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Review: “Dungeon Delve”

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Dungeon DelveIt’s not often that I review a book without having read it cover to cover- this may be the first, in fact. But Dungeon Delve is a product that doesn’t require much explanation, and should be easy to figure out if this is something you need or not.

The book’s concept is simple. 30 short adventures, one for each level, consisting of 3 encounters per adventure. If you’ve read any of the published 4e adventures, you know how the encounter blocks look.

Each delve goes as following: an explanation of the background of the delve, story-wise. Then there’s some advice about how to expand the delve into a longer affair or tie in other adventure hooks. Every delve can be done with dungeon tiles, and they tell you right at the beginning what dungeon tile set they need: DT-6 are the oldest used, and most adventures use only one set, though some require multiples of the same set (and the level 30 delve uses two different sets). The delves also contain a variety of helpful sidebars- for example, there’s one that gives advice on how to use minions effectively, one that tells how best to move your bugbears, and one that contains goblin taunts.

As expected, most of the encounters are hack and slash fights, with occasional traps. No skill challenges that I could find, though of course dungeon-friendly skills like Perception and Athletics come in handy. If you drop one of these into your game, you should know that you’re adding some fights. I didn’t find the terrain setups particularly inspiring as far as cool places to fight go, but there’s a pretty decent variety between the 30.

The book opens with an introduction of how dungeon delves first started at GenCon 10 years ago, what defines a delve, and who should use delves (if you want to take a break, if you’re new to DMing, etc.) There’s also a page on running delves as very specifically a DM vs. the players type thing that is specifically called like a board game. There is advice on how to adjust delves, either by expanding them, changing the monsters, adjusting for more or less than 5 PCs, adjusting for PC level, and changing the features of an area. There’s some notes about the monsters in the adventure, which include some new ones, and some that have appeared in other sources, but all the information you need to run them is contained in the book. Then the 30 delves begin.

I confirmed with WotC at Comic Con that the delves contained therein have not been duplicated elsewhere (even the game store delve nights), so you won’t open it up to find you’ve already played that particular fight.

That’s the entire book. Either you’ll want it for the reasons they list to run a delve or to get some inspiration for your campaign, or you don’t need the book. Without cutting and pasting exact text, I don’t think there’s anything else I can tell you about Dungeon Delve.

Comments

  1. Of all of Wizards’ 2009 releases, this is the one I’m looking forward to the most. Zero-effort gaming sessions with minimum fuss and bother? Count me in!

    If I want more depth, there’s plenty of wiggle room to add in the role-playing opportunities too. I hope so, anyhow 😀

    greywulf´s last post: England is much smaller than you think

  3. I’m also really looking forward to this. Some of the most fun I’ve had has been playing D&D with one or two other people as a sort of mini-D&D board game. I think this will work well for that.

    Thank the gods, also, that the Character Builder is out now so we can quickly build some pre-gen characters to play with these delves.

    Thanks for the review! I’m jealous that you already have it. I can’t wait until March.

    Mike Shea´s last post: Review of Pyramid of Shadows

  5. I’d like to pick it up. The only problem is that I know of at least one other player at my table who is also going to get it, downgrading its usefulness to me at this time. The sidebars might still prove useful, though. Are they worth it?

  6. Hmm…The jury’s still out on this one, for me. I’ll have to see what the paragon level encounters are like before I make my final decision.

  7. Krog: They’re not worth the price of the book itself, but they are a very nice and unexpected touch. They are all centered around the encounters themselves, so most of them are useful in a vacuum.

    Ktulu: If you want details on some of the paragon encounters, lemme know.

  9. Shroomy: New monsters yes (helpfully indexed in the front), no to new magic items (or any magic items at all- I’ll check tonight to be sure).

  10. My group is also looking forward to this release. The idea of quickly generating some characters with the CB and jumping into a Paragon or Epic tier dungeon on a night when the DM isn’t able to have the regular game ready or is sick is a very entertaining prospect!

    Wimwick´s last post: Skill Challenge: “X” Marks the Spot

  11. Ooh, I like the prospect of the new monsters being an index. Any old favorites, or are they variations on monsters that have appeared in the MM (I remember a new version of the harpy and a Tulani eladrin[I think] from the preview in Dungeon).

  12. They’re mostly variants- to name a few, Kobold Cleaver, Githyanki Corsair, Rakshasa Destroyer, and the real thrill, MASSIVE GELATINOUS CUBE.

  14. Yeah, I’d take some info on that. Most of my current campaign (For the forseeable future) deals with hill giants & Yuan-ti. What’s in there that would be useable for that?

  16. Encounter #12, called “Emerald Dawn” is a raid on a temple where Yuan-ti are worshiping a green dragon. None seem to involve giants, though there’s a bunch with Cyclops.

  17. Thanks, TG! Haven’t done anything with dragons in my entire campaign, so that would make for an interesting side-trek…

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