Any new DM's here that have run Keep on the Shadowfell?

[wedgeski]

Forked from: Running 4e published adventures (some spoilers)

I'd be very interested to hear stories from new or new-ish DM's who have run H1 Keep on the Shadowfell for their group... or any of the H-series, for that matter.

Did you run the adventure as written? If so, how did you find it? If not, how did you change it, and why?

Edit: Note I've already DM'd the module and had to mod it heavily for my group. I'm interested in whether new DM's who might not have seen the adventure's weaknesses ran it as-written, and what they thought of it.

[Mathew_Freeman]

I think the best thing I can advise is to read the Story Hours in that forum (hey, look, I happen to write one... ) and do some hunting through this very forum. There are plenty of threads on KotS.

For myself, and just quickly, I'd say that the actual Keep itself can get a bit long, so you might want to cut out a few encounters if your players seem to be losing interest. I cut out the kruthiks, the oozes and some of the hobgoblins, along with the trap room and ghoul'n'zombie combo downstairs. We've just got the Underpriest and Kalarel left to fight!

I'd also note that Splug is a great little comedy character and should be used to his cringing, worshipping, boot-licking maximum.

[wedgeski]

Thanks for the reply! I've actually already finished KotS and found I had to modify it somewhat to be an effective module for my own group... I'm interested in whether new DM's who might not have seen the adventure's weaknesses ran it as-written, and what they thought of it.

I'll mod the OP to make this clearer. Good idea about the Story Hours though.

[Obryn]

In both KotS and Thunderspire, the "BBEG" needs to make appearances before the module's climax.

In KotS, Kalarel just doesn't do anything. He never interacts with the PCs until they're kicking his ass or vice-versa. The first time I ran it, I just let this go. It worked out as a decent module anyway.

I'm running it a second time for another group and have already started adding more direct links to Kalarel. I have some events planned out...

(maddman - stay out )

Spoiler:

(1) A kidnapping. The plan is the flaky elf flower-girl - I forget her name - will be kidnapped near the keep.
(2) She'll be sent back in a new and improved savory undead flavor - or just a wight or something wearing her skin - along with a box o' wraiths. Delivered straight to Winterhaven, as an emissary of Kalarel. "OK, you guys are pissing me off. Stop or you all die."
(3) More direct events involving Ninaran before she plays Necromancer.
(4) More bad stuff should happen to Winterhaven.

In short, it has the bones of a really awesome adventure; they just need some fleshing-out.

In Thunderspire...

Spoiler:

I added a "midnight" raid on the Halfmoon Inn. Norkers and an Enigma of Vecna burned the place to the ground, courtesy of Paldemar. Since they like the Halfmoons, it gave some added motivation to the PCs.

Again, some good stuff - but it needs improvement.

-O

[Nebulous]

I just wanted to say that i'm introducing the bad guy from Thunderspire much sooner than i did in Shadowfell, and i'm working it in so that they knew each other. I think i got that idea from another thread; he and Kalarel were rivals ("My evil god is better than your evil god! Jerk...")

[Pseudopsyche]

I ran the Eberron conversion of H1 to start my first ongoing campaign (in any edition). My players had voiced an interest in story over hack-and-slash, so I knew from the outset that I wouldn't run it as written. They managed to stumble upon Splug in their second encounter in the keep, so he directed them straight towards the crypts. The PCs, two tieflings, a dragonborn, an eladrin in a setting where I said all three races were extraordinarily rare, talked their way past the first encounter of hobgoblins, posing as more of Kalarel's henchmen. The hobgoblins, of course, directed them straight to the cathedral. They slogged through the trap room, which ran so poorly I just excised the room of undead immediately afterwards. The encounter against the underpriest was fun, but after Kalarel teleported into the magic circle in the final encounter, the eladrin wizard promptly thunderwaved him into the portal. That encounter had begun to grind anyway, so I was happy to see it end. (I had already scaled the encounter back significantly to give four level 2 PCs a chance.)

The players also seemed glad to be done with the dungeon crawling. I'm definitely glad that this group in particular skipped half the encounters in the keep. In hindsight, I wish I had done more to bring the dungeon to life and for the PCs to find more story inside. One of the best encounters I ran was almost completely improvised. The PCs had camped outside the entrance and heard a hobgoblin party (from the barracks room) approaching with a bunch of slaves to be sacrificed. The PCs got to ambush the hobgoblins and roleplay what to do with the rescued villagers.