Influential media often gets the deluxe boxed set treatment. Important movies, albums and TV shows get a release chock full of deleted materials, essays by famous people influenced by the media and commentary by the creators about the choices they made making the thing. Goodman Games has been offering this treatment to classic Dungeons & Dragons modules through its Original Adventures Remastered line. The latest entry in the line, Dark Tower Remastered, is the largest yet. Not only is the slipcase set three massive books but there’s also supplemental releases that expand the story beyond the original adventure. It’s also the first to offer a choice to consumers between an updated D&D Fifth Edition version and one rebuilt for their Dungeon Crawl Classics game. I received the DCC edition as an early holiday gift as I was curious about this adventure after hearing so many people celebrate its reputation. Did it make me feel jolly? Let’s play to find out.
Dark Tower was written by legendary game designer Jennell Jacquays and originally released in 1979. It is one of the most popular third party releases for Dungeons & Dragons. It’s perhaps most famous for the multiple ways through which players can progress through the dungeon. This technique, most commonly known as “jacquasing” rewards players for exploring the dungeon while also offering a bit of risk by stumbling across monsters and challenges they’ll find more challenging because their characters aren’t as experienced as they might want to be. It also utilizes elements that would become common tropes in dungeon creation such as towns harboring a secret and factions within the dungeons that could be played against each other by shrewd players.
The first book of the slipcase set presents the dungeon as it was in 1979. Players come to the small town of Mitra’s Fist because they’ve heard rumors of a cult devoted to the worship of the snake god Set nearby. They might be there to wipe out the cult because it’s evil. They might be there to loot the temple of ill gotten gains. Probably a little of both. There are, in fact, two towers to explore, both of which have been long buried under a mountain for centuries. Plus the town might not just be simple country folks waiting around to be rescued. This is also where the bulk of the commentary comes in to help fill out the page count.
The second book covers the remaster of the scenario for DCC. There’s also a D&D 5th Edition version available but DCC seems like it would be a better fit for this kind of play. I really liked the sidebars that called out the design decisions made in adapting this to a different system. For example, DCC doesn’t really do “good vs. evil” but rather “law vs. chaos”. Honestly, that seems like a better fit for the story being told, as while Mitra is presented in more favorable terms, its followers can still be jerks to the players. This book provides some information on the region where the adventure takes place plus an adventure for groups that might want to get away from the tower for a bit.
The third book expands the setting even further by collecting three adventures where the players pursue the Chosen Sons of Set that escape the Dark Tower. This is new territory for Goodman Games as most of the previous OAR releases stuck to what was in the original adventures. They probably had a bit more free reign since this wasn’t an adventure owned by Wizards of the Coast. There’s even an additional adventure that was originally released as a Free RPG Day preview of the Dark Tower Kickstarter.
I went into Dark Tower Remastered expecting a classic adventure with a few new stat blocks and some interesting commentary. What I got was a huge campaign that could last for months if not years between the original adventure, the new information for Dungeon Crawl Classics and the expanded info in the third book. The general publishing schedule and setup of DCC adventures tend to frame it as a loose collection of short stories featuring the same characters. This is the first release that made me consider a full campaign of it to run all the way through. The harsh edges of Dark Tower fit the retro vibes of Dungeon Crawl Classics like a spiked glove. If I were to run a full campaign, this would be the one I would consider, fleshed out with a couple low level adventures since they recommend starting this beast at level 3.
Bottom Line: Dark Tower Remastered brings a classic experience into the modern day for fans that never played it or ones who might not remember all the nooks and crannies from 45 years ago.
