Rating the Published Adventures [Possible Spoilers]

[farinal]

Now that we have quite a number of published adventures in our hands I think it could be an useful and fun exercise to rate and review some of our favorites among them and tell others why we like them as we do. I think stories from the Darkening of Mirkwood (the greatest TOR product in my opinion) can also be rated here if they fit the format.

A simple format of 5 points star ratings could be useful for referencing and future searching such as the one below.

Name: The Marsh-Bell
Sourcebook: Core
Story: 4/5
Fun: 4/5
Challenge: 3/5
Tolkienesque: 4/5
Highlights: Meeting Gloin, Oin and Balin / Fighting off a troll as beginner characters / The eerie Marsh-Bell and the general Mewlips theme

Story here means the overall plot of the adventure and also the hooks for players to get invested in it. Fun means the overall enjoyment the adventure provides whether through combat, solving obstacles or game mechanics. Challenge means the difficulty of the adventure with lower the number means easier the adventure is for you. Tolkienesque means, how much the adventure feels Tolkien and Middle-Earth, and how much does it "fit" or align with Tolkien's themes for you. And Highlights is the optional part where you can give a brief description of what you liked most in the adventure.

I have kept this example review short to get the thread going. I will post my opinion on some other adventures later here. Looking forward to hear how others rate some of the adventures!

[Hamarr]

"Don't Leave the Path"
Source: Tales From Wilderland
Story: 4/5 (This adventure can provide some good hooks to lead the players down to the Woodmen to get Darkening of Mirkwood started.)
Fun: 3/5 (While fun overall there are not a lot of super impactful moments. IMO)
Challenge: 4/5 (Really good battle with Spiders, and the creature in the well.)
Tolkienesque: 5/5 (That this adventure takes the entire time during a Journey is really good. It presents good themes of corruption and shadow.)
Highlights: Meeting of the Elves, The Hermit, The Elf Path.

[Fenton Hardy]

“Of Leaves and Stewed Hobbit”
Source: Tales from Wilderland
Story: 4/5 (The Easterly Inn and its proprietors can become a fixture in an ongoing campaign. The night wight serves no purpose and seems thrown in for the sake of an additional encounter.)
Fun: 5/5 (My players really enjoyed this one. They had fun with the battle and trying different plans to rescue Dindy. The goblin song is a nice touch and the one NPC is named Tom Lumpyface!)
Challenge: 5/5 (I would give this a 4/5 except that rescuing Dindy is no easy feat.)
Tolkienesque: 4/5 (Lots of opportunities for humor and the pure hobbitiness of Dindy give this adventure an atmosphere closer to the Hobbit than LOTR)
Highlights: The battle of the ring fort and rescuing Dindy

[farinal]

Name: Words of the Wise
Sourcebook: N/A [Released by Cubicle for free for GenCon 2011]
Story: 4/5
Fun: 5/5
Challenge: 3/5
Tolkienesque: 4/5
Highlights: Early Orc attack, Meeting Radagast, encounter with King Thranduil, player actions matter, defense of Woodland Hall feels epic, Radagast's magic boons are fun.

***

Name: Don't Leave The Path
Sourcebook: Tales from Wilderland
Story: 5/5
Fun: 4/5
Challenge: 3/5
Tolkienesque: 5/5
Highlights: roleplaying Belgo, visiting Thranduil's Halls, journey through the Mirkwood really feels as it should be and the fact that the whole adventure is a journey is pretty great, Castle of the Spiders, encounter with the Crazy Hermit, intense encounter with the Thing in the Well.

***

Name: Of Leaves & Stewed Hobbit
Sourcebook: Tales from Wilderland
Story: 5/5
Fun: 5/5
Challenge: 4/5
Tolkienesque: 5/5
Highlights: visiting the Easterly Inn and encounter with Hobbits, Night-Wight at the ruins, Battle at the Ringfort, The Goblin Song, entering the Goblin tunnels and coming out feels like The Hobbit.

***

Name: Kinstrife & Dark Tidings
Sourcebook: Tales from Wilderland
Story: 3/5
Fun: 3/5
Challenge: 3/5
Tolkienesque: 3/5
Highlights: Encounter with Beorn, investigating the Beorning village, Valter the Bloody is an underused yet promising villain, intense battle at the end.

***

Name: Those Who Tarry No Longer
Sourcebook: Tales from Wilderland
Story: 2/5
Fun: 2/5
Challenge: 3/5
Tolkienesque: 2/5
Highlights: Meeting Legolas, Irime is an intriguing, impressive and fun NPC, Irime's commentary during the Journey, encounter with the Eagles... after that point I haven't enjoyed the parts in the so called wraith-world.

***

Name: A Darkness in the Marches
Sourcebook: Tales from Wilderland
Story: 3/5
Fun: 3/5
Challenge: 4/5
Tolkienesque: 3/5
Highlights: Mountain Hall is an interesting and fun location with good NPCs, visiting Gladden Fields, stealth mission into the fort is intense, suspenseful and fun (and full of Shadow points), story starts to feel epic and as part of a larger picture.

***

Name: The Crossings of Celduin
Sourcebook: Tales from Wilderland
Story: 5/5
Fun: 5/5
Challenge: 5/5
Tolkienesque: 4/5
Highlights: festival and the contests in Dale are really fun, encounter with Gandalf, Lockmand is a fun villain to play, encounter with King Bard, Crossings of Celduin is an interesting location that can be reused later and the defense of the Crossing feels truly epic in a kind of LOTR battles scale that helps players feel heroic, revelation of the Gibbet King.

***

Name: A Watch on the Heath
Sourcebook: Tales from Wilderland
Story: 3/5
Fun: 4/5
Challenge: 5/5
Tolkienesque: 3/5
Highlights: encounter with Dain, dwarven records, Witherfinger is a great NPC, sneaking around the Snow-Trolls, Raenar and the encounter with him is simply great, the Watch-tower is an interesting location full of opportunities for tactical combat.

[jamesrbrown]

Will anyone get around to rating other official adventures?

[Jon Hodgson]

I'm gonna rate posters on our forums. "5/7 would definitely ban again"

[Elmoth]

Oh please, do it!

[jamesrbrown]

I'm gonna rate posters on our forums. "5/7 would definitely ban again"

Hahaha! That would be very funny.