My group will be finishing up this adventure either this week or the next. We had an amazing time. I'm new to DMing 5e and this was a perfect way for me to become familiar with the system, and a great crawl for both my new and experienced players. I've already ordered the next book and look forward to following the storyline with my players.

This was an absolutely fantastic adventure to get to run. The material as is has a lot of great information on how things connect around. But also, it has enough to really mix in and produce more hooks. This adventure has produced strong focal point in my campaign. Directs that I did not expect, in fact.

Eldritch style adventures appear to have become a standard part of the Fantasy Role-Playing experience. The Claws of Madness by LoreSmyth is an excellent example of the influence that eldritch horror has had in fantasy gaming. The Adventure is written to provide the character's a chance to end the threat of an ancient evil, one which draws inspiration from classics like Cthulhu. This, of course, means that the adventure provides plenty of opportunities for the Game Master to try and provide a level of uncertainty and horror to their players, and thankfully The Claws of Madness provides those opportunities without being heavy handed. As mentioned, eldritch horror has made a resurgence in the fantasy RPG arena, and some adventures are good and some not so much. LoreSmyth’s The Claws of Madness is written in such a way as to allow the Game Master free reign to provide whatever experience they wish for their players. The madness and twisted scenescapes of traditional eldritch horror are provided but in a muted form. This allows for the choice between classic Dungeons and Dragons style play with a touch of horror or for the Game Master to ramp up the horror without any considerable work. The adventure follows a relatively straightforward overall structure for the characters: Introduction, investigation, travel, encounters. What is interesting is the theme and overall design of the encounters. There is plenty of room for role-playing in LoreSmyth’s adventure, as well as Roll-playing. The adventure does rely on a site-based adventure theme. However, the dungeon site is well crafted, and the encounters held within provide some lore on the adventure as well as the potential for some interesting stories by the players. LoreSmyth puts a lot of work into The Claws of Madness with excellent visual design, beautifully rendered maps, and touches of art which help to enhance the overall experience with detracting from the adventure itself. The new monsters, along with classic NPC's, are written and designed with an eye for balance as well as to provide unique encounters. The Claws of Madness is an adventure I would recommend to anyone who is looking for a mid-length adventure with an interesting back-story and the possibility to continue the adventure well beyond its normal constraints.

After reading the adventure and give it some thought I wanted to write a review about it. First off, this is a great adventure to start a campaign and it introduces a lot of opportunities for different folk. From roleplaying, to dungeon crawling and puzzle solving all is there. However there might be one or two points where new DMs would have loved a little bit more help. These are:

1] While the book mentions that the adventure will bring the PCs to Lv 2 or 3, it does not help new DMs on making sure, when they should need to level up the party, or if they should give them more healing in the meantime to offset level discrapancies.

2] There is a way to circumvent a portion of the adventure for adventures wandering through specific locations, but the adventure fails to inform you, what to do when you finish the dungeon from the end to the start (mainly how certain NPCs would react or if there are some changes in behavior from some monsters).

Those where my only two major gripes and a crafty DM can be prepared for such things. Though, since the adventure even notifies you when there is an encounter that might be hard for low level PCs, or gives you ample help to make the adventure a bit more engaging in various parts (from frigid water to pushing wind), it feels odd that there are no textboxes for those two occasions and how to deal with them, should the situation arise. 2-3 sentences should have been enough here and there.

Those (minor) flaws aside. The adventure itself is top notch. Not only is the dungeon popluated with interesting encounters, but there is enough personality to the adventuring location and the starting town (even local specialties) and even the fights are made interesting through various mechanics. Especially a fight which is a bit more on the chaotic side.

There are more than enough adventure hooks to get a party interested, from the obvious plea to help to more sophisticated ones. The adventure ends in a satisfying manner, but leaves enough room for the party and the DM to follow up (in various directions). There is enough background ready for the DM and if the party craves for more intel, he porbably can seed diaries and journal entries for the party to find at the adventuring location.

The presentation of the product is great, really, it is an eye catcher. You have maps for all the important location and visually the book is stunningingly pieced together, though I have encountered two renmants (probably from the editing process), that are not a big deterrent (for the publisher: Location 6. there is a ) at the end with not ( present before. Location 29. there is the headline for 30 in white at the end of the section; it is well hidden and not a deal breaker) and I strongly recommend when picking this up, to get the physical copy (as well).

All said and done I HIGHLY recommend this book, since the setting itself warrants the price alone and the adventure is indeed well crafted and has a huge chunck of personality to fall in love with. If you don't want to run the adventure or your party is of a higher level, the adventure still can bring some interesting encounters you can run and / modify in your camapaign. You might want to consider some planning before running it, in case the adventurers are more witty than you anticipated, but it should be easy enough.