Kuunari

Background

In 2010, Wizards began winding down support for Living Forgotten Realms and introduced a new program, called D&D Encounters.  This was to support stores, as the program could only be played in stores.  Each week on Wednesday, you could play a single encounter.  Over 12 or more weeks, you would play out a complete adventure. They are currently on the 6th season, this one called The Lost Crown of Neverwinter.

Review

I’ve recently started playing D&D Encounters, which has been great since moving down to Nashville.  I really enjoy the quick 1 to 2 hour play time and the guys I play with have been a ton of fun.  Meetup.com and Wizards has also been really supportive of encounters, with a lot of prize support.  We’ve gone from 1 table to three tables.

This encounter season has been a really great one, with the addition of themes.  The themes have really allowed the players to get into the story line of the season, as PC build choices affects some of the things that happen in the game.  There is also a good backstory to the season, that is detailed in the Neverwinter Campaign Setting.

The encounters themselves are well designed, and the adventure kits come with well made maps and tokens for the DMs to use.  The only aspect that I don’t like about the encounters season is the limited character building.  As you are limited to essential characters for the most recent season, there are only two leaders available.  I’m happy to play a healer, but I wish I could play something other than a cleric or a druid.  I just played a Druid in the previous encounter season, and the Essential Cleric doesn’t look like something that I’d be that interested in playing.  Although, as we don’t have many leaders in the group, that might be what I have to play.

Resources

D&D Encounters: The main page from Wizards.  It includes a summary of the what has happened so far.

Neverwinter Campaign Setting: The Neverwinter Campaign Setting Hardcover Book.  It’s one of the best Setting books I’ve read from Wizards recently.

Encounters Forum: Forum with discussion of the current season.