In a few short weeks, the mother of all MMORPGs is getting an upgrade.  No, not Everquest. I’m talking about the first game to incorporate options such as races, classes, levels for your character, and magic items:  None other than Dungeons and Dragons.  Today, anxious fans get a taste of the new rules through the new module, Keep on the Shadowfell.

Spawned in the early 70s, the paper and pencil role playing game (to differentiate it from video game RPGs) was very unique.  It was an immediate hit and the role playing game industry was born.  As time went on, the game changed an evolved over several new editions.  The newest edition, 4th edition, will be released worldwide on June 6th.  In addition to a special D&D game day on June 7th, held at many game retailers, a preview of 4th edition is available through today’s release of the Keep on the Shadowfell module.

Designed for a Dungeon Master (DM) and up to five players, the new module takes characters from 1st through 3rd level as they save the countryside by solving the mysteries of a mysterious, ruined keep.  Players and DMs get a taste of the new rules while they wait for the new 4th edition rulebooks to come out in a few weeks. 

In a kind of grand karmic circle, the new rules have taken a few cues from online rpgs.  Characters are slightly more hardy, monsters have been given more personality, and combat has become more action oriented.  While this serves to give players a more edge-of-the-seat experience, it also increases the need for miniatures or some sort of stand-in for each player’s character.  This makes 4th edition more of a paper, pencil, miniature, and map RPG.  On the whole, this does make for a more enjoyable experience, playing with little plastic toys while one lives out the fantasy of saving the world simply adds to the fun.  However, this also ups the required tools (and thus the expense) necessary to make full use of the game.

In addition to some streamlining of combat, the overhaul of the game attempted to balance out the classes, races, and levels.  Each class now has roughly the same number of powers, useable once per day, once per combat, or at will.  Gone are the days where the wizard fires off a single spell and then needs to take a lie-down.  Now that same wizard can cast Magic Missiles to her life’s content.  The lowly fighter now has a mix of combat options to add a bit of spice to the old-school “I swing my weapon at the monster again”.

As for the preview module itself, it shows some good potential for the upcoming full game.  The story builds at a good pace, with a pacing of tough combats interspersed with easier conflicts to help characters feel they’re progressing well.  Traps and puzzles round out the adventure, giving a little something for those that crave more than just a bunch of strategic combat.  In a first read-through of the module it may seem that the players have their work cut out for them.  While this is true, the new edition of rules also create characters that start out much less fragile than before and rules for healing within combat are now more liberal so that characters can take quite a beating and still remain (mostly) standing.

The module comes with a quick-start guide of 5 different characters and a short introduction to the new rules.  Players can read through this quick-start guide and be mostly up to speed.  The characters also have prearranged numbers for when they go up level, taking them from 1st all the way up to 3rd level by the end of the adventure.  For the DM, there is a booklet containing the adventure, some more detailed rules, and a set of two double-sided poster sized maps for use in various encounters during the adventure.

The layout of the adventure portion of the module is designed to reduce the preparation time required of the Dungeon Master.  The flow of the story flows through the book with optional side tracks given, depending on how the players try to proceed.  Combat encounters are particularly nice.  Each combat is laid out on two facing pages with a small map showing the initial layout of monsters.  Complete statistics for each monster is provided, with the most important abilities in easy to find locations.  To cap things off, basic strategy for each monster is also written right into the encounter.  As the DM is often running multiple characters while players can focus on just one, having the first rounds of combat and monster strategies planned out in advance can help the DM run a more challenging fight.  One aspect of the new rules I enjoy are the Minion rules.  Minions are a new type of monster with just a single hit point.  While they go down quickly, they have comparable stats to other monsters at their level.  Thus, a group of minions is nothing to sneeze at, as it could take several turns to whittle their number down to a less dangerous level.  A few minions are also handy for keeping the players away from the big bad boss while that same boss wrecks havoc from afar.

There are a few downsides to the module, such as some missing information, and a couple unclear references.  When the full rulebooks come out in June, it is assumed that most of the unclear concepts glossed over in the quickstart guides will be more fully explained.  My single main beef with the module is the printing.  While the maps and two booklets come in a very nice folder, the booklets are made of somewhat thin paper, including their covers.  It would have been nice to have at least the covers of the booklets made out of thicker paper or cardstock.  In just casual use of taking the booklets in and out of the folder I have encountered some wrinkling and folding-over of the booklets.

At a retail price of $30, the module might seem a bit steep.  However, that will be no object for fans of the game who can’t wait to see what the new version of the rules holds.  The story, encounters, and maps included with the module are all very well designed and written, making a very good start for what is hopefully a new and improved version of the game.

 ————

Update:   For those who end up buying and playing through the adventure, you should check out Fiery Dragon Productions.  Among the things they produce are various printable counters for use in RPGs.  They have just released a FREE DOWNLOAD PDF that contains a set of counters that just so happens to be VERY similar to the monsters encountered in Keep on the Shadowfell.  I fully intend to use a scrapbooking 1″ circle hole punch, the PDF download, and some 1″ washers to make heavy-duty counters for my upcoming games….

Tags: Misc