Rating: 
Summary: A Great Adventure
Review: Finally, an adventure not in a dungeon! Excellent. The adventure takes place in a city, and you must use your charisma and people skills to get the information you need and find out what is happening. You can even download extras off the official D&D website. Excellent adventure!
Rating:
Summary: provides good starting point, but needs some work
Review: I have enjoyed each of the adventures in this series, except for forge. But they all share a common problem, they are just not interesting enough on thier own and need things to be added in order to fully hook the PC's.I was very glad that this adventure didnt take place in another dungeon, at least it seemed like it didnt. Now it didnt involve any 'dungeons' it was pretty much just traveling around the city going from building to building, each were their own little mini-dungeoncrawls. In my opinion the adventure as written didnt take advantage of all the interesting things that having the adventure take place in a city affords. Also, the main villian of the whole thing made very little sense. When you read about him and his history and why he is doing what he is doing it kind of makes sense, but to the PC's who just bust down a door and see some octopus man, it makes no sense at all. When I played this I had it take place in the PC's home town and involve thier family. When the Baron became evil it affected them even more becuase he was their uncle, when the church burned and the head preist taken captive it was more shocking becuase he was the father to one of the PC's. They werent just helping out a town they encountered in thier travels, they were saving thier own town and families from a demon invasion. This may not be right for everyone's campaign setting but is just an example of how the adventures need to be tweeked in order for them to be good.
Rating:
Summary: provides good starting point, but needs some work
Review: I have enjoyed each of the adventures in this series, except for forge. But they all share a common problem, they are just not interesting enough on thier own and need things to be added in order to fully hook the PC's. I was very glad that this adventure didnt take place in another dungeon, at least it seemed like it didnt. Now it didnt involve any 'dungeons' it was pretty much just traveling around the city going from building to building, each were their own little mini-dungeoncrawls. In my opinion the adventure as written didnt take advantage of all the interesting things that having the adventure take place in a city affords. Also, the main villian of the whole thing made very little sense. When you read about him and his history and why he is doing what he is doing it kind of makes sense, but to the PC's who just bust down a door and see some octopus man, it makes no sense at all. When I played this I had it take place in the PC's home town and involve thier family. When the Baron became evil it affected them even more becuase he was their uncle, when the church burned and the head preist taken captive it was more shocking becuase he was the father to one of the PC's. They werent just helping out a town they encountered in thier travels, they were saving thier own town and families from a demon invasion. This may not be right for everyone's campaign setting but is just an example of how the adventures need to be tweeked in order for them to be good.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a bad story, but a little incomplete
Review: I just ran this adventure for our party. We hadn't done a city adventure before, and they found it to be a very different experience. The story was good enough, though not spectacular, and the action was varied - the party encountered a large number of different challenges. My biggest complaint was that while preparing the adventure, I found it a bit incomplete. Specifically, there are a couple characters that aren't described in the appendix, so I had to fill in some stats on my own. It's not that this was hard work, but having bought the module, I expected it to be complete.
Rating:
Summary: Not as good as the first two
Review: I suppose the reason this adventure doesn't come off as well is that I have a heard time figuring out why all these disparate elements are working together. Some are because of direct mind control and others... ?? It's a big mish-mash of monsters working together. This alone, the implausability of the enemies, is what garners the 3 stars. That aside, the adventure is very well structured with a nice flowchart on the last page for the flow of the story. This is the first official story-based adventure (as opposed to Citidel and Forge which were site-based) and it is executed nicely. The story-based system allows the PC's to wander more and do what they want and allows for a more dynamic setting where things seem to be happeneing all the time. As an added bonus, Wizards has posted bonus material in PDF format on their official site that has added flavor material for running the adventure. This material isn't necessary, but it will make it easier for less experienced DM's to run the adventure effectively.
Rating: 
Summary: Highly engaging city adventure
Review: If there was one bad thing to say about this adventure, it's that it was too good! The DM has to work hard to get the full value of this module because there is so much going on at the same time. The reward is well worth the effort though, as your players will light up at the feeling of being immersed in a city where things are going on all around them whether they are looking or not. This story-driven adventure is a nice change from an event driven dungeon where sometimes you get the feel that the monsters were "in stasis" waiting for PC's to show up and deal with them. This adventure is full of plots, side-plots, plot-twists, rumors, and red-herrings and it is a lot of fun for the group to try and separate fact from wives tale, important from meaningless, to slowly uncover the trail that leads to what is really going on.
Rating:
Summary: Highly engaging city adventure
Review: If there was one bad thing to say about this adventure, it's that it was too good! The DM has to work hard to get the full value of this module because there is so much going on at the same time. The reward is well worth the effort though, as your players will light up at the feeling of being immersed in a city where things are going on all around them whether they are looking or not. This story-driven adventure is a nice change from an event driven dungeon where sometimes you get the feel that the monsters were "in stasis" waiting for PC's to show up and deal with them. This adventure is full of plots, side-plots, plot-twists, rumors, and red-herrings and it is a lot of fun for the group to try and separate fact from wives tale, important from meaningless, to slowly uncover the trail that leads to what is really going on.
Rating: 
Summary: Highlights some of the best that D&D has to offer
Review: One of the design principles for this first not-series of adventures for the new D&D game (The Sunless Citadel, Forge of Fury, The Speaker in Dreams, The Standing Stone...) has been that the adventures should highlight features of the game, serving as models for future adventures to come and training DMs in good adventure design. That said, here are a few of the things you'll find in The Speaker in Dreams: * The adventure is story-based, a style of adventure that is difficult to pull off well. The new Dungeon Master's Guide talks a bit about story-based adventures, and suggests using a flowchart as if it were a dungeon map. That's exactly what this adventure does: the main map is a story flowchart, although smaller sites within the city are mapped and keyed as well. * Though it's story-based, it stays close to the dungeon style of play. It's loaded with action, and includes "mini-dungeons" within the city. * Shows off the rules for designing cities with a fleshed-out example. Note that even more information about the city in which the adventure is set will appear on the Wizards web site when this adventure is released. (I had to cut a lot of words from the manuscript!) The adventure models a living city with NPCs, and highlights some of the important elements of city encounters. * As a city adventure, it really gives characters with high Charisma scores (and ranks in Diplomacy, Bluff, and Gather Information) a chance to shine. Bards and clerics should be especially happy. * Since the adventure is designed to take characters from 5th to 7th level, it includes information about recruiting cohorts and followers, since characters gain that option at 6th level. What better place to recruit followers than a city, and what better way to do it than by making friends in the course of a city adventure? I had a lot of fun writing this adventure, and the folks I know who have been playtesting it have also had a great time. There are villains in here who, if the playtests are any indication, will be talked about for a long time to come. Have fun!
Rating: 
Summary: Threat not credible. Rairoad track plot. Bland setting.
Review: The author of this 'adventure' has attempted to dismiss criticism by acting as if players disliked the fact that it was 'plot-based' rather than site based. This is not what people are complaining about though, and I hope the people at Wizards are listening. I'm quite angry actually- and feel as though I wasted my money and time. I don't think the adventure can be saved without rewriting it from scratch, and we have elected to leave it unplayed. Our playdays are too precious and too few to waste. While the author claims this to be a plot-based adventure rather than a site-based (supposedly free roaming rather than locked in and steered by dungeon walls), the so-called plot is so rigid and linear that the offers fewer choices for players than the average dungeon crawl. The encounters in the town appear to have been chosen randomly, with no thought given to building a theme or ambience, unlike The Sunless Citadel, which did it very well, and a number of quality Dungeon magazine adventures, or The Tomb of Horrors, and other such quality adventures. Details people, details! A few economically chosen words or description can give us the unique flavour of this town, as opposed to any town. That uniqueness is one thing that helps players to believe that they care why they are there. Sadly, this could be any town. The story doesn't build. A good plot-based adventure would reveal clues to the greater 'puzzle', so players can gradually get a sense of what is going on and enjoy solving the mystery through sessions and talking about them between sessions. But Speaker uses the 80's Donkey Kong video-game formula, where one encounter points only in the direction of the next, until finally in the last battle, the plot (what there is of it) is revealed to the players. Also, being so linear, it is very easy for players to pull the game completely off track by visiting one of the obvious encounter sites way too early. The 'surprise false ending' is ridiculous and I think would be difficult to play. I mean, imagine what happens when you play it. It's 3am, the Cheezy bowl is empty and everyone's tired. You've just wrapped a boring adventure, the town has feasted, and you've read the epilogue. Now everyone is yawning, stretching and snapping their books shut ' then you tell them that no, everything they've done is worthless, because monsters are walking the streets now. They need to play 1 or 2 more games of this to finish. Lastly, let's talk about the villain. The villain and his plan is the engine behind any plot-based adventure or action story plot. Think of your favourite adventure movies ' Die Hard or Wrath of Khan for example. They had strong, intelligent villains. Now try to remember a villain from a forgettable one, like Under Seige 2, or Hard Target. See? It's so important to have a great villain in a plot-based adventure. Sadly, this is really lacking here. Semi-spoilers ahead, so stop reading if you don't want to see them. When the villain is finally "revealed" I'm left with more questions than answers. The villian's "plan" made me wonder, if the players hadn't shown up, would it have had any impact on anyone but the town in which it was set? Even in the context of Greyhawk, I don't get why some apparently genius, dark dwelling denizen would suddenly say, 'I'm going to take over the world!' starting his global conquest by dominating the people of an inconsequential small rural town! Even if you did, wouldn't you try to keep the demons from walking in broad daylight until you had a better hold on things? Why THIS town? Upon reading the final page, I wondered, if the party hadn't shown up in the town, would it have affected their world in the slightest bit? Not really ' the threat isn't credible, neither is the setting, and the plot is a railroad track of seemingly random encounters. Your money is better spent on Dungeon Magazine.
Rating:
Summary: Best City Adventure I've Seen
Review: This adventure kept my party busy, hurting, and confused
for weeks! There are so many things going on at the same
time that the adventurers just kept running all the time...
I heartily recommend this module for DMs and parties who want
a change from dungeon crawls and wilderness treks. Most of
my players have hated "town" for years, but Speaker in Dreams
has shown them how fun it can be. And it's helped to show
me an interesting and fun way to run an adventure in "town".
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