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Deep Horizon, an adventure for 13th level characters, is the sixth of eight stand-alone adventures in the Core Adventure series from Wizards of the Coast. In it the adventurers get to the root of some troublesome earthquakes by travelling deep into the underdark and encountering a new race, exploring a Drow temple, solving a murder mystery, and then raiding a Salamander stronghold. By the end of the adventure, which only took about 12 hours of real time for our group to complete, surviving player characters should be 15th level.

Essentially, Deep Horizon consists of some random encounters, two short but unimaginative dungeon crawls, and a pathetically simple murder mystery. For those who have played through the rest of the adventures in the series, or even played their characters up from first level, this adventure comes across as predictable and pedestrian. With the exception of a new race, which is very well done, this is one adventure that any experienced DM can say: "I could have done this myself" and it would actually be true. It's not that the adventure is bad, it's just that the players will figure out what needs to be done to set things right at an early stage of the story. After that it's simply a matter of doing it -- and there are no twists or complications to keep things interesting. Even those of us who enjoy dungeon crawls will be bored, because the "dungeon" portions of the adventure have little or no variety in the monsters, few traps, no puzzles, and little else to make them memorable.

For those who have enjoyed the series so far, as we have, Deep Horizon can be skipped entirely. There are no tie-ins with the Ashardalon theme found in the other adventures and most DMs will be able to tailor an adventure to their group that will be more fun than this one.

Deep Horizon
Deep Horizon Playtest Review by screenmonkey on 03/03/02 Style: 2 (Needs Work) Substance: 2 (Sparse) Remember when you wanted to play outside and your mom said you had to do your chores first? That's what this adventure felt like: tedious, not particularly challenging, and just plain work. Product: Deep Horizon Author: Skip Williams Category: Adventure Company/Publisher: Wizards of the Coast Line: Dungeons & Dragons (3rd ed) Cost: US $9.95 CAN $13.95 Page count: 32 Year published: 2001 ISBN: 0-7869-1855-1 SKU: WTC11855 Comp copy?: no Playtest Review by screenmonkey on 03/03/02 Genre tags: Fantasy	Deep Horizon, an adventure for 13th level characters, is the sixth of eight stand-alone adventures in the Core Adventure series from Wizards of the Coast. In it the adventurers get to the root of some troublesome earthquakes by travelling deep into the underdark and encountering a new race, exploring a Drow temple, solving a murder mystery, and then raiding a Salamander stronghold. By the end of the adventure, which only took about 12 hours of real time for our group to complete, surviving player characters should be 15th level. Essentially, Deep Horizon consists of some random encounters, two short but unimaginative dungeon crawls, and a pathetically simple murder mystery. For those who have played through the rest of the adventures in the series, or even played their characters up from first level, this adventure comes across as predictable and pedestrian. With the exception of a new race, which is very well done, this is one adventure that any experienced DM can say: "I could have done this myself" and it would actually be true. It's not that the adventure is bad, it's just that the players will figure out what needs to be done to set things right at an early stage of the story. After that it's simply a matter of doing it -- and there are no twists or complications to keep things interesting. Even those of us who enjoy dungeon crawls will be bored, because the "dungeon" portions of the adventure have little or no variety in the monsters, few traps, no puzzles, and little else to make them memorable. For those who have enjoyed the series so far, as we have, Deep Horizon can be skipped entirely. There are no tie-ins with the Ashardalon theme found in the other adventures and most DMs will be able to tailor an adventure to their group that will be more fun than this one.