In response to a "Wanted-GMs" thread, I have been asked to run the 4th Edition adventure "The Slaying Stone." I'm reading it over now, but I wanted to check to see how much interest there was in it.

It's a 1st level adventure, and so far the first part of it seems to involve exploration of a captured town, requiring skill use, exploration, interaction and probably some combat.

I think it's set in the Nentir Vale, but it might fit in the Forgotten Realms or Eberron. Not that other aspects of a given setting will necessarily come into play, but it can give players a little more to care about than some random town in a completely generic world. So, I'd be open to discussion of that.

You know I'm always up for a 4E game. Given my recent discussions about it elsewhere, I'd say make it Essentials-only, and drop anything that came before that part. This might require retooling the adventure to use critters from the Monster Vault books.

As for the setting? You could set it in Clichéa and I'd be okay with that. Eberron's my favorite, but not so much that I'll say no to a game that doesn't use it.

I'm not opposed to making it Essentials only, and the original requestor might prefer that, but I don't have any issues with any of the earlier classes.

I wouldn't be retooling any pre-Essentials monsters, since I have yet to have any issues with them, but I believe this one incorporates the later monster design guidelines, since it does use the newer layout. It uses some very strange numbers for the skill DCs, though, so I'll probably revise those to the updated numbers.

I'll also be reworking the skill challenges to be more like the original design (plus updates). These ones use some of the common methods of trying to keep them interesting, but I have other ways that I prefer.


Okay, good to know.

  I suspect that Essentials-only would put off a lot of players given that martial classes get stuck with relatively limited options (part of the attempt to retro-ize 4E) and many of the interesting themes introduced in 4E were entirely absent (for the same reason).

  The Slaying Stone is also easily extensible to include belowground dungeon crawl elements if you want to include some of that per the other thread. While it's unlikely that you'd find a gigantic catacomb, it's reasonable to suppose that there might be smaller sites dotted about the town and immediate surroundings (some of which might predate the place).

Yes, some people don't care for Essentials, though - for all its lack of options - at least some of the martial classes are still fairly enjoyable. The thief in particular gets praise. And a group could get by without a single martial character, if none of those classes enticed anyone. There's a divine defender, an arcane striker, and an arcane controller, just in the first two books.

I tend not to use themes anyway.

All that said, I'll definitely consider what options to go with.


True. I finished reading through it, and the impression I get is that it's very much designed for a group to take it where they want. In fact, the titular quest doesn't seem like it's really even intended to be the focus, just a jumping off point for exploration.

  By theme I didn't mean 'character theme' - although those are handy too - but story/setting/concept elements that 4E brought in throughout its run.

In reply to Syrris (msg # 6):

Ah, I see. What themes did you think were left behind in Essentials?

I thought it was significant that rituals were almost entirely left out. They have their issues, but it was always significant to me that anyone could use scrolls, or even become a ritualist with a single feat.

I suppose it's also significant that the more abstract idea of hit points was subtly stepped back from, by dropping the Warlord entirely, and making both leaders use something called healing word, rather than giving the druid some other, more thematic, word.