Goodman Games has leapt into the D&D 5E adventure market with their OGL adventure Glitterdoom by Michael Curtis. The adventure is available in print and pdf forms; this review is of the PDF.
Glitterdoom is a short adventure for 4-6 3rd level adventurers that the author suggests can be completed in a single session. It is set in an abandoned dwarven mine, lost to a goblin raid several centuries ago. Now, a dwarf is attempting to recover the mine and hires the adventurers to clear out the holdfast – where a number of unusual creatures now lair under the effect of an ancient curse.
The balance of the adventure is problematic. The first encounter is apparently against four Challenge Rating 3 monsters. For a party of four 3rd level characters, this is insanely difficult. Although the “Stoneghosts” don’t deal that much damage, their resistance to non-magical weapons and most spell damage types makes them very hard to kill.
(Wizards rates a “Deadly” encounter for four PCs as being about 1,600 XP equivalent; this encounter has a 5,600 XP equivalent.)
The next combat is against a CR 4 monster. The final combat is against a CR 5 monster and three CR 3 monsters. It seems that Michael Curtis really hates player characters!
The monster stats are obviously written from before the DM Basic Rules supplement came out, as there are a number of inconsistencies with official monsters; these inconsistencies should not prove much of a problem with running the adventure, however. The biggest problem comes from the assignment of challenge ratings; some seem quite inaccurate. A monster with AC 13, HP 24, vulnerability slashing and dealing 5 damage per turn (if it hits) does not make a CR 3 monster.
This, of course, explains part of the “difficulty” of the encounters; a lot of the Challenge Ratings are wrong and thus the monsters are weaker than their rating indicates.
The adventure itself is a fairly standard dungeon crawl consisting of 13 areas. There’s a good amount of description in the test, making the exploration of the area an interesting experience. The monsters in the dungeon take advantage of various traps and tricks to make things very difficult for the players.
The adventure is nicely presented, although the shading on the map on the dungeon obscures the grid in my pdf copy. The artwork is fine, with one or two pieces that are very nice, others that I found disappointing.
The adventure features three new monsters, a unique magic item, a new dwarven subrace, and a new background – the Refugee. The new type of dwarf, the Sojourner, is underwhelming (+1 Intelligence and doesn’t become lost easily), but the Refugee is well-done; an excellent addition to the game.
The biggest problem the adventure has is this: it’s very short. With a cover price of $10 ($7 for the pdf), this seems an awful lot for a 16-page adventure which will be over in one session. (Note that it is incorrectly listed as a 32-page adventure on DriveThruRpg).
Ultimately, it is an entertaining dungeon crawl, but has a few problems with balance and value-for-money.
This is why I won’t be buying 3PP items made in the first few months of 5e’s release unless they have someone working on them who has actively – and recently – worked with Wizards of the Coast – like Steve Winter.
One other thing to note is that the final “boss” is a clerical spell user. The formatting of his available spells is definitely based off previous version rule sets, and not 5e.