Screams at Sunset is an adventure for levels 2-4 by Jeff C. Stevens. It is also an adventure for levels 4-6, if you use the alternative version with monsters from Volo’s Guide to Monsters.

The adventure begins with the characters coming to the aid of a farmstead that is being attacked by goblinoids – goblins, hobgoblins and bugbears – and allows the characters to investigate the mystery of why the goblins are suddenly more aggressive. A band of hapless militiamen helps emphasize the threat and the need for adventurers, and a dangerously intelligent boss awaits at the end of the adventure.

Each of the acts of the adventure is nicely detailed, with enough incidental details to make for memorable encounters. The premise and details help elevate this above what could be a mundane hack’n’slash scenario. The adventure primarily focuses on combat and role-playing. The final solution to the adventure could involve either. There are ethical decisions to be made, and I like having those.

There’s also one encounter where starting a fight can summon more monsters, so the players have to deal with the situation being more difficult than it first appeared; a good test of their playing skill.

The chief problem the adventure suffers is from writing that needs to be tightened up, in some cases, a lot. I’ve discovered that it can be hard to move from DM-mode to author-mode; in DM-mode, you want to preserve mystery and hint at the answers. You shouldn’t be doing this as an adventure author: lay out the mysteries in your adventure’s introduction, so the DM isn’t surprised by the shape of the adventure. A synopsis is very useful for reminding the DM of the salient points of the adventure, especially just before running it.

Occasionally the presentation of the encounters is not ordered as I would arrange it; for instance, the militia camp gives the generic encounters first and the essential encounters second; I’d reverse that order and use the introduction to the militia’s leader to also serve as a point to display the camp and present encounter opportunities. There are also a few grammatical mistakes and clumsy phrasings in the text.

The adventure is illustrated by attractive pieces of black and white line art that break up the text. Abbreviated monster statistics are available in the appendix, but they leave out important information (such as ability scores, saving throws and skills), and you should still own a copy of the relevant books. The stats are great for quick combats, but less useful once spells that require saving throws start getting used. The maps are very attractive and readable.

Screams at Sunset is an effective adventure, also available as part of an adventure bundle. It’s one that is well worth investigating.