That D&D module sucked

First off let me say that I'm delighted to have some new followers on the blog, many thanks for taking an interest in my nerdy ramblings.

Now to business. Last week I finished playing through an official Wizards of the Coast 4th Edition adventure called King of Trollhaunt Warrens. I really didn't enjoy Dming this and my players, although they had fun, were very critical of the module.

This was the first adventure that saw the characters into paragon, since I wanted a break from writing. It's also the first in a trilogy of adventures that get PCs up to epic level. I don't think I'll be running the subsequent two.

The real problem for me and my players is that it's far too encounter heavy. This may be fine for those who want hack hack hack all day long, but for the roleplayers out there, there is very limited scope to roleplaying.

The dungeon is pretty much encounter after encounter, broken up by a return to a town that's been invaded, which has some pretty cool encounters in it, but then coming back to the warrens that are basically stocked full of the same creatures. Whilst the writer did make use of in-combat hazards such as flaming pits and flammable oil, there was very little in the way of traps. I also can only recall two skill challenges, which is pretty bad considering it took (an edited) 7 weeks to complete.

In the end, it was a bit of a drag. Yes, there's an insane amount of loot to grab at the end, which made the players's eyes light up with glee, but there wasn't a whole lot of substance.

Today I continued the campaign with a new adventure. I winged it since I had no time to write but I felt it went quite well. I included an encounter with a Fen Hydra, a puzzle skill challenge and lots of lovely roleplaying to boot, making it fairly balanced. Ok, the story was a bit poor - fight hydra, go find mage who supposedly summoned it to destroy town, but at least it was interesting.

David L. Arneson dies, age 61

The family has sent out a letter about the death of Dungeons and Dragons co-creator, David Arneson:

Shortly after 11pm on Tuesday, April 7th, Dave Arneson passed away. He was comfortable and with family at the time and his passing was peaceful.

The Arneson family would like to thank everyone for their support over the last few days, and for the support the entire community has shown Dave over the years.

We are in the process of making final arrangements and will provide additional details as we work them out. We will continue to receive cards and letters in Dave's honor. We are planning to hold a public visitation so that anyone wishing to say their goodbye in person has the opportunity to do so.

Cards and letters can continue to be sent:
Dave Arneson
1043 Grand Avenue
Box #257
St. Paul, MN
55105

Visitation will be on April 20th
Time: yet to be determined
Address:
Bradshaw Funeral Home
687 Snelling Avenue South
St. Paul, MN 55105

He was a great man who will live on in the memories of all he touched through his magnificent work,

D&D Game Day - The Verdict

I hope everyone who took part in D&D Worldwide Game Day yesterday had lots of fun. I was up early to get the the train to another city where I was booked in for the 11-1 slot, much like going to the dentist but with less magazines about celebrities on the waiting room table.

I went alone so I had no idea who I'd be playing with, so I met them hanging around the table in the store (Travelling Man) before 11am and I quickly joined in their discussion about the differences between 3rd and 4th edition. After about 5 minutes we sat down, talked to the DM and waited for two more to arrive, of which only one did, but that didn't really have an effect on the game.

I chose to be the Tiefling Invoker and we promptly set off on the One Dark Night in Weeping Briar module.

Once we were all comfortable in each other's presence the roleplaying got much better and the table came alive. I'm not going to give anything away to people who haven't played the adventure so I'll just say that there were a few nice encounters and some good use of skill checks. All in all it was a bog-standard adventure, nothing really special and unfortunately we were assigned a 2 hour slot so we weren't able to finish it which obviously left us a bit dismayed, but I had a fun time and we were allowed to keep our character minis - score!

For me it was quite a special game because it was the first time I had played 4th edition. I have to say that I'm quite willing to buy into the system now; the combat was swift and fun, the powers are pretty awesome and none of this detracted from the feel of Dungeons and Dragons. It still felt like D&D to me but with less flicking through the rules. I enjoyed it, I really did.

So thanks to Travelling Man for holding this fine event and thanks to WotC for providing the materials.

Saturday is Worldwide D&D Game Day

It's been a while since I played with a group so I'm looking forward to Saturday 21st March when I'll be heading up to Newcastle to take part in the Worldwide D&D Game Day at Travelling Man.

I haven't bought into the most recent iteration of the game, fourth edition, mainly because three core books (and the new Players Handbook 2) are too expensive for a poor student like myself. I've done a lot of reading about the system though and from what I gather there have been mixed reviews. Looking at the changes Wizards have made to the system I can tell that I probably won't be a big fan. But to be honest it's not about the system, it's about the social experience and having fun. I may have to grit my teeth through healing surges and At Will spells but I'm sure the game will be a lot of fun.

We get given a pre-rolled level 11 character, presumably to show off the epic potential of 4th ed characters. You're either:

# Ilvarra, drow avenger
# Markaria, tiefling invoker
# Roswyn, gnome bard
# Squeaks, warforged barbarian
# Balasar, dragonborn paladin

It's going to be quite a learning experience for me as I've never played a single one of those races or classes, although I'm more familiar with barbarian, bard and paladin. I may see if I can be Squeaks the barbarian so that I can compare him to my freshly rolled up Dwarf barbarian Pathfinder character.

Some folk [retro love]

Labyrinth Lord is a brilliant retro clone that takes you back to the old days of D&D (something I would know nothing about, I'm the Wizards generation). If you play LL then Matthew over at The Dwarf and the Basilisk has a little gift for you in the form of pre-rolled NPCs that can be used as henchmen or party member replacements.

I love the back to basics feel of Labyrinth Lord, something that's refreshing when I've been playing 3e for so long. Not that 3e is bad or anything, it's incredibly enjoyable, but it's a complex system with so many supplements to choose from my head was spinning when I went into a games store. LL is the gritty dungeon crawl of yesteryear.

Retro clones are becoming ever popular on kitchen tables and one that I really like is Mazes and Minotaurs, which is completely free and well worth a try. It's D&D meets Jason and the Argonauts, which can only be all kinds of cool. I'll probably talk about it more in a future post.

But if it's retro you're looking for then T&T wins hands down because it has never stopped being retro, it's stuck to pretty much the same formula since its conception. Sure there have been changes in level advancements and classes etc but at heart it's still the same great game it always was, and it's cheap too! For something now in its 7th edition I'd say that's an incredible feat.