Why is H1 coming out a month before the PHB?

I was really excited for this when it was first announced, but now with there only being a 2 week gap between its release and the release of the full rules I'm starting to have second doubts about getting it. Why? First off, it's $30 and probably half of it will be repeated in the phb. Secondly, it's gimped. There's going to be no way to generate characters with it, so it's not going to be as useful as a real basic set. Thirdly, I have yet to buy or play in a wotc module that I've really liked. Not matter the author, wotc seems incapable of producing the type of adventure I enjoy. Goodman and Necromancer are much more in tune with me.

So if I can make my Will save against the shiney, I think I can wait a couple of extra weeks.

Wolfspider said:

To make WotC bucketloads of money from eager fans who want a substantive preview of what's to come in the main rulebooks.

Click to expand...

And it will work. You all know it.

One reason I really want H1 is because I want to see how the new 4e "thinking" regarding encounters and challenges has informed adventure design.

Dragonblade said:

One reason I really want H1 is because I want to see how the new 4e "thinking" regarding encounters and challenges has informed adventure design.

Click to expand...

Won't we get a better idea of that from the dmg? Beginner dungeons rarely have any new ideas.

Heres the answer from Mike Mearls himself;


Hey!

Yes, H1 will come with a party of five pre-generated characters. There will be enough rules in the adventure to go up to level 3. It's meant as an intro product for people who already play D&D.

- Mike


Quote:
Originally Posted by eleran
I know you are all really busy. I was just wondering if H1, Keep on the Shadowfell, will come with pregen characters or will players make their own characters?

Thanx for all your hard work. Cant wait to see what 4e has in store for us.

__________________
---
Mike Mearls
Lead Developer, Dungeons & Dragons R&D
Friend to norkers, ally to qullans, champion of Fiend Folio 1e
"Mike Mearls = Gary Gygax on steroids...those poor hapless and unsuspecting players..." - nastynate, CO Boards

mhensley said:

Won't we get a better idea of that from the dmg? Beginner dungeons rarely have any new ideas.

Click to expand...

You're probably right, but I'm still eager to see what they do all the same.

I hate to make a video game analogy, but I'll offer this one. Console games that come out later in the console's run are often better because programmers have really figured out how to use the hardware.

I think 4e will be the same. At first I think we'll see a lot of "safe" adventure design that still resembles D&D as its always been done. But I'm hoping that as people get comfortable with the system we'll see some really cool stuff with interactive terrain and innovative encounter design.

Personally, I love introductory adventures. I have many fond memories of B1-B3, and alot of gamers I know still swap stories about those mods. Even with 3E, alot of folks have played Sunless Garden and Wizard's Amulet/Crucible of Freya, I enjoyed those as well.

H1 will hopefully be the first "shared experience" module for 4E that folks will be talking about for years to come, as well as give us armchair designers a good look at how 4E adventures are put together.

For me, H1 will make a good warm up session or two, since I'm adding 2 new players to the group when 4e comes out. It'll give us a chance to play together without the overhead of a lot of rules before I start up a full on 4e campaign.

Why is it being released 1 month earlier than the phb?

Emirikol said:

Why is H1 coming out a month before the PHB?

Click to expand...

Personally I'm wondering why it wasn't released 2 months earlier.

Years back they released two fast play adventurers which I believe was to introduce 2nd edition, I believe it was Eye of the Wyvern and another about the Minotaur.

Had they still had a paper copy of dragon and dungeon they could have produced something to go with that like a brief encounter highlighting an area of 4e each month.

They could still do this if they're still planning on n internet version of dungeon and dragon but this shadowfell adventure seems a steep price for an introduction to 4e.

(Have just learned they've released pre-orders for the 4e core rule books priced at £19.99 each with all three for £52.50 I wonder at Shadowfell's price.)

My initial view is that by putting it so soon to the release date they'll get people to buy that but suspect they won't be impressed enough to buy 4e so pre-orders might avoid that predicament however this still doesn't explain dungeon and dragon, do they seriously think leaving any attempt to produce these two e-magazines until people will have to subscribe them is a good idea?

Correct me if I'm wrong but so far only one issue has been compiled so far.

Sorry for going off topic but I can't help wondering what else is going on and why they seem to be ignoring perfectly good ways of promoting 4e, perhaps they waiting for d&d experience before doing so but to me thats far too late.

What is going on?

hopeless said:

(Have just learned they've released pre-orders for the 4e core rule books priced at £19.99 each with all three for £52.50 I wonder at Shadowfell's price.)

Click to expand...

hopeless, amazon.co.uk are doing the core books for £13.19 each. I've ordered them all for £39.57. Shadowfell is going for £13.56.

Cheers,
Liam