Fantastic Locations: Fane of the Drow is a 16-page adventure booklet with four poster-sized miniature-scale maps. As far as I can tell, primarily it is an aid to those who play with miniatures, either in providing a ready battlemap, or an official surface for D&D Miniatures tournaments and skirmish play.
This is probably the product I've most been looking forward to over the past six months, because it represents a new direction for Wizards. D&D has often been played with miniatures over its 30 year history, but the integration of the two has never been more explicit than in the past few months.
As many of you would know, I've run one of the main fan news sites for the D&D Miniatures game, and I also moderate the primary trading boards (maxminis.com). I'm also an active D&D DM, so I am interested in both uses of this product: the RPG and the DDM Skirmish.
The adventure, such as it is, within Fane of the Drow is split into four sections, each corresponding with one of the maps. I'll cover each in the order that it is suggested that they be approached, although there is nothing stopping you using them "out of order" in the RPG.
For the most part, each map represents one big "set piece" battle. There isn't that much of exploring the maps and finding lots of smaller battles, although that isn't entirely absent. I have run two parts of the adventure so far, the Mithral Mines and the Tomb of Queen Peregrine, and I'll describe my experiences below.
Physical Appearance
The cover has small keyed colour reproductions of all four maps on the inside surface. Markings indicate special features and monster starting locations.
The booklet is black & white, stapled together. There's a very nice watermark based on a compass rose on each page. I think it's worth emphasizing how attractive I find the booklet.
The cover art is by Marc Sasso, the interior art is by Chad Sergesketter. I find the artwork competent and quite attractive.
The actual full maps are very well done; the cartographer, Jason Engle, has done a wonderful job of creating them.
The booklet, unlike that of Sons of Gruumsh is not stapled to the cover.
Credits
Design: Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel
Additional Design: Rob Heinsoo - no doubt for the DDM elements.
Development Team: Jesse Decker, Mike Donais, Stephen Schubert
Cartographer: Jason Engle
Cover Art: Marc Sasso
Interior Art: Chad Sergesketter
As with Sons of Gruumsh, there is no actual editor listed, although Kim Mohan is listed as the Editing Manager. The credits take up the first page of the 16-page booklet.
Introduction
The first page and a bit describes the product and suggests ways of using it in your campaign. A sidebar, "Reusing the Maps", suggests that the PCs could revisit the Fane at a later time against higher-level foes, and that the Mithral Mines map could be used to represent other underground complexes.
This may seem obvious to you and me, but it's well worth remembering that many people who play D&D are just starting out. So, I'm glad to see it here. There's also a note that we should check the Wizards website, RPGA adventures and the pages of Dungeon Magazine for variant encounters using the maps. That's interesting.
The DDM skirmish game uses special markings on the maps, and some of them have relevance in the RPG. This is covered in this section. The terrain types are Difficult, Risky (25% chance of 2d6 damage when entering) and Sacred Circles (+2 attack and magic damage).
The Adventure Background is simple: a dwarven fortress has suffered raids from drow. The dwarves enlist the aid of adventures to rid themselves of the drow, and to regain access to the mithral mines.
Three adventure hooks are listed. The first is the one I just listed. The second involves the PCs stumbling upon the drow enclave when travelling through the underdark (shades of Descent into the Depths of the Earth, here), and the third involves rescuing a friend of the PCs that has been captured by the drow. There are also brief notes on how using each hook will change the adventure.
1. Mithral Mines
The Mithral Mines battlemap a selection of intersecting tunnels, mostly between 10' and 20' wide. Interesting features on the map include a sacred circle, much rubble and discarded mining equipment, and a small office. This section of the adventure runs for 2.5 pages.
When the PCs enter the map (from a tunnel at one corner), they will quickly become aware of a group of twelve goblins inhabiting the mines. The goblins are part of the "Bloodweb" tribe and are servants of the drow. There's no doubt what the adventure expects (and what happened with my players!), there's a fight.
Ten of the goblins are out of the Monster Manual. One is a 3rd level cleric, and the leader is a 3rd level fighter. A long paragraph gives the suggested tactics of the group, and it's interesting to note that there are also suggested names for the goblins - just in case a combat doesn't happen, or to allow the DM to personify the goblins as they chatter to each other in combat. As one might expect, the main tactics of the goblins is to spread out, throw javelins, and keep away from the PCs.
It's worth noting the CR of the leaders have been modified downwards for "low gear and poor physical statistics. This represents an important development on Wizards' part of no longer going by the strict formulas for CRs. I'm glad to see this. The stat blocks are in the new format, and extremely clear.
Once half the goblins are dead, the fight gets more interesting with the arrival of six duergar - they hate the goblins, and they hate the PCs. Yes, they end up fighting both.
When I ran this battle, the PCs spent quite a bit of time moving around the tunnels, chasing goblins and manuevering to best effect. The arrival of the duergar was a big surprise and caught the wizard and psion in the party out of position - and thus vulnerable. The net result was a combat that was a lot more fluid than many I run, where the PCs tend to bunch together and just engage the foes in melee.
Four more areas of interest are marked on the map, and can be explored by the PCs once the battle is dealt with. Two of these areas are of special interest: a broken teleportation circle, and the overseer's office, which has some hidden notes from the drow who built the circle, explaining its purpose. This is a hook for the DM if he or she wants to create further adventures, and welcome it is as well!
So, those are the Mithral Mines. There's a note that if you want to expand the adventure, you can have another encounter in the Underdark, perhaps with kobold miners, dire bats, a dark creeper, or a burrowing ankheg. (And, yes, all those figures are in the upcoming DDM expansion, Underdark).
It took about 90 minutes for my players to finish the combats and fully explore the mines. The overseer's notes and the teleportation circle definitely intrigued them. This section is marked as "EL 6", and that seems pretty accurate.
This is probably the product I've most been looking forward to over the past six months, because it represents a new direction for Wizards. D&D has often been played with miniatures over its 30 year history, but the integration of the two has never been more explicit than in the past few months.
As many of you would know, I've run one of the main fan news sites for the D&D Miniatures game, and I also moderate the primary trading boards (maxminis.com). I'm also an active D&D DM, so I am interested in both uses of this product: the RPG and the DDM Skirmish.
The adventure, such as it is, within Fane of the Drow is split into four sections, each corresponding with one of the maps. I'll cover each in the order that it is suggested that they be approached, although there is nothing stopping you using them "out of order" in the RPG.
For the most part, each map represents one big "set piece" battle. There isn't that much of exploring the maps and finding lots of smaller battles, although that isn't entirely absent. I have run two parts of the adventure so far, the Mithral Mines and the Tomb of Queen Peregrine, and I'll describe my experiences below.
Physical Appearance
The cover has small keyed colour reproductions of all four maps on the inside surface. Markings indicate special features and monster starting locations.
The booklet is black & white, stapled together. There's a very nice watermark based on a compass rose on each page. I think it's worth emphasizing how attractive I find the booklet.
The cover art is by Marc Sasso, the interior art is by Chad Sergesketter. I find the artwork competent and quite attractive.
The actual full maps are very well done; the cartographer, Jason Engle, has done a wonderful job of creating them.
The booklet, unlike that of Sons of Gruumsh is not stapled to the cover.
Credits
Design: Gwendolyn F.M. Kestrel
Additional Design: Rob Heinsoo - no doubt for the DDM elements.
Development Team: Jesse Decker, Mike Donais, Stephen Schubert
Cartographer: Jason Engle
Cover Art: Marc Sasso
Interior Art: Chad Sergesketter
As with Sons of Gruumsh, there is no actual editor listed, although Kim Mohan is listed as the Editing Manager. The credits take up the first page of the 16-page booklet.
Introduction
The first page and a bit describes the product and suggests ways of using it in your campaign. A sidebar, "Reusing the Maps", suggests that the PCs could revisit the Fane at a later time against higher-level foes, and that the Mithral Mines map could be used to represent other underground complexes.
This may seem obvious to you and me, but it's well worth remembering that many people who play D&D are just starting out. So, I'm glad to see it here. There's also a note that we should check the Wizards website, RPGA adventures and the pages of Dungeon Magazine for variant encounters using the maps. That's interesting.
The DDM skirmish game uses special markings on the maps, and some of them have relevance in the RPG. This is covered in this section. The terrain types are Difficult, Risky (25% chance of 2d6 damage when entering) and Sacred Circles (+2 attack and magic damage).
The Adventure Background is simple: a dwarven fortress has suffered raids from drow. The dwarves enlist the aid of adventures to rid themselves of the drow, and to regain access to the mithral mines.
Three adventure hooks are listed. The first is the one I just listed. The second involves the PCs stumbling upon the drow enclave when travelling through the underdark (shades of Descent into the Depths of the Earth, here), and the third involves rescuing a friend of the PCs that has been captured by the drow. There are also brief notes on how using each hook will change the adventure.
1. Mithral Mines
The Mithral Mines battlemap a selection of intersecting tunnels, mostly between 10' and 20' wide. Interesting features on the map include a sacred circle, much rubble and discarded mining equipment, and a small office. This section of the adventure runs for 2.5 pages.
When the PCs enter the map (from a tunnel at one corner), they will quickly become aware of a group of twelve goblins inhabiting the mines. The goblins are part of the "Bloodweb" tribe and are servants of the drow. There's no doubt what the adventure expects (and what happened with my players!), there's a fight.
Ten of the goblins are out of the Monster Manual. One is a 3rd level cleric, and the leader is a 3rd level fighter. A long paragraph gives the suggested tactics of the group, and it's interesting to note that there are also suggested names for the goblins - just in case a combat doesn't happen, or to allow the DM to personify the goblins as they chatter to each other in combat. As one might expect, the main tactics of the goblins is to spread out, throw javelins, and keep away from the PCs.
It's worth noting the CR of the leaders have been modified downwards for "low gear and poor physical statistics. This represents an important development on Wizards' part of no longer going by the strict formulas for CRs. I'm glad to see this. The stat blocks are in the new format, and extremely clear.
Once half the goblins are dead, the fight gets more interesting with the arrival of six duergar - they hate the goblins, and they hate the PCs. Yes, they end up fighting both.
When I ran this battle, the PCs spent quite a bit of time moving around the tunnels, chasing goblins and manuevering to best effect. The arrival of the duergar was a big surprise and caught the wizard and psion in the party out of position - and thus vulnerable. The net result was a combat that was a lot more fluid than many I run, where the PCs tend to bunch together and just engage the foes in melee.
Four more areas of interest are marked on the map, and can be explored by the PCs once the battle is dealt with. Two of these areas are of special interest: a broken teleportation circle, and the overseer's office, which has some hidden notes from the drow who built the circle, explaining its purpose. This is a hook for the DM if he or she wants to create further adventures, and welcome it is as well!
So, those are the Mithral Mines. There's a note that if you want to expand the adventure, you can have another encounter in the Underdark, perhaps with kobold miners, dire bats, a dark creeper, or a burrowing ankheg. (And, yes, all those figures are in the upcoming DDM expansion, Underdark).
It took about 90 minutes for my players to finish the combats and fully explore the mines. The overseer's notes and the teleportation circle definitely intrigued them. This section is marked as "EL 6", and that seems pretty accurate.
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