Keep on the Shadowfell=Keep on the Borderlands?

[TerraDave]

WotC_GregB talks about H1: Keep on the Shadwofell in first blog update in three weeks:

http://www.gleemax.com/Comms/Pages/Communities/BlogPost.aspx?blogpostid=27998&pagemode=2&blogid=2948


He notes:

3. Keep on the Shadowfell....Shadowfell’s text remains unstable because rules in the PH continue to fluctuate. Since Shadowfell comes out a month before the PH, the other challenge is trying to include all the necessary rules so someone can play the adventure without the help of the PH. Turns out this is kind of difficult because Dungeons and Dragons has a few rules. Just a few. (underline added)

Confirming, as guessed, that it must have the rules to play.

Which leads to the title of this thread. This is clearly meant as a "gateway product", one thing you can buy to learn about the game and try it out.

So, what do you think?

(You can learn more on H1 on the 4ed info page or here)

 

[MojoGM]

Sounds good, though I REALLY wish they would do a basic set like in the old days.

 

[Abstraction]

God, I loved Keep on the Borderlands. I barely remember it now. I'm kind of scared to see it again, it may suck as a grownup (like Tron). I guess if don't remember the original I'll never know if this is the same.

 

[dmccoy1693]

I think they should give the PDF this away for free (or a very low cost) and charging the print version enough to cover the cost of printing instead of $30. Every other RPG does this. They don't charge $5 less then the core book to play an intro adventure with quickstart rules.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm looking forward to this. If WotC is listening, LIMIT THE CLASS CHOICES. It's just an intro product. The world will not end if, for the one month that it's the only 4E book, there's only fighters, clerics, wizards (or sorcerers) and rogues available. Anyone who doesn't like it can wait a month to play.

 

[Ktulu]

I think they should give the PDF this away for free (or a very low cost) and charging the print version enough to cover the cost of printing instead of $30. Every other RPG does this. They don't charge $5 less then the core book to play an intro adventure with quickstart rules.

IIRC, it was going to come with pre-generated characters to use before 4e is released. I would assume they'll have a total of six to cover their 4-6 people in a group design.

Ktulu

 

[JohnSnow]

I'm looking forward to this. If WotC is listening, LIMIT THE CLASS CHOICES. It's just an intro product. The world will not end if, for the one month that it's the only 4E book, there's only fighters, clerics, wizards (or sorcerers) and rogues available. Anyone who doesn't like it can wait a month to play.

Strictly in the interest of space, I imagine you'll probably see a few pre-gen characters in Keep on the Shadowfell rather than any character creation rules.

I'm sure that by "rules" they mean more "rules to play the adventure" as opposed to "rules for character creation." Since I assume the latter take up the bulk of the PHB, there's no way they could fit even a reasonable subset of them into an adventure. On the other hand, putting in a brief tutorial on DMing and adjudicating encounters is certainly doable. Then all you have to do is provide write-ups for all the PCs, NPCs, and monsters in the module.

 

[dmccoy1693]

IIRC, it was going to come with pre-generated characters to use before 4e is released. I would assume they'll have a total of six to cover their 4-6 people in a group design.

quickstart rules are a simplified rules set allowing the players to use the pregen characters and get a feel of the game without having to buy the full book. I.E. Its won't have the complete feat list, just a short description of how to use the feats these pregens have. It won't have the full spell list, just those the wizard has. Combat will be simplified. They probably won't have an unarmed character so no grapple rules. And similar.

Having to pay $30 bucks is a bit much. The intro adventure is suppose to be a marketting tool. I'd sooner buy the PHB blindly for $35 then $30 for the marketting tool and then, if I like it, pay $35 more dollars for the PHB. Two months after its release, the ebay price of it is going to drop to half (or less) since you won't need the gimped rules and pregen characters anymore.

 

[KingCrab]

I'm looking forward to this. If WotC is listening, LIMIT THE CLASS CHOICES. It's just an intro product. The world will not end if, for the one month that it's the only 4E book, there's only fighters, clerics, wizards (or sorcerers) and rogues available. Anyone who doesn't like it can wait a month to play.

Agreed. Keeping the number of classes low is probably best (together with limiting the spell list a bit). They might want to choose nonstandard classes though to showcase some of the new ones.

 

[Lanefan]

Agreed. Keeping the number of classes low is probably best (together with limiting the spell list a bit). They might want to choose nonstandard classes though to showcase some of the new ones.

If it's supposed to be an introductory module, keeping it as simple as possible would be the way to go, so as not to frighten off players who are using it as a springboard into gaming as a whole...i.e. the brand-newbies.

Basic classes, basic races, drop the puck and play. Leave the complexities for the PH-MM-DMG.

Lanefan