Keep of the Shadowfell - First Impressions

I was lucky; I had decided at the last minute to preorder the new hot so I was assured it on the first available day. Turned out there was already a run on the store before I got there, and my copy had been set aside. My immediate thought: “Lot smaller than I thought.”

Turns out the adventure was more of a adventure packet, something you might receive at a six-hour training session if said session happened to be about D&D and they had a relatively good budget. Damn fancy for free, damn disconcerting for $30. Still, it was an adventure, and it technically has a smaller in price than the books proper when they arrive, and, well, I’ve already purchased it...so it was time to crack this open.

The adventure comes with a sixteen page player guide with five pre-generated characters which teach you a whole bunch of things one probably knows already if they are picking it up the day it comes out. Basically, the rules are the same, roll a d20, deal damage, but it’s a lot more streamlined. There are now 15 skills instead of 35, critical hits get nerfed...hard, a whole bunch of the 3rd-edition combat tricks are either no longer available or not being told to use (yah no grappling!), saving throws are a lot...easier, and dying is a lot less likely. These are all good things...it allows for a less spastic gameplay that can’t be easily derailed by some jerk who read too much into the rules.

All of this is, of course, quickplay rules, so there is probably a deeper level of strategy and options that they aren’t telling us yet. We’ll see just what we’re messing as soon as they release the corebooks (another good point: all books available at once. No stupid staggered release that screws you hard for two months.)

The adventure proper starts off normal, with some kobolds, a town in the middle of nowhere populated by very boring people, and a leveling of balancing that is, again, as opaque as hell until we can get our hands on some meat. It also includes three two-sided maps that provide a setting for pretty much every encounter, which is awesome...if only they included the figurines for the heroes. Hell, I’d even pay $5 extra for that, since it would have been pretty simple to plan for.

There’s still a bunch of damn words to read, most of it probably full of the usual plot twists and encounters that can be seen from a mile away, but it’s a starter adventure, geared towards attracting a new crowd more than pleasing the base, so its cookie-cutter plot can probably be excused, because it allows us to play three weeks early. Expect more kavitching later.