# Defiance in Phlan



## Raddu (Dec 2, 2014)

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## fr2itus (Dec 2, 2014)

*3 out of 5 rating for Defiance in Phlan*

The plot forces PCs into a oneway-fits-all narrative. The NPC's are very one dimensional and if the DM doesn't spell out very explicit directions then the entire hook is lost or moot. Some minor stat and spelling mistakes but it's a start.


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## Spykes (Dec 2, 2014)

*5 out of 5 rating for Defiance in Phlan*

I DMd this more times than I could count. I did several slot zero runs before GenCon, DMd it at GenCon until I lost my voice and then ran it as an Expedition event twice at my FLGS. This collection is fantastic for what it meant to be. I've seen others say that it's "railroady" and attempt to rate it based on criteria of a 4 hour Expeditions adventure. This is not that kind of adventure. It is a collection of 1 hour adventures. The 3rd and 5th adventures are prone to run long, but they are doable within the 50 mins. that we had to run them. 1. Could be roleplay heavy, could be combat. Definitely negotiating involved. Perfect for players that are timid to take on speaking roles in the party.2. Straight up combat, but offers opportunities for strategy and stealthy types.3. Exploration and fun problems to solve with a time element.4. Non-Combat and fantastic story. Super fun opportunity roleplay improvising.5. More combat, but great choices mixed in. DM pacing is crucial if on a schedule. Each adventure features a faction contact and all start from the same location at different times of the day. Super cool tie-in with the chromatic dragons and Madam Fiona's daughters. Very flexible for different strength parties. Very easy to remember mechanics. Great NPCs and clear challenging goals.  A+ in my book.


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## Topheratl (Dec 2, 2014)

*4 out of 5 rating for Defiance in Phlan*

Loved this one


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## daringdirk1 (Dec 2, 2014)

*4 out of 5 rating for Defiance in Phlan*

As a delve, this mod is great. Introduces all of the pillars of roleplaying in a creative way and serves as a great first experience for new players. Yes, it railroads players. That's not a bad thing when the adventure is only an hour and you've got lots of people who are new to the system, D&D or even roleplaying.


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## mflayermonk (Dec 2, 2014)

*3 out of 5 rating for Defiance in Phlan*

This module was released at the same time as the 5e PHB. It is an introduction to the 5e system and is appropriate for new players or people learning the 5e rules.  
*The Good:* The short format of each episode makes this easy to fit into many people's schedules.  
*The Bad:* The plots are uninteresting and the factions do not come alive during the module.


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## Greyson (Dec 2, 2014)

*2 out of 5 rating for Defiance in Phlan*

Pedestrian and unimaginative.


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## Michael J Tresca (Dec 2, 2014)

*2 out of 5 rating for Defiance in Phlan*

I was not impressed with this one hour scenario. They're best played by experienced players working together as a team. Newbies don't know the game, don't know the characters, and are so new to everything that they have difficulty working together. As a result, advanced concepts like stealth, an attack plan, or anything other than attempting to slaughter anything in sight are beyond most groups. In some ways it reminds me of first-person shooters -- the teams who do the best are the players who practice together and learn to designate leaders. The teams that are worse off look out only for their own interests.


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## Blackwarder (Dec 2, 2014)

*5 out of 5 rating for Defiance in Phlan*

As a player I love the format of the adventures, short concise and sweet, highly recommended if you are in a con and want to check 5e.Warder


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## Alphastream (Dec 2, 2014)

*5 out of 5 rating for Defiance in Phlan*

This is an exemplary adventure - so good it should be mandatory reading for every organized play author who is writing an introductory scenario. The task behind this adventure was supremely challenging for an author: write five 45-minute adventures, each introducing an aspect of the town or environs of Phlan and featuring one of the five Factions used in the campaign... and they should work well together or stand alone independently. That is a very tough task to execute well, but it ran to phenomenal acclaim at Gen Con 2014, PAX 2014, and in countless small conventions and gaming stores since then. I first played all of it at Gen Con, then ran it at PAX, then ran it for my kids, then ran it in a gaming store. Here's what it does incredibly well:1. Simple solid hooks with interesting characters, resolved quickly.45 minutes is incredibly challenging. Just the fight portion is tough, but every adventure scenario features an intro in a tavern, meeting up with an NPC, and helping them with a conflict. The scenarios feature the three pillars of exploration/roleplaying/combat, including one scenario that usually features no combat at all. There are opportunities for PCs to be very clever and formulate quick but significant approaches to the presented problems. NPCs include a crafty gnome, a threat that turns out to be a faction representative, a surprise visit by members of a resistance group, a hysterical mother, and a mysterious dealer with whom the PCs have to negotiate. These scenes all work in the allotted time (though barely), but really work amazingly with an hour of time or more. Away from a time pressure I've seen players really dig into the presented concepts and enjoy resolving the situations greatly. 2. Action is placed in the PCs' handsMost of the scenarios place important tactics in the players' PCs' hands. Their actions have direct consequences. Examples include how they deal with a trap, the plan they create for a spy-style exchange of money for stolen goods, how they go about exploring a situation or speaking to NPCs, choosing to fight the enemy with keys before they unlock reinforcements, or just solving a puzzle. Players feel rewarded for their actions. 3. New players blossomI've been blown away by how the scenarios draw in completely new players. I've seen players that don't know which die is the d20 come up with great plans, role-play their way through situations, and do things that aren't optimal for in-character reasons... all because the scenario promotes this behavior in very subtle ways.4. Fast and fun combats, generally easyMost of the combats are great for new players, with a nice balance of slight danger and ease, plus a touch of unpredictability. This is especially impressive, as these adventures were written before the published Monster Manual was complete.Overall, I'm blown away by this adventure. This is a fine example of a writer taking a challenging assignment and absolutely rocking it. Shawn Merwin even managed to put in a few Easter eggs... but I won't spoil them.


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## Weird Dave (Dec 2, 2014)

*4 out of 5 rating for Defiance in Phlan*

Defiance in Phlan is a collection of five mini-scenarios designed to be run in an hour block each, and they each can be done in that allotment - but just barely. If you've got the time to expand out each of them, they get that much better. I've ran all five of the scenarios many times at cons, and there is one that I do not enjoy running (#4) at a con. The setup is weak, and while roleplaying the various characters can be fun, it forces its hand a bit too much even for a short scenario. The first and fifth are blasts, second is great, and the the third is a bit long. I highly encourage playing all of them if you can, and if you're a first time DM make sure you've got more than an hour to run each of them.


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## Gilwen (Dec 2, 2014)

*4 out of 5 rating for Defiance in Phlan*

These are great short introductions to DnD 5e. Basically each of the five will play out in about an hour depending on your group and the choices they make. The adventures themselves are pretty one dimensional but I feel they do the job of making it an easy entry point for people just picking up RPG's and 5e specifically.


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## Growing Brains (Dec 3, 2014)

*3 out of 5 rating for Defiance in Phlan*

Great intro mod but not particularly memorable.


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## Raddu (Dec 3, 2014)

*5 out of 5 rating for Defiance in Phlan*

Shawn Merwin has written a great introduction adventure, both for those who've never played D&D and for those just coming into 5th editions from prior editions. The series of 1 hour adventures each highlight a different style of adventure, all the while introduction players and characters to the Tyranny of Dragons storyline in the D&D Adventurers League.


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## greekramos (Dec 3, 2014)

*3 out of 5 rating for Defiance in Phlan*

There's not too much here, basically just a few turns to learn the ropes of D&D. The episodes are vaguely linked, but even together they don't make for anything too compelling. I'd only run this with absolute beginners.


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## Riley37 (Dec 4, 2014)

*4 out of 5 rating for Defiance in Phlan*

My group did two of the stories, since we had PCs with links to two of the factions; though we did also, during downtime investigation, make a contact with another faction (no PC is a member of that faction) leading towards "Trees Tales Tell". Those two stories had flexible potential to spend LOTS of time investigating background, exploring Phlan, and preparing for the dangerous part of the mission, if that's what the players are up for, and/or if the DM wants to nudge the players towards "we have a real setting, please appreciate it". It even got me motivated to read the description of Phlan in the Forgotten Realms wiki, outside of our group's meeting time; and to write a political parody song about the Daoran dynasty, for my Bard PC to perform in a tavern. On another hand, if your group prefers to cut to the action scenes, that's also reasonably available.*One of the missions can be resolved without any combat at all. One stubborn PC managed to get himself into a solo fight against some ruffians, and the other PCs bailed him out of trouble. That's a mission for a faction which prefers to keep a low profile, so it's entirely appropriate. My PC spent almost the entire encounter Invisible. (Tactic of the day: setting up caltrops doesn't break Invisibility. Caltrops awaiting your pursuers, on the other side of a door, in darkness, are great preparation for a clean get-away.)*Another of the missions is for the "We Fight Against Evil" faction, and it has room to start with some investigation and exploration, but it pretty quickly moves into horror. Underground, darkness, under an old temple, check. Corrupt abuse of civic authority, check. Mundane evil human minions followed by supernatural/divine evil, check. An encounter venue which inspires caution, followed by actual magical fear effects imposed on PCs (make that WIS save!), check. NPCs whose sanity has already been damaged, check. Unpleasant moral choices - do you free all the prisoners, including the criminals and cultists? - check. Innocent in peril, horrible monster, check. The monster even has resistance to normal weapons in a way which reminded me of similar abilities of "Call of Cthulhu" monsters.*On the downside, our DM did not adequately increase the challenge. We figured out where the monster would emerge, it did so more or less on cue, and we finished it off in one round before all the PCs got an action. Which is too bad - since the PC who was last on the initiative count was a Warlock with a Great Old One pact, and he could have used eldritch magic against our horrible eldritch foe. The monster should perhaps have had a mate, which emerges for revenge; also, since we're in the Cult of Dragons storyline, perhaps it could have had a draconic breath weapon, as the result of unnatural crossbreeding/tinkering/grafting. (If you run this story against strong PCs, maybe have it first appear by using that breath, without even fully emerging from its hole... who wants to go in after it, there's only room for one at a time, as in the first "Alien" movie.)*Meta-review: Michael J Tresca said "I was not impressed with this one hour scenario. They're best played by experienced players working together as a team." Um, could Mr. Tresca point me to any scenarios, in any game system or setting, for which that is *not* true? Yeah, impulsive non-cooperative players could get their PCs in trouble, and fail any or all of the missions. I'm totally OK with that. (shrug) We each have our gaming styles!


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## MerricB (Dec 8, 2014)

*4 out of 5 rating for Defiance in Phlan*

Defiance in Phlan is five short adventures that introduce the main factions and storylines for the first season of D&D Expeditions. They're ingenious adventures, displaying a good range of experiences.


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## GM Drew (Dec 10, 2014)

*3 out of 5 rating for Defiance in Phlan*

Not a fan of mini disjointed quests in this one.


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## frupton (Dec 17, 2014)

*5 out of 5 rating for Defiance in Phlan*

This adventure is designed to serve as an intro to 5e and it does it exceptionally well.  Very easy for new players to take a pregen character and play for an hour or two or four or however much they like and kick the tires on 5e to see if they like it.  Meanwhile it crisply introduces the Tyranny of Dragons narrative and the various factions which the PCs might want to take up with.  The plot isn't spectacular, but that's not what this adventure is here for.  It's intended for new players to be able to sit down and have something they can accomplish in an hour.  And for that, it's beautifully done.Also very easy for fledgling DMs to prep an encounter or two of this and then run it.  Less intimidating than trying to prepare a full-length adventure.  Have had several new people willing to try their hand behind the DM screen thanks to this one, which is very appreciated.


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## Chimpy (Mar 24, 2015)

*4 out of 5 rating for Defiance in Phlan*

I DM a group after work at my office and this module is actually perfect because it's 5 1-hour mini adventures. The adventures seem to have a surprising amount of story behind them and there is quite a lot of detail on aspects of the scenario. I would recommend a look for introducing players to D&D or for some short session "1 shots".


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## gweinel (Feb 29, 2016)

*4 out of 5 rating for Defiance in Phlan*

I played this a player, solo (with a couple npcs to keep the minimum size party), having as dm a player who played for the first time as dm at 5e.

Defiance in Phlan consists 5 rather independent, loose connected small adventures. 
We had really very good time, although as the other adventure league adventures is not polished. It had some parts that didn't make sense like the initial hook of the second story, the assumption that one party member has to be able to cast detect magic at 4th story, the need to find a secret door in order to continue at 3rd story etc. 

+: The format: Five little adventures that don't last long is great if you want to play for a couple of hours and finish the story.      
Diversity of the three pillars: It had a nice mixture of investigation, role playing and combat. 

- : Unpolished: Some ideas and features seems that were hasty made giving the impression of an unfinished project.      
Weak story links: A couple of story elements that didn't make sense.

Overall we had very good time, so it was a hit for us.


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## Megan Jenkins (Feb 2, 2018)

*5 out of 5 rating for Defiance in Phlan*

My players like the missions and their npcs. It was an enjoyable adventure to DM.


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