Isle of the Ape - your experiences?

[Quasqueton]

pg. 9, under "Description of the Kawibusas"

These barbarian tribesmen...

I read that as an adjective, not a character class.

pg. 11, in the side bar for unit forces description

...All the warriors belong to the barbarian character class with large hide shields and the following tertiary skills: Animal Handling, Running, Sound Imitating and Snare Building.

Ah, there it is. It was well hidden.

Units A, D, and R are armed with two spears and one club per warrior. Treat the club as a morning star for damage purposes. Each warrior in units B and C has one short bow, 12 arrows and a stone axe equal to a battle axe for damage purposes. All the warriors belong to the barabarian character class with large hide shields and the following tertiary skills: Animal Handling, Running, Sound Imitating and Snare Building.

And that's the only mention of character class. Nothing even in the stat blocks (such as they are).

Num. of     AC     Level     HP     To Hit Bonus     Damage     Saving
Warriors                           Melee / Missles    Bonus     Throws
  2          3        6      40      +1 / +2             +3           +1

Quasqueton

 

[Bregh]

I read that as an adjective, not a character class.

Ah, there it is. It was well hidden.And that's the only mention of character class. Nothing even in the stat blocks (such as they are).

Num. of     AC     Level     HP     To Hit Bonus     Damage     Saving
Warriors                           Melee / Missles    Bonus     Throws
  2          3        6      40      +1 / +2             +3           +1

Quasqueton

Hardly hidden considering its right there beside the pertinent encounter statistics, along with the information for arms and armour.

Really, what more do you need to determine their ability in combat, especially given the standards of the day for these kinds of thing? G1-3 only gave you Hit Points for stats (not unlike the main body text of a lot of current WotC products) presuming that the referee had the wherewithal to mark the brevity and know the rest of what he needed was in the monster manuals (or the other appropriate rulebook).

This was a high-level module, not meant for players or DMs without a little experience under their belt. Given the experiences already posted above, I'd say your complaints in this specific regard are in the minority, and possibly more than a little over-blown.

At any rate, you seem determined to cling to a negative perception of this module based on its apparent arbitrariness. I have demonstrated where your specific arguments regarding this are not so. The reader otherwise unfamiliar with the product at least now may consider both possibilities.

 

[diaglo]

And stats for AC, Level, HP, Combat, and Saving Throw Bonuses that are perfectly synchronous with that class as presented in the UA.

or even Dragon Magazine before the UA was released.

 

[Vigilance]

This is a brutal module.
Your PCs will likely lose almost all their cool toys. They will fight to keep their health. They will struggle to keep their spellcasters viable. They will face dang tough challenges that could put them into TPK land in a hurry. They will have to creatively address every situation to maximize their ability to win while minimizing their loss of resources. That means using the absolute least number of spells, losing the least number of HP, being able to feed themselves, etc.

And this is the beautiful thing about Isle of the Ape, along with one of my other all time favorite modules, Tomb of Horrors.

These modules were out to get you and dang scary. Watch your back.

And as for the module "stripping away" so many spells... it was the standard spells that didnt work in other planes. When my players divined the nature of that from their briefing at the beginning of the adventure, having SPENT time on the astral plane and the city of brass... they *gasp* didnt take any of those spells likely to be useless.

Sure they still wound up with a few as the isle is something of a weird place... but come on... they're supposed to be tough...

I really think players have gotten much much softer these days.

Henry, if I ever have a "player mutiny" over the loss of magic items, I would seriously just have to laugh.

Chuck

 

[Henry]

Henry, if I ever have a "player mutiny" over the loss of magic items, I would seriously just have to laugh.

Let's just say the table I'm sitting at would be a lot more roomy for my books in the end. In truth, I can understand it, too - people who put a lot of effort into magic items would be upset if that wealth were permanently lost without a hint that it could be regained. Remember the new standards for wealth set in 3E, courtesy of sicussions by Sean Reynolds, et. al. Remember the huge flak over "why Drow weapons shouldn't be destroyed in sunlight" ? It wouldn't bother me, because IMO characters come and go, but some people who invest a lot emotionally in their PCs can get upset if part of that investment just goes up in smoke.

One of these days I'd love to run my existing fellow players in a Conan game. Items aren't exactly prized possessions that are never broken in Howard's world.

 

[Vigilance]

Player's flouncing out of a game never bothered me lol.

I have other things I can do with my time and bad gaming is definitely *not* better than no gaming.

I guess this officially makes me "old school". A player getting upset because a "prized item" gets destroyed would just make me laugh. And no, I wouldnt be laughing with him, Id be laughing at him.

Players who complain tend to be offered the screen and invited to do it better than me. And I play halfling thieves with annoying voices who don't like to be railroaded, got it?

Players who decline the offer and continue to whine, are usually shown the door (more often by the other players than me).

Chuck

 

[Col_Pladoh]

Heh,


Gary

 

[hong]

Sure they still wound up with a few as the isle is something of a weird place... but come on... they're supposed to be tough...

I really think players have gotten much much softer these days.

That's not all. Among other outrages perpetrated in the last twenty years, TV is now in colour.


Hong "I blame the transistor" Ooi

 

[rossik]

i didnt read it all, but why this is hard on wizards?

 

[Oryan77]

Hey Quasqueton, I've always liked these threads. But one thing I've always wished to see was a poll result to grade these adventures. Maybe a scale system like:


***** - Fantastic
****
***
**
* - Terrible

These are basically reviews and I like seeing an average of the publics opinion on reviews.

Just an idea.