As promised, today I wanted to give a re-cap of the two big Wizards of the Coast Events at PAX East 2010: the Dark Sun Preview and the DM’s Challenge!

After wandering through the Exhibition Hall on Saturday morning, I wended my way over to the D&D “official” area at PAX East.  Wizards of the Coast had a nice little wing on the second floor of the convention hall to themselves, with five rooms for official gaming events.  By Saturday, there was so much 4E gaming going on, between the D&D Encounters, Dark Sun Preview, and the DM’s Challenge, they had to grab several more rooms on the third floor to accommodate all the Players!

By the way, if I haven’t mentioned it before, I wanted to thank all the DMs who ran the official events for so many folks this past weekend!  From the feedback I heard from my fellow D&D Players, the DMs did an excellent job and allowed many conventioneers to participate in the D&D 4E Events.

So my Dark Sun Preview was scheduled to start at 3pm, and I showed up with my fellow participants to be randomly assigned a Dungeon Master for the event.  Our DM was Mark, and he quickly got the six of us sorted out and ready to experience the upcoming Dark Sun setting.   My fellow players for this event were David, Eric, Matthew, Rachel, and Bob.  David admitted that, like me, he was a Dungeon Master back home and was looking forward to a bit of fun gaming at PAX East from the other side of the DM Screen. 

Eric, Matthew, and Rachel were all fairly new to D&D 4E but excited to find out more about the game.  And Bob is one of my players from my D&D campaigns back home, and was looking forward to experiencing the Dark Sun Setting, which was one world he had not adventured in before. 

Spoiler Warning: The content from here on contains information about the adventure Death in the Arena for the new Dark Sun Campaign setting.  Chances are that WotC will be using this adventure at other gaming conventions gearing up for the release of their shattered world, and so if you plan to play it, you might want to stop reading – YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Dark Sun: Death in the Arena

As mentioned, the name of the adventure was Death in the Arena, and the Characters for this scenario were all 1st Level, and consisted of an Elf Battlemind [David], Half-Giant (Goliath) Fighter [Eric], a Human Wizard [Matthew], a Mul (half-dwarf) Barbarian [Rachel], a Human Warlock [Bob], and a Thri-Kreen Shaman [Me].  The Elf, Mul, and Thri-Kreen were teamed together and were adventurers coming from the wilderness, while the Humans and the Half-Giant were an adventuring band of “townies” and a bit more civilized, but not by much.  The two teams were pitted against monsters in the arena in the City-State of Tyr, in order to compete over a prize: an artifact said to offer a way to recover the knowledge of the “Green Time”.

First, a bit of background for those who have never played in the World of Dark Sun.  The world of Athas is a dying world, suffering from an ecological disaster brought on by the abusive use of magical power, called the Defiling, which saps the very life-force of the planet.  Most of the planet is now a vast desert, with water and metals extremely hard to find, and filled with exotic and very deadly beasts.  The “Green Time” is a legendary era when the world was lush and full of life, but that time has passed.  There are few cities, and these city-states are ruled by Sorcerer-Kings, and the world is very brutal and savage.

Oh yes, and I should mention that Halflings are feral cannibalistic little monsters.

Now right off, there are a number of things that differentiate Dark Sun Characters from characters in other campaign worlds.  Some of the changes were pretty obvious, after all, as I found myself playing an insectoid Thri-Kreen Shaman!  Not only that, but my Shaman had a new build called an Animist, which allowed her a new ability called Spirit Infusion – this enabled her to remove her spirit companion from play by having it momentarily “possess” an ally, granting them a basic melee attack at +2 to hit.  My insectoid shaman’s Daily Power was also new, called Duststorm Binding, which caused her spirit companion to disappear into a burst 1 blinding whirlwind, which caused damage and a zone of heavy obscurement.  It could also be maintained as a minor action, which made it quite a potent 1st Level Daily.  I was rather depressed that there was no good place tactically to use it.

The Dark Sun Setting also appears to be coming out with a new Character build mechanic called “Themes”.  For instance, Pak’Cha, my Thri-Kreen Shaman, had an Elemental Priest Theme, and was granted an Encounter Power called Elemental Spirit for having that theme.  In the 3.5 version of Dark Sun, Elemental Priests were a distinct group of clerics on the world of Athas, of which there were other types: Paraelemental Clerics, Druids, and Templars.  As it happens, the warlock character, Vinara, was theme’d as a Templar and the wizard character had a Preserver Theme, so apparently Themes are going to be a big part of designing your Character for a Dark Sun campaign.

I got a chance to look over the Warlock Character Sheet after the gaming session, and not only did Vinara have a new Templar Theme Power, called Templar’s Fist, but also a new Pact Boon, called Fell Scorn, from her pact with a Sorcerer-King!  This new Pact Boon grants a special “augmentation” to certain warlock powers, and in the case of her Hand of Blight At-Will Power, added an extra d8 of damage on top of her Warlock’s Curse.

So obviously there are going to be a lot of build changes and new powers in the upcoming Dark Sun game, and while I didn’t get a chance to see the rest of the Character Sheets around the table, you can check them out over at Critical-Hits.com, where they are posted from the D&D Expo in January.

By the way, there was an additional rule to make the Dark Sun setting a bit more brutal – weapon breakage.  If you roll a “1”, you can choose to re-roll the attack and take the new result, which could be a real boon on Daily and Encounter powers.  However, if you are using a stone weapon, your weapon immediately breaks on the re-roll, while metal weapons break on a re-roll result of 1-5.  As stone weapons are the standard, and metal weapons very rare, this brings a whole new dimension to the play, and increases the level of savagery and barbarism of the game.

With regards to the actual adventure, it was really enjoyable to play, and Mark did an excellent job of Dungeon Mastering the event.  He was very organized and kept the pace of the game moving along fairly well.  Obviously, with new players to the game, there were moments when a bit of coaching was required, but I got the impression that everyone had a great time.  I was also pleased to see WotC Trevor Kidd on hand, stopping by tables and getting feedback about the play of the Dark Sun Preview.   He seemed particularly interested to know how folks liked the Character changes that Dark Sun will bring and whether or not some of the inter-party plotlines had been enacted.  There was some opportunities for some serious conflict between the Characters, which further demonstrates the brutal nature of the Dark Sun Campaign setting.

For my part, I was quite taken with the setting, from what I experienced at the event, and while I don’t know that I would drop any of my current campaigns to run one in the World of Athas, I am definitely going to be picking up the setting when it comes out.  I think Dark Sun would make an excellent setting for a short adventure series for my Forgotten Realms Characters, most likely for my Ebon Cabal campaign.  It would be interesting to see how they deal with the harsh and savage world of Athas while they complete and quest, and try and find a way back to the Realms!

DM’s Challenge Event

After the Dark Sun Preview which lasted about 4 hours, I had precious little time to get over to the next room, where the DM’s Challenge Event was being held.  This event was designed to test a Dungeon Master’s skills, by having them create a 6th Level Underdark adventure and run it for 6 Players.  The Players would then rate the DM on his adventure, his DM’ing skill and preparedness, and how much fun they had.

The DM’s Challenge turned out to be about five hours of absolutely great fun, and I want to compliment our Dungeon Master, Guy, for a job well done!  The game was not only a chance for Guy to demonstrate his Dungeon Mastering skills, but also a way to showcase Characters from the recently released Player’s Handbook 3.

The Players participating with me at Guy’s table were Travis, Nate, Matt, Robby, Bob, and between us we had an Elf Seeker, a Wilden Battlemind, a Minotaur Runepriest, a Shardmind Psion, a Githerzai Monk, and a Half-Elf Ardent.  I have to say that this party came together very quickly, and in a very short time, we all began to play off each of the Characters’ strengths and had a great synergy going.  And while I’m still not a huge fan of the Shardmind and Wilden races, (see Review of Player’s Handbook 3 by Wizards of the Coast), I can’t deny that Nate and Robby did a great job of playing the Battlemind and the Psion, and the Characters were solid additions to the group.

Guy’s adventure involved our adventuring band chasing a cult of demented humans into the Underdark, and attempting to stop their evil plans.  These crazies, led by an evil high priest, were determined to enact a ritual and release a terrible entity from the Far Realms, which no matter how you look at it, was just a real bad idea.  That won Guy some major points in my book, as I have a real fondness for Far Realms/Call of Cthulhu/Horror genre adventures, and he played up the whole “slimy-tentacled-horrors-from-beyond” shtick perfectly.

Our heroes found themselves facing encounter after encounter of horrid tentacle-waving aberrations, mutated cultists, and finally the horror of Yog-Tsethet  Itself! [Editor’s Note: Sorry if I got the spelling wrong, but I’m going phonetically here.] Guy’s monsters were all home-built and had a vast array of vile and bizarre powers, including teleportation attacks, domination, exploding acidic slime, and psychic assaults.  Some monsters even used a “shared” hit point pool, linked in a bizarre hive-mind and more powerful, but also more vulnerable to damage from multiple attacks.

Guy also did a great job of using terrain to create interesting battlefields effects, and his descriptions of the increasingly bizarre landscape had everyone at the table on edge.  Under the warping effects of the encroaching Far Realms, and the influence of Yog-Tsethet, the deeper we plowed into the adventure, the more disturbing the terrain became.  A pile of cave rocks became fleshy eyeballs, and what was once a stalactite pillar was transformed into a massive pulsating tentacle.  In one cavern, a rock wall was lined with throbbing veins of some kind.  Overall, our DM did a great job at un-nerving the party and making us very concerned about where we could step on the battlefield during encounters, not knowing what these Far Realms manifestations might do.

By the time of the final battle against Yog-Tsethet, we were so concerned about the bizarre terrain, that we Players were panicked at the sight of statues within the gate room where Yog was attempting to break through.  However, these were entirely decoration but we only found this out after the event was over, and our Characters were constantly on guard in case they sprang to life.  So I would say that Guy successfully created a real “creepiness” factor in his Underdark adventure, and it definitely affected how we played our Characters in each encounter.

As far as play goes, I think the PHB3 Characters acquitted themselves very well agains the Far Realms-ian horrors.  The Seeker and Psion played the backfield, sniping from extreme range, while the leaders, the Runepriest and Ardent, paired off with the Battlemind and the Monk, to form effective strike teams.  I’ll admit I’ve gained a new respect for the PHB3 Psionic Classes, and I really enjoyed the Ardent’s abilities to buff party members with temporary hit points and combat bonuses, while de-buffing enemies’ attacks.  And I was not the only Player at the table who enjoyed their PHB3 Class experience, as Matt, Nate, and Robby all agreed that they really got into their Characters and loved the power sets.  Matt even admitted that he while he disliked psionics in previous D&D Editions, he really liked how they played out in 4E.  Travis really enjoyed sitting back with his Seeker and blasting his foes with primal arrow-fire.  The Monk was probably the most favored class of the evening, with everyone agreeing that the class’ mobility and damage made it a real treat to have in the party.

Well, needless to say, we won the day against Guy’s mind-blowing horrors, and it was a great five hours of gameplay.  From the interactions of the Players, I could tell that folks at our table had a great time, and I certainly hope to cross paths with them again sometime.

I should also mention that Chatty DM Philippe-Antoine Menard and Dave Chalker from Critical-Hits.com were on hand, running adventures at other tables nearby in the DM’s Challenge.  While I didn’t get a chance to meet Mr. Menard, I was please to at least introduce myself to Dave, and I certainly hope we get to meet again under less hectic circumstances.

Overall, Saturday at PAX East 2010 was just a great day of D&D 4E gaming, and I enjoyed meeting and playing with my fellow D&D enthusiasts.  I definitely left Boston with a renewed enthusiasm toward my favorite hobby, and I can’t wait until next year to attend PAX East 2011!  But in the meantime, I have Origins and GenCon to look forward to this summer, and hope to meet up with some of the folks I met at PAX East.

So until next blog… I wish you Happy Gaming!

Tags: D&D 4e, dark sun, DM's Challenge, gaming convention, news, PAX East, Wizards of the Coast

This entry was posted by Editor-in-Chief on Monday, March 29th, 2010 at 12:58 pm and is filed under RPG News & Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.