4e Keep on the Shadowfell

[Kaun]

So it looks like i might be running Keep on the Shadowfell for some mates in the not to distant future.

Any of you playgrounders who have played in it or run it got any issues with the module i should consider changing before hand?

[Suedars]

I haven't played it, but from what I've heard, the Ironjaw fight is an extremely common source of TPKs. You might want to look at toning that one down some. Also the module (like a lot of WotC modules) really lacks much roleplaying and tends to be just a straight up dungeon crawl. You might want to look at extending the Fallcrest (that's the starting town, right?) section and fleshing out the NPCs to give them something to do other than push the PCs toward the dungeon.

[Mordokai]

We played the starting adventure(DM optimistically thought we'd play all the way to level 30... we never got past the first one) and I didn't much care for it. Like Suedars says, too much dungeoncrawling, not enough of anything else. To some people that is fine, but I just didn't like it. The big part played the fact that I didn't like the way DM ran it, but really, it's just one encounter after the other and personally, that's just not my bag of dice.

[Kaun]

Yeah the crawl part of it doesnt worry me to much it is what the players wanted, they have been playing an rp heavy game for a while now and wanted a chance to kick in some doors and crack some skulls.

I will check out the ironjaw encounter again tho.

[Glyphic]

Iron Jaw tends to be a swingy fight, some parties have no problem with it, others get roflstomped.

On a whole, the encounters could be a lot more interesting. Crack open your MM, add some different flavors of monsters- Take some humanoids and call them kobolds, but keep your players guessing what you're really using.

Give the town more atmosphere. I find it more interesting than the dungeon itself, so play up the traitor to Fallcrest, and give your players some reason to care about the town as a whole.

Just because the module says there is an encounter at X location... doesn't mean you have to have an encounter.

[gurban]

If you are going to run a 4e, 1st level module, I would recommend HS1 The Slaying Stone. It is a more open adventure, sandboxy, but the sandbox is pretty small. Also has a few opportunities for good RP, which can change the outcome of the adventure drastically. Look into that one before Keep on the Shadowfell.

[Ozreth]

If you are going to run a 4e, 1st level module, I would recommend HS1 The Slaying Stone. It is a more open adventure, sandboxy, but the sandbox is pretty small. Also has a few opportunities for good RP, which can change the outcome of the adventure drastically. Look into that one before Keep on the Shadowfell.

couldnt agree more. good stuff.

[Kaun]

Hmm, i will look into the slaying stone but the game starts in less then 24 hrs and i dont currently have it.

I will see what i can do to open up KotS a bit more but it isn't ment to be an ongoing game, just a 3 or so session thing for the holidays.

[Mercenary Pen]

For what its worth, the town in Keep on the Shadowfell is Winterhaven, with Fallcrest described in the DMG- a quick way of making things more interesting might be to combine the two (which are supposed to be close together) into one slightly larger town containing most of the plot hooks of both.

[TheEmerged]

The risk in the Irontooth fight is overstated. Depending on your source for the module, you may already have a nerfed version.

The problem with the fight IMO is not Irontooth himself so much as it is the large number of minions with an at-will ranged attack. As such a lot of the danger can boil down to how much area damage the party throws around. The party I ran through it the first time (which just wtfpwnd the encounter) included a dragonborn warlord with the enlarged breath feat and a wizard with Scorching Burst. The second party had no dragonborn and the wizard had no area effects, and the result wasn't a TPK but 3 of the 5 PC's did go down.

Tactics will matter too. If the party blows their encounter powers early the Irontooth part will go worse.

The other thing to pay attention to is the fight *before* this one. Pay attention to encounter A2 as well, since the text indicates some things that will make Irontooth easier or harder.