Rating: 
Summary: Well worth the wait
Review: I've been waiting for this release all summer, and I am well pleased. Let me say this, I was against a 3rd. edition of DnD from the beginning. Like many other DMs, I had all ready modified 2nd ed. to my liking and had worked out most of the rough edges on my own; however, like many other gamers, I couldn't resist picking up a copy of 3rd. ed. just to see what changes were made. I found myself liking it and believing that this is where DnD should have been twenty years ago. That being said, "Return" is a step in the right direction of what made AD&D great to begin with: Compelling Adventures. "Return" is just that. It takes the original module T1-4, uses it as a background and advances the story line into an interesting campaign. I must say, I was skeptic when I received the book in my mailbox and at first peek saw that it has one hell of a massive dungeon crawl. Having read it, I agree with those who've reviewed this before me. Mr. Cook has done an excellent job of making this a dynamic,long, dungeon trek that if run properly will not be your standard, "Kick down door, slay monster, take treasure, repeat". The environment reacts to the characters. Several of the areas could be revisisted, and would not be the same encounter twice. Overall, the story is solid. Old timers will enjoy finding refrences to several of the classic adventures from 1st ed. AD&D modules. The campaign takes players from 4th to 14th, but I've found that by starting earlier in the time line, and by expanding on the side trek options given in the book, I've been able to expand the adventure to begin at 1st level and go all the way to 14th. It is possible that events started with this campaign could take your players well beyond 14th with a little creativity on the DMs part as well. I all so think it is important to note that even though this is set in Greyhawk, I've adapted it to my own campaign world ("Birthright") with very little effort. Well worth the money.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent adventure.
Review: This is definitely the most enjoyable store bought module I've adventured in. Our group has had a lot of fun going through this one. There are two main features to this module that I enjoy the most: 1. Encounters are challenging. There appear to be very few of what I call "fluff" encounters. Most of them fully challenge the abilities of our group. In this respect, it gives everyone a chance to contribute to the success of the encounter, not just the fighter type characters. Rouges, wizards, clerics and bards can all play an important role. (Our bard has been especially helpful.) 2. Role playing opportunities. This adventure is not just a dungeon crawl with only combat. There are a number of encounters that can give the player characters a chance to practice role playing. I'd rather not say much more, because I don't want to spoil any surprises. I'll just add that there appear to be some plot lines that could extend beyond this adventure. Perhaps WotC is planning a sequel?
Rating: 
Summary: Well written, how fun it is depends on you
Review: You can visit www.montecook.com for discussion about errata and conversions to 3.5e. I've heard a lot of opinions that this module can degenerate into a series of hackfests, one battle after another. This may be true for DMs that lose their own interest in fleshing out the roleplay opportunities for this dungeon. Perhaps its huge scale and the long time required to finish it contributes to that. Perhaps the opportunities for roleplaying are too railroaded with what is necessary to complete it. I haven't personally played the dungeon myself but have been studying it. I'm interested to see how it comes together in an actual play session. Sometimes I just enjoy reading through it and allowing the story to take form (you sometimes have to read through it a number of times before you really start to understand how everything is accomplished, especially how the players can affect how NPC's deal with each other, making the whole thing seem more alive). All I'm saying is if you want to get the most out of what this campaign offers, you have to be familiar with all the little ways that the NPC's can contribute and interact with the PC's, and how the populations respond to the PC's actions. And that requires an intense familiarity with the material so that you don't miss any vital details as you play.
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