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Michael

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Michael is Currently Reading

Michael is currently reading

Re-search: Pranks 2

by V. Vale

bookshelves: currently-reading

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(page 100 of 212)
— Mar 09, 2025 02:25PM

Mar 02, 2025 11:12AM

Michael is currently reading

The Isle of Dread (D&D Fantasy Roleplaying, Expert Set, Module X1, Book+Map(s)

by David Zeb Cook

bookshelves: fantasy, role-playing, currently-reading

Reading for the 2nd time

read in January 1984

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Michael said: " This was the first published module for use with the Dungeons & Dragons “Expert Set” – intended as the bridge between Basic D&D and Advanced D&D, although in fact the two systems had enough discrepancies that it was never quite possible to merge them This was the first published module for use with the Dungeons & Dragons “Expert Set” – intended as the bridge between Basic D&D and Advanced D&D, although in fact the two systems had enough discrepancies that it was never quite possible to merge them. Expert D&D allowed characters to progress beyond the third level, which was as far as the Basic rules allowed, so fittingly this is an adventure designed for characters or levels 3 to 7 (those just reaching the “Expert” levels, as it were). Surprisingly, however, its focus is not on a standard “dungeon” scenario like “The Keep on the Borderlands,” but instead on a “lost world” setting in which the party travels to an island inhabited by dinosaurs and other extinct beasts, alongside cannibals and exotic tropical flora and fauna.

The possibility of a “lost world” setting has always been somewhat implicit in D&D rules, which have consistently provided combat statistics for dinosaurs etc., although it has rarely been explored in the published materials provided by TSR and Wizards of the Coast, the inheritors of the line. This one is somewhat incomplete in that sense, because actually the adventure focuses on the exploration of an abandoned (and partially flooded) temple in search of a large pearl, and less time is spent exploring the wilderness of the dinosaur ranges than one might like. Wilderness adventures often present a problem in D&D, because of the challenges and choices they offer to players and the difficulty of remaining focused on a clear objective in that situation. It’s always easier to keep things clear when your only decisions are whether to turn left or right and the difficulty of the monsters encountered corresponds to the depth of the dungeon. So, this adventure does actually fall back on the dungeon to re-focus the finale.

The module also includes an expanded map showing the region surrounding the “Duchy” provided as a suggested campaign area in the Expert rules. It is interesting, but seems to me to try to do too much with too little area. In a space apparently not much larger than Greece, it includes climates that vary from tropical Pacific conditions to sub-arctic Scandinavia, Mongolia, and Southern France. Still, with some adjustments, it does give the opportunity for a very diverse range of adventures within an integrated multicultural setting. I have never actually run this adventure, nor attempted to use the campaign world supplied (indeed, I rarely played anything but the AD&D version of Dungeons and Dragons), but there are some interesting concepts here which could be lifted by any DM looking for new ideas. ...more "

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(page 24 of 32)
— Mar 09, 2025 02:25PM

Nov 27, 2016 01:36PM · see review

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The Gods Themselves

by Isaac Asimov

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(page 217 of 293)
— Mar 09, 2025 02:26PM

Jan 26, 2025 11:42AM

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Michael’s Quotes

“The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents. We live on a placid island of ignorance in the midst of black seas of infinity, and it was not meant that we should voyage far. The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.”
― H.P. Lovecraft

tags: dread

457 likes

“...What disturbed him was the discovery that in sensibly ordering his affairs he had got out of step, and not into step, with Life.”
― Dashiell Hammett

tags: pulp-wisdom

14 likes