Dungeon 112: Castle Maure comments?

[grodog]

I've dug up Dungeon 51 and will now have to do the a/b comparison. Thanks for the pointer Cassander, I'll reply back in a bit....

 

[hong]

I liked it too. While the whole thing doesn't fit my campaign, I'd happily steal some of the encounters and whatnot here and there, except of course for the fact that Erik Mona's a player in my game.

Name dropper.

And as for the strangely shaped passages and rooms, I know what you mean. Personally, I love them, but that kind of dungeon design a number of us refer to--with all due sincere respect--as "Gygaxian." They're easy enough to deal with if you use a battlemat or dwarven forge. But to verbally describe, they can indeed slow the game down. While they're not terribly realistic, they are a part of the "D&D feel" for me.

I'll probably just go the virtual map route. "You are in a crazily shaped room with blah blah in it, and four exits. Make a Survival check to get a hint what part of the dungeon you're in, and where the exits lead to."

 

[MerricB]

It's worth remembering that Rob Kuntz never mapped in Gary's campaign! He'd always remember the way out... so Gary kept on making the maps more and more difficult to try and fool him.

I expect Rob was returning the favour...

Cheers!

 

[Piratecat]

I love the oddly shaped dungeon passages. Let's face it, if you're bored and have a whole bunch of disintegrate spells, there's no reason why you shouldn't make interestingly shaped passages.

I usually just describe a floorplan instead of drawing it. Not so for these, though; they're more fun to sketch on the battlemap.

The more I read of this adventure, the more impressed I am by how it merges 1st and 3rd edition sensibilities. No utterly senseless deathtraps, but intelligent dungeon design and a whole slew of great dungeoneering hazards that require clever thought. I'm itching to run this.

 

[Derulbaskul]

(snip) The more I read of this adventure, the more impressed I am by how it merges 1st and 3rd edition sensibilities. No utterly senseless deathtraps, but intelligent dungeon design and a whole slew of great dungeoneering hazards that require clever thought. (snip)

I agreee... which makes me think that Erik and his colleagues have to claim a lot more credit for this adventure than they are currently being given. Great work, guys!

 

[Drew]

My high level homebrew campaign was on hold for a while so, on a whim, I called a few friends and told them to roll up 12th level characters and have at it. We've played three times thus far, and can't wait to go in again. The first level has been cleared away (except the Terrible Iron Golem, which they fled) and a lot of the second level has been explored as well.

I love this dungeon. I was in the mood for something I could run whenever I could with whatever players were available...but I wanted it to be something clever and well put together. Maure Castle both meets and exceeds my expectations. My players are having a blast, and actually bugging me about playing again. Great job to everyone involved!

I have a couple of questions, though. The first is simple: How do you say "Maure?"

The second two are spoilers:

Spoiler

One of the PCs has been enthralled by the purple stone. There really isn't a lot of info on this strange item. The adventure says that it once tried to gather the cults together...but what in the world would it do with an enthralled PC? I guess I'm just looking for suggestions. Should he go about trying to recruit people on the streets of Greyhawk or what?

Also, the hook I chose was that the PCs were asked to go here by Mordenkainen and Bigby. The hook says that Mordy lends them his silver key, but doesn't give any real info on WHY these two Circle of Eight wizards would send a group of adventures in to mess with Eli rather than go in themselves. I have a few ideas about Mordenkainen's motives, but any cool suggestions would be great.

Anyway, let me once again state that this is the best adventure Dungeon has put out. I would easily have payed $15 for this thing in another format. Kudos to everyone involved.

 

[Voadam]

What levels is this for? I have never gotten dungeon before but I'm in the mood for a good 3.5 module for our 15th level group of four and our campaign is set in a postapocalyptic greyhawk so it could fit fairly easily.

 

[d20Dwarf]

I'm itching to run this.

I'm almost certain I'm going to run it at Gencon. Now if I could only find some players....

 

[MerricB]

What levels is this for? I have never gotten dungeon before but I'm in the mood for a good 3.5 module for our 15th level group of four and our campaign is set in a postapocalyptic greyhawk so it could fit fairly easily.

12th-17th, IIRC.

Cheers!

 

[Olive]

The more I read of this adventure, the more impressed I am by how it merges 1st and 3rd edition sensibilities. No utterly senseless deathtraps, but intelligent dungeon design and a whole slew of great dungeoneering hazards that require clever thought. I'm itching to run this.

agree, except for the places where there are wierd magic items or magic effects and no attempt to explain them in the rules. That's annoying.