Cryptic are having a bit of early April fun in Neverwinter. The announcement of Dragons as a playable race was a fairly conventional jape, and news of a Gelatinous Cube mount seemed to be along similar lines, but no: it really exists as an in-game… thing. You can buy one from the store, and it’ll schlupp up your character and transport them around with an 80% speed boost while making strange glooping noises.
The centrepiece of the whole business is Respen’s Marvellous Game, a really rather splendid event in which you find yourself transported to a strange dimension…
Don’t look now, but I think we’re being watched…
Yes, it’s a pen and paper D&D adventure! The players all adopt their best Heroic Figurine Pose and glide around the map on fixed bases. A dungeon masterly wizard briefs you on your quest, investigating a dread dungeon or enchanted forest, and provides further narration and convincing NPC voices as you progress.
Tow ‘er? I hardly know… no, that doesn’t work…
The mechanics are fairly conventional, you use your standard abilities (with animations), but there are plenty of nice touches, like the DM being a bit short of monster miniatures and using dice as stand-ins:
Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’
There’s even a Dread Gazebo:
Don’t worry, I have a +3 arrow
With two basic adventures, each with several randomised encounter elements, there’s a lot to enjoy in the event, especially if you can run through it at a relaxed pace with a group of friends. Completing the event gives a chest of rewards with a chance for a couple of uncommon items, and the lustre wears off slightly when blitzing through at high speed with a PUG for the 19th time, but c’est la MMO-vie. The event is running until Friday 4th April, so if you’re reading this before then and have a level 6 character in Neverwinter (or the spare hour or so it takes to run through the tutorial to get one) it’s well worth a look.
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