D&D Encounters - Season 2

[renau1g]

Anyone play in it last night? I would love to hear your impressions of the adventure and especially how Athas was translated to 4e.

I chose to watch the Stanley Cup Finals last night instead of going out to play (oh and I'm glad I did... go Hawks!)

 

[beldar1215]

I played. After session one, I don't have a feel for how Dark Sun will translate. I never played in Dark Sun the first time around either, so I'm probably not the best person to answer this. The session was fun, but felt like any other D&D encounter to me.

Beldar

 

[Festivus]

Having not played any earlier renditions of Dark Sun, it would be hard for me to compare.

I will say it came off as a harsh world, full of desert, sandstorms (with baseball sized chunks of obsidian that kept hitting us), and creatures that would attack you if they thought you had something to survive in the desert. We managed to pull some supplies from the wagon but were chased off, dragging some bodies with us.

It was harsh, it was hard, but it was fun!

Mechanically it plays just like any 4E game.

 

[wedgeski]

Oh so the adventure the Penny Arcade guys played is the first adventure of Encounters 2? Somehow, I didn't realise that. renaug1, you might want to check out the podcast if you haven't already, because the adventure sounded really excellent to me.

 

[Pig Champion]

Darksun plays extremely fun. It's a lot harsher than vanilla 4E though. Last encounters we played through with out one TPK but one session into Darksun and we almost went down with our Elf, Mul and Wizard having naught healing surges left and having to be dragged off.

I played the mantis thing, I had fun jumping around the field, which in retrospect probably saved me from the same fate.

 

[mudbunny]

Oh so the adventure the Penny Arcade guys played is the first adventure of Encounters 2? Somehow, I didn't realise that. renaug1, you might want to check out the podcast if you haven't already, because the adventure sounded really excellent to me.

It is not the same encounter as the Penny Arcade guys, but it is happening at the same time.

 

[Festivus]

We are a part of the same caravan... but got separated.

 

[renau1g]

Cool. Personally, the Penny arcade guys bug me, just a personal thing, but I find them a bit irritating. I listened to the first one and didn't enjoy it.

 

[Dausuul]

Darksun plays extremely fun. It's a lot harsher than vanilla 4E though.

I have got to check this out.

 

[the Jester]

Well, I ran instead of played, and I went to great lengths to establish some "desert atmosphere" before we got to the actual encounter itself.

I dunno, I thought it was awesome fun, and it really underlined the "harsh environment/survival" themes of Dark Sun.

IMHO it's a lot better than the first D&DE adventure; however, the Encounters format itself leaves a lot to be desired if you want a survival challenge. But I guess that's true about a lot of ongoing things- Encounters just ain't designed for them.