Steading of the Hill Giant Chief

Phaezen

First Post

• Dec 14, 2011

• #1

Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Article (Steading of the Hill Giant Chief) by Chris Perkins has gone live on the DDI site.

THe Design and Development companion article is also up Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Game Official Home Page - Article (Big Shoes To Fill)

 

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Prism

Explorer

• Dec 14, 2011

• #2

So far, from what I have read, it looks great. I really like the way the encounter areas are combined with perception checks used to bring opponents from nearby rooms into the brawl. The main hall is still as hard as ever with the nice option of switching into a skill challenge mid battle. Nice use of minions by turning lower levels creatures into minions of about 5 levels higher - something I do a fair bit in my own creations

The maps are excellent and great advice about reinforcements during extended rests, and small details like a mundane treasures table e.g Metal helm (used as a bowl) and wooden spoon

 

Pour

First Post

• Dec 14, 2011

• #3

I stayed up last night and read through the Design & Development, as well as the adventure itself, and felt compelled to be a little late to work to write this. Color me really impressed. I mean it's no surprise given the author, but to have such a passion to convert this on his own time and the fortitude to continue on through the G series -and add his own-, then the generosity to release it (the whole of the series equivalent to a 160 pg book) is astounding.

This first adventure suggests this four part series will easily trump the Revenge of the Giants hardcover. The design, mechanical, and flavor quality are all there. This will likely become an instant classic.

I love how this is DDI only, as well, as I truly feel my subscription has netted me something wonderful. I am seriously tempted to pause my campaign to play this. The maps are beautiful, the encounters exciting, the plot thrilling as Gary envisioned while also adding Perkin's flair, and the Design and Development was a real treat to read- like the writer and director's commentary at the end of Boardwalk Empire episodes.

Just one day before my birthday, what a gift!

 

Matt James

Game Developer

• Dec 14, 2011

• #4

For those not aware, this is a beast of an adventure conversion. 28 pages in all.

 

Klaus

First Post

• Dec 14, 2011

• #5

Matt James said:

For those not aware, this is a beast of an adventure conversion. 28 pages in all.

Click to expand...

With two ginormous maps!

 

Zaran

Adventurer

• Dec 14, 2011

• #6

Yeah, this is what I want from Dungeon. The pansy 4 page adventures that we were getting all year just aren't worth the time to me. I really wish they would put out more adventures in the store but this is a good alternative. I'll probably definately use this.

 

Nemesis Destiny

Adventurer

• Dec 14, 2011

• #7

Smaller adventures have their place, but it's nice to see a whopping monster like this every now and then (one a month in perpetuity would be nice).

This is worth the cost of admission for the maps alone, even if you ditch the rest of the module.

 

KidSnide

Adventurer

• Dec 14, 2011

• #8

I'd also like to chime in that this style of adventure is fantastic -- exactly the sort of thing we should see in Dungeon. Each of the pieces can be used independently, or they can be combined into a meaningful paragon-dominating adventure path. At the same time, they only dominate the magazine for 4 months (unlike Scales of War), so there is room for other types of adventures.

I agree that there's room for smaller adventures also, but I really wish Dungeon would make it a general practice to publish two 3-5 month mini-paths of this length every year. A mixture of original adventures and classic conversions would be pretty awesome too.

-KS

 

Bold or Stupid

First Post

• Dec 15, 2011

• #9

This looks awesome. I shall run the series as a whole at some point.

 

AbdulAlhazred

Legend

• Dec 15, 2011

• #10

Yeah, this is the kind of thing that has kind of been missing for a good while now.

In terms of it should be for sale, well, a 1 month DDI sub is $10. Sure, you get PDFs, not hardcopy, but even as a PDF the thing would probably be priced at more than $10. Just wait for the whole thing to be out, pick up a month of DDI and download it (well, and all the other goodies you might want, those short adventures may not be all that meaty, but actually a lot of them are pretty handy stuff to have around).

I'll second the hope that more of this sort of stuff shows up. It would be pretty cool to have a super-adventure for each classic monster foe type. There could be a dragon one, a mind-flayer one, a beholder one, and orc one, etc.