Fantastic Adventures: Ruins of the Grendleroot Paperback – December 17, 2019

The good ol' Lazy Dungeonmaster has created a fantastic adventure book with 10 easy-to-use, "one-shot" adventures in it (though you could certainly make them longer). One thing I love about Mike Shea's writing is how evocative and imaginative it is. He makes even low level adventures seem fantastic and amazing, as if you're embarking on an important quest with your friends. The section on the history of Blackclaw Mountain, the location for all the adventures, as well as the suggestions to turn the book into a 1-20 campaign, are inspiring. I felt like a child, eyes wide with wonder, as I imagined the Magocracy of the Black Star, the Rune Titans, and other former denizens of the mountain. That's how you want the setting section of a book to make you feel.As mentioned, the adventures were all wonderful; each had its own unique feel so even though they are all "underground adventures", none of them really felt the same. They're all unique, with suggestions on how to lengthen or shorten the adventure depending on timing constraints, and all with Mike Shea's Lazy Dungeon Master technique, with notable NPCs, important Secrets and Clues, and monsters listed at the beginning of the adventure. I plan to run the first, "The Call of Starsong Tower", soon as a one shot for some friends.My ONE quibble is that often, the adventures call for Arcana checks or similar checks to fix magical problems, without really explaining what those checks might look like. For instance, in the first adventure, one solution to repairing an altar is to succeed on a Religion or Arcana check. However, I am not certain how those checks would help in physically mending a broken altar, and there didn't seem to be much explanation (although he does present other options, including use of the mending spell). This is such a minor quibble that does not affect my admiration for the book at all, but I thought it was worth mentioning. A little more explanation on these checks would be nice.This is a phenomenal book of fantastic adventures that are easy to run and will likely be exciting for players to play! Highly recommend! Hail the Black Star!

I'm becoming a huge fan of Sly Flourish every time i purchase one of his products and this one is just a awesome as his other offerings. I own a copy of all the Lazy Dungen Master Returns materials, but this is my first look into one of his adventures and these are great. Super easy to run and very entertaining adventures. I highly recommend.

A lot of work went into creating a campaign setting with adventures for levels 1-5 and enough backstory to create a campaign that runs through 4 tiers of play. There is great artwork and maps that can be easily adapted to virtual tabletops. There is enough flexibility to make this really feel like a campaign that the GM and players at the table can own and have fun with, shaping the setting to fit their own fun stories. No one is going to feel "railroaded" by this game material. However, the GM is going to have to work, and frankly, I needed somethng easier, and that was what I was hoping for from the author of the Lazy GM stuff.The 10 adventures in the game are self-contained, and it is up to the DM to figure out how to weave them together to create a narrative, if that is what is desired. And that is what my players desire, but coming up with a cohesive narrative has not been easy for me. There is so much backstory to the campaign setting that has little to do with the 10 adventures included. It is hard to connect the dots between all the material presented and the 10 stories provided. I think there are some narrative inconsistencies among these adventures and way to many lose threads. While there are suggestions on making an overarching campaign across 4-tiers, how to link the tier 1 stuff detailed in the module to the outlines of the tier 2-4 stuff is not transparent. I was really hoping for something I could just start playing from and we would find the story, but it isn't really there and I find myself working harder to give the players something they want, making up a story and making a lot of mistakes along the way.Some really important narrative details are left for the GM to flesh out -- what is the Grendleroot, for example. It's right there in the title and yet, the author only gives the vaguest hint of what he thinks it is. What is this holy order really like? Just stereotypical white knights worshiping an unknown sun goddess? That's about as much detail as you get. The underdark-like setting ought to have a surface counterpart -- where those white knights came from, where those dark mages originated -- nothing provided here.Mechanically, there are tables for random encounters, for creating unique magic items, which are pretty cool. One beef about the mechanics included is that there are no stat blocks are provided and the author mentions combining statblocks for creatures. So the DM is again left with the work of figuring out how to do this.I probably should have gone with the obvious Lost Mine adventure for my initial foray as a 5e DM. But this seemed more interesting, more fantastical.

This is a great little product, I think you'd be happy with this purchase if you like good pre-made adventures fit for 1 or 2 sessions.

Super packed offering from author of "The Lazy DM" Michael E Shea gives a memorable setting with a detailed history spanning a million years, numerous NPCs, ten adventures ranging in level from 1st to 5th level that can easily be played as a single campaign, maps, great illustrations, varied atmospheric settings, tips for running adventures, random encounters and spells, items, backgrounds. And more. As even this short summary shows, Shea is hardly following his own advice here and is anything but lazy...The history sketched out in p23 to 34 is a miracle of brevity, giving an overview of the story of the ruinious eponymous Grendleroot, and Blackclaw Mountain and is packed with events and personalities useable in the adventures / campaign. DMs can reveal as much or as little of the history to players, and keeping some information unrevealed until the characters manage to uncover it is a massive driving force for getting characters, and more importantly players , coming back for more.The adventures themselves make up the bulk of the book, and most are great, memorable, challenging and with developed hooks and follow ups. They are also all short enough for one session of play. The first, for me, is the weakest, "Starsong Tower" having pretty much no chance of deviation from the plot and failure not really being catered for. "Shatter", set in the subterranean Forest of Iron, is probably my fave. An atmospheric treat.Bonkers asides, like a fantasy version of "Bring Your Daughter to Work Day" or a "Festival of Silly Hats" where characters can compete to design the daftest headgear, show why and how roleplaying can be differnt , more collaborative and immersive , than other forms of entertainment.The advice about running 1st level adventures (p37) which can be boiled down to "Don't kill any of the characters" is diametrically opposed to what I see as the point of D&D and shortchanges new players. But it is clearly labelled as "It's up to you" and, to be fair, seems very much in keeping with how the current iteration of Gygax's Great Gift to Gaming" is going. The front cover illustration is less than stellar, lacking dynamism; it seems dull and murky to my eyes, which is a great pity. Most interior pictures, eg p130 or p85 or even some of Bryan Syme's excellent portraits of the various inhabitants of the Shadowreach, eg p124 or p135, would, for my money, be much more arresting front covers for this excellent resource.A few "Easter Egg" references to earlier Sky Flourish adventures are scattered in the texts for alert appreciative readers.An Overarching Underdark success that understands the advantages of the 5th edition of D&D , background, creating stories, fun and excitement.

Honestly you should but all of Mike Shea's books. They're all phenomenal additions. If every module was written in this method, new GMs would never struggle.