Thus: in the Pyramid of Shadows, the reason there's a 50' dragon in a 10' room is because it wants to be in there. And the whole Pyramid is like this, a kaliedescope of utterly different and bizarrely fragmened mini-locations, each of which has nothing to do with the other locations in the dungeon beyond sharing a 10' corridor that links them. Lofty, loam-coated gardens inhabited by an Aztec-like bloodthirsty race of plantmen are right up next to a sunken room filled with lizardmen equipped with, literally, Super-Mario-Brothers style pipes that suck people down into them and spit them up in random other locations in the dungeon. A white dragon has created an ice cave paradise of frozen grandeur to snooze in, and that's right down the hall from basically a high temple to Cthulhu, which is next to a room of elves who are just there because none of the power players in the Pyramid have bothered to wipe them out yet. There's a band of utterly nonmagical mortal bandits who have managed to trap a werewolf in a room, but they're all scared of the succubus who spends her time praying in the Temple to Bahamut, which is next to the room with the teleporting fireball trap, which is just across the hallway from the room so stuffed full of random bones that PCs could suffocate when they open the door, which is just up the hallway from the ettin with his collection of phasing severed heads (!) and his pet carrion crawlers. This is, literally, how the whole adventure goes. And it's a big place. The Pyramid is the largest adventuring site that Wizards has released yet for 4.0. Intriguingly, the random spots of craziness does serve to fit the theme of the place, a prison that reflects the nature of its prisoners back on themselves. It also makes for some very interesting (and possibly very difficult) set pieces. Nearly every room has some sort of effect, trap, trick, or other disabling bit of crazy that the PCs will have to deal with while still trying to defeat (or negotiate with) the monsters also in the room.
serleran wrote:Yes you are wrong for wanting to read this. Go flagellate yourself in an appropriate, public, manner.
Badmike wrote:Sounds like a lot of what was missing in 3E, which seem to take itself with a deathly seriousness
Badmike wrote:The reviewer seems to think the writers have channeled S2 White Plume Mountain in the writing of H3.
Xaxaxe wrote:Good price at Amazon (where I also get free two-day shipping) ... finger hovering over the "1-Click" button ... I could have it here by Friday. Argh! What to do? I do love me some deathdrap dungeons ... but it's from The System That Won't Get Off My Lawn! I'm getting conflicting data here!Ah, hell with it! Ordered.Boo-yah!
Badmike wrote:BTW, a cursory glance through H1 and H2....bleh. Not so much old school as H3. It will remain to be seen if H3 is a trend, or an abberation. H1 Keep on the Shadowfell tries mightily to channel the classic B2 Keep on the Borderlands, but fails IMO; H2 Thunderspire Labyrinth is a game attempt to replicate an underdark type adventure, complete with old-school norkers (and Duergar and other baddies), but seems a bit samey to me despite a few good encounters.
Badmike wrote:Hopefully they will keep this mindset through other 4E adventures, if so I'm going to cautiously look for them.Mike B.
Kingofpain89 wrote:Hopefully this bodes well for the 4E version of "Kingdom of the Ghouls" from Dungeon #70 that is scheduled to be released in June 2009. Of the few Dungeon adventures that deserve the full treatment, this one is at the top of my list.
red_bus wrote:Don't forget to follow up with a review. Even if you only need two words...
