I had a plot line where my party had to go to Candlekeep and one of the things I developed for it was an economy of book sellers it just outside of Keep. Of course this made it a den crime. the inn called the dog-eared page was the headquarters the broken spine gang. In a shadow war with a gang just called the index. Book puns abound. Steal this hook.
Bob, you're doing an awesome job dude. It's so calming to listen to you. Your sense of humor resonates with me. All in all you're an absolute joy to play on UA-cam. Keep up the good stuff!!
Thank you for this... I'm running my first ever one shot and didn't realize how badly organized some of the adventures would be... namely the first chapter is a headache for a noob DM like me. I had to manually scrape every npc and monster from each room. Don't even get me started on the cats.
Haha I must have forgot about the cats! I'm glad this was helpful in someway, and I definitely recommend looking to GoodMan Games Fifth Edition Fantasy series of oneshot modules
Thanks for including the note about Adventure overviews and summaries! A) I hope that WotC hears more of it and makes this a common thing B) I feel like I contributed in some way to the script :) Keep 'em comin' Bob
Thanks for covering this Bob. Wotc's products seem pretty hit and miss so it's really helpful to see it reviewed like this. Some of those do really sound like fun.
The UA-cam logarithm just sent me here. Gotta say, your voice and your diction made this a pleasure to watch and listen to. You just got a new subscriber 🙂
I just got this book and I have to say, I’m really digging it. It’s so packed with good ideas that can be extracted and used, even if you never run one of these adventures directly. I think that’s the sign of a good D&D book these days, the ability to cherry pick what you like and not use what you don’t like.
I really like “A Deep and Creeping Darkness” and “Sarah of Yellowcrest Manor”. “The Joy of Extradimensional Spaces” and “The Lore of Lurue” are good too! A bit surprised you didn’t like Yellowcrest… I’m using it as a murder-mystery set in Waterdeep (needs some changes) and it’s quite cool!
I couldn't agree more, I was very frustrated reading through it and I had to read the whole adventure on most to see what was going to happen instead of there being a brief description. Then I was curious what the magic items were and they was no appendix for that.
I haven't had the chance to run the one-shots as is, but I did cobble together some of the premise of Sarah of Yellowcrest Manor with some of the mechanics/flow of The Joy of Extradimensional Spaces (a character the players knew had disappeared into Sarah's journal and they had to go find him, and to get out they had to walk through Yellowcrest manor and interactively relive the scenes from Sarah's journal - the magic word to get out was solving the mystery and naming her killer) to add into our ongoing campaign and the bastardized creation was a hit with the players, so no regrets on buying the book if only for idea mining.
Bob! I’ve been loving your stuff for ages now. On my second chapter of Candlekeep and needed some guidance, so searched an accidentally clicked your video...didn’t even know it was yours til you popped up on screen. Wahoo! Thanks
I just got my copy yesterday and very excited to run some of these. Because my players are level 3, I am looking forward to running The Joy Of Extradimensional Spaces, Book of the Raven, A Deep and Creeping Darkness, The Price of Beauty, and eventually, The Canopic Being.
"Movie magic".... about lost my drink there. I'd preordered Candlekeep (using your affiliate link :), that was handy). I spent too much time last night going through it. They all look pretty interesting, but I'm going to vote for Shemshime's Bedtime Rhyme. Between that and A Deep and Creeping Darkness. Of those two, one of them is finding a spot in our campaign pretty soon. I'm pretty interested in the higher tier adventures too, (Conopic Being, Scrivener's Tale perhaps?) No matter what, if you air it, I'll be watching it!
I just picked up the book from my local shop and got really excited to have some little side quests to throw at my party, I just found this and I can't wait to run them!
My two favourites are I think: Lore of Lurue as I too am a Lurue lover. There's something about a niche deity which makes them an awesome choice for PC god choices. Then Alkazaar's Appendix is great because it may tie in well to goings on in Rime of the Frostmaiden a quick jaunt other to Anauroch serving as a great followup on some of the Netherese themes of Rotf. I appreciate a few of them in how self contained they can be and ease of insertion into any campaign.
@@BobWorldBuilder have you ever watched tfs at the table the first like 50 episodes were awesome. Then one of the guys left because of creative differences with there company Team Four Star that made Dragon Ball abridged. They were awesome! Check it out. But also I am running the lost mines of the dragon of ice spire peak. I wanted to do it and looked into it found your video found your Chanel and I watch a lot of your content for that stuff. Thanks Bob World Builder.
I actually was not too excited about this book but the wife suprised me with it a while ago. I’m super excited after skimming through. So much cooler than I thought it would be and I cannot wait to read the book of the raven. Looove the idea of having a bunch of smaller adventures
@@BobWorldBuilder so far so good. I beleive I’m going to drop Candlekeep into my own home brew world and use it like a global university. It’ll be everything it is but also a prestigious and highly admired place of arts and learning. It’s so perfect
i integrated candlekeep into a magic, teleporting library that also contains books that PCs can read to get bonuses to certain checks regarding knowledge about different parts of the world. I rewrite the story of each adventure to be a part of a small book that can be found inside the library in which the players will get sucked in. Its RNG if the tower plops down in the are theyre currently traversing, so im hoping theyll be excited to explore for new things every time they find it.
Yes, definitely a diverse set of adventures! Even though they’re all meant to be mysteries, I think it’s a good collection that could work for a lot of styles
@@BobWorldBuilder definitely i am working up to run my first adventure lost mine of phandelver then i will pick a preset adventure book to buy if my first timers enjoy it. I am hoping they were hooked like me when i was younger
This was a frustratingly enjoyable clip to watch and listen to. A...enjoyable because it critiques the book, provides insight, things to be mindful of along with where the book excels and maybe falls a little short 👍🏾 👌🏾 B...frustrating because i bought it for my son to give me for my birthday and now i have to wait three months to unwrap it 😡 😂
I’m currently running this with a subtheme of combating a group disney themed criminals. It’s been a blast though my players take longer than one session per adventure.
Great vid! I read Candlekeep and had a lot of the same problems with the adventures that you did (Particularly Book of Raven)... many of them have plot holes or are just more poorly written than i've come to expect from WotC. :( In any case, this was a fantastic review! This is the first vid of yours i've seen and i immediately subscribed. Great work!
The concept of this book is very intriguing offering a number of short adventures under the guise of mystery. I certainly could see future volumes, perhaps focusing on different themes? Still, It certainly has a more home brew, dmsguild feel to it, which may have contributed to some of the inconsistencies in format/structure. On one hand, it’s nice to see so many authors contribute their creative ideas, but on the other hand, it would be nice to see wotc tighten up on the format expectations and features (ex. appendix) that are indigenous to a higher quality publication. I am personally excited to run/play these, but honestly, a collection like this had a home many moons ago and I would LOVE to see its rebirth! The publication I am speaking of, of course, is dungeon magazine. For those unfamiliar, tsr and later wotc offered a subscription magazine of short adventures written by talented people who just wanted to share. It was amazing and included so many adventure gems in addition to ideas and concepts you could use in your own campaign. Is Candlekeep a test to see if they should bring it back? Probably not but I’d subscribe in a heartbeat. And yea, I know we live in the digital age, but aside from convenience, I still much rather see and feel the pages in my hand. So if wotc is listening, please keep the adventures coming, bring back the classics, and continue to provide a place for the dnd community, especially those who are super talented and creative to bring those ideas and stories to life. My vote is for dungeon magazine to return; but a quarterly or biannual book like candlekeep would be a close second. Thanks Bob for yet another awesome Review!
Yes, I'm not sure if I'm just being over optimistic, but I feel like smaller volumes of regular content coming through WotC but by lesser known authors is an eventuality. The more BIG books they produce, the fewer people will be drawn to each one. A subscription for smaller materials just makes sense. I know Matt Colville is sorta doing this now with Arcadia, and I'm betting that WotC will follow his lead if it does well enough.
@@BobWorldBuilder I hope you are right. I have been pining for WotC to bring back the smaller modules, especially the classics. As invested as I am, it is difficult to get through the super modules fast enough before another super module is published. Besides, I enjoy variety, which is why I like modules such as Lost Mines of Phandelver, Icespire peak (I really enjoyed your series on that), Ghosts of Saltmarsh, and Tales From the Yawning Portal. Anyhow, thanks for the response and I look forward to future videos!
I decided to add this into my campaign. They're exploring an old castle that was ransacked by Orcs. The library is in tatters but the books remain, although most are extremely damaged. They find a secret compartment containing a magic canceling iron box. Inside is a book inscribed "Property of Candlekeep: warning do not remove". They are transported to the dungeon of Candlekeep and have been Cursed to be unable to leave the grounds by the book. The first quest is to find the "curse expert" to get it removed.
I can say that the first adventure in this book can go very different if you have a player that likes using identify on everything. . . . Cast "identify" on the statue, realised that is was in fact not just a statue, convinced NPC to leave it in mansion and not bring it outside... had to have the NPC get dragged away for questioning about where they had been to make PC's stuck in mansion and having to find the way out. And that made it so they could still talk to NPC after, and not you know... have to deal with resurection.
I wouldn't worry to much about the lack of adventure summaries if I were you lol. That's why I'm watching this video. It's an interesting challenge to build a campaign out of this adventure. The plan as of now is to send an invitation to each of my players from the Avowed to come to Candlekeep and help shed light on a recent discovery - their names and the name of one of the Avowed in The Canopic Being. They believe that it is a sign that one of Alaundo's more portentous prophecies is underway. The players are offered lodging and access to the works in the library for their own research while The Canopic Being is investigated, since the Avowed want to keep an eye on them, apparently being central figures in this prophecy. The players then get pulled into the Magnificent Mansion adventure. I probably won't use all of the books. Right now I'm looking through other adventures for a good main storyline/BBEG. I appreciate how Candlekeep Mysteries is designed to be pick and choose. That's how I like to build my campaigns. Also thinking about combining the crashed gnome-flayer nautiloid ship in Rime of the Frostmaiden into Kandlekeep Deconstruction, for an added layer of silliness.
I haven't read this book cover to cover yet, so if it's mentioned within, oops. I immediately began looking for the section on what sorts of books a new visitor might bring as a form of admission payment, and where one might obtain such books. I'm planning to just give new characters books as part of their starting package, explaining to them that they located worthwhile books prior to setting out, because the town mage told them it would be required. But it seems unlikely that the mage would cough up portions of his own library.
Always love your stuff, high quality and great overview. Only one slight criticism, and I mention it because your videos are normally of very high quality. Throughout this video you have a good bit of frame glitches, turning green or stuttering. Not a huge problem, just something worth mentioning.
Yeah I think it was an issue while exporting the video because I didn’t notice during editing the footage. I’m going to be more wary about those glitches for another long video coming up later this month. Fortunately for that one I have more time to work on it! This was pretty rushed to get it out quickly after the release
Thank you! I've been meaning to look these over & see how easily I could adapt these to my home campaign. Side note: The link to dscryb doesn't seem clickable, at least on mobile.
The 1st level adventure sounds interesting as it’s like an escape room adventure. I like the premise of the 2 level 4 adventures, maybe due to you biased review but I am definitely intrigued by the setting The 10th level has a genie and a wish, definitely must run :D The poetic ones like the 5th and 11th levels sound cool, the 5th level one reminds me of the anime spirited away. The raven loft one at 3rd needs deeper review And I do like the setting of you are cursed, now figure it out :) Can’t wait for your guide on the adventures :)
I've really liked the first one so far. It's been a bit crazy getting schedule going. I wish he hadn't mentioned the command word as a spoiler. Sure, you can go about some of these a different way, and it just kind of naturally changed around when getting this into an actual campaign. It's tough when you check out these reviews when people have bad reviews, because it seems pretty easy to switch stuff around to fit better with the way you play. Anyways, back to the escape room, that's exactly what I was looking for, so it was awesome to find this at the time.
@@andrewl9191 enjoy I have run the escape room as a DM and running it currently for another group Everyone enjoyed it it is a light hearted adventure I recommend taking most of these adventures and incorporating them into campaigns I am incorporating a bunch of them into curse of Strahd which I plan to run soon for the 1st time Should give more depth to the fantasy and horror of Barovia
thanks for the info. was thinking about blending this with strixhaven, but I think I'll just take the idea instead of buying 2 campaigns that I'm disappointed in.
The Price of Beauty. Hag covens are great villains, and even though it seems like every other published adventure has a hag villain (nana pupu/ sewn sisters ToA) it’s so hard to get them suitably wicked.
i bought this book online, together with all the other campains, im planning to make these in a narrative and one long campain. im throwing in an ultimate bad guy and some sides quests in between some of the stories
Technically it says "a work of writing" to get into Candlekeep. I plan to have my adventurers get creative in the moment and write a poem, haiku, limerick, or other short writing as their way inside.
I want to somehow connect all these adventures together and run this whole book as you would a regular module. My initial idea is to make one of my players the Awoved guide described in the "Candlekeep" section, so that they can lead the rest of the party to finding these books one by one. However I'm not exactly sure how this will turn out, so would love to hear opinions and advice if you have any!
That’s a fun idea, but the main common thread would be the characters. While none of the stories are written to be combined, there are fey themes in a handful, so an overarching plot involving the feywild might be a helpful approach!
My players have just graduated from a magic school (which was a one shot and now they want me to dm more lol) and I created this whole hub area where it's very video gamey and someone named the librarian is sending them into books to get objects of power.
@@saieshsurujbally6438 I ended up doing something similar. Now they are part of this secret organization called Candlekeep Bureau of Anomalies and their chief Matreus asks them to investigate odd cases related to books in exchange for treasures, reputation and possibly right of passage from the Emerald Gate. We are having a blast so far!
26:43 One cool point is the choice the promise of that item presents, considering the conflict up until that point. The Book of Inner Alchemy was a big reason I bought the book. I feel most D&D material is based on period European cultures and Western tropes, but there are so many wildly different fantasy archetypes and genres out there we don’t normally even hear of, and having something come from period Chinese culture and Wuxia fiction written by someone who understands the source material is too rare in 5e and perhaps English-language TRPG publishing in general. Hopefully Wizards’ strategy here of bringing in writers of varied backgrounds continues so we’ll have more chances to broaden the flavors of fantasy readily available for building our own games.
Alkazaars appendix: Why in gods name is it a dracolich? You can use those anywhere. I strongly reccomend replacing it by 1 or 2 phaerimm. It makes so much more sense in the setting and is a great spot to use those underused creatures.
Did you ever end up making more Candlekeep Mysteries videos? It seems you were planning to do DM Guides for each one based on what you say at the start of this video.
Something I have been struggling with, the Book doesn't seem to discuss the players starting equipment based on their level. They are designed to be both a totally isolated one-shot with new characters(at that level) or a drop into a larger campaign. However, in a drop in your characters are going to have many different items. So do I send in my players for a one shot with no magic items beyond starting equipment? This will radically change balance, 6 level 14 characters with a mix of uncommon and rare magic itmes and even a few very rare items are radically more powerful then 6 level 14 characters with starting equipment. Mid campaign they are going to have those advantages of adventuring, but now what is best for them to have a fun time? Consider a fighter with starting equipment, and doesn't have any weapons that can deal magic damage, fighting creatures resistant to non-magical dmg. This single item completely rebalances this character. This feels like a major balance oversight. Curious what people think, and if I should just use the DMG recommended progression for magic items per level of play, or maybe the guide in Xanathars. I am disappointed this doesn't seem discussed in the book, unless I missed it.
My very vague guideline is 1-2 magic items (per character) per tier. It totally depends on the rarity of the item though, as you said. And yeah, I imagine certain magic items could easily foil the mystery of some of these quests, so it would have been great if they included a section of recommended equipment or equipment to avoid
@@BobWorldBuilder its one from the book that even at the briefest glance had the most interesting going on with the title to go with it. I'm sure fully reading each adventure will reevaluate that.
Oh cool I bought this book thinking I could steal ideas for my campaign but I flipped through it quickly and thought "wait shit is this a campaign book?!?!" And shelved it for a few weeks until now when i said i'd run the "Candlekeep Mysteries campaign" only to have been fooled by my lack of understanding of d&d books
I ran a one-shot with the 'book entry' and my players really enjoyed the chance to do some creative writing to establish their characters -- even on a one shot. My advice is to give them a couple weeks notice. I disagree with your point at around 8:40 here, in fact I think that you might make things worse by springing it on the players right before they start. If you have to spring it on the players, write cool book descriptions for your players on cards and 'bestow' these gifts as you begin the story .
Funny that I really liked Yellowcrest Manor, but thought Lore of Lurue was mediocre, and you thought the exact opposite! Guess the module is a success then lol
I really wish Wizards stopped doing the tear out maps and put them alongside the book plastified I can't be the only one with a pretty justified fear of accidentaly ripping them off
Do you think these could be run as full adventures rather than one-shots? I'm running the Beyond DoIP adventures and while I wanted to use the Ebondeath as the BBEG, I also wanted the campaign to last longer, so I was thinking about putting more adventures between SDW and DC. Zikran's Zephyrean Tome might work well for that.
Hi Bob! Love the video! Especially Shemshine's Bedtime Rhyme. However I do have a question about it...[Spoilers ahead for whoever hasn't read the adventure yet] During phase 1, the adventure says Crinkle will hum the tune just like everyone. But due to Kenku's Mimicking ability, wouldn't it be the exact music from the book & not a hum? That would give the mystery away... that the kenku must be involved somehow..
Thanks! :) Maybe describing the speech specifically as humming is a way the author tried to get around that kenku feature. I think if the players got stuck, then you could use that mimicking to your advantage by describing the kenku's repetition as sounding like the mechanics of the book
A lot of these quests have very detailed locations in the form of houses/mines/etc. and they seem tricky to run in a theater-of-mind style. Anyone got any tips?
Totally, to run those sorts of locations as ToM, you as the DM should try to reduce them to their main events/scenes. That way you can get a sense of what rooms/areas are "important." usually the movement between these areas is arbitrary. But if your players ask for a map, just show them the map as long as it doesn't giveaway those events.
@@Jasonlol73 I've used several one shot modules from the Goodman Games: Fifth Edition Fantasy series! Can't remember if they're designed to be one shots, but that's how I've used and liked them! :)
I saw LoadingReadyRun do this one. I was really looking forward to it, but they're limited on time and we're really slick about it like I imagined it. I think it can be pretty cool and it's a good contrast to the rest of the adventures. I mean, the only other 4th level one is also very suspenseful.
Wait... What? Are the Time Dragons hunting me down now? I'm only 2nd level! All I wanted to do was to earn enough money to open a local forge and get my wife some jewels to open her pawn shop. I donna wanna fight no Time Dragon! Can we just hire some real adventurers for this mission?
I’m liking what I’m reading so far, but it makes me angry how terribly written Book of the Raven is. Nothing ties together in any sort of coherent way and fixing it seems like more hassle than just designing an original one-shot in some ways. It is deeply disappointing that WotC and Chris Perkins thought this was even nearly passable as an adventure
I am running Candlekeep Mysteries as a full blown campaign, doing one chapter at a time and connecting them with an larger story arch. I am about to run Book of the Raven. In prepping I am liking all the little details but trying to figure out how to connect it to everything else at candlekeep and how to give the story/npc's/family that the book of the raven includes some importance to my players. Why is the history of this family a concern of Cabdlekeeps? Definitely plot holes.
Do you think next time you could actually run the adventures from the books before reviewing, so that we could have an actual insight, rather than rushing to be the first person to get the views? Like come on man, that's just like the people who review video games while only playing the first 20% to get in before others.
I intentionally didn’t call this video a review for the reasons you described. As I did mention, I will be doing individual videos for the quests I actually run, but I don’t want to run this whole book. I have done a full series on DoIP, and I’m working on one for RotF if you’re interested in those books.
I think it's really pathetic for people to feel sensitive about stories about being quarantined. I want to remind you that quarantining wasn't the negative, but the solution to the negative of people dying
📜 dScryb: dscryb.com/bob
🌟 Candlekeep Mysteries: amzn.to/2O50lVe
❤️ Subscribe on UA-cam: ua-cam.com/users/bobworldbuilder
What happened to Dscryb? 404 not found.
I had a plot line where my party had to go to Candlekeep and one of the things I developed for it was an economy of book sellers it just outside of Keep. Of course this made it a den crime. the inn called the dog-eared page was the headquarters the broken spine gang. In a shadow war with a gang just called the index. Book puns abound. Steal this hook.
That's really great, thanks for the tip :)
“Wow, movie magic” had me lol harder than it should have
Haha, glad someone liked it :P
Bob, you're doing an awesome job dude. It's so calming to listen to you. Your sense of humor resonates with me. All in all you're an absolute joy to play on UA-cam.
Keep up the good stuff!!
That’s incredibly kind! Thank you :)
Love this! I would totally be on board for a series where Bob goes through and summarizes all the published adventures… Well done, sir!
Thank you for this... I'm running my first ever one shot and didn't realize how badly organized some of the adventures would be... namely the first chapter is a headache for a noob DM like me. I had to manually scrape every npc and monster from each room. Don't even get me started on the cats.
Haha I must have forgot about the cats! I'm glad this was helpful in someway, and I definitely recommend looking to GoodMan Games Fifth Edition Fantasy series of oneshot modules
Thanks for including the note about Adventure overviews and summaries!
A) I hope that WotC hears more of it and makes this a common thing
B) I feel like I contributed in some way to the script :)
Keep 'em comin' Bob
Yeah they’re so useful! I got used to it with DoIP and now I need them haha
This channel is the only one where I can get my D&D content fix and that sweet ASMR. The best!
Haha, happy to blend your content needs into one channel :)
Thanks for covering this Bob.
Wotc's products seem pretty hit and miss so it's really helpful to see it reviewed like this.
Some of those do really sound like fun.
Yeah this one seems to have some hits and misses! Glad you liked this review :)
Thanks bob you just saved me many of hours of reading 👌
Happy to help! :)
Sarah of the Yellowcrest Manor is my personal favorite.
That's good to hear! I really didn't give it much a chance, so it's nice to hear that others are liking it :)
Just ran "Joy of Extradimensional Spaces" and my party had a blast. They said they'd never enjoyed a one shot as much as that one.
Wow that’s fast!! Nice to have a positive review already :)
I just ran this as well for a party of 2 level 2s and it was a blast!
How long did it take?
The UA-cam logarithm just sent me here. Gotta say, your voice and your diction made this a pleasure to watch and listen to. You just got a new subscriber 🙂
Wow, thank you! And thank you, algorithm! :)
I just got this book and I have to say, I’m really digging it. It’s so packed with good ideas that can be extracted and used, even if you never run one of these adventures directly. I think that’s the sign of a good D&D book these days, the ability to cherry pick what you like and not use what you don’t like.
I really like “A Deep and Creeping Darkness” and “Sarah of Yellowcrest Manor”. “The Joy of Extradimensional Spaces” and “The Lore of Lurue” are good too!
A bit surprised you didn’t like Yellowcrest… I’m using it as a murder-mystery set in Waterdeep (needs some changes) and it’s quite cool!
I couldn't agree more, I was very frustrated reading through it and I had to read the whole adventure on most to see what was going to happen instead of there being a brief description. Then I was curious what the magic items were and they was no appendix for that.
Yeah I feel like most DMs Guuld authors are even doing this! Why can’t WotC? :P
BOB! You were so helpful during my Icespire Peak prep. Thanks for covering this new book!
You're very welcome! :D
That was a quick turnaround. From what I read. I like.
Took a day off from work and spent it all reading and editing :)
@@BobWorldBuilder been beat and busy. But still reading
I haven't had the chance to run the one-shots as is, but I did cobble together some of the premise of Sarah of Yellowcrest Manor with some of the mechanics/flow of The Joy of Extradimensional Spaces (a character the players knew had disappeared into Sarah's journal and they had to go find him, and to get out they had to walk through Yellowcrest manor and interactively relive the scenes from Sarah's journal - the magic word to get out was solving the mystery and naming her killer) to add into our ongoing campaign and the bastardized creation was a hit with the players, so no regrets on buying the book if only for idea mining.
Bob! I’ve been loving your stuff for ages now. On my second chapter of Candlekeep and needed some guidance, so searched an accidentally clicked your video...didn’t even know it was yours til you popped up on screen. Wahoo! Thanks
I just got my copy yesterday and very excited to run some of these. Because my players are level 3, I am looking forward to running The Joy Of Extradimensional Spaces, Book of the Raven, A Deep and Creeping Darkness, The Price of Beauty, and eventually, The Canopic Being.
Awesome! Yeah those are some of my favorites too :D
I just bought and am going to use strixhaven & candlekeep together, should be fun.
The later AL content has great organization. The modules show the intents and the goals for every act of the session
I know very little about AL, but it's good to know that they know what they're doing!!
Excellent guide! I plan to run A Deep and Creeping Darkness and all of it's spooky-ness. A guide would be wonderful :D
Great choice! Yes I definitely want to run that one at some point :)
Nice vid! Thanks for giving good overviews for each mystery Bob!
Happy to do it! :)
Was not happy with this mod, but your video is awesome.
Haha thank you!!
Shemshime's Bedtime Rhyme is my favorite title (and so far my favorite adventure). Got my alt cover yesterday and been paging through it! :)
Awesome choices! :D
"Movie magic".... about lost my drink there. I'd preordered Candlekeep (using your affiliate link :), that was handy). I spent too much time last night going through it. They all look pretty interesting, but I'm going to vote for Shemshime's Bedtime Rhyme. Between that and A Deep and Creeping Darkness. Of those two, one of them is finding a spot in our campaign pretty soon. I'm pretty interested in the higher tier adventures too, (Conopic Being, Scrivener's Tale perhaps?)
No matter what, if you air it, I'll be watching it!
Awesome! Thank you for your support :)
I am about 1/3 in... Nice Audio and pacing. Keep the videos coming. I would like to see more on Rime Of The Frost Maiden.
Thank you! You probably commented before the video glitches started happening 😅 Luckily the audio turned out fine. More RotF coming next week!
I just picked up the book from my local shop and got really excited to have some little side quests to throw at my party, I just found this and I can't wait to run them!
My two favourites are I think: Lore of Lurue as I too am a Lurue lover. There's something about a niche deity which makes them an awesome choice for PC god choices. Then Alkazaar's Appendix is great because it may tie in well to goings on in Rime of the Frostmaiden a quick jaunt other to Anauroch serving as a great followup on some of the Netherese themes of Rotf.
I appreciate a few of them in how self contained they can be and ease of insertion into any campaign.
Yes, some of these one shots excel at being transplant-able to other campaigns! And I’m glad that’s one vote for the Lurue adventure :)
I wish I could watch the Lockwood natural oneders again great stream TFS at the table would have had really fun instances of these one shots.
I’m sure other streamers will be playing them!
@@BobWorldBuilder have you ever watched tfs at the table the first like 50 episodes were awesome. Then one of the guys left because of creative differences with there company Team Four Star that made Dragon Ball abridged. They were awesome! Check it out. But also I am running the lost mines of the dragon of ice spire peak. I wanted to do it and looked into it found your video found your Chanel and I watch a lot of your content for that stuff. Thanks Bob World Builder.
I ran The Price of Beauty (lvl 5) recently and it was a lot of fun. Had something for everyone and the players had a great time!
Your hands look so CGI when you're pointing out the things on the page 😆
Keep up the good work Bob
I am starting this book for the summer. We are planning on running all 16, 1 a week
Very cool plan! hope it works out :)
Excellent guide. Cant wait to work these in to my campaign.
Thank you, Greg! Excited to hear how it turns out!
I have not made a clan yet but dungeons and dragons looks so fun and Bob your making it look even more fun than it did when I first heard of it!
I actually was not too excited about this book but the wife suprised me with it a while ago. I’m super excited after skimming through. So much cooler than I thought it would be and I cannot wait to read the book of the raven. Looove the idea of having a bunch of smaller adventures
Hope you enjoy it! :)
@@BobWorldBuilder so far so good. I beleive I’m going to drop Candlekeep into my own home brew world and use it like a global university. It’ll be everything it is but also a prestigious and highly admired place of arts and learning. It’s so perfect
i integrated candlekeep into a magic, teleporting library that also contains books that PCs can read to get bonuses to certain checks regarding knowledge about different parts of the world. I rewrite the story of each adventure to be a part of a small book that can be found inside the library in which the players will get sucked in. Its RNG if the tower plops down in the are theyre currently traversing, so im hoping theyll be excited to explore for new things every time they find it.
Thanks for the summary, it helps when deciding to buy.
That's exactly what I aimed to help with! Thanks for your support :)
Seems pretty good mix of types of adventures
Yes, definitely a diverse set of adventures! Even though they’re all meant to be mysteries, I think it’s a good collection that could work for a lot of styles
@@BobWorldBuilder definitely i am working up to run my first adventure lost mine of phandelver then i will pick a preset adventure book to buy if my first timers enjoy it. I am hoping they were hooked like me when i was younger
This was a frustratingly enjoyable clip to watch and listen to.
A...enjoyable because it critiques the book, provides insight, things to be mindful of along with where the book excels and maybe falls a little short 👍🏾 👌🏾
B...frustrating because i bought it for my son to give me for my birthday and now i have to wait three months to unwrap it 😡 😂
Hahah, well I'm glad you liked the video, and I wish you all the patience in the world! (but you could always buy it on D&D beyond too :P)
This is exactly what I was looking for ! Great video and a well earned subscribe! :D
I’m currently running this with a subtheme of combating a group disney themed criminals. It’s been a blast though my players take longer than one session per adventure.
Great vid!
I read Candlekeep and had a lot of the same problems with the adventures that you did (Particularly Book of Raven)... many of them have plot holes or are just more poorly written than i've come to expect from WotC. :(
In any case, this was a fantastic review! This is the first vid of yours i've seen and i immediately subscribed. Great work!
Thank you very much for your support! :)
I remember reading science fiction about a novel plague earlier in the pandemic.
The concept of this book is very intriguing offering a number of short adventures under the guise of mystery. I certainly could see future volumes, perhaps focusing on different themes? Still, It certainly has a more home brew, dmsguild feel to it, which may have contributed to some of the inconsistencies in format/structure. On one hand, it’s nice to see so many authors contribute their creative ideas, but on the other hand, it would be nice to see wotc tighten up on the format expectations and features (ex. appendix) that are indigenous to a higher quality publication. I am personally excited to run/play these, but honestly, a collection like this had a home many moons ago and I would LOVE to see its rebirth! The publication I am speaking of, of course, is dungeon magazine. For those unfamiliar, tsr and later wotc offered a subscription magazine of short adventures written by talented people who just wanted to share. It was amazing and included so many adventure gems in addition to ideas and concepts you could use in your own campaign. Is Candlekeep a test to see if they should bring it back? Probably not but I’d subscribe in a heartbeat. And yea, I know we live in the digital age, but aside from convenience, I still much rather see and feel the pages in my hand. So if wotc is listening, please keep the adventures coming, bring back the classics, and continue to provide a place for the dnd community, especially those who are super talented and creative to bring those ideas and stories to life. My vote is for dungeon magazine to return; but a quarterly or biannual book like candlekeep would be a close second. Thanks Bob for yet another awesome
Review!
Yes, I'm not sure if I'm just being over optimistic, but I feel like smaller volumes of regular content coming through WotC but by lesser known authors is an eventuality. The more BIG books they produce, the fewer people will be drawn to each one. A subscription for smaller materials just makes sense. I know Matt Colville is sorta doing this now with Arcadia, and I'm betting that WotC will follow his lead if it does well enough.
@@BobWorldBuilder I hope you are right. I have been pining for WotC to bring back the smaller modules, especially the classics. As invested as I am, it is difficult to get through the super modules fast enough before another super module is published. Besides, I enjoy variety, which is why I like modules such as Lost Mines of Phandelver, Icespire peak (I really enjoyed your series on that), Ghosts of Saltmarsh, and Tales From the Yawning Portal. Anyhow, thanks for the response and I look forward to future videos!
I decided to add this into my campaign. They're exploring an old castle that was ransacked by Orcs. The library is in tatters but the books remain, although most are extremely damaged. They find a secret compartment containing a magic canceling iron box. Inside is a book inscribed "Property of Candlekeep: warning do not remove". They are transported to the dungeon of Candlekeep and have been Cursed to be unable to leave the grounds by the book. The first quest is to find the "curse expert" to get it removed.
I can say that the first adventure in this book can go very different if you have a player that likes using identify on everything.
.
.
.
Cast "identify" on the statue, realised that is was in fact not just a statue, convinced NPC to leave it in mansion and not bring it outside... had to have the NPC get dragged away for questioning about where they had been to make PC's stuck in mansion and having to find the way out. And that made it so they could still talk to NPC after, and not you know... have to deal with resurection.
I wouldn't worry to much about the lack of adventure summaries if I were you lol. That's why I'm watching this video.
It's an interesting challenge to build a campaign out of this adventure. The plan as of now is to send an invitation to each of my players from the Avowed to come to Candlekeep and help shed light on a recent discovery - their names and the name of one of the Avowed in The Canopic Being.
They believe that it is a sign that one of Alaundo's more portentous prophecies is underway. The players are offered lodging and access to the works in the library for their own research while The Canopic Being is investigated, since the Avowed want to keep an eye on them, apparently being central figures in this prophecy. The players then get pulled into the Magnificent Mansion adventure.
I probably won't use all of the books. Right now I'm looking through other adventures for a good main storyline/BBEG.
I appreciate how Candlekeep Mysteries is designed to be pick and choose. That's how I like to build my campaigns.
Also thinking about combining the crashed gnome-flayer nautiloid ship in Rime of the Frostmaiden into Kandlekeep Deconstruction, for an added layer of silliness.
I haven't read this book cover to cover yet, so if it's mentioned within, oops. I immediately began looking for the section on what sorts of books a new visitor might bring as a form of admission payment, and where one might obtain such books. I'm planning to just give new characters books as part of their starting package, explaining to them that they located worthwhile books prior to setting out, because the town mage told them it would be required.
But it seems unlikely that the mage would cough up portions of his own library.
Always love your stuff, high quality and great overview. Only one slight criticism, and I mention it because your videos are normally of very high quality. Throughout this video you have a good bit of frame glitches, turning green or stuttering. Not a huge problem, just something worth mentioning.
Yeah I think it was an issue while exporting the video because I didn’t notice during editing the footage. I’m going to be more wary about those glitches for another long video coming up later this month. Fortunately for that one I have more time to work on it! This was pretty rushed to get it out quickly after the release
Thank you! This was very helpful
You're welcome! Thank you for watching and commenting!
Thank you! I've been meaning to look these over & see how easily I could adapt these to my home campaign.
Side note: The link to dscryb doesn't seem clickable, at least on mobile.
Fixed!! Thank you for the heads up, glad you’re finding the video useful too :)
Book of Inner Alchemy was my favorite for sure
I see that you also like to get the alternate cover editions!
Yeah, it started with Baldur’s Gate, then I skipped it for Frostmaiden but kinda wish I got it :P
Bob world builder is my best friend
The 1st level adventure sounds interesting as it’s like an escape room adventure.
I like the premise of the 2 level 4 adventures, maybe due to you biased review but I am definitely intrigued by the setting
The 10th level has a genie and a wish, definitely must run :D
The poetic ones like the 5th and 11th levels sound cool, the 5th level one reminds me of the anime spirited away.
The raven loft one at 3rd needs deeper review
And I do like the setting of you are cursed, now figure it out :)
Can’t wait for your guide on the adventures :)
Yeah overall I’m glad they had different writers for each one because we got a great variety of material! :)
I've really liked the first one so far. It's been a bit crazy getting schedule going. I wish he hadn't mentioned the command word as a spoiler. Sure, you can go about some of these a different way, and it just kind of naturally changed around when getting this into an actual campaign.
It's tough when you check out these reviews when people have bad reviews, because it seems pretty easy to switch stuff around to fit better with the way you play.
Anyways, back to the escape room, that's exactly what I was looking for, so it was awesome to find this at the time.
@@andrewl9191 enjoy
I have run the escape room as a DM and running it currently for another group
Everyone enjoyed it it is a light hearted adventure
I recommend taking most of these adventures and incorporating them into campaigns
I am incorporating a bunch of them into curse of Strahd which I plan to run soon for the 1st time
Should give more depth to the fantasy and horror of Barovia
thanks for the info. was thinking about blending this with strixhaven, but I think I'll just take the idea instead of buying 2 campaigns that I'm disappointed in.
The Price of Beauty. Hag covens are great villains, and even though it seems like every other published adventure has a hag villain (nana pupu/ sewn sisters ToA) it’s so hard to get them suitably wicked.
The night hag in strahd is especially wicked and fun too! they just make great baddies.
They are a true classic villain beyond RPGs!
i bought this book online, together with all the other campains, im planning to make these in a narrative and one long campain. im throwing in an ultimate bad guy and some sides quests in between some of the stories
Technically it says "a work of writing" to get into Candlekeep. I plan to have my adventurers get creative in the moment and write a poem, haiku, limerick, or other short writing as their way inside.
I want to somehow connect all these adventures together and run this whole book as you would a regular module. My initial idea is to make one of my players the Awoved guide described in the "Candlekeep" section, so that they can lead the rest of the party to finding these books one by one. However I'm not exactly sure how this will turn out, so would love to hear opinions and advice if you have any!
That’s a fun idea, but the main common thread would be the characters. While none of the stories are written to be combined, there are fey themes in a handful, so an overarching plot involving the feywild might be a helpful approach!
@@BobWorldBuilder That’s a great idea, thanks a lot!
My players have just graduated from a magic school (which was a one shot and now they want me to dm more lol) and I created this whole hub area where it's very video gamey and someone named the librarian is sending them into books to get objects of power.
@@saieshsurujbally6438 I ended up doing something similar. Now they are part of this secret organization called Candlekeep Bureau of Anomalies and their chief Matreus asks them to investigate odd cases related to books in exchange for treasures, reputation and possibly right of passage from the Emerald Gate. We are having a blast so far!
@@saieshsurujbally6438 I was thinking about running a similar campaign, based off the video game Myst.
26:43 One cool point is the choice the promise of that item presents, considering the conflict up until that point.
The Book of Inner Alchemy was a big reason I bought the book. I feel most D&D material is based on period European cultures and Western tropes, but there are so many wildly different fantasy archetypes and genres out there we don’t normally even hear of, and having something come from period Chinese culture and Wuxia fiction written by someone who understands the source material is too rare in 5e and perhaps English-language TRPG publishing in general. Hopefully Wizards’ strategy here of bringing in writers of varied backgrounds continues so we’ll have more chances to broaden the flavors of fantasy readily available for building our own games.
Thank you for this great review!
Had to stop due to too many spoilers but your content is outstanding
Yeah this video is like 80% spoilers! Thank you for tuning in! :)
Alkazaars appendix:
Why in gods name is it a dracolich? You can use those anywhere. I strongly reccomend replacing it by 1 or 2 phaerimm. It makes so much more sense in the setting and is a great spot to use those underused creatures.
Did you ever end up making more Candlekeep Mysteries videos? It seems you were planning to do DM Guides for each one based on what you say at the start of this video.
Great content
Something I have been struggling with, the Book doesn't seem to discuss the players starting equipment based on their level. They are designed to be both a totally isolated one-shot with new characters(at that level) or a drop into a larger campaign. However, in a drop in your characters are going to have many different items. So do I send in my players for a one shot with no magic items beyond starting equipment?
This will radically change balance, 6 level 14 characters with a mix of uncommon and rare magic itmes and even a few very rare items are radically more powerful then 6 level 14 characters with starting equipment. Mid campaign they are going to have those advantages of adventuring, but now what is best for them to have a fun time? Consider a fighter with starting equipment, and doesn't have any weapons that can deal magic damage, fighting creatures resistant to non-magical dmg. This single item completely rebalances this character. This feels like a major balance oversight.
Curious what people think, and if I should just use the DMG recommended progression for magic items per level of play, or maybe the guide in Xanathars. I am disappointed this doesn't seem discussed in the book, unless I missed it.
My very vague guideline is 1-2 magic items (per character) per tier. It totally depends on the rarity of the item though, as you said. And yeah, I imagine certain magic items could easily foil the mystery of some of these quests, so it would have been great if they included a section of recommended equipment or equipment to avoid
shemshime's bedtime rhyme
Excellent choice!
@@BobWorldBuilder its one from the book that even at the briefest glance had the most interesting going on with the title to go with it. I'm sure fully reading each adventure will reevaluate that.
Oh cool I bought this book thinking I could steal ideas for my campaign but I flipped through it quickly and thought "wait shit is this a campaign book?!?!" And shelved it for a few weeks until now when i said i'd run the "Candlekeep Mysteries campaign" only to have been fooled by my lack of understanding of d&d books
I ran a one-shot with the 'book entry' and my players really enjoyed the chance to do some creative writing to establish their characters -- even on a one shot. My advice is to give them a couple weeks notice. I disagree with your point at around 8:40 here, in fact I think that you might make things worse by springing it on the players right before they start. If you have to spring it on the players, write cool book descriptions for your players on cards and 'bestow' these gifts as you begin the story
.
Funny that I really liked Yellowcrest Manor, but thought Lore of Lurue was mediocre, and you thought the exact opposite! Guess the module is a success then lol
I really wish Wizards stopped doing the tear out maps and put them alongside the book plastified
I can't be the only one with a pretty justified fear of accidentaly ripping them off
I tear them a little every time lol
Do you think these could be run as full adventures rather than one-shots? I'm running the Beyond DoIP adventures and while I wanted to use the Ebondeath as the BBEG, I also wanted the campaign to last longer, so I was thinking about putting more adventures between SDW and DC. Zikran's Zephyrean Tome might work well for that.
They could definitely be added to other adventures, and some could probably stretched into several sessions
@@BobWorldBuilder I'll have to check it out to see which one's I'll be using in my current campaign. Thanks for responding.
Alkazaar's Appendix
Hi Bob! Love the video! Especially Shemshine's Bedtime Rhyme. However I do have a question about it...[Spoilers ahead for whoever hasn't read the adventure yet]
During phase 1, the adventure says Crinkle will hum the tune just like everyone. But due to Kenku's Mimicking ability, wouldn't it be the exact music from the book & not a hum? That would give the mystery away... that the kenku must be involved somehow..
Thanks! :) Maybe describing the speech specifically as humming is a way the author tried to get around that kenku feature. I think if the players got stuck, then you could use that mimicking to your advantage by describing the kenku's repetition as sounding like the mechanics of the book
Honestly this game probably only works for me because my players just happened to make charcters that perfectly fit the plot hooks.
That is very fortunate! :)
A lot of these quests have very detailed locations in the form of houses/mines/etc. and they seem tricky to run in a theater-of-mind style. Anyone got any tips?
Totally, to run those sorts of locations as ToM, you as the DM should try to reduce them to their main events/scenes. That way you can get a sense of what rooms/areas are "important." usually the movement between these areas is arbitrary. But if your players ask for a map, just show them the map as long as it doesn't giveaway those events.
Perfect if you want to have a Hogwarts themed d&d campaign.
Ooh that’s a great idea!
What’s the verdict? Buy or no buy
Don't buy it for $50 unless you're supporting your local gamestore, but it's definitely worth it for ~$35
@@BobWorldBuilder hmm do you recommend any other one shot books then? Also thanks for replying.
@@Jasonlol73 I've used several one shot modules from the Goodman Games: Fifth Edition Fantasy series! Can't remember if they're designed to be one shots, but that's how I've used and liked them! :)
Personally I cut bed time ryme. Already have a 4th level adventure and I'm getting too close to my campaign horror ceiling.
It's a great DM trait to know what to cut! Well done!
I saw LoadingReadyRun do this one. I was really looking forward to it, but they're limited on time and we're really slick about it like I imagined it. I think it can be pretty cool and it's a good contrast to the rest of the adventures. I mean, the only other 4th level one is also very suspenseful.
Long shot here, but is it still possible to get the alt cover?
My game store usually has special edition covers left over for several weeks, so probably!
@@BobWorldBuilder thank you sm!!
Wait... What? Are the Time Dragons hunting me down now? I'm only 2nd level! All I wanted to do was to earn enough money to open a local forge and get my wife some jewels to open her pawn shop.
I donna wanna fight no Time Dragon! Can we just hire some real adventurers for this mission?
Drinking game. Take a shot every time he forgets something that you came to know
I’m liking what I’m reading so far, but it makes me angry how terribly written Book of the Raven is. Nothing ties together in any sort of coherent way and fixing it seems like more hassle than just designing an original one-shot in some ways. It is deeply disappointing that WotC and Chris Perkins thought this was even nearly passable as an adventure
I am running Candlekeep Mysteries as a full blown campaign, doing one chapter at a time and connecting them with an larger story arch. I am about to run Book of the Raven. In prepping I am liking all the little details but trying to figure out how to connect it to everything else at candlekeep and how to give the story/npc's/family that the book of the raven includes some importance to my players. Why is the history of this family a concern of Cabdlekeeps? Definitely plot holes.
Do you think next time you could actually run the adventures from the books before reviewing, so that we could have an actual insight, rather than rushing to be the first person to get the views? Like come on man, that's just like the people who review video games while only playing the first 20% to get in before others.
I intentionally didn’t call this video a review for the reasons you described. As I did mention, I will be doing individual videos for the quests I actually run, but I don’t want to run this whole book. I have done a full series on DoIP, and I’m working on one for RotF if you’re interested in those books.
I think it's really pathetic for people to feel sensitive about stories about being quarantined. I want to remind you that quarantining wasn't the negative, but the solution to the negative of people dying