Merric's Erratically Updated Reviews of old D&D adventures

MerricB · Mar 3, 2014

Diving back into the Expert adventures, I've reached X4: Master of the Desert Nomads. And it's good... though I'm sure some people will disagree.

Cheers!

MerricB · Mar 24, 2014

And here we go with the conclusion of the Desert Nomads series: X5: Temple of Death

It's got rather a lack of Desert Nomads in it, doesn't it?

Cheers!

Olgar Shiverstone · Mar 24, 2014

Good reviews of X4-X5; I always liked those two adventures.

MerricB · Mar 25, 2014

Here's an adventure I really don't like that much: UK2: The Sentinel.

And it has a sequel. Arrrggghh!!!!

Cheers!

Olgar Shiverstone · Mar 25, 2014

Yeah, those are weird ones -- and disappointing after UK1.

MerricB · Mar 25, 2014

The Gauntlet was one of the earliest adventures I owned. (Vault of the Drow was first). I didn't find it inspiring back then, and I was puzzled by the set-up and the artwork.

Placing these UK adventures in the World of Greyhawk really feels like a mistake for a lot of them; there's a certain type and level of magical elements in Greyhawk, and many of the UK series aren't of that type. They'd be better served in another world entirely.

Cheers!

Olgar Shiverstone · Mar 26, 2014

MerricB said:
Placing these UK adventures in the World of Greyhawk really feels like a mistake for a lot of them; there's a certain type and level of magical elements in Greyhawk, and many of the UK series aren't of that type. They'd be better served in another world entirely.

Yeah, though I used UK1 in my Greyhawk campaign back in the day, they didn't really strike me as "Greyhawk material" (not that that really meant anything; I didn't own the World of Greyhawk setting then -- but the Green Man felt out of place). That's in contrast to the L-series, which had strong ties to Greyhawk based on location names and gods.

On the other hand, back then I used Greyhawk and Mystara/Known World adventures (and some with uncertain locations like Ravenloft and the Desert of Desolation) together more or less interchangeably. I feel like setting continuity has become more of a thing since the 2E focus on settings; it was much less present in 1E before Dragonlance.

ExploderWizard · Mar 26, 2014

MerricB said:
Diving back into the Expert adventures, I've reached X4: Master of the Desert Nomads. And it's good... though I'm sure some people will disagree.

Cheers!

I have a lot of fond memories of running this adventure. If nothing else it makes for a great adventure trailer which would feature Samuel L. Jackson saying " Hold on to your bhuts!"

Vyvyan Basterd · Mar 26, 2014

MerricB said:
Here's an adventure I really don't like that much: UK2: The Sentinel.

And it has a sequel. Arrrggghh!!!!

Cheers!

I'm a bit surprised. My group really enjoyed these two adventures. They seemed very fitting for low-level play. Although we were huge fans of the FF (mostly), and even redundant creatures like the xvarts were welcome additions.

MerricB · Mar 26, 2014

Vyvyan Basterd said:
I'm a bit surprised. My group really enjoyed these two adventures. They seemed very fitting for low-level play. Although we were huge fans of the FF (mostly), and even redundant creatures like the xvarts were welcome additions.

My tastes tend towards the more fantastic, it must be admitted.