Besides the Basic Rules of B/X fame, Moldvay wrote modules such as B4 Lost City, X1 Isle of Dread, and X3 Castle Amber--all very well-received, and they retain their influence to today. One of his works, however, that doesn't receive such praise is his rewrite of B3 Palace of the Silver Princess. I won't go into the history or content of the Jean Wells original; here, I just want to focus on the Moldvay version.
A quick survey of online reviews reveals a great deal of ambivalance about this version of B3. Our own @MerricB, for instance, as described it as "...unengaging. There are good sections in the adventure, and having three separate ways of breaking the curse keeps the adventure from being too predictable, but it has never really engaged my enthusiasm." In particular, Merric notes "There are a few unfortunate lapses in the text: the introductory text informs the DM that the adventure will take several sessions and that the party will need to return to town and rest, but the initial encounters trap the party within the castle!"
This device--the "red haze" that surrounds the Castle and keeps the PCs from leaving--is an element that has drawn the ire of other reviewers, and rightfully so: it's a bit railroady and limits how and where the PCs could rest. Even ignoring that element, reviewers find other faults such as the chokepoint of one entry between levels 1 and 2 (more on this later) or the muddiness of the story around the Eye of Arik. Some have even gone so far as to call it "nonsensical" or "irrational."
I just finished running it last night, and we had an absolute blast. While I adjusted some things (as one does with any module--hence the name), it didn't take much to turn B3 into an absolute banger, and the module as a whole was one of the best old school "emergent storytelling" experiences I've had in almost 40 years of TTRPing.
First, I want to describe the adjustments I made. To be clear, however, these changes were relatively minor, and I don't attribute our successful experience to them. The most dramatic was removing the "red haze"/forcefield, as I wanted the PCs to be able to retreat and rest between expeditions. I've set our campaign in the Grand Duchy, but I wanted B3 to be more accessible. Accordingly, I placed it in the ruins of Krakatos and have a new hamlet growing out of the ruins. The Silver Princess was a Traldaran clan chief, and the ruin that befell Krakatos happened 50 years ago. 30 years ago is when Duke Karameikos conquered the region, but the Palace has been relatively untouched. I've also made it so that when the original catastrophe happened, time has gotten wonky in the Palace, so that food doesn't seem to rot, and the denizens don't seem to age normally. These adjustments allowed for me to situate it in the current campaign, but also to explain some of the weirdness.
Using the Reaction rolls and Wandering Monsters allowed a lot of the exposition to happen naturally. The PCs, for instance, bluffed a group of cultists to get a clearer sense of Arik, and to learn the location of the hidden entrance on the east end of the first level. I didn't have a plan for that, but the PCs questions prompted me to improv--seeing the secret door leading off the map made me realize that such an entrance was probably a discrete way for this group of ne'erdowells to travel between the village and the cursed ruins without drawing attention. The PCs slew them and took their robes, dumping the bodies down the butcher's chute in one of the rooms. This, in turn, granted them other roleplaying opportunities not spelled out elsewhere in the module.
The open-endedness, "unbalanced" nature of the rooms and encounters, as well as the rules-lite nature of the engine also led to some chained encounters that I wouldn't have attempted in crunchier systems. For instance, the PCs encountered Duchess and Candella in the second level. This area has windows, and to explain their presence, I changed them into local adventurers who scaled up to the windows and dropped a rope to exit. In the course of their conversation, Duchess attempted to pick pocket a PC, but failed. She "bought" her way out by offering a piece of jewelry she had on her. The PCs let them leave and began searching the adjoining area. The time it took tripped a Wandering Monster, resulting in Zombies. As I tried to determine where they'd come from, the only reasonable point of access would be where Duchess and Candella had just left. So, I had them burst back in, being pursued by the Zombies. Meanwhile, the PCs hadn't yet drawn back the curtain on the canopy bed in the adjoining room, which hid a Doppleganger. So, during the fight, the Doppleganger crept up on the PCs while assuming one of their forms. Sadly, I didn't get the Surprise roll, so they caught on to it before the worst could happen. Still: a great fight on two fronts while two NPCs sized things up. They came out successful and not terribly weakened. This left Duchess and Candella to leave (and later be encountered in the tavern as potential hirelings!).
This dynacism was indicative of other areas as well: PCs hid, baited enemies to encounter one another, and negotiated their way through. And, of course, they fought a lot. This wasn't, however, a hack-and-slash monster hotel. It was a dynamic environment. And the "muddy" story emerged in broad brushstrokes and helped them make sense of the oddness the further they got in. That is, they were thrust into a strange situation that gradually made more sense as elements of the story emerged from both the rooms and the social interactions. Despite the fairy tale vibes often associated with it in reviews, we had a much more "pulp" feel in our playthrough: there was a backstory, but it was only important insofar as it let the weirdness of the environment make internal sense. That is, we didn't feel like we had to "play through" a story; rather, the story was just present enough affirm the verisimilitude.
I think the things I enjoyed most were related: 1) I didn't have to do much, if any, prep aside from deciding where to set it. I didn't have to worry about balancing encounters or anything like that as the excursion--rather than the encounter--was the basis for resource management. I obviously read the module through, but I didn't have to micromanage the elements. 2) The wandering monsters, unique PC interactions with them and with the rooms, and the implied relationship between these elements made for wonderful emergent storytelling. I never knew what was going to happen in a given session, so I could sit back and "let it happen," intervening only insofar as I had to make things "make sense" in the context of the emerging narrative.
10/10 would recommend.
A quick survey of online reviews reveals a great deal of ambivalance about this version of B3. Our own @MerricB, for instance, as described it as "...unengaging. There are good sections in the adventure, and having three separate ways of breaking the curse keeps the adventure from being too predictable, but it has never really engaged my enthusiasm." In particular, Merric notes "There are a few unfortunate lapses in the text: the introductory text informs the DM that the adventure will take several sessions and that the party will need to return to town and rest, but the initial encounters trap the party within the castle!"
This device--the "red haze" that surrounds the Castle and keeps the PCs from leaving--is an element that has drawn the ire of other reviewers, and rightfully so: it's a bit railroady and limits how and where the PCs could rest. Even ignoring that element, reviewers find other faults such as the chokepoint of one entry between levels 1 and 2 (more on this later) or the muddiness of the story around the Eye of Arik. Some have even gone so far as to call it "nonsensical" or "irrational."
I just finished running it last night, and we had an absolute blast. While I adjusted some things (as one does with any module--hence the name), it didn't take much to turn B3 into an absolute banger, and the module as a whole was one of the best old school "emergent storytelling" experiences I've had in almost 40 years of TTRPing.
First, I want to describe the adjustments I made. To be clear, however, these changes were relatively minor, and I don't attribute our successful experience to them. The most dramatic was removing the "red haze"/forcefield, as I wanted the PCs to be able to retreat and rest between expeditions. I've set our campaign in the Grand Duchy, but I wanted B3 to be more accessible. Accordingly, I placed it in the ruins of Krakatos and have a new hamlet growing out of the ruins. The Silver Princess was a Traldaran clan chief, and the ruin that befell Krakatos happened 50 years ago. 30 years ago is when Duke Karameikos conquered the region, but the Palace has been relatively untouched. I've also made it so that when the original catastrophe happened, time has gotten wonky in the Palace, so that food doesn't seem to rot, and the denizens don't seem to age normally. These adjustments allowed for me to situate it in the current campaign, but also to explain some of the weirdness.
Using the Reaction rolls and Wandering Monsters allowed a lot of the exposition to happen naturally. The PCs, for instance, bluffed a group of cultists to get a clearer sense of Arik, and to learn the location of the hidden entrance on the east end of the first level. I didn't have a plan for that, but the PCs questions prompted me to improv--seeing the secret door leading off the map made me realize that such an entrance was probably a discrete way for this group of ne'erdowells to travel between the village and the cursed ruins without drawing attention. The PCs slew them and took their robes, dumping the bodies down the butcher's chute in one of the rooms. This, in turn, granted them other roleplaying opportunities not spelled out elsewhere in the module.
The open-endedness, "unbalanced" nature of the rooms and encounters, as well as the rules-lite nature of the engine also led to some chained encounters that I wouldn't have attempted in crunchier systems. For instance, the PCs encountered Duchess and Candella in the second level. This area has windows, and to explain their presence, I changed them into local adventurers who scaled up to the windows and dropped a rope to exit. In the course of their conversation, Duchess attempted to pick pocket a PC, but failed. She "bought" her way out by offering a piece of jewelry she had on her. The PCs let them leave and began searching the adjoining area. The time it took tripped a Wandering Monster, resulting in Zombies. As I tried to determine where they'd come from, the only reasonable point of access would be where Duchess and Candella had just left. So, I had them burst back in, being pursued by the Zombies. Meanwhile, the PCs hadn't yet drawn back the curtain on the canopy bed in the adjoining room, which hid a Doppleganger. So, during the fight, the Doppleganger crept up on the PCs while assuming one of their forms. Sadly, I didn't get the Surprise roll, so they caught on to it before the worst could happen. Still: a great fight on two fronts while two NPCs sized things up. They came out successful and not terribly weakened. This left Duchess and Candella to leave (and later be encountered in the tavern as potential hirelings!).
This dynacism was indicative of other areas as well: PCs hid, baited enemies to encounter one another, and negotiated their way through. And, of course, they fought a lot. This wasn't, however, a hack-and-slash monster hotel. It was a dynamic environment. And the "muddy" story emerged in broad brushstrokes and helped them make sense of the oddness the further they got in. That is, they were thrust into a strange situation that gradually made more sense as elements of the story emerged from both the rooms and the social interactions. Despite the fairy tale vibes often associated with it in reviews, we had a much more "pulp" feel in our playthrough: there was a backstory, but it was only important insofar as it let the weirdness of the environment make internal sense. That is, we didn't feel like we had to "play through" a story; rather, the story was just present enough affirm the verisimilitude.
I think the things I enjoyed most were related: 1) I didn't have to do much, if any, prep aside from deciding where to set it. I didn't have to worry about balancing encounters or anything like that as the excursion--rather than the encounter--was the basis for resource management. I obviously read the module through, but I didn't have to micromanage the elements. 2) The wandering monsters, unique PC interactions with them and with the rooms, and the implied relationship between these elements made for wonderful emergent storytelling. I never knew what was going to happen in a given session, so I could sit back and "let it happen," intervening only insofar as I had to make things "make sense" in the context of the emerging narrative.
10/10 would recommend.
