And that, coupled with the presentation in random determination tables, I think led to a lot of people feeling somewhat straitjacketed by the rules, monsters, and items, when that was probably precisely the opposite of what was intended. Xp1. Click the ‘Edit this Page’ button below to update this page and give a description of your campaign. Old Vault Category: modules. I will agree, however, that “doors will automatically open for the monsters” probably does mean “if the monsters try to open them”. Saturday, February 21, 2009, 3:20:31 PM I used the “cut-the-map-up” technique for Pythoness House. Caverns of Thracia – The Original Classic Adventure by Paul Jaquays, with new maps and editing by Bob Bledsaw III. I'll tell you what, just to be devil's advocate: There's also D&D module M3: Twilight Calling, written by Tom Moldvay with a co-developer credit by Paul Jacquays. And that led to more and more detail and differentiation being layered on, first in Greyhawk and Blackmoor, and then AD&D, and so on along the path that led us to 3rd and (recently) 4th edition. Saturday, February 21, 2009, 5:53:03 PM I had completely forgotten this until your comment jogged my memory, but I had the same interpretation of the BECMI rules for a few weeks. Caverns of Thracia – The Original Classic Adventure by Paul Jaquays, with new maps and editing by Bob Bledsaw III. Part 2: The First Foray Subscribe to get the free product of the week! I put Jaquays with Tom Moldvay (see B4 The Lost City and X2 Castle Amber) as the two most underappreciated game designers for D&D. Monday, March 30, 2009, 8:07:10 AM, drow Created by Goodman Games Goodman Games. “The hallway goes thirty feet, and then turns to the right.” “Is that 30 feet, and then the 4th square is the turn? Designed for. The player just kind of leapt to the assumption that, like the characters who had “frozen in place, staring up at the ebon statue” he wouldn’t be able to wake them up before the effect timed out. Beneath the lost ruins of Thracia are the vast caverns of a once great civilization. Designed for beginning, low-level. Continue reading “Thursdays in Thracia – Part 21” Posted on July 23, 2019 October 9, 2019. Personally I think that particular module is just awful, definitely the weakest of the Master M-series line. Justin Alexander ======================. Wink Sunday, February 22, 2009, 9:31:09 AM. Game: NwN1. (3) The question, “Where are you?” can be used to re-focus attention in much the same manner as, “So what are you doing?” and “Everybody give me a Spot check.”. Sunday, April 05, 2009, 4:02:30 AM. Continued from Part 20, when the party once again left the dungeon, and Thelma Turge almost got wasted by Gnolls. Rule 0 Fallacies hold little interest for me, eradicating — as they do — all basis for meaningful discussion or criticism. Justin Alexander Monday, March 30, 2009, 10:19:20 PM, James Richmond And treasure is not something that typically comes up. Sunday, February 22, 2009, 1:04:55 AM Are these rules badly written? Both had an incredible ability to stuff an immense amount of ideas into a relatively small product.Very much agreed on both counts, although I would argue that the immensity of ideas contained within small products was pretty much the standard in the early days of the hobby. Re: Automatic doors. I'm not as much a fan as some other people -- one grief I have is that it has a pre-scripted "climax scene/plot conclusion", I believe the first I saw in a published adventure. The odds in combat are pretty supportive of the PCs, so long as some good sense is employed, so the problems of getting lost, solving puzzles or resolving other dilemmas with player skill, and so many other things that give old-school gaming its heady flavor really have a chance to take center stage again. Sadly, I am unable to do the same, or even stay on topic. but it does, I think, set something of a bad precedent, teaching DMs not that "you can do this too" but rather "you'll never be able to match this, so leave it to the pros" -- which, of course, became the increasingly-dominant philosophy through the 80s and 90s (and which we're just now finally beginning to shake off). They were in a dungeon, and there was a little section in between encounter areas where there was a “loop” of corridor. And old-school modules were deadly. Paul's module M5: Talons of Night has more mind-blowing ideas per page than any other D&D module I've come across. Regarding sleep, Alt Text graded it here along with other first level spells. Also, a little stain on the back of the book. If you want your starting characters to be more durable than that, though, I recommend the simple and expedient solution of starting them at 3rd level. I also make a habit of asking them, “Where are you?” Even when there’s no reason for me to know. Last updated February 8, 2021. My group typically only draws things out on the mat when encounters are, if not underway, than more-or-less imminent. Spells of Light and Darkness Free shipping for many products! Its all about whether you can make player mapping rewarding or not. Barker and is used with permission of the, "Thayt Chevski, hye is ane rottah. I also think these — and the more complete Random Dungeon tables from AD&D — were a way of saying, “Shut up and game.” If somebody wants to play, a lack of preparation should never stand in the way of that. The Caverns of Thracia -by Judges Guild.Softcover. A fighter named Veera was "blessed" with 9 Strength, 9 Intelligence, 7 Wisdom, 9 Dexterity, 11 Constitution, and 8 Charisma. Then I have another one for drawing-and-erasing. You would have to reverse engineer the stats, of course, but it's an option. Jaquays overrated? Leland J. Tankersley I don’t think I actually played with these rules much, if at all, though (although I spent a lot of time reading them, drawing dungeons, and trying to figure out how to approximate the polyhedral dice ranges with a handful of six-siders) — the AD&D Player’s Handbook was either just published, or about to be, when I got the white box, and the DMG was at least on the horizon. Is this confusing? Hey, there is something very wrong with https://www.thealexandrian.net/archive/archive2009-03e.html . I've always wanted to try this one out. This adventure was published by Judges Guild in 1979. Mythos Audio Library: Call of Cthulhu, OD&D in the Caverns of Thracia – Part 3: Death in the Ruins, OD&D in the Caverns of Thracia – Part 4: The Second Party, OD&D in the Caverns of the Thracia – Part 6: The Second Session, https://www.thealexandrian.net/archive/archive2009-03e.html, Advanced Gamemastery: The Goblin Ampersand, Ptolus: Running the Campaign – Player-Initiated Vectors, In the Shadow of the Spire – Session 25B: Blood on the Orrery, In the Shadow of the Spire – Session 24C: The First Hound of Ghul, Ptolus: Running the Campaign – Prepping Situations is Cool, In the Shadow of the Spire – Session 9C: Jade. Justin Alexander Sunday, February 22, 2009, 1:03:20 PM, Leland J. Tankersley Part 5: The Final Foray Then just finding the right piece of map to pull out gets challenging. @James: I’m sorry I missed this post previously. But I agree that the motivation was probably to provide something approximating/resembling a “complete game” rather than just some general guidelines. There’s a discussion of rolling up non-1st level characters in the 3.5 DMG. Regarding mapping: The convention I use is that I don’t give them precise measurements unless they take the time (in-character) to do the measurement. I used to have my players do their own mapping. Sunday, February 22, 2009, 1:58:59 PM. Regarding the doors: surely you have “automatic success” not “automatic doors”. The Caverns of Thracia is dangerous but playable for first level characters. The author is a 3 dimensiona. The Caverns of Thracia have a long, rich history of conquest and defeat, stretching back well past the ad-vent of the ancient Thracian kingdom which gives them their name. Descend even deeper into the darkness and discover a lost and arcane world that waits for those brave enough to enter! Including the original classic as well as additional dungeon levels, new magic items and never before encountered foes! Or is the turn at 30′ so there’s only 20′ of wall on the right side, and 30′ on the left?” “Er…. In other words, the doors don’t close by themselves; instead attempts to close doors always succeed, as well as attempts by monsters to open them. (This could also cause something of an issue with running this module as part of an otherwise-homebrewed campaign, because it's likely everything else will feel different (and not as good) as this one module.) In OD&D your character was largely a cipher at creation (after all, why would you put much work into something that could be dead as a result of one die roll?). Start This article has been rated as Start-Class on the project's quality scale. That sounds hilarious, but it’s working fine for me. A module IMO should inspire the DM to create his own stuff, not intimidate him out of trying to do so. Is there no mention in the OD&D rules of ways to bring a character back from the dead? The Caverns of Thracia by Paul Jaquays is a good example of why Judges Guild is remembered so fondly by so many of us who started gaming in the 70s. It is written for Original Dungeons and Dragons. But, OTOH, it means that imprecise mapping is pretty much nonexistent. They got “lost” for an hour in a “maze” consisting of, essentially, one four-way intersection and the hallway to connect two of the four openings together. I suspect the tables for randomly determining the parameters of the game were heavily influenced by similar traditions in wargames. Wednesday, February 25, 2009, 8:26:52 AM, Justin Alexander Part 8: The Massacre of Fire. A cheap dagger will do just fine. Creating “apprentice levels” for 4th Edition, OTOH, would requires an obvious and significant amount of work to make the necessary alterations. I remember rolling up a lot of crappy characters. The Lost Caverns of Thracia. @Johan: Well, the traditional solutions have been max hit points and/or larger hit dice. Indeed, 4e's design is simply, from what I can tell, dancing to the piper rather than calling his tune. Jeff Rients Overall, good condition given its age and rarity. I do like the idea of asking “where are you” often. Caverns of Thracia is a true mega dungeon. I recommend using Post-It notes to adhere the pieces together. Justin Alexander A dwarf of intelligence 11 or more might speak Common. Author: concept by Paul Jaquays, module by Sgain. Regarding the common tongue: This game is not intended to be played “rules as written”. Even at the time, I thought the very idea of characters that powerful was ludicrous and "not D&D" (to use the Words of Power).Much as I love X2, you're correct that it's a forerunner of the Hickman Revolution. The Caverns of Thracia was one of the better modules I ever … One-click unsubscribe later if you don't enjoy the newsletter. Although, looking at the rulebooks now, I can’t figure out how I had reached that conclusion. It has many levels and quite a few sub levels. These adjustments kept survival as an important part of the game for those who wanted survival to be an important part of the game, while also making characters durable enough to support other styles of gameplay. Darios (VM) decided not to waste any more money than necessary and hired Lug, an inveterate gambler who professed great skill and bravery. You just have to go by the text and squint to try to see the “Platonic ideal” Gygax is trying to present. My group had a blast with Dark Tower and this seemed like it could have been a nice follow-up. Enchanted stairs that make you think your going up but you’re actually going down? I've been reading The Caverns of Thracia with much enjoyment. The high lethality rate establishes that gauge and, by extension, when you finally figure out (through luck or skill) how to keep a character alive until 2nd level that makes the character important to you on a personal level — it’s a “living” monument to your success. Sunday, February 22, 2009, 3:26:07 AM, Lior It's a game that requires very precise and detailed small squad military tactics. Of course, ability scores barely mattered in OD&D. I can understand underexposed or underpraised, but... so the problems of getting lost, solving puzzles or resolving other dilemmas with player skill, and so many other things that give old-school gaming its heady flavor really have a chance to take center stage again.I'd be very curious to see this thesis tested. Why do player mapping at all? In OD&D, there is a significant chance that an attack that hits will kill a first-level character outright and unrecoverably. Anon And instead of a simple loop, there were a couple of extra turns in there. To the extent that AD&D Second Edition didn’t change much of the basics, it is also compatible with that, and the same is true of the later Basic/Expert/etc. Submitted by: Submitted by Migrate Wizard on 2014-08-13 14:32. (4) I hadn’t really thought about it until just now, but the “Where are you?” questions also keeps people engaged in the action while the rogue is making their Search, Disable Device, and Open Locks checks. I'm seeing it as a kind of 'reverse Hickman;' 4e has all the room in the world to support this style of play (f'rinstance, the streamlined skill list moves a lot of things back into the realm of player cleverness and DM adjucation), but I don't think it will really catch on until some published material illustrates how well it can work and how much fun it can be. Most modules weren't even 32 pages back in those days, let alone 128+ and somehow they packed them with so many ideas that they put almost everything published in their wake to shame. The Caverns of Thracia. That sounds way waay too lethal for a game where the players are supposed to care about their characters. Friday, May 01, 2009, 4:28:34 AM, vorpalauroch Justin Alexander Interestingly enough, this is actually a module where a weak character actually has a chance, because there’s very little combat. They filled an entire sheet of graph paper mapping it. And the rarity of that would then create attachments to the characters. The D20 version produced by Necromancer is quite good too. @James: It’s pretty informal. I don’t think the random generation stuff had its genesis in wargames, because in historical wargaming there’s no precedent for that kind of randomness.
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