... courtesy the Vaults of Nagoh.
"Howls of anguish and curses will rain down on the name of James E. Raggi IV, and his laughter will echo about the icy northern wastes."
"Howls of anguish and curses will rain down on the name of James E. Raggi IV, and his laughter will echo about the icy northern wastes."
I still haven't done a cover-to-cover read of DFD (Am I developing ADD? Sometimes it seems like it), but dipping in here and there it looks really good. Great ideas. Jim and I follow a different approach to modules generally in terms of what we think people want - I tend toward very sparse descriptions allowing the referee to assimilate things quickly and make things up - Jim follows the other route of giving rich descriptions of what and why. One reason I don't like this approach is that it tends to be (a) way too much and (b) forces the referee into someone else's led-by-the-nose vision of an adventure. From what I've read, Jim seems to have dodged those perils pretty well. I still think I'd have a lot of trouble running this adventure without stopping to read while the game is running - there is a lot of writing per room. But then, I don't often run other peoples' adventures in the first place, and this module is actually the sort of resource I use - it's a good mine for inspirations, and it's well enough written that I didn't toss it down immediately (which I have done with many TSR modules of the 1990s).
ReplyDeleteIn many ways, I found it more like reading a short story with some adventuring notes than like reading a traditional adventure MODULE. This is one of the stronger aspects of EGG's original modules, too - they are organized to give the reading DM more and more information just like a developing story.
All in all, I'd recommend this at the price, and that's saying a lot since Jim and I disagree fundamentally about most things gaming (except the underlying goals of having fun and writing well, I think we disagree on everything). It's got a very rich texture, is written well, and conveys a bleak, very atmospheric, very disquieting adventure. (I still would have gone for shorter room descriptions) :)