Keep on the Shadowfell review (Spoilers)
- Thread starter Crothian
- Start date
Pseudopsyche
First Post
The five character sheets all contain a section describing the changes upon gaining 2nd level. "Because your new level is an even number, everything that includes one-half your level gets better. Increase your attacks, defenses, initiative, and skill check modifiers by 1 point."Crothian said:
I do want to add that I agree with your overall assessment that the adventure is overpriced, but I didn't find any egregious problems with it. The adventure itself doesn't blow me away, but it seems to me like a solid introductory module.
Olgar Shiverstone
Legend
I just finished reading my copy, and I think Crothian is right on in his review.
It has a nice mix of interesting and memorable encounters, and is quite colorful and attractive. It suffers from some errors, odd organization (why is the monster stat block explained before the rules?), and IMO poor packaging (thin paper, ink that bleeds too easily, character sheets that aren't on separate pages, etc). It does a poor job of being an introductory product for people completely new to the game, but yet it comes across as a little too basic for people who are familiar with, say, 3E D&D but need to adapt to the new rules. It's a decent product ... but comparing to prior products I actually think the 3E adventure path had better constructed adventures (the first two, anyway), while the introductory boxed sets were better introductory products, and both were a better value for price. $30 MSRP is too steep for what you get -- this is a $15 product.
It has a nice mix of interesting and memorable encounters, and is quite colorful and attractive. It suffers from some errors, odd organization (why is the monster stat block explained before the rules?), and IMO poor packaging (thin paper, ink that bleeds too easily, character sheets that aren't on separate pages, etc). It does a poor job of being an introductory product for people completely new to the game, but yet it comes across as a little too basic for people who are familiar with, say, 3E D&D but need to adapt to the new rules. It's a decent product ... but comparing to prior products I actually think the 3E adventure path had better constructed adventures (the first two, anyway), while the introductory boxed sets were better introductory products, and both were a better value for price. $30 MSRP is too steep for what you get -- this is a $15 product.
Wik
First Post
I just got mine a few hours ago.
First Impression: ooooohhh....
I liked the double folder presentation, and it really made me warm inside.
But once I started skimming through it, I wasn't exactly happy. The quickstart rules that you give to the players are pretty much reprinted in their entirety in the GM's booklet, which sucks. There's a lot of fuddly details that someone like me (who has done next to no reading on 4e rumours) had to struggle to get - "shifting", for example.
One thing that really gets me here is the fact that the damage codes for first level characters are so HUGE. There's a lot of "roll four dice" abilities in here, and a lot of abilities that I can see slowing down play. But, we'll try them out in actual play before I complain too much.
The maps are nice. I like 'em, and I'll definately find some way to use them.
I like the wizard class - it seems like it'd be fun to play, especially considering it's at-will abilities. And halflings look like they're still right up my alley. The other three classes seem sort of lame. Healing surges confuse me, but I'm sure I'll grow to love them one day.
I'm a little confused as to why there's no explanation on how to run the game with fewer than five players, since I really don't feel confident in making on the fly changes with a game I'm just learning.
Also, the game presents three "quests" that could be used to tie the players into the game, and each game provides bonus experience. It suggests picking one, two, or using all three as hooks to get players involved. So, I could be rewarding One thousand, two thousand, or even three thousand bonus XP to my PCs - which makes me wonder about their progression through the game.
But again, fiddly bits. This is a basic, introductory adventure. I remember the 3e fastplay set, and it looked a lot worse than this. (though, I never played in it as intended, we made me a sorcerer with the core book and ran through the fastplay adventure solo). So, that's fine by me.
One thing that sort of bothers me, though? Two, three weeks from now, this book is going to be useless. I really can't see myself actually running it if I had my own DMG, PHB, and MM. Maybe I could pilfer statblocks, I guess.
By the way, I like how monsters are set up, but I can't see how they're any easier. The maps for the fights are cool, though - there seems like there'll be a lot more monsters per combat, as promised, which is pretty cool.
First Impression: ooooohhh....
I liked the double folder presentation, and it really made me warm inside.
But once I started skimming through it, I wasn't exactly happy. The quickstart rules that you give to the players are pretty much reprinted in their entirety in the GM's booklet, which sucks. There's a lot of fuddly details that someone like me (who has done next to no reading on 4e rumours) had to struggle to get - "shifting", for example.
One thing that really gets me here is the fact that the damage codes for first level characters are so HUGE. There's a lot of "roll four dice" abilities in here, and a lot of abilities that I can see slowing down play. But, we'll try them out in actual play before I complain too much.
The maps are nice. I like 'em, and I'll definately find some way to use them.
I like the wizard class - it seems like it'd be fun to play, especially considering it's at-will abilities. And halflings look like they're still right up my alley. The other three classes seem sort of lame. Healing surges confuse me, but I'm sure I'll grow to love them one day.
I'm a little confused as to why there's no explanation on how to run the game with fewer than five players, since I really don't feel confident in making on the fly changes with a game I'm just learning.
Also, the game presents three "quests" that could be used to tie the players into the game, and each game provides bonus experience. It suggests picking one, two, or using all three as hooks to get players involved. So, I could be rewarding One thousand, two thousand, or even three thousand bonus XP to my PCs - which makes me wonder about their progression through the game.
But again, fiddly bits. This is a basic, introductory adventure. I remember the 3e fastplay set, and it looked a lot worse than this. (though, I never played in it as intended, we made me a sorcerer with the core book and ran through the fastplay adventure solo). So, that's fine by me.
One thing that sort of bothers me, though? Two, three weeks from now, this book is going to be useless. I really can't see myself actually running it if I had my own DMG, PHB, and MM. Maybe I could pilfer statblocks, I guess.
By the way, I like how monsters are set up, but I can't see how they're any easier. The maps for the fights are cool, though - there seems like there'll be a lot more monsters per combat, as promised, which is pretty cool.
Crothian
First Post
Wik said:
Hopefully, the H2 module will build off of this one and make it so that playing H1 still has some importance as a lead into the next one. I do plan on running this though after I get the books so I can see how the game should play. The module itself is not bad and running it with the full rules shouldn't be that big of deal. I imagine it will be better that way, too.
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