Princes of the Apocalypse Reviews

[GWJ_DanyBoy]

Anyone gotten ahold of a copy and want to give impressions? Or have you seen any insightful articles recently?

Here's a pair I found on Enworld:

http://www.enworld.org/forum/showthread.php?380695-Princes-of-the-Apolocalypse

http://www.enworld.org/forum/content.php?2482-Princes-of-the-Apocalypse-review#.VRgnjPnF9p8

[Naanomi]

Anyone know if there are new fey/beasts/other summonables of note?

[ChubbyRain]

Anyone know if there are new fey/beasts/other summonables of note?

I hope not, I would like to see all player options such as that in their own updates rather than in a book that is only marketed to DMs.

[Naanomi]

I hope not, I would like to see all player options such as that in their own updates rather than in a book that is only marketed to DMs.
Well we don't get the bestiary where such things will be listed and inherently interact with existing spells/class abilities like Wildshape and Beastmaster

[GWJ_DanyBoy]

Well I ordered my copy today, so I should have it by next week. My group will likely be moving to this after we finish sucking the last bits of marrow out of LMoP (We're slow, meeting only 1-2 times a month, and I like adding my own stuff in), and skipping on HotDQ even though I bought already. I can still pull out parts of HotDQ as needed I guess.

The reviews are quite positive so far, most describing it as much more open and flexible than Tyranny of Dragons, more in the style of the starter adventure. I checked out a physical copy the other day and it's printed in the same style and materials as the core books. I'm excited to give it a go.

[dukeofwolfsgate]

I've been DMing it for three weeks now, and have to say I love it! Everything has a really unique feel to it; no cut and paste here. Easily the best purchase I've made in a long time. The new monsters and NPCs are great, and I love so many of the new spells!

[GWJ_DanyBoy]

Well I got my book yesterday and flipped through the whole thing. Looks like a super solid campaign.
I'm AFB, but from what I can remember:

There's 7 or 8 Chapters, and an annex.
Chap. 1 is the introduction and synopsis, and does a lot to break down the factions and their motivations.
Chap. 2 to 5 are the main adventure. It's designed to be started by level 3 adventurers. I haven't dug too deeply into this but it seems to be fairly well laid out. It's arranged in a mostly player-driven style, with paragraphs of things your players might discover and investigate (and what may happen if those things are ignored) as opposed to a set story chain to be followed. Lots of regions and towns with goings ons, dungeon complexes aplenty, a goodly amount of nice, evocative art.
Chap. 6 is a collection of side quests. There's a few to get characters from level 1 to 3 and lead into the main adventure, and many others for higher levels to be inserted into the main campaign or any other campaign as needed. I believe it's also in this chapter where you'll find the random encounter tables, but don't quote me on it.
Chapter 7 (Or is it the first annex? I'm fuzzy on the exact order of things here.) has the campaign specific monsters and magic items.

The monsters are mostly named NPC humanoids, and humanoid cultist of various stripes. There are some neat ones though, such as some massive badass elementals, and cultist ridding crazy mounts, like a bulette.
The magic items I didn't read anything more than titles, but at least part of it was custom equipment carried by the the NPCs, like the balloon pack the air cultists use to fly around in combat.

Chapter 8 has recommendations for adapting the campaign, and the regions and factions within it, to other settings, like Dark Sun, Greyhawk, Eberron, etc.

Lastly the book ends in an annex having the new spells and the Genasi race from the recently-released player's guide, and a few pages of concept art with margin notes on how things work or are made.

[Madfellow]

There's 7 or 8 Chapters, and an annex.

The word you're looking for is "appendix." :smalltongue:

[GWJ_DanyBoy]

I though the appendix was vestigial?

You're right, I did mean appendix. I've been reading too many legal documents lately (because training) that end in Annexes instead of Appendices.

[Rfkannen]

Well I got my book yesterday and flipped through the whole thing. Looks like a super solid campaign.
I'm AFB, but from what I can remember:

There's 7 or 8 Chapters, and an annex.
Chap. 1 is the introduction and synopsis, and does a lot to break down the factions and their motivations.
Chap. 2 to 5 are the main adventure. It's designed to be started by level 3 adventurers. I haven't dug too deeply into this but it seems to be fairly well laid out. It's arranged in a mostly player-driven style, with paragraphs of things your players might discover and investigate (and what may happen if those things are ignored) as opposed to a set story chain to be followed. Lots of regions and towns with goings ons, dungeon complexes aplenty, a goodly amount of nice, evocative art.
Chap. 6 is a collection of side quests. There's a few to get characters from level 1 to 3 and lead into the main adventure, and many others for higher levels to be inserted into the main campaign or any other campaign as needed. I believe it's also in this chapter where you'll find the random encounter tables, but don't quote me on it.
Chapter 7 (Or is it the first annex? I'm fuzzy on the exact order of things here.) has the campaign specific monsters and magic items.

The monsters are mostly named NPC humanoids, and humanoid cultist of various stripes. There are some neat ones though, such as some massive badass elementals, and cultist ridding crazy mounts, like a bulette.
The magic items I didn't read anything more than titles, but at least part of it was custom equipment carried by the the NPCs, like the balloon pack the air cultists use to fly around in combat.

Chapter 8 has recommendations for adapting the campaign, and the regions and factions within it, to other settings, like Dark Sun, Greyhawk, Eberron, etc.

Lastly the book ends in an annex having the new spells and the Genasi race from the recently-released player's guide, and a few pages of concept art with margin notes on how things work or are made.

Darl sun? What is that like?

[Madfellow]

Darl sun? What is that like?

I did skim that chapter when I visited my local game store last. It mentions a certain region of Athas (The Tablelands, maybe? I don't remember precisely). It has guidelines for changing the names and flavor of a few aspects of the adventure. The water cultists, for example, instead of being pirates are slavers in the Dark Sun version.

[EvanescentHero]

I flipped briefly through the book at a store yesterday and after reading some reviews decided to order it on Amazon (where it's fifteen bucks cheaper at the moment). It should come tomorrow, so after I look through it more carefully I'll give my impressions.

[Prophet_of_Io]

I just picked it up yesterday and after reading the first two chapters (which cover basically the cult, it's leaders and symbols and history and such plus adventure hooks and how to run the adventure in the first chapter, and the campaign setting, history and locations in the second) and skimming from chapter 3 on (which is the actual adventure) I must say I'm very excited to give this a run with my players. If nothing else you get a few new magical items, new spells and (perhaps my favorite) a "new" race in the Genasi making their return from 4e.

The Genasi are a pretty powerful looking class at first glance. +2 to Con is one of those stat increases no class actively doesn't want and with 4 subclasses that each have unique spell like abilities and relevant abilities like Resistance to damage types, additional forms of movement and the flexibility of stat increases (+1 to dex, str, int and wis for air, earth, fire and water respectively) that's a solid race. Almost makes me wish more races had more subraces.

They stick with the Forgotten Realms campaign setting but give a lot of help to those who want to transplant the story to settings they're most comfortable with. Players can jump right into the main plot at level 3 but they also have events for level one characters to explore the lands until they reach appropriate levels and the campaign will lead them all the way to level 15 so you have a solid couple of months of play. Easily a year's worth depending on how often you all are able to meet. I especially appreciate the adventure hooks and factions they present encouraging each PC to have a faction they are aligned with and a personal plot hook that gives their characters stakes in the story smaller and more intimate than the larger threat. You can easily ignore these but especially for newer players it's a nice way to make them feel immediately invested into the world you're putting them in.

I enjoyed playing through the tyranny of dragons. I love dragons and a campaign all around dragon lore is always an easy win for me. I've loved Tiamat's cults ever since the Red Hand of Doom. But Princes of the Apocalypse just feels like a much more fleshed story packed with dungeons and foes that will have your players cursing their names and chasing them all around the Dessarin Valley.

This is a big fat recommendation from me. I'm excited to see others reactions to it. And if people are interested in the Genasi race I can post a full list of their traits in a later post.

[SharkForce]

This is a big fat recommendation from me. I'm excited to see others reactions to it. And if people are interested in the Genasi race I can post a full list of their traits in a later post.

*coughlink (http://media.wizards.com/2015/downloads/dnd/EE_PlayersCompanion.pdf)cough*

[Prophet_of_Io]

*coughlink (http://media.wizards.com/2015/downloads/dnd/EE_PlayersCompanion.pdf)cough*

Hadn't seen that yet but thanks for the link. saves me work and gives me a few more race options. Always nice to see Goliath's again. They were a favorite of mine back in the day. Odd to see the Deep Gnomes (I will never attempt to spell their actual name) as a separate class and not a subrace like Drow but it's nice to have. I guess you can justify the two by just how different they actually are at this point.

[SharkForce]

svirfneblin are a subrace, they just aren't presented as such. if you look, they have the standard gnome abilities, and then have their own abilities added on top.