Review copy courtesy of Wizards of the Coast.
Pros
The layout of this book is really solid. It starts with background knowledge for the setting of Candlekeep itself, and then branches into many short adventures. The tips and organization is also well done, making it easier to understand than many other adventure books in this edition.
There’s a total of 17 adventures between level 1 and 16.
More full cover art. It’s a highlight of this edition, and keep it coming. And with more realistic pictures please.
The adventure provides advice on certain elements of the adventure that can be changed, as well as alternate locations if you don’t play in Candlekeep or the Forgotten Realms.
More maps, and these have colour. As the book says itself, “a good map is all a Dungeon Master needs”. Well, roughly.
It has that balance between a little bit of setting building for Candlekeep, but also the main meat is the adventures. I’ve felt for a while that these books are strongest when it can act as part setting book, part adventure, part spare parts to steal from, and inspiration.
Tear away map of Candlekeep is also provided. I loved when this started with Curse of Strahd, and I hope they continue with it going forward.
Could Go Either Way
The adventures themselves are on the short side at 10-15 pages long. From my experience this translates to around 2.5 hours on the low end, and 5 hours on the high end. This is influenced by play style, since it's been my experience that treating the adventure as a dungeon delve shortens the time. This estimate is also for the content in the book. There are situations where rooms can be avoided, and many adventures leave hooks for adding more adventure of your own making. However, this shorter length also makes it easy to drop into your own campaigns as the occasional side quest.
The adventures don’t really fit together, except for the central framing device of being discovered from the books of Candlekeep (or other library).
It’s still a little on the short side, but longer than some others.
Cons
The vast majority of the maps are not coloured. For an expensive book like this, I’d want colour. That said, you might find some of these easier to use and modify on the fly as thet don't have interiors detailed. However, most do have them detailed. You might also prefer the art style.
Keep an eye on the book quality. My standard copy had the last 6 pages with torn corners.
A few issues with wording. The second adventure has this, where one section says a character is willing to give books as reparations, but a later section makes it sound like they’ll only do so if they get something in return. Meenlocks already have some interesting quirks due to their descriptions. Since they paralyze for up to a minute, they probably need to beat their target unconscious (for adventurers, probably this one), steal them in their sleep, or sneak up while they sleep. This means that after an hour, the affected character is turned? An example of such a scenario would go a long way to making it more clear. Of course, this issue exists from the book meenlocks were first included.
No PDF*
* Denotes nitpicking.
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| Cover for Candlekeep Mysteries. |
Introduction
We’ve
had a lot of big adventures in this edition of D&D. We’ve also
had a few smaller ones, but they usually came as an optional starting
point to a bigger adventure, or from magazine material. Here
we have multiple smaller adventures that are connected through the
framing of Candlekeep, the legendary library in the Forgotten Realms.
However, if you have your own settings it can also work in those. All
you need is a library in
your world,
so the books can lead the adventure! And
since they are bite sized adventures, you can use as many or little
as you want. Or change them to suit your taste. At the time of writing I have run the first 4 adventures, and the first 2 adventures for two separate groups. I've also read the book from beginning to end.
What do I think of it? Well, the organization is probably among my favourites. And I really actually like this concept. I hope they do more of these anthologies for different locations and settings. Why not a Ravenloft one? Or Spelljammer? Or Planescape? The adventures themselves are solid. I just wish they were more variety in length. Maybe some double length features with that noted? That way there’s more variety of complexity. So with that, let’s jump into the specifics.
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| The alternate cover for Candlekeep Mysteries. I really like this one. |
The Adventure
New Player Options
Nothing here. It’s all about the adventure.
New Monsters
Almost nothing here. The majority of monsters from the Monster Manual or standard rules such as the Monster Manual and basic rules/SRD. There are a few extras though. The Lichen Lich is a good example. These are all included in the adventure itself. The previously named example is a favourite of mine. It should be easy to tell that undead are my favourite type of enemy, so a new type that also combined the fungus of one of my favourite Demon Lords is something I’m happy to see. A swam of books is also here, challenging or annoying low level characters. There are also others. So in general there’s not much, but there’s more than I expected. Also be aware that some of the new monsters are from other books, but are included since they’re not in the Monster Manual.
What You Need to Play
The Monster Manual, Player's Handbook and Dungeon Master's Guide are referenced at the start of the adventure. As usual, the SRD will get you most of the way, but having all the books really helps out a lot.
The Adventures Themselves
The adventures in this book are all short adventures that can be dropped into a campaign as side quests. They’re about 10-15 pages long, and cover the level range from Level 1 to Level 15. The book jumps right into them after introducing us to Candlekeep, and doesn’t let up until the end. Each adventure is also standalone. There are sometimes suggestions about things that can be done in order to tie the adventure into your overarching story. However, they don’t reference each other. It’s best to think of this as a D&D anthology, all tied together through the setting of Candlekeep. They all don’t take place in Candlekeep, but they all do start from there and involve a book.
They often include new dungeons and locations to visit, which also means new maps. I have a critique in the next section of the maps themselves, but they’re appreciated to help run the adventures. These dungeons touch on combat as well as exploration, which are signs of good quest design. There are often little puzzles or twists to keep it from simply being a dungeon delve. Getting from Candlekeep or the book in question is also addressed in the adventures, and can easily be adapted to other settings. In fact, the book itself suggests some alternate settings. The other thing this means, is that not all of the adventures could actually be set in Candlekeep itself. If that’s what you expected, this isn’t it. Instead, it serves as the starting point of the adventure.
The adventures are not a matter of using combat prowess to have players slaughter their way through a dungeon. Well, there’s some of that too. But there’s also conversation and friendly characters to interact with. So they generally cater to the different pillars of D&D and thought out. As they should in my opinion, since the clever character interactions and role-play are a big reason I enjoy these sorts of games.
The first adventure is particularly nice. It hits my sensibilities, and it’s something I would run for my players if my campaign was set in the Forgotten Realms. Not for every group, but if the opportunity showed itself. And I did run it for some new players. There’s a little combat, there’s a good hook, and there’s a puzzle and interaction. This sort of structure continues in the other adventures. Some can be finished without as much combat as you might expect, and role-play opportunities and creativity show. And there is some good variety. The amount of combat, the nature of the dungeon, and even the outcomes and rewards can vary widely both depending on the adventure, and the approach taken.
Sometimes there are wording issues though. The second adventure has one pretty major one. One section says a character is willing to give books as reparations, but a later section makes it sound like they’ll only do so if they get something in return. I’m quite sure the intent was to make players provide some form of trade or help for the books in question, but it really should’ve been clear in both sections. I’d also mention this as general advice. Make sure different sections don’t say different things. Even similar but different things can be confusing, and take more time to try to decode the intent than should be required. Another issue is due to an existing monster, the meenlock. In this case this is a pre-existing confusion, but the adventure doesn’t make things as clear as it could. They have an ability to turn people into one of them by psychic torturing them. Hit 0 HP with torture? We got another meenlock. However, their paralysis lasts for a minute maximum, so the meenlock needs to beat them unconscious. Does a player get turned right after the first amount of damage? I think so as written, but an example would go a long way to clearing this up, especially for new players. How would it work otherwise? Sneaking to a character’s bedroom and torturing them as they slept, or stealing them as they slept. Still, these pale in comparison to some of the things Dungeon Masters need to untangled in the longer adventures.
These adventures due to their size, and the formatting, are probably some of the easiest to run in this edition outside of the starter sets. That said, they will still require some thought and planning. There are multiple ways some adventures can go, and some provide multiple options for the Dungeon Master to customize the adventure. Though these options are often clearly laid out with examples the Dungeon Master can quickly choose from. This makes the process far smoother than many others, though there will still be situations out of the box. The previously mentioned example of trading help for books? The kind of help that’ll be accepted isn’t specified. So you’ll need to use your Dungeon Master muscles. And due to their smaller size, it also makes them easy to change without unintended consequences 100 pages in. This is probably among the more versatile and easiest to re-use books in a long while, and I hope to see more in this style.
The Art and Book Build Quality
The art is what we’ve come to expect. I’ve said this many times, but it’s a good thing. Since it means these books are consistent in their presentation, and quality. In particular, this book has great environmental art in multiple places. The art with the ghostly dragon trapped in the lower area of Candlekeep is a particular highlight. The framing devise of these adventures all involve a book, and the books that kick off the adventures are all illustrated in colour. I really liked this too. The tear-away map is also like we’ve come to expect. It’s in the same art style, large, and full colour. The standard cover is solid, but not my favourite of this edition, or even the last few books. Rime of the Frostmaiden looked far better to me. The other cover though? I really like it. They keep the stylized design with high contrast, which gives it that old book appearance.
So what didn’t I like? Well, the maps. Many of them are not coloured. They’re the simple style maps you’d be used to seeing in older adventures, where it’s just line colour. It’s functional, and you can still have fun with it. But with the price of these books, I want to see them all coloured. Not all of the maps are like this though. It’s usually the dungeon maps. The overland maps are beautifully coloured like I’d expect.
My standard copy also had torn corners for the last 6 pages. It was barely noticeable at first, but less than ideal. The better the initial condition, the better the books last. So as previously recommended, if you can take a look at the book for quality issues. That said, with the current global pandemic, you probably won’t have that luxury.
Price
It’s the standard $49.99 USD MSRP we’ve come to expect. Check here for more info.
What I felt was Missing
As previously mentioned, the maps aren’t in colour. That really would’ve went a long way to helping the presentation. And I think it leaves a bigger impression with players. Otherwise, more variety would’ve been nice. All of the adventures here are about 10-14 pages long. As an anthology, I’d have liked to see some longer ones, and shorter ones.
I’d have also liked to see another 2-3 adventures, so that the book was around the 250 page mark. Around there is where I think the books should aim for at their given price point. Though with sales, they’re often still worth a buy.
I mentioned this before, but for creatures such as meenlocks some examples of play would go a long way to help. So that way they can see the mechanics as intended, since the abilities and how it interacts with combat can be tricky. Is it intended to turn a player into a meenlock in an hour because they’re already at 0 hit points? I’d say yes as written, but an example would make it undisputedly clear.
Free Stuff
Nothing to see here.
Summary
I really like this book. And I like this concept of D&D anthology collection. We’ve had many adventures in the Forgotten Realms, and it remains a popular setting. So having small side quests that can be dropped into existing games while using Candlekeep as a starting point is extremely useful. Though if that’s not your setting, they can be placed into a different library fairly easily. The quests themselves are also interesting, having new maps, locations, combat, and also character interactions. They’re all 10-15 pages long, which is on the short side. This is a strength, as it makes for easy side quests. But it’s also a weakness, as I’d liked to have seen more variety in length and complexity. Most maps not being colour is also a disappointment for me. I’d also liked to have seen a couple more adventures included, to increase the page count. If this description sounds interesting to you, I think you’ll enjoy it. And I hope to see more settings and locations in the future. Maybe even coinciding with new large adventures as they’re released.
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