News — AD&D Modules

I’m not really sure when I got M1 Blizzard Pass, but I’m going to say it was on a shelf at the local Kmart in about 1984. At the time, I had the Red Box, very little ability to understand what it was trying to tell me, and no gaming friends. Thus, the appeal of a solo adventure seemed perfectly reasonable.However, like most Choose Your Own Adventures I tried over the years, Blizzard Pass wasn’t for me, especially considering I HATED playing thieves at the time which was the class required to run it solo.That said, I’m still captivated by...

Tamoachan… even the name can give one shivers, and adding it to the complete title of C1: The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan gives you an instant classic. This ‘deluxe set’ module, with over 16 illustrations in a separate players pack, was written by Harold Johnson & Jeff R. Leason back in 1980. It is for levels 5-7 and pits a party against a Mesoamerican threat that not only educates by also inspires, as it did with my creation of Taux for Tales of the Emerald Serpent two decades later.The cover art here is done by Erol Otus, with back cover...

The I series of modules from TSR are certainly an interesting line, and one known primarily for Hickman’s Pharaoh trilogy, but that isn’t to say those venerable classics are all the line has to offer.The initial offering, I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City is pure old school art, featuring the talents of ‘The First Four’, and I3 Pharaoh has entered the full 1980s recast of the TSR pit with all Jim Holloway art, but I2 Tomb of the Lizard King was produced fully in the transition.It still features the new cast, Holloway, Quinn, and Easley, but they are raw here...

Please remember to go to Black Gate and take a look at my 'Top 10 RPG Artists' article if you get the chance.  You can find it here!   Now to the other good stuff!  Produced in 1981, the TSR classic A series module A3 Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords highlights some of the greatest artwork collected from the famous TSR ‘First Four’ [Jeff Dee, Erol Otus, Bill Willingham, and Jim Roslof]. This rather light 28 page module is the 3rd on a four part series and for AD&D 1E characters level 4-7. It was written by...

Today I’m going to take a look at the artwork from TSR’s X2: Castle Amber (Chateau d’Amberville). Now I’ve only played this module once, back in probably 1987 in my little room upstairs at my mom’s house with my old DM Mark and his neighbors Aaron and Jay. Truly, I don’t remember too much about the adventure save that it was one of the first ones where I ever ran one of my most powerful characters of all time, the eventual Hierophant of Cabal, Belmarillian the Watcher.There is a room [spoilers follow] in which characters are beset by mysterious dreams,...