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The Lost City - Goodman Games Next Classic TSR Adventure Revisited
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<blockquote data-quote="timbannock" data-source="post: 7785740" data-attributes="member: 17913"><p>Nice!</p><p></p><p>I held off from getting these because of the factors many other folks have noted: including reprints of the original adventures didn't seem *that* big of a draw for the page count, the price tag was a bit high, and the conversion work seems relatively easy, overall.</p><p></p><p>I finally picked up Isle of Dread because I wanted to utilize it with some of the rulesy stuff in Ghosts of Saltmarsh. And my word, I was so mistaken to have waited this long! I immediately ordered Into the Borderlands as well. What I found was the following, which may not win everyone over (and that's fine! you do you!), but it sure made me rethink my stance on the line:</p><p></p><p>*The reprint portions come with fun essays and give you a sense of how to run the stuff in 5E in a more condensed format, meaning you see at a glance what stuff was "original content" and what's new from Goodman Games. So you have the power to easily make these adventures much bigger and more sprawling, or keep them simple and sweet without needing to guess at what parts to include or not.</p><p></p><p>*The 5e conversion work is not simple 1:1 monster and magic item conversions, not by a long shot. Goodman Games' crew has taken great care to provide dozens and dozens of new monsters, to alter existing stat blocks (like run-of-the-mill guards and pirates) with interesting mechanics and clearly explained weapon or gear swaps, and to make use of books like Volo's Guide to Monsters and others to source appropriate monsters. Isle of Dread alone has something like 20-30 entirely new stat blocks, some stat blocks reprinted from other sources (like VGM or Tomb of Annihilation), plus well over a dozen new, unique NPC stat blocks. On top of that, in the text some existing stat blocks feature alterations that are pretty fun, along with tactics write-ups that make them easy to use: Into the Borderlands features guard stat blocks with different weapon and armor loadouts that make for unique combat strategies.</p><p></p><p>*The new material provided for the adventures have, IMHO, been nothing but exceptionally high-quality additions. Goodman's team clearly cares about sticking with the tone of the original adventures, while simultaneously providing story hooks that make the adventures "feel" like the more recent, highly-story driven releases from Wizards of the Coast. That's really tough to balance, but they do so expertly, keeping the new material and story hooks separated from the original stuff, but still easily referenced. It's a master class in how to do "old school" and "new school" in the same release, often with lots and lots of options.</p><p></p><p>*All of this lends to the replayability of the modules, something that some of the more recent adventure paths and campaigns don't do well. Even adventures like Out of the Abyss and Storm King's Thunder, which have huge sandbox sections, feature a generally linear portion bookending that. Into the Borderlands and Isle of Dread feature great story ideas, but do so as optional information in a way that allows them to stay sandboxes even if/when you add those bigger story hooks in.</p><p></p><p>I've made ample use of Isle of Dread's monsters when running some material from Ghosts of Saltmarsh as well as a few one-shots from Uncaged. That's quite the gamut. So if you're on the fence about these releases, consider those points.</p><p></p><p>I'm excited for this announcement, and I swear I'm not paid by Goodman to post this! ;-P</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="timbannock, post: 7785740, member: 17913"] Nice! I held off from getting these because of the factors many other folks have noted: including reprints of the original adventures didn't seem *that* big of a draw for the page count, the price tag was a bit high, and the conversion work seems relatively easy, overall. I finally picked up Isle of Dread because I wanted to utilize it with some of the rulesy stuff in Ghosts of Saltmarsh. And my word, I was so mistaken to have waited this long! I immediately ordered Into the Borderlands as well. What I found was the following, which may not win everyone over (and that's fine! you do you!), but it sure made me rethink my stance on the line: *The reprint portions come with fun essays and give you a sense of how to run the stuff in 5E in a more condensed format, meaning you see at a glance what stuff was "original content" and what's new from Goodman Games. So you have the power to easily make these adventures much bigger and more sprawling, or keep them simple and sweet without needing to guess at what parts to include or not. *The 5e conversion work is not simple 1:1 monster and magic item conversions, not by a long shot. Goodman Games' crew has taken great care to provide dozens and dozens of new monsters, to alter existing stat blocks (like run-of-the-mill guards and pirates) with interesting mechanics and clearly explained weapon or gear swaps, and to make use of books like Volo's Guide to Monsters and others to source appropriate monsters. Isle of Dread alone has something like 20-30 entirely new stat blocks, some stat blocks reprinted from other sources (like VGM or Tomb of Annihilation), plus well over a dozen new, unique NPC stat blocks. On top of that, in the text some existing stat blocks feature alterations that are pretty fun, along with tactics write-ups that make them easy to use: Into the Borderlands features guard stat blocks with different weapon and armor loadouts that make for unique combat strategies. *The new material provided for the adventures have, IMHO, been nothing but exceptionally high-quality additions. Goodman's team clearly cares about sticking with the tone of the original adventures, while simultaneously providing story hooks that make the adventures "feel" like the more recent, highly-story driven releases from Wizards of the Coast. That's really tough to balance, but they do so expertly, keeping the new material and story hooks separated from the original stuff, but still easily referenced. It's a master class in how to do "old school" and "new school" in the same release, often with lots and lots of options. *All of this lends to the replayability of the modules, something that some of the more recent adventure paths and campaigns don't do well. Even adventures like Out of the Abyss and Storm King's Thunder, which have huge sandbox sections, feature a generally linear portion bookending that. Into the Borderlands and Isle of Dread feature great story ideas, but do so as optional information in a way that allows them to stay sandboxes even if/when you add those bigger story hooks in. I've made ample use of Isle of Dread's monsters when running some material from Ghosts of Saltmarsh as well as a few one-shots from Uncaged. That's quite the gamut. So if you're on the fence about these releases, consider those points. I'm excited for this announcement, and I swear I'm not paid by Goodman to post this! ;-P [/QUOTE]
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