The combats in this adventure are busy and awkward to run. In the very first combat, I found myself falling out of character because of all of the various tactics used in the fight. Furthermore, in the first fight, your character does not have a weapon. However, in the intro, it is stated that your character is the "go-to" for danger in the village; I feel that such a person would be prepared. The final combat is awkward to run because of all the stat blocks and different tactics needed. I found myself constantly scrolling up and down to view all the stat blocks and made sure I used appropriate abilities. All-in-all it is a good adventure, but combat needs to be less busy than it is.

This adventure is great! It's written like a Choose Your Own Adventure, but you make the character and you roll the dice! There are usually multiple actions one can take for every situation.

The story starts with you as a retired adventurer who gets drawn into an adventure. You make your own character (2nd level), and follow along. I created a Monk Aarakocra, and there were no issues fitting an oddball PC into the adventure.

There are more modules, and I can't wait to play the next one!

I am giving it a 2 but would honestly like to give it a 2.5.

The story telling is pretty good and explains things pretty well, but the maps are just simply hideous, and the combat encounters are somewhat lacking but not too bad.

For the price you pay you are by no means getting your moneys worth here, and if your using Roll20 you will have to create all of the Monsters/NPC's and for pretty much the same price you can just buy a DnD module that has everything already built for you, with better maps and an adventure (not solo but you can easily make it one).

2 Hours of gameplay? Naah, unless you add in all of the creating of tokens you have to do in Roll20, but if you are looking for a descent story driven solo this is not bad, but again not worth the price.

Nozlen

these other reviews are spot on, dont really have anything to add. i loved this and the next adventure.

I've played Abel's Shadowborne Chapter 1: Dark Sorceries several times now, both solo (the default) and with a group (an alternative mode of play that I really appreciate). The setting is rich, and it's fun that it includes trade options that may tie in with your character's background. There are four combat encounters, as well as several branching paths that modify which skill tests you end up facing. My favorite part is that the NPCs' attitudes toward you are affected by your decisions when interacting with them, and their attitudes in turn direct how/whether they support you in combat. It's brilliant and elegant. The adventure is tough to survive as a solo PC (which is why you play as a level 2 PC: the higher HP means you are less likely to die immediately, though it can still happen), somewhat easier to survive in group play. NPCs may assist you in tougher encounters, if you've treated them right. Combat encounters are not particularly tactically complex, limited in part by having to fit on small one-page maps included in the download. If you run the game in group play, you may want to add more webs for the spiders in the second encounter to make it more interesting (webs restrain you, but spiders are not hindered). The document is optimized for play in the PDF, so that you click links to jump to the relevant sections. Each section is named but not numbered, and they are not arranged alphabetically, which leads to a lot of confused flipping back and forth through the pages trying to find the correct section if you are playing a printed copy. Every time I've played this module, I and/or the group I'm playing with are left with eager anticipation to continue the story. It's inspired me to work on creating my own solo adventures, and I can think of no higher praise.

I really enjoyed Abel Trotter's "Dark Sorceries" adventure and would recommend it to anyone seeking a solo game should it go on sale.

What I absolutely love about this adventure is how it places your character in a community, as part of the community! This is something I try to do with my character as a PC in any campaign (who are my friends? What do we talk about?), so I really enjoyed seeing that in the game. The "Attitude" system, to track NPC's disposition towards your character, sounded very interesting, but in my playthrough, I only saw one alteration of attitude...I suspect other choices might have made other changes. I look forward to seeing greater use of this system in the future.

Of special note for solo players, at one point, you end up controlling an entire party of heroes against a balanced group of foes. The nice thing about it is that if you are playing a squishy character, you have other party members to help keep you out of melee. The down side for me was that I wasn't really expecting to run three other characters with class and levels while also running the badguys.

Fortunately, these NPC allies were of normal races and classes, and had statlines that keep them from outshining the PC without making them liabilities.

An interesting add-on to the NPC allies is that they each had a rechargeable "Bonded Ally" power that gave them a unique way to help out the PC. Only one NPC's "Bonded Ally" power would be available in the combat (based on the NPC's Attitude scores).

I think that the next time I GM a regular campaign, I will incorporate the Attitude and Bonded Ally ideas if my players pick up any NPC henchmen or allies.

I also like how, even though one's character is 2nd level and starts with basic first level gear, an explanation is worked into the storyline, as is the opportunity to pick up extra equipment that reflects the character's past experience.

Having played four other solo 5e titles over the last two weeks, I think this one is middle of the pack after balancing cost, story and variety of options. The writing was immersive. The story was interesting. The combat is nicely balanced, but it is a very linear adventure. I didn't get the impression that I had missed any signficant content in my playthrough (only clues or possible adjustments to ally Attitudes).

While I eagerly await the next installment of this campaign, I feel this first installment was too short of an adventure for the current $9.99 price. Still, compared to the price of a movie ticket, this was solid entertainment, and I can always run it again in a few months with a squishy character who would be less likely to surive the other solo adventures I've seen.

Thanks for the game! It's a good one!

Fantastic effort. In future I would love to see the author create a few more adventure paths, so that it doesn't feel so "on the rails". But the overall feel reminded me of the classic "Red Box" solo adventure, and that's gotta be a good thing. The writing is solid, and the author handles the descriptive passages very well. Scenes are set nicely. The author understands that the audience wants to unravel the mystery as much as do battle with hideous creatures. Really enjoyed this and would heartily recommend to anyone with a Sunday afternoon free to slay some half-ghouls! Top notch.

Really liked the feel and flow of your story, cannot wait for the next chapter. The story was a little short for the price but very excellent concepts. Thoroughly enjoyed the Attitude points

I love the idea of solo adventures and I wish there were more of them. This is a good entry in a sadly underserved genre. It is well-written and -edited, with narrative that flows well and few typos. The story and characters are very "classic D&D," and I mean that in a good way. This really gives me that warm heroic fantasy feeling which is why I play RPGs. The balance seems solid, challenging but not overwhelming.

I happened to take a dual-wielding ranger into this adventure and that seemed close to an optimal character build for the encounters. Getting the opportunity to attack twice per turn really helps offset bad die rolls (which tend to be magnified when you're a party of one), and throw Hunter's Mark on top of that for extra damage which is devastating against the relatively frail enemies (frail of necessity since overly tough enemies would overpower a single-character party). It could be interesting to take different character builds through the scenario and see if they fare as well.

Why only 3 stars after such a glowing review? Simply, because $10 feels pretty steep for the amount of content here. The description isn't kidding when it says the scenario can be cleared in a couple of hours. For the price, I would have liked to see twice the amount of content.

If the scenario was bigger or the price was half, this would easily rate 5 stars because what's here is high quality. But for what my input is worth, I urge the author to make the next scenario meatier than this one. The quality is there, the quantity is not.

I really liked your story and the way it's written I can't wait for the next chapter!

This is a very well-written, dynamic, and immersive adventure! Though I wouldn't consider it ideal for someone completely new who has never played D&D before, it could still be played but would just be more challenging. For anyone with any D&D experience however, this adventure is sure to provide a couple hours of awesome gameplay.

The storyline and characters are engaging and interesting. The attitude point system really compelled me to weigh my decisions as my character might, and consider not just how my character should respond, but also how each response might affect me down the road. The setting was well fleshed-out and enough exposition was given to make me hungry for more.

The unique decisions I could make in any given situation also surprised me with how great a variety of choices there were, and how I could play to my character's strengths. I also appreciated how exploring certiain rooms wasn't limited by what your first choice was - eventually, you can go back to the original set of options and explore every detail or none of them, depending on your preference and how fast you want to play the adventure.

The combat was complex, but very fun. I played a sorcerer (certainly one of the squishier classes), and only got into trouble once or twice, mostly from my own bad rolls. I appreciated the fact that when I took time to strategize, it payed off in the battle. The final fight was daunting initially with the amount of info it presented on all the characters/enemies, but my solution was to just roll initiative and read about each combatant as I came to them in initiative order. This really helped the battle run smoothly and I was able to get into each character's point of view and execute their actions with ease.

As for negative points, I would say that perhaps the adventure could use some streamlining of the more complex combat for any newer players. Also, though I took my time with it, a player could probably speed run this adventure in a little over 1 hour (though why you'd want to I have no idea) so I hope that future installments have even more content to delve into.

Overall, this was a compelling and immersive adventure, with well-crafted gameplay options, great writing, detailed maps, and thrilling combat encounters. It's a great way for players without a group to be able to play, or for players who have a group to play for fun, in an adventure centered on their character alone, where they could try out a new class or race, and play the story at their own pace. It took me a good 2 1/2 hours to finish, and I was in no hurry to come to the end of this amazing first installment in what I hope will be a great series!

Excellent writing and storytelling! I was hooked from beginning to end. Interesting characters and backstory. Very fun and easy to navigate through the adventure. The last encounter was epic! Can't wait for the next adventure which I will definitely be picking up as soon as it is available. The author breathes new life again into the revival of solo adventures!

Great adventure! Loved the characters and the story! Looking forward to the next chapter in the campaign.

I am new to solo adventuring and I found this to be quite enjoyable. The story is thoughtful and well-written with a good balance between roleplaying and combat. It was a bit challenging at first to get the hang of controlling both my character and enemies during an encounter, but the instructions were clear and easy to follow. The final encounter was overwhelming for me as a beginner, but it was just a matter of me taking the time to read through the tactics thoroughly. The ally abilities were a nice touch. The maps were great and nicely detailed!

Overall, I would recommend this to players of all levels of experience, especially if you enjoy a little strategy in your encounters! It took me over 2 hours to complete this as a sorcerer and it kept my interest piqued throughout.