Oui j'avais vu celles-là aussi (qui ne sont pas mauvaises, note), mais depuis, on a eu MT Black (à qui je fais beaucoup plus confiance qu'à Christian Hoffner côté jeu; Hoffner est un joueur de Magic et Pokemon, pas de donj') :
I bought this yesterday and played the first session last night with two people who've never played D&D before. Everyone had a wonderful time. I'm a great fan of the original KotB, but I appreciate the fidelity to the original product while updating it for a new audience. The presentation is lovely and the encounters are very well crafted. We spent a couple of hours in the Keep completing low-stakes mini-quests, and it was great fun.
The reviewer and others have raised the "no story" criticism, but I think this is over-exaggerated. It is a sandbox campaign, but there is an over-arching story - the Cult of Chaos has established a shrine in the Caves of Chaos, and this is attracting increasingly fierce monsters into the area. The ultimate goal is to destroy the Shrine of Chaos.
There are also plenty of story seeds strewn throughout the adventure. Every NPC has two rumours they can share, which often include clues and secrets about the wilderness and the Caves. A typical rumour might be "A dastardly bandit, Pral, accosts travelers along the road. He is quite handsome." This could lead to a mini-quest to find and destroy the bandit camp.
There's also lots of story threads in the Caves themselves. The kobolds have stolen a dragon egg and don't know what to do now that it's hatched. The goblin boss has demanded a big birthday celebration, and the goblins are all distracted by this. And so on. All of this is story and affects the unfolding gameplay.
However, because it is a sandbox, the adventure doesn't lead you by the nose. There are dozens of different paths you could take to ultimately get to the Shrine of Chaos. You might not even get there in the end, but still have a satisfying time.
I'm looking forward to our continuing adventures on the Borderlands...
Et puis Sly Flourish ("the most robust starter set I've ever had my hands on"), Teos Abadhia, Shawn Merwin, etc., tous très positifs.
Les différents habitués des lieux qui ont déjà le truc entre les mains ont l'air enthousiastes aussi (même si c'est plus random, évidemment, et que ce sont des early adopters, donc biais, ok). Je ne vois personne de déçu :
I'm still going through it, but loving what I'm seeing! It's very sand-boxy! The descriptions are brief and easy to grasp, and there is a lot of scope to make it your own. The digital assets are very well thought through. For example, when you upload a map, you have the option of uploading a version that is completely ready to go with the premade characters, creatures, and fog of war already in place. It feels very easy to use right out of the box.
Overall, I'm liking what I'm seeing so far. The components are high quality and there really isn't anything included that I wouldn't use. The adventure suggests 60-90 minutes of play for each of the four wilderness areas and each of the eleven caves, plus the social interactions in the keep, so this can easily provide enough content for half a dozen or more sessions of play if desired.
Encore un peu anecdotique certainement (et ce le sera longtemps) mais la "vibe" me paraît assez positive, au contraire. Plus que sur les dernières productions, en tout cas.
