D&D 4E Keep on the Shadowfell specifics from Mearls (4e designer) .. new info on Page 2

[Nebulous]

No kidding! And what a good time to test digital distribution than with a test module... maybe make it free pdf to those that sign up for a year of DDI (not me!) or something... it's just too close to the phb for me to be interested in dropping anything more than a few bucks.

For whatever small consolation it's worth, i think the module comes bundled with several high-quality battlemaps that wouldn't be feasible to print off from online. For most folks, anyway. But yeah, a 2-week "preview" adventure is sort of silly. i'll still snag it though.

 

[malraux]

For comparison, The Sunless Citadel in a lot of ways was also a preview adventure. It had a lot of sidebars calling out new rules and reminders to the DM of how to do a section in a 3e way.

 

[Beckett]

With the three cores initially spread out over three months, KotS looked like a much better deal in terms of a preview.

I'm still buying it. Why? This is going to be the first look at what a 4E adventure is supposed to look like. I admit I haven't looked at any of the fan created modules, but I'm sure they did the best they could with what they had. They did not, however, have access to the full rules. They don't know exactly how skill challenges are going to work, about noncombat stuff, about traps and what goes in to making an encounter location exciting and dynamic, and how all of this fits together. Yes, two weeks after I get KotS, I'll be able to learn all of that, but KotS is going to serve as a blue print as I start making my own dungeons and encounters.

I'm also looking forward to KotS for the preview aspect. Based on what we've seen, I expect some of the classes and races are going to feel very different. One of my players likes rogues; she might find the 4E rogue really doesn't fit, but that the ranger is more her style. If I can use the two weeks to let the group mess around with the KotS pregens, maybe they can get a better idea of what they want to play, and I can avoid any do-overs for character creation.

 

[kennew142]

One of the GMs in my Saturday night group has decided to run the core modules for us as a 4e campaign. We will be making our own characters for the series of modules, since the rules come out just three weeks later.

Since we prefer a much slower rate of level advancement in our home games than the core rules provide, playing this series by the RAW will give us a feel for the 4e system at each level and tier before any of our home games reach that point and we have to write our own scenarios for higher levels.

It's worthwhile to those of us writing our our scenarios for just that reason.

 

[Jack99]

It's interesting to see how many people are canceling pre-orders due to the mis-timing of this release. I seem to recall that it was initially slated to roll out a month early? I'm assuming that it got pushed back, which kind of de-fangs it as the "play 4e early" release.

Not really. It was slated for april, when the PHB was slated for May. When they moved the PHB up to June, in order to release all three books at the same time, it got moved as well. So no real change, at least vis-a-vis the core books.

I will however say that it would have been nicer if we had had KotSf earlier. Maybe 4-6 weeks before the release of the core books.

I will still buy it though. The sooner I can get away from 3e, the better.

 

[TerraDave]

Timing: Originally this was for April, PHB May, MM June, DMG July...

Oh well. I am NOT cancelling my preorder. I have faith I would run it anyways. But of course I would like it a little earlier.

 

[Cyronax]

One of the GMs in my Saturday night group has decided to run the core modules for us as a 4e campaign. We will be making our own characters for the series of modules, since the rules come out just three weeks later.

Since we prefer a much slower rate of level advancement in our home games than the core rules provide, playing this series by the RAW will give us a feel for the 4e system at each level and tier before any of our home games reach that point and we have to write our own scenarios for higher levels.

It's worthwhile to those of us writing our our scenarios for just that reason.

I wanted to do something similar, but all of my players wanted to wait and have a full range of character classes and races options so that we didn't just play a half-assed storyline.

I can see this point, though I do enjoy trying out the new crunch (and most of went to D&DXP which exposed us pretty quickly to the rules).

c.i.d.

 

[Cyronax]

Quoted from today's reply from WotC_Mearls/Mike Mearls in response to my initial querey:

"Hey Vicarius,

I think between the DDXP characters and the stuff in KotS, you'll be mostly covered. Like I mentioned above, I'm not 100% sure on the characters in the adventure, but I think you'll have most bases covered. I'm not sure there is a warlord in KotS, and I don't know which races we went with.

Even if it doesn't exactly cover what you need, the adventure is a good way to introduce the new rules to everyone. You can jump into playing without everyone taking the time to read the PH and learn the system before making characters. We intentionally designed the adventure with a fair amount of story, NPC interaction, and plot so that it is a full fledged D&D experience. It isn't a simple dungeon crawl - if you stripped out the quick start rules and pregen PCs, it would like at home alongside any other low-level adventure.

- Mike"


c.i.d

 

[Lanefan]

Quoted from today's reply from WotC_Mearls/Mike Mearls in response to my initial querey:

"Hey Vicarius,

[...]

We intentionally designed the adventure with a fair amount of story, NPC interaction, and plot so that it is a full fledged D&D experience. It isn't a simple dungeon crawl - if you stripped out the quick start rules and pregen PCs, it would like at home alongside any other low-level adventure.

- Mike"

Well, that sounds somewhat promising, in any case.

Lanefan

 

[kennew142]

I wanted to do something similar, but all of my players wanted to wait and have a full range of character classes and races options so that we didn't just play a half-assed storyline.

I can see this point, though I do enjoy trying out the new crunch (and most of went to D&DXP which exposed us pretty quickly to the rules).

c.i.d.

The GM in question won't be starting the module until the PHB comes out (It's only a few weeks and we will still be finishing some 3e campaigns). That will give him some time to read it. The point is that we will play the published modules by the RAW as a loose campaign. That means we'll level pretty quickly (much quicker than in any of our home games) and none of us will have to write 4e scenarios of any level until we've had time to play (or GM) in a published module of that level. Hopefully, it will allow us to gain some familiarity with the rules (and 4e design conventions) before jumping in and writing our own scenarios. I intend to read them as soon as I'm finished playing in them.

Just to be clear, I should say that our group plays every Friday and Saturday night, with rotating GMs. Different campaigns will be run on different nights.

Friday:

Elocia (my home brew 4e campaign)
Castle Whitewater (a friend's 4e home brew campaign)
Waterdeep (my brother-in-law's 4e FR campaign)

Saturday

Published Module Campaign
SWSE Campaign
Eberron Stormreach 4e campaign
Carnival (4e Eberron campaign set in Aundair. All of the characters are performers in a traveling circus. We follow the same route every year and have adventures along the way.)