WGR1 Greyhawk Ruins -- Your Experiences?

[Ulrick]

I've posted part one of a comphrensive review of the 2e module WGR1 Greyhawk Ruins over at d20 Dark Ages. Before I finish the 2nd (or even third part), I was wondering what people's experiences were with this module.

It's neither the "joke" module, WG7 Castle Greyhawk, nor the Expedition to the Ruins of Greyhawk for 3.5e, but the actual serious version, even though Gygax didn't write it.

Have you played through it or DMed it? If so, what are your thoughts?

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

I must admit, I bought this when it first came because EGG's name wasn't on the cover. The incomplete, randomly-generated, turgid dreck of the Temple of Elemental Evil - coupled with the inane "one true way" Dragon editorials of a few years earlier - had turned me off anything with Gary's name on by that point. I was pleased to see the names of different authors on the cover instead.

And I was pleased with their effort. Sure, it's an old school megadungeon but they had really made an effort to make it interesting in parts and they crammed a lot of material into the adventure's pages.

Frankly, I still think they did a better job than the 3.5E version Expedition to the Ruins of Castle Greyhawk as well. (I know, I know: burn me at the stake for heresy.)

Good job on the review. If I ever run AD&D or S&W again I think I will try it with this.

 

[MerricB]

I played through it during the 3E days with a conversion an acquaintance had done of it. I was very pleased with that campaign, one of the few times I've actually gotten to play D&D in the last fifteen years. I was the only player to never have my character die during the adventure. (I played a Sacred Flame of Pelor cleric). My old-school dungeoneering instincts got me through it safely!

The adventure has problems. The main one is that only one of the three towers is really interesting. It has some really good encounters in it. The other towers are a bit dull. So, our DM made sure we went through the interesting tower. It has some great encounters in it and some very flavourful writing.

Cheers!

 

[Ulrick]

Anybody else?

Here's the smiley to jog your memory.

 

[DaveMage]

I DMed it back in the 2E days and had a blast!

 

[Warunsun]

I was wondering what people's experiences were with this module.

I bought this module used but in excellent condition at GenCon before the Internet shops and PDFs were available. I have referenced it in past Greyhawk games and ran certain sections of it but I haven't yet run the module as it was intended. There is a chance I might run it with Castles & Crusades next year sometime. But the first campaign that was selected for our Castles & Crusades group overall by my players is to be a Second Edition timeline/era of the Forgotten Realms. So as much as I have interest in running the module I will wait to do it in Greyhawk proper. I just recently bought Castle of the Mad Archmage from RPGNow.com and it is in the mail. I would love to run a game using both of these source books in the famous dungeon.

 

[Ulrick]

Part 2 of the review is up.

 

[Agamon]

I own and ran this back in the day...apparently. I remember the maps and such, but I guess it was such a memorable adventure that I still don't really recall how well it went, lol.

 

[Evilhalfling]

I ran this as a solo modal, focusing on the tower of war.
The party of adventures I was controlling made it all the way to the bottom. The other towers were more focused on figuring out puzzles, and less suitable for running both sides.

I have used various parts of this modal for inspiration many adventures since. (second only to series D1-3) as a source of inspiration.

In the tower of War I loved that the dungeon that felt like it was a living environment. The monsters and balance of power changed the deeper they went. The dungeon even had its own economy. With production, and internal shipments of golden items designed to lure in fresh meat.

I didn't like the extortion of the Elves and Dwarves, or the Wild magic randomness from the tower of magic - it was annoying to roll for every spell cast. I have reused some of the magical traps and puzzles from this section - its good weird dungeon magic flavor. I even used a party splitting teleport trap, with the explanation that it allowed a builder/controller to access different parts of the dungeon quickly.
I put the ends of the teleport areas within earshot, so the next encounter started with scattered PCs coming from every direction.

The Tower of Zyag had a interesting flavor but its uniqueness and weird tech flavor make it limited use for inspiration. From this part I have only used the flavor/graffiti staircase down. With maybe 1-2 less broken traps borrowed as well.

 

[Vaprak001]

Frankly, this is probably my favourite ever module!

Summer, 1992 had beautiful weather in the UK and I'd just finished my second year at University. I should have sensibly got a job to earn some money but spent the entire Summer surviving on digestive biscuits and beer and DM'ing this module instead.

As mentioned, it was the volume of content and ideas included that was the module's core strength. When combined with a flexible structure, multiple potential plot-lines and 'light-touch' descriptions it allowed me to excel as a pragmatic DM and the players to have such fun.

The party started off meticulously exploring the Tower of War, but shifting humanoid war-bands meant they were cut off and had to retreat further down the Tower! So after spending two days playing fully in control, the players spent the next 6 weeks blindly trying to escape, meandering through all three towers. Obviously, I house-ruled out any need for inter-level expert training, this was more 'on-the-job' style training!

The party ended completing the whole adventure before...
*SPOILER* (sorry not sure how to hide text)
escaping in a spelljamming ship with urns full of ogre charming rings. That set of a series of further adventures that lasted for most of my 3rd year of Uni!