Robin BLZ

Played a few homebrew oneshots and now in a campaign with the Sensei and enjoyed them all. I have seen a good variety of encounters making for interesting combat - also good opportunities for roleplay and he makes an effort to engage all players to give them spotlight time. He gives good descriptions but backs them up with images to bring key things to life. He uses owlbear rodeo in combo with dndbeyond which is really simple and works well. Seen a few beginners play and he works well with them.

The mechanics of this game are very strong making combat more interesting/challenging than the benchmark of Dnd. I very much like the three action economy and limited opportunity attacks, that mean movement matters much more vs walk up and smash until 1 person is dead. This would be a clear 5 star for some players. There are some downsides which may apply. It is at the more complex end of TTRPGs(from choices of classes but also feats etc.). Foundry VTT is very good for helping with some of the complexity but this can give it a more computergame feel vs the other end of theatre of the mind. I also find the complexity (including choices) seems to distract from RP or attract a more optimising style of player. There is a bit of mathfinder vs pathfinder here, agin foundry is great but most combats there is an investigation into whether there is a +1 or not . It has big fans but the cheerleadering can be a bit much (esp in game) "yes this encounter balance is why pathfinder is the best" from the gm and another player for people who like me who enjoy lots of systems can be grating.

Thematically I really really like the mythos be that modern or 1920s/30s or rainswept spooky Harbour town so keep trying call of cthulhu. However, mechanic wise it feels very swingy and hard unless you minmax (which shouldnt be needed in this sort of game) or get lucky eg climbing or driving a car unless you invest are 20% chance of success, together with a lot of different skills many of which wont come up or might come up and be vital and failing isn't fun. Monster of the week(PBTA) mechanics I think would work much better so suggest playing the mythos/adventures but with another game mechanics.

A very different adventure with the fey. This distinctiveness makes it stand out as one of the best 5e adventures - it is really fun but will be marmite in terms of love it or hate it. One comparison has been a fey/happy version of Strahd which if you squint a bit makes sense. This suits adventurers who enjoy role-play and are maybe less combat focused or fancy a change, combat can often be avoided but is likely to occur at some points. Could work for new players but would suggest an experienced GM to bring it to life. GMs who want to run it for people who don't want quite such a whimsical feel could reskin into a dark circus feel (spooky clowns etc.)

The starter sets are really good both for new AND experienced players. This one is classic and just is lots of fun showing off different elements of dnd. The last chapter is not quite a good but this can be easily tweaked depending on what your players "expect" by this point and can still run fine. I would suggest stormwreck isle is slightly better for a brand new GM(shorter/easier to run) but only slightly. Worth noting the first encounter can be pretty challenging (ie kill everyone) so plan for that as a player or GM! The lost obelisk bolt-on I am less of a fan so would suggest the original.