According to this, the Delve format has been 'upgraded'. It now appears to offer prize support to players (though whether that will work outside the US who knows?)
The new format goes live in July, but 15 stores in the US are running preview Delve nights.
If anyone is close to one of those stores - or running! - information would be great
I've never done anything with the Delves; I wonder if these changes (if they make any difference to me over here) will give me a reason to start.
I'd love more information as I have been searching for ways to make this more popular at my FLGS. Please share if you have information.
The character cards are infinitely better than the boring and typo-ridden sheets we got for WGD: PHB2. The "rewards" for playing were four cards that each describe a different status ailment-- just the rules summaries. Fairly lame in concept, but I will say that we referred to them a couple times across the adventure. See pictures of both here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/93739768@N00/3516723309/ The maps actually seemed to be printed on lower quality paper; they weren't laminated and crinkled up constantly, leading to much consternation with our minis falling over.
I have never played in the "old" Delve format, but this didn't seem too complicated. The characters were lvl 1, and supposedly every three months the Delve will feature these same characters again, only one level higher. Given how razor-thin the plot was, I can't really see myself getting attached to these characters, especially if I'm not the one leveling them up.
Anyway, it was four distinct encounters as we climbed one of Eberron's floating towers, each did take about an hour, and even with frequent breaks (I have the bladder of a man four times my age) we finished the whole thing in under four hours. I can't really imagine any one of these encounters on their own making for a satisfying night of DnD, as even the longest didn't quite hit a full hour, but I could see doing two at a time. A gaming store could run the first two encounters two weeks in a row, then the second two for two weeks, which would definitely make it easier for more people to do Delves (a couple of the people we played with complained that this was the first delve they'd done because their aren't enough seats).
that's everything I can think of to report, if you have any questions, leave a reply!
This is more like it! Steady level progression, a pre-made map, and in Eberron to boot! :D (Okay, I'm pretty sure that the July Delves will be in PoL, but my enthusiasm stands.) This sounds like something my regular players will enjoy.
BTW, could you tell us what kind of monsters you faced? Perhaps something spoiled from the Eberron Campaign Setting book?
What I am hearing it that it's 1 level every 3 months, so three months of containing 12 adventure segments, with a light plot (similar to current delves). Having this slower progression helps to introduce players to the game and can be sliced into a shorter adventure night spread over a month.
What I had hoped for, and perhaps will happen, is that it ties to the Eberron campaign that is coming out, where you can take your "living" character through these adventures.
The rewards, if that is what they are, aren't all that much for a player to get excited about. If they offered special single use magic items that players could use in their regular games it would be something to draw folks in.
I have more thoughts and not enough time to post them, so I'll post again in a bit.
We took a lot of feedback stores gave us about the current Delve Night program, and adapted the rebooted offering to address concerns. We decided that a mini-campaign with a full party of pregens (instead of just one) was the best possible solution for the goals of this program. We're not trying to create anything close to another Living campaign here; rather, it's supposed to be a very casual D&D play experience, similar in some regards to the convention delve, but with a little more teeth.
The 1st adventure of the quarter will be 1st level, the 2nd one 2nd level, and the 3rd will be 3rd. Then, a new adventure arc will start with brand-new 1st level characters when the new quarter begins. In this way, we give a consistent storyline for a few months, yet make the program accessible for those new to it (it's much less intimidating to be handed a very low-level character than to be told to create a paragon or epic tier character from scratch).
My complaint with Delves is that they are written for only a small portion of D&D gamers, the power gamers, the slayers and the thinkers, there is almost no place at all for a story teller, actor or instigator in any of the Delves I have seen so far. D&D 4e has a brilliant engine and it is natural to want to show that engine off, but there is a limited pool of people who play D&D, cutting out half that pool seems to be part of the problem Delves face. Linking the stories is great and the new format really does seem cooler, but perhaps a shift towards including more of the types of players would pay off in the long run.
The 1st adventure of the quarter will be 1st level, the 2nd one 2nd level, and the 3rd will be 3rd. Then, a new adventure arc will start with brand-new 1st level characters when the new quarter begins. In this way, we give a consistent storyline for a few months, yet make the program accessible for those new to it (it's much less intimidating to be handed a very low-level character than to be told to create a paragon or epic tier character from scratch).
This is a nice way to do this, and thank you for listening to feedback about levels. I say this as I face a group of paragon characters tonight that likely won't finish the encounter in the hour and a half allocated tonight. That there is some sort of running story for a quarter is a selling point too, I can use this to probably draw in a few new DMs as a LFR "Lite" experience.
Any chance we will see some skill challenges in the delves? Perhaps as part of a combat encounter?
Also, will the Delves continue to be scheduled/shipped monthly or will we be able to get the entire "story" arc in one shipment? Shipping quarterly could reduce costs while at the same time allow the DMs more time with Delves.
I do like utilizing the Delves as sneak peeks and/or introductions to upcoming books/monsters. A 3 month "mini-campaign" set in Ebberon in order to introduce the Ebberon books and then perhaps a 3 month stint in Forgotten Realms or featuring items from a new book (say AV2 and/or Draconomicon 2). You get the idea. The Delves should be a great way to entice new players and/or encourage new purchases (potentially both).
Also, I think the target time for each "encounter" should be 45 min to 1 hour for experienced players. Keep things simple and allow more time to introduce new players to the game. I find that newbies eat up a lot of time and slow the game down. Not that getting new players is a bad thing but if an encounter is supposed to take an experienced player almost 2 hours, you can almost guarantee it will increase another hour if you add a couple new players.
And make sure that there can be decent level of ROLE playing in the Delve. One complaint I've had is that the Delves don't necessarily make for the best role playing sessions. I've heard them described as "Meet and Beat" adventures. If you meet it, then you have to beat it, which has prompted most of my ongoing players to just attack who ever they meet. And truthfully, for a weekly game like the Delve, I don't have the time to enhance it every time, especially when I get the Delve only a couple days before it is scheduled.
I've noticed attendance is lower for my high level Delves than for my lower level ones. I don't think the people want to put the effort into making a high level character for a month and then it's done.
Keep in mind that the materials sent out were only TEST materials - final quality will be higher. We had about 16 days to go from no materials to something printed for a QA test, so we tried to get close to the final materials, but the poster maps and participation prizes in particular will be nicer quality in July.
We took a lot of feedback stores gave us about the current Delve Night program, and adapted the rebooted offering to address concerns. We decided that a mini-campaign with a full party of pregens (instead of just one) was the best possible solution for the goals of this program. We're not trying to create anything close to another Living campaign here; rather, it's supposed to be a very casual D&D play experience, similar in some regards to the convention delve, but with a little more teeth.
The 1st adventure of the quarter will be 1st level, the 2nd one 2nd level, and the 3rd will be 3rd. Then, a new adventure arc will start with brand-new 1st level characters when the new quarter begins. In this way, we give a consistent storyline for a few months, yet make the program accessible for those new to it (it's much less intimidating to be handed a very low-level character than to be told to create a paragon or epic tier character from scratch).
Chris, this pretty much answers most of my critiques of the Delve program. Pre-mades for everybody, low enough level that character generation is simple, the chance to level up(!), and a map to fight on. Thanks!
If you can tell us Chris, do the new Delves use Monsters from outside the original MM? Will they have skill challenges? Might they have magical items in them?
BTW, could you tell us what kind of monsters you faced? Perhaps something spoiled from the Eberron Campaign Setting book?
It was all humans.
Keep in mind that the materials sent out were only TEST materials - final quality will be higher. We had about 16 days to go from no materials to something printed for a QA test, so we tried to get close to the final materials, but the poster maps and participation prizes in particular will be nicer quality in July.
That's good to hear. And I think in our case, the problem was exaserbated by the fact the DM folded the maps over and played with them on top of each other.
We took a lot of feedback stores gave us about the current Delve Night program, and adapted the rebooted offering to address concerns. We decided that a mini-campaign with a full party of pregens (instead of just one) was the best possible solution for the goals of this program.
Having a full party of pregens is a really great idea, it made it feel like "pickup D&D"
The 1st adventure of the quarter will be 1st level, the 2nd one 2nd level, and the 3rd will be 3rd. Then, a new adventure arc will start with brand-new 1st level characters when the new quarter begins. In this way, we give a consistent storyline for a few months, yet make the program accessible for those new to it (it's much less intimidating to be handed a very low-level character than to be told to create a paragon or epic tier character from scratch).
I like this a lot better than what I mistaken believed before.
Any chance we will see some skill challenges in the delves? Perhaps as part of a combat encounter?
There was a complicated trap that was somewhat like a skill challenge.
I have run the Delve before, and let me tell you the difference is night and day. As mentioned above, the pregen characters are simply awesome! Great work from the art department, WotC! And as Chris stated, this was just a 'preview' kit that was quickly put together.
I had three tables of players signed up to participate, but as luck would have it, most got pulled away for real life commitments. We had one table play the Delve Night Preview.
A father and his son happened to be in the store, and asked about D&D4E. The father had played the various editions, but hadn't played in a long time. What an opportunity! I had the son (guessing he was ~ 11 years old) play one of the pregen PCs, and the father looked over the boy's shoulder to see how 4E played out. This was a perfect way to see how well these 1st level PCs were easy to pick up and run for our target audience = new players...
I actually liked the maps in the course paper - as opposed to the shinny slippery maps we get for the World Wide Game Days. In fact, I was most happy about getting maps at all for the Delve. A very nice adjustment, WotC. Very nice, indeed. :D
The players are anxious to see how WotC will advance the pregens to second level for August, and third level for September. The story arch was fine to get a group going. I'd love to write a series for you, Chris.
Grade from Colorado Springs preview = A++
-Timmy
Colorado Springs
RPGA Club: Steele Justice
Please go check it out: http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?p=18567805