The Fantastic Adventure

[Messageboard Golem]

To recover a fabled gem at the behest of a village, the players must overcome the familiar trappings of fantasy role-playing. Like the beautiful Red March, in which it is set, twists and surprises make this . . . THE FANTASTIC ADVENTURE.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

In the course of my consumership in the d20 market, there has been this ever-present underlying idea that all publishers have at least a minimal desire to publish good products so that they can make money. From this implicit suggestion, one could reasonably conclude that there's a certain understandable and common goal among game publishers to put out only those products which are enjoyable, helpful, original, and/or well-produced, and take those products lacking in any such area and improve them.

The Fantastic Adventure truly redefined my paradigm of the publishing business model.

Apparently, whoever's in charge at Troll Lord games is taking the middle-school-gym-class approach to product development: start out really half-a** and then start putting your back into it, and you'll get a better grade for effort. No, even that fails to excuse The Fantastic Adventure.

This product is a number of bad things, and this product is NOT a number of good things, but most notably THIS PRODUCT IS NOT D20. It's some kind of open, generic, Sam's-Choice-quality system called Sword and Sorcery, which may have been appealing or at least acceptable back when your dice came with a crayon.

The back of the book promises unique adventure that will surprise and delight the seasoned gamer. Hah!

This book has precisely zero value. There is nothing even remotely original about any of it. Neither the plot nor the NPC's could be any more trite and kitschy. As far as gameplay goes, Caves of Shadow blows it away. I think there are maybe five pages of adventure content. Even the art stinks, downright painful to look at.

The only thing even remotely likeable about this book is that it's a full-sized book for five dollars. Eight pages long, but the dimensions are pretty big.

The book retails for five dollars, yet comparably priced qualities of toilet paper are much more plentiful and comfortable.


What's really shocking is that nobody has reviewed this book yet. The Horror Beneath had, like, six thousand reviews and this one hasnt' been touched! Well, I'm glad to get my foot in the door.

Don't buy it for any reason at all. In fact, no, scratch that; buy it! See how much you learn about the publishing business!

 

[Messageboard Golem]

The copy I got had a retail price of $4.95.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

This is a RANT, not a review. It is your right not too like any product you might review, but it would be more helpful to readers like me to have specific complaints other than generalizations.

 

[Psion]

handtrembler,

Can you spare us the speculation about the business ethics of the publisher and tell us what is actually wrong with the product itself? Otherwise, this does not seem to fulfil the criteria of an informative review but buyer remorse driven venting, and if you are going to post reviews, it is important to distinguish between the two.

The edit button is at the bottom of the review. Please edit it to cite the actual problems and omit the insults. If you do not do so in short order, I will be forced to remove the review.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

I understand that the review was just a wanton bash, but a more detailed review is in the works. The abuse was ready, the details weren't. I'm probably typing it up tonight in proper format if I have the energy after work.

 

[olshanski]

Besides the ranting, the reviewer says the book is not D20 and that it is 8 pages long?!
That doesn't look right to me...
Please put up a better review.
I don't own the product, but I have been considering it.

 

[Mac Golden]

Hello,

I'm the author of the module and one of the original owners of Troll Lord Games.

Handtrembler, I'm truly sorry you there was nothing of interest or value to you in "The Fantastic Adventure." A couple of facts, however, do need to be cleared up.

The copy reviewed is not a d20 system module. Troll Lord Games debuted with 3 generic modules just before the d20 license became official. "The Fantastic Adventure" was one of the generic modules, and yes, the production standards for the original printing are not industry standard or the standard that TLG publishes today. Each of them, however, were only $4.95 for 24 pages.

After d20 hit, TLG published one of the first adventures under it, "A Lion in the Ropes," and followed that publication with revised, d20 versions of the original generic adventures. The picture above is the revised d20 "The Fantastic Adventure." If there were pictures of the original and revised versions, you would be able to see the marked upgrade in cover production quality.

Again, I'm sorry this reviewer disliked the adventure so much, but, when the revised versions came out, there were several reviews of them. "The Fantastic Adventure" was one of a handful of d20 adventures that ever garnered 4 Stars from Backstab magazine.

I'm certainly willing to answer any more questions.

Cheers,

Mac

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Okay, Mac and everyone else, I think I've figured it out...

The copy of TFA I got was incomplete (either a pre-market version or a bunch of the pages torn out or something weird) and I've gotten my hands on a complete copy.

I'll be changing the review... soon...

BTW To answer the burning question, the new rating will be two stars. Sorry. Many of the original complaints still stand. I'll elaborate in the review.

 

[JediOre]

Speaking for myself and my gamers, we enjoyed the adventure. It is short and fun. The Fantastic Adventure introduced a group of fey adventures that will "bump" into the party from time to time.