Just got The Shadowfell: Gloomwrought and Beyond

[Mummolus]

Hell, I'm already trying to figure out how to work it into my Dark Sun game no matter how inappropriate it is in every single aspect.

At the very least, I needed more assassin/humanoid type stats for upcoming levels, and this has like four different ones.

-O

For what it's worth, the Grey is basically the Shadowfell, and in Dark Sun it's much larger than in most other settings (while the Feywild is correspondingly smaller). It's also apparently the main barrier between the world and the Astral Sea, so having a bunch of characters trying to find their way through wouldn't be particularly inappropriate. The DSCS even talks about the Sorcerer-Kings sending people on exactly such missions.

Might be worthwhile to have the players find Gloomwrought or a similar city, but empty or deserted except for the keepers.

 

[Obryn]

For what it's worth, the Grey is basically the Shadowfell

Oh, I know, but I'm hewing closer to the 2e fluff. The Grey is largely featureless, there, although the whole souls-of-the-dead bit is intact.

Yeah, I can twist things around a bit, but it just kind of jars.

-O

 

[Aegeri]

I also use the 2E fluff in my game as well. I don't want there to be anywhere on Athas that is actually worse. Athas is as terrible as it gets and the Grey is just a featureless plain of the dead. Beyond that there is the greatness that is *nothing* and a derelict and destroyed astral sea. Essentially there is no escape from Athas and it is all there is - at least until its final terrible destruction.

This isn't to say I couldn't find a use for Gloomwrought in it, but I have 3 games in 3 settings. So I don't need to push it into something to use it. Besides many of the ideas I can apply to any campaign setting, even independently of the shadowfell. That is what makes it truly great to me.

 

[Mummolus]

I'm using the Grey as a major part of my storyline, actually, though I likely won't be sending my players through it. It's the barrier between Athas and the Far Realm, in my campaign.

 

[Incenjucar]

Gloomwrought could easily be a city in the heart of the Obsidian Plain.

 

[JoeGKushner]

I'm puzzled why WoTC isn't putting themes into their books. Neither Heroes of Shadow or this had themes.

I'm also incredibly disappointed in the shoddy construction of the box, and the fact that it opens like a cereal box at the top. That was just bad design and cheap, especially compared to the recent boxed sets we've gotten in tiles and DMG/MV stylings.

Content is king but don't get cincy on a pricy product there Wotcy.

 

[UngeheuerLich]

I just looked at the monsters and noticed, that shadowfell artilery monsters have better defenses than usual artileries (standard instead of brutelike) and one skirmisher on the other hand ahs artilery defenses...

 

[Neverfate]

I got this earlier today, and I've been devouring it for a few hours.

It's an astonishingly well-done product. Kudos to WotC and the authors.

It reminds me of the best parts of Sigil, with a lot of Vor Rukoth thrown in. It's a product designed for sandboxing, and I just love it to pieces.

-O

These are more or less my thoughts exactly. I just got it a couple days ago. Very much like Vor Rukoth and I love it.

I guess my only "real" issue is I love monsters. I'll always want more monsters (especially with MM3 math/mechanics) so when I get to end of the book I want more, but adversaries this book showcases are great. I love the golems that can pop up when the city changes.

The Despair Deck also looks to be a surprising amount of fun. I can't wait to drop that on a player.

 

[erikscottdebie]

The Despair Deck also looks to be a surprising amount of fun. I can't wait to drop that on a player.

Regarding the Despair deck, I put up a blog post about an optional rule we eliminated early on in the process (for reasons Greg talks about on his post) which I call the "Despair Eidolon" rule. Check it here: Tips for using the Despair Deck ErikScottdeBie.com

Another note for using the Despair Deck: it's probably best not to force the Despair RPing down your players' throats. We recently started using the Despair deck in one of my games and while most of the players were pretty happy with it, one of the players didn't like feeling *forced* to RP his character in a way he felt contrary to his PC's personality. If a whole party of PCs suddenly becomes insane and erratic, then it isn't so much scary as kind of hokey.

I recommend the RPing be done to whatever level is comfortable for you, either subtly (i.e. your PC has these influences or weird thoughts that crop up, etc.) or overtly (i.e. the DM tells the player to RP this more obviously), or wherever between works best for your particular table.

Personally, I find the cards most effective when the RP is subtle, the players don't reveal their cards to each other, and the card's effect creeps into the game like growing dread.

Cheers

 

[Incenjucar]

If you want to encourage players to RP the deck effects, you could always grant a bonus to saves against it, basically representing that they're going with the flow to get it out of their system.

There are also things like allowing each player to choose one aspect of the deck that will never effect them. As an example, I recently decided that my player's kender character will never have to deal with the Fear-based cards to represent kender fearlessness. Since the cards more or less balance out, you can even let someone be immune to them, while the rest of the party is not, without it being unfair since they get no penalties but also no bonuses.