Disclaimer II: The majority of this review is opinion; your actual enjoyment of this product should vary accordingly.

  Yes, Sunless Citadel starts with little to no pretense and drops the party at the door (in this case, maw) of the dungeon and begins the flavor text.

We get to little in development of the local town and its people, except for the few characters that may be saved during the course of adventuring. This is intentional, however, and truly shouldn't be seen as a dig towards the adventure overall. Dungeons & Dragons adventures feature (gasp) dungeons. And the "return to the dungeon" is the theme that binds the 3rd Edition of D&D, even Wizards of the Coast adventure publication drums on this in its guidelines.

  The dungeon itself, the title's citadel, is lengthy and possibly dangerous to new characters if they're foolish and slash-happy. The party encounters numerous goblinoids and other neat nasties throughout the adventure. (Even the game's namesake makes a plot-point appearance.)

This adventure is geared more for a fresh-faced referee and equally fresh set of players. So fresh, they're not jaded by lengthy combats and worry about the number of partial actions other get in on their characters. I enjoyed reading through the adventure, and could see the possible errs the new game master may make, and thankfully for those few out there, Sunless Citadel carries the minor points to the fore.

With all the goodness, some rays of eek must shine. The adventure reads more like a novel that hopes that the party can hit the right combination of plot points to bring about a favorable conclusion. Also, several elements are closely tied to the death of a previous party, and allows no action to save those few remaining, making some good-aligned party members believe its best to stay home as there's nothing that can be done to save people.

Veteran gamers may find the limited scope of the under dark sections of the adventure to small, even for their first (or slightly higher) level adventurers, some may even try to reshape the adventure around their home worlds, or other published settings.

All in all, the Sunless Citadel is an excellent first- or new-gamer adventure to run. The stark differences between the world above, and the dungeon below, lead easily for a separation for the players and referee to begin the foundations of a lasting campaign.