Anyone else excited for Dungeon Delve?

[Asmor]

Copy-paste from the news article about it:

Dungeon Delve
A D&D Adventure by David Noonan and Bill Slavicsek
Dungeon Delve provides the DM withan array of small, easy-to-run dungeons each especially designed for a night of gaming.
This book is designed for groups looking for an exciting night of monster-slay9ngwithout the prep time. It contains dozens of self-contained easy-to-run mini-dungeons, or "delves," each one crafted for a few hours of game-play.
The book includes delves for 1st- to 3oth-level characters, and features dozens of iconic monsters for the heroes to battle. Dungeon Masters can run these delves as one-shot adventures or weave them into their campaign.

Key Selling Points

* This book has encounters for all levels of characters, from 1st to 30th.
* DMs can drop each of the mini-dungeons into their games at a moment's notice.
* Based on the extremely popular "Delve" events held at gaming conventions.
* Every delve is designed to use existing D&D Dungeon Tiles and D&D Miniatures.

Hardcover, 192 pages, $29.95
February 17, 2009

That sounds really, really freaking cool. I wonder how many dungeons will be in it?

Using WotC's own estimates from the DMG (1 hour per encounter + 1 hour of BS), and assume a 4-5 hour game, each dungeon probably has 3-4 encounters. If each encounter takes up a 2-page spread, and we factor in 2 pages for background, hooks, and the like, we're looking at 8-10 pages per dungeon.

So my conservative estimate is maybe 20 dungeons... Even if it's fewer (say 15?), that's still $2 for a session's worth of material, which seems like a pretty good deal to me.

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

Interesting; I have mixed feelings about it.

On the positive side, it sounds great for a one-shot, combat-oriented evening of fun. Perfect. Actually, it's exactly how I might like to play a miniatures skirmish game, which I enjoy a lot.

On the negative, it's not my preferred approach for playing D&D. A one-evening dungeon isn't likely to offer much in the way of exploration and discovery (and, for me, that's just as important as combat -- I think there's a good reason B1 was titled "In Search of the Unknown"); it's more likely to be a linear affair with set-piece encounters. Depending on how the mini-dungeons are set up, they might be useful as sub-levels or additions to a regular campaign or campaign dungeon, though.

 

[Soel]

Sounds like a cool product. Just hope its more involved than the old book of lairs. I want actual adventures.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

Sounds a lot like the 3E Book of Challenges, which I enjoyed reading (and maybe used 2-3 scenarios from), but I think was a commercial failure.

 

[Wulf Ratbane]

My first thought was also "Book of Lairs."

My second thought was that it sounds like it has no substance, and if it were published by a 3PP, people would call it "crap."

My third thought was, "Remember these?"

 

[evilref]

My first thought was also "Book of Lairs."

My second thought was that it sounds like it has no substance, and if it were published by a 3PP, people would call it "crap."

My third thought was, "Remember these?"

Given your stance on 4e, I am entirely unsurprised to see you continue that stance onto future products.

I'm hoping for something akin to Mythic Places for Ars Magica, with different story hooks and legends/history for each place that can be used/adapted or inspiring.

Having pre-set one-shots that can be easily dropped in when players go off the beaten track is going to be useful to many GMs.

 

[WhatGravitas]

Sounds a lot like the 3E Book of Challenges, which I enjoyed reading (and maybe used 2-3 scenarios from), but I think was a commercial failure.

On the other hand, the Book of Challenges was kinda bland.

In 4E, good environmental design can really makes a climatic encounter go pop. If that book is full of good encounter areas, and approaches the game in a very "toolbox"-like approach, mixed with DM tips, and set pieces, it could fare much better. I really hope so.

Cheers, LT.

 

[Mercule]

Maybe. Depends on the quality. I can always deal with a collection of maps.

 

[Jhaelen]

I'm hoping for something akin to Mythic Places for Ars Magica, with different story hooks and legends/history for each place that can be used/adapted or inspiring.

To me it reads as if it was the exact opposite of Ars Magica's Mythic Places:

Ready-to-play mini dungeons with hardly any background info for a couple of 'beer&pretzel' style evenings. Imho, if you look at the DMG's sample dungeon, you should get a pretty good idea, what you'll get.

 

[erf_beto]

Maybe it's like a DDM/D&D crossover: skirmish battles of Player Characters VS Dungeon Master monsters. DDM Scenarios but with character creation.

Either way, I'm pretty excited about it!