Review: Shadowfell: Gloomy Yet Interesting

The Shadowfell: Gloomwraught and Beyond
I have had a chance to go over the box set in some detail. I was originally interested in the book due to the Despair Deck that could be used in the upcoming season of D&D Encounters.

I also had a chance to read the main book which details the city of midnight, Gloomwrought and the surrounding areas. There were also some tokens for npc’s as well as an encounter book, which reminded me of the Dungeon Delve one.

Despair Deck
I found the deck interesting and a great role play opportunity. It’s basically whenever you end an extended rest in the Shadowfell after some encounters, you gain a despair card and it’s like any save ends condition. The exception is that the saving throw is only available after a milestone. It does offer optional rules, which I will use for my Encounters game. The good thing is that after another extended rest any despair cards are discarded and you can rinse and repeat the whole thing while in the Shadowfell. I can go more in detail during my initial run of Encounters.

Campaign Guide
It does a great job of setting the Shadowfell apart from the other realms. There is an oppressive force that drains any joy/happiness from everything. It basically explains why Gloomwrought is a corrupt, ever-changing city. Gloomwrought comes as a cross between Seattle in the Shadowrun RPG and Kirkwall for those who played Dragon Age II. The cool thing I liked about Gloomwrought is the city itself shifts around to accommodate for the ever changing population. Whenever someone leaves a house, it is demolished. A row of houses will build itself for new residents. It can make for some really cool chase sequences where the city itself can help or hinder you. I will say the book does a great job to stress that adventuring in Gloomwrought is for paragon /epic adventurers. It could be done for heroic tier, but it could take a while to really get into the best parts of this box set.

Encounter Book
I skimmed through it honestly. It, again, had a lot of paragon/epic encounters to cement the requirement. It had some good skill challenges. They are good models to run your own encounters while in Gloomwrought or the Shadowfell in general.

I am glad to have picked up the box set and I’m already thinking of adventures. A good pick up for those DM’s who want to incorporate the Shadowfell in their game.