U2: Danger at Dunwater is an ambitious adventure. The sequel to The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, the players investigate the threat of the lizardmen revealed in the first module. It’s likely the characters invade their lair and slaying many of the lizardfolk, until they realise that their foes aren’t actually a threat after all! They were actually buying arms to help protect against a sahuagin … Continue reading Review of U2: Danger at Dunwater
Richard Pett first came to my attention as I was DMing the Age of Worms adventure path. His adventure, The Prince of Redhand, a role-playing heavy adventure towards the end of the path, was one of the true highlights of that series. Upon initially reading The Sixfold Trial, the second adventure in the Council of Thieves adventure path, it did not initially dawn on me … Continue reading Review of The Sixfold Trial
The final module in the “Special” series, S4: The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth, was based on a tournament adventure run at the 1976 Wintercon V tournament. Gary Gygax significantly revised the module before its publication, as the “new” monsters in 1976 had been adopted into the canon of AD&D; and thus new monsters were required to maintain the freshness of the adventure. He also added … Continue reading Review of S4: The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth
The Bastards of Erebus is the first adventure in the Council of Thieves adventure path, the first Adventure Path by Paizo written explicitly for the Pathfinder RPG; their previous four AP products having been for the 3.5e rules. It is written by Sean K. Reynolds, a long-time veteran of the RPG industry. It’s also a great disappointment. The Council of Thieves adventure path has problems … Continue reading Review of The Bastards of Erebus
Idol of the Orcs is an adventure module for the Labyrinth Lords (or B/X D&D) system written by James C. Boney, who has also contributed a number of AD&D-themed adventures to Expeditious Retreat Press’s Advanced Adventures line. I’m quite fond of the B/X system, and I was interested to see what James had done with it.
Looking at I2: Tomb of the Lizard King after having spent quite a bit of time looking at the pre-1982 adventures, I can see a change coming over the AD&D adventure landscape. We’d got a hint of it with U1: The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, but Tomb of the Lizard King is particularly noteworthy. It starts with three event-based encounters where the players meet the … Continue reading Review of I2: Tomb of the Lizard King
Tom Moldvay’s B4: The Lost City is, much like the previous module I’ve reviewed, Dwellers of the Forbidden City, an adventure that works better the more the DM works at it. The basic plan of the adventure is simple: the novice adventurers discover an ancient, buried pyramid when out of food and water, and must survive the inhabitants whilst looking for supplies. What makes the … Continue reading Review of B4: The Lost City
The 1981 release of the second D&D Basic Set was a landmark in the history of D&D; the previous Basic Set, edited by Eric Holmes, had attempted to present the original D&D rules in an easier-to-learn version. The second set, edited by Tom Moldvay, went and rewrote the rules to create its own game which, although its roots in original D&D were apparent, fixed, clarified … Continue reading Review of D&D Basic (Moldvay)
Dwellers of the Forbidden City is the adventure that introduced us to several classic D&D monsters: the yuan-ti, the aboleth, the mongrelmen, the bullywugs and the tasloi first see their adventure debut in this module. Any module that manages to have so many monsters that capture the imagination is going to be worth looking at, surely? However, Dwellers is not without its problems, and seems … Continue reading Review of I1: Dwellers of the Forbidden City
Len Lakofka first came to my attention through his articles in Dragon magazine, many of which appeared in the ongoing column “Leomund’s Tiny Hut”. One of the traits that runs through his articles is a great attention to detail. There’s a real feeling of striving for “realism” and “simulation” in his articles, and thus it’s not much of a surprise that the adventure modules he … Continue reading Review of L1: The Secret of Bone Hill
