Baldur's Gate: Descent into Avernus

Start in Baldur’s Gate, end up in hell—literally. No one leaves unchanged. This madcap descent into Avernus is part Mad Max, part Faustian tragedy. The highlight? Moral dilemma after moral dilemma that can shake even the most hardened adventurers.

Cults, devils, demons, and worse! I’ve run this module twice and played it once, and I keep coming back to it. The first section clearly serves as a funnel into Chapter 2, but Baldur’s Gate is a fantastic setting, and the enemies you face there may not be what they seem. From Chapter 2 onward, you’re thrust into the scorched wasteland of Avernus, filled with key locations that, with some work, can make for a compelling middle and end to the adventure.

Prequel to the wildly-popular Baldur's Gate 3 by Larian studios, this is a roller-coaster of an adventure. The fields of Avernus are littered by war, pocked by battle scars, and ready for the unsuspecting 'heroes' to rise t the occasion. Players begin as ordinary people struck by metaphysical tragedy and circumstance and so should get their bearings and 'adventuring legs' under them at first. The early part is a definite lesson in resource management and picking one's battles. Players should be smart, or they will be dead. For Dungeon Masters, careful reading and understanding of the situation is a MUST. This means homework, sorry to those who prefer to 'make it up on the fly.' But the rewards can be worth it. Players can be seduced by easy answers and the temptations of the lower planes, or they can redeem the irredeemable, and pretty much everything in between. It certainly gives players who then go on to BG3 a different perspective of Tieflings. 3.5/5 "Pretty good"

It is a great story, jumping right into action from the get go. It is brutal though, starting at level 1 and making three first chapter feel like a horror survival. If you like Grand adventures, it is recommended, but due to the theme and topics it deals with, it can feel too dark and serious for some players. There's not much room for playing around the constrains of the story, making motivations and character arcs feel restricted. The third chapter of the book is a hell for have masters, as it is written in a very obtuse easy, and it famously frustrates players, sending them on a wild chase for clues, leaving them with a sense of emptiness, as nothing they do really matters in the great scheme of the adventure. In my opinion, it is famous because of Baldur's Gate mostly, but 3/4 of the adventure feels like anything else but with a demons and fire skin on top of it. There are some NPCs that ended up being memorable to my players, but only for additions to their attitude and backstory that I made outside what the book provides. As someone who prefers a more open end and player driven storytelling, I didn't enjoy running this campaign, as it felt like they just had to do the quest because they were told so.

This is a great jumping in point for new players looking to play with experienced GMs. Fans of Balduer's Gate 3 will feel familiar and comfortable in the setting without needing feel like they need to learn too much, as this module takes place directly before the events of the video game. The module is very detailed in its environments and mood, but often lacks substance when it comes to character interactions. Some areas of the module evoke old school dungeon crawling, which can be a ton of fun but often takes away opportunities from players to role play if the GM is not careful. Overall, the module requires a lot of GM finesse to be feel fun and lived in, with some sections needing some rework so that the players don't feel railroaded. At the same time, it holds some fleshed out mechanics for its different aspects so that GMs do not need to worry about balancing the mechanics that are unique to this module.

I ran this with a friend a while back and I've been borrowing lore from it for lots of other games. It was fun for everyone involved, I can't wait to run it on SPG :)