 |
| Gus writes: "The cover I remember promised Fungal Caverns" |
Long, thoughtful review of B1 on the Dungeon of Signs.
In Search of the Unknown - B1 Review
How does one review an adventure that is designed to be different each time it's played?B1 - In Search of the Unknown, written in 1979 by Mike Carr for inclusion in the D&D basic set, is exactly such a module, with partially keyed areas on a large dungeon map meant
Thanks for posting! Interesting review, though I disagree with some of it and he misses some of the "why" in how it was designed.
ReplyDeleteThe backstory, while sparse, provides ample fuel for a DM to expand on and tie the location into one's campaign (as the reviewer himself does later in the review).
The biggest thing I think goes largely unexamined aside from the stock-it-yourself aspect is that the module was designed as a "training adventure" for new DMs. The upper level map contains a variety of rooms, and many seemingly random corridors in order to teach the mapping that was a big part of game play at the time; likewise the secret doors, to teach new players to look for them at every opportunity. A pit trap leading to the basement level and a teleport trap were both included as "demonstrators" of that sort of thing (as well as being part of teaching mapping). Many rooms were relatively empty, but that seems typical of the time (compare the Zenopus dungeon in Holmes Basic, in which encounters are fairly sparse; although it has more of its own narrative and ecology).
Likewise, I suspect the "stock it yourself" aspect was intended to dovetail with the Monster & Treasure assortments and Dungeon Geomorphs that TSR offered at the time; providing a map and then having a DM stock it was a good training exercise in how to stock a dungeon, and presumably the fledgling DM could then pick up an M&T assortment and go to town (with or without using Geomorphs).
Judged by modern design standards, B1 does indeed have some serious design flaws as laid out by the reviewer. However, judged by the standards of its time and by some of its likely design goals I think it's a pretty strong effort. Strong enough for me at least - over 30 years later, it's still one of my favorite modules : )