Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dungeonosophy" data-source="post: 8728857" data-attributes="member: 6688049">Hehe—I like the tricycle image.Well, as I said earlier in the thread, I’ve purchased the previous two sets myself. And also gifted my nephew with the Essentials Kit (despite the one lame quest!)Except as a gift to a newcomer, why then would a grognard buy the starter boxes? Because:1) When I bought the Phandelver box, we were trying to learn the 5E system. We played the whole thing through and enjoyed it.2) I got the Essentials Kit because my players like Phandalin. They made Tressendar Manor their HQ.3) And after running a bunch of adventures which took the characters far afield, I felt it would be good to bring everyone back to Phandalin for an “in breath”; to explore their home turf again. So I DMed “Dwarven Excavation” a couple weeks ago, and “Gnomegaarde” last weekend. As I said above: we all really enjoyed Gnomegaarde. I’m aiming to run all the Icespire adventures before moving on again (prob to Witchlight or Spelljammer).4) But most importantly: Adventures/storylines of all levels are valuable to me, because I use an edition of D&D which has no mechanics. It’s called “Storytime D&D” (SD&D). PCs of any level can adventure together in a module of any level—because all character powers are simply narrative prompts.Those are some reasons why I’ve purchased and run the beginner boxes. I’ll probably pick up and run this new set eventually too, for the reasons stated above.What, WotC doesn’t want my money?I’m not demanding. Nevertheless, Icespire’s “Dwarven Excavation,” as written, is a dismally-designed adventure. The one thing that is neat about it is that it touches on Abbathor. And it’s map is nicely rendered. Like I said, I’ve enjoyed other aspects of Icespire though. Will be running more of its quests soon.As for my comments on the use of the Kids. Even newcomers like a bit of consistent, immersive lore too. I made some points about how I’d like to see WotC justify the presence of these iconic characters from The Realm.Hey, I “like” that the Kids are in there. Is it too much to ask for sentence or two of in-universe explanation? And, for all we know, maybe there is something like that in the box.The ENWorld review sheds no light on this. I’ve appreciated other reviews by Beth, but this one is overly vague. (See my follow-up questions earlier.)I’ve said several positive points in this thread (eg how I like the artwork)—it’s odd how some folks are pouncin’.I also don’t get why fellow D&D aficionados would bristle at my suggestion that WotC produce a little PDF supplement to Icespire with official 5e stats for the Kids, along with a bit of lore which summarizes why they’re in Abeir-Toril again nowadays. Like the “Journeys Beyond” Radiant Citadel supplement. Could devote it a charity or something.People maybe turned off by my word “amends.” Gee, it’s not a bad thing to mend something. If Icespire contains no explanation of who the Kids are, and why they’re in Toril, then that could be easily and quickly “mended.”Might as well open up The Realm to DMs Guild community content as well—that would really get people interested in the Kids again. A great tie-in with Icespire.What’s the trouble?</blockquote>

Verification