X7 War Rafts of Kron Review - Dungeons and Dragons BECMI module 

A very fair review. As I think I said elsewhere, this was one of the few adventures i got back in the day but we never played it because it seemed a right faff. I think it's flawed for most of the reasons you describe. It does turn up again later though as a suggested side quest in X10. A way to get Minrothad to fight against the Master of the Desert Nomads. The underwater rules and monsters are good - I believe the latter at least were in the original Expert set but left out of the 83 edition. BECMI level drain is an eternal conundrum. I think level drain is often unfair, but if you don't have it then a load of Undead become not scary and a bit pointless. I can think of two options. Allow a save Vs Death Ray to each successful hit. Alternatively, let them drain a point of an ability score or two. STR+CON is a possibility, with double drain for the Spectre and Vampire (ie 2 points from each). House Rule as appropriate to your preference 🙂

I suppose being barebones allows it to be adapted easier to home campaigns, though I do prefer a completed product. B4 - The Lost City was excellent until the end, especially the boss fight with Zargon, was left up to the DM to flesh out, which always bothered me. All of the water elements and encounters of X7 sound very appealing, especially the giant and submersible boat, so I'll probably get this at some point. Thanks for the review!

I played OD&D back in the day but never came across this adventure. I have the POD version now. I will incorporate it into my current campaign, but I agree it does need a bit of work to get the characters into the adventure

You would think having an undersea adventure would be fun. Definitely not something you deal with on a regular basis in Dungeons and Dragons or any game system for that matter. I am shocked you are playing 5E with these adventures. I feel that 5E isn't the right system to run these games with but then again I feel 5E isn't Dungeons and Dragons lol.