by Troy Gardner

Created on: June 25, 2009

Keep on the Shadowfell is an adventure for the 4th edition of the popular role-playing game, Dungeons and Dragons. Designed as an introduction to this 4th edition, it will take characters from level 1 to level 3. The game module includes five premade characters, the adventure, a fold out map, and quick play rules.

Our materials were in a folder in booklet form. Fairly cheap printing and not the highest quality materials. We had some issue with smearing the ink. Unless you take care of them carefully, these are not materials that are going to last. However, you buy the adventure for the adventure, not what its made out of.

The quick play rules include everything you need to know to play DnD. Taking up 5 pages, it presents a quick overview of the rules, focusing mostly on combat and skills. There are very few, if any, rules covering role play. Which is good, in my opinion, as role play is the part where you play pretend and it's very hard to encase a player's imagination with rules that work. Combat is broken into rounds, with each character getting three actions. Combat is the shining jewel of this new edition. It flows better and faster then previous editions, but it does run off the assumption that you use miniatures to represent your characters on a grid map.

The characters provided are standard DnD tropes. A fighter, rogue, cleric, wizard and paladin. They are nothing special and are purposely left light on character. The player is supposed to provide the personality and flavor, while the game provides the mechanics necessary to play.

As a player going through this adventure, I was struck mostly by how straightforward it was. This is either a good thing or a bad thing. If your desire in playing DnD is to go into a dungeon, fight monsters and win treasure, this is a great module for you. If your desire swings more towards role playing and character interaction, you're not going to be the happiest camper in the group. This is a beginner's module, for an introduction to the game. So it does go through all of the various things you will run into if you play more DnD, but at a lighter level. The traps still surprise, the skill challenges still... challenge, but the intent is more to show off what is possible then to ensnare the player in a deep story.

All in all, Keep on the Shadowfell serves as a good introduction to a great game. In showing you what is possible with the system, it allows players to begin using it to build their own worlds. Experienced players who love role playing will most likely be disappointed while dungeon crawlers will have a good time.

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