The Claws of Madness is a new Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition standalone adventure that is coming out soon (November 25th) and is published by LoreSmyth. It is geared towards 4 first level characters and provides a good place to start new players to D&D, running it as a mini campaign, or incorporating it to fit the needs of your current campaign.

I have had the privilege of speaking with the writer of this adventure (Chris van der Linden) and having early access to it. I was thoroughly impressed not only by Chris’ enthusiasm for the game, but also by the sheer quality of the imagery and product overall. Below will be my spoiler free review:

The adventure’s premise: “For centuries, Aelmor Monastery near the port town of Sestone was a safe haven for scholars, monks, and pilgrims seeking enlightenment, its renowned library home to an enormous collection of ancient manuscripts, tomes, and peculiar writings. After suffering a devastating attack at the hands of a possessed monastery elder, Aelmor fell into ruin, its troubled past forgotten. When villagers start disappearing and turn up horribly mutated days later, fear takes a grip of Sestone. What sinister forces are at work? And to what end?”

Initial Thoughts:

As soon as I saw the cover photo for this, I was intrigued by what the plot could be. My mind already started racing toward a Lovecraftian premise and feel for a D&D adventure. And it seemed that this impression held true the further I read on. Not only does it have a Lovecraftian “Cthulhu Mythos” feel to it, but it also fits perfectly into the high fantasy world for players who love the regular adventuring that goes on in D&D.

Pros

Very well thought out story line from beginning to end.

Multiple plot hooks and non-linear storyline to help the Dungeon Master to not just railroad players.

Players will have a variety of different options throughout the adventure from social encounters, side quests, mysterious puzzle solving, dungeon crawling, and of course fights that require strategy.

Includes very nicely laid out Maps and specific details of each location encountered.

Fleshed out Non Player Characters with their own backgrounds and motivations to help the DM.

New monsters, magic items, and few awesome Mutation Tables in which players can be affected by.

Open ended story ending that allows for more expansion on what occured. Yes LoreSmyth plans on creating a sequel adventure to this as well.

Great for someone new to Dungeon Mastering and not having to worry about coming up with all the super detailed things yourself.

Cons

The only Con I can see would be preferencial by being made for Levels 1 to 3 Max (Not a con of mine, but could be for those who like to run higher level character starts or already have a high level campaign)

Summary

Overall, I think that this module is a great addition to add to anyone’s collection, whether they want to use it for a new group of players or tying it into their current campaign. And for the price for a latte from Starbucks, I would rather spend the money on multiple hours of the enterntainment that this could bring. I have not had a chance to playtest through it yet, but plan to do so as soon as I can rally some people together.

How To Get It

Order the PDF or Softcover of this through Drive Thru RPG

To learn more about LoreSmyth, check out their main website: http://www.loresmyth.com/clawsofmadness/ or connect to their Facebook or Twitter