Review: A4 In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords

This is the last review of the Slave Lord modules. After this review I will turn my attention to some of the newer modules, but I wanted to start with classics first, and these seemed appropriate to review first, as these were the first of many modules that I have bought over the past 25+ years of gaming.

Background

This was the fourth in a four part Gencon tournament that was held around 1980. The results of this were published in the form of the modules A1-A4. The final published module included the tournament version plus some additional material to give it a bit more content than just a tournament module. I included the basic outline in my first review, so I will not repeat it here, but suffice to say that this module follows the same basic outline as the first module. The links to the first three reviews can be found here (A1), here (A2), and here (A3).

Layout

The module is a little different to the basic layout of the time, with only one dungeon level, and large outdoor island encounter area. The main maps are printed on the inner covers with a 32 page book that includes the encounters write ups, new monsters, and some pregenerated characters that were used in the tournament. The module also includes a single page with four tactical encounter maps (2 on each side). The inside front cover has the dungeon level, and the back cover has the maps of the Isle of the Slave Lords showing the lava fields from the volcano. The new monsters included were the cave fisher, magman, myconid, and the sandling; all of which would see a full write up in the later MM2 that was produced several years later. The module includes the relatively new feature of the read aloud box text. When looking at the layout of this module in relation to the others at the time, I would say that it is no better or worse than the others, and it is very similar in quality to the others in the series.

Artwork

This module also has more art work than the first two of the series. The overall quality of the art is the same as the others in the series, and is very representative of the black and white artwork of the period.

Summary

The previous module ended with the characters being captured, and this module picks up with characters in the dungeon caves below the island with very little in the way of equipment. As the module states, this is designed to test the players, not the characters. The initial starting point is a small cavern with four tunnels leading out. There are three exits out of the dungeon, and the players will have to choose wisely to succeed. Once they do make it out, they face an erupting volcano, burning forests, and lava fields, in addition to finding their gear and defeating the Slave Lords.

Key features

There are a couple of features that this module provides that I am going to list out below:
1. Player challenging dungeon. Numerous challenges for the players and success really is about winning as a player, not as a character.

2. Erupting volcano along with a burning islands, adds an additional element of atmosphere.

3. Final showdown with the Slave Lords. If the DM sets this up right, this can be a very satisfying encounter for the characters

4. Conclusion for the mini AP that consists of the four modules.

Final notes

Overall, this is a very interesting concept for a dungeon. In my previous review of A3, I stated that the DM needs to give the players a heads up on what’s coming, otherwise there could be a bit of a misalignment of expectations. Players tend to get emotionally attached to their characters and their stuff, so to see this get ripped away from them, could lead to trouble. Players that can set this aside and tackle this dungeon for what it is, and can find this to be a very enjoyable challenge.

Looking over the series once can easily claim that this is one of the first adventure path modules, as the four modules link very close with each other. The later module, Scourge of the Slavelords, does precisely that, and adds additional content for a better fit.

I do like this module, but I have to say that I like A1 and A2 a little better. There will be folks out there that will say that A4 is the best of the bunch as it test the mettle of the players more than the others do. The encounters in this one are carefully constructed as to provide meaningful challenges to an unarmed party. I can see how players can become frustrated with this module, as they have to be very resourceful to succeed. In that regard, this module has a very old school feel to it. I would say that it is similar in concept to the Tomb of Horrors, but not nearly as hard or as unforgiving as that one.

Rating: 3 Dragons (on a scale of 5)

As a final comment, I really do like the series. There are flaws in the limitation of the tournament designs, and the modules tend to be straight forward, as do all of the tournament modules, due to the time considerations of tournament play. I clearly understand that point of view, and there is merit in that criticism. I do agree that I do not think that these are the best series ever produced (those will be for a future review), but these are still very good, and worthy of a play through.

Overall Series Rating: 3.5 Dragons (on a scale of 5)

Review: A3 Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords

I am in the process of reviewing all four of the Slave Lord modules, and this represents installment #3. These have special nostalgic value to me as there were the first modules I bought, so I am starting with these four modules first before going to other products.

Background

This was the third in a four part Gencon tournament that was held around 1980. The results of this were published in the form of the modules A1-A4. The final published module included the tournament version plus some additional material to give it a bit more content than just a tournament module. I included the basic outline in my first review, so I will not repeat it here, but suffice to say that this module follows the same basic outline as the first module. The links to the first two reviews can be found here (A1) and here (A2).

Layout

The module is very similar to the basic layout of the time, with a dungeon level, followed by a city/urban environment, concluding with the final dungeon. The main maps are printed on the inner covers with a 28 page book that includes the encounters write ups, a new monster, and some pregenerated characters that were used in the tournament. The module also includes a players’ handout of Suderham, along with a tactical map reference page, which has four tactical encounter details. The back cover of the booklet includes two maps of the Isle of the Slave Lords – an overhead view and a cross section cutaway view. The new monster included was the storoper, which would see a full write up in the later MM2 that was produced several years later. The module includes the relatively new feature of the read aloud box text. When looking at the layout of this module in relation to the others at the time, I would say that it is no better or worse than the others, and it is very similar in quality to the others in the series.

Artwork

Compared to the other modules in the series, this one has quite a bit of artwork. The overall quality this module is the same as the others in the series, and is very representative of the artwork of the period.

Summary

Following the trail of the Slave Lords leads the characters into the Drachensgrab Mountains searching for the hidden city of the Slave Lords. The characters find a secret cave complex that leads to the Isle of the Slave Lords. On the isle, the characters enter the city of Suderham and find a secret sewer entrance, which is believed to lead to the Slaver’s stronghold. Unfortunately for the characters, the only thing that awaits them is capture, and the end game will be played out in A4 – In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords.

Key features

There are a couple of features that this module provides that I am going to list out below:

1. The fully mapped out city of Sunderham, complete with a players’ handout map. I think this is the biggest feature of the adventure. There are 68 encounter areas, which the module provides a basic outline for.

2. The mapped out Isle of the Slave Lords.

Final notes

This is an interesting module that serves as the transition from a traditional dungeon crawl to the non-traditional dungeon crawl that will be found in A4. Even though this is not the biggest module in terms of page count, this module does cover quite a bit of territory. The module includes two single level dungeons, but the primary adventure area is the city of Suderham, which in my opinion, the city is the most interesting aspect of the module. All the city areas are listed out, but there is plenty of room for the DM to add to. I found the dungeon levels to be mediocre. They are both small at nine major encounters in each. While a couple of the encounters are interesting, overall they are nothing to write home about. The minotaur in the sewer complex is probably my favorite encounter of the bunch. There are two opportunities that I think the authors missed out on. For the first one, I am a bit disappointed that the authors did not provide a map and a write up for Drachen Keep that is found on the isle. The module is written so that it forces the characters through the city and into the sewers, so while the keep is not a major element of the module, it would have been more interesting to include it in the write-up. I also wish that the authors included a strategic map of the Drachengrab Mountains, which would have been easy to include a one page copy from the Greyhawk map. While there exists the possibility for a substantial amount of overland adventuring, this will need to be fleshed out by the DM.

I do need to mention that the entire point of the module is for the characters to be captured at the end of the module, in order to start up the next module. This form of railroading is sure to incite the ire of players as they may feel that this is a very heavy handed plot device, and I am inclined to agree. The end definitely has a no win feel to it, which the characters may not appreciate. I think if a DM is running this, some forewarning is required, so that expectations are set ahead of time. This could prevent disappointment or worse at the end of the module.

Overall, I still give the module a thumbs up, but it is not nearly as strong as the first two.

Rating: 3 Dragons (on a scale of 5)

Review: A2 The Slaver's Stockade

Secret of the Slaver's Stockade

I am in the process of reviewing all four of the Slave Lord modules, and this represents installment #2. These have special nostalgic value to me as there were the first modules I bought, so I am starting with these four modules first before going to other products. Going forward I think I will be doing my product reviews on the weekend.

Background

This was the second in a four part Gencon tournament that was held around 1980. The results of this were published in the form of A1-A4 between 1980-1981. The final published module included the tournament versions plus some additional material to give it a bit more content than just a tournament module. I included the basic outline in my first review, so I will not repeat it here, but suffice to say that this module follows the same basic outline as the first module.

Layout

The module follows the basic layout of the time, with the standard two adventuring levels, which for this module was an above ground fort and the dungeon level below. The maps are printed on the inner covers with a 40 page book that includes the encounters write ups, new monsters, and some pregenerated characters that were used in the tournament. This is the largest of the 4 modules. The new monsters included were the phantom, haunt, cloaker and the boggle, which would see a full write up in the later MM2 that was produced several years later. The module includes the relatively new feature of the read aloud box text. When looking at the layout of this module in relation to the others at the time, I would say that it is no better or worse than the others, and it is very similar in quality to the others in the series.

Artwork

The artwork of this period generally consisted of good black and white art. To me, the art style from 1978-1982 was all very similar. Some of the art was very good and some of it was mediocre. Given the style of the period, I think that the modules stack up well to their peer class of modules. Looking back over the module, the amount of art work is considerably less than the other modules in the series, which re-enforces the point that there is a lot of content in this module.

Summary

The goal of the adventure is simple enough, defeat the slave lords and free the slaves. The module starts out with the characters following an overland route to the slaver's stockade, which is an old fort. A runway slave provides the characters an entrance into the fort through a crude rope ladder onto the curtain wall. From here the characters have to navigate through the curtain wall, past the anhkheg into the fort itself. The fort proper is patrolled by hobgoblins with the dungeon below stocked with goblins. After the characters clear the upper fort, the dungeon below represents a significant challenge as it is a rather extensive. Both the fort and the dungeon have a solid 40+ encounter areas each which should provide for a considerable amount of adventuring experience.

Key features

There are a couple of features that this module provides that I am going to list out below:

1. A fully mapped out fort. The map of the fort in my opinion is one of the strongest points of the module. Not only can it be used for this module, but can also be used as a template for other adventures. In particular, the curtain wall and the guardhouse are very well detailed out. Also, the rules for the wandering guards work well for giving the feel of the watch rotation. I really enjoy looking over floor plans for castles and forts. Any adventure that can provide this, gets a thumbs up from me.

2. A number of interesting tactical battles. Without a doubt, there are a couple of encounters that are just deadly to an unprepared party. I do appreciate the fact that the designers included several tactical maps to help with the orientation of the encounter. I do find the format included in this module to be better the larger delve format that is now being used by WotC for all their encounters. In my opinion, the separate tactical maps are just needed for the more complex encounters, not all of them. Sometimes less in more.

3. The module features six major evil leaders which can mount a counter attack against a careless party. With flexible DM play, these leaders can provide to be a considerable challenge. I would also go as far as to say that for the most part the leaders are different and interesting. The fort commander Icar is my favorite of the group.

4. There are a number of challenging traps for the party to navigate around, which should give the party's thief something to do between encounters with the denizens of the fort complex.

5. The cave complex in the dungeon area is a bit creepy, and can provide for some interesting role playing encounters.

Final notes

This is one of my favorites in the series. The fully mapped out fort complex wins it for me, as I have a soft spot for stuff like this. Without a doubt this is a tough module as the leaders can quickly rally the troops against the characters. The characters in this module are heroes, rather than treasure hunters, as the objective is heroic in nature not just to gain treasure. I will be blogging about this concept in the future as I think this interesting difference in play of adventures. I can see the DM award story experience points for defeating the leaders and freeing the slaves. I would not call this a sandbox module, as it feels more like an adventure path. Overall, thumbs up!

Rating: 4 Dragons (on a scale of 5)

late edit - Added some additional content

Review: A1 The Slave Pits

This was the first module that I bought back in 1980, so I will always have nostalgic feelings for it, and even now, I think it is still one of my favorite modules.

Background

This was the first in a four part Gencon tournament that was held around 1980. The results of this were published in the form of A1-A4 between 1980-1981. The final published module included the tournament versions plus some additional material to give it a bit more content than just a tournament module. David Cook wrote a good intro to the Scourge of the Slavers, this was the combined A1-A4 plus some addition material, which he outlined the background of the original concept.

Basic outline

The outline of all the Slave Lord adventures follows these basic guidelines:
2 Traps
1 Trick to fool the players
1 Problem the players had to solve
1 Encounter with the basic monster of the
round (orcs, hobgoblins, gnolls, etc.)
1 Ambush prepared by the basic monster of
the round
1 Encounter with the basic monster and a
friend (an ogre, for example)
1 Encounter with an unintelligent monster
1 Encounter with a brand new monster
1 Grand Finale

Layout

The module follows the basic layout of the time, with the standard two adventuring levels, in this case an above ground temple area and the sewer dungeon level below. The maps are printed on the inner covers with a 24 page book that outlines the encounters, includes new monsters, and some pregenerated characters. The new monsters were the sundew and the aspis, which would see a full write up in the MM2 that was produced several years later. When looking at this module in relation to the others at the time, I would say that it is no better or worse than the others. The art is black and white, and the fluff is rather light. The flavor in the rooms is very good and gives more than enough description for the DM to work with. This module was one of first to utilize the boxed read out loud sections, as this was not featured in earlier modules. Adventures written after this would almost always include a readout loud sections in the encounter write ups.

Summary

As I stated earlier, I really liked this module. Part of my positive feelings on this module was that it was the first one I bought. I think a lot of the criticism leveled at this module was that it is a tournament module, and tournament modules tend to be standardized in format, and come across as "cookie cutter" modules. I think that is a fair comment. In this case, I think the outline is fairly solid, and there is enough additional material added to enable it to be more than just a tournament module. I would also say that there is enough to challenge a good party of mid level characters, but there is nothing really special about it that separates this one from the rest of the modules at the time.

As a final note, I would classify this module as a challenge dungeon, one in which the players "win" at, which is a little different than current adventure design. When one goes through this module, there is definitely a feeling of players v. the dungeon. The challenges in the main sections of the adventure are meant to challenge the characters. With the defeat of the slave lords at the end, this module is effectively over.

Rating: 3.5 Dragons (on a scale of 5)

Perhaps a bit high, but I will give in to my more sentimental side on this one.