sad_genius
First Post
FreeTheSlaves said:
I believe that was the Arduin Grimoire (?) - the author had consistently misread % lair and therefore listed all his monsters with a percentage that the creature might *be a liar*.
TSR Example from the worst TSR adventure module(s) ever published
I believe that was the Arduin Grimoire (?) - the author had consistently misread % lair and therefore listed all his monsters with a percentage that the creature might *be a liar*.
Jack of Shadows
First Post
reveal said:
OK,
That one put me over my laugh out loud threshold. And it's from reveal, what a shock.
Jack
Jack of Shadows
First Post
Olgar Shiverstone said:
Ah good old Dragonlance, aka Mr. Toad's Wild Ride.
Jack
Tiberius
Explorer
Rystil Arden said:Ah yes, that reminds me of the way that several 2e modules actually managed to penalise you for having the highest Charisma by making the enemies specifically target "The PC with the highest Charisma"
Well, that's actually a sound tactical choice, given that pallies needed 17+ Cha.
Last edited:
GrayLinnorm
Explorer
I like this thread! Here's another encounter:
Encounter #19: Draconians On Parade.
As you walk down the trial, you see a group of creatures that appear to be half-human, half-dragon, playing drums. They are not singing. They are not joking. They are not tarrying. They are not drinking merlot. They are not wearing capes. They are not discussing what those numbers on Lost mean. Their faces are expressionless. Suddenly the leader stops, pulls out a map, looks at it, and says "Wait a minute, we were supposed to go to area 44! Wait a minute, this isn't even the right module! Oh crap!" You then notice that their drumsticks are swords.
Roll d6 to determine what the draconians (AC 2, HD 4, hp 3 each, Move 6/{15}/18, # of attacks 2, damage 1-4 (fly), In Lair 1000%) do next: 1-3 the draconians are surprised; 3-3 the party is surprised; 3-4 everyone is surprised, unless they're not; 3-5 the draconians read poetry; 3-6 a character loses their main weapon (e.g. monks lose their hands); 3 the DM gives up and decides to run Orc and Pie instead.
The draconians fight until everyone is dead. If the party wins, the leader gives them 100 gp. They can take the apples, gazebo, and pie.
The draconians fight until
Encounter #19: Draconians On Parade.
As you walk down the trial, you see a group of creatures that appear to be half-human, half-dragon, playing drums. They are not singing. They are not joking. They are not tarrying. They are not drinking merlot. They are not wearing capes. They are not discussing what those numbers on Lost mean. Their faces are expressionless. Suddenly the leader stops, pulls out a map, looks at it, and says "Wait a minute, we were supposed to go to area 44! Wait a minute, this isn't even the right module! Oh crap!" You then notice that their drumsticks are swords.
Roll d6 to determine what the draconians (AC 2, HD 4, hp 3 each, Move 6/{15}/18, # of attacks 2, damage 1-4 (fly), In Lair 1000%) do next: 1-3 the draconians are surprised; 3-3 the party is surprised; 3-4 everyone is surprised, unless they're not; 3-5 the draconians read poetry; 3-6 a character loses their main weapon (e.g. monks lose their hands); 3 the DM gives up and decides to run Orc and Pie instead.
The draconians fight until everyone is dead. If the party wins, the leader gives them 100 gp. They can take the apples, gazebo, and pie.
The draconians fight until
Matchstick
Adventurer
lukelightning said:
OK, that one finally got me, I laughed right out loud while sitting here at work.
Hahahahahahahahahaha!
http://www.pen-paper.net/rpgdb.php?op=showcreator&creatorid=4023
That's our boy Carl's resume.
Another howler is "Patriots of Ulek." Here's an excerpt from an old review I wrote of it:
"To begin, a good portion of the module takes place in the province of Prinzfield, as the players make their way from Ulek's capitol to the home of the province's governor, in the City of Rittersmarche. This encompasses a third of the module, and yet each encounter is written in "boxed text," allowing absolutely no PC interaction with the surroundings. For example, in one encounter the PCs enter a town, talk with the populace, meet the local mayor, eat a meal with him and leave, all without ever having made a decision for themselves. This is fine if modules are meant to simply be a showcase of the designer's writing talents, but since that is not the point, it is not fine, and Patriots of Ulek suffers deathly because of it."
I'm trapped at work, but if someone has this adventure handy, I think the boxed text described above would make for good discussion fodder.
Oh, and Needle is absolutely terrible. I mean mind-numbingly awful.
--Erik
That's our boy Carl's resume.
Another howler is "Patriots of Ulek." Here's an excerpt from an old review I wrote of it:
"To begin, a good portion of the module takes place in the province of Prinzfield, as the players make their way from Ulek's capitol to the home of the province's governor, in the City of Rittersmarche. This encompasses a third of the module, and yet each encounter is written in "boxed text," allowing absolutely no PC interaction with the surroundings. For example, in one encounter the PCs enter a town, talk with the populace, meet the local mayor, eat a meal with him and leave, all without ever having made a decision for themselves. This is fine if modules are meant to simply be a showcase of the designer's writing talents, but since that is not the point, it is not fine, and Patriots of Ulek suffers deathly because of it."
I'm trapped at work, but if someone has this adventure handy, I think the boxed text described above would make for good discussion fodder.
Oh, and Needle is absolutely terrible. I mean mind-numbingly awful.
--Erik
Simplicity
Explorer
Erik Mona said:
Wow, he wrote a Dungeon #1 article... That's cool.
But then he had his fingers in the Dragonlance DL series...
Should have known.
Why are there like sixteen "staff" people on the DL adventure credits? Damn.
How many people did TSR need to write an adventure?
wingsandsword
Legend
I can only imagine because it makes accountability very hard.Simplicity said:
If the module is a huge success, everybody gets resume padding and can share in the credit, claiming that they did most of the work themselves.
If the module is a huge failure, they can claim that it didn't reflect what they wanted, and the other people in the project changed/ignored/ruined your contributions and it wouldnt have been so bad if they'd been in charge.
Thus, they could crank out bad module after bad module, and blame could easily be transferred around, but if a good one were produced, everybody would suddenly look like they were a great designer. Dogbert would be proud.
Also, total inefficiency in doing things (16 staff people, to write an adventure) is a hallmark of TSR, and one of the things that drove them into the ground.
