Goodman Games adventures - any good?

[thundershot]

I have the Dungeon Crawl Classics series, and for me, it's perfect. It's simple enough to put into any campaign, and it's full of usable elements to add to your own campaign. I have very very little complaints about them. In fact, I may just have to go and review them so everyone can see, but I haven't actually RUN all of them yet... so... maybe I'll wait a little bit.


Chris

 

[Belegbeth]

"The Lost Vault of Tsazthar Rho" is quite good. It has some interesting twists (introducing some "Cthulhu" flavour into a 1st level adventure is quite an accomplishment IMO). I recommend it.

 

[Derulbaskul]

(snip) ... light hearted silly dungeon romp ... (snip)

Yes, that summarises GG's game design philosophies, IMO/IME.

The GG modules are expensive for their size and content and you never know whether you're going to get some new (and stupid) "innovation" that will ruin the product for your use. IMO, both Dungeon magazine (weak as it has been for much of the past year or so) and certainly Necromancer Games (rarely do they go wrong with their products) produce much higher quality and certainly better value products. In fact, I would even recommend the Kingdoms of Kalamar modules ahead of anything by GG even if your campaign isn't set there.

 

[mearls]

I challenge anyone to find anything "lighthearted and silly" about The Lost Vault of Tsathzar Rho. If you can dig anything up, I'll send you a d20 book from my personal collection.

 

[thundershot]

The only thing "silly" for most of the DCC books is the intro "when NPC's were made to be killed".. or I especially love how the author has a sense of humor in Bloody Jack's Gold. Nothing that affects the adventure, but the DM gets a chuckle when reading it.



Chris

 

[pogre]

repetitive in the same module or from module to module?

Same module - same type rooms with the same type monsters over and over. You find 5 goblins, then 6 goblins, then 4 goblins. The repetition was not done in the name of verisimilitude either. The first levels of the Rat Idyll were a screaming bore for my group. YMMV

 

[Belegbeth]

Yes, that summarises GG's game design philosophies, IMO/IME.

The GG modules are expensive for their size and content and you never know whether you're going to get some new (and stupid) "innovation" that will ruin the product for your use. IMO, both Dungeon magazine (weak as it has been for much of the past year or so) and certainly Necromancer Games (rarely do they go wrong with their products) produce much higher quality and certainly better value products. In fact, I would even recommend the Kingdoms of Kalamar modules ahead of anything by GG even if your campaign isn't set there.

Based on which modules?

I only have one GG module (Lost Vault of TR), and it is very good -- definitely in the same league as Necromancer's stuff (also very good IME).

 

[Wasgo]

I challenge anyone to find anything "lighthearted and silly" about The Lost Vault of Tsathzar Rho. If you can dig anything up, I'll send you a d20 book from my personal collection.

Darn it, that's not a fair contest...there is no winning solution. But, I do think the only thing light hearted about the adventure, is the nostalgia factor. For some gamers this could also them playing the adventure less seriously, just like when they were starting out. Plus the dolls. I can't take attacking dolls seriously.

 

[thundershot]

The nostagia factor silly?! The players don't have to know what you're playing. I admit, I love the *feel* of the books, because of the nostalgia factor, but when you use them in conjunction with Necromancer's modules and Kenzer's, they give a nice spaced out feel to a campaign.


Chris