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Post by grodog on Feb 16, 2017 16:40:59 GMT -5
Seriously, I think I've seen all of this stuff back when I was "working" at Pied Piper Publishing isn't this 14 keyed areas of a one level dungeon? It was written on the back of a colored map, I believe. Well, yes, the original manuscript was 7 pages and the 17"x22" map, but Rob published it as a full 32 page adventure with PPP, and Black Blade's edition is 44 pages. So, it is a full adventure. That said, I'm not trying to sell you you on it, just trying to help clear up a misconception, hopefully? Allan.
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Post by geneweigel on Feb 16, 2017 19:06:19 GMT -5
I think that I only saw the map with the attached notes not extra notes. I remember that he said "Bottle City" and then I started talking about Brainiac and he didn't even know what I was talking about so it was probably independent although Gary was a big Superman fan with "Rao" and all.
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Post by Scott on Jul 27, 2018 15:47:59 GMT -5
Reading through this again, Thinking about running it. It’s definitly an old school dungeon where most of the “rooms” are empty. Most of the rooms are just part of the maze with doors. It was standard in the beginning, but now the expectation is much different. There is no mention of random encounters. Has anybody that has run this used them? I love the map as an artifact, but there are points that are hard to figure out. A couple of the doors look like they may have originally been intended to be one way doors. There’s some scribbles that I think are supposed to be pits, etc. the lack of stats, especially for high level spell casters is still a pain. Any thoughts or stories from anybody that’s Run it?
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Post by Scott on Jul 31, 2018 22:27:44 GMT -5
A good example of the treasure expectations we were talking about in the other thread. There's an encounter in Bottle City with three evil NPCs, ranging from 8th to 14th level. They each have a few magic items, some gold and platinum, and 8 - 80 gems each. I rolled it up, it was like 130 gems for over 50,000 GPs. It is a higher level adventure, but for a non climactic encounter, you don't see those numbers very often outside of Rob and Gary.
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Post by grodog on Jul 31, 2018 22:54:04 GMT -5
Reading through this again, Thinking about running it. It’s definitly an old school dungeon where most of the “rooms” are empty. Most of the rooms are just part of the maze with doors. It was standard in the beginning, but now the expectation is much different. There is no mention of random encounters. Has anybody that has run this used them? That's the one big gap that I think is missing from the module (well, that and a rumors table). I haven't sat down to build a WM table yet, but definitely noticed the gap when running it in the past. I have been thinking about building my own tables in a blog post, will let you know when I do. I love the map as an artifact, but there are points that are hard to figure out. A couple of the doors look like they may have originally been intended to be one way doors. There’s some scribbles that I think are supposed to be pits, etc. the lack of stats, especially for high level spell casters is still a pain. Any thoughts or stories from anybody that’s Run it? I assume that you're referring to the Pied Piper printing, Scott? In the Black Blade edition, I provided all the undetailed NPCs with spells and full stats (all boosted to AD&D standards too). The intro in the module explains the various hard-to-read/hard-to-find map notes, but if you have specific Qs I can certainly try to help. Allan.
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Post by Scott on Aug 1, 2018 6:02:10 GMT -5
I am familiar with the errata, but there are still a few things that I wonder about. For example the door 2 blocks west, 4 blocks north of 10B. It looks a lot like the way one way doors were represented on old maps.
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Post by Scott on Aug 1, 2018 19:41:05 GMT -5
Did Rob ever provide any additional information on the deity Yhyg, from the painting?
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Post by Scott on Aug 1, 2018 19:51:08 GMT -5
Yig from Lovecraft, but it was one of those items Rob was going to expand. Did he ever release anything?
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Post by grodog on Aug 4, 2018 0:38:27 GMT -5
I am familiar with the errata, but there are still a few things that I wonder about. For example the door 2 blocks west, 4 blocks north of 10B. It looks a lot like the way one way doors were represented on old maps. Yes, that's definitely a one-way door; see the info about them on page 5 (in the Black Blade reprint). I also discussed this in my first Knockspell column, now on my blog @ grodog.blogspot.com/2017/04/one-way-doors-variable-stairs-and.htmlI'm pretty sure he did some more with Yhyg, , but it wasn't in one of the ERKME issues, so I assume Rob didn't publish it yet. Allan.
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Post by Scott on Aug 4, 2018 5:37:16 GMT -5
Thanks Allan. I don't ave the reprint. But just so I know I wasn't seeing things. There are a few that look like one way doors scattered around the dungeon.
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Post by grodog on Aug 8, 2018 22:53:43 GMT -5
Thanks Allan. I don't ave the reprint. But just so I know I wasn't seeing things. There are a few that look like one way doors scattered around the dungeon. It's mentioned in the reprint in the intro, where I added the errata details from the first PPP transcript file (which opens with some info about the one way doors as errata). I just uploaded the errata files again to my site, so you can download the old PPP one at greyhawkonline.com/grodog/temp/bottle_city_transcription-final.pdf I've got an image of a false door in there, and later wrote some info about the false doors in Bottle City my Knockspell column @ grodog.blogspot.com/2017/04/one-way-doors-variable-stairs-and.html too, which might help some between them (this content was included in our BBP reprint). Allan.
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Post by Scott on Aug 9, 2018 6:19:42 GMT -5
Thanks again! The first link is password protected. Nicely written article in the 2nd. I’ve always envisioned one way doors as Rob described. I added the variable stairs idea after seeing the first Harry Potter movie.
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Post by grodog on Aug 9, 2018 22:45:14 GMT -5
Thanks again! The first link is password protected. Nicely written article in the 2nd. I’ve always envisioned one way doors as Rob described. I added the variable stairs idea after seeing the first Harry Potter movie. The password on both transcript files is the same as the one in the module. I was definitely influenced by Roger Musson's approach to one-way doors, BITD. Allan.
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Post by Scott on Aug 10, 2018 12:23:09 GMT -5
Got it. Thanks!
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Post by Scott on Aug 31, 2018 10:46:53 GMT -5
Allan, another map question you might know. There is a series of 20' square rooms that can be accessed from the hall of pools. The last room has a one-way door on the south wall that will take you back to the Hall of Kings Statues. There's also a normal door symbol on the north wall that appears to access nothing. Am I missing something? Any idea what's going on there?
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Post by grodog on Aug 31, 2018 11:39:46 GMT -5
Allan, another map question you might know. There is a series of 20' square rooms that can be accessed from the hall of pools. The last room has a one-way door on the south wall that will take you back to the Hall of Kings Statues. There's also a normal door symbol on the north wall that appears to access nothing. Am I missing something? Any idea what's going on there? It looks to me like Rob originally drew a room to the north, but then decided to make it fill, but didn't erase the door into the now-filled room. You could make it a false door, a trap room, etc. of course. That help? Allan.
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Post by Scott on Aug 31, 2018 11:41:11 GMT -5
If that's the case I'll just drop the door.
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Post by grodog on Sept 5, 2018 7:22:07 GMT -5
Makes sense! I'll add that to the errata file, since Rob was fairly meticulous with noting the various map aberrations in the intro materials.
Allan.
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