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Message: <blockquote data-quote="T. Foster" data-source="post: 1978247" data-attributes="member: 16574">I started this module twice but never finished it. The first time was right after it was released an ad-hoc with gross high-level characters made up deliberately for use in the module (and of course taking huge advantage of the just-released Unearthed Arcana rules -- high-level cavalier-paladins, barbarians, hierophant druids, etc.). The second time was several years later as an "out of retirement" romp for some favorite old characters (who weren't high enough for the by-the-book recommendations; they averaged maybe 12th level). Both times started out with great enthusiasm but got so bogged down in that huge battle at the beginning with the villagers that we all got bored and lost interest and never bothered to continue -- neither party ever met the great Kong, errr, "Oonga."Sacriligious as this will probably sound (to those who know me), I don't really like this adventure very much, despite it being the last official D&D module from "The Master," E. Gary Gygax. The 'framing device' -- the introduction with Tenser (including a multi-page block of boxed text to be read aloud) and the deus ex machina finale -- strike me as incredibly lame and cheesy, and I'd almost guarantee were tacked on at the last minute in an ill-conceived attempt to 'compete' with the 'story-driven' Dragonlance modules that were all the rage at that time (late 1985); the module itself is really nothing but one giant hack 'n' slash attrition-fest -- role-playing and problem-solving (other than strict resource-management and combat tactics) are almost entirely absent; and last but not least the central "joke" of the module is played too straight -- to the extent that I didn't "get it" until several years later when I finally saw the original movie. I suppose it had to be this way (because, unlike Lewis Carrol's Wonderland, King Kong is still protected by copyright), but it still gives the module as a whole a "queer pitch" to me -- knowing that it's fundamentally a joke/goof, but pretending it's not. I think I'd like it better in it's original context (as a a sub-level of Greyhawk Castle reached by going down a corridor labeled "monkeying around").</blockquote>

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