Old D&D adventure set in Manhattan

[WayneLigon]

Actually, IIRC, and I'd have to look it up on my Dragon CD-ROM, but the adventure was actually based off a few novels about faeries in London, with enough changed so it was not considered a copyright violation, and the author admits it after some letters were written. I think it was based on some novel series call "The Boggles" or something like that.

The Borribles, The Borribles Go For Broke, and Across the Dark Metropolis. Wonderful books.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Whizbang, make me those modules now.

I hate to say it, but The Hidden Shrine of Times Square actually sounds like a great premise for an adventure.

 

[JohnRTroy]

Yup, that was it.

IIRC too the characters ended up having to make friends with the "street gangs" (borribles), and they were after the Mace of Saint Cuthbert, which was in a museum.

 

[NiTessine]

It's interesting how peoples can have such differing opinions on the same scenario.

Yeah... note that I never actually said I felt the module was good. Interesting, yes, but I wouldn't run it without some heavy retooling. It's a sad thing that every time they write an adventure with this premise, it ends up being cheesy.

Also, there's a special encounter table, where you can witness a curly-haired man with a scarf entering a phone booth with a woman who addresses him as "Doctor". The phone booth makes a loud noise and disappears. The table also has "1-8 terrorists".

What the adventure does do well is drop the PCs in a situation where they'll have to use their wits to survive in an environment that only remotely resembles anything they're familiar with, and trying to acquire their objective by the traditional way of killing everything is bound to fail. I also like how it just lays out the area and the opening situation, and then lets the DM and the PCs to fend off for themselves. There's no clue-by-four. If they can't figure it out, there is no plot train to take them to the next stop.

 

[Ed_Laprade]

If you're talking about the scenario originally published in Dragon #100 I'd be astonished. It was a real stinker. Awful, unplayable, badly plotted, and obviously written by an american who had never been to London.

I suppose transferring it to New York would have got rid of some of the more ridiculous elements. That plus a decent GM to re-write much of the plot.

It's interesting how peoples can have such differing opinions on the same scenario.

My recollection was that the author hadn't bothered to do any research at all. Horrifying as TSR had a UK office in those days. The currency was wrong, we were informed that the UK had gone decimal (correct) and that that there were now ten pennies to the shilling and ten shillings to the pound (nonsense).

London was peopled by 'Peter Pan/Oliver Twist' street urchins, 'Mary Poppins' nannies and (contrary to what another poster says) armed policemen, or at least policement with ready access to guns. A friend of mine was in the Metropolitan Police at the time, he'd never seen a gun, and the gun cabinet key was kept locked in the safe.

The author was also amused by the fact that in the playtest one of the characters had tried to drive a car, but had got in the wrong side (as we Brits drive on the left) !!!!

Awful

I'd have to check, but this sounds very close to one of the letters that was printed about it.

 

[Rogue765]

I hate to say it, but The Hidden Shrine of Times Square actually sounds like a great premise for an adventure.

Nah. I hear it's been pretty well cleared out by a previous adventuring party led by the Lord Mayor Rudolpho Guiliani. There's not a single saucy tart or brazen strumpet to be found anywhere!!

 

[Greylock]

Here I was going to guess Taxi of Horrors, The Hidden Shrine of Times Square or Staten Island of Dread.

Aren't you thinking about Star Trek IV.I, We're Not in San Francisco Anymore?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Nah. I hear it's been pretty well cleared out by a previous adventuring party led by the Lord Mayor Rudolpho Guiliani. There's not a single saucy tart or brazen strumpet to be found anywhere!!

They're hidden!

 

[GrumpyOldMan]

Nightstick!

In those days, truncheon!

 

[GrumpyOldMan]

I'd have to check, but this sounds very close to one of the letters that was printed about it.

I wouldn't be surprised, though I didn't write it.

As I said TSR UK was open for business in those days. The UK market was huge for TSR, and they allowed some guy who had obviously never been here to write an adventure set in 'Merrie England.' I seem to remember TSR UK doing a lot of firefighting after Dragon 100 was published, just to calm the UK fans.