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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ted Sandyman" data-source="post: 6352993" data-attributes="member: 6777382">I've run the first floor of "castle" Caldwell (not actually a castle) using the B1-9 version.Despite the cover, it's just dreck ... really dreadful stuff, and for reference I adore B1, B2, B4 & B5.The map layout of Caldwell manages to be repetitive, predictable, sterile and dull.Elwyn the Ardent?  A cleric with a near-endless assortment of counterfeit bells who dares to try and use edged weapons (gasp!) ... Yes, that's apparently a plot point ... and who apparent never does learn to use them.The big twist?  She's a girl ... ("Okay, but if there's any girls there, I wanna DO them!")I agree that this product, like Castle Greyhawk, goes out of its way to mock both designers and players.All that being said, with a strong enough DM it isn't beyond redemption.<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Timid merchant hires sell-swords to hire newly purchased manor house</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">hunger-mad wolves trapped in a courtyard</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">magically sealed door to haunted tunnels below</li> </ul>... and that's about all that's worth saving.  To make it workable there needs to be a reason that traders are napping in beds with goblins and kobolds lurking only a few rooms away.  Perhaps disarm them and make them prisoners?  Or make them bandits and allies of the goblins who serve the chaotic acolyte who is here trying to find clues that will allow her access to "The Catacombs of Caldwell" below the manor?  The whole thing could become a bit like H.P. Lovecraft's short story The Tomb. Maybe the ancient ancestor calls to his kinsman in an effort to draw him down into the catacombs where it can drain him of life energy and return to life?Anyway, like I said, a strong DM could find something to salvage, but then again you could just get (better) plot seeds from any novel, short story, or movie.</blockquote>

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