlemaps pack, and whilst I like it very much, I do wish it had been more generic fantasy setting rather than Kobold Press’ own Zobeck / Midgard setting.
Ultimately what I do like about it is that it’s like a miniature mega-dungeon. So you get that old skool dungeon crawl campaign setting but you aren’t just endlessly going chamber to chamber fighting monsters.
The levels are each designed to fit on one or two standard-sized battlemaps (similar to the Paizo battlemaps) and they can be cleared in a couple sessions (depending on your group’s play style).
The chambers are well developed, detailed and evocative. The encounters are diverse and there is room for different tactics and play-styles.
None of the Kobold Press proprietary elements are overwhelming and I think its slightly unfair to suggest it would take a long time to rewrite them. Replace a monster or a noun here and there and you will be fine. Don’t most DMs do some personalising when they run campaign modules?
You’ll be replacing far more monsters than “here or there” throughout the adventure if you don’t own the Kobold monster books…
quel es le niveau des personnage
1st through 10th.
I purchased the Fantasy Grounds version and all of the monster stat blocks and tokens are available. If you wish to see an image of the monster you need other books from Kobold press.
Im in the middle on this product and have already converted it to the Forgotten Realms (changed Gods etc).
Not really interested in several books for a new setting. Probably last Kobold press product ill buy.