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Doswelk
June 7th, 2008, 09:41
Yesterday at 19:45 UK time (should have been 19:00) a long line of slightly wet people were finally allowed into the London Dungeons to celebrate the UK launch of D&D.

The wait although it was in the rain did not seem to dampen spirits, and complete strangers were striking up conversations. (Not having managed to ever get to a Con yet, I suspect this is quite normal).

Once we were allowed in we all got a free T-shirt and then directed along to the food and drink.

Then we headed off to the tables.

A short speech by (forgot his name), head of D&D UK chap and then some words from Rob Heinsoo 4E Lead Designer. A toast to 4E D&D and the games began.

I will not go too much into the adventure (as it is the same one for today's World Wide D&D Game Day), but on our table we survived (other tables were not so lucky).

As to how the game played itself it did seem much faster, I ended up playing a Eladrin Wizard (a class I've never bothered with before), gone are the days of casting Magic Missile (or sleep) and that's it for the mage...

I've seen a lot of debate about whether this new game is D&D or a paper version of a MMORPG, it did feel different but it was smoother flowing than 3rd. The simplistic nature of the adventure (by necessity made it feel more like a skirmish game).

Overall I had a fun evening and I am glad I went, I think a lot of people will like the new edition, me I'll probably stick to a certain other system, but that said D&D may find a niche for some face to face sessions.
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Once again the above post is just my own inane ramblings and in no way represents the views of Digital Adventures....
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Xorn
June 7th, 2008, 12:48
That's awesome that you had fun--I'm going to be running the GameDay events at my local gameshop in just over 4 hours. You've actually touched on my largest concern--and that's whether or not folks will recognize that this is essentially a convention game--where there's not a lot of roleplaying involved. To paraprhase Mike Mearls (from podcasts), "The delve adventures aren't much more than a glorified boardgame--they are intended to give a solid taste of the crunchy parts of the game."

After all, the role-play portion of a game is what you put into it, and the only impact the system has on role-play is how much it stays out of the way.

Yesterday I just sat at the shop and nerded out, as one person after another came to pick up their 4E books and then saw me in the game room with a battlemat out and a bunch of minis, just answering their most pressing questions about 4E, that they couldn't wait to read for themselves. I was very busy, as the store had three pages of people coming in to pick up their books. :)

mr_h
June 7th, 2008, 15:48
I envy you guys are your real game stores. To the best of my knowledge we dont have any game stores, just a comic book store or two that MIGHT sell games.

I picked up a set of the core books at Barnes and Noble...they have a small display stand out with the books in it, that's it. You'd think having a college or two here they'd be more popular.

Livor Mortis
June 7th, 2008, 18:17
I just came back from a game day session, we survived the adventure as well (except for our Cleric, may he rest in peace), don't really have an idea of how other tables fared. I played as the Eladrin Wizard as well, and must say I quite enjoyed it (except for the terrible rolls I got every time I tried to do something other than Magic Missile). Though it takes some getting used to, the system seems to have been simplified a bit (Not quite sure if I think that's a good thing yet ;)). Definitely looking forward to trying it out on Fantasy Grounds, if all goes well with licensing and all that jazz.

Doswelk
June 7th, 2008, 19:05
I just came back from a game day session, we survived the adventure as well (except for our Cleric, may he rest in peace), don't really have an idea of how other tables fared. I played as the Eladrin Wizard as well, and must say I quite enjoyed it (except for the terrible rolls I got every time I tried to do something other than Magic Missile). Though it takes some getting used to, the system seems to have been simplified a bit (Not quite sure if I think that's a good thing yet ;)). Definitely looking forward to trying it out on Fantasy Grounds, if all goes well with licensing and all that jazz.

What turning your back on us and SW already ;)

Doswelk
June 7th, 2008, 19:07
You've actually touched on my largest concern--and that's whether or not folks will recognize that this is essentially a convention game--where there's not a lot of roleplaying involved.

We got the briefing (i.e. rescue the xxxxx from xxxxx), and we sat there....

The GM said "Are you going to ask any questions?"

To which my response was "Oh YEAH! This is a roleplaying game!"

Livor Mortis
June 7th, 2008, 21:44
What turning your back on us and SW already ;)
Haha, of course not, I should hope the 2 are not mutually exclusive ;)

Xorn
June 8th, 2008, 21:05
My point is that while there were some roleplaying opportunities during Into the Shadowhaunt, for the most part it's just a smash and grab dungeon delve.

Now I'll admit, I was caught by surprise when the shadow spirit (after having helped them slay the dark elf) said, "You have cleansed this hall of the defile--"

"I BRUTE STRIKE THE SHADE!"

The fighter (being Good) felt that the undead thing was an abomination, and the mausoleum would remain haunted until it was "released".

I ran the adventure for three groups, plus the white dragon fight three times as well. Killed off two characters during the adventures, and the last dragon fight I got a TPK (players made some really bad decisions). But there's two bottom lines--the only importance a system has on the roleplay is if it gets in the way, and how much the players want to roleplay.