HS1 - The Slaying Stone - my poor reviewing skills review

[Kelvor Ravenstar]

Thanks for the input Logan, I wish I'd checked earlier, as I was already starting to run my game session tonight when your post showed up. I did arrive at something similar though, I had the entrance to the lair strewn with orc corpses. And since my players already knew to respect orc's strength, they were wary.
That blog post with the suggestions for the failings in the skill challenges was great, wish I'd read it earlier.

 

[Riley]

Hey Logan, I don't know what kind of input you can provide to WoTC, but the downloadable player maps are still not up on the site (that I can find anyhow).

WOTC has not posted the players' map, but Logan has posted the original high resolution map on his blog:

Logan Bonner: Slaying Stone Kiris Dahn Map

or directly:
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_raAzi3oUJ...0/P2myjFKqYjg/s1600/KirisDahnMap-FullSize.jpg

Nice map! Sure beats all those Dungeon-Tile-based maps Wizards keeps putting in their adventures.

 

[mudbunny]

I will poke WotC about this.

 

[Klaus]

Just got my copy.

A few suggestions for folks wishing to flesh out Kiris Dan a bit more:

[sblock]
The city of Kiris Dan has always been famous for its hot springs. Wealthy nobles and merchants would spend days -- and gold -- here, during the height of Nerath, to enjoy the city's baths. This influx of wealth led to Kiris Dan being built in graceful stone arches and edifices, with the Kiris Manor standing atop it all.

Throughout its history, Kiris Dan was always able to fend off minor incursions from goblins that lived in the nearby swamps, mostly due to Nerath's knights and patrols. Kobolds would sometime crawl up from the sewers, but these were dealt with easily.

After the fall of Nerath, the rulers of Kiris Dan had to resort to their secret weapons, the slaying stones. In the aftermath of the empire's downfall, nobles and merchants stopped coming, and the city fell on hard times. Buildings were closed up, some crumbled, others were taken up by kobold settlers. When few humans remained, another goblin raiding party was surprised to find little resistance, and the nearby goblin tribes moved into the ruined, abandoned city.
[/sblock]

For visuals, I recommend that Kiris Dan be described as something akin to Osgiliath, from the Lord of the Rings trilogy:

 

[buddhafrog]

I really like this little adventure (and have changed the set-up and motivation to my liking).

I'm not very familiar with D&D modules - are there any other D&D 4e modules that have this same sort of structure: open-ended non-railroad, preferably non-dungeon crawl?

 

[Wik]

I really like this little adventure (and have changed the set-up and motivation to my liking).

I'm not very familiar with D&D modules - are there any other D&D 4e modules that have this same sort of structure: open-ended non-railroad, preferably non-dungeon crawl?

Not that I know of, out of the box. However, with a touch of work, I was able to turn Sceptre Tower of Spellgard into a very sandboxy setting - I used the first book (which is a setting book) as my prime inspiration, and turned the second part (a long dungeon crawl) into several set-piece scenes. Run that way, it was approximately two months worth of play (I'd guess a little shy of thirty hours play time), and very much dependant on player actions.

 

[Jhaelen]

I'm not very familiar with D&D modules - are there any other D&D 4e modules that have this same sort of structure: open-ended non-railroad, preferably non-dungeon crawl?

It's not exactly an adventure but 'Hammerfest' goes a long way in the same direction. It will require some additional work to turn it into one (or several) adventure(s).

 

[Nahat Anoj]

I really like this little adventure (and have changed the set-up and motivation to my liking).

I'm not very familiar with D&D modules - are there any other D&D 4e modules that have this same sort of structure: open-ended non-railroad, preferably non-dungeon crawl?

Reavers of Harkenwold, the adventure included in the DM's Kit, has a similar construction (not surprising, since both were written by the same author).

I have Cairn of the Winter King, the adventure included in the Monster Vault, but I have yet to read it. I'll get back to you on that ASAP.

 

[Jools]

I have Cairn of the Winter King, the adventure included in the Monster Vault, but I have yet to read it. I'll get back to you on that ASAP.

I'd like to hear about that too.

 

[buddhafrog]

Reavers of Harkenwold, the adventure included in the DM's Kit, has a similar construction (not surprising, since both were written by the same author).

I have Cairn of the Winter King, the adventure included in the Monster Vault, but I have yet to read it. I'll get back to you on that ASAP.

Good news as I've already bought both of these as well - though I haven't seen them yet because I'm still waiting for my (expensive) shipping to Korea.

Thanks to the others for your ideas as well. I've ordered Hammerfast as well as a some others.

I love good battle maps but wish I could see what maps come in the module. I'm thinking of buying Vor Rukoth and Thunderspire Labyrinth, but the battle map could be the tipping point. I haven't been able to find anything for Thunderspire and 1/2 for Vor Rukoth - anyone have links to either of these?

I play D&D with my son and 20+ kids in several weekly ESL classes in Korea. I'm buying tons of materials for either Christmas or for my classes. I love having an excuse to buy these.

Besides dice/minis, I've never bought a single D&D product until recently - I've either had it handed down from my older brother or, well, pirated. I hadn't played D&D for about 25 years and just got back into gaming last year. Living in Korea makes getting movies, TV shows, rpg materials pretty hard (plus Doritos, decent Mexican food and more...). We always download our TV shows and movies, and when I started looking into playing D&D again, I downloaded lots of 4e materials, including the CB.

I'm not promoting this here - at all. However, it is almost impossible for WotC to completely avoid pirated copies of anything digital, and often hard copies get scanned too. My point is that I enjoyed it so much - the product was good enough - that I've ended up spending loads of money this year on "real" products now that I've had a taste. Several of the modules/books I've bought recently I actually already have on digital files on my computer - but I want the real thing. I mention this because of WotC's attempts to protect their products from piracy (recent new DDI being one, but not the only). I do understand completely. However, it doesn't really work too well for digital or hard copies, and often folks that download pirated materials wouldn't be spending their money anyway. I feel WotC should spend their time focusing on getting the best product out and providing the best experience for D&D players. This is what will reap profits, regardless of piracy. I hope WotC makes tons of money b/c this will mean more products and gaming that I want to use and play.

....OK, sorry for the thread diversion. My point was that I'm spending tons of money on these modules/kits/books because I'm excited about the products....