Keep on the Shadowfell (Dungeons & Dragons, Adventure H1) by Bruce Cordell, Mike Mearls Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Keep on the Shadowfell (Dungeons & Dragons, Adventure H1)
Book Review: A new adventure...
Summary: 4 Stars
Played the first part of this last night with my regular group.
The books themselves are soundly produced and well set out. Good descriptions of the locations and excellent primers for first time DM's (and reminders for older ones who have forgotten about things). The adventure itself is interesting, and the challenges so far are engaging. Kobolds are strong!
The best thing about the new system (you did realise that this was a D&D4 product?)is the fluidity it lends to combat. Once the players realise the possibilities and the potential for mobility in combat then the fights start to sprawl and move around. Don't get isolated! As a DM it is simple to run and the players do much of the book-keeping themselves (if you trust them!).
The battle maps are fab. It will be hard I think to run this game without some form of marker for the fights. We use a wipe-clean notice board with a grid, and drywipe pens usually. THe maps made an attractive change. They are not required for inventive groups but the system does lead strongly in that direction. Wizards are keen to push their miniatures and good luck to them.... BUT - you don't have to buy them. Make a choice as a group and work with it. We have used dice for years along with my aging Warhammer collection and the miniatures from the D&D board game (available from all sorts of places at a knock down rate). Heroquest dudes have also shown up from time to time!
So... Good quality, engaging ideas, fun system. Some irritating gaps in the rules primer (How much do things cost? Does standing from prone provoke an attack of opportunity?) but if you want to play 4th Ed then this isn't a bad place to start. You could always wait for the main rules of course and use imagination. But this takes a lot of work out of preparing adventures and I guess that's the point.
Book Review: D&D is fun to play again, WOOT! :)
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm a "perpetual" Dingeon Master, the schlub who writes the games and runs them.... 3.5 ed D&D was awesome, a brilliant simulation design of fantasy gaming, but it had one huge problem: it was hellishly complex to run!
I've got M.E., nasty illness, stress is bad mojo for me, and DMing 3.5 ed games was big stress...so I had to call it a day after 20 odd years of DMing, sigh. :(
4th ed seems to be exactly what I've been needing: much simplified, but still fun and lots of (quick) strategic, D&Ding! Yaaaaaaay! :)
This adventure is well written out. I think the latter 2nd edition end days showed how NOT to do things, as back then, the quality of layout/print was IMHO, poor, compared to the highs of early 2nd ed. 3rd ed improved things again, and by end of 3.5, the way they had seperated encounters out, with neat maps and monster stats, was a brillaint change and improvement.
Keep on the Shadowfell goes even better:
-Full colour layout inside. This feels a very excellently designed (art wise and readability) product.
-Full sized poster maps of all the locatiosn ot play on your table, very neat!
-colour map insert on each page noting where enemies should start from. The colour and larger size mini-map than 3rd ed means it's easier for DMs to get the jist of things.
My only complaint is that the booklets are printed on paper stock that's too thin!! Easily damaged and print ink can smear. A shame because the standard of layout is excellent. As an "old school" DM, going from the densely printed, with almost no layout mess that was 1st ed stuff, to this over the year, it's a very sweet evolution. My hobby is very slick and well made now.
The adventure is standard D&D fair, but good fun, perfect introduction on how to play the game and what it's about.
I agree with previous reviewer that some extra rules would help, like "prone to standing" and such, but the Player's Handbook with full rules has already been released (by accident! in the USA) so we'll soon have full adjudication.
The basic 4th ed rules included with this are fine and cover most things.
Miniatures or counters for them greatly help. My collection of WOTC plastic minis and older hand painted metal minis are cpming out of the cupboard again *happy sighs*
if you wish to try a game that ISN'T around a computer, play with pals in fantasy worlds around your table, try this as a starter :)
To paraphrase Minsc: "D&D FOR EVERYONE!" ;)
My site, with lots of my D&D art etc:
www.silverblades-suitcase.com
Book Review: Quick to start, extremely long to run.
Summary: 3 Stars
This is the first 4th edition Dungeons & Dragons product with some pre-generated characters (5) and quick rules to play the game (as well as some beautiful maps).
The game is really easy to pick up, although there are some rules that need a lot of careful reading before they are understood in all their possible applications, and the are a lot of rules missing for simple things like disarm, bull rush, pin, etc.
The good thing of the system is that it offers a lot of abilities for all players and fun for the DM too (especially the DM I would say), but (regarding this adventure):
1) Monsters are overpowered (and oversmart) and with hellish abilities and equipment. Expect kobolds that fire incendiary sling bullets that inflict as much as a short sword and then some.
2) Some encounters are excessively too difficult and seem even asinine (a goblin [Irontooth] killing 5 players that play reasonably well just because he is an "Elite" is ludricous, in real life he would be pinned down and eaten with BBQ sauce).
3) Certain monster abilities seem a bit too much (kobolds able to move just because you move?)
All in all the system has got some potential, and certainly it's too early to judge it before the 3 rulebooks are released, but some of the tougher encounters are badly designed (the ones with the Elite monsters), and an Elite encounter can take as much as 5-6 hours to be resolved by 5 players (all experienced that are also quite quick to decide and that play together well) just to end up with their collective death. Not so fun.
Please note that this is not a review based by one bad encounter, but something that has happened in the game quite a few times.
Book Review: I've got a bad feeling about this...
Summary: 1 Stars
...and I've had it ever since they announced 4th edition D&D. Having finally had a chance to look at an actual example of the new system I can honestly say it looks to be a putrid puddle of stinking dog vomit. This is not the game I've been playing since 1978 and frankly, I don't want to know. 3rd edition wasn't perfect, but anything is better than this travesty. Maybe I'll try Castles & Crusades or just stick with 3.5 rules. Sorry Wizards of the Coast, but you've got it dead wrong this time.Book Review: High Quality Content, Low Quality Manufacture
Summary: 3 Stars
Ok, so 4E is on the horizon and Keep on the Shadowfell gives us an insight into the new ruleset.
I have been playing D&D for 15 years now, but I am going to reserve judgement of the actual 4E rules until I have the corebooks. So this review is based purely on the content of the first published adventure, Keep on the Shadowfell.
The plot looks well constructed, with some interesting NPC's. It does appear to be a little too linear, but the first full playthrough will determine that for certain. There are a lot of combat situations, I wonder whether this is a by-product of the new ruleset or specific to this adventure.
But aside from this, the quality of the manufacture of the product if poor. THe outer card folder is nice, a little flimsy but good artwork. But the actual adventure and informatin books inside the folder are of very poor quality. They are paperback in the worst sense of the words, with the covers being the same thickness paper as the content and they damage and tear and fold extremely easily. NOt up to Wizards of the Coast usual high quality packaged product at all, and a little dissapointing. Previous editions in paper back have been in a sturdy card bound book, this is not so good.
So the content looks ok, above average, but a definite point loss for the quality of the actual product.