I spent Worldwide D&D Game Day at Stonebridge Games in Longmont playing a defensive dwarven fighter named Haskal Thoradane in a 4th edition Eberron adventure run by Keith Baker, the guy who invented Eberron. The above picture was taken from an article the Longmont Times-Call did on the event. Keith is kind of a big deal.

The adventure was called “One Night in Graywall”, and it was inspiring to witness what a professional writer and dungeon master can do at a game table. I agreed not to discuss any specifics of the adventure on the site, but at the risk of sounding fanboy-ish it really was awesome. Each character had a carefully detailed backstory that lent itself to an unfolding over the course of skill challenges and combat encounters. It all lead up to a climactic final encounter that had me both emotionally invested and tactically challenged. The man also makes great use of all kinds of gaming aids to keep the turns flowing and gamestate information manageable. There were counters for healing surges and action points, little metal brains to remind a player when they needed to make a saving throw, and magnetic discs to stick under minis to keep track of effects on players and monsters.

Keith was a really nice guy, and stuck around for several hours after the adventure to chat about Eberron, 4th edition, and whatever else came up. After a seven-player game of Three Dragon Ante (I took a respectable 2nd place finish) he talked to all of us about some of the deeper concepts behind Eberron, and made me see the setting in a light I hadn’t before. He has agreed to do some interview questions for the site over the coming weeks, so I’ve been straining my brain to come up with good questions.

In other news, I have been devouring the three core rule books for 4th edition. That is the reason this post is coming on Wednesday instead of Sunday like it should have. I also want to get a review up ASAP, but feel I’m not quite familiar enough with the system yet to quantify its value. I’ve logged about 10 hours as a player, but have only DMed a few solo encounters for friends. But that’ll change soon, my first 4th edition campaign begins in earnest on Friday afternoon.

The campaign is set in and around Fallcrest, the town detailed in the back of the Dungeon Master’s Guide. I only have two regular players right now, but I’m going to have appropriately levelled preconstructed characters ready should one of my other friends want to join in on short notice. On that note, I think I’m going to get back to working on their first adventure.