Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ariosto" data-source="post: 5228200" data-attributes="member: 80487">Just one vote? Yikes!I cast mine for The Lost City.One not listed, The Caverns of Thracia, is at least as good, and Necromancer Games did an expanded 3e conversion that looks pretty faithful to my admittedly inexpert eye.Anyhow, the "lost civilization" adventure genre figured prominently in the works of such authors cited as influences on early D&D as Abe Merritt, Edgar Rice Burroughs and Robert E, Howard. It has also yielded a lot of B movies and TV-show episodes. So, pretty quickly, most players get into the spirit of the thing.Module B4 has a rather heavy-handed setup, as I recall, leaving the players -- lost in a desert -- no really viable option but to press on into the structure they discover. (Some might recall the circumstances of Conan at the start of "The Slithering Shadow", or even what develops early in "Red Nails".)However, once they make contact with the strange society within, encountering one faction after another, unpredictable but always interesting developments naturally ensue. With, and against, whom will they ally? What will they learn of the history of the Lost City? Will they confront the ancient evil in its depths? What will they take with them when they leave? Will they, indeed, return to the outer world, or will they succumb to the perils -- or the pleasures -- of the city hiding from, as much as hidden by, the sweeping sands of time?The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan is excellent, but requires significant effort of familiarization on the DM's part to do it justice. As well, the allure of its mysteries is as dangerous as the poison that -- in the tournament-style approach that I find most exciting -- makes it urgent to get out of the place. Then again, much of the treasure is cursed, so the typical looting scenario is not very rewarding.Tamoachan features some very entertaining NPCs, but in essence is a deadly trap-fest like The Tomb of Horrors. The puzzle-solvers will find more to their liking than the hack-and-slayers.Although one might well allow longer, the tournament scenario is supposed to have a limit of 2 hours in real time (with a shorter variant suggested for just 1 to 1.5 hours). Thus, there might be time enough in a single session for the survivors (and replacements for the fallen) to make a more leisurely investigation afterward.With a well-prepared DM, and players ready for truly nerve-wracking suspense, Tamoachan is tops. The packet of illustrations to show the players at appropriate times adds the final touch to an adventure that more than rivals the archaeological exploits of Indiana Jones.</blockquote>

Verification