Hello and welcome again. It is good to see that many
of you have returned and others have come of the first time.
For
this month I will be reviewing two of the adventured available on
the Wizards of the Cost's web site. The first is Unearthing
the Past by Jesse Decker, an adventure for 1st level characters,
and The Village of Camiram second by Stephen Kenson, a good attempt
at offering a city and throwing in an adventure. To find either of
these products go to the Dungeons and Dragons homepage and look for
the cliffhangers section, or go to http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/ch/ch20000901e
for the 1st one or http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/ch/ch20001001i
for the 2nd.
On to Unearthing the Past which in my
opinion is worth every penny, and I even printed it out. This adventure,
put simply is the brave adventures are asked to look for a lost shipment
of food, and while doing so are supposed to find further adventure.
I have to say this adventure was a good fit for the combat ability
of my group (3 members, all 1st level they could have used a fourth
person but managed) and
if you are an inexperienced DM it should flow well. It is also a rather
quick little adventure (only three or four battles all with only a
few opponents) and should easily fit into a short session or can be
stretched out to last four hours.
On the down side, an experienced DM will have problems with it. First,
the adventure itself gives no explanation as to why the adventures
are going to want to help the town. So if your group is like mine
(currently refusing to do good for goodness sake) you will need to
add in a reward. The problems get bigger from there, the food is found
after the first battle and your next challenge is to convince the
group to
follow a set of tracks you hope they can find.
The maps are small, and defiantly have the feel of a linear adventure,
there is one room a level and you have to go through it to get to
the next level. However on the plus side, it does give you a good
way to lead
off into your own imagination, as there is a door that currently remains
locked and can only be opened from this side and could lead anywhere.
In all it is good for a new DM, and can be used in a pinch by an experienced
DM. Next The Village of Camiram I like this one a lot, as Wizards
is attempting to help the new DM build an actual world, and not just
have one adventure after another. The adventure centers around a village,
Camiram, located on the edge of civilized land. The first half of
it is devoted to the history of the village and descriptions of the
buildings and people. Then the plot gets into the picture.
The players lose control here, a thief in town automatically succeeds
at a theft attempt, the local barbarians get framed for poisoning
the well, and the PCs get framed for murder. Then the PCs get an opportunity
to act, now
that the town guard surrounds them. That's the only part I don't like,
from there it gets better. After the PCs escape, of course they will
escape how else can the save the village from the evil that threatens,
they find out the person they 'killed' is alive, well, and willing
to help the PCs clear there name. While the plot is not the thickest
thing
ever, with a little imagination it can be great fun. Even without
any imagination it is a decent adventure to run, and it beats watching
the news recently.
Thanks for reading, and if you have any ideas/suggestions/adventures
please send them to girltooth@compaq.net
as I would really like to be able to promote the adventures written
by our readers.