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<blockquote data-quote="JeffB" data-source="post: 2008450" data-attributes="member: 518">I must admit, more than any other product that WOTC has put out in the past, I was looking forward to this book the most. Being an old pre1E &amp; 1E era player as well as huge Greyhawk campaign fan who recently returned to gaming, I had high hopes. Unfortunately, I must say I was pretty dissapointed in &quot;Return&quot; RttToEE is a gigantic adventure. 190 pages of mostly dungeon based adventuring ( I really hate the term &quot;dungeon crawl&quot;, when did that come into vogue?). It involves an updated plotline to the original Temple of Elemental Evil module released in the mid 1980's. Although the original had some faults, it is regarded highly as a classic, and served to provide lot's of &quot;canon&quot; information for the Greyhawk campaign that to this day is evoked whenever GH gurus gather to discuss their fave world. IMO, this is where &quot;return&quot; falls flat. While a well crafted, and constructed adventure that is sure to offer gazillions of hours of adventure, it fails in adhereing to Greyhawk &quot;themes&quot; and &quot;canon&quot;.. I'm sure most readers of this review have read others so I won't get into the general plotline as it's been covered by many.Warning: SPOILER ALERTAs I was saying, &quot;Return&quot; has a few defenite GH &quot;no-no's&quot; placed throughout it. One annoying departure of GH canon is the fate of Prince Thrommell. In this adventure it is said that Thrommell was captured by Tharizdun Cultists, which totally disregards GH canon written both Gygax &amp; Carl Sargent(the two most well known writers for the setting). While this may seem minor to a non-GH fan, it is the sort of thing that would annoy a devoted GH'er,and also shows the authors lack of research for &quot;Return&quot;.Sadly, the above is only a prelude to the biggest reason &quot;Return&quot; left a bad taste in my mouth (as far as GH is concerned). The rather ridiculous tying up of various major GH plot threads/mysteries to one &quot;uber enemy&quot; (if you will). Tharizdun and his cult is used throughout &quot;Return&quot; as basically the &quot;masterminds&quot; behind a few (in)famous GH plots/storylines. Historically, Tharizdun, and his minions have had little or nothing to do w/ the plotlines of The original &quot;Temple&quot;, or the Giants/Drow series let alone Thrommells kidnapping. However, in &quot;Return&quot;, The author decides to use Thatrizdun and his cult as an excuse or answer for every mystery regarding this adventure and those past...BORING! One basic premise of GH has always been to never,ever to use lame plotlines such as this. This cheapens Tharizdun and his cultists as villians, and likens them to any other of a hundreds of poorly conceived,written, and executed villians in thousands of Fantasy books, and RPG supplements. As much as I like Monte Cook, and all of his work over the years, he certainly dropped the ball on this one.Of course if one is not a GH fan, these points might seem silly, but I have heard tales of similar dissapointment from other GH fans who have purchased &quot;Return&quot;, so I guess I'm not alone in my feelings.Technically, the adventure is very well written, interesting, and the map book is quite nice. I found the art a bit nicer than the art found in the WOTC core 3E modules, but still nothing particularly outstanding, or mood-evoking. the cover is a different story, a very, very nice work by Brom.&nbsp; Still, IMO the cover of the original &quot;Temple&quot; is one of the best pieces of art ever done for an RPG, and will be hard to top.Perhaps if &quot;Return&quot; had been written as a &quot;generic&quot; module, or for another campaign setting w/ different names and places, I would give it a 4, maybe even 4.5. However, this much anticipated update to a beloved classic gets an &quot;F&quot; grade when GH canon, history, and standards are taken into account..hence my score of 3.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="JeffB, post: 2008450, member: 518"] I must admit, more than any other product that WOTC has put out in the past, I was looking forward to this book the most. Being an old pre1E & 1E era player as well as huge Greyhawk campaign fan who recently returned to gaming, I had high hopes. Unfortunately, I must say I was pretty dissapointed in "Return" RttToEE is a gigantic adventure. 190 pages of mostly dungeon based adventuring ( I really hate the term "dungeon crawl", when did that come into vogue?). It involves an updated plotline to the original Temple of Elemental Evil module released in the mid 1980's. Although the original had some faults, it is regarded highly as a classic, and served to provide lot's of "canon" information for the Greyhawk campaign that to this day is evoked whenever GH gurus gather to discuss their fave world. IMO, this is where "return" falls flat. While a well crafted, and constructed adventure that is sure to offer gazillions of hours of adventure, it fails in adhereing to Greyhawk "themes" and "canon".. I'm sure most readers of this review have read others so I won't get into the general plotline as it's been covered by many. Warning: SPOILER ALERT As I was saying, "Return" has a few defenite GH "no-no's" placed throughout it. One annoying departure of GH canon is the fate of Prince Thrommell. In this adventure it is said that Thrommell was captured by Tharizdun Cultists, which totally disregards GH canon written both Gygax & Carl Sargent(the two most well known writers for the setting). While this may seem minor to a non-GH fan, it is the sort of thing that would annoy a devoted GH'er,and also shows the authors lack of research for "Return". Sadly, the above is only a prelude to the biggest reason "Return" left a bad taste in my mouth (as far as GH is concerned). The rather ridiculous tying up of various major GH plot threads/mysteries to one "uber enemy" (if you will). Tharizdun and his cult is used throughout "Return" as basically the "masterminds" behind a few (in)famous GH plots/storylines. Historically, Tharizdun, and his minions have had little or nothing to do w/ the plotlines of The original "Temple", or the Giants/Drow series let alone Thrommells kidnapping. However, in "Return", The author decides to use Thatrizdun and his cult as an excuse or answer for every mystery regarding this adventure and those past...BORING! One basic premise of GH has always been to never,ever to use lame plotlines such as this. This cheapens Tharizdun and his cultists as villians, and likens them to any other of a hundreds of poorly conceived,written, and executed villians in thousands of Fantasy books, and RPG supplements. As much as I like Monte Cook, and all of his work over the years, he certainly dropped the ball on this one. Of course if one is not a GH fan, these points might seem silly, but I have heard tales of similar dissapointment from other GH fans who have purchased "Return", so I guess I'm not alone in my feelings. Technically, the adventure is very well written, interesting, and the map book is quite nice. I found the art a bit nicer than the art found in the WOTC core 3E modules, but still nothing particularly outstanding, or mood-evoking. the cover is a different story, a very, very nice work by Brom. Still, IMO the cover of the original "Temple" is one of the best pieces of art ever done for an RPG, and will be hard to top. Perhaps if "Return" had been written as a "generic" module, or for another campaign setting w/ different names and places, I would give it a 4, maybe even 4.5. However, this much anticipated update to a beloved classic gets an "F" grade when GH canon, history, and standards are taken into account..hence my score of 3. [/QUOTE]

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