JoeGKushner
First Post
Some say the era of the prewritten adventure is over. Goodman Games doesn't agree with that theory. Like Necromancer Games, they have reached into the mists of game design to bring up a classic style of play or more specifically, “Dungeon Crawl Classics”.
Number three in the series is the Mysterious Tower, is written by Joseph Goodman himself. This adventure is for 3rd-5th level characters and can be played in a few evenings. The art and style of the module are truly paying homage to the old style of playing. The cover not only boasts a similar layout to those old modules, but is provided by Erol Otus while the interior artists, Brad McDevitt and Mark Parsons provide very 1st edition feel interiors.
Also of 1st edition feel are the blue lined maps. Both the front and rear interior covers are used to maximize map use. Another nod of the hat to 1st edition is the two pages of handouts.
Enough about what the module captures in terms of feel. The following contains some spoilers so players go read the dailies or something. The cover gives you the run down on the adventure. The party comes across a tower surrounded by a force field and through one of several adventure hooks, proceed to try and overcome said force field and claim the tower owner's goods for their own.
The module has some problems outside itself. Due to its smaller page count, it carries a high per page price tag. Due to the modules nature, Dungeon Crawl Classic, it's got a specific audience in mind. While there are some role playing opportunities, it's important to note that it is a tribute to old classics. It'd be like picking up a book on Kalamar maps and complaining that it only covered Kalamar.
My own issues were the origin of the keep. A high level wizard decides that he's going to be safe in his tower and use force variant spells to keep people out but fails to take into account some engineering issues and winds up trapped in his own lair, dying. Now from my perspective, it's not too hard to believe this could happen. How many shuttles have we lost to Mars so far? No, my problem is that a group of low level characters can basically come over here and search around. Why wouldn't other individuals alive during said wizard's time come to his aid?
That's the problem with a Dungeon Crawl. It doesn't really matter because it's just there to provide the characters a place to go and things to kill. But that's what it is. The scope is limited. Unlike some of Necromancer Games larger adventures like the Grey Citadel, once the adventure is run, it's run. There are no towns to come back to, no real exploration outside the dungeon. A matter of design once again.
The good things are that there are over thirty mapped encounters for the players to work their way through. The adventure is amusing in how it takes a look at how a former adventurer would set up traps in his own lair. This comes into play when dealing with pit traps. Suffice it to say that the wizard who used to live here has a good sense of how an outsider would approach things and has made the party's job much harder that it might normally be.
There are other clever traps. I can see one that involves the use of force magic and acid being a TPK element if the party isn't smart but it does allow for some great tournament style coverage.
There is a good mix of puzzle solving and combat. There are even some moral issues. The biggest example is if the party manages to find the old wizard's lair, guarded by a djinn. This is a good being but he is bound by his oaths and services to guard the lair. Will the party walk about from the goods to be had here? The author doesn't think that they'll walk away and I don't either. Wisely, the author has included a way for the higher magic to be taken out of play in the combat with the djinn, otherwise the party might wind up with a king's fortune in magical spells and firepower.
Another innovation is that the maps are easy to understand and use due to the key provided. The abandoned keep itself, a mere 8 encounters, is level 0. The upper level of the tower is level 1, while the lower levels go from -1 to -3. This allows the GM to quickly look where the party is and insure that they're on the right track.
Those looking for information to increase the difficulty will find the information on scaling the adventure useful, but also a tad limited. For me, the djinn at 5th level really isn't going to be a challenge to a group of 5th level characters, much less higher level, of which there is no mention of beefing up.
Price and utility make this a specialized book that has a lot of competition from print sources like Dungeon to online resources like Whispering Woodwind. The art and feel of the book are all 1st edition and the mechanics are all 3.5. If you've got something coming up where you need a quick adventure, say like Chicago Gameday, The Mysterious Tower fits the bill.
Number three in the series is the Mysterious Tower, is written by Joseph Goodman himself. This adventure is for 3rd-5th level characters and can be played in a few evenings. The art and style of the module are truly paying homage to the old style of playing. The cover not only boasts a similar layout to those old modules, but is provided by Erol Otus while the interior artists, Brad McDevitt and Mark Parsons provide very 1st edition feel interiors.
Also of 1st edition feel are the blue lined maps. Both the front and rear interior covers are used to maximize map use. Another nod of the hat to 1st edition is the two pages of handouts.
Enough about what the module captures in terms of feel. The following contains some spoilers so players go read the dailies or something. The cover gives you the run down on the adventure. The party comes across a tower surrounded by a force field and through one of several adventure hooks, proceed to try and overcome said force field and claim the tower owner's goods for their own.
The module has some problems outside itself. Due to its smaller page count, it carries a high per page price tag. Due to the modules nature, Dungeon Crawl Classic, it's got a specific audience in mind. While there are some role playing opportunities, it's important to note that it is a tribute to old classics. It'd be like picking up a book on Kalamar maps and complaining that it only covered Kalamar.
My own issues were the origin of the keep. A high level wizard decides that he's going to be safe in his tower and use force variant spells to keep people out but fails to take into account some engineering issues and winds up trapped in his own lair, dying. Now from my perspective, it's not too hard to believe this could happen. How many shuttles have we lost to Mars so far? No, my problem is that a group of low level characters can basically come over here and search around. Why wouldn't other individuals alive during said wizard's time come to his aid?
That's the problem with a Dungeon Crawl. It doesn't really matter because it's just there to provide the characters a place to go and things to kill. But that's what it is. The scope is limited. Unlike some of Necromancer Games larger adventures like the Grey Citadel, once the adventure is run, it's run. There are no towns to come back to, no real exploration outside the dungeon. A matter of design once again.
The good things are that there are over thirty mapped encounters for the players to work their way through. The adventure is amusing in how it takes a look at how a former adventurer would set up traps in his own lair. This comes into play when dealing with pit traps. Suffice it to say that the wizard who used to live here has a good sense of how an outsider would approach things and has made the party's job much harder that it might normally be.
There are other clever traps. I can see one that involves the use of force magic and acid being a TPK element if the party isn't smart but it does allow for some great tournament style coverage.
There is a good mix of puzzle solving and combat. There are even some moral issues. The biggest example is if the party manages to find the old wizard's lair, guarded by a djinn. This is a good being but he is bound by his oaths and services to guard the lair. Will the party walk about from the goods to be had here? The author doesn't think that they'll walk away and I don't either. Wisely, the author has included a way for the higher magic to be taken out of play in the combat with the djinn, otherwise the party might wind up with a king's fortune in magical spells and firepower.
Another innovation is that the maps are easy to understand and use due to the key provided. The abandoned keep itself, a mere 8 encounters, is level 0. The upper level of the tower is level 1, while the lower levels go from -1 to -3. This allows the GM to quickly look where the party is and insure that they're on the right track.
Those looking for information to increase the difficulty will find the information on scaling the adventure useful, but also a tad limited. For me, the djinn at 5th level really isn't going to be a challenge to a group of 5th level characters, much less higher level, of which there is no mention of beefing up.
Price and utility make this a specialized book that has a lot of competition from print sources like Dungeon to online resources like Whispering Woodwind. The art and feel of the book are all 1st edition and the mechanics are all 3.5. If you've got something coming up where you need a quick adventure, say like Chicago Gameday, The Mysterious Tower fits the bill.
