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Message: <blockquote data-quote="(un)reason" data-source="post: 9025104" data-attributes="member: 27780">Dungeon Issue 77: Nov/Dec 1999part 5/5To Walk Beneath the Waves: Another issue, another underwater adventure aimed at low level landlubbers who haven't got all the equipment to function down there for extended periods of time. You can only do one or two of them in any particular campaign before they stop being amateurs, unlike ones aimed at more experienced sub-mariners or aquatic natives. On the plus side, by putting this just north of Saltmarsh, home of the U series in Greyhawk, they're giving you a natural progression from low level, somewhat damp adventures to slightly higher, slightly wetter ones, which is a good bit of tie-in work. Anyway, the coastal town of Rawnis is suffering from an escalating amount of fishermen disappearing and general vandalism. People suspect Sahuguin and call for adventurers, putting together all the underwater breathing equipment they have. (which is barely enough, and some of it glitchy & unreliable) Down you head, only to find out it's not Sahuguin, but Kuo-Toa, which is actually slightly worse given their respective advancement capabilities. That knowledge won't change the mission though, kill them or drive them off, rescue any still surviving kidnapees and get back to the surface before your underwater gear runs out of air. It's comprised of a short wilderness bit and a short dungeon bit that would both be pretty simple on land, and the main challenge is all the extra penalties to actions & visibility being underwater will impose on you. (which would rapidly disappear if you were a higher level party bringing your own magical gear) It all feels like training wheels. More usable but unambitious filler to keep you busy for a session or two and earning XP between the bigger adventures.Nodwick finds the kidnapped people are even dumber than his own adventuring party, falling for the most obvious of traps.Maps of Mystery has a particularly cryptic 2.5D map of the underdark this time. Zoom in and you can get some hints what might be within each one, but it’ll be a tricky trek to get to the deepest reaches, with lots of filling in the miles of skipped over details. Maybe you could put it just off the west side of the Kingdom of the Ghouls, as they operate on a similar scale and there’s a convenient tunnel off the edge in both to join them.Another issue where the gulf between the cover story and everything else is striking in length, production values, ambition and general quality. Which actually results in a pretty low batting average by the standards of this magazine. It shows them concentrating on their big tie-in adventures to the detriment of the regular ones, making them increasingly short, samey and padded out in word count. I suspect that having announced the new edition, they might not be bringing their A game to what's left of the old one. One that leaves me wanting to move on and get to the next big format change all the quicker.</blockquote>

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