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Pre-Release Review of Heroes of Shadow by Wizards of the Coast
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<blockquote data-quote="Neuroglyph" data-source="post: 5522474" data-attributes="member: 85633"><p>I am a bit chagrined that so many readers of my review felt that the last two paragraphs - placed strategically <em>after</em> my positive closing remarks about <strong>Heroes of Shadow</strong> - somehow invalidated the review or ruined their experience of finding out about this book. To those gamers, I apologize, but would remind them, however, that a reviewer is nothing more than a guy with opinions, and they will not always agree with their own.</p><p></p><p>I still stand by my statement in saying that this book is designed more with Essentials in mind than Traditional (pre-Essentials) D&D 4E. While one could use the Paragon Paths, Races, Feats and Powers with Traditional 4E - all Essentials material can be used that way - it does not change the fact that the format was designed more like the "<em><strong>Heroes of...</strong></em>" books and not the "<em><strong>... Powers</strong></em>" books.</p><p></p><p>In fact, one of the reasons that I included the poll at the top of the page is to find out what percentage of gamers were playing with all 4E materials, and which were sticking to only Traditional 4E content. If I was a lone holdout in trying to maintain an "Essentials-free" game, my closing comments would have not been appropriate. But as you can see there are a number of our fellow gamers choosing to play Traditional 4E - almost as many as those playing a Hybrid of Essentials and Traditional content.</p><p></p><p>It's interesting that someone pointed out the fact that the PHB3 could have had the statement about "looking for options beyond the essentials books? Look no further!", because that's the way Essentials was explained at last GenCon 2010. Essentials was to be a gateway to D&D 4E, providing ten products designed to get new players used to the rules before having them move on to Traditional D&D books and character formats. </p><p></p><p>If the authors of <em><strong>Heroes of Shadow</strong></em> had wanted this book to be for both Traditional as well as Essentials players, would they not have considered creating at least one character class in Traditonal format? The fact that they chose not create any traditional 4E classes, included a Clerical domain, as well as two new Mage schools speaks volumes about the nature of the book.</p><p></p><p>But I will not deny that this book has great material in it, and will probably make Traditional 4E gamers reconsider their positions about letting Essentials content into their campaigns - and I would be lying if I said I was not reconsidering it myself. I still don't like how the book was marketed back at GenCon as "Core" content, which was misleading, but you all can make your own judgments once you see the book at your local gaming stores as to whether it is Essentials or not.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Neuroglyph, post: 5522474, member: 85633"] I am a bit chagrined that so many readers of my review felt that the last two paragraphs - placed strategically [I]after[/I] my positive closing remarks about [B]Heroes of Shadow[/B] - somehow invalidated the review or ruined their experience of finding out about this book. To those gamers, I apologize, but would remind them, however, that a reviewer is nothing more than a guy with opinions, and they will not always agree with their own. I still stand by my statement in saying that this book is designed more with Essentials in mind than Traditional (pre-Essentials) D&D 4E. While one could use the Paragon Paths, Races, Feats and Powers with Traditional 4E - all Essentials material can be used that way - it does not change the fact that the format was designed more like the "[I][B]Heroes of...[/B][/I]" books and not the "[I][B]... Powers[/B][/I]" books. In fact, one of the reasons that I included the poll at the top of the page is to find out what percentage of gamers were playing with all 4E materials, and which were sticking to only Traditional 4E content. If I was a lone holdout in trying to maintain an "Essentials-free" game, my closing comments would have not been appropriate. But as you can see there are a number of our fellow gamers choosing to play Traditional 4E - almost as many as those playing a Hybrid of Essentials and Traditional content. It's interesting that someone pointed out the fact that the PHB3 could have had the statement about "looking for options beyond the essentials books? Look no further!", because that's the way Essentials was explained at last GenCon 2010. Essentials was to be a gateway to D&D 4E, providing ten products designed to get new players used to the rules before having them move on to Traditional D&D books and character formats. If the authors of [I][B]Heroes of Shadow[/B][/I] had wanted this book to be for both Traditional as well as Essentials players, would they not have considered creating at least one character class in Traditonal format? The fact that they chose not create any traditional 4E classes, included a Clerical domain, as well as two new Mage schools speaks volumes about the nature of the book. But I will not deny that this book has great material in it, and will probably make Traditional 4E gamers reconsider their positions about letting Essentials content into their campaigns - and I would be lying if I said I was not reconsidering it myself. I still don't like how the book was marketed back at GenCon as "Core" content, which was misleading, but you all can make your own judgments once you see the book at your local gaming stores as to whether it is Essentials or not. [/QUOTE]
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