SDOgre
First Post
I ran KotS yesterday. Take my review for what it's worth.
First, I only had two players. I was so excited about playing we played anyway. Each ran two characters. That would be mistake number one.
My wife played the half-elf cleric and dwarven fighter. My buddy played the tiefling warlord (downloaded from the wizards site) and the human wizard.
Let me say that my expectations were high. I thought it would be a B+ and after reading through it I knew it would be an A. It just looked so awesome. The new rules seemed to rock.
Then we played.
In my opinion, I don't think anyone should play this module with the quick start rules. It is only going to frustrate you. There aren't enough rules there to fill in the gaps and so you end up with over simplistic rules that make it seem like nothing other than (as my buddy kept saying) a miniatures game. "I'm playing a miniature, not roleplaying."
Now, take it with a grain of salt. He was playing two characters and that tends to happen. I never should have done that in the first place.
First problem, the rules are far too incomplete.
Second problem, they put the characters up against monsters that can shift all over the place for the first three fights. Bad idea. Make it simple and short to start with. We were learning the rules as we went, but a fight should not take 3 hours. Each one was nearly to the death.
First problem, the rules are were too incomplete.
Second problem, the starting fights were too long.
Third problem. Kobold awesomeness.
My players had a definite problem with little scrawny kobolds having more hit points and a better attack then the party fighter and paladin. I don't care how you justify it. The kobold dragonshields (granted they are 2nd level) were tough. The extra shifting they get made them a slaughter machine in the second fight.
In order to save the party in the second fight I had to have the dragonborn paladin suddenly jump out of the bushes to save the day. (The fighter and warlord had already gone down).
We only got through two fights. My players are willing to give it a second chance for sure, but I'd have to give it a C- at best right now. Big disappointment.
As for what was good. Tons of little stuff.
My players also missed the first level characters that were quick and easy to play. You either lived and leveled quickly or died and made a new character. The first four levels were trial by fire. Darwinian survival of the fittest. Now it's like running a 5th level party right off the bat.
Keeping track of who's marked who, who had combat advantage... it didn't make anything any more easy.
My advice. Don't run this with quickstart rules. Wait til the full 4E comes out. Fill in the roleplaying gaps in the module. (It's way too vanilla - too many pages wasted on the quickstart rules) Get creative.
In all, I'm hoping with a full group and after having learned the 4E rules better things will be smooth and we'll be loving it.
I ran 3E the day it came out with the same players + more and it went a lot better than this. Thus why I thought this would be an A, and it turned out a C-.
First, I only had two players. I was so excited about playing we played anyway. Each ran two characters. That would be mistake number one.
My wife played the half-elf cleric and dwarven fighter. My buddy played the tiefling warlord (downloaded from the wizards site) and the human wizard.
Let me say that my expectations were high. I thought it would be a B+ and after reading through it I knew it would be an A. It just looked so awesome. The new rules seemed to rock.
Then we played.
In my opinion, I don't think anyone should play this module with the quick start rules. It is only going to frustrate you. There aren't enough rules there to fill in the gaps and so you end up with over simplistic rules that make it seem like nothing other than (as my buddy kept saying) a miniatures game. "I'm playing a miniature, not roleplaying."
Now, take it with a grain of salt. He was playing two characters and that tends to happen. I never should have done that in the first place.
First problem, the rules are far too incomplete.
Second problem, they put the characters up against monsters that can shift all over the place for the first three fights. Bad idea. Make it simple and short to start with. We were learning the rules as we went, but a fight should not take 3 hours. Each one was nearly to the death.
First problem, the rules are were too incomplete.
Second problem, the starting fights were too long.
Third problem. Kobold awesomeness.
My players had a definite problem with little scrawny kobolds having more hit points and a better attack then the party fighter and paladin. I don't care how you justify it. The kobold dragonshields (granted they are 2nd level) were tough. The extra shifting they get made them a slaughter machine in the second fight.
In order to save the party in the second fight I had to have the dragonborn paladin suddenly jump out of the bushes to save the day. (The fighter and warlord had already gone down).
We only got through two fights. My players are willing to give it a second chance for sure, but I'd have to give it a C- at best right now. Big disappointment.
As for what was good. Tons of little stuff.
- Saving throws changes. Perfect
- More tactical movement on the battlefield. Great.
- The wizard being able to fire a magic missile every round. Screw the crossbow. Perfect.
- Distinctness of characters. Awesome.
My players also missed the first level characters that were quick and easy to play. You either lived and leveled quickly or died and made a new character. The first four levels were trial by fire. Darwinian survival of the fittest. Now it's like running a 5th level party right off the bat.
Keeping track of who's marked who, who had combat advantage... it didn't make anything any more easy.
My advice. Don't run this with quickstart rules. Wait til the full 4E comes out. Fill in the roleplaying gaps in the module. (It's way too vanilla - too many pages wasted on the quickstart rules) Get creative.
In all, I'm hoping with a full group and after having learned the 4E rules better things will be smooth and we'll be loving it.
I ran 3E the day it came out with the same players + more and it went a lot better than this. Thus why I thought this would be an A, and it turned out a C-.