Just got The Shadowfell: Gloomwrought and Beyond

[Dice4Hire]

I am somewhat disappointed that Gloomwrought offers virtually no support for heroic level characters and no synergy with Heroes of Shadow. Where will my 1st level vampires and blackguards go for adventure?

The orphanage is around the corner, third building on the left.

 

[Incenjucar]

I am somewhat disappointed that Gloomwrought offers virtually no support for heroic level characters and no synergy with Heroes of Shadow. Where will my 1st level vampires and blackguards go for adventure?

You can still run plenty of heroic-level adventures in Gloomwrought, you're just not going to be changing the place until paragon. My campaign just landed there - already have plenty to work with for 2nd level characters.

 

[Aegeri]

I am somewhat disappointed that Gloomwrought offers virtually no support for heroic level characters and no synergy with Heroes of Shadow. Where will my 1st level vampires and blackguards go for adventure?

Why would it? The book is designed to support paragon adventures, something that *really* needs it. Heroic tier has billions of things to do, considering how much published stuff there is for it. So something that focuses on a tier that needs it is more than appreciated. Given that the Shadowfell and also the Feywild are common "paragon" places to adventure (actually the planes in general), it shouldn't bother with heroic tier much. The book clearly benefits extensively from this focus and the quality of the product speaks for itself!

I would say though it's easy to use at lower levels as well. You just have to be really wary of annoying the watch and similar early on. That just makes things more dramatic and interesting to me though. I am unlikely to use Gloomwrought until later in my campaign though.

 

[Mercurius]

I have to say that I'm rather disappointed with the box itself - it isn't a "real" box set but the type you open on the end, like a deck of cards. In other words, you can't really open it and sort through the contents - you have to pull everything out to look at it.

I'm pretty certain this was a cost-saver, which is just too bad.

 

[Zaukrie]

I already threw the box away. The only thing really missing from my perspective was something to keep the cards in once you had opened the box.

 

[Colmarr]

it isn't a "real" box set but the type you open on the end, like a

Computer game!

Sorry, couldn't resist

 

[Erren]

Yeah, I threw mine away too. I mean, I guess they had to have some sort of box, since that's probably the best way to package the cards with it (which are amazing, by the way - but only because it's a non-random selection of cards). But I feel like the price point of the box was a little bit high. I am unimpressed with the binding of the campaign book, and the box was obviously near-worthless. Was there not anything else they could have added in there?

One thing I was hoping for was a possible campaign outline like at the end of Hammerfast (a product I recently got and love). That took up 3-9 pages (depending on what you attribute to that section) and it's the campaign I'm currently running after getting disgusted at how awful H1-H3 are.

It's still a great product though (best since Dark Sun) and I hope they release a similar product for the Feywild to pair with Heroes of the Feywild. I'll buy that, too.

 

[Obryn]

I got this earlier today, and I've been devouring it for a few hours.

It's an astonishingly well-done product. Kudos to WotC and the authors.

It reminds me of the best parts of Sigil, with a lot of Vor Rukoth thrown in. It's a product designed for sandboxing, and I just love it to pieces.

-O

 

[Aegeri]

I have been digesting the fluff parts of the book now and I can assure you: There is more praise to come.

Honestly, if there is something I want from Wizards is more of this. Do it for the Feywild, some random city in the Nine Hells (Dis maybe?), the City of Brass (my god I would kill for a book like this on the City of Brass) and such forth. It's just excellent in all departments. I'll do a more chapter by chapter overview once I've finished the book and properly digested it.

 

[Obryn]

I have been digesting the fluff parts of the book now and I can assure you: There is more praise to come.

Honestly, if there is something I want from Wizards is more of this. Do it for the Feywild, some random city in the Nine Hells (Dis maybe?), the City of Brass (my god I would kill for a book like this on the City of Brass) and such forth. It's just excellent in all departments. I'll do a more chapter by chapter overview once I've finished the book and properly digested it.

Hell, I'm already trying to figure out how to work it into my Dark Sun game no matter how inappropriate it is in every single aspect.

At the very least, I needed more assassin/humanoid type stats for upcoming levels, and this has like four different ones.

-O