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PC1 Creature Crucible: Tall Tales of the Wee Folk (Basic)
by Jarred [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 03/01/2024 19:55:24

Beyond fantastic, truly a defining book in fantasy.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
PC1 Creature Crucible: Tall Tales of the Wee Folk (Basic)
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Chains of Asmodeus
by Peter L. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 02/29/2024 10:53:17

There's a lot to like about the book, even if it falls short in a few areas. As other reviewers have mentioned, the artwork for the devils is atrocious (there's no effort at all to follow official descriptions from any era or the D&D aesthetic). The maps, however, are beautiful, even if the infinite layers are reduced in scope and the Avernus map is largely cut & paste from BG:DiA (as one would expect). The campaign itself is a railroad utterly dependent on NPCs (none of whom are particularly interesting). That said, for those who like the Hells there's a lot of useful bits to use, from locations, to creatures, and beyond. I'm not a fan of 5e's current Hellish hierarchy (AD&D's was more interesting), but the designers are limited in what they can do creatively. The Hellish dukes are far too weak (as, indeed, are the archdevils in 5e), but the scaling problem in 5e is well-known. To me this book is best used as a resource for the Hells rather than a campaign.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Chains of Asmodeus
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N5 Under Illefarn (1e)
by Timothy B. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 02/29/2024 10:04:53

Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2024/02/review-n5-under-illefarn.html

My exploration of the Forgotten Realms continues with the next adventure on my list, N5 Under Illefarn by Steve Perrin. I actually ran this adventure a while back at the start of my 5e Second Campaign long ago. My first real attempt at getting a Realms game going. While that game would end up in different directions, the adventure is still a solid one.

N5 Under Illefarn

by Steve Perin. 1987. 50 pages, color covers (Jeff Easley) and maps (Stephen Sullivan), black & white art (Luise Perenne).

I am reviewing the PDF and Print on Demand versions from DriveThruRPG.

This is a "Novice Level" adventure and, likely due to timing, became connected to the Forgotten Realms. It is also the first of the N series to feature the Forgotten Realms banner. Something similar happened to the H series on the other end of the level spectrum.

When I talked about Module N4 Treasure Hunt, I mentioned that it was a great starting adventure that missed a little of what also made B2 Keep on the Borderland so great. This is fine since we already had Keep on the Borderlands. N5 strikes a middle ground. There is a base of operations, plenty of "wild" areas to explore, and a hook. It also works as a direct sequel to N4. You can play it stand-alone (as I did in 2017) or as a follow-up. Both have advantages.

Like N4, we are given an overview of the AD&D 1st Ed game, in particular the races and classes. Now, back in 2017, I said: "I am going to run it through like an AD&D game. So no tieflings or dragonborn. More gnomes, though, never have enough of those." That was a mistake in retrospect. If anywhere is open to Dragonborn, Tieflings, and all the new post-AD&D 1st-ed races (remember, tieflings are AD&D 2nd-ed), then it will be Faerûn. There is a bit on how you all get to Daggerford and what happens once you are there. I admit I did not like the idea of the characters needing to be in the Town Militia until I started thinking of this adventure as akin to an episode of "Cops" or, more to the point, the parody "Troops."

The base of operations for the characters is the small frontier town of Daggerford. So, like the Keep. From here the characters can go on quick adventures and then come back. An idea implicit for B2 KotBL, but here it is baked in.

The DM's section gives some background on the village of about 300 people and some 1,000 total living in the surrounding area. Sounds like where my wife grew up. The area and the city make are given. This includes many of the shops and building and what surrounds the village. There is even a bit on the "Big City" Chicago, I mean Waterdeep.

The main personalities of the town are also detailed. One of the things I had to used to (and get over) was that the Realms is about people. I can choose to use who I want. In 1987 this annoyed me, but in truth I was already switching my point of view then. Now? Now it is great. I mean, do I need to use Duke Pwyll Greatshout Daggerford? No. But why would I not want to?

This covers about the first half of the book. After this are adventures.

What kind of adventures? Lots! The first page has the AD&D staple, the Random Encounter Tables. One of the outcomes is a Ceratosaur! Imagine this. You are a still a newbie adventurer. You just recently learned which is the pointy end of the spear and which is the end you hold. Now you are on milita duty, and someone finds dinosaur tracks on your very first day on what you were told was going to be dull work making sure kids don't steal apples in the marketplace.

Kudos to Steve Perrin for getting going. And that is just one random encounter. I mean there is also a hermit. Yes, I said he is the same one from the KotBL. Why not. There are also werewolves, which I am using later on.

Among the detailed adventurers are a raid by Lizard Men (why I grabbed this in 2017 to be honest), basic Caravan duty, a kidnapped daughter of the Duke, and the titular Illefarn in the Laughing Hallow. The adventures range from a couple of pages to several.

The best thing about this adventure. Well, one of the best things. You can run it in many short adventures to get new players into the game. Need to spend an extra hour explaining rules? No worries, do that and send them on Militia duty to guard a caravan against orc raiders. That's a solid session.

Note About the Pring on Demand Print

The PDF from DriveThruRPG looks great and served me well in 2017. Recently I also grabbed the Print on Demand copy from DriveThru. There is some dithering from lower resolution art being brought up to print quality, but the text looks like it has been redone so it is nice and sharp and easy to read. I should note that it is not all the art. Some look rather crisp and clear as well. They may have had some of the higher resolution versions still on hand.

Again, we have a great introductory adventure. Not just good to introduce people to the AD&D 1st Edition game but also a great way to ease into the Forgotten Realms. Waterdeep is too big of a bite for new players (and characters) and many of the "big names" are still too big. This is nice little village with some fun problems to solve. A taste of adventure. An appetizer in small portions OR more akin to Tapas or Dim Sum. Small plates that can add up to a nice full meal.

(more details about the three characters I ran through on my full review site.))



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
N5 Under Illefarn (1e)
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Forgotten Realms Campaign Set (1e)
by Timothy B. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 02/22/2024 09:33:37

Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2024/02/review-forgotten-realms-campaign-set.html

I have asked this before, but it bears repeating here and now. How does one review a classic? Better question. How does one review a genre-defining classic? Because that is what I have sitting in front of me now. A genre-defining classic. Eighteen-year-old me back in 1987, ready for his first year at university, would not have thought so at the time, but that is what much older me thinks now. The Forgotten Realms was the foundation of the "new" TSR, the one without Gary Gygax and many of the other founders on which they would build their new home. We can debate the merits of this and financials ad nauseam, but by any stretch of the imagination, the Forgotten Realms were very successful. So successful that the biggest video game of 2023 is set there.

This review will cover the Forgotten Realms Campaign Set, the Boxed set from 1987. Written by Ed Greenwood and Jeff Grubb and edited by Karen S. Boomgarden. But any insight to this product knows that the genesis was with Ed, and he first brought it all to life in the pages of Dragon magazine. At least that is alive to us. Many other authors have contributed to Realms over the decades, but here is where it begins.

How do we begin? Let's take Ed's own words, which he scribbled into my Cyclopedia of the Realms as our opening.

"Welcome to the Forgotten Realms!" - Ed Greenwood

Forgotten Realms Campaign Set by Ed Greenwood, Jeff Grubb and edited by Karen S. Boomgarden. 1987. Boxed set. Full-color covers and maps. Cyclopedia of the Realms 96 pages. DMs Sourcebook of the Realms 96 pages. Maps and clear hex overlays.

For this review, I am considering the physical boxed set from 1987 and the PDFs from DriveThruRPG. There has yet to be a Print on Demand version.

The DriveThruRPG PDF combines all this information into a 230-page book. Maps are broken up and scanned in at letter size.

Cyclopedia of the Realms 96 pages. Color covers. Sepia-tone pages and art.

"Let's start at the very beginning. A very good place to start." - Maria von Trapp nee Kuczera, Bard/Cleric

This book is an introduction to the Forgotten Realms, and maybe the most important bit here is the introduction by Ed Greenwood/Elminster and the About this Product. We start immediately with the "voice" of the Realms, Elminster. He is no ersatz Gandalf, nor is he a more approachable Mordenkainen, and certainly, he is more interesting than Ringlerun. He is our guide, but sometimes I still like to think of him as an unreliable narrator. These are the Realms in his eyes. More (if the not the most) knowledgable, but there are still "small stories" to tell that are beneath his notice. Those are the stories (aka games) I want to know about.

This book covers the timeline (I do love timelines!) and ways of keeping time in the Realms. The date for this set is the end of 1357 DR (that's Dale Reckoning or Dalereckoning). For full context, the Baldur's Gate III video game takes place in 1494 DR, with the current year of the D&D 5e titles at 1496 DR. There is a bit of discussion about holidays and how the "weeks" are grouped as Tendays (3 a month). It feels different and I like it. The money system is rather AD&D standard, with some proper names to the coins. This is fine because this IS supposed to be an AD&D world, and the authors want people to feel familiar with it all, if not right at home.

Languages and scripts are up. Some of these are still being used in current versions of D&D.

The Gods are next. These were already familiar to me, not just because this is an old product, but because Ed talked about them in Dragon magazine back in 1995. See "The Dragon Connection" below. While these gods have "Earthly" sources, it actually works out great and ties into the mythology of the Realms as one being connected to Earth. Something it shares with Greyhawk's Oerth. The connection between Greyhawk and the Forgotten Realms is strong. They share almost all the same demi-human gods. By extension of the rule-set they also share all the same demons and devils. This makes moving between worlds a little smoother. The gods and their relationships are detailed well here and there is just enough unknow to keep them interesting.

Next section is about Adventuring Companies. So here is one thing that the Realms does better than Greyhawk (well there are more, but the first thing in this book). Adventurers are baked into the system. The world doesn't just need adventuring parties, it demands them. These parties can be used as models for your own adventuring parties. All these parties have names as well. I'll have to think about how Sinéad and Co would fit this format. Plus, the back cover of this book has a grid for the adventuring party! Room for 10 characters even.

We get into the "Cyclopedia" part of the book now. This is an alphabetical listing of major topics within the Realms. These include things like the various character classes, races, countries, towns, areas of interest and other topics. There is a narrative piece describing it, Elminster's Notes for the point of view of the most knowledgeable native (even when he admits to not knowing much), and Game Information.

I rather like it, to be honest. Hit me with facts, and let me build some adventures around it!

DMs Sourcebook of the Realms 96 pages. Color covers. Sepia-tone pages and art.

One of the best things in this book is the Introduction. We get words from Ed (as Ed) talking about the World of the Forgotten Realms and how it is now our world too. Yeah it is trademarked by TSR and now WotC/Hasbro, but this is an open invitation to do what you want with this world now. This is a foreshadowing to all the great Ed Greenwood content we would get over the next almost 4 decades. Honestly reading Ed's own words make me excited for all the exploration ahead of me. This is followed by words from Jeff Grubb, who also had a hand in shaping the AD&D version of the Realms. And more by editor Karen S. Martin who adds her experience and excitement to this world.

So much better than any puff-piece bit of gamer fiction!

We get right into it. Information on how to use this as an AD&D campaign world is started from the word go. Overview again of the boxed set. How to set up campaigns for new players, new campaigns for experienced players, and bringing in characters from other campaigns. Hmm...I should try all of these to be honest. Maybe a character from one of my Greyhawk or Mystara campaigns could come on over. I DO like the idea that Elvish and Dwarvish and some others are mostly the same languages. Would really help bring the worlds closer together.

A bit of coverage on the maps and how to use them. Nice comparison of the map of Faerûn compared to the continental United States. And a section of various wandering monsters. The Forgotten Realms may be Forgotten, but they are very much alive!

The next 20 pages detail NPCs of note. Any to drop in as background, enemy, or ally.

Speaking of living. A really nice section on recent news and various rumors starting in DR 1356 to 1357 are presented. With or without your characters, the Relams live on.

Another plus for this boxed set is the ready-run adventures for low-level characters. The first, The Halls of the Beast Tamers, is a nice dungeon crawl. Next is Lashan's Fall, which appeared in Dragon #95 as "Into the Forgotten Realms," and even the maps are the same! Mind you I think this is a bonus since that is the adventure I always wanted to use as an intro to the Realms. I still can come to think of it.

The next section is a "Pages from the Mages" style entry. Lots of spells books to be found with plenty of new spells. I think some of these were in "Pages form the Mages" to be honest. That's fine, they work well here.

Honestly, the ONLY thing missing here are some new monsters, and this would be complete.

Maps & Plastic Hex Overlays

There are four gorgeous maps of the content of Faerûn. While it doesn't quite live up to the artistry of the Darlene World of Greyhawk maps, they are more practical. The plastic hex overlays also make it easier to read the maps and then do your hex crawls in whatever area you like.

NOTE: There are no overlays in the PDF for obvious reasons.

The Dragon Connection

One of the great things about doing my This Old Dragon feature and concentrating on the period between 1980 and 1987 is watching the Forgotten Realms develop and grow as an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons world. From Ed's musings on gods in Down to Earth Divinity to magical tomes and spells of the Pages from the Mages and The Wizards Three features to adventure Into the Forgotten Realms, all of which would find homes in an official Forgotten Realms product in some shape or form.

I mentioned already that Dragon #95's Into the Forgotten Realms makes an appearance here as an introductory adventure.

As I mentioned, all we were missing were monsters. Well, Ed penned enough monsters in the pages of Dragon Magazine that were explicitly for the Realms, so collecting them all is worthwhile. In addition to monsters, there are magic items, more spells, blades, shields, and even musical instruments, and I know I am nowhere near collecting it all. I do know I will run out of room in my box for them all.

My Thoughts

There is a lot packed in this box. It's like a TARDIS really; bigger on the inside. In truth, nothing of what I thought was going to be here was here. Yes, there are NPCs, but they are background, and your characters may never ever run into them. They are the background noise of the Realms until the characters are the big noise. I certainly unfairly judged the Forgotten Realms.

A lot of this stemmed from me thinking that Gygax had been done wrong. Yes, that was true, but the Realms really had nothing to do with that. The New TSR was working to relgate Gygx to the past and Ed was just the guy in the right place in the right time with the right idea. I was also unfair of me to judge the Realms on that. If reading Ed's "The Wizard's Three" has taught me anything that Abier-Toril and Oerth have more in common than not.

This is, of course, just the start. A big start, to be sure, but a start all the same. This is a canvas to paint on. This is a great set, not just for its time but also for now. Minus some of the stat blocks and spells, everything here can be used with any version of D&D or similar game with little or no effort.

While I am somewhat overwhelmed by the task before me, I am also excited about it.

Honestly, I am going to pull out some dice and roll up some characters now.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Forgotten Realms Campaign Set (1e)
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DDAL00-05 Winter's Splendor (5e)
by Jason J. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 02/21/2024 04:33:25

I love holiday-themed adventures, regardless of which holiday, and this was just fun to run during the Christmas season. Players had a lot of fun, and several wanted to adopt Chernok for their own familiar.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
DDAL00-05 Winter's Splendor (5e)
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DDEX2-04 Mayhem in the Earthspur Mines (5e)
by Jason J. [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 02/21/2024 04:25:28

This was a fun module to run. Starting in a fighting pit always catches my player's attention, followed by the randomness that they find in the mine proper made for an enjoyable time for everyone.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
DDEX2-04 Mayhem in the Earthspur Mines (5e)
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Calimport (2e)
by Rodney [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 02/18/2024 18:51:37

I like the information in an electronic format. That is why I bought it. I can read it in the NOTES of my iPhone. What I dislike about it is that it is NOT searchable. Most of the electronic material I purchase from DriveThru RPG IS searchable. As a DM, I like the idea of being able to input a name and locate it without having to search for it, remembering where I read the information. As for quality, top notch. DriveThru RPG provides top-quality in their printed material. I have both.

I'm just hoping to see an update someday making the PDF searchable.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Calimport (2e)
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Reverse Dungeon (2e)
by Skip [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 02/17/2024 12:56:35

Awesome. Adventurers are dicks. They break into the homes of creatures who are... different. They kill all and steal everything they choose. They have no idea what that's like.

Until now.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Reverse Dungeon (2e)
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D&D Rules Cyclopedia (Basic)
by Andras [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 02/17/2024 04:52:05

The binding is good on the Hardback book so far. The printing quailty varies from very good to average. I kind of looks slightly blurry at times and occasionally the print looks like it slid a bit on print. I gave it a 3, mainly because of the print quailty. For me, I'm mainly using "OSE Old school essentials" and got this more as a reference book with that. As "The Rules Cyclodepia" covers much higher levels and OSE is Basic DnD Cleaned up.

The book is pretty cheap though (especially comparing buying an original print edition of the book, which is crazy expensive) , so whilst the print of text is a bit dodgy at times, it was worth it for me given how I'm using it.



Rating:
[3 of 5 Stars!]
D&D Rules Cyclopedia (Basic)
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B2 The Keep on the Borderlands (Basic)
by Minrocheem [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 02/09/2024 16:31:05

The quality of the PDF is atrocious. It's a low quality scan that doesn't even have OCR text recognition to make the document searchable.

The print on demand is hideous. Most of the pages look like low quality compressed scans that are slightly blurry, but some of the pages are very crisp and clean.

The front and back cover are also soft and blurry with visible jpg compression artifacts around the text.

I honestly regret buying this one.



Rating:
[1 of 5 Stars!]
B2 The Keep on the Borderlands (Basic)
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B1 In Search of the Unknown (Basic)
by Kenneth [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 02/09/2024 05:08:04

This is a great POD, the service was impeccable, fast and the quality of the print can't be faulted. Illustrations, don't and maps are as per the original and I had no issues reading and referencing it while at the table.

I dropped a star for the content, let me explain. Everyone knows this is a much beloved classic and many have great memories from playing back in the day. But myself and other people I know who have ran it will know that there is nothing much cohesive about it. It isn't an "adventure" per se, more collection of encounters and areas you could use as a toolbox for any low level games you are running. If you bought this hoping for a good way to introduce people to B/X era gaming I think you'd better suited with KotB. But if you want a nostalgia rush and more tools for your DM box then this is a brilliant little bit of D&D history to own.

Overall worth it to have on the shelf because of the great print quality.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
B1 In Search of the Unknown (Basic)
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Oriental Adventures (1e)
by John [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 02/08/2024 11:16:33

Oriental Adventures was a huge move forward for 1st Edition AD&D, although there were some hints of the over-complication of 2E on the horizon.

Rather than use this space as a review of the game system itself, I'll speak to the quality of the scan. (I don't see a POD option.)

I purchased the PDFs to supplement my ancient rule books, largely because PDF is searchable. Throwing the old rules into Obsidian to manage the information overload is a great way to find what I'm looking for, particularly during a play session.

Unfortunately, this scan's OCR is pretty poor. The clarity of the scan is fine, and I can always figure out what should have been recognized on the text layer, but it frequently is not.

It's not likely important enough for me to try to re-recognize the text, although it's possible that my open-source tools could do a better job than Wizards did. I want to emphasize that the clarity of the scan seems top-notch.

Anyway, 4 out of 5 — quite good and very useful, but quite a lot of work to get useful text out of it.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Oriental Adventures (1e)
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N4 Treasure Hunt (1e)
by Timothy B. [Featured Reviewer] Date Added: 02/07/2024 09:23:10

Originally posted here: https://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2024/02/review-module-n4-treasure-hunt.html

I knew my exploration of the Forgotten Realms would take me to new and unexpected places. I just didn't think it was going to be this soon. In my exploration of the Forgotten Realms product Moonshae, I discovered an interesting bit of knowledge. In the back of that book it mentions that Adventure Module N4 Treasure Hunt can be used with the Moonshae Islands. I later discovered that the islands in N4 were moved over to the Forgotten Realms for this purpose. So I had to switch courses and check out this module. I am really happy I did.

This module is not just an introduction module, but maybe THE introduction to the game module. Where you have an honest-to-Gary Session 0 and start with 0-Level characters in 1986. Given I am new to all things Realms, I might as well start at level 0!

N4 Treasure Hunt

by Aaron Allston, 48 pages (2 full color map pages, 36 pages of adventure, 10 pages of character profiles) black & white interiors. Art by Stephen Fabian. Cartographers: David F. "Diesel" LaForce, Stephen D. Sullivan, Bill Reuter, Stephanie Tabat. Cover art by Jeff Easley/

For this review, I am considering the PDF and Print on Demand version from DriveThruRPG/DMSGuild.

Treasure Hunt is a completely introductory adventure for players of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition game. I say "players" since I feel this adventure still requires a bit of rules savvy from the Dungeon Master, at least in terms of some of the lifts needed to work with the 0-level characters. However, reading this one nearly 40 years later, with honestly tens of thousands of hours spent on this game, there are nice gems here.

Speaking of which. I am not going to attempt to judge this adventure by the same yardstick as new Level-0 or the so-called "Funnel" adventures. That is not fair to the author nor the adventure itself. This has to judged on the merits of its time. But I will tell you this, I'd run this today, as is, with no changes to be honest.

There is a Player's Introduction and Dungeon Master's Introduction.

This is the most interesting parts for me today since they cover the rules of rolling up and playing Level-0 characters. For starters, you don't have a class yet. You are a Normal Human (or elf, or half-elf, or whatever), and you have 1d6 hit points and maybe a secondary skill. You don't even have an alignment. The plot revolves around your character, either one you make or use from the starting characters, being kidnapped by pirates, and then your pirate captors are shipwrecked and mostly all killed. Now, you are stuck in the Korinn Archipelago, later added to the north of the Moonshaes.

From here the new PCs work out an escape plan and defeat their first enemy, the last pirate.

As the players play through the challenges presented on these islands they can build up what their character does and earn some XP. They are all 500 xp away from level 1. The adventure explains that even 1st level characters have some training. A fighter at level 1 is called a Veteran. A 1st level Cleric is an Acolyte. Even thieves and magic-users have some skills at first level that 0-levels do not. Want to be a thief? Try picking that lock. Want to be a Cleric? What do you feel when you enter the Temple of the Goddess and how do you react? You won't know till the end (or near that) and you won't get there till you try.

Frankly, it is great. A fantastic set of mini-mechanics to get the story going and flowing.

The adventure itself is divided into six "episodes." And episode is a good word here since there is a bit of cinematic feel to this. It feels like Aaron Allston watched a lot of Raiders of the Lost Ark, or more to the point, Romancing the Stone. This is a good thing.

Each episode gives the new PCs something tangible to do. Defeat the pirate, stop the orcs and goblins, explore the Temple, explore the Sea King's Manor, and so on. While there is a great feel to all of this, add a bit of the Moonshaes to it, and thus some Celtic and Old Norse culture to it all, and it becomes a fun mix.

Even for the time, the adventure is a bit linear, but not in a terrible way. I mean, let's be honest, the plot is "I've been captured, now I am free, but how do I get out of here?" At the end of each episode, there is a debrief for the DM on handling anything that went amiss, tracking the character's class and alignment progression, and so on. There are even contingencies if certain NPCs are not encountered or die before they are supposed to do something. So, linear but with enough branches to keep it fresh.

Experience points are tracked all along the way, so there is a chance the characters will break the 500 XP threshold by the end of episode 5.

There are appendices on "What if Things Go Wrong" or "What if the Character Dies?" and all are handled pretty well. There are some clever Player's Maps and the map of the islands.

The character profiles in the back can be used as potential PCs or NPCs. A few are even worded to be male or female. Someone online would have screamed, "Woke!" at it, but it is presented here as just one of many options. I do feel more care was taken here to entice both male and female new players to the game.

This adventure is a good one for new players. The only thing missing here is some more guidance for new DMs. Something that B2 Keep on the Borderlands does rather well. Maybe the perfect starting trilogy is this adventure, then T1 the Village of Hommlet, and ending with B2 Keep on the Borderlands.

About the Print-on-Demand Scan

This is a print of a scanned image. So there is some fuzziness to some of the letters. It is obviously not as sharp as, say, a direct from digital print. It is still very readable. Getting the PoD and PDF will give a book you can use and be able to print out the character cards and player maps as needed.

Treasure Hunt in the Forgotten Realms

I already mentioned that the location of this adventure, the Korinn Archipelago, was dropped as right into the Moonshae Isles, which were already an addition by Douglas Niles to the Forgotten Realms, supplanting Ed Greenwood's own islands that were there. Already the Realms are evolving in front of our eyes and it is not even fully 1987 yet.

As an adventure, it is also a great start for Realms-centric characters. I had already planned to make my start in the Moonshaes, this just sets characters on the path of adventure in a different way. You didn't meet in a tavern or bar. You were captured and met your companions along the way. Something we will see again in Baldur's Gate 3 or even, to a degree, Skyrim.

The Temple of the Goddess in Episode Three can easily become a Temple to the Earth Mother / Chauntea. Lots of different Goddesses are given as example, but I thought it might be fun if the Earth Mother appears as all of them. Playing into my fascination with "the Goddess is all goddesses" motif.

Final Thoughts

If I had been smarter, I would have used this first when re-creating my Forgotten Realms characters, but as it is, this worked out fine. This is also a great new-to-me adventure for a new-to-me world. While I LOVE B2 Keep on the Borderlands, it is too closely tied to Greyhawk and the Known World for me to really adapt it over the Realms. Would it even fit in the Realms? I am sure many online users have found a home for it. Maybe one day I could as well, but for now, this is a great adventure to start with. In fact, I want to go through all the N, aka "Novice," adventures and see how they fit my needs here. But for now, I am pretty happy with this.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
N4 Treasure Hunt (1e)
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Player's Handbook, Revised (2e)
by Geoffrey [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 02/06/2024 02:51:39

Thanks for this, great print, and only 2 weeks from the UK to Australia (started at 4 weeks, then 3, then the last 3 orders only 2!)



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Player's Handbook, Revised (2e)
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N1 Against the Cult of the Reptile God (1e)
by Geoffrey [Verified Purchaser] Date Added: 02/06/2024 02:50:29

Pretty much the same as others, the town map issue. All other maps are there.



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N1 Against the Cult of the Reptile God (1e)
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