Histaven Adventure Format

[TheClone]

Though I was not really able to determine whether this post belongs to the prefix "D&D Essentials" or "D&D 4th Edition" (wtf?), I wanna discuss something about "Domain of Dread: Histaven", the Free RPG Day giveaway from WotC.

The adventure itself looks really promising because it has a format that seems to be different from any I have read before. It's a little short description of the whole domain, it's almost like a sandbox. there is no single enounter in it and not even a skill challenge. Sure, it contains some possibilities to use skills (I'm not even sure about DCs) and it has several monsters. Comparing that with the recent announcement that "Going Ape!" would be the first adventure lacking the "delve format" I was wondering if any of you know whether it truly was the second one and if they tried some kind of new format for Histaven. Since I didn't really get what the new format is all about I can't tell from looking at Histaven.

 

[Locutus Zero]

Histhaven isn't an adventure at all, it's simply a setting.

 

[TheClone]

That small thing is to be called a setting? You can't really do more than one adventure there (with some side quests).

 

[TirionAnthion]

Histaven

My understanding is that the Histaven book is not intended to be indicative of a new adventure format for D&D. It is much more like an adventure site. It is a small location that has some adventure hooks built in for DMs to take advantage of. Throughout the history of the game D&D has used this format for conveying small locales for DMs to flesh out and players to explore.

The Islands of Terror was a soft cover Ravenloft book for 2e that was filled with descriptions of small domains with a few adventure hooks. That is an example of the idea of an adventure site book. Histaven is in this vein.

Additionally, one of the podcasts I listened to talked about this. I think it may have been the Tome Show, perhaps in the Shadowfell review episode. It was mentioned that the content in Histaven was originally designed for that product and was bumped for space reasons. The free RPG day promotion seemed like a good way to get this material out to the public.