Any other Judges Guild fans here?

[der_kluge]

Ok, so in the last few years, I've become a crazed Judge's Guild fan. Pretty incredible considering a lot of their stuff was published when I was a toddler.

I picked up some Pegasus magazines off eBay a while back, and it had an assortment of other things in the set as well - old JG stuff including some modules, and some of the city books for the Wilderlands.

I love mining this stuff for ideas. To me, JG represents what D&D is all about - just raw, unadulterated adventuring for adventuring's sake. Like, the Wilderlands is the most awesome setting in the world because it assumes nothing about the characters, or the over-arching plot. It's just like BAM! - here's this huge freaking sandbox oozing with mind-blowing adventure at every turn. What's not to love?

I absolutely reading these old modules. Some of them are so painfully written, it's just hilarious. Like, the keep with ghouls in one room, a blacksmith shop in the basement (?!) manned by a human smith, orcs in the next room, and then beetles in the next. WTF?

But then, I read other stuff, and I'm like holy crap - I must use that! I must run that idea. It's so incredibly awesome - better than any schlop WoTC has managed to put out in the last twenty years.

What are some good Judge's Guild products? And anyone else out there become maniacal Judge's Guilds fans lately?

 

[kobold]

Find Inferno. The finest of the old JG stuff, sadly the second half never saw print.

 

[Kid Charlemagne]

My favorite was a Paul Jaquays adventure from one of the Books of Treasure Maps called the Lone Tower. It suffered from fewer of the old 1E oddities than most adventures of that time... apart from the magic six-sider that turned you into a were wolf, of course...

 

[fanboy2000]

I bought City State of the Invincible Overlord for 3.5 and I love using it. it doesn't get much better a lawful evil city.

I remember the group trying to hire a lawyer, that was fun.

 

[Greg K]

I fondly recall JG's Inferno. It was the first adventure for AD&D that I ever went through- I had six PCs and they served as henchmen to the more experienced players. All of my character's luckily made it to Pluto's circle.

When we reached Pluto, he teleported the entire party back to the surface. By that time, my characters were a decent level and one had a belt that allowed him to shapechange into a Silver Dragon

I only had one other module from Judge's Guild. The name escapes me. However, if I recall correctly, it was a single player adventure where you played either a druid or a ranger.

 

[Treebore]

Find Inferno. The finest of the old JG stuff, sadly the second half never saw print.

Um, oh yeah, it never did see print. I just got to read and critique it.


Hmmm. I wonder if he could be able to get it printed via TLG... for C&C of course. That way it will still read a lot like Inferno does.

Ooh! I wonder if Goodman Games would be interested in publishing it 1E Style? That would be awesome too! Gotta e-mail Paul!

 

[S'mon]

I got introduced to JG via the Necromancer Wilderlands stuff, and have become a fanatic too, loading up on the old stuff off Ebay and rpgnow. There is some drek, certainly, but also a lot of fantastic stuff (Tegel Manor!), and stuff that might look like drek initially but turns out fantastic in play, like The Unknown Gods with its dozens of fantasy deities, covering all those portfolios that get forgotten about usually. My Tegel C&C PBEM has a PC Cleric of Kadrim - God of Small Birds!

My best buys have been Necromancer's Players Guide to the Wilderlands, and Wilderlands of High Fantasy Boxed Set. Caverns of Thracia should be good if I can get to run it. The Goodman Games 3e conversions Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor and Citadel of Fire have not been so good, converted at much too high a level IMO; I don't have their Dark Tower.

Of the old stuff, Tegel Manor Gamescience version off rpgnow is fantastic, though initially I struggled a bit to get to grips with it, the map keying is a bit erratic. It's ideal for a PBEM, because every room is crammed full of coolness. "Fantastic Personalities" is a fat booklet of detailed NPCs and has lots of inspiration. The Unknown Gods is bare-bones, but we've found it highly inspirational. Shield Maidens of Sea Rune is a cool mini setting, with its 3 opposed factions. The Ilhiedrin Book is a nice introductory adventure, cheap off ebay, works well set in the plains west of the City State - but reduce the map scale! And the free Pegasus magazine downloads off Necromancer's JG site and judgesguild.net have tons of good stuff.

 

[Aus_Snow]

I've had two DMs inflict JG stuff on me (OK, my characters - and others'), now and then throughout the years, and well, it was great fun every time.

I agree, it doesn't get much more 'classic D&D'. I seem to remember some it being rather brutal (not in a bad way), but damned if I can recall the exact names - as I said, it wasn't me DMing, so that doesn't help. . .

 

[Derulbaskul]

I love the original sandbox feel of the first Wilderlands products. The combinations of these odd little rumours and a number of monsters in some hexes that could launch hundreds of campaigns.

Caverns of Thracia was the greatest dungeon of that era, IMO. I know that Temple of Elemental Evil is generally held to be the high point but I think that both overlooks ToEE's extensive flaws and CoT's cohesive design logic.

 

[Tetsubo]

JG put out some great stuff, if a tad uneven. I also have the complete Pegasus run. My JG stuff is part of my collection that I will be holding onto.