D&D 5E 5e launches with two adventures - designed by Kobold Press

[Olaf the Stout]

I skipped 4E (still playing 3.5E now, but will probably update to 5E) so I know nothing of those adventures. What was so bad about them?

 

[WizarDru]

I skipped 4E (still playing 3.5E now, but will probably update to 5E) so I know nothing of those adventures. What was so bad about them?

I'm curious about this. I remember playing through 'Keep' and don't recall it being anything other than kind of uninspired. We did consider one of the encounters to be way unhinged for a beginning group (as it threatened a TPK for a 2nd-level party, essentially), but otherwise I don't recall thinking it was anything other than cromulent.

 

[Nemio]

Will these adventures be tied to the Starter Set which goes from lvl 1 to 5 or will they also start at first level?

If so, then this means starting over again?

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I'm curious about this. I remember playing through 'Keep' and don't recall it being anything other than kind of uninspired. We did consider one of the encounters to be way unhinged for a beginning group (as it threatened a TPK for a 2nd-level party, essentially), but otherwise I don't recall thinking it was anything other than cromulent.

I ran H1-H3 (well, started on H3 but it was so bad we quit), and the issue were:

H1 (Keep on the Shadowfell) was a very dull, slow dungeon-crawl through a dungeon that fundamentally didn't make sense and wasn't cool or exciting or diverse in the way low-level dungeons often are in D&D (and indeed other ones were in 4E), and little/no chance to use social skills or non-combat abilities generally. It also failed most of the 4E DMG's tests of a good adventure. The only point of interest/excitement was the questionable potential-TPK-with-no-warning-or-reason encounter, which was shocking if nothing else. If it was a 3PP adventure it'd be a 2 out of 5 deal that every ignored. Unfortunately it was 4E's flagship adventure!

As a bonus it totally failed to live up to it's name.

H2 (Thunderspire Labyrinth) was a lot better in all ways, but still made little sense, had little awesome (not zero, little) and had waaaaaay too many boring poor-ly-designed encounters after more encounters and assumptions about what the PCs would do. 3/5.

H3 (Pyramid of Shadows) was an epic disaster of an adventure, trying and failing to capture old-skool weirdness - long blog posts have been written on it's flaws and/or how to correct them (which basically involves almost as much effort as writing another adventure)! 1/5.

 

[Mistwell]

Will these adventures be tied to the Starter Set which goes from lvl 1 to 5 or will they also start at first level?

If so, then this means starting over again?

No I think the Starter Set adventures are unrelated. You probably could link them up to the Tyranny of Dragons adventures, but I don't think they are directly connected.

But, I am pretty sure there is some probability that many people will want to start over at 1st level with a new edition's release.

 

[Mistwell]

I'm curious about this. I remember playing through 'Keep' and don't recall it being anything other than kind of uninspired. We did consider one of the encounters to be way unhinged for a beginning group (as it threatened a TPK for a 2nd-level party, essentially), but otherwise I don't recall thinking it was anything other than cromulent.

Ironically, 4e's adventures got much better, the closer the edition got to winding down. The first adventures were not good, while the last were excellent. Unfortunately, few bought the later ones, having felt burned on the earlier ones. I am hoping for some 5e conversions of the later ones.

 

[Nemio]

No I think the Starter Set adventures are unrelated. You probably could link them up to the Tyranny of Dragons adventures, but I don't think they are directly connected.

But, I am pretty sure there is some probability that many people will want to start over at 1st level with a new edition's release.

Ok, because I'm thinking from the perspective that I might get some people hooked on D&D with the Starter Set Adventure and then have to tell them at lvl 5 that they have to discard the characters they've gotten used/attached to if they want to play another cool adventure (Tyranny of Dragons) AND have to start at lvl 1 again.

There has to be some kind of easy transition for the newbie players from the Starter Set, right?

 

[Mistwell]

Ok, because I'm thinking from the perspective that I might get some people hooked on D&D with the Starter Set Adventure and then have to tell them at lvl 5 that they have to discard the characters they've gotten used/attached to if they want to play another cool adventure (Tyranny of Dragons) AND have to start at lvl 1 again.

There has to be some kind of easy transition for the newbie players from the Starter Set, right?

The characters from the Start Set will be 100% compatible with the Tyranny of Dragons adventure, I am just not sure what level the Tyranny of Dragons adventure is supposed to cover. I know they said, "the first book takes the player characters up to 7th or 8th level, depending on exactly what the PCs pursue and how they make certain decisions. The second book takes them up to about level 15." But I am not sure if the first book starts at level 1, or if it would be easy to transition to the 4-5th level part of the first book.

 

[Cybit]

Tyranny should be from 1-15 or so, while the Starter Set is from 1-5 AFAIK.

 

[tomBitonti]

Hiring Kobold Press to advise / design the modules may make for better modules. We will see when the modules are available. I don't really have comments on the module quality, and that's not the point of my post.

What I'm interested in is what the hiring says about the WotC understanding of module writing, and from that, their understanding of RPGs as a whole.

Also, I wonder at what is the in-company perceived value of the brand: Is the goal to sell books? To sell associated games (for example, http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/66356/dungeons-dragons-wrath-of-ashardalon-board-game). To sell online subscriptions (similar to DDI)? To drive sales of small, repeat purchase items (e.g., trading cards, or digital assets)? To create a space for other media (say, cartoons, a TV series, or a move)? Or (also a media), to sell new computer games?

The company is sitting on a huge trove of game resources (older campaign settings and modules and expansion books). There are huge game world and module opportunities based on prior themes (similar to Tyranny of Dragons), either as adventure paths, or as linked modules. Exploring the downfall of the City of Moil. Surviving the Rain of Colorless Fire and the Invoked Devastation. Exploring Penumbra (the fallen Illithid megastructure). Travelling the Underdark of Faerun to bring scattered Dwarven tribes to Mithril Hall. Exploring the Mornland to uncover the source of a forge which has awakened and is releasing crazed warforged. Bringing down one of the Dragon Kings of Dark Sun.

Or, is that product space past, unrecoverable?

I'm thinking that WotC really needs to create an ecosystem of products: Selling just core books doesn't seem to be sufficient. If there is insufficient in-house expertise to create good modules, what does that mean? (Or, was the hiring done to improve community relations?)

Thx!