Originally Published March 24th, 2004

REVIEWING THE NOVELS

I think a very strong argument can be made that George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire is the finest work of epic fantasy since J.R.R. Tolkien first defined the genre with The Lord of the Rings.

And that’s pretty much the only comparison which can be made between Martin’s emerging masterpiece and Tolkien’s classic.

Where Tolkien is a romantic, Martin is a realist. Where Tolkien is evocatively poetic, Martin is powerfully blunt. Where Tolkien is mythic, Martin is historical.

This review covers the first three books in the series: A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, and A Storm of Swords. The fourth book, titled A Feast of Crows, is scheduled to come out later this year. (Of course, it was also scheduled to come out last year. So don’t hold your breath.) The series is not done, and so it would be premature to judge it as a whole. But I will say this: If Martin finishes as he has begun, he will have crafted the first work to truly redefine what epic fantasy is capable of since Frodo passed out of Middle Earth.

(I’ve also heard this series described as “a fantasy version of the Wars of the Rose.” Having read the books, I feel compelled to report that this is only true in the vaguest of all possible senses. It would be roughly equivalent to saying that The Lord of the Rings is “a fantasy version of The Sting”.)

Here’s what I like:

First, the series is simply not predictable. Based on a long experience with extruded fantasy products, you may think you know where the plot is going from page one… but you don’t. (No, really. You don’t.) And the effect never ends: As you read on, you’ll be wrong in your guesses more often than not. And Martin isn’t so foolish as to have nothing turn out the way you would expect: Just enough threads carry themselves out in a traditional fashion that you cannot even rest assured in the unexpected.

Second, the depth and breadth of worldbuilding is staggering. Martin’s Westeros is no pale copy of Middle Earth with the names scratched off and written over. Nor is it a poorly disguised historical analogue. Nor a paper-thin construction whose scope is wholly spent with the first revelation. No, with Westeros Martin has made an onion: And with each chapter and volume he peels back a new layer.

Third, injuries have meaningful, long-lasting effects. Scars linger, old wounds ache, and even bruises make their presence felt. And when people die, the death is tangible and real, with the least trace of romanticism. (The only seeming exception here are missing teeth: Martin seems to have a fetish for knocking teeth out of his characters during fights, yet the lack never seems to be commented upon again. Perhaps there is a magical orthodontist running around backstage.)

Fourth, Martin does a very good job of putting you inside the heads of many different characters, each of whom has a unique outlook on the world.

Finally, these are just damn fine books. If you’ve been thinking to yourself, “I’d like to read a really good book,” then this is what you’re looking for.

There are two minor complaints I would lay against the series as a whole:

First, the timeline is a little vague and seems to be very flexible. Travel times, in particular, seem to elongate for effect when necessary, throwing off the relationship between various plot streams.

Second, Martin falls into the trap of recapping information and plot from previous volumes in each new volume. I’m not sure why authors of series like this feel a need to do this. The recaps would seem to suggest that each book could be read independently. But they can’t and they won’t, so why pretend? It’s only frustrating to those of us who start with the first book and read from there. In other words, it’s frustrating to all of us.

To elaborate on these general thoughts a little more:

The first two volumes are of a piece in my mind: The first is a crafty mystery and the second is a powerful war story, both set against a backdrop of byzantine intrigue and feudal politics. Both are excellent and nearly flawless.

The third volume, on the other hand, seems to tail off a bit. It’s not an exceptional decline by any stretch of the imagination – indeed, if this book were not preceded by the other two, it would be barely mentionable. But weaknesses do begin to appear here which were not previously present in the series: Crudity which was once an effective evocation of Martin’s world begins slipping into simple shock value and occasional titillation. The violence and pain suffered by his characters becomes arbitrary, rather than arising naturally from their circumstances. A weird running “joke” appears. A mandatory rule of “a character must piss their pants once every fifteen pages” is instituted. (I wish I was kidding.) Several characters become mired at the beginning of the book and their plot threads begin to drag. An increasing proportion of the action begins slipping into flashbacks, being told instead of shown. Chapters begin ending with false, melodramatic cliffhangers.

Just strange, little stuff. Nothing major. Nothing which cripples the work. But enough minor irritants to consistently distract (particularly during the first third of the book).

On the other hand, the third volume also takes all of the strengths of the series and deepens them: The world becomes richer. The characters become more compelling. The plot grips you even tighter than before.

And here’s the most important thing to understand:

This is a brilliant series. Brilliant and painful and beautiful and stunning. Literally stunning. There are points in reading it when I found my mouth hanging agape, in sheer shock.

If you have not yet found this series, find it now. If you have been avoiding it skeptically as yet another poorly done set of fantasy doorstops, stop cheating yourself. If it is already on your reading list, move it to the top.

In short: Read it. Read it now.

IN THE GAME

Martin’s Westeros is a richly developed world, although – at the moment – there are a lot of places where the innate mystery of the setting will require you to read between the lines to get the depth necessary for a true campaign. That being said, there are several campaigns I could easily see being played in Westeros. For example:

1. The PCs are members of the Night’s Watch. Whether they’re dealing with Wildlings, ancient ruins beyond the Wall, or the Others there are endless possibilities.

2. The PCs take the roles of noble heirs during the last civil war. Instead of Robert, Ned, Jaime, and the others of that generation, it is the PCs who must deal with the final madness of the Targaryens.

Additional resources to consider: Dragon Magazine #307 contained several articles aimed at gaming in Westeros. The Westeros website has a lot of material to chew on – including heraldry, a concordance of world information, and a variety of correspondence from Martin himself.

I also understand that Guardians of Order will be releasing A Song of Ice and Fire roleplaying game some time this year. (Although that release date has already been shoved back from last year. Looks like they’re truly following in the footsteps of the author…)

Style: 5
Subtance: 5

Grade: A+

“If Martin finishes…”

Ah. Well. There’s the rub, isn’t it?

Much has passed since I wrote this review in 2004. The Guardians of Order RPG I mentioned rose and fell, taking the company with it. Another was published by Green Ronin, only to also come to an end. There have been three television series. Spin-offs and graphic novels and even a stage play. 

But, of course, the series itself remains infamously incomplete.

For myself, having started both the Wheel of Time and A Song of Ice and Fire in 1995/96, it was right around the time I wrote this review that I was resolving to never again start reading an ongoing fantasy epic that had not yet been finished. Although this resolution has been, upon occasion, broken by accident (when I started a book not realizing it was an unfinished story), it has meant, for example, dodging the heartbreak of Patrick Rothfuss. I was delighted, a decade later, to be able to come back to Wheel of Time and finish it. I sincerely hope to be able to do so some day with A Song of Ice and Fire, although, sadly, I doubt that this will happen.

Do I still rank it as the “finest work of finest work of epic fantasy since The Lord of the Rings“? Truth be told, I am not as well read in epic fantasy as I once was. I keep various rankings in my personal logs, however, and A Song of Ice and Fire still ranks quite high, although it also still bears the tag “preliminarily” that I’d first placed on it back in 2003. Either way, it may have been edged out by Steven Erikson’s Malazan Empire. Or perhaps Matt Dinniman’s Dungeon Crawler Carl, if that counts as epic fantasy.

This was my final review for RPGNet. It was, as you can see, an experiment in reviewing literature with a slant towards how it could be brought to the gaming table. For better or worse, it didn’t really work. I pitched a similar concept (adapting works from other mediums to RPGs) as a column to a few different places, but it was difficult to chart a clear path through copyright law and licensing, so I was never able to quite make it work.

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.

If you actually run a D&D campaign, Backdrops is just the sort of crunchy goodness that the doctor ordered. If you’re looking for reading material, on the other hand, give this one a pass.

Originally Published June 27th, 2002

CONTENTS

The concept behind Penumbra’s Backdrops is simple: Provide professionally designed, ready-to-use maps and descriptions of fourteen generic locations: A bazaar, an athenaeum, baths, a ship, wharfs, stables, a smithy, a toll bridge, a temple, a caravanserai, a tavern, an alleyway, a merchant’s district, and a city dungeon.

Now, unless you run a very out-of-the-ordinary D&D campaign, then you’ve seen at least 90% of these locations crop up in your game before.

“So, what?” you say. “If they’re (a) generic, and (b) I’ve used them before, why would I want to pay the good folks down at Penumbra nine bucks for the privilege of showing me stuff I already know?”

Well, primarily, because John Davis and Scott Reeves are professional cartographers and you probably aren’t. And, even if you can produce high quality maps, then this book is probably still worth the cover charge for the time it will save you.

“So, what?” you say. “Maps are maps. My players never see them, and I don’t care whether I’m looking at scribblings on graph paper or the next Michelangelo behind my GM screen.”

But that’s where you’d be wrong, because every map in Backdrops includes an enlargement ratio. For example, the map of the wharfs has an enlargement ratio of 220%. So you slap the book down on a copier at Kinko’s, boost up the enlargement ratio to 220%, spend a dime, and out pops a ready-made tactical map. Then, when the PCs chase the bad guys out onto the wharfs, you whip out your awesome looking handout, lay out the miniatures, and away you go.

STRENGTHS

And that’s pretty much what sold me on Backdrops. The xerox enlargement ratio is something that nearly every damn map produced should be copying as quickly as possible. There is nothing I like better than taking out some professionally designed visuals and laying them out on the table: Not only do my players enjoy it, but it makes my job just a little bit easier. (And isn’t that what it’s all about?)

WEAKNESSES

The one problem I have with Backdrops is that there are only fourteen locations. In terms of utility, I would have preferred to see a 64 page product retailing in the $15 range. This would have given the product a broader coverage. As it is, you’ll want to make sure that there’s something in here you’ll find useful before you pick it up (check the list of locations, above).

Each of the locations also includes an accompanying page of text. This material works when it’s covering rules or guidelines for handling a location. (For example, the bridge floor trap accompanying the Toll Bridge location. Or the “break it and buy it” combat variant for handling collateral damage to merchandise in the Bazaar.) It tends to go awry, for me, however, when it makes the location specific instead of generic. (For example, the map of the Smithy is perfectly generic. The description of the Smithy, however, describes it being manned by Azers.) I find this latter type of material to be of almost no worth to me. Perhaps in a longer product it would have worked better, but here I would again say the product would be better served with more maps.

CONCLUSION

Backdrops is an excellent resource. It’s filled with the type of crunchy goodness which is the delight of all true DMs: It doesn’t just take care of the details so that we can focus on the big picture, it spices those details up with high production values and professional quality.

Are you going to have a tavern brawl? An ambush in the stables? A chase through darkened alleyways?

Then buying this one’s a no-brainer.

Style: 4
Substance: 4

Author: Will Hindmarch
Cartographer: John Davis with Scott Reeves
Publisher: Atlas Games
Line: Penumbra
Price: $8.95
ISBN: 1-58978-009-4
Product Code: AG3210
Pages: 32
Year Published: 2002

Nobody copied the enlargement factor, which is a pity even in this era of digital options. If you’re okay with black-and-white cartography, though, Backdrops still holds up great in an era of virtual tabletops. On the other hand, the current e-book version doesn’t hold up when physically printed at an enlarged scale.

This was the last RPG review I wrote for RPGnet, appearing alongside my review of Deep Horizons on June 27th, 2002. (There’s one more non-RPG review on its way.) In retrospect, it’s a very strange finale to a rather expansive body of work, but I suppose that is often the way of things: You don’t know that something is ending until it has already passed. I wrote my last review for RPGnet without knowing it would be my last, in much the same way that the day will come when I pick up my daughter for the last time without knowing I will never do it again.

Into eternity all things shall pass. But we’ll preserve it here a little longer; a light shining bulwark against the dark.

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.

GURPS Space continues to be one of the best resources for a science fiction campaign in the industry today.

Originally Published March 18th, 2002

CONTENTS

The goal of GURPS Space is simple: To provide an authoritative resource and reference for any conceivable science fiction campaign set in the wide universe beyond Earth’s atmosphere. For a GM it is a toolbox for any campaign set in the broad genre of “space adventure”. For the GURPS product line it is a centralized resource for the same (both GURPS Traveller and Transhuman Space, for example, reference GURPS Space as a place to find more detailed information on a variety of subjects).

Creating a Universe: The first goal of GURPS Space is to help the GM build their own worlds of starfaring adventure. Indeed, the first chapter of the book is called Creating a Universe. Here we find a detailed survey of SF campaign types, alien races, and interstellar societies and organizations. Later in the book we are given an absolutely stunning (and scrupulously scientifically accurate) star and planet generation system.

This really sums up everything that GURPS Space does well: On the one hand, you receive a comprehensive survey of seventy years of science fiction world-building. On the other hand, you are given a centralized reference with a hard science backing.

Technology: In addition to everything you would expect in a sourcebook of this kind (personal gear, weapons, medicine, starships, etc.), GURPS Space also takes the time to provide guidance on how to choose the technology of your campaign setting. How is actual technological improvement likely to happen? How has science fiction predicted future history in the past? What are the effects of different technologies on a setting? All of this discussion obviously backed up by a tremendous amount of research.

Rules: There are two major rule systems to be found here – Space Combat and Starship Design. The latter is a stripped down version of the system found in GURPS Vehicles (with accompanying conversion notes); the former is flexible and fairly simple (by GURPS standards).

BAD STUFF

The perceived utility of GURPS Space has been degraded, I think, by the continued expansion of the GURPS product line. For a book which has long been perceived in the industry as the resource for science fiction campaigns, it is somewhat disheartening to note just how frequently GURPS Space refers you to other products in the GURPS line: GURPS High Tech, GURPS Ultra Tech, GURPS Ultra Tech 2, GURPS Bio-Tech, and GURPS Vehicles — among others – are constantly being referenced and recommended. In this third edition, some sections of GURPS Space no longer read like a sourcebook: They read like a teaser for a plethora of GURPS products. Perhaps it is inevitable that the chapters on technology look like a stripped down GURPS Ultra Tech and the chapters on starships look like a stripped down GURPS Vehicles — but one is forced to question the utility of a centralized sourcebook if the meat has been distributed elsewhere.

GURPS Space is also beginning to show its age. Despite the revision by the (justly) renowned David Pulver, the book seems scarcely touched by the science fiction of the past twenty years. Subjects such as terraforming and nanotechnology are relegated to nothing more than sidebars. The elegant design and adaptation of galactic civilizations such as those found in Brin’s Uplift novels and Vinge’s A Deepness in the Sky and A Fire Upon the Deep are conspicuously absent. The list of favorite authors found on page four of GURPS Space really says it all: Not one new author of the past twenty years can be found on that list.

I also question the organization of GURPS Space: A lot of key information seems to get relegated to the sidebars, but – more importantly – information has not been drawn together into rational packages:

For example, Chapter 1: Creating a Universe gets things started – providing some basic information about alien races, interstellar societies, and sci-fi organizations. Things appear to be progressing logically with Chapter 2: Choosing Technology, which begins to discuss the wide range of technology which has been presented in science fiction over the years. But this discussion is then interrupted by Chapter 3: Characters – which includes more information about alien races and some discussion of character roles.

In Chapter 4: Gadgets, however, we return to the discussion of technology – computers, air marks, communication devices, and some other personal equipment is discussed. Chapter 5: Weapons and Chapter 6: Medicine proceed logically out of this, and then we move onto Chapter 7: Environments – which discusses game rules for gravity, atmosphere, radiation, and the like. But then, incomprehensibly, we’re back to technology again with Chapter 8: Starships. Chapter 9: Space Combat proceeds logically from that, but Chapter 10: Stars and Worlds and Chapter 11: Civilizations seem to take us all the way back to the material in Chapter 1.

And that’s just the chapter organization. Things are equally confused as you begin breaking things down inside those chapters, as well. This lack of organization results in a product which proves less useful as an active guide to the new GM (because there is no conceptual flow to the material), and more difficult to use a quick reference (because related information may – literally – be found at opposite ends of the book).

GOOD STUFF

That being said, GURPS Space is still well worth your cash. After nearly twenty years of on-the-market playtesting, the ruleset found here is about as solid as they come. Plus, as a result of the extreme realism, research, and fidelity which SJG demands of its GURPS product line, GURPS Space is an authoritative supplement to any science fiction campaign. What does exposure to vacuum actually mean? Look it up here. How long does space travel take? Look it up here. What types of stars are there? Look it up here. How do bussard ramjets work? Look it up here. And on and on and on.

On top of that, GURPS Space also provides a near-encyclopedic survey of science fiction universes (despite its failings when it comes to the most recent developments of the field). When it comes to the creation of an SF universe, this needs to be your first stop: Nothing else will lay out the plethora of options available to you with a greater eye towards giving you the tools and options you need to create the world you want.

CONCLUSION

It doesn’t matter whether your SF is hard, soft, space opera, military, or fantasy; it doesn’t matter whether you universe reaches from here to Luna or here to Andromeda; it doesn’t matter whether you’re playing GURPS or Spelljammer: GURPS Space should be on your shelf.

Style: 4
Substance: 4

Authors: Steve Jackson and William A. Barton (Third Edition Revised by David Pulver)
Company: Steve Jackson Games
Line: GURPS
Price: $22.95
ISBN: 1-55634-390-6
Production Code: 6005
Pages: 176

There was a time when my first impulse — and that of many gamers — when starting a new campaign was to reach for the most appropriate GURPS supplement. In recent years, this is a habit I’ve drifted away from. (Likely, in no small part, due to how easy the internet makes direct research.) Revisiting GURPS Space, though, I’m reminded of just how useful these supplements are, and I’ve pulled this back off the shelf to use as a resource for my Mothership open table.

GURPS 3rd Edition has, in the years since this review was first written, been replaced by GURPS 4th Edition, and this has brought with it a new edition of GURPS Space. I’ve never truly dived into the new edition, instead simply maintaining my existing library of 3rd Edition supplements, so I’m afraid I don’t have much to say about that. (Except that apparently even more material has been jettisoned, as the new edition requires a separate GURPS Spaceships.)

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.

Bughunters can be mined for ideas, but – like most of TSR’s output in the ‘90s – is padded with too much fluff and empty space to present a truly high quality package.

Originally Published March 16th, 2002

WHY BUGHUNTERS?

Bughunters was a supplement for TSR’s Amazing Engine game – which hasn’t been in print for more than half a decade.

So why review it?

Well, first off, because a lot of RPG fans are bargain hunters: They’ll see this book in a remainder bin or on a clearance table and begin wondering whether or not its worth snapping up. And that’s what a review is all about.

Plus, I want to. ‘Nuff said.

WHAT YOU GET

Bughunters is essentially an unlicensed Aliens RPG: The PCs are ground-pounders in the United Terra Reconnaissance and Peacekeeping Force (UTRPF). As such they are charged with keeping Mother Earth safe from hostile aliens… And if there’s anything humanity has learned, it’s that every single alien in existence is hostile.

Bughunters mixes things up a little more by casting the PCs as Synners – synthetic humans. Synners originally became necessary because normal humans become debilitatingly ill if they go through an Isler jump (the FTL device of the setting) outside of cryogenic sleep. Once the law allowed the government to use synners in the military, however, it was inevitable that the genetic modifications would be extended to create super-soldiers. Once that happened, however, society no longer wanted synners living among them – so laws were pushed through that prevented the synners from ever mustering out of the UTRPF: Once created, they were in the military for life. And once that was true, the pressure from constant alien threats quickly allowed the military to generate their super-soldiers more quickly by using a braintaping technology to duplicate civilian personalities: The civilians had the consolation that some “part” of them was out in space having adventures, while the military got a pre-grown personality to insert into their rapid-growth clones.

So as a PC you are not only forced to fight a vicious alien menace for the rest of your natural lives (i.e., until one of the vicious aliens kills you), but most of your memories and your entire identity actually belong to someone else. That’s not only a solid premise for a game, it’s also a great source of characterization and drama: Character is not only what you are in the dark; it’s what you are when your back is pressed to the wall.

As a sourcebook, Bughunters provides all the usual suspects: In the player’s section you’ve got a future history of the universe; character generation rules; details on the life of a synner; combat rules; military equipment; details on ships; and a mini-sourcebook on Stargate, an L-5 space station where most synners start their careers (and, thus, a good starting point for most Bughunters campaigns).

The GM’s section contains some additional background information, including – of course – the stats for a number of vicious aliens for the PCs to hunt down and kill: Essentially, most of the intelligent life in the universe was created, modified, or enslaved by two Ancient races to serve in their centuries-old war. These races – referred to by many of the minor races as the Shapers (a psychic race featuring biological technology) and the Artificers (an insectoid race featuring advanced “hard” technology) – are completely exhausted by their long war, but the continued hostility is the reason why everyone humanity happens to meet in space is immediately a threat: They’ve been conditioned to assume that, if they don’t know a race, it’s probably serving the other side.

The book is wrapped up with some very helpful charts and tables, most notably a full-color, pull-out map of the local section of the Milky Way – complete with an accompanying table of stellar distances.

WHERE IT FALLS DOWN

Bughunters falls down by not going far enough: There’s fancy military equipment, but there’s not a lot of it. You get a few alien threats, but not enough to sustain a true “let’s hunt the new bugs this week” campaign. And so forth.

Perhaps the most unfortunate lack here is in setting details. Bughunters was always intended to be a stand-alone product, yet the creator has simply failed to deliver all that much in the way of real meat when it comes to the Bughunters universe.

Part of the problem here is that this was a TSR product circa-1993. Those of you who were in the hobby back then already know that the only thing TSR could be relied on to produce in those days were books with excessive whitespace, large fonts, and text with too much leading between lines: In short, products which employed every means possible to keep their actual word count and content to an absolute minimum while (literally) pumping up the margins.

But even taking that into account, there’s a lot of fluff here that doesn’t need to be here. Most of it (such as the introductory adventure) was probably also caused by corporate guidelines, so I’m not going to blame the authors or creators here. But it is an unfortunate reality of the book.

WHAT IT’S GOOD FOR

As a result, Bughunters is going to be primarily useful as something you tear apart for ideas and put back together in your own image. For example, I could easily see using some of the material and background material here for a bughunting campaign set about 25 years in the future of the Transhuman Space universe.

Looked at through this lens, Bughunters is a rich resource: There are a lot of very compelling pieces here which can be conveniently ripped out, turned around, and slammed into another game. Or used to create an entirely new setting to your heart’s content. Plus, there’s nothing really wrong with the material here – most of it can serve as a very reliable foundation on which you can simply continue building.

On aspect of particular note here is the ship design system: To design a ship in Bughunters all you need to do is slam together various modules – instantly creating your own, customized ship. I would have liked to see more modules to choose from, and more detailed floorplans of the modules, but this is another area where the foundation is very solid. The basic mechanic and floorplans are also completely system independent, so the whole thing is very easily portable.

The full-color map and stellar distance charts are also well done, and provide a resource for any science fiction campaign set galactically near Earth.

A Note on Amazing Engine: For those unfamiliar with the Amazing Engine product line, it was an attempt to produce a generic game (a la GURPS) by TSR. The engine itself has many strengths (which I may dwell on if I ever review the actual game system), but the game’s supplements suffered because of a methodology which required a complete set of character creation rules and (frequently) large chunks of the combat rules to be redesigned and reprinted. This helps contribute to Bughunters’ fluff problem. It also means you cannot play Bughunters as is without the Amazing Engine rulebook.

Style: 3
Substance: 3

Author: Lester Smith
Additional Design: Tim Brown, Karen Boomgarden, Newton Ewell, Tim Beach, Colin McComb of the Clan McComb
Line: Amazing Engine
Price: $18.95
ISBN: 1-56076-623-9
Product Code: TSR2702
Pages: 128
Year Published: 1993

Flipping through my copies of Bughunters, I’m going to be honest: I was overstating its usefulness as a resource. Except for the poster map of star systems near Sol. That’s pretty great.

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.

The Slavers saga comes to an end with a whimper instead of a bang.

Originally Published March 16th, 2002

This review builds on my reviews of A1: Slave Pits of the Undercity, A2: Secret of the Slavers Stockade, and A3: Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords. It’s probably a good idea to read those reviews, found here, here, and here, respectively, before reading this one.

CONCEPT

Warning: This review will contain spoilers for the A-series of modules. Players who may find themselves playing in these adventures should not read beyond this point.

At the end of A3: Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords the PCs fell victim to the Slave Lords: For months now they have been imprisoned in their dungeons — spellcasters tortured and kept from sleep to prevent them memorizing their spells; thieves denied their tools; and fighters denied their weapons. As the adventure begins they are dosed with more sleeping potions and then dumped into the cave system which runs through the nearby volcano.

The PCs must survive essentially by their wits alone in these caverns until, finally, the volcano erupts – destroying the city of Suderham beneath lava and an invasion of magmen. There is also a sligth chance at this point that the PCs might stumble onto the Water Dragon — the ship the Slave Lords are using to escape. If this happens, the PCs have the opportunity to defeat the Slave Lords once and for all. If not… well, who knows? They might bump into them in the next pub they stop at.

WEAKNESSES

There is only one problem with A4: In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords, but it’s a biggie:

It doesn’t make any sense!

And I mean from page one, paragraph one. Keep the adventurers imprisoned for months? Why? Then knock them out again and dump then in volcanic tunnels? Why?

“Why?” is actually a very important question here, because it’s one I kept asking myself throughout the module. As another example: Why are there kobolds, myconids, giant ants, and magmen all living in close proximity to each other down here?

But the most baffling question of all is this: Why, after an epic, four-part adventure, was the decision made to deny the PCs an epic confrontation with the Slave Lords? These memorable villains, although drawn well on the page, are never truly pitted against the PCs as true masterminds and cunning opponents. Instead, the saga of Slavelords is allowed to die with a whimper at best – a complete anti-climax at worst.

STRENGTHS

About the only thing A4 has going for it is the titular concept: In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords. Stripped of their equipment and their most potent magical abilities, the PCs are asked to escape their imprisonment, re-establish a power base, and strike a final, definitive blow against their would-be captors.

That’s a pretty cool idea. But there’s so very little of it to be found on the page here. The dramatic escape is, instead, rendered as absolute, incomprehensible stupidity on the part of the villains. The volcano’s eruption, a potentially brilliant and epic complication for the final act, is instead used as a tool for anti-climax. The final confrontation with the Slave Lords – a battle which should live in the memories of the players forever – is reduced to a whimpering formality, if it happens at all.

CONCLUSION

A4: In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords is not worth your time. Buy A1-3, but skip this one: You’ll be much better off ignoring everything except the high-level concept of A4 (which you can safely glean from this review) and crafting your own ending to this epic.

Style: 2
Substance: 2

Author: Lawrence Schick
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
Price: $4.99
ISBN: 0-935696-28-8
Product Code: TSR9042
Pages: 32
Year Published: 1981

Arguably a great concept for a tournament scenario, but a terrible railroad in any other context. And the execution on this one really is quite lackluster. The A-series is well remembered in any case, but I think it would be even more highly placed in the pantheon of D&D adventures if it had managed to even marginally nail the landing.

For an explanation of where these reviews came from and why you can no longer find them at RPGNet, click here.