DM'S Log: May 26, 2012. First Impression of the Caves
I've had a chance to look over the playtest packet in detail. I will be running a few test games later this weekend (Pelor willing), but here are my first impressions of the material.
The first thing I read was the adventure module, "The Caves of Chaos." I read it side-by-side with the original B2 module, and made a few notes about the differences between the two.
First of all, I want to thank the designers for taking the time to make a faithful conversion. For the most part, the adventure module is identical to the original in nearly every way (except as noted below). If a room had seven kobolds in it armed with shortswords, with a barrel of water and some gold coins on the floor, well, that was what the conversion had as well. Serioulsy, kudos, guys. That means that it will be a lot easier to convert my old BECM modules in the future, should I decide to do so.
The most obvious thing that was changed in the conversion was the value off treasure. For example, the jeweled goblet at Area 33 was reduced in value from 1,300 gp to 15 gp. That is a HUGE reduction...the "new" goblet is worth less than 1% of the original! It isn't an isolated occurrence, either...every single treasure has been dramatically reduced in value, usually to less than 2% of its originally published value. Copper coins and silver coins were left alone, for the most part.
I am curious about why this was done. I think it is a step in the right direction, especially for a low-level adventure...but will this be adjusted forward to later adventure modules? Is it linear? What does this mean about the assumed economy of the D&D game?
Also, many of the magic items (such as the rope of climbing, or the scroll of fireballs) were removed entirely. I imagine this was done for the same reasons for reducing the values of all the other treasures. Since this adventure was designed for low-level characters, I don't have a problem with it per se....but sitll, I remember thinking "it was good enough for the original author; why did they need to "fix" it this time?"
Another thing I noticed: in a couple of places, the sex of some of the monsters was changed from male to female. I wonder why, since there is no technical or mechanical difference between a male or female creature in the game. If this was a purely cosmetic change that has no affect on the game, then there is arguably no reason for it. I could understand the change if there was a plot-based reason for it (the guard needs to be female because she is the daughter of the king, or something), but from what I can tell, it looks like a change for the sake of change...or at the worst, it could be interpreted as sexist stereotyping (if it were done to make the guard look weaker or less of a threat, as in "Oh, don't worry about her, it's just a woman," or to create some sort of conflict among the players, as in "I can't hit a girl.") Be careful with that, guys.
But aside from those two things, the module is a faithful and complete conversion of the original Caves of Chaos, and even uses the original map. I applaud the team for their attention to detail and commitment to the roots of the game. Seriously, thanks.
