JoeGKushner
Adventurer
Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk is another update of a classic adventure for the d20 rule set. Written by several industry veterans, Ruins has a lot of mixed history with everything ranging from serious to humorous takes on it. As one of the dungeons associated most closely with Gary Gygax, there’s a lot to live up to here.
Does Expedition do it?
In terms of graphics, layout, art, and well, style, the answer would be yes.
Unlike the 160 page hardcovers that Wizard’s also puts out, they give you an extra 64 pages here for only $5. Now why would Wizards have a hard time understanding that people think the 160 page books are overpriced? While there is no index, we have a very detailed table of contents. While cartography isn’t handled by one of those whose name I recognize off the top of my head, Mike Schley does a solid job.
Illustrations are also done by many names that I don’t recognize, but they do a top job. While there is no Wayne Reynolds or England, we do have names like Ben Wooten, James Zhang, Fred Hooper and others. James chapter illustrations in particular stand out as solid work. My only ‘complaint’ would be the ‘head shot’ syndrome where a lot of characters are at first introduced as the old floating heads and latter on we get some full page illustrations of them.
Design of the books reminds me of a Forgotten Realms book in that the pages are a faded parchment style and have outer borders that indicate where you’re at. For example, flipping to page 118, I see I’m in Chapter 5, Wrath of Iuz. Page numbers are standardized at the bottom in the little circles.
What about the adventure itself? I’m happy to report that there are a lot of different game styles that will get something out of the book. If you’re interested in doing a lot of role playing, the book presents numerous portions of the City of Greyhawk where the party can interact with interesting citizens ranging from members of the thieves guild to merchants looking to recover lost goods. The actual adventurers within the castle itself provide numerous action sequences and a lot of opportunities to crush evil. This ranges from avenging an insult done to the church of Nerull to taking up arms against Iuz himself.
For long term players and fans of Greyhawk in general, there are a lot of little bonuses and nods of the head to the old lore. For example, we find out a bit more about the demi-god Zuoken and a lot of history about Zagyg himself. This doesn’t count nods to recent adventure paths from Dungeon magazine such as the appearance of Loris Raknian, a gladiator who earned his fame in the Free City Arena who had to flee when his connection with the Worn God Kyuss was revealed. Or how about brief trips to Dungeonland or the Isle of the Ape? Both classics in and of themselves. And for those just looking for some help in filling out a few levels or making some random stuff up, there’s a nice set of random chambers, maps, and encounters.
If you’re looking for a fully detailed, fully mapped out material, skip this book. You’ll only end up shaking your first at WotC cursing that they’ve won another round.
There are only a few areas in the adventure where the authors take a heavy hand. For example, towards the climax of one part of the adventure, the party is put face to face with Iuz himself. Now it notes that he could crush the PC’s any time he wants and provides several bits that happen to the players but at the same time, they bother to provide some brief stats. If he’s just there as a hand waving tool to move the plot along, none of those stats are necessary. I don’t need to know that he’s a 30 HD outsider, cleric 20/assassin 10 with a +3 chaotic unholy greatsword. It just doesn’t matter.
In terms of story, the book falls flat on its face. For example, to get into one part of Castle Greyhawk, the party has to ally themselves with the Thieves Guild and infiltrate the mages guild. Well, during this little expedition, the party encounters Mordenkainen. Now if this was the Forgotten Realms and it was Elminster, the froth would be flying with terms of railroading and pet NPCs. His appearance, as Mordenkainen especially, us unneeded.
In other venues, some of the villains’ are just way out there. I know that high level d20 games, especially those that rely on the core rules, are often on super hero terms and power. I just don’t want to see it so blatant in my game. For example, one of the key players that the party must strive against is the ‘False’ Iggwilv, a simulacrum made from hair of the original. Perhaps it’s just that in comics we’ve recently had Thor cloned by Iron Man but ugh, that struck me the wrong way.
Another bit involves the redemption of Robilar. The good old character from back in the days who betrayed his allies winds up not to have been Robilar at all, but a copy of him from another universe. This is bad comic writing much less bad gaming writing. Heaven forbid that we use the text of the book itself that notes, “Mordenkainen naturally began to view his friends and companions as pawns…. He manipulated Lord Robilar…” because you know, people who are manipulated and find out about it tend to just remain as they’ve always been right? They wouldn’t you know, seek to strike out against such an organization and get their own piece or the pie right? Nah, that’s their evil clone for ten thousand years into the future or something. Ugh.
Despite my enormous distaste of the some of the characters backgrounds and utility here, the adventure is one of the best I’ve seen from WotC. It provides a wide array of options, has a lot of side quests, provides a ton of detail, has a lot of interesting, tactical encounters, and allows the players to play with some of the biggest names in the Greyhawk setting.
Does Expedition do it?
In terms of graphics, layout, art, and well, style, the answer would be yes.
Unlike the 160 page hardcovers that Wizard’s also puts out, they give you an extra 64 pages here for only $5. Now why would Wizards have a hard time understanding that people think the 160 page books are overpriced? While there is no index, we have a very detailed table of contents. While cartography isn’t handled by one of those whose name I recognize off the top of my head, Mike Schley does a solid job.
Illustrations are also done by many names that I don’t recognize, but they do a top job. While there is no Wayne Reynolds or England, we do have names like Ben Wooten, James Zhang, Fred Hooper and others. James chapter illustrations in particular stand out as solid work. My only ‘complaint’ would be the ‘head shot’ syndrome where a lot of characters are at first introduced as the old floating heads and latter on we get some full page illustrations of them.
Design of the books reminds me of a Forgotten Realms book in that the pages are a faded parchment style and have outer borders that indicate where you’re at. For example, flipping to page 118, I see I’m in Chapter 5, Wrath of Iuz. Page numbers are standardized at the bottom in the little circles.
What about the adventure itself? I’m happy to report that there are a lot of different game styles that will get something out of the book. If you’re interested in doing a lot of role playing, the book presents numerous portions of the City of Greyhawk where the party can interact with interesting citizens ranging from members of the thieves guild to merchants looking to recover lost goods. The actual adventurers within the castle itself provide numerous action sequences and a lot of opportunities to crush evil. This ranges from avenging an insult done to the church of Nerull to taking up arms against Iuz himself.
For long term players and fans of Greyhawk in general, there are a lot of little bonuses and nods of the head to the old lore. For example, we find out a bit more about the demi-god Zuoken and a lot of history about Zagyg himself. This doesn’t count nods to recent adventure paths from Dungeon magazine such as the appearance of Loris Raknian, a gladiator who earned his fame in the Free City Arena who had to flee when his connection with the Worn God Kyuss was revealed. Or how about brief trips to Dungeonland or the Isle of the Ape? Both classics in and of themselves. And for those just looking for some help in filling out a few levels or making some random stuff up, there’s a nice set of random chambers, maps, and encounters.
If you’re looking for a fully detailed, fully mapped out material, skip this book. You’ll only end up shaking your first at WotC cursing that they’ve won another round.
There are only a few areas in the adventure where the authors take a heavy hand. For example, towards the climax of one part of the adventure, the party is put face to face with Iuz himself. Now it notes that he could crush the PC’s any time he wants and provides several bits that happen to the players but at the same time, they bother to provide some brief stats. If he’s just there as a hand waving tool to move the plot along, none of those stats are necessary. I don’t need to know that he’s a 30 HD outsider, cleric 20/assassin 10 with a +3 chaotic unholy greatsword. It just doesn’t matter.
In terms of story, the book falls flat on its face. For example, to get into one part of Castle Greyhawk, the party has to ally themselves with the Thieves Guild and infiltrate the mages guild. Well, during this little expedition, the party encounters Mordenkainen. Now if this was the Forgotten Realms and it was Elminster, the froth would be flying with terms of railroading and pet NPCs. His appearance, as Mordenkainen especially, us unneeded.
In other venues, some of the villains’ are just way out there. I know that high level d20 games, especially those that rely on the core rules, are often on super hero terms and power. I just don’t want to see it so blatant in my game. For example, one of the key players that the party must strive against is the ‘False’ Iggwilv, a simulacrum made from hair of the original. Perhaps it’s just that in comics we’ve recently had Thor cloned by Iron Man but ugh, that struck me the wrong way.
Another bit involves the redemption of Robilar. The good old character from back in the days who betrayed his allies winds up not to have been Robilar at all, but a copy of him from another universe. This is bad comic writing much less bad gaming writing. Heaven forbid that we use the text of the book itself that notes, “Mordenkainen naturally began to view his friends and companions as pawns…. He manipulated Lord Robilar…” because you know, people who are manipulated and find out about it tend to just remain as they’ve always been right? They wouldn’t you know, seek to strike out against such an organization and get their own piece or the pie right? Nah, that’s their evil clone for ten thousand years into the future or something. Ugh.
Despite my enormous distaste of the some of the characters backgrounds and utility here, the adventure is one of the best I’ve seen from WotC. It provides a wide array of options, has a lot of side quests, provides a ton of detail, has a lot of interesting, tactical encounters, and allows the players to play with some of the biggest names in the Greyhawk setting.
