[RPG]: Secret of the Slavers Stockade, reviewed by Lev Lafayette (2/2)

http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/12/12763.phtml

Lev Lafayette's Summary:

The low point in the famous Slavers series; overpowered for most characters with many instances of thoughtless design. Lacks any narrative reason for its existence. Can be integrated with a fair bit of work.

Go to the full review for more information.

[Dan Davenport]

Huh. You know, I never really thought about this module being overpowered for characters of the intended level range, but you make a very good point about that. Nice review, Lev!

[Miskatonic]

Huh? No way! This is the *high point* of the Slavers series. No mention of the bosses?

There are four bosses presented in this module, holding down the fortress. There's a very memorable and bad-ass blind swordsman, a smarter-than-average ogre lieutenant, a genteel polymorphed ogre mage, and an elvish fighter/MU who's doing horrifying biological experiments in the basement. They all exhibit rather more personality than any of the baddies in the previous module, and possibly even the big bads in the latter modules. It's clear to my (modern, historically revisionist) sensibilities that this module should be run as a series of sweet set-piece combats with successive super-villains, with all that dungeon crawl crap just tying it together.

Narrative structure? It was a tournament module; this is the wrong place to expect a sophisticated narrative structure. Break into the evil base, slay the bosses and their mooks, free the slaves! Pleasantly clear-cut framing of Good and Evil here. It helps if you think of it as structured like a kung-fu or samurai movie, but with pseudo-European Greyhawk flavor.

It really cries out to be played as a 3.5e conversion, since the bosses' unique traits would actually show up better in combat (there are proper rules for handling Blindsight and non-standard monsters!), and at least two of the encounter maps have enough details to easily convert to miniatures layouts. Make those "hordes of monsters" encounters smaller, of course, because large battles drag ass in 3rd edition.

[Old Geezer]

Originally Posted by Miskatonic

Narrative structure? It was a tournament module; this is the wrong place to expect a sophisticated narrative structure.

Jesus Christ, YES!!!

The object of a tournament module is to enable declaring a winning team. This is done most simply by making the module a linear killing ground, and the victor is the one whose corpse is found furthest from the starting line.

This is what a tournament module IS. It's okay if you don't like that, but then don't look at tournament modules. It's like blaming a lime for being green; that's what they ARE.

[Bill_Coffin]

Originally Posted by Miskatonic

Huh? No way! This is the *high point* of the Slavers series.

I agree 100%. This is not just my favorite module of the Slavers series, it is one of my favorite AD&D modules, period. The bosses, as Miskatonic mentioned, are wonderful. The extra monsters added immediately began making repeat appearanced in my campaigns (making this module a much-used reference work until thos emonsters were re-published in the Monster Manual II) and the artwork throughout was a lot of fun. As for this module being overpowered, I ran it on several different occasions with parties of the recommended level, and each time they managed to prevail. On the bit about the hobgoblins, they don't make this module too tough. They make it something of a stealth mission. Considering that this module is for a game chock full of "save vs. poison or die" situations, I don't think it's asking the characters too much to try getting by the hobgoblins quietly or figuring out some way to neutralize their strength of numbers.

Many of the criticisms levied at the nonsensical nature of the module also feel out of place. After all, those same criticisms could equally apply at most AD&D modules, so why single out this one? And, if the reviewer does intend to criticise other AD&D modules for the same failing, I would advise him to take it ewasy a bit and recognize these things for what they really are: simple excuses for dome door-kicking and monster-bashing. The players are not meant to stop and question their surroundings. They are meant to get through them, regardless of their internal logic. That is AD&D to the core. It never made much sense. For osme of us, that's not a drawback. It is endearing.

[Ante]

I must chime in here. Lev, take it for it is! It is a tournament module!

I have played it in D&D3 and it was great fun, and probably the best in the series!

[Lev Lafayette]

The leaders are somewhat interesting mainly on a challenge/risk basis, but that's about it. There is no real elaboration of who they are, what they are or what they know. Basically they're just another monster.

As for narrative, I am not looking for a sophisticated narrative within the module, least of all a tournament module (indeed, A2 is much better as a tournament module). I am looking for a reason for the module to exist; it doesn't have one. There is absolutely nothing gained in the storyline. One could have dumped the crude map to the locale of A3 (dungeon location #22) in A1 and it wouldn't make any difference - the PCs would still be just as ignorant of what they were actually up against.

You know what could have been interesting? If the leader of the Stockade was actually a slave lord, who, whether through capture or escape, reveals their number, class/level, operations and where A3 was located. That would have given the module a reason to exist, it would have provided the PCs some interest in their upcoming challenge, and it would have fitted very nicely in the tournament series.

As for nonsense encounters, I do criticise other modules - regardless of the game system - of such crimes against verisimilitude. Personally I grimace in visible pain when an encounter calls a halfling samuri riding a pegasus is encountered in the alpine climes, or when beehives are discovered in a dungeon. But if one really enjoys such things I'll be sure to note them in my reviews - just do a search for those that I give a value of '1' or '2' in substance and you'll be happy ;-)

[FASERIP]

Why is this listed as a playtest review? Why are any of Lev's reviews of AD&D modules listed as playtests?

Most read like capsule reviews to me. I enjoy reading them, certainly, but they're all brief and the criticisms leveled at most of them seem to be of a generic nature. There is some specific commentary in this one, but some of the earlier ones are pretty lacking. It often seems like he's recollecting running them from long ago, and refreshing his memory from a much more recent re-reading.

All the same, thanks for discussing these modules, Lev. I'd just like some more in-depth discussion. Don't worry about spoilers: provided you give sufficient warning, it'll be okay.

[Lev Lafayette]

Originally Posted by FASERIP

Why is this listed as a playtest review? Why are any of Lev's reviews of AD&D modules listed as playtests?

Ummm.. .Because I playtest every product I review. Just a personal bias you understand.....

And I should mention, they're all recent playtests with several players - except as otherwise noted (e.g.., Cloudlords of Tanara)...

Have a read of the reviews.... It should be clear as day that they're playtested modules...

[FASERIP]

Have a read of the reviews.... It should be clear as day that they're playtested modules...

Who you crappin?

Here's the text from your recent review of Slavepits of the Undercity. I see zero evidence of it being playtested. Anyone who read the module could write the same sparse commentary and pass it off as a 'playtest.'

Originally Posted by Lev Lafayette

In a continuing run of retrogamer reviews, this is the beginning of the famous "slavers" series AD&D modules, originally run as a tournament game at Gencon XII in 1980. It is produced as as standard TSR module, but with only 24 pages to go with the cardstock and maps on the inside. The cover art is quite evocative, with a halfling thief climbing walls and a bearded female dwarf along with their yellow-robed wizard taking on an aspis. The interior art is acceptable and appropriate to the text. The usual complaints are submitted concerning the use of small sans-serif font. Also included are a number of characters from the the tournament play, tournament scoring and maps.

As can be expected the backstory is fairly simple: It is time to put a stop to the marauders! For years the coastal towns have been burned and looted by the forces of evil. You and your fellow adventurers have been recruited to root out and destroy the source of these raids. OK, it's a little more complex than that, but not much more; of course, it part of a series as well. A good DM should also develop the fact that the dungeon crawl is within an old temple complex a little more as well.

Whilst the tournament map makes very little sense whatsoever for the building that it is claimed to represent, some good filler work has been done with the module proper, even though some of the toughest opponents in the complex are located in said areas. It largely looks and feels like an old temple, although a couple of the rooms need to be expanded slightly to stop the problem of 20+ foot thick interior walls. Reasonably advanced for its day is the inclusion of appropriate reactions by various denizens to the neighbours in their environment and, if alerted, to PC actions.

As is often the case, there is a worked upper level and a partially worked lower level or dungeon. It is in this area that the noble PCs have the opportunity to rescue some poor captured slaves, encounter some rather advanced and improbable machinery that is holding them captive and meet the ant-like intelligent aspis (who regrettably are treated only as enemies). This is also the area where one finds the necessary documentation to proceed to the second module in the series.

"The Slave Pits of the Undercity" is a dungeon crawl, but it is a fairly good one. Like most TSR modules, it is terribly underdeveloped, but with some opportunities to place it sensibly in a wider campaign with some moderate modifications (most recently I used as part of "historical fantasy" and placed in the Scilly Isles just after the Norman conquest of Britian). The challenges can be tough in some cases, but of appropriate difficulty overall, and the tournament scoring adjustments are quite sensible as well, for the purposes of the game. Overall, quite an acceptable product.

Show me a single sentence in this review that indicates the module was playtested.