Forum

At a local convention I ran both the "full" adventure presented in the beta version of the Adventure book
Both games went well, even though in Riddermound technically it ended in a TPK, but I dialed it back and a character still died.
I was trying to give players a taste of a new game without turning them off with a slaughter.

in the first session, I went over rules, the players created characters, and talked a bit about the background story of the dragon-emperor and the demon he defeated and how it effected the adventures
the first fight, the goblins in the pass seemed to be a good warmup fight for the group
I bypassed the villiage for the most part as this was a con, not a home game, and wanted to get finished in the time slotted alotted for game play.
the group did ask about having more skills (like athletics for example)
the group regretted asking about failing a fear save. it was like an Alien game for a minute, with everyone screaming
the group was doing fine until one opened the door to the knight's tomb, and then the knight & wife both attacked. it was very brutal. several characters dropped and made their death saves, except one.
he was a mallard merchant. he was a good duck. quack

the second session, only 2 players returned with 3 new ones, so the first hour was spent helping them make characters. and funny thing was a player rolled up a mallard with a letter, so the story was he was there to claim his dead brother gear.
this session was not as brutal as the first one. The White Death was a challenge, but the group were prepared for once they set a trap for it. They also killed the orcs. yeah, not a good thing.
in the gate room/ killbox, it would help to have a side view or better description of that area. after the fight (the group sneaked except a dwarf bard who made noise following the team about 30 feet back), the group used grappling hook to get up there, so also need the height of the walls to the garrsion area. funny part is the wolfkin hunter rolled a 20 to throw a grappling hook and smacked himself in the face.
for the most part, the group made short work of the goblins using bows and stealth
in the water filled tunnels, chest height doesn't help when you have short people like dwarves and tall people like wolfkin. a better description of actual depth would help there.

the storyline of the finding the statue and blocking the demon sounds great. just some things would need to be changed to make this into a living campaign that can be run at cons.
please let me know if you are interested in my thoughts

Also noted from the gameplay

adding either a heroic ability, or special rules for having a monster companion, I say only earned through role play
in Riddermound, you can befriend a goblin
in Lode, you can find 3 warg puppies
these are chances to gain/ earn NPC companions/ servants/ servants

also on selling equipment found with the enemies
I alllowed the items (swords, armor) to sold to a merchant at half the value
the group had a cart, so it was easy to load up and take back to town.

thoughts?