Overview
This is a MonkeyLungs review of a Sword Coast Legends player made module, “An Urgent Matter” by module author: snottlingDisclaimer: Module review series is currently taking a time out. The limitations of the tool set have worn me down and, for now, I won’t be devoting as much energy into SCL. I will keep playing and am looking forward to RoD and I will probably grab the console version for some co-op but for now my epic quest is taking a breather.
Sword Coast Legends Module Review
Module Title: An Urgent Matter
Author: snottling
DM Required: NO
Editable: YES
Recommended Level: 5 – 10
I went in about halfway into level 8 and finished the module halfway into level 9.
This module has some tough encounters so be prepared. Also it will load up defaulted to HARD difficulty so if you, like me, don’t play on HARD make sure you open up OPTIONS and change the setting back to NORMAL or EASY.
Completion time: 1 -2 hours
I played twice. My first time through was close to 2 hours. My second time was 1 hour almost to the minute. PERFECT length. This module can be easily added to any ongoing group (or solo player) custom campaign by playing it for an evening as a side quest to their on-going adventures. Chances are your group will get through the module in one night and have a great time before anyone has to leave to do other stuff or just feels like moving on.
Thumbs Up? Thumbs Down?
Thumbs Up for: Players looking to get into a little mystery and tackle some really tough fights. People who enjoy a nice side adventure with some fun dialog and quality set decoration and an adventure featuring some interesting custom NPC’s can expect to have a good time.
Thumbs Down for: People that don’t like SCL. Players that really don’t enjoy challenging combat. otherwise I think if you enjoy SCL you will have a fun time here.
Review
An acquaintance of yours or someone in your adventuring party has sent word from Neverwinter. They request your assistance for a friend of theirs who has found themselves in a spot of trouble and need help getting out of. A large inheritance has brought the ire of family and turned jealousy into the will to pay assassins to track down the inheritor. For a fee you have been asked to help keep the assassins from following through on their orders.
I like the setup. It’s a good fit for SCL and a D&D adventure in general. Parties of any alignment can justify their reasons for taking on the quest and the author doesn’t thrust any back story onto you which may conflict with the motivations you ascribe to your character. It’s set in the Sword Coast and feels right at home with the Official Campaign so players don’t have to ‘head cannon’ any extravagant reasons for why their Sword Coast hero/mercenary/adventurous villain is on this adventure. Could be coin, could be conscience, you decide.
For a DM this could work really well for a fun role paying adventure as the author provides a host of NPC’s around town. The creative DM could control and use these NPC’s to interact with the players adding potential for impromptu role play and on the fly adventures. There is a lot here that could be done outside the scope of the core storyline and while I did not play it that way I think it’s worth mentioning that it is there. Maps are well decorated and I liked the choice of lighting and the general ‘feel’ to the settings. They will be familiar, but they are used well. If I had to nitpick here it would be that I would have liked to see some action text used on NPC’s and placeables to enhance the mood. However I know snottling DM’s and when he runs this module I’m sure that kind of automated interaction is not necessary because he can handle those aspects as DM.
To get any more into the story would be a disservice to the tale. It may or may not throw any surprises at you but it is a fun journey. The dialog is well written but like all SCL modules the biggest hurdle is the editor itself and the limits it places on authors. Snottling circumvents this well and presents the adventure to the players with a little bit of added depth and mystery. I had a fun time in “An Urgent Matter”, I played it twice, and I will be keeping it in my module lineup for potential future runs with other characters.
Reminder
Please remember to rate each module you play with the in-game rating tool and maybe head on over to the SCL forums and leave some feedback for the module author of the module you played. Link to SCL Looking for Adventure forums follows:
[link]
Review Score Disclaimer
Currently the dialogue editor for Sword Coast legends is woefully deficient. Dialogue response choice for players are limted to two choices: 1. We accept! and 2. Not right now.
This is something that weighs heavily on any module and is not the fault of the module author. As such, I am not factoring this into the reviews even though the lack of any real dialogue options is a detrimental factor to the overall experience. Hopefully this is something the developers eventually rectify. However all of the most enthusiastic module creators, the early adopters, the die hard supporters of this game will have already been dealt the short end of the stick.