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: Good intro but weak adventure
Summary: 2 Stars
Keep on the Shadowfell was suppose to be a prelude to D&D 4th Edition even before the core books are released. Hence, in the adventure it contains a short rule guide, the adventure itself and maps for the game. It comes in a slipcase file.
I'll keep my review in point form to make it readable.
Good:
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(1) Combat in the sense of 4th edition (i'm not going into discussion of the merits and demerits of 4th Ed D&D) is pretty well conceived
(2) Maps is a bonus
(3) Not much flaws in the flow (as it's kept really simple)
Bad:
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(1) Poor quality paper and binding. The last page of the adventure booklet is part of the adventure. Can't even provide a proper cover to protect it.
(2) Poor storyline (imagine the real story behind the Paladin Keegan is not much difference from the public story; was it any shocker?!?) You got to come up with something. On page 32, there was some advice but not enough for a newbie DM to try out this module
(3) Several mistakes (STR 18 gives +5 damage bonus but the damage on Irontooth battleaxe is only 1D8+4, wrong label on the map as noted in the adventure; adventure shows goblin sharpshooters as represented by G but map shows S). This should have been playtested and spotted. I found it even by just reading through it. Can imagine how bad the QA is on WoTC.
(4) Flat gameplay.
Book Review: Must Have
Summary: 5 Stars
To start off, the module is extremely well written and I was very happy as I read it from cover to cover. The quickstart guide and pregenerated characters were a nice bonus as well. The maps itself are very detailed and well created. Overall I am very happy with this product and looking forward to the next module in this line
Now for the flipside. If you are new to D&D 4th edition, I do recommend buying this but you will not have a map for every encounter (mainly the dungeon level). Investing in dungeon tiles are a great asset to overcome this. Besides that, as mentioned by other people, the covers for these modules are paper magazine type which is kind of dissapointing. I was holding the manual and walking from point A to B and thats when I realized my hand had made a hand print on the cover which kind of shows that this module is not going to stand up to the test of time (or at least frequent use) before falling apart. Besides that, no other real things to be considered negative. The module itself is outstanding
Book Review: Nice starting point for D&D 4th edition
Summary: 4 Stars
This adventure is a nice start for playing D&D 4th edition, although I would recommend other adventures to a more experienced Dungeon Master. The adventure is set in a nice slip-case, and comes with several poster-sized maps for use with miniatures. It also ships with quick-play rules for the D&D 4th edition.
The adventure itself is simple, but in a classic way. Some of the NPCs presented could definitely became icons in your campaign.
Book Review: Keep on the Shadowfell is an ok starter adventure
Summary: 3 Stars
First off let me say that keep on the shadowfell is not without flaws. It has plenty of them but is still a good introductory adventure for those who want to play a premade 4th edition campaign. Let me seperate this review into two sections...the good and the bad. Ill start off with the bad.
SPOILERS BELOW
CONS:
The paper material is low grade in quality.
The quickstart rules are incomplete and hard to play a complete game with (no prices for loot and other small details that would have been easy to include)
The premades are nothing special but should do the trick for the first time player.
Mistakes abound throughout the adventure book.
Starts out with an ambush...(the new inn starting spot...cliche)
Campaign hooks are weak and have to be changed and are barely adequate for new players.
Mage trying to open a portal. (Seems every campaign is about this now days)
NPC's are bland and have to be livened up.
Not for the season vet but too much work for the beginner
Need dungeon tiles for the dungeon battles (but thats standard now days, most newbie players and dms dont own these)
Pros
Fun encounters (even the kobold battles)
Some tough encounters early on...some may see this as a con but ups the intensity early.
Winterhaven is a good starter type town that can be fully fleshed out by an experienced dm to make it an interesting and fun place.
The second half of the adventure is a standard dungeon crawl that new players can enjoy(but tough for a new dm.)
cool maps for most outside encounters and big end battles(some are reprinted from other wotc products)
Spoilers end
In closing if you are an experienced dm with new players then Keep on the shadowfell is great but if your players are experienced rpgers they may find it a bit underwhelming. They will still probably have fun but a lot of work needs to be done in order to make Kots a great play experience for anyone other than new players. However, for all of its faults there is a lot here to build on. Lame campaign hooks and quality of paper aside I still feel that its worth the 20.00 price tag but 30.00 for it is just too much.
Book Review: More of the same, but worse
Summary: 2 Stars
This fold out adventure with light magazine quality paper and maps is hardly robust either physically or story-wise. Simply not worth the RRP.
The paper module has no cover and after only one evening of flicking through it, mine was already threatening to become greasy abstract art separate from the rest of the stapled pages; a gloss cover on heavy grade paper would have been nice.
The large maps are incomplete: probably because a basic dungeon can be represented by the separate, but very worthwhile, Dungeon Tiles product. Unfortunately this product is unavailable at this time so one is stuck to having to mount photocopies onto cardstock using Clag glue.
The adventure itself is trope ridden: The spy, the evil cleric, the ancient temple; All very "Keep on the Borderlands" or "Village of Homlet", but without the scope or novelty of these adventures of a bygone era.
The mechanics are also dodgey as might be expected from a pre-release module: certain important elements from monster descriptions are omitted (which is fine if you refer to the core rules), or inconsistencies in things like the pre-generated characters (which arise when you have the core rules).
That being said, the module does have some nice features: It's nice to see some choice phrases by NPCs that help in character portrayal; the questioning of NPCs by a ghost also shows a very nice interaction between ROLE playing and ROLL playing; it's not Monty Haul although it does seem a little tight on the treasure; the monsters may not have complete descriptions, but do present an interesting sample of powers which communicate a change in the nature of the 4Ed. game play. These fail to redeem however.
I should have not bothered with an introductory module that was so significantly priced when compared to the core rules books. WOTC should have given a discount on this as well or packaged it with the core rules. You'd be better off forum whoring and converting an old D&D Basic Module or Dungeon Magazine. One-and-a-half stars.