Customer Reviews
Playtest - By: Inept, 15 Jul 2008 
I'm somewhatin the 'Gojira' camp as regards this 4th ed. Having reviewed the material there appears to be significant work still to do to harmonise the various power levels within the game. Currently a rogue character can kill just about anything, & some of the monsters have ridiculously tough encounter levels.
The game itself is based on a slightly different mechanic than 3rd edition & many purests - myself included - may feel it steps away from the game we know & love. Freinds who have got more into it than I report that one you get past the changes the game itself is good & roleplaying soon follows. The only irritating bits are the issues around game balance, Wizards will obviiously address thisin due course.
Overall the game is probably going to be popular & sucessful. Those of us die hards will probably stick to 3.5 ed for the time being but eventually I'm sure we'll be convinced. if you are new to roleplaying this system should make life nice & simple...
Do not judge this book, or 4th edition in general, by first impressions - By: N. A. Freeman, 26 Jun 2008 
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 & a thin book. The books are a little flimsy, not having card covers, &in my copy the ink tends to smudge a bit. This is not true of all copies of H1, apparently, & may be down to a particular print run. The maps are a bit lowerin 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 appearedin previous products.
The thick book contains several pages of fast-play rules, but mostly the adventure itself. Encounters are laid out very wellin a format which means you never have to turn the page during combat. This is a great advancein DMing from the days where stats were at the back of the book & you had to continually flip pages!
The thin book contains some fast-play rules aimed at the players & 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 & the rule books? I will never look at the thin book again. Also, why are the pregenerated charactersin 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, & once you're past these things it starts to get a lot better.
There is a lot of play potentialin this book. My group has played it now for three weeks & 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 & 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 & interesting, making good use of environment. For example, there's one room where the adventurers will need to be moving up & down ladders & 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, & 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 & a half hours, but during that time everyone was engaged with the play & everyone had a blast.
On that encounter, one thing to be aware of is that although it looks likein 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 isin my opinion considerably superior. It contains more role-playing elements; it contains more variation & interestin encounters; it contains a much more engaging story; it's much easier to run, & most importantly, it's more fun.
To summarise: physically, it could have been a little better & 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, & 4th edition, are great fun, & I would not hesitate to recommend this product.
OMG its rather good! - By: Mr. Stephen Homer, 05 Jun 2008 As a player of D&D for twenty years I, like many other players, took the news of a 4th Edition with a great sense of trepidation. However much I liked 3.5 it was a beast to run as DM especially at High level.
With the release of this module I find that my fears have on the whole been quashed. It is well laid out & is a dream to run, encounters are fast, furious & decisive. I agree that more could have been put into the production. The paper quality isnt great, but the art & imagery are first class. If you have never played D&D or like me were unsure if you were going to pick up 4th Ed, I would advise a look as it may just change your mind, & as it contains a (brief) summary of the rules you can try before your consider the core rulebooks.
Good introduction for new players - By: J. Eley, 04 Jun 2008 This is a great product to get if you've never role-played before. It gives a nice if brief summary of the game mechanics, & takes you step by step through a simple but well thought out game.
It looses a star because its a bit to simple if you've been rpg for some time, that said it's worth getting as the way encounters are put together is very different to 3rd edition. Also there are a small number of mistakes to be found. The paper smudges easily as well so handle with care.
Over all I recon that this is great for new players & good for experienced ones. A good start to the new edition.
High Quality Content, Low Quality Manufacture - By: Mr. Mark T. Smith, 03 Jun 2008 Ok, so 4E is on the horizon & Keep on the Shadowfell gives us an insight into the new ruleset.
I have been playing D&D for 15 years now, but I am going to reserve judgement of the actual 4E rules until I have the corebooks. So this review is based purely on the content of the first published adventure, Keep on the Shadowfell.
The plot looks well constructed, with some interesting NPC's. It does appear to be a little too linear, but the first full playthrough will determine that for certain. There are a lot of combat situations, I wonder whether this is a by-product of the new ruleset or specific to this adventure.
But aside from this, the quality of the manufacture of the product if poor. THe outer card folder is nice, a little flimsy but good artwork. But the actual adventure & informatin books inside the folder are of very poor quality. They are paperbackin the worst sense of the words, with the covers being the same thickness paper as the content & they damage & tear & fold extremely easily. NOt up to Wizards of the Coast usual high quality packaged product at all, & a little dissapointing. Previous editionsin paper back have beenin a sturdy card bound book, this is not so good.
So the content looks ok, above average, but a definite point loss for the quality of the actual product.
