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Allen Hammack

Autor/a de The Ghost Tower of Inverness (C2)

8+ obres 357 Membres 1 crítiques

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Inclou aquests noms: Allen Hammack, Allan Hammack

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Obres de Allen Hammack

Obres associades

The Dragon Magazine, No. 19 (1978) — Col·laborador — 3 exemplars
The Dragon Magazine, No. 20 (1978) — Col·laborador — 3 exemplars
The Dragon Magazine, No. 22 (1979) — Col·laborador — 3 exemplars

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Coneixement comú

Data de naixement
20th century
Gènere
male
Professions
game designer

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Ressenyes

This is the third adventure in the classic "A" or "Slaver" series of tournament modules produced by TSR. It is, by a fair margin, the worst of the series. People who played role-playing games in the early 1980s are often nostalgic about the Slaver series, but my guess is that they are not particularly nostalgic about this poorly thought out railroad of an adventure. As with the other adventures in the series, the text presents a truncated "tournament" version and a slightly more fleshed out "campaign" version, although in this installment, the differences between the two for most of the adventure are so slight as to be almost nonexistent.

The adventure is basically three parts - a poorly detailed "slaver town" end-capped by two single lane dungeons that channel the players through a series of unavoidable hazards. The railroading starts early in this module: the players must enter the titular Aerie of the Slave Lords via a secret underground passageway. The passage is merely a single corridor punctuated by the occasional room containing a monster or trap. The only choices allowed to the players are exactly how they will overcome the bizarre puzzle each room presents. The corridors are guarded by a gang of gnolls, although from the map presented, they would not be able to move around without getting killed by the various traps and other nasty things in the passageway. This is explained in the text by saying that they use secret passages not shown on the game map, or that they just accept that one or two of their number will get killed running through the trapped areas. This is, put simply, a lame cop out on the part of the writer.

The second part of the adventure takes place in the town of Suderham, the terminus of the slave route the players have been following through the previous adventures in the series. The town is set in an interesting locale - an island on a lake inside of a supposedly extinct volcano - but most everything else about the settlement is silly. For example, Suderham is supposed to be the hub of the slave trade, but it is in a location that is so inaccessible that one would think that villains would find it easier to simply make their own slave raids rather than travel there. The town itself is a collection of taverns (many of which only cater to one character class, how the denizens determine which person is a "fighter" in leather armor rather than a "thief" is never explained), whorehouses, closed shops, barracks and abandoned buildings. This section is where the distinction between the tournament version and the campaign version is most apparent, as the tournament version requires the characters find the entrance to the hidden slave lord tunnels in a single night after following incredibly vague clues. The campaign version suggests the characters could spend days or weeks mucking about in Suderham and the surrounding area, although that would require that the DM significantly expand upon the presented material.

Assuming the player's decipher the cryptic clues, they will locate the final stage of this adventure, which is another single lane dungeon in which they are channeled through a series of obstacles until they find the slave lords. In the tournament version, the characters encounter an unavoidable trap, which sets up A4, the final installment of the series. In the campaign version, the players can (if the DM allows it) fight the slave lords, although they will be hopelessly outclassed to such an extent that they will probably have to raised from the dead by magic before they can be thrown into the dungeons.

Most of this adventure is mostly just moving the players from place to place, and gives them little choice in the matter. For the most part, the characters can either move forwards or backwards (and often backwards is ridiculously dangerous). The dénouement of the adventure is little more than a set up for the next one, and will likely leave a bitter taste in the mouth of most players unless they directly proceed to A4 (and many will still be annoyed even then). Of the many "classic" adventure scenarios, this is probably the weakest, and one of my least favorite.
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StormRaven | Dec 23, 2008 |

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Obres
8
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3
Membres
357
Popularitat
#67,136
Valoració
½ 3.6
Ressenyes
1
ISBN
10

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