Free Beta Adventure Module for testing

[Booker Grimm]

Hi.

I've attached an original 5e adventure module that I have written.

Babble is a short adventure for 4 characters of levels 1 or 2 (about 4-6 total levels). It is designed as a starting adventure and pits new adventurers against a vengeful spirit and the twisted denizens of a small town desperate to hide a terrible secret.
It suits experienced, investigative characters and contains some fairly difficult encounters.

I would appreciate any feedback both positive and negative, and anything that you think I could do to improve the experience.
This is my first written module and I wanted to try something different.

My main concerns are that the events might not hang together too well and a test run though with some feedback would help immensely.

Enjoy.

Edit: Updated mod. Edited and locked story and NPC entries, Reformatted and squashed some typos.

[Booker Grimm]

Sorry, could a moderator please put this in the modules section.

Thank you.

[GavinRuneblade]

A few quick notes (I'm still playing through this), I'll focus here on things to improve, but I do want to say I'm having fun with the adventure!

Lots of the NPCs are flagged as unidentified, many of the NPCs and story entries are unlocked and editable. You have two copies of the Allip stats in the NPC list. Many of the story entries have typos, grammatical errors, odd formatting (like the curse being in the header font rather than bold/italic) and inconsistent messages. An example of this is in the 00.01 story entry about the curse where you first say Jaleesa is trapped until she is avenged and buried, then literally in the next sentence say she is trapped in undeath forever.

A few times you say "characters" when I think you mean "players". For example in the introduction when you talk about the adventure being for "experienced characters".

The disease isn't a "slow wasting" if you die in less than a day, that is insanely fast. Ebola is a fast acting disease and it needs 3 days to 2 weeks after contraction to symptoms appearing, then up to another two weeks to kill you. That is fast. Polio and cancer are "slow wasting" diseases, they often take years to kill and at the end the person is bedridden and in agony. I think you can take the disease in either direction and still have it be dramatic. Define it as a rapid, painful death within 2d10 hours and it will be very scary. Define it as a "slow wasting" that needs 2d10 days (still fast for the real world, but slow enough for most gamers) and you have some drama, and could even have a scene with someone coming back to town on day 8 barely alive, which would really scare the players.

I like the combat effects of the curse. Though in the section on spell casting you need to tweak the wording. There is no such thing as "subdual damage" and you should mention "spells with a verbal component". Also, while it is for 1st and 2nd level characters, just in case you might want to mention the silent spell metamagic of sorcerers. Also a Warlock with Old One patron has telepathy at will, but only one way (a Sage Advice makes this very clear) people can hear the Warlock but cannot communicate back.

On your maps, the base maps have a grid that is different from the size of the grid you set, making them look cluttered and a little tricky to use. There is a way to adjust the size of the grid in small steps, I always forget how to do that, but that might help align the squares. I'm sure someone else will come along and point out the technique.

The encounters look good so far, though I am concerned that the fight with the Allip alone might be too easy because one enemy alone with 39 HP means she's going down in the first round relatively often. I am quite looking forward to the fight with the council, that looks very challenging and a solid way to close the adventure.

I hope that helps you clean it up. I'll have some feedback on the pacing and other things later after I've played more.

[Booker Grimm]

Hi Gavin,

Thank you. This is exactly what I'm looking for and it's great feedback!

To address your points.

NPCs. Okay, I think I will go through and identify each NPC - it doesn't really have an impact on the players' investigation.

Story Entries - Yeah, I should lock all entries. I'll also proof read those typos and grammar bits!

The extra Allip must have been copied by accident - can't believe I didn't notice that.

I'l' edit the adventure so the format is the same throughout. Jaleesa predicament is that she is an Allip until her bones are buried on holy ground - not necessarily forever. I'll reword that.

Agree with the disease and like your comments. It is intended to be rapid and painful. Dead in a matter of hours but also really like an encounter with someone staggering back to town. Brilliant!

Subdual damage was a holdover from my 3.5e days and I realised that and decided to drop it completely. Obviously, I missed a bit. I believe there is a mention that 'only spells with verbal components are effected' somewhere.

I'll take on-board everything else you mention about spell casting and again, great feedback!

I used dungeon painter for the maps and will adjust the grids.

Concerned about the encounters with the allip too - and might beef the monster up to indicate her uniqueness.


Thanks again for downloading the adventure and your feedback and I'm glad you're enjoying it. I would be grateful if you could comment on the events and whether their timeline makes sense (I'm finding that quite difficult to plan out).

Cheers,

Booker.