If you’ve been paying attention to this series of posts, you may have noticed that there was no actual game play mentioned between my June 22 post about my new Marvel Super Heroes character, and my July 28 post about getting back into D&D. That’s because the Marvel Super Heroes game I was supposed to be a Player in failed to start.

In all the years I’ve been playing RPGs, there have been probably a dozen or more failed starts for new games and campaigns. Just off the top of my head:

I remember creating a character for a Middle Earth Role Playing game campaign. I never actually played a single game session with that game.

I created a character for the Living Steel role playing game, but the game never started. I never even got to read the books for that game.

I created a character for the Mechwarrior role playing game. I’ve played many Battletech table-top war games, but never the role playing version of the game.

I’ve played a couple very short Star Frontiers games (less than 5 game sessions each). I created a couple characters for SF that never saw even one game session.

I’ve played a few Marvel Super Heroes campaigns of from 3 to 10 game sessions. I created a couple characters that never saw more than one game session, and now I’ve created a character that never saw the first game session.

I’ve played only one Star Wars campaign that lasted more than just a few game sessions. I created a couple SW characters that never got past the first game session.

I’ve played only one Shadowrun campaign that lasted many game sessions, and I’ve got two or three SR characters that I never played more than one or two game sessions. (I’ve got one character that was created specifically as a background support character for my main SR character, but I don’t count that character among the “failed to launch.”)

I’ve created a few D&D characters through the decades that never saw a single game session. I’ve created and played a handful of other D&D characters that I never gained a single level. (This is not counting the character I created just for the fun of creating characters.) Ironically, I’ve created more D&D characters that never did anything than I’ve had D&D characters die doing stuff.

It’s kind of sad now that I’m sitting here thinking about them. All these characters that got created but never really got play love in a game. I think I’d rather have a character die in the first game session than to never even reach the first game session.

Bullgrit
bullgrit@totalbullgrit.com

Classic D&D adventure module review

The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh, by Dave J. Browne with Don Turnbull – Advanced D&D, 1981

An adventure for character levels 1-3

32 pages plus the separate tri-fold cover with maps on the inside faces and the third panel of the outside face. (1 blank page backing player handout illustrations.) The adventure has 30 numbered areas in the mansion, and 17 numbered areas on the ship.

This was the premiere module from the United Kingdom, and the preface mentions, as a light warning, that American readers will probably notice the “slightly different flavour.”

The first four pages introduce the module, mention the town of Saltmarsh, tell the legend of the haunted mansion, and explain the overall plot and story for the adventure. Unlike other adventures of the time period with a town name in the title, this module does not detail the main town. The section on the town merely gives an overview and tells the DM to create any necessary details, including the names and occupations of the Town Council and other prominent citizens, any inn and/or tavern, and the place(s) of worship. The only details given are the population, “about 2,000,” and its coordinate location on the World of Greyhawk map.

The plot for this adventure revolves around a supposedly haunted mansion on a cliff near the town. The text gives several plot hooks to get the PCs to investigate the mansion. Once the PCs investigate, they should discover a smuggling operation working out of the basement with its small sea caves complex. When the PCs defeat the smugglers, they will then need to prepare to capture the smugglers’ ship when it arrives.

The mansion is not actually haunted, but is dilapidated enough to have a few dangerous spots that act essentially as traps. There are several giant vermin encounters in the mansion, and in a change of the AD&D paradigm, the vermin don’t have deadly poisonous bites. The authors made the spider and centipede bites debilitating instead of killing.

This module has boxed text to be read to the Players, and the room information is broken up into readable paragraphs. This helps tremendously compared to other modules of this era with dense paragraphs and no text boxes.

All the monsters are listed in the “old school” stat block style: (AC 8; HD 1+1; hp 7 each, #AT 1; D 1 hit point plus poison).

The only non-critter encounter in the house proper is with a tied up self-admitted thief. This Ned Shakeshaft is actually an assassin placed in the mansion to foil the PCs’ investigation. The encounter is set up such that Ned has what seems like a good story for his presence, but the story is flawed just enough that proper scrutiny will reveal a clue to actually push the PCs further in their investigation.

If the PCs make it to the secret areas of the basement of the mansion, they will find obvious evidence that the house is not vacant. The cavern areas are full of smugglers and some humanoid thugs. This part of the adventure in the mansion can and probably will be a series of combats, hopefully ending in the defeat of the land-based element of the smuggler operation. With the evidence found and deciphered from the mansion investigation, the PCs will need to plan an assault on the smuggler ship.

The ship part of this adventure can go in two completely different ways: It can be a stealth operation – sneaking up on the ship, slipping on board, quietly taking out guards, etc. Or it can be a straight-up boarding assault – storm the railings, hack and slash the defenders, etc. The module is written with the assumption that the PCs at least try the stealthy approach first, although a mass melee on the decks may result from mistakes or bad luck.

Once the smugglers are defeated and the ship taken, there is more mystery and intrigue to discover: what the smugglers are actually smuggling, and to whom. This sets up the plot hook for the next adventure module in this series, Danger at Dunwater.

Overall, this adventure is not a mindless hack-and-slash affair. It is a mystery story punctuated with interesting combat scenarios. There are intriguing plot points throughout the adventure, and the whole operation is full of great role playing opportunities. Impatient, strictly kick-in-the-door types may not appreciate this adventure, but there are enough of most gaming style elements here to satisfy most gamer types. This module is truly one of the greatest adventures ever created. It has story, role playing opportunities, and plenty of grand, interesting combat.

Bullgrit

Classic D&D adventure module review

The Village of Hommlet, by Gary Gygax – Advanced D&D, 1979, 1981

Introductory to novice level.

24 pages plus the separate cover with maps on the inside faces. (3 blank pages backing maps.) The adventure has 35 numbered areas.

The first thing you notice about this book is the dense text. Each page is two columns, with small margins, and long paragraphs. There’s a lot of text in this book.

The first page is the background for Hommlet and the starting set up for the party entering the area. Hommlet has quite the storied history, being the closest normal town to the Temple of Elemental Evil. The next half page is notes to the Dungeon Master (DM) on running this adventure.

The area here, as well as that of the Temple (contained in a separate module), was developed in order to smoothly integrate players with and without experience in the Greyhawk Campaign into a scenario related to the “old timers” only by relative proximity.

[The actual Temple of Elemental Evil module wouldn’t be published for another 6 years, in 1985, as the first “super module.” That module would include this adventure, republished.]

The biggest chunk of text in this book is the building by building key to the village: eight and a half pages covering 33 numbered areas of mostly mundane buildings and village folk.

6. HOUSE WITH LEATHER HIDE TACKED TO THE FRONT DOOR: This is the home and business of the village leatherworker (0 level militiaman, leather armor, shield, sling, hand axe; 4 hit points). With him live his wife, her brother (a simpleton who does not bear arms), and 3 children of whom the eldest is a 12 year old boy (0 level militiaman, leather jack, buckler, sling, dagger; 2 hit points). The leather-worker is a jack-of-all-trades, being shoe and bootmaker, cobbler, saddler, harnessmaker, and even fashioning leather garments and armor, the latter requiring some time and a number of fittings and boiling. He is not interested in any sort of adventuring. Sewn into an old horse collar are 27 g.p. and 40 e.p. as well as a silver necklace worth 400 g.p.

17. MODEST COTTAGE: A potter is busily engaged in the manufacture of various sorts of dishes and vessels, although most of his work goes to passing merchants or the trader. He has a variety of earthenware bottles and flasks available for sale. The potter (0 level militiaman, padded armor, shield, glaive; 3 hit points), his wife, and four children (two boys are 0 level militiamen, padded armor, crossbow, spear; 4 and 2 hit points respectively) all work in the business. A crock in the well holds 27 g.p., 40 s.p., and 6 10 g.p. gems. They are of the faithful of St. Cuthbert.

[Bolding above as it appears in the book.]

I cannot see a true need for the amount of detail such mundane villagers receive. A few of the villagers are agents of one side or the other in the Good and Evil contest, and the text explains them in as much detail as the normal folk. Only a handful of the NPCs, those with levels in a class, are given names in the text.

There is a lot of coin and magic treasure in this town. The detail and highlighting of these items, as well as the combat stats of every able-bodied male in the village, suggests perhaps the author expected the Player Characters (PCs) to explore the homes and businesses as they would a dungeon. I can’t believe that was actually the intention, but the information on the village buildings looks exactly what you normally find in a dungeon write up (including the dungeon at the end of this book).

A few of the buildings are detailed down to the rooms inside, even with full maps: The Inn of the Welcome Wench tavern (3 floors), the Traders’ Establishment, the Church of St. Cuthbert (3 floors), and the Guard Tower (7 floors). There’s no set adventure to be had in these locales, so scaled maps seem unnecessary. I guess they could be useful for first-time DMs to see what a tavern or church in a D&D world would look like, but I would think illustrations would be better than combat grid maps.

The map on the inside of the book cover shows the entire village at 110 feet to the inch scale. The individual building maps cover pages 17 – 22 (one sided pages).

For the village of Hommlet, there’s a great deal of individual building and person detail. The adventure site, The Ruins of the Moathouse, located 3 miles from the village, covers pages 12 – 16, with the two-level map on pages 23 and 24.

The ruined moathouse “was once the outpost of the Temple of Elemental Evil,” and its ground level is now occupied only by some vermin and a small group of human brigands. The wandering monster encounters are:

2-8 giant rats (see #13., below)
Scraping noise (materials shifting)
Giant tick overhead (see #16. below)
Squeaking and rustling (rats in the floor below)
2-5 brigands (reinforcements for #7., below)
Footsteps (trick of echoes – party’s own)

The dungeon level of the moathouse is the true place of Evil in hiding. An ogre, some zombies, gnolls, bugbears, ghouls, and a sizable group of evil soldiers for the Temple of Elemental Evil are all lead by Lareth the Beautiful, “the dark hope of chaotic evil”.

The PCs could become heroes for rooting out and destroying this small bastion of dangerous villains. They could also come out quite wealthy.

The text of this adventure is dense, with most of the areas written in single paragraphs. There’s no boxed text to read aloud to the Players, so the DM has to read the information carefully before the game session, and probably make notes and highlight information to run the encounters. As evidenced here and in other adventure modules, this author tends to write encounter information in a stream of consciousness style—description, monsters, and treasure are in a single long paragraph for each encounter area, with no set organization.

All the monsters are listed in a modified “old school” stat block style: (H.P.: 21): AC 5; HD 5 +1; Move 9″; 1 attack using bardiche for 2-8 +5 (7-13) hit points of damage.

The adventure is simple and straight-forward enough for novice players wanting to explore a dungeon and fight evil monsters and men, but the opposition in the dungeon is pretty numerous and strong for a party of 1st-level PCs. Even if the adventurers are themselves numerous (the text does not state how many PCs the adventure design expects), they’ll have to be tactically savvy with a mind to retreat when necessary, if they hope to survive this dungeon delve.

Overall, this book spends many pages and much detail on the mundane villagers of Hommlet compared to the adventure. But, the book is titled The Village of Hommlet, so it is actually giving the DM what it advertises. This book is a village, home base source book with a small adventure appended to the end rather than an adventure module.

Bullgrit

Classic D&D adventure module review

The Keep on the Borderland, by Gary Gygax – Basic D&D, 1981

Introductory module for character levels 1-3

28 pages plus the separate cover with maps on the inside faces. The adventure has 64 numbered areas.

This module originally accompanied the Basic Dungeons & Dragons boxed set (1981, edited by Tom Moldvay). The first four pages of this module is an introduction to Dungeons & Dragons. There are notes for the Dungeon Master (DM) on reading monster and non-player character (NPC) stats in the module text, on running combats, on tracking time, and some general advice on how to be an effective DM.

The background on the setting of the Keep, and the starting set up, including a table of 20 rumors (true and false) the Player Characters (PCs) may know, begins on page 6. The information on the numbered areas of the Keep cover pages 8 – 12. Every structure in and about the Keep is described, and even each person statted out. It’s ironic that with all this detail, no one in the Keep is given a name—even the Keep itself has no name. Everyone from the innkeeper to the castellan is simply referred to by their job title.

The areas in the Keep are detailed down to the treasure hidden in personal rooms. The loan bank key includes the treasure stored in the cellar strong room—it’s full of valuable treasure, and would probably tempt most PC parties to at least consider a raid on it if they ever learned of it.

Pages 24 and 25 has a list of statted out NPCs, including personalities, advice for designing floor plans for buildings in the Keep, some tips for Players, and a glossary of non-game terms (like brazier and pot boy). Page 26 has a sample floor plan, (for the Keep Guild House), and pages 27 and 28 have a map of the Keep and the wilderness around the Keep, respectively.

Four wilderness encounter areas are described over a page and a half after the section on the Keep. The main adventure locale of this module is the Caves of Chaos, detailed on pages 14 – 23. The map for the Caves covers the entire inside cover of the book.

The dungeon complex is a moderately large set of caves in a ravine. Eleven entrances each lead to one set of caves occupied by different evil humanoid races, (kobolds, orcs, goblins, hobgoblins, gnolls, bugbears), a few individual monsters (ogre, minotaur, owlbear), and a temple full of undead.

Though some readers may have a difficult time accepting so many different and aggressively opposed creatures living in the same relatively small area, the arrangement does allow the invading PCs to take on small chunks of increasingly dangerous tribes, one at a time. If the PCs can determine what creatures live in which caves, they can choose to take on the kobolds first, then the goblins, then the orcs, etc., and work their way up to fighting the bugbear and minotaur when they gain a level or two. This is a good design decision for introducing novice Players to the game—they can encounter a wide variety of monsters in their first adventure. Some of the encounters consist of numerous enemies, and parties of less than the suggested six to nine PCs can find themselves in serious trouble.

Like many other adventure modules of this era, there is no boxed text to be read aloud to the Players. And like many other adventures by this author, the text is written in a stream of consciousness style, so the room description, monster combat stats, and treasure is all in the same paragraph with no organization. A DM must read through the areas before the game session to make notes and highlight information, because trying to read through it at the gaming moment will get confusing and will slow down the play.

All the monsters are listed in the “old school” stat block style: (AC 5, HD 2, hp 8 each, #AT 1, D 2-8, Save F 2, ML 8).

Overall, the adventure is broad selection of monsters for novice Players to experience. There is no stated or explained plot or specific background for the Caves of Chaos, so a DM will either need to make up something for his campaign, or else just hope the Players never wonder about it. With brand new D&D Players, it is quite possible that they may never think or care why there’s all these monsters in the caves, and why there’s a temple full of evil priests, skeletons, and zombies in the same locale.

But it is possible, maybe even probable, that the Players will ask for names of the various personages in the Keep. The author gives the combat stats for characters the PCs will probably never fight, but he didn’t give them names. The good thing about this lack of detail is that this module is generic enough to be truly modular, and can fit in just about any standard D&D campaign.

Bullgrit