I'd really prefer to give 3-1/2 stars, but opted for 4 since 1/2 stars aren't an option.
Pros:
-it is designed to be scalable for anywhere from 1-6 PCs, which is very helpful for my small group
-excellent value for the price
-I love the use of "she" when referring to the DM
-upfront about the deadliness of the encounters
-enough detail to use the Dimgaard setting, but not so much that it is hard to transplant elsewhere.
-short, fairly straightforward adventures set in a wider context of intrigue and geopolitic
Cons:
-Most of the maps are not on a grid system, so even though there is a scale, there is no quick way to calculate distances.
-Some of the encounters are not clear about where they occur, making it hard to know how to connect them. (I'm thinking here of several of the encounters in The Lost Tome)
-Encounters as written are very hard/deadly (a con for my group, not necessarily for others)
-in many cases, HP of NPCS is VERY high for the CR. eg. a Cheynan Warrior has 40(!) HP but is only considered a 1/4 CR. Sometimes these adjustments are related to party size and make sense, for example when there is only 1 giant spider in the encounter regardless of party numbers, changing the HP for the monster make sense. But other times (as with the Cheynan warrior encounter) this creates a very high possibility of TPK (Total Party Kill). I've made major adjustments to HP to bring them back in line with their stated CR.
Personally, I'm not a big fan of the xenophobic nature of the wider Dimgaard setting, nor the related Inquisition. But it hasn't been difficult to remove/ignore those aspects and tread Ashlon as a region in Forgotten Realms or a similar world. And some folks might really enjoy it.
The author frequent makes long rests impossible/difficult, to the point of being repetitive and continuously increasing the difficulty. This is somewhat by design, given the intent for these encounters to result in "more PC deaths than other campaigns," but I found it a bit tedious. I opted to replace that approach with a random encounter table in places.
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