Chaos Drake said:
Any reccomendations?
Which are the true classics?
Here are my opinions on the listed products I own:
Castle Book I-II, Island Book I, Village Book I-II : all of these are basically the same. They start with a series of tables which can be used to generate the basic details of the area in question. For example, the island generator determines the basic composition of the isle (e.g. volcanic, tropical paradise, sand bank), flora and fauna, inhabitants, strange castaways, water sources and weird features (like idols or a wishing well). The rest is a lot of maps on a hex background. The maps are hit and miss. Some are great, others are simplistic to the point of unusability. On another note, when and if „Caves and Caverns” becomes available, you shouldn’t bother. It is awful.
Overall, I'd give these products an uniform 7/10. For $2, you can't go wrong with 'em.
Citadel of Fire: one of the earlier JG offerings, Citadel of Fire is a 32p adventure module written for higher level characters. It details the tower and dungeons of the Wizard Yrammag, a 15th level Magic-User. Production values and illustrations may not be up to par with the TSR adventures of the day, but the contents more than make up for this „flaw”. Then again, I have a bizarre love for the weird, sloppy colour print illustrations of JG accessories.
The Citadel consists of six tower levels and five dungeon levels. The module includes two pages of charts to determine the location and activities of the Wizard. These could, with some modification, used when your players wish to spy on someone important through a Crystal Ball or similar device.
The tower itself is the home of Yrammag’s apprentices, while the dungeon contains numerous facilities like a Jail, a Temple, an arena and even an underground Inn! Other levels are inhabited by goblins, undead (the remains of the former Archmages of the Tower – this level alone contains dozens of good ideas) and the Wizard’s strongest monster minions. It must be stressed that this module was written in a more „innocent” age when dungeons were more about fun, challenging and strange encounters than realism or ecological stability. If Rappan Athuk didn’t pass your „suspension of disbelief” test, you should probably stay away from this one as well. Likewise, I am not certain if a conversion to d20 wouldn’t kill the charm and wonder – you would definitely have to make several adjustments.
In the end, Citadel of Fire is still a solid, challenging and fun adventure. And if you have an evil or neutral-mercenary party, you could use it as a base of operations and Yrammag as a patron.
Score: 8/10.
Dark Tower: Dark Tower is, in my opinion, the best adventure module ever published. Not to say it is for everyone: as Monte said, it is not a modern „ecologically sound” dungeon, thanks be to Crom. It is more of a collection of the strange and unusual. There are no mechanical explanations for the various puzzles, not even many NPCs. If you think there should be, avoid this like the plague.
On the other hand, if you are looking for a module with a classic sword&sorcery feel and great ideas, you are in for a treat. The whole module is coherently constructed, with an overriding theme (the struggle between two gods, Mitra and the evil Set). There are lots of imaginative challenges and traps, monsters (such as lesser and greater sons of Set) and some very memorable NPCs (such as Haffrung Helleyes, a decadent high level Magic-User living in the bodies of others). The dungeon levels are very interconnected, with numerous levels and sub-levels, individual complexes within the whole (the White and the Dark towers – two huge structures buried beneath the very mountains, destroyed in a titanic struggle of good and evil). Finally, it is a very challenging module: even high level parties (that is 9th to 11th in 1e speak) with numerous members will meet a worthy opposition therein. As the original ad in the Judges Guild Journal stated: „You have never had it so bad – and that is incredible, indeed.”
Score: 11 out of 10. Or 12.
Modron: description of a smaller city state in the Judges Guild world. This supplement is less serious than City State of the Invincible Overlord, and has some terrible puns among the names of its NPCs. The rest is pretty good, though, and it could be used in most other games as well. All establishments are described in a paragraph or two, and there is an additional section revolving around underwater adventuring in the nearby Estuary of the Roglaroon. Modron is not JG’s best, but it isn’t JG’s worth either.
7/10 sounds right.
Ready Ref Sheets: Ready Ref Sheets was one of JG’s bestsellers in the days. Before the release of AD&D and the first edition Dungeon Master’s Guide (whose appendices were mostly contributed by Bob Bledsaw of JG fame), there was RRS and its various rules. The supplement is a thin booklet of 56 pages. It contains many of OD&D’s rules, including attack charts for characters and monsters, save charts, undead turning and a Monster Compendium listing the stats of all official OD&D creatures. Aside from spells and character classes, you could basically run the One True Game using just this booklet. Some of AD&D’s rules also come from this collection: for example, we find a predecessor of the Bend Bars check, except you can use it for all abilities.
There are also additional tables and house rules devised by Judges Guild, first published separately, later also included in other supplements such as City State of the Invincible Overlord. These tables are great for idea mining and adventure hook generation. You have really detailed city encounter tables, the infamous „Women” guideline (includes a table for generating „vital statistics”
), guidelines for crime and punishment (focusing on bribery, the mood of the judge and the skills of your lawyer – see, it’s realistic!), ingredients for potions, taxation and trade… My favourite is probably the Ravaged Ruins table – it generates various ancient ruins, adventure locales and odd items you could find in a foresaken land.
I own three copies of this product in print – for the money I had to pay for it, it gave me an incredible value.
9/10
The Book of Treasure Maps I-II: what Monte said. The first volume is the best of the series, the second is less attractive but still usable. The „treasure maps” are small adventures (that is, dungeons) tied to an ancient map or somesuch. They are mostly good, with a few average and lacking specimens. Some are absolutely excellent, however (the Crypts of Arcadia in volume I. comes to my mind).
9/10 for the first, 7/10 for the second.
Thieves of Fortress Badabaskor: Badabaskor, like Citadel of Fire, was written in the early days of JG. It is thus a typical specimen of early D&D, with even less concern about dungeon logic (and excessive treasure – there is a fist sized gem worth 269.000 gp and a mithrill-adamantium throne worth a whopping 1.450.000 gp!). Know what? I ran it on a slow night using the OD&D rules and copious amounts of wine. It was an absolute blast (esp. if you consider that all characters were backstabbing Chaotic Evil bastards). Even if you are a modern gamer, you can take many of its ideas and populate the rest of the adventure with your own creations. One helpful feature I’d like to see more of in d20 books is room dimensions: each corridor and chamber has its dimensions listed on the map.
Fortress Badabaskor is a well defended fort built into the side of a mountain in the wastelands, originally erected by Emperor Brastagoth, who killed off the evil priests who lived here. It latter fell into ruins and was finally occupied by bandits who live here to this day. They operate a black market where they sell slaves, illicit goods and weaponry. There are also the dungeons. The upper two levels are mostly random and make almost no sense, but the rest is great. Level three’s huge caverns contain the lairs of five extremely dangerous dragons. Below are the evil clerics of Angall, a CE demi-god. This level may be used as it was written, once you divide treasure values by 1000 or so.
The last level is the Hall of the Dragon Kings: the resting places of ancient Orichalan monarchs, protected each by devious traps and sservitors. The tombs are all unique and have that old, weird feeling you can’t get any longer. Again, there might be too much treasure here, so be careful.
7/10 – if we omit the first two levels, 9/10.
Under the Storm Giant’s Castle: okay, I don’t own this one, but I heard it was the worst D&D adventure ever created. What can I say, this makes me curious.
Wilderlands of High Fantasy, Fantastic Wilderlands Beyonde, Wilderlands of the Magic Realm, Wilderlands of the Fantastic Reaches: the first forms of JG’s most excellent world. Be warned, they are very, very, very-very sparse and light on details. … But the ideas you can get from them are still as good as ever. Even if you are not interested in the Wilderlands itself, there are enough strange islands, ruins and encounters here to last for a campaign. Once the scanned maps are up, you can run a whole campaign with them… With a ton of work, sure, but the products give you a framework to fill out. Think of it as the Greyhawk Folio/D&D gazetteer, except the Wilderlands focuses on the small details instead of the big picture. Plus, except from Wilderlands of High Fantasy, they are incredibly hard to find. Magic Realm costs up to and above $50 if you buy it on eBay, and the rest aren’t much better either.
7/10
Okay, I hope this was helpful. If you have additional questions, feel free to ask.
P.S.: if you are looking for Tegel Manor, there is a revised reprint available for order at
http://www.dozensofgames.com/ortemareex.html. With maps. Considering that the old Tegel Manor may cost up to $100, you are better served by this one - $15 and you get the module plus the poster maps to go with it.
