Psion
Adventurer
Rappan Athuk 2 -- The Dungeon of Graves: The Middle Levels
Necromancer Games launched their D20 System line of products with the slogan "Third Edition Rules, First Edition Feel." They took this approach all the way with their first Rappan Athuk book. Not only was the adventure a strict dungeon crawl, they unabashedly disclaimed any intent to pay heed to such quaint concepts as "ecology" in their dungeon.
Rappan Athuk 2 -- The Dungeon of Graves: The Middle Levels (RA2) is the second of three books regarding this nostalgic return to the dungeon bashing mentality that was part and parcel of the first edition experience.
RA2 is a dungeon crawl adventure for characters of 7th level and above.
A First Look
The first thing that struck me when I picked up RA2 was its size. At 64 pages, it is a full 33% more than RA1. Of course, the price tag is a little bigger, too. At $11.95 US, it is above the $10 limit that I normally consider permissible to spend on adventures. However, it does have a slightly higher price / page count ratio than RA1 does.
The book exterior is graphically very similar to RA1. The background on the front cover is emerald green and the background on the back cover is olive green. The front cover features a decent color picture of a battle scene from the adventure with a part facing off against a three-headed fire breathing canine, similar in style to the pictures on Necromancer Games previous adventures.
The interior is black and white, with decent and relevant artwork throughout. The use of space is good, with good text density and average margins, with little white space.
The cartography, however, is really bad. On an up note, unlike RA1, RA2 has square grids on their maps. However, the maps maintain the same unpolished amateur look that RA1's maps had. They are not very clear, and have no key, and in several places it is difficult to tell what the map feature is meant to be. Further, the application of a grid really didn't help much. It doesn't even bother telling you the scale of the grid. I would assume that it is 5 feet per square like most D20 System maps, but alas if you make that assumption, there are several passages that would be so thin as to be unnavigable.
Additionally, while RA2 makes use of the inside cover, it is a large map that straddles the staples that bind the book together. This seemed very inconvenient to me. I would have much rather have seen any large map like this put in the middle of the book, and used the inside cover for single page maps or other generic information like the legend of Rappan Athuk or the summary of the levels of Rappan Athuk.
I have learned that the maps that showed up in the books were not intended to be the final version that went to print, and that Necromancer Games is working on getting a revised version out on their website. Whether this version of the maps will address the bulk of the issues with the existing maps remains to be seen.
A Deeper Look
(Warning: this section contains spoilers.)
RA2 doesn't waste too much time and space going over the same territory as RA1. It does repeat the legend of Rappan Athuk that appeared in RA1, but for the most part it assumes that you have RA1. There are 7 additional rumors to add to the table of 28 rumors that appeared in RA1, but they don't really tell you how to use them (in a quick game I ran, I simply used 2d20-1 and ignored anything over 35.)
The adventure does make some intimation that it can be run without RA1. For example, it mentions that a full table of rumors exists on the Necromancer Games website. However, I was unable to find the alluded to table of rumors on the website.
The adventure details 8 levels of this dungeon: 4, 5, 6, 6A, 7, 7A, 8, and 9A. Most levels have some exits that lead to wildly different-numbered levels. For example, level 4 has exits to levels 3,5, and 6A, and level 6 has exists to 5, 7, 8, and 10A. The relationships are complex enough that you will find yourself wanting for a spider graph showing which levels connect to which.
Similar in format to RA1, each level has a text block detailing salient features of the level, such as the general difficulty level, entrances and exits, wandering monster tables, and special effects of the level. As with RA1, the difficulty level is phrased in terms of a party of 6 characters instead of the standard 4 that is used in the D&D 3e / D20 System. For purposes of consistency with RA1, sticking with this convention is probably best. It will probably still cause some confusion, but at least RA2 included encounter levels for all the encounters, which should minimize the confusion.
A number of new creatures are introduced in the module, and some classic creatures from earlier editions of the D&D game are re-introduced. In all cases, the stats for these creatures are only given in the condensed stat-block format. It may take a little effort on your part if you want to extract these creatures and use them elsewhere.
Level 4 is described as the "Upper Temple of Orcus." In addition to a nasty encounter with some followers of Orcus, there are a few other sites. One of these sites is a potentially friendly encounter with a cowardly otyugh, Max. One thing about this particular encounter annoyed me: the text states that max has a number of treasure items you can only get by making friends with Max. While I like the idea of a "monster" that you must make friends with, I found the ruling about the treasure rather arbitrary. What if someone casts a lowly detect magic? That seems like it would be sufficient to fish out the treasure. Arbitrary and illogical rulings are an aspect of “first edition feel” that I would rather do without.
The temple of Orcus itself is a very tough encounter with some very nasty NPCs and monsters. The information on the opposition is well presented and complete, and without many of the errors that plagues RA1. Tactics are provided, giving the DM a good idea of how to run the combat. However, some signature problems of RA1 still pop their heads up here and there. For example, one of the treasure items given out, a rod of resurrection, is not in the D20 System rules.
Level 5 is the lair of a demented mage and a set of catacombs inhabited by undead. Once again, the major encounter of the level is very detailed, complete with well-done tactics and statistics. I was a little confused by some of the details of the major encounter on this level; it is not the sort of encounter that you can run after just skimming the book. There are some other interesting sites on this level as well.
Level 6 is called "the Maze". The map of level 6 isn’t that much of a maze, but it designates some "maze sections" that are not mapped out. A sample maze section is provided, but the text of the module simply states that there are enough shifting rooms and walls that in general you should just fake it until you feel that you have screwed with the players long enough. I found this approach wanting. When a DM runs and adventure off-the-cuff, this sort of technique is warranted. But when I purchase a module, I don't think telling the DM to make it up is serving the DM well.
One of the more interesting encounters on this level is an encounter with the ghost of a legendary giant. With a little luck and a little caution, the players can avoid a potentially lethal encounter with this ghost.
Level 7 is probably the most interesting section of RA2. It is called the "Gates of Hell", and features such things as a wanna-be Cerebus three-headed hellhound, but the major force on this level is a cadre of mind flayers. The level is more or less a shrine of the mind flayers. In addition to the considerable encounter with the mind flayers themselves, the level is made interesting by a number of "teleportals" that the mind flayers use to get around, and by some puzzles in the level that are challenging but have the potential to be rather rewarding.
Level 8 is basically a monster infested cavern network, featuring classic creatures goblins, undead (including the return of a classic creature that didn’t make it to the 3e MM), manticores, scorpions, trolls, and a beholders. This level is a return to the basic monster-bash sort of dungeon crawl, with few puzzles or unusual situations. Players may be able to avoid one of the more deadly encounters, however, if they think to talk before they rush in.
Level 6A is called the "Lair of the Spider Queen." The feature encounter is a female enchanter who worships the "demon queen of spiders" (that’s D20-speak for "Lolth." ) As you might suspect, there are spiders and demons on this level as well. There is one decent puzzle-type challenge that will take some magic to overcome, as well as some other creature combats.
Level 7A is called the "Hall of Kazleth, the Phase Minotaur King." The format of the level is similar to that of level 6: a fairly simply map with spliced-out maze sections. The primary inhabitants of this level are a new creature called a phase minotaur. A phase minotaur is basically a minotaur with the phase spider's ethereal jaunt ability. The level offers a number of goblin characters and some classic creatures as additional challenges.
Level 9A is the final level detailed in this module. It is a large cavern network with a variety of combat encounters, some of them very nasty indeed. The more obvious lethal encounters include a fairly nasty hydra and a pair of dragons. If you look hard enough you can find two more villainous monsters that have yet to be formally updated to the third edition game: a death knight and a demi-lich. And this level isn't even the bottom of the dungeon!
One interesting thing about the dragons: they aren't OGL-legal as far as I can tell. They are shadow dragons, whose 3e/D20 system statistics were introduced in the Monsters of Faerun supplement. This is not permissible per the open game licence, and MoF is not in any part OGC. I considered the possibility that Necromancer Games might have made their own shadow dragons, but after bouncing their stats against the MoF, they appear to be the same (though the second dragon's age is mislabeled.) This means little to the end user, other than if you buy now, you may have a collector’s edition. If RA2 goes for a new print run, I imagine they will be required to remove the shadow dragons.
Summary and Conclusions
As with RA1, it is not my intention to judge this product in terms of what it is not. It is not meant to be a deep role-playing module, but a dungeon-bash. If this sort of game is not the type of game you would ever enjoy, you already know to shop elsewhere.
Overall, I felt this was is a fairly strong product. It wastes little space, and the encounters are well written and thought out. The amount of bona-fide D20 System errors is much smaller than RA1. Further, the encounters and puzzles seem generally more imaginative than RA1. Unlike RA1, I didn't find myself rolling my eyes at any time at things like invincible toilet-monsters.
RA2 takes advantage of the D20 STL / OGL and the relationship between Necromancer Games and Swords & Sorcery studios. In several places, the adventure refers to spells and magic items from the Relics and Rituals book. Those who have this book will see little problem with that, but those without it will have to make a judgment as to what to provide in its stead. It might have been prudent for Necromancer to provide these alternatives themselves or at least provide a price range for the replacement items of level for the replacement spells.
The biggest hit is really the maps. They are both a style hit due to their poor appearance, and a hit on usability due to their lack of general utility. It is my opinion that Necromancer Games should look to someone else to do their cartography.
Necromancer Games launched their D20 System line of products with the slogan "Third Edition Rules, First Edition Feel." They took this approach all the way with their first Rappan Athuk book. Not only was the adventure a strict dungeon crawl, they unabashedly disclaimed any intent to pay heed to such quaint concepts as "ecology" in their dungeon.
Rappan Athuk 2 -- The Dungeon of Graves: The Middle Levels (RA2) is the second of three books regarding this nostalgic return to the dungeon bashing mentality that was part and parcel of the first edition experience.
RA2 is a dungeon crawl adventure for characters of 7th level and above.
A First Look
The first thing that struck me when I picked up RA2 was its size. At 64 pages, it is a full 33% more than RA1. Of course, the price tag is a little bigger, too. At $11.95 US, it is above the $10 limit that I normally consider permissible to spend on adventures. However, it does have a slightly higher price / page count ratio than RA1 does.
The book exterior is graphically very similar to RA1. The background on the front cover is emerald green and the background on the back cover is olive green. The front cover features a decent color picture of a battle scene from the adventure with a part facing off against a three-headed fire breathing canine, similar in style to the pictures on Necromancer Games previous adventures.
The interior is black and white, with decent and relevant artwork throughout. The use of space is good, with good text density and average margins, with little white space.
The cartography, however, is really bad. On an up note, unlike RA1, RA2 has square grids on their maps. However, the maps maintain the same unpolished amateur look that RA1's maps had. They are not very clear, and have no key, and in several places it is difficult to tell what the map feature is meant to be. Further, the application of a grid really didn't help much. It doesn't even bother telling you the scale of the grid. I would assume that it is 5 feet per square like most D20 System maps, but alas if you make that assumption, there are several passages that would be so thin as to be unnavigable.
Additionally, while RA2 makes use of the inside cover, it is a large map that straddles the staples that bind the book together. This seemed very inconvenient to me. I would have much rather have seen any large map like this put in the middle of the book, and used the inside cover for single page maps or other generic information like the legend of Rappan Athuk or the summary of the levels of Rappan Athuk.
I have learned that the maps that showed up in the books were not intended to be the final version that went to print, and that Necromancer Games is working on getting a revised version out on their website. Whether this version of the maps will address the bulk of the issues with the existing maps remains to be seen.
A Deeper Look
(Warning: this section contains spoilers.)
RA2 doesn't waste too much time and space going over the same territory as RA1. It does repeat the legend of Rappan Athuk that appeared in RA1, but for the most part it assumes that you have RA1. There are 7 additional rumors to add to the table of 28 rumors that appeared in RA1, but they don't really tell you how to use them (in a quick game I ran, I simply used 2d20-1 and ignored anything over 35.)
The adventure does make some intimation that it can be run without RA1. For example, it mentions that a full table of rumors exists on the Necromancer Games website. However, I was unable to find the alluded to table of rumors on the website.
The adventure details 8 levels of this dungeon: 4, 5, 6, 6A, 7, 7A, 8, and 9A. Most levels have some exits that lead to wildly different-numbered levels. For example, level 4 has exits to levels 3,5, and 6A, and level 6 has exists to 5, 7, 8, and 10A. The relationships are complex enough that you will find yourself wanting for a spider graph showing which levels connect to which.
Similar in format to RA1, each level has a text block detailing salient features of the level, such as the general difficulty level, entrances and exits, wandering monster tables, and special effects of the level. As with RA1, the difficulty level is phrased in terms of a party of 6 characters instead of the standard 4 that is used in the D&D 3e / D20 System. For purposes of consistency with RA1, sticking with this convention is probably best. It will probably still cause some confusion, but at least RA2 included encounter levels for all the encounters, which should minimize the confusion.
A number of new creatures are introduced in the module, and some classic creatures from earlier editions of the D&D game are re-introduced. In all cases, the stats for these creatures are only given in the condensed stat-block format. It may take a little effort on your part if you want to extract these creatures and use them elsewhere.
Level 4 is described as the "Upper Temple of Orcus." In addition to a nasty encounter with some followers of Orcus, there are a few other sites. One of these sites is a potentially friendly encounter with a cowardly otyugh, Max. One thing about this particular encounter annoyed me: the text states that max has a number of treasure items you can only get by making friends with Max. While I like the idea of a "monster" that you must make friends with, I found the ruling about the treasure rather arbitrary. What if someone casts a lowly detect magic? That seems like it would be sufficient to fish out the treasure. Arbitrary and illogical rulings are an aspect of “first edition feel” that I would rather do without.
The temple of Orcus itself is a very tough encounter with some very nasty NPCs and monsters. The information on the opposition is well presented and complete, and without many of the errors that plagues RA1. Tactics are provided, giving the DM a good idea of how to run the combat. However, some signature problems of RA1 still pop their heads up here and there. For example, one of the treasure items given out, a rod of resurrection, is not in the D20 System rules.
Level 5 is the lair of a demented mage and a set of catacombs inhabited by undead. Once again, the major encounter of the level is very detailed, complete with well-done tactics and statistics. I was a little confused by some of the details of the major encounter on this level; it is not the sort of encounter that you can run after just skimming the book. There are some other interesting sites on this level as well.
Level 6 is called "the Maze". The map of level 6 isn’t that much of a maze, but it designates some "maze sections" that are not mapped out. A sample maze section is provided, but the text of the module simply states that there are enough shifting rooms and walls that in general you should just fake it until you feel that you have screwed with the players long enough. I found this approach wanting. When a DM runs and adventure off-the-cuff, this sort of technique is warranted. But when I purchase a module, I don't think telling the DM to make it up is serving the DM well.
One of the more interesting encounters on this level is an encounter with the ghost of a legendary giant. With a little luck and a little caution, the players can avoid a potentially lethal encounter with this ghost.
Level 7 is probably the most interesting section of RA2. It is called the "Gates of Hell", and features such things as a wanna-be Cerebus three-headed hellhound, but the major force on this level is a cadre of mind flayers. The level is more or less a shrine of the mind flayers. In addition to the considerable encounter with the mind flayers themselves, the level is made interesting by a number of "teleportals" that the mind flayers use to get around, and by some puzzles in the level that are challenging but have the potential to be rather rewarding.
Level 8 is basically a monster infested cavern network, featuring classic creatures goblins, undead (including the return of a classic creature that didn’t make it to the 3e MM), manticores, scorpions, trolls, and a beholders. This level is a return to the basic monster-bash sort of dungeon crawl, with few puzzles or unusual situations. Players may be able to avoid one of the more deadly encounters, however, if they think to talk before they rush in.
Level 6A is called the "Lair of the Spider Queen." The feature encounter is a female enchanter who worships the "demon queen of spiders" (that’s D20-speak for "Lolth." ) As you might suspect, there are spiders and demons on this level as well. There is one decent puzzle-type challenge that will take some magic to overcome, as well as some other creature combats.
Level 7A is called the "Hall of Kazleth, the Phase Minotaur King." The format of the level is similar to that of level 6: a fairly simply map with spliced-out maze sections. The primary inhabitants of this level are a new creature called a phase minotaur. A phase minotaur is basically a minotaur with the phase spider's ethereal jaunt ability. The level offers a number of goblin characters and some classic creatures as additional challenges.
Level 9A is the final level detailed in this module. It is a large cavern network with a variety of combat encounters, some of them very nasty indeed. The more obvious lethal encounters include a fairly nasty hydra and a pair of dragons. If you look hard enough you can find two more villainous monsters that have yet to be formally updated to the third edition game: a death knight and a demi-lich. And this level isn't even the bottom of the dungeon!
One interesting thing about the dragons: they aren't OGL-legal as far as I can tell. They are shadow dragons, whose 3e/D20 system statistics were introduced in the Monsters of Faerun supplement. This is not permissible per the open game licence, and MoF is not in any part OGC. I considered the possibility that Necromancer Games might have made their own shadow dragons, but after bouncing their stats against the MoF, they appear to be the same (though the second dragon's age is mislabeled.) This means little to the end user, other than if you buy now, you may have a collector’s edition. If RA2 goes for a new print run, I imagine they will be required to remove the shadow dragons.
Summary and Conclusions
As with RA1, it is not my intention to judge this product in terms of what it is not. It is not meant to be a deep role-playing module, but a dungeon-bash. If this sort of game is not the type of game you would ever enjoy, you already know to shop elsewhere.
Overall, I felt this was is a fairly strong product. It wastes little space, and the encounters are well written and thought out. The amount of bona-fide D20 System errors is much smaller than RA1. Further, the encounters and puzzles seem generally more imaginative than RA1. Unlike RA1, I didn't find myself rolling my eyes at any time at things like invincible toilet-monsters.
RA2 takes advantage of the D20 STL / OGL and the relationship between Necromancer Games and Swords & Sorcery studios. In several places, the adventure refers to spells and magic items from the Relics and Rituals book. Those who have this book will see little problem with that, but those without it will have to make a judgment as to what to provide in its stead. It might have been prudent for Necromancer to provide these alternatives themselves or at least provide a price range for the replacement items of level for the replacement spells.
The biggest hit is really the maps. They are both a style hit due to their poor appearance, and a hit on usability due to their lack of general utility. It is my opinion that Necromancer Games should look to someone else to do their cartography.
