Candlekeep Mysteries Review 📕 (D&D 5E Adventure Book)
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- Опубликовано: 11 сен 2024
- An overview of Candlekeep Mysteries and my take on this latest Dungeons & Dragons book.
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I find these adventures to be all over the place! Some seem really inventive and well structured, some have one of those qualities, some have neither! I wish WotC standardized the format a little, but I’m still happy to have it as a resource
I found the first 3 adventures to be deeply boring and the 4th was much better, so it put me off reading the rest for a while. Picked it up again recently and I'm pleased that the 5th looks like it might be good.
pro trick : watch series at Flixzone. Me and my gf have been using it for watching loads of movies recently.
@Turner Saint yea, have been watching on Flixzone} for years myself =)
Hi Bob
Formatting for one's persons likes wouldn't work because people have so many different tastes.
As a new DM, this was the first DND adventure book that I got, and is honestly my go to book for when I try to get new ideas for campaigns with my friends. I think the best way to get value out of these kinds of books is to take the suggested story elements in them and tweak, or even change them entirely!
My main campaign Ive been running started with the Sarah of Yellowcrest Manor adventure, but I changed it to ahere Sarah was still alive and was framed for the murders in the story, and that has been a really fun to mess with!
Already running our third game tonight. Everybody enjoys the book so far!
Have fun!
Nice!
Dude you are some of the best content, I don't know where youtube has been hiding you but I'm on the band wagon now.
Thanks!
Agreed
"Why would I buy it if I have to tweak things?"
I remember when the same argument was discussed in the forum pages of Dungeon magazine (back in 2nd ed days). My take on it was that each issue didn't necessarily contain 4-6 completed adventures, but instead about 60 pages of IDEAS for adventures. I only ever ran a handful of adventures exactly as printed, but would regularly take a sub-plot from one adventure, combine it with an NPC or even the main villain from another and a map location from a third, and use them all to enhance an adventure of my own. Even adventures written for different game systems are often full of great ideas.
Candlekeep doesnt exist in my Homebrew since we're not in Forgotten Realms, but Ravenloft does. Maybe one of these books exists in Strahd's castle.
My group has played through a couple of the adventures and they turned out to be some of the most fun we had
My biggest issue with the book (and in Tasha's) is the removal of alignment in the monster stat blocks. The entire point of stat block is to make it easier for DMs to look at a creature at a glance (things were more wall of text back in the 3.5E days with the amount of skills and feats creatures had!). Sure you can write paragraphs of how an individual NPC thinks and behaves but their alignment is a quick shorthand. As for non specific NPCs monsters, the alignment helps show the default behavior (I'm going to save myself on the "wok" alignment controversy) and remind that in the MM that alignment listed is a guideline and not written in stone so the DM can change it to however they see fit: "The alignment specified in a monster’s stat block is the default. Feel free to depart from it and change a monster’s alignment to suit the needs of your campaign. If you want a good-aligned green dragon or an evil storm giant, there’s nothing stopping you."
My limited edition copy just arrived today. (yay for slow international shipping, but hey, as long as it gets here!) The book is so beautiful.
Wish I had the alternate cover! Looks really cool.
@@WASD20 It really is worth the extra bucks I spent to get it. And I'm really liking the adventures too. As a very newb DM, this is exactly the kind of stuff I want to run, so double win!
I think it’s a good resource for when your whole group can’t make a game, so the adventures can become short one off side quests for the remaining players.
I would have probably found this a bit more useful if you would have talked a little more about each adventure contained within. As a review aimed at DMs (players won't buy books like ths) I don't believe spoilers are much of an issue. YMMV
While I havent loved every 5e book nor even all the ones I ended up getting. None of them have been disliked their is always something I can take from a campaign module. I really like this book based on the setting and this video has convinced me to put it on my to purchase next
I think it's super useful as a tool, not even just as a collection of one-shots. I can steal ideas and maps and concepts from any of the stories, I have a flashed out Candlekeep for any of my campaigns (I'm running Descent right now and I plan to make use of this Candlekeep when they get there), I can whip out one of the adventures as a side quest if I need to pace my campaign...there's really a lot to love here.
Ty! Was given these as a choice by our new DM. It was enough to decide without giving away too many details 😉
I don't shop Amazon. I am fortunate to have a quality gaming store within an hours drive from my home. I gladly pay full price to support the store. and the game store cover for the books is a unique idea.
Definitely a good thing to support the shops! For me, my local game shop tried to charge me 95 dollars for the alternate cover of one of the books. Trying to join the scalpers I suppose. I stopped shopping there after that.
They had them hidden behind the counter and reluctantly showed me. Pretty clear they were selling them online.
too bad. my shop isn't that shady. they have a reward program, $10 off per $100 spent (not all at one time). they are very supportive of the people that come into the store.
might put this one towards the bottom of my list. consistency is important to me.
Consistency in what way?
@@WASD20 quality of story. seemed like this one was kind of hit or miss.
Really useful review, thank you. I could not decide between this volume and the Elminster's Candlekeep Companion on DM Guild, but I think I'll go with than one, since it seems more what I am looking for.
Im about to DM for the first time (the Sunless Citadel, which I know is quite basic and easy) so i'm going to slot in the Joy of Extra dimensional Spaces to spice things up. Instead of rescuing the sage, they have to rescue the Kobold leader.
I bought it, and so far I'm enjoying the content as a springboard for a homebrew campaign with my kids rather than directly as written. For instance, the archfey Warlock has a book she picked up from her patron as part of her starting equipment (scholar's pack), which happens to be the first book in the series.
I've thought about running this as a collection of adventures that starts with finding each book to the next adventure at the end of the current one.
I've really been enjoying these reviews you do if the D&D books and have found them invaluable for making a decision whether to add a particular book to my collection for solo gaming (with Mythic GME). This is sounds interesting but I'm not sure it'll work in a solo game... but I still think I'll get it at some point 😂
I just played in a Candlekeep one-shot from Meetup at my local game shop. It looks ilke the DM ran us through that one in the extradimensional mansion. However, he didn't bother giving us the hook of looking for that sage, and we never found out the sage (who he didn't mention) had died. Also, he mentioned the name "Mordakai" now and then, which I'd later find out after the game was him (a newer DM) mispronouncing 'Mordekainen.' From this video, though, it doesn't look like Mordenkainen is involved, though... Anyway, thanks for the video. I now know more about what this poor, new DM cut out of this silly, silly adventure.
Yikes. That doesn’t sound great.
I own it and makes a great pairing with tales of the yawning portal in an episodic campaign.
Hey great video! Just wanted to ask which one is best from candlekeep mysteries, tales from yawning portal and ghosts of saltmarsh? I like one-shot adventures and not those long campaign books.
I would be interested in doing some of these one I get my players out of the Dalelands. We have yet to start due to Covid, we also play 2e. I'm sure I could tweak things to work out.
Hi Nat
What book would you recommend for random encounters? I was looking at “The Game Masters Book of Random Encounters”. Are you familiar with it?
I like to run published 5E adventures but like to drop in some outside material to spice things up or move things along.
Jeff
Many of these seem to sound like the authors of the adventures are themselves very railroady DMs and almost try to box you in with a narrow view. It's easy to get around by ignoring that and making up your own parts instead of those - and it would be worth it if the rest of the adventures were of particularly great substance. As it stands, nothing in the book seems like it's more impressive than what one can make up on their own or find for free online as ideas. Saltmarsh was a much more interesting release of adventures even with its own weaknesses.
If we compare the anthologies : Tales of Yawning Portal, Ghosts of Saltmarsh and Candle keep mysteries - and someone is on a budget - which one would you recommend?
Tales from the Yawning Portal
Love it! I see a fantastic way to introduce a new player into an existing campaign. The newbie can be of low level to mesh with some of the higher level players as he or she might be a researcher (insert wizard or priest or monk here). I'd only need 20 minutes with my new player tossing around scenarios. Fast level to 2nd level then about this time decide how to attract an adventuring party into the quest. This should be something very usable for any game system. This beats "So you meet in a tavern..." or "here we are on the road..."
And to the commenters... yes an affiliate link is useful! I'll be buying it using the link. I want my reviewers to get a couple pennies when I buy stuff. Otherwise amazon gets it all...Yes, it's only a few pennies. Don't spaz.
There is a video-game called baldur's gate and some of the story happens in Candlekeep
Like a DnD version of the movie "The Pagemaster"? Unless I'm totally misunderstanding how the players go on adventures after finding these books.
Can you make an update video on where to start concerning the books now that there are more publications?
It'd be nice to know how long each of the adventures take to run roughly. Could they be single session adventures? How many encounters in each?
I agree with everything you said about it. I got really hung up on the inside map of the 1/3 of candlekeep and all the descriptions of the rest of candlekeep wondering where/what they were talking about. I don't like ripping maps out of books so I didn't even think to look at that, but when I finally broke down and "ripped that bandaid off", all the descriptions in the book made sense. I do have to say that I do like the overall stories in the book, but yeah you are 1000% right about the "hamfisted" way you are supposed to introduce the party to the story. I get that they had many different people write 17 independent stories around a book, but it's hardly their fault for trying to link it all together, or if even that was supposed to be the intention. It would be nice if an editor or some facilitator knitted them all together or added better ways for the initial party trying to help their land from a curse to go through all these adventures. They do work as an independent one off side quest for a campaign that you pick perhaps one out of the 17 and then maybe another one at a later point in the campaign. But yeah as a cohesive campaign or chain of adventures on its own, it falls short.
What would you think about using this as a kick off point into DM-ing?
I've been wanting to try my hand on running a game but I know that I have a tendency to get too ambitious and become overwhelmed. So I'd like a simple, yet interesting adventure to follow for my first time.
Edit: formating
I think it woul be a great starting point
Not having a full map of Candlekeep is the dumbest thing Wizards did with this book. Why would you not have a map of the most important location in the book? Otherwise I like the book.
There’s a big poster map in the back, but yeah. It was dumb not to have it in the book.
Do you think these would be better as one shot adventures ?
It would be nice if Wizards put out a product like the old school book of lairs or the encounter deck of 2e or hell even the one that came out during 4e. The idea that everyone wants a mystery book is just dumb. I understand people like puzzles and what not but just release a puzzle and trap book.
In the video you said that some of the adventures you wouldn't run them for your 12 year old, because they are too dark. I have a similar issue, Im trying to run an adventure for my kids. Is there a d&d campaign/adventure module you could recommend for kids that are 9-12 years old?
I think the Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure with the Starter Set would be a decent option. At the end of the day you MAY want to make minor adjustments along the way for any of them. I was running Icewind Dale for some kids and we had fun, but I did edit/adjust at times.
@@WASD20 Thanks!
One of the adventures' authors publicly complained on his personal blog that the WotC editors had drastically changed his adventure and didn't tell him of the changes (the contract said that WotC is under no obligation to tell them of any changes made). As such, he told WotC he wanted his name removed from future prints of the book. However, because WotC owns the material now he can't publish his original version.
From what he wrote in his blog and elsewhere it seems like WotC wanted amateur designers because they were women and/or POC rather than that their adventures were good -- you may notice in the credits next to the author is also "Edited by" and "Developed by" (so it seems like some where more heavily polished by WotC than others).
Ah. Interesting. Going to have to read up more on this. Someone else referred to some controversy and this must be what they were talking about.
@@WASD20 Basically the author wrote in detail the culture and lifestyle of the Gripplis, including information on the Grippli player race. Apparently WotC watered down his Grippli background and removed the player race stuff.
@@crankysmurf His biggest issue was that WotC added the word 'primitive' to the description of the Grippli. He hates that word due to the way it was used in colonial times.
@@kryptonianguest1903 Yeah, he wanted to flesh out the Grippli society to describe that despite they were technologically "primitive" they weren't culturally so. But I guess in WotC's eyes his adventure is just an one-shot that didn't have enough pages to flesh out all the stuff he wanted (he should have gone the DMs Guild to publish a Grippli supplement but that wouldn't be official canon, unlike a WotC hardcover adventure book).
@@crankysmurf Thanks for the explanation. Make sense. I did find his blog post now.
Nate is the Best
I don't know why people wouldn't like box text...
I’m excited to see this. Curious to run it but all I saw was complaining about it being “woke”
I'm about to finish Storm Kings Thunder which I play on a VTT with my group. It has the best maps I've ever seen in a D&D product. I'm thinking about what adventure to run next, but I'm highly disappointed in the quality of maps in other books, including this one. Does anyone have any recommendations? I just want high quality, unique, color maps.
Icewind Dale: Rime of the Frostmaiden has good colored maps
Yeah, the maps aren’t great. I do know some people who prefer this style, but not me.
You are amazing sir love from Pakistan ...
Im making a map that is going to cover my cupboard doors in my room
Nice video! i gave subscribe. You have super videos.
Candlekeep feels like the library place in Minas Tirith (LOTR).
Casual player with some friends and I just checked out this book on amazon and found the concept very interesting for us, however upon further reading of the reviews which were highly negative due to the books supposed wokeness (I haven't read through it), it's a no for me.
Not even a mention on the controversy that surrounds this subpar book?
*cough* affiliate link *cough*
I actually am not in the know of any controversy. Can you explain?
@@WASD20 blah blah blah...pronouns....blah blah blah...woke culture...etc etc
Woooa. Spoiler warnings much?
Was liking the review, until you went way to in dept on the first adventure and full on spoilered it's ending! Not cool, I stopped watching thereafter.
The review until that was helpful thought.
You kind of let yourself down by having an Amazon affiliate link to purchase a book on a video where you're supposed to be providing a review for that same book. Throws objectivity out the window really.
Why would that be the case?
@@Giby86 It's difficult to accept an opinion on a product as objective if someone provides a link to said product and the use of such a link benefits them financially. This issue is compounded if the person giving the opinion directly urges their audience to use the link. It is hard to accept the opinion is not coloured in any way by potential monetary gain. It edges into the territory of paid endorsement.
@@therocketboost No "opinion", by definition, is ever "objective". If you mean "fair", you should be able to judge it based on the track record of the person giving it. But also, an affiliate link means almost nothing. Did you know that he gets something in return even if people don't buy this specific product through his link? Meaning Nate could give the book a bad review, provide the link, and still get something in return for every person that clicks on the link and then buys...anything other than this book.
There's a reason why sponsored videos are flagged as such and these aren't.
@@Giby86 Dude. That's specifically what the link is for. If they go to another page and get something else then he doesn't get paid. He gets the cut if they use that link and buy that specific thing.. I work in marketing, that's how affiliate links work. There is a slight chance it applies to all direct WOTC purchases but that's still dubious and you know full well why.
Seriously, stop with the "nothing is objective malarky", this isn't high school philosophy and it's a tired online statement. Of course nothing is purely objective but you are being utterly obtuse if you deny that someone directly benefiting from people purchasing a product can be judged the same as someone who isn't to provide an opinion on that brand or product.
I feel you knew this when you asked.
@@therocketboost Well, I'm a reviewer myself, and we have amazon affiliate links and they work precisely the way I described it. It's not a wizards affiliate link, it's amazon. They don't care what you buy, as long as you buy.
And quite frankly, I am sick and tired of this "you get paid, so your word is worthless" crap. Yeah, people have the audacity to get paid for putting up FREE content on the Internet. Deal with it.