opinion on 2 adventures, pls!

[rossik]

castle amber seems so cool (by the books preview), an Curse of Xanathon is actualy a cheap book...


are they any good?

as bad as it can be, i can buy only books around 10 u$, so....if you guys have a better advice on adventures, pls tell me!

(ps: oh! just found isle of dread for 4 bucks)

 

[Monkey Boy]

Curse of Xanathon has received some pretty bad reviews - I think they were over on RPGnet. Its very linear / railroaded with a particularly obnoxious BBEG fight early on that you cannot win. The actions of the Duke in the module defy logic and why his people would put up with it amaze me. I own it but haven't run it. In it's defence it does have the HYPNO SNAKE! - which reminds me of the HYPNO TOAD from Futurama.

I like Isle of Dread, it's site based and has lots of cool exploration. Sabre Tooth Tigers, Dinosaurs and pirates, what more could you want? I'd buy that one.

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

I like both Castle Amber and Isle of Dread.

Castle Amber is based off of the Averoigne stories of Clark Ashton Smith, and the module is supposed to have a dreamlike, other-worldly feel similar to those works. The French names and style of the module may seem odd and out-of-place if you're unfamiliar with Averoigne.

Isle of Dread is a classic. Like some other modules by Tom Moldvay (e.g. Lost City), it's an adventure, but also an entire campaign setting that the DM can flesh out and breathe life into. It also has lots of cool, pulpy elements for you to work with: cannibals, zombie masters, dinosaurs, pirates, neanderthals, ancient ruins covered in jungle, giant squid, et cetera.

Curse of Xanathon never lit my fire.

 

[Olgar Shiverstone]

You'll get endless hours of valuable adventure from Castle Amber and Isle of Dread. Buy them both immediately.

 

[shilsen]

Castle Amber is based off of the Averoigne stories of Clark Ashton Smith, and the module is supposed to have a dreamlike, other-worldly feel similar to those works. The French names and style of the module may seem odd and out-of-place if you're unfamiliar with Averoigne.

Personally, I'd say it's dreamlike and otherworldly in the same way that crystal meth makes one feel dreamlike and otherworldly. In the game I run Cedric (see paladin in sig), the DM (Rolzup) ran Castle Amber and it was hysterically funny because the entire thing is completely ludicrous, with no rhyme or reason to it.

Speaking of Castle Amber and hysterically funny, check out the following thread on RPG.net about a group's experience playing Castle Amber.

 

[Philotomy Jurament]

Personally, I'd say it's dreamlike and otherworldly in the same way that crystal meth makes one feel dreamlike and otherworldly.

I've characterized it as being "phantasmagoric" and a "surreal opium-dream." Presentation is everything. If you present it one way, you'll be complaining about railroads and ridiculous encounters. With the right approach, though, it's very effective and a lot of fun; as I mentioned, I think it helps if you're familiar with the C.A.S. source material -- see here, as well. X2 is one of those modules people love or hate.

Here's some more discussion.

Edit: Here's what I mean by presentation when given something "ridiculous":

vs.

or

 

[trancejeremy]

Castle Amber is sort of bare bones. It also takes a lot of plots and such from CAS's Aveorigne (sp?) stories, so can seem like a jumble of really weird stuff. Which I guess it is. Part is almost from a love story (the one with the sorceress Moriamis sp?), another is almost like a monster movie (the giant golem in The Colossus of Ylourgne) and some other stuff. And then part of the adventure is a dungeon crawl, with a Poe-ish House of Usher vibe.

IMHO, the sequel, Mark of Amber (for 2e) does a pretty good job of making 1e more coherent. It's almost like a re-visitation of the first module.

 

[T. Foster]

Isle of Dread and Castle Amber are both fantastic, IMO two of the best classic modules, and both are very expandable beyond the content of the module itself (an admirable feature of the classic modules that completely disappeared in later years). I would very strongly recommend both of them. Curse of Xanathon I never found intriguing enough to even finish reading, not to mention running. I vaguely remember hearing some good things about it recently -- that if you ignore the canned plot of the module that there's good setting stuff that can be stolen/adapted -- but it wasn't enough to make me want to revisit it.

 

[Treebore]

The advice that tells you to try and get Amber and Isle is the best to follow, if you have to choose, get Castle Amber.

 

[Korgoth]

You'll get endless hours of valuable adventure from Castle Amber and Isle of Dread. Buy them both immediately.

Ditto. Both modules are excellent. Both are by Moldvay!

Give Xanathon a pass... I think of it as practially a "joke module". That may be harsh, but I would say it just misses on practically all cylinders.