The Greatest Suffering - The Review

A delightfully illustrated adventure which crosses boundaries and evokes a sense of modesty and darkness in theme; yet naivety in design and writing style.

Forgive me, currently I am researching and collecting data so that I can review the hugely successful magical tome Elminster's Guide to Magic for you. However, whilst scanning through the newest DMs Guild community content the other day, I came across a 16 page adventure called The Greatest Suffering by Nora Haynes. Or Noa Haynes, if you wish to search for her other material.

My review here, is based upon Nora's newly updated version as of the 3rd January 2018. For a full list of disclaimers please scroll down to the very bottom of this review post before you continue. But if the thought of all that arse covering bores you... then just keep on reading!

What drew me to this  adventure was Nora's cover, and her evocative artwork. It differentiated itself amongst all other recently released content, like a beacon to creativity. I was glad I picked it up in the end.

I decided to review this creation in a similar method to my last, by discussing the following important topics: Cost (value for your dollar), Appeal (is it a pretty or professional looking product?), Usability (ease of use for a DM), and Originality (how exciting, clever or creative is it?).

Cost

I picked up a copy of 'The Greatest Suffering' for $1.95. This translates to 12 cents a page, which is a decent level of value. You get highly bespoke imagery which tell a story in their own right. You also are given a dungeon map. All in all it is hard to knock this product down on value for money. For the purposes of this review I will assume that this is exactly the kind of adventure you are looking for and give it top marks for not over reaching. ★★★★★ (5/5 stars)

Appeal

It was the appeal of the cover which immediately drew me in. The layout and artwork consistently

delivers Nora's unique styling throughout the product. Take note if you are writer in the DMs Guild, THIS is how you differentiate yourself from other producers without insanely raising the bar on quality. There's always a but though; not everyone will be sold on this style - it is of course highly subjective. In a Guild awash with home brewed content which are desperately forcing themselves into the well loved 5th Edition mold, this product finally bucks the trend. Again it is hard to mark it down on appeal, but I have to. Yes it is pretty, but its appeal will be dented as a result.  ★★★★☆

Usability

This is where this product finally reveals its overall naivety. I consider layout an important part of usability, and 'The Greatest Suffering' suffers immensely here. It had me twitching uncomfortably and looking for the 'please refund my money now' button. Please get comfortable for a while.

I found it difficult to pick out the important information from the plot summary. I had to re-read it several times, then make a list of the important facts. Thankfully this summary meanders along for only for a short time, but it gives you a taste of what's to come. All the important information you need to run this adventure is hidden in blocks of text. This is a DMs nightmare if you forget an NPC's motives or where you are meant to be forcing your players to go next. Yes, forcing. This adventure is written like a book. As a DM, I feel I have little choice but to tow the line set out for me and never deviate. The idea of this may horrify a few of us, but not all of us though. The author has created a product which tells a story, and if you go off the rails it immediately tries to bump you back by openly predicting their behaviour, and suggesting ways in which to tie the players down in the story again. This is not clever, and could degrade very easily if all the players are not willing to join in with the obvious story hook. Look, I could go on and on about how there should have been a separate list for NPCs with a few details about their backgrounds, descriptions and motivations, since they could have played such an important part in this adventure, but it would be pointless. So I will jump to the parts I liked in this category.

I liked that the dungeon rooms had a short description and image at the beginning of each encounter. I didn't like that I was it showed me very little information, and I was confused about where they were placed, until I flipped to the rear of the document for the 'complete' dungeon plan.

I loved the descriptions which tried to paint a picture, BUT not because I like to see lots of text in boxes, no. I liked it because it had a consistency about it. The imagery, the plot, the look, the feel... all seemed to be very expressive. This immediately made me WANT to run this adventure the way it was intended. An impressive feat. I read a lot of adventures, and they mostly fall foul to this because I am turned off to its personality. This, I liked very much.

I both appreciated and balked at how simple the 'drag-through' was for the investigative encounters. Then it hit me. This would make a lovely introductory adventure for young kids. It has a lot of ideas hidden away in the paragraphs, and reading it all at least twice, if not three times is mandatory. Sorry.

OK ok ok. Here it is. Nora built a trap using the new complex trap rules. I love it. I was so happy to see this and greatly appreciated the mechanics. The wall of force is great! It could have done with a dispel DC, but I'd just use a DC13 and be done with it. Fantastic, good job.

I feel I should stop here, as hopefully you understand the picture I am painting here. So let's give my overall verdict: Way too many flaws, too many to mention. A lowly ★★☆☆☆. 

Originality

For me this screams creativity, consistency of 'feel' and most importantly personality. I cannot say how original it is compared to ALL the products currently on offer in the Guild. However, this is similar to something I would create, and write to make a DM experience something new. If we consider the imagery in both writing and art, I have not seen its like before. Yes, this is an adventure which on the surface, does very little differently, or better than most of its competitors - but if you choose to follow the text diligently, it may well open you up to a different experience. This is a highly creative and original work, only marked down because of its predictability and use of fantasy tropes. ★★★★☆

In Conclusion

This adventure is not for most DMs. Yet, I can see players getting a lot from it if the DM played it true to its theme and evocativeness. I can't offer this product anymore than 3 stars I'm afraid, because the systemic issues are too greater burden to bare. However, my recommendation is to buy it, and borrow elements from it if you are a writer. If you are a DM, buy it and try it out - and you might be surprised at the results, perhaps. All in all this is a 'huggable' adventure which crosses quite a lot of interesting boundaries, I won't mention what or where... because they are secretly squelched into the story. Safe to say, if you enjoy upping your game as a DM, or simply doing something different, you will be surprised by this offering. You may even learn to appreciate this little adventure. Weldone Nora.

If you wish to download and check out Nora's work, then please use click the cover image below. Many thanks for taking the time read my thoughts. See you next time.

★★★☆☆

Disclaimer:

We love D&D. We adore creativity and focus on the language of surprise and awe. Sometimes we may seem overly critical of some writers work. It's not because 'we be hating', so please give us some credit. Pushing writers to grow and consider both the DMs and players perspective is what we live for. Yeah, we can be mean, it's easy to be critical. However we see the beauty in all your work and will continue to bring that to the surface too. Finally, all our links presented here on this page to the DMs Guild are spiked with our affiliate membership code. If you click though to the DMs Guild site from this blog, we own you forever. No! I mean we may see a few cents thrown our way for recommending a title or 2. Show us social media love. Don't troll.