|
| Keep on the Shadowfell (Dungeons & Dragons, Adventure H1) | 
 enlarge | Authors: Bruce Cordell, Mike Mearls
Brand: Wizards of the Coast
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $14.97
You Save: $14.98 (50%)
New (38) Used (9) from $14.97
Avg. Customer Rating:  63 reviews
Sales Rank: 4106
Media: Paperback
Edition: 4th
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 96
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 11.2 x 9.3 x 0.5
ISBN: 0786948507
Dewey Decimal Number: 793
EAN: 9780786948505
ASIN: 0786948507
Publication Date: May 20, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: New; Excellent condition! Clean crisp tight copy, no marks,could have some minor shelf wear. Email Notification, Satisfaction Guaranteed,Direct from our warehouse.
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
An introductory 4th Edition D&D adventure for characters of levels 1-3. The town of Winterhaven stands watch over a ruined keep that was once a bastion of good in the realm. This keep overlooks the Shadow Rift, a dark scar in the world that was once a gateway to the Shadowfell but has been dormant for many years. Now, an evil cleric of Orcus, Demon Lord of the Undead, seeks to re-open the gate, and the only thing standing in his way is a small yet determined band of heroes. Keep on the Shadowfell is an exciting Dungeons & Dragons adventure designed for characters of levels 1-3. It includes three double-sided poster maps suitable for use with D&D Miniatures.
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 58 more reviews...
 The meat, the actual writing makes it an awesome intro adventure May 21, 2008
64 out of 72 found this review helpful
Yeah I hate that it comes in a folder, I like books with covers. The paper is crappy it curls and creases easily. The price is high. The cover ink comes off on wet hands.
What's important though is what's inside! It's an absolutely awesome module to showcase what's new in 4th edition. It's a combat intensive adventure to teach new 4th edition players what 4th edition is capable of. Each encounter takes into account different terrain features, and amazing new tactics by our old favorite monsters redefined. They really captured the feel of certain monsters by giving them powers that just seemed to fit. Like the lowly Kobold being able to shift at will. Giving these little short guys ways to mob up on you and get underfoot. Goblins are cowards and good at hiding and fighting on the run "Catch that damn goblin before he gets away!". Zombies can grab you giving you that horror movie feeling of the zombie horde threatening to overwhelm you "Get these things off me!". Even some of the rooms you fight in have their own special qualities which open up tons of new horrifying strategies like being knocked down into a pit and struggling to get out. Or you can knock a goblin into a pit and kick away his ladder. All in all the area features and the enemy combat styles make this adventure really fun to play. Each encounter is fun to run again and again for different players as they are set up great and can turn out completely different. I don't have to edit or leave out any bad ones.
There is a small town filled with characters. While their physical descriptions are a bit lacking and there's no pictures of NPC's; they did include a lot of NPC dialogs with written out answers to common PC questions. These really help to flesh out the townsfolk. There's even a well written encounter with a major enemy where he asks questions and the PC's have to roll different skill checks like Religious knowledge, Intimidate, etc, in order to succeed at the negotiation. I really like that. It spells out what might actually happen and gets all the characters involved in a negotiation rather than just relegating it to one Diplomacy check by the PC with the highest CHA. The lead negotiator still gets to be in charge though.
The story is basic save the world or at least general area of the town. The party makes the town their base. There are a bunch of side quests they go on to get an idea of what's happening and to acquire XP. There's even a plot event that happens when the PC's return to town after they have been adventuring for a while. Lengthwise I'd say it would take 6 five hour play sessions or more to complete the whole thing. I might be underestimating. I'd say it's 30% outdoor and 70% inside a dungeon. The module is very hack-n-slash, it's tactical encounter after encounter and a dungeon crawl. Most people I've met play this way. If you want a high fantasy story this isn't for you.
The format is the standard everything in order where you need it: encounters and monster stats right next to descriptive text which is way better in my opinion than having encounters and monsters separately at the end of the book. You'll do way less page flipping.
You get three large double sided color maps. One battle near a waterfall looks pretty. These are nice, I probably will use them, but I like chessex mats better anyway.
I try to think to myself "In ten years after everyone is playing 4th edition will this module still be that awesome?" I'd say it might become a classic. They borrowed some cool things from some other old modules with similar names. It's a good 4th ed. intro filled with classic monsters, a decent story, and some very memorable encounters. One criticism I have is that the PC's don't get much interaction with the villain until the end. I would suggest adding two talking encounters with him.
I'm revisiting this review: Now after playing 4th edition for months I realize how much this module taught me about how to DM a game. I'm constantly referring DM's to read this so they can learn how to run a solo monster or how tactics and terrain really make an encounter unique. As a DM you have to create encounters that open up choices. Interesting choices that the party has to pause and consider. Like "Should they chase the goblin who ran around the corner and hid or is it more important to hold the area near the pit so they can try to push the hobgoblin in" This adventure is really great at showing what the 4th edition rules open up in terms of tactics. I feel sorry for the people who fail to grasp it and keep playing a broken 3.5. I cast sleep on 3.5, coup de grace all of them. Is that a tactic? no that's broken.
 Um, wow. Magazine paper? May 27, 2008
42 out of 50 found this review helpful
So, I picked up Keep on the Shadowfell today.
For $30, you get three double-sided maps and two booklets - 80 and 16 pages, respectively. The booklets are made of magazine paper, stapled through the middle. They have no covers. Mine are already getting beat up, and the ink is smearing. It's no exaggeration to say that this is the worst-quality RPG product I've purchased in my 25 years of gaming. Even small press books have covers. And are made out of paper.
Overall, this is a really disappointing price-to-value ratio. It's fundamentally a short module - intended, apparently, to introduce new players and veterans to the game - and you get almost nothing for your money. Were I not already excited about 4e, the production values may have turned me off.
Now, the rules look excellent and solid. The designers took a lot of the best parts of Star Wars Saga Edition, a few drops of Earthdawn, and a whole lot of older editions of D&D. It looks like it will be fun, and I can't wait to run my group through it. 4e may end up being the best edition yet - I'm open to that possibility - but they need to at least take pride in the build quality of their products, first.
Here's hoping the core books I pre-ordered at least have covers... :)
Buy only because it;'s the only module available May 25, 2008
23 out of 29 found this review helpful
What others have said about the poor quality is true, and it is one of the things that makes me believe WOTC is marketing this to a younger audience-- not altogether bad, we need a new generation of paper-and-pencil gamers, but the poor quality, the simplicity, and the cliches of the adventure are a big turn-off for older gamers like me.
Having said that, I am impressed with what we have seen of the 4th edition rules, even though I was all set to hate them. This product does provide a good intro to 4th edition combat. The problem is that, in addition to being too simple for veteran players, this module would be too complex for novices simply to pick it up without having played before. WOTC needs to figure out who its audience is with this one.
But it is worth buying to introduce players to the 4E rules, and it would be OK to introduce new players to the game if you are an experienced DM. If you are new to D&D, wait for the 4th edition player's handbook, at least to use with this module. As other modules become available, this will not be the best introduction for newbies and will be uninteresting to veterans.
Great peak into 4th edition rules May 22, 2008
18 out of 25 found this review helpful
I just finished reading through the material and I am loving how streamlined everything is. Here is my breakdown.
PRO:
NPCs have very concise and specific stat blocks and every encounter has the tactics laid out, takes a lot of the guesswork and digging out of DMing.
Minions! Minions are a new concept (in official rules at least) of monster that can help you shore up the numbers in a fight to make it more intense and memorable. A single (successful) hit kills them (1hp) but they have a high enough AC and attack to do some damage and be a considerable threat.
Everyone has powers. All the races and classes got a revamp and each have their own set of at-will, encounter and daily powers.
As far as intro level adventures go, this one is better than most. The story is well paced, plenty of fighting but it doesn't seem to get boring like some others (more goblins!?) and there is plenty of room to get creative before, during and after the adventure.
Con:
Price is a bit high for soft cover. I understand they added the "Quick start rules", but for $30 it should be thicker stock.
All the artwork previews I have seen for the new core rule books have been outstanding and an improvement to the 3rd edition. But this artwork isn't up to the same 4th edition caliber. It is just as good as 3rd ed stuff, but I was a little disappointed that they didn't kick it up at all.
Selection of characters. While I think each character is interesting and has its own cool powers, 5 is not enough for every group. WotC did post a 6th character on their site today though.
D&D Insider is not up. I know it won't be till the official launch, but it would have been nice to be able to download hi-res versions of the pictures and maps.
Overall:
I am very pleased with the new rules, the new characters and this adventure. I will be running this weekend and expect to see a lot of happy faces around the table. I recommend this for anyone who wants to get a head start on 4th edition and doesn't mind playing with a pre-gen character.
And just for those that are curious, here are the PCs:
Dwarven Fighter
Halfling Rouge
Human Wizard
Dragonborn Paladin
Half-elf Cleric
Tiefling Warlord.
 Good Content, Horrid Packaging May 25, 2008
12 out of 15 found this review helpful
The title says a lot. First the bad:
As has been said in other reviews, the actual construction of this is shoddy to say the least. Basically it is a cardboard folder with two magazines inside. (The maps are quite nice, both in their durability and ability to be re-used) The folder seems decently constructed, but you can't run the module from the relative protection of the folder. The frighteningly cheap module must come out the actually be used. If you have oily hands (as I do) buy gloves, because if you hold the module for too long the ink will run. After only one read through, I have several finger smears on the back cover, which hold vital info for running the final encounter. I am considering removing the two staples, which comprises the binding, cutting the whole thing in half and putting it all in transparent binder sleeves. For a $30 book to be this poorly made is worthy of a zero out of 5 stars.... as any use, exposure to small amounts of liquid, or the simple act of reading it will cause damage.
The story itself, while a typical dungeon crawl, is well put together. The quick start rules are insufficient if you have players (like mine) that tend to nitpick, and push the boundaries of even the most insignificant rule, but they are a nice inclusion.
The NPCs are pretty well flushed out, and I found on my first read through, myself actually developing their quirks just from the short paragraphs about them. True the baddies are unimaginative, to say the least, but a good DM can give them a lot more spice pretty easily.
The main aspect I like about this module (having not run it yet, so this is not an entirely informed opinion) is that it seems a near-perfect introduction to the new rule set.
And as a final note, Gnomes have been reduced to the level of goblins.
|
|
|
Powered by Associate-O-Matic
| |
