News — AD&D Modules

I’m not sure how many of you out there ever tried the XSOLO series of modules from TSR, but there are a couple that are very fun.  I’m not really certain Lathan’s Gold is one of them, but still, it has some nice artwork in it and I’m tempted to take out my dice and give it a shot just to see. Written by Merle M. Rasmussen [is that a real name?] and produced in 1984, the module takes your character into the Sea of Dread [a favorite setting of mine and one that I’ve played in as recently as...

Someone back in 1982, my assumption being Jim Roslof, thought it would be a good idea to let a single artist handle all the art responsibilities for a single AD&D adventure module.  What came next was an inspirational series that helped define Jim Holloway’s career at TSR, either for better or for worse. To me, the creation of I3: Pharaoh, written by Tracy and Laura Hickman, is genre defining adventure that is the first step in distancing TSR from the 1970s module prototype, which I have to say is no easy task.  I3 has more polish, more maps, and yes,...

Ok, so today is a ‘big one’.  Perhaps not as big as they get, but certainly in the upper echelon of what makes a classic TSR module. D3: Vault of the Drow was written by Gary Gygax sometime around 1978 and finally released in this particular version in 1980.  It is a pretty cool piece of work, although really more of a stopgap [much like D1-2 Descent into the Depths of the Earth] between Against the Giants and Queen of the Demonweb Pits.  Coming in at a rather standard 28 pages, Vault is a smooth running exploration adventure that leaves...

I mean seriously, of all the TSR adventures from the 1980s, does any have a title better than Against the Cult of the Reptile God?  I really think author Douglas Niles must have stolen this title from a lost Robert E. Howard Conan manuscript because it is really that cool. Niles, a personal favorite TSR author, spins a tale of the ‘dying’ village of Orlane located near Greyhawk’s Gran March.  Once thriving, now only a maze of locked doors and frightened faces, Orlane needs a band of brave adventurers to help free it from whatever evil plagues the settlement.  Well,...

Do you ever have one of those moments when you have to make a choice and it is nearly impossible to do so?  You know, like when someone asks your favorite movie and you can’t possibly answer, then you counter with ‘how about action movies, or horror movies, etc.’ and then when faced with that it is still almost impossible to answer?  Yeah, well sometimes choosing pieces of artwork from classic AD&D modules is just like that for me. It was no different for TSR’s I1 Dwellers of the Forbidden City. Produced in 1981, the module is an interesting study...