H1 Keep on the Shadowfell (Dungeons & Dragons) [Paperback]

Physical Aspects:

When you extract H1 from its wrapping, you get a card folder containing a thick book, 3 double-sided poster-sized miniature scale maps and a thin book. The books are a little flimsy, not having card covers, and in my copy the ink tends to smudge a bit. This is not true of all copies of H1, apparently, and may be down to a particular print run. The maps are a bit lower in quality than some I've seen, but that's not a major complaint. Also, you should know that some of them duplicate maps that have appeared in previous products.

The thick book contains several pages of fast-play rules, but mostly the adventure itself. Encounters are laid out very well in a format which means you never have to turn the page during combat. This is a great advance in DMing from the days where stats were at the back of the book and you had to continually flip pages!

The thin book contains some fast-play rules aimed at the players and some pregenerated characters.

First impressions, then, are: why have they wasted a fair bit of space on rules when there was only a couple of weeks between publishing this and the rule books? I will never look at the thin book again. Also, why are the pregenerated characters in a book at all, rather than on individual sheets? I don't fancy cutting up my book. This could have been thought through better.

First impressions, however, are a little deceptive, and once you're past these things it starts to get a lot better.

There is a lot of play potential in this book. My group has played it now for three weeks and we've only just got to the main section. My estimate would be that there's something like thirty hours play here. It's heavily combat-oriented and could have highlighted D&D 4th edition's non-combat stuff a little more, but that's understandable considering its introductory nature. It does at least have some sort of developing plot! The encounters are mostly very varied and interesting, making good use of environment. For example, there's one room where the adventurers will need to be moving up and down ladders and crossing planks during the fight.

It's when you start playing that you realise how good 4th edition is. It plays absolutely wonderfully. To some extent, then, this is a review of 4th edition as much as Keep on the Shadowfell. But the adventure is written to take advantage of the new rules, and it does so very well. Simply put: this is really, really fun! Last Tuesday my group ran through one of the early encounters. It took two and a half hours, but during that time everyone was engaged with the play and everyone had a blast.

On that encounter, one thing to be aware of is that although it looks like in 4th edition adventurers are going to have an easier time, there is still a risk of a party wipeout. Players who play as individuals rather than as a team are going to find it very difficult. 4th edition strongly encourages team play.

I compare H1 with the Sunless Citadel, the first 3rd edition adventure from Wizards. H1 is in my opinion considerably superior. It contains more role-playing elements; it contains more variation and interest in encounters; it contains a much more engaging story; it's much easier to run, and most importantly, it's more fun.

To summarise: physically, it could have been a little better and I think Wizards should note some of the comments that have been made. Including the fast-play rules was plain daft. However, the adventure itself, and 4th edition, are great fun, and I would not hesitate to recommend this product.

Having bought the full product I have to say it is a nicely balanced and varied simple module ideal for beginners as it was designed to be an introduction to the new rules set of 4th edition. However this also makes it a little poor on the value front. As other reviewers have pointed out, much of the printed information is taken up by a basic rules set which is now largely redundant if you have the proper core manuals. You should also be aware if you can really do without the pull out battle maps (which are pretty good but don't cover all the locations by a long way), you can now download the whole caboodle completely for free from the Wizards of the Coast website as a PDF. I've done this anyway even though I have the printed version as it is searchable and I can print player aids out without having to resort to a scanner.

I'm a "perpetual" Dingeon Master, the schlub who writes the games and runs them.... 3.5 ed D&D was awesome, a brilliant simulation design of fantasy gaming, but it had one huge problem: it was hellishly complex to run!

I've got M.E., nasty illness, stress is bad mojo for me, and DMing 3.5 ed games was big stress...so I had to call it a day after 20 odd years of DMing, sigh. :(

4th ed seems to be exactly what I've been needing: much simplified, but still fun and lots of (quick) strategic, D&Ding! Yaaaaaaay! :)

This adventure is well written out. I think the latter 2nd edition end days showed how NOT to do things, as back then, the quality of layout/print was IMHO, poor, compared to the highs of early 2nd ed. 3rd ed improved things again, and by end of 3.5, the way they had seperated encounters out, with neat maps and monster stats, was a brillaint change and improvement.

Keep on the Shadowfell goes even better:
-Full colour layout inside. This feels a very excellently designed (art wise and readability) product.
-Full sized poster maps of all the locatiosn ot play on your table, very neat!
-colour map insert on each page noting where enemies should start from. The colour and larger size mini-map than 3rd ed means it's easier for DMs to get the jist of things.

My only complaint is that the booklets are printed on paper stock that's too thin!! Easily damaged and print ink can smear. A shame because the standard of layout is excellent. As an "old school" DM, going from the densely printed, with almost no layout mess that was 1st ed stuff, to this over the year, it's a very sweet evolution. My hobby is very slick and well made now.

The adventure is standard D&D fair, but good fun, perfect introduction on how to play the game and what it's about.
I agree with previous reviewer that some extra rules would help, like "prone to standing" and such, but the Player's Handbook with full rules has already been released (by accident! in the USA) so we'll soon have full adjudication.
The basic 4th ed rules included with this are fine and cover most things.

Miniatures or counters for them greatly help. My collection of WOTC plastic minis and older hand painted metal minis are cpming out of the cupboard again *happy sighs*

if you wish to try a game that ISN'T around a computer, play with pals in fantasy worlds around your table, try this as a starter :)

To paraphrase Minsc: "D&D FOR EVERYONE!" ;)

My site, with lots of my D&D art etc:
www.silverblades-suitcase.com