Isle of Dread - your experiences?

[Quasqueton]

Sixteenth thread of a series on the old classic Dungeons & Dragons adventure modules. It is interesting to see how everyone's experiences compared and differed.

Isle of Dread

Did you Play or DM this adventure (or both, as some did)? What were your experiences? Did you complete it? What were the highlights for your group?

Quasqueton

 

[diaglo]

had a blast with this one. i refereed it.

set the PCs up by sending them on a quest to find a particular spice for spell components.

of course, they landed on the wrong Isle.

 

[rogueattorney]

Love this one. Probably DM'ed it 10 times, never using the same set up twice. There are so many different scenarios that work - merchants, colonists, shipwrecked, pirates, etc. I don't think I've had the PC's get to the main dungeon at the center of the island more than a couple times, but it still stays quite fun.

BTW: The format of this adventure is quite similar to the Judges Guild Wilderlands and Wilderness series. If you like X1, check those out as well.

R.A.

 

[Style]

Like a lot of other folks, I got this as part of the old Expert set. Its campaign map was immediately incorporated into my homebrew - elements of it still persist to this day.

The first time I ran it was as part of a treasure hunt. McGuffin Artifacts #1 and #2 were these Blades of Power that were rumoured to have been discovered on the island. They located one in the lair of the giant squid but lost it to a rival party of NPCs and were forced to return to Specularum - although they later retrieved the sword. They recruited fresh bodies and made the lengthy voyage south once more (it took them longer than expected and the new players were becoming increasingly skeptical of poor Setius' hex-mapping skills).

Landfall was made near Tanaroa and the PCs managed to strike up relatively friendly relationships with the locals. They never encountered the pirates and headed inland as soon as possible. Their path took them through the jungles to the secret plateau. They took pains to avoid encounters en route so it was a largely peaceful journey (a couple of dinos but litle besides).

At the plateau they soon fell afoul of the cultists living at the temple. A bloody battle erupted (I recall that this was the first time I had an NPC use a cause wounds spell - my players were most shocked) with the PCs fleeing into the depths of the temple. They worked their way through the complex, eventually finding their way into the volcanic caverns where the vile kopru held the second of the blades. We lost one PC to the lava but they snatched the weapon (and the other treasure listed in the adventure) and fled. Like any fledgeling DM I decided that the only sensible response was to make the volcano erupt. Which it did.

The PCs escaped (although they lost one of the blades en route) and fled the island, not to return until they were much higher level. This return visit was simply to retrieve the lost weapon, now entombed in solid rock. Much high level spell-blasts later and the sword was finally theirs.

I later used the pirate camps as inspiration for a similar set of encounters in a 2e game and am immensely looking forward to the upcoming Dungeon treatment of the jewel of the Thanegioth. Dinosaurs rule.

 

[CrusaderX]

Great module. I really liked the new monsters introduced, and the whole dinosaur atmosphere was just plain cool.

And the art on the module's back cover featuring a red-haired female warrior in a wet t-shirt was rather nice, too.

 

[Estlor]

I remember playing this one when I was really young.

We were hired by a local magic user in Karameikos to bring back dinosaur specimines alive. Everything went well until we ran into the korpu. I do believe I ended up dying in a battle in the temple after I got pushed into the lava.

 

[kilamanjaro]

This was the second module we went through as players. I think we were after a huge diamond or emerald. I remember a green dragon's lair and a troglodyte lair. We encountered bugbears for the first time, and the DM described them as so menacing that our magic user wasted a lightning bolt spell on them. Then a T-rex showed up and it was almost a TPK, only my fighter escaped thanks to his broom of flying.

 

[jasper]

Again so long ago. I dm it. I think the players blew threw it in a two or three sessions.
Hmm maybe I should see if still on the shelf to jog my own memory.

 

[Chupacabra]

I don't have the same love for X1 that apparently alot of other folks have. I've played in it once. I've run it once. Neither time did I have much fun. Not saying it was terrible or anything, but nothing that memorable occurred. In the other "(Fill in the blank module) -- your experiences?" threads I've been able to recall fun, or challenging, or cool, events, encounters, etc. of all of the other modules so far. But for X1, its like I'm trying to remember a bland meal I had 20 years ago: it wasn't that great to begin with, so I'm having a hard time conjuring up anything memorable now.

And another thing, for some reason here in Texas at least, it has become a joke to me and some of my other gaming friends that no matter which "Half-Priced Books" (a used bookstore chain in Texas) you go into anywhere in the state, you will find at least one copy of X1. And if you buy that same said copy, another one will magically appear in the store within a month. The store might not have any other modules, hell, they might not have any other RPG stuff at all, but they will have a copy of X1.

 

[Henry]

I DM'ed it about 20 years ago; it was one of my "one-on-one" runs back when I had one or two players. The player got to go around the island, map out the insides, fight beasties, discover hidden treasures... we had a blast.

But to this day I could only tell you maybe two or three of the campaign elements on that island. I remember Isle of the Ape better than I remember this one - and I've never even played that one!