My players felt railroaded, and I felt constrained by a story that left too little wiggle room for improvisation and no guidance for what happened if the players jumped tracks. Oh, I’ve tried a few, and every time has ended poorly. I must admit that I have a long and deeply rooted bias against Dungeons and Dragons modules - or modules of any kind, really. I’d love to see more modules built this way, but at the same time, newer dungeon masters might have a harder time navigating their way through the story. For the experienced storyteller, this is an awesome format. A lot of details of the town the PCs are exploring are left to the DM’s imagination, but the module provides a strong set of supporting encounters that the DM can plunk in at the appropriate time. Instead of providing a single linear path, the author sets up the plot, details the various elements and complications that are important to the story and provides a framework for the adventure to develop organically. It’s less like a traditional module and more akin to a set of detailed adventure notes and prebuilt encounters. Although, I must say as someone who is incredibly horrible at drawing on a battle grid, I really appreciate having one included with the adventure.įrom an organizational perspective, this adventure is quite different from modules I have perused in the past.
![the slaying stone 4e town map the slaying stone 4e town map](https://www.missioncityrecord.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/26913920_web1_210401-PAN-Batstone-Appeal-batstone_1-1024x683.jpg)
There is very little in the way of artwork beyond the cover art and the encounter maps, unfortunately, and there are no handouts or props aside from the battle-mat. Also included is an eight page foldout battle-mat of the town with a crumbling old mansion on the reverse side. There are a total of thirteen encounters presented in the nice one to two page format that has become customary in 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons supplements.
![the slaying stone 4e town map the slaying stone 4e town map](https://i.pinimg.com/474x/f0/45/4e/f0454ef1817f292e5b8ebd2c78b3aeb8--dnd-maps-cities-city-maps.jpg)
THE SLAYING STONE 4E TOWN MAP FULL
The module itself is 32 pages long, printed in full color on what feels like good quality paper. The player characters are called on to venture into town, find the slaying stone and return it. This relic, known as the Slaying Stone, lies in the ruins of a town which was overrun nearly a decade prior by an invading horde of goblins. It is a standalone adventure with a straightforward premise: recover a potent magic item that can (possibly) kill anyone or anything (sufficiently low in level) nearly instantaneously. The Slaying Stone by Logan Bonner is a Dungeons & Dragons adventure for a group of 1st level characters designed to take the players all the way through first level.