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Message: <blockquote data-quote="KirayaTiDrekan" data-source="post: 7359616" data-attributes="member: 6755061">S3: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks Originally published February, 1980Version being read and reviewed: <a href="http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17065/S3-Expedition-to-the-Barrier-Peaks-1e?it=1" target="_blank">S3: Expedition to the Barrier Peaks</a> by Gary GygaxFirst things first - SPOILER ALERT!!!!Still here?Ok, here we go.EN World ate the lengthy review I had typed up so - short and sweet.Expedition to the Barrier Peaks is the culmination of the sci-fi hintings and cameos that appeared in various D&D products since its inception.  There would be a few flirtations with the premise later on, but this adventure seems to be the most concentrated dose, so to speak. The crashed spaceship that features in this adventure is actually a single section of a larger colony ship that was separated to quarantine a deadly plague.  The adventure suggests that the ship-section entered the reality of Greyhawk via a black hole from an alternate reality.  There is also a section of a spaceship featured in a couple of Mystara (D&D Known World) products, most prominently in Wrath of the Immortals.  I like to think they are parts of the same ship.  Given the general recreational nature of most areas, this section of the ship would seem to be rec-room of the larger vessel, so to speak.  Gymnasium, swimming pool, theater, arcade, cafeterias, lounges, and a botanical garden and aquarium.  The garden, however, is now the deadliest area of the ship.  Its a veritable death trap and it would surprise if any party managed to get out of there without losing at least one player character.The technology in this adventure has a very Lost in Space/Star Trek feel to it, from the dials and buttons on the control panels to the designs of the robots (the police robots remind me of the robot in Lost in Space).  If I were running the adventure today, I would update the tech to modern sci-fi sensibilities.  Several new monsters appear in this adventure, including the vegepygmy, which appears to originate with this module, their origins being from irradiated plants in the botanical garden.  Most of the critters are noted as having been captured during the ship's voyage, implying that the reality this ship comes from also has intellect devourers, mind flayers, shedu, and couatls.  Some parts of this adventure are written with tongue firmly in cheek but I think it could also work as a horror-tinged sci-fi adventure - the player characters stumbling across it drifting through space and board it to investigate.  One of the issues with this adventure is the paradox of futuristic and modern items being familiar to the players but not their characters.  My solution when the situation arises is just to tell the players what the item is and let them sort out how their character reacts to it. The preface notes that this adventure traces its origins to Metamorphosis Alpha, one of the first sci-fi RPGs to hit the market and that the adventure served as a means of introducing D&D players to sci-fi roleplaying and adventuring.  S3 hasn't aged well as sci-fi continually advances and the spaceship feels like the setting of a B-movie.  Sidenote: The original version of this review was lost during a EN World crash.  Next up: The World of Greyhawk Folio</blockquote>

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