JoeGKushner
Adventurer
Citadel of Fire
Written by Bob Bledsaw, Steve Edwards and Steve Stottrup
Published by Goodman Games/Judges Guild
www.goodman-games.com
128 b & w pages
$21.99
I’m a proud owner of several of the old Judges Guild products including such gems as Unknown Gods and the various Portals series (Torsh, Twilight and the other one my poor senile brain can’t recall) as well as many others. In that collection though, I knew owned Citadel of Fire.
Reading over it, here are some things that stand out. One, it uses the history of the setting. It’s a good book if you’re looking to get some use out of the Wilderlands setting proper as it has some nice chunks of information. This includes a nice section of Wilderlands details from Bob Bledsaw himself in appendix one as well as background details at the start of the book.
Two, it’s generic enough that if you choose not to use it in the Wilderlands, it shouldn’t be much of a problem. I was going to place it in Greyhawk in the south near the old blasted desert and the old race would be some pure blooded Suel. I’ve found, and reader’s experience may vary, that unless the GM is forcing the background bits down the players’ throats, they’ll generally overlook the occasional snafu.
In terms of art and design, it’s not up there with say Ptlous or WoTC, but it’s not the traditional Dungeon Crawl Classic in that it’s trying hard to ape the old art style. Having said that, the maps are a little too… clean I guess is the word. I’m pretty use to the fancy maps we’ve seen in the last few years and online goods like those from Skeleton Key Games are a standard. Ed should be the go to man if you’re not certain what type of maps you’re going to be running. Having said that, the maps are not hard to read and serve their purpose. The book is very text heavy so if you’re highly visual, you’ll be disappointed at the lack of art. In it’s own way though, that’s a good thing as it means more text, especially when you hit some of the encounter stat blocks which take up half a page to detail spells and innate abilities.
The book is broken up into several sections. In some ways, it reminds me, in a good way, of Temple of Elemental Evil. We have the Village of Aztlan very detailed with lots of areas for players to investigate and numerous NPC’s for them to interact with. Personally, I hate villages, hamlets, towns, etc… It’s not that they’re a terrible place to adventure or anything, I just figure that by the time players are 12th to 14th level, as the adventure recommends, they’ve got a lot better things to do then deal with some small town’s problems. However, if you’re going to put a small town in the adventure, especially a high level one, it’s always nice to have things for the players to do. There are many situations that are set up where the players can gain allies and enemies of a wide array of abilities. This includes one man who fights against the undead as they’re too close to his home, as well as enemies who’ll try to take advantage of any naïve PCs. It’s a nice mix of role playing potential alongside the old roll playing encounters.
For example, what GM isn’t going to like having a listing of some of the food stuffs available at the Stag’s Leap Inn? Who doesn’t appreciate notes and comments from the writer talking about how various elements of the town, like the Temple of Kutalabold, should be used and that these are not static encounters? Good stuff.
In utility, the book does lack the old ELC notice. For some newer GM’s, this could be problematic. The 3rd edition rules have been designer, probably from the ground up, to be very math based in terms of providing ‘fair’ encounters for players. However, since the whole CR (challenge rating) of a monster is half-hard science in the first place, I find that the best solution to this ‘problem’ is to fully read the adventure and make your notes ahead of time as opposed to trying to run this on autopilot.
Stat blocks are not done up in the new style. I prefer them this way simply because they take up less room and are still easy enough to read that they’re not going to give me any problems outside of potential eye strain.
In addition to the town proper and several buildings within it, we get details on the Old Aztlan Necropolis. This includes details on the master of this domain, one whose not happy with those who run the Citadel of Fire, as well as more potential choices for the players. Will they ally themselves with what lurks within the Necropolis or will they go against the undead forces arrayed here? In a standard campaign, that answer would probably be pretty simple, but in the Wilderlands, things are generally not quite so black and white and double dealing goes on more often here.
The Citadel of Fire itself takes up a good portion of the book and while it can be run as a ‘standard’ dungeon crawl, I don’t foresee player’s running through the whole thing in one shot. The important thing to remember is to note the various author notes as to realize that this is a ‘living’ complex. The inhabitants are not just sitting around waiting for the players to come along and whack them. What’s more, there are various alliances within the temple itself. Some players may find themselves with unexpected allies, and some allies may not be what they originally seemed to be. Like other parts, it should be considered a ‘thinking man’s dungeon.’ On the other hand, a party dedicated to death and destruction can probably clear out the place in fewer sessions and suffer more retaliation from survivors, especially if they go about unhidden in the nearby town.
One of the nice things is that Goodman has a nice preview of the adventure found here. It's a good way to see for yourself if this adventure is up your alley. If you’re looking to take the players on an Old School journey through one of the oldest campaign settings, you could do far worse than Citadel of Fire.
Written by Bob Bledsaw, Steve Edwards and Steve Stottrup
Published by Goodman Games/Judges Guild
www.goodman-games.com
128 b & w pages
$21.99
I’m a proud owner of several of the old Judges Guild products including such gems as Unknown Gods and the various Portals series (Torsh, Twilight and the other one my poor senile brain can’t recall) as well as many others. In that collection though, I knew owned Citadel of Fire.
Reading over it, here are some things that stand out. One, it uses the history of the setting. It’s a good book if you’re looking to get some use out of the Wilderlands setting proper as it has some nice chunks of information. This includes a nice section of Wilderlands details from Bob Bledsaw himself in appendix one as well as background details at the start of the book.
Two, it’s generic enough that if you choose not to use it in the Wilderlands, it shouldn’t be much of a problem. I was going to place it in Greyhawk in the south near the old blasted desert and the old race would be some pure blooded Suel. I’ve found, and reader’s experience may vary, that unless the GM is forcing the background bits down the players’ throats, they’ll generally overlook the occasional snafu.
In terms of art and design, it’s not up there with say Ptlous or WoTC, but it’s not the traditional Dungeon Crawl Classic in that it’s trying hard to ape the old art style. Having said that, the maps are a little too… clean I guess is the word. I’m pretty use to the fancy maps we’ve seen in the last few years and online goods like those from Skeleton Key Games are a standard. Ed should be the go to man if you’re not certain what type of maps you’re going to be running. Having said that, the maps are not hard to read and serve their purpose. The book is very text heavy so if you’re highly visual, you’ll be disappointed at the lack of art. In it’s own way though, that’s a good thing as it means more text, especially when you hit some of the encounter stat blocks which take up half a page to detail spells and innate abilities.
The book is broken up into several sections. In some ways, it reminds me, in a good way, of Temple of Elemental Evil. We have the Village of Aztlan very detailed with lots of areas for players to investigate and numerous NPC’s for them to interact with. Personally, I hate villages, hamlets, towns, etc… It’s not that they’re a terrible place to adventure or anything, I just figure that by the time players are 12th to 14th level, as the adventure recommends, they’ve got a lot better things to do then deal with some small town’s problems. However, if you’re going to put a small town in the adventure, especially a high level one, it’s always nice to have things for the players to do. There are many situations that are set up where the players can gain allies and enemies of a wide array of abilities. This includes one man who fights against the undead as they’re too close to his home, as well as enemies who’ll try to take advantage of any naïve PCs. It’s a nice mix of role playing potential alongside the old roll playing encounters.
For example, what GM isn’t going to like having a listing of some of the food stuffs available at the Stag’s Leap Inn? Who doesn’t appreciate notes and comments from the writer talking about how various elements of the town, like the Temple of Kutalabold, should be used and that these are not static encounters? Good stuff.
In utility, the book does lack the old ELC notice. For some newer GM’s, this could be problematic. The 3rd edition rules have been designer, probably from the ground up, to be very math based in terms of providing ‘fair’ encounters for players. However, since the whole CR (challenge rating) of a monster is half-hard science in the first place, I find that the best solution to this ‘problem’ is to fully read the adventure and make your notes ahead of time as opposed to trying to run this on autopilot.
Stat blocks are not done up in the new style. I prefer them this way simply because they take up less room and are still easy enough to read that they’re not going to give me any problems outside of potential eye strain.
In addition to the town proper and several buildings within it, we get details on the Old Aztlan Necropolis. This includes details on the master of this domain, one whose not happy with those who run the Citadel of Fire, as well as more potential choices for the players. Will they ally themselves with what lurks within the Necropolis or will they go against the undead forces arrayed here? In a standard campaign, that answer would probably be pretty simple, but in the Wilderlands, things are generally not quite so black and white and double dealing goes on more often here.
The Citadel of Fire itself takes up a good portion of the book and while it can be run as a ‘standard’ dungeon crawl, I don’t foresee player’s running through the whole thing in one shot. The important thing to remember is to note the various author notes as to realize that this is a ‘living’ complex. The inhabitants are not just sitting around waiting for the players to come along and whack them. What’s more, there are various alliances within the temple itself. Some players may find themselves with unexpected allies, and some allies may not be what they originally seemed to be. Like other parts, it should be considered a ‘thinking man’s dungeon.’ On the other hand, a party dedicated to death and destruction can probably clear out the place in fewer sessions and suffer more retaliation from survivors, especially if they go about unhidden in the nearby town.
One of the nice things is that Goodman has a nice preview of the adventure found here. It's a good way to see for yourself if this adventure is up your alley. If you’re looking to take the players on an Old School journey through one of the oldest campaign settings, you could do far worse than Citadel of Fire.
