[WoG] R1-4 Modules

[grodog]

You're welcome John.

I would also send your missing maps notice to Jim Butler at Bastion Press, since his company is still handling the scan process and corrections thereto.

 

[howandwhy99]

Quick question,

Frank Mentzer seems to have written some pretty amazing stuff for 1st Ed. Is he still in the RPG business?

 

[Joshua Randall]

According to The Acaeum:

I12 Egg of the Phoenix is a compilation (and slightly slimmed-down version) of modules R1 - R4. A plot was dreamed up to tie these modules together in I12, but it doesn't really work. Some of the characters from this module were eventually incorporated into the Forgotten Realms via module FR5 Savage Frontier (thanks to Michele Toscan for this info).

I disagree with the Acaeum's assertion that I12 "doesn't really work". I have read the module several times and have DM'd it once. It is high fantasy, make no mistake, and it does railroad the players from place to place and crisis to crisis. But for players who don't mind that sort of thing it can be a lot of fun. There are some neat locations and exciting set-piece battles to fight, along with healthy doses of investigation and puzzle-solving.

As for background info, I12 goes into the history relevant to its story - a history that seems much different than the one quoted earlier in this thread (about King John, etc.). So I'm not sure where or when I12 fits into the canonical Greyhawk history.

Still, I12 is a nifty module - reading this thread makes me want to dig it up and run through it again.

 

[grodog]

Quick question,

Frank Mentzer seems to have written some pretty amazing stuff for 1st Ed. Is he still in the RPG business?

Frank and his wife run a bakery up in northern WI, IIRC. He has talked some about publishing his materials from time-to-time, but I haven't heard much from him lately, so I can't really say anything more with any reliability.

I would hope that Frank would publish his stuff, but I also hope that the EGG/RJK's Castle Greyhawk project gets off the ground with Kenzer too. Who knows which'll happen first, if either happens at all? :-/

 

[grodog]

According to The Acaeum:

I disagree with the Acaeum's assertion that I12 "doesn't really work". I have read the module several times and have DM'd it once. It is high fantasy, make no mistake, and it does railroad the players from place to place and crisis to crisis. But for players who don't mind that sort of thing it can be a lot of fun. There are some neat locations and exciting set-piece battles to fight, along with healthy doses of investigation and puzzle-solving.

As for background info, I12 goes into the history relevant to its story - a history that seems much different than the one quoted earlier in this thread (about King John, etc.). So I'm not sure where or when I12 fits into the canonical Greyhawk history.

Still, I12 is a nifty module - reading this thread makes me want to dig it up and run through it again.

JERandall, I have also read and DM'd I12 a few times. I thought it was OK, but once I got copies of R1-4, I found that my opinion of the adventure dropped: the original adventures really don't have any over-arching plot (much like the original super-module series [T1-4 ---> A1-4 ---> GDQ1-7] wasn't originally related).

The info I quoted about King John and what not was similar to the material from R4's history/background, which is the only stuff in the R1-4 series that details much info relevant to Greyhawk canon. It is, indeed, quite different from the I12 background info, since it originally only applied to on of the four adventures (which, again, were not originally related at all).

When I ran I12, my players and I had a decent time; I would still rate R1-4 as better adventures than the combined I12, but YMMV of course