Gate to the Unknown is the third in a Tier 1 trilogy set in the Moonshae Isles, but it feels and plays mostly as a stand-alone adventure, much to my delight. If you’ve followed my twitter account recently, you’ll know that I’ve become very disenchanted with tight trilogies of adventures as part of D&D Adventurers League play. I’m happiest when each adventure works as a single session adventure but playing them in order enhances the entire experience.

The basics of Gate to the Unknown are that the deep gnomes have a problem – strange creatures are killing their folk in the underground caverns – and they need you to find where those creatures are coming from and stop them.

Unfortunately, I found a few problems with the adventure’s structure.

The first is that there are two introductions. You’re told by the High King (through boxed text and dot points) to help the gnomes. Then, in the next episode, you’re told by the gnomes what your task is. I’ve made this mistake in my writing as well (see The Mysterious Isle, where SEER gives you an initial briefing, and then you get another from the sea elves after travelling to meet them – oops!) It’s a lot of text where the characters don’t get to do much. Briefings can be fun, but not if they keep going on and on.

The second is that the initial search of the gnome warrens has too many locations and not enough clues. The basic idea is solid, and there are clues to be found, but after a bit, you can’t keep telling the players “you find more dead gnomes that were stabbed in the back” without them getting frustrated at the lack of progress. Also, despite the briefing saying that the warrens were isolationist, they’re entirely too happy to see the characters (and seem to be doing a lot of trading between themselves in any case). It doesn’t track that well. It’s not that they’re isolationist; instead, they prefer living underground and don’t like the surface and don’t trust people who live there.

The third is the final dungeon, which has a total of fourteen areas. It’s not linear, and this means some groups might only explore four locations, while other groups explore everything, causing quite a bit of variance in time taken. The dungeon works better than the warrens, as each of its areas adds to the story, but the final encounter lacks a proper boss. I’d rather have a lesser boss to fight, and thus a better sense of closure, than an idea that something is happening without really knowing what’s going on.

Now, despite these niggles, the basic story and encounters are good, so, with a little work, you can improve the pacing and have a memorable adventure. The problems tend to stem from too much material to cover rather than too little, and that usually is easier to fix.

It’s nice to see that each of the deep gnome enclaves has a speciality, which play into little quests they give the party. The descriptions (boxed text!) are evocative and help build the setting.

There are many opportunities for role-playing and exploration, with some combat as well, although you’re given only brief notes on some role-playing situations. It’s likely an adventure that should appeal to a broad playing base.

Some of the monsters encountered are reskinned; it would have been nice if the text described how the monsters appear. What’s an insectory nightmare, for instance?

Gate to the Unknown has a good premise and interesting encounters; I’d prefer if it had a better sense of pace, but it will work as written and provide an entertaining session.