Each of the five locations is described in detail, with secrets to uncover and optional threats to engage party members who are getting sick of just investigating. The adventure presents a lot of material to aid the DM while running the investigation. What is in common between each of them is bad luck, and that’s what the players get to discover as they investigate. Sometimes there is, and sometimes there isn’t. Describing them as “murders” would be wrong because there’s not always a culprit.
After the characters are alerted to strange things happening in their city – it’s not set in any particular named city – they get to investigate five mysterious deaths. I am particularly impressed by how it handles the initial investigations. The adventure does a lot of things very right. At its heart, it is an investigative adventure set in the Forgotten Realms, where the heroes must face a force of chaos and – especially – bad luck. The Queen of Spades is a Dungeons & Dragons adventure for level 7 characters that should last from eight to sixteen hours.
