Tomb of the Overseers

[Simon Collins]

Beware! This review contains major spoilers.

This is the third booster adventure by AEG. It is designed for five to six characters of level 3-5. It costs $2.49.

Production and Presentation: This module is 16 pages but each page is only ½ the width of an A4 page. The front (soft)cover features poor colour artwork, the back cover features an introduction for the players to the adventure. There are two poor internal pieces of black & white artwork and the central pages contain a basic map of the tomb of the title, sufficient to run the adventure. The final page and the inside back cover contains OGL bumpf. The inside front cover contains advertising.

The Story: The PCs find themselves entering the mountain tomb of a paladin, to summon him back from the a higher plane in order to deal with the evil mage who is terrorising the land. The mage has sent monsters to the mountain tomb to stop people from calling upon the paladin’s help including new monsters, such as a ghoul lord and a shadow demon. There are a number of puzzles that also need to be solved before the paladin can be summoned.

The High Points: Less combat-orientated than the first two AEG booster adventures (though still combat-orientated) and some nice new monsters and magic items.

The Low Points: More a warning than a low point: This dungeon can be deadly to the characters it was designed for, if they face some of the powerful creatures in this adventure without picking up the relevant items that are strewn in other areas, though the text does point this out.

Conclusion: Again, more standard basic dungeon fare from AEG. You get what you pay for. Average, but with nice creatures to introduce into your own campaign.

 

[Messageboard Golem]

I realize that these instant adventures face limitations in space, but if I spend money for a pre-generated adventure, there are certain things I want.
1) Art: The map is clear and readable. and two other small pictures are included. Not much, but OK.
2) Boxed-Text: You know what I mean, the graphic verbal descriptions that are supposed to imbue the proper mood for the players.
The text in this adventure is OK, but not award winning.
3) Role-playing: The usual hire the adventurers to do the dirty work plot device is replaced by the appeal to the nobler instincts of the PC's plot device. It may work, but it will require you to include a major plot thread unless your adventurers do not stay in the same general location most of the time. It could be reworked with a little effort to have the characters stumble across the main location, but would still have an important effect on your campaign.
4) Smart NPC's: By this I mean, are their motivations and actions reasonable, or has the writer had them do something stupid so that there will be an adventure? Mostly. The villains are given reasonable motivations, and the neutrals aren't too stupid.
5) Goodies: New items and/or monsters. One new item as well as a new villainous cleric spell. There are also new monsters, but I'll get to that later.

The adventure is OK, but it has what I consider to be major, although not fatal flaw. It is very obvious that this adventure was originally written for AD&D2 and then converted to D&D3E. A number of monsters new to D&D3E, but part of the AD&D2 extended family are included with only the same sparse stats that standard monsters are given. The 'new' monster is OK, but unless you are familiar with AD&D2, some of the old monsters may prove troublesome. In short, I'd recommend it only if you wish to include the major plot thread in your ongoing campaign. (Legendary hero returns to face the forces of evil once more.)

 

[Messageboard Golem]

Evil forces of a dark magician plague the lands. To free the people from this scourge, the adventurers must accomplish a task at which many have failed before: enter the Tomb of the Overseers and call forth its ancient champion.
For 5-6 characters of levels 3-5

 

[ASEO]

Tomb of the Overseers: 3

Cost: $2.50

16 half pages

5 to 6 characters levels 3-5

Spoilers




The previous reviews give a good background fot this adventure so I won't repeat it. This review deals more with the DMability and playability of the product.

I ran this adventure with 2 PCs, a Human Pal1/Mnk1/Sor 3, and a Dwarf Rng1/Ftr1/Cl1/Bar1. The Adventure was fun to run as a quick session (it took about 4 hours). The party had a little trouble since they didn't have a thief or elf and had to spend a lot of time searching for secret doors. The PCs had to retreat and rest three times, and the adventure finished with the Dwarf unconscious.

There are a few problems with the adventure that are easily fixable but are worth mentioning.

1. The map has no scale

2. There is a hallway on the map that is shown to have rubble across it, but no mention is made on whether this is passable, or a complete cave in.

3. While monster stat blocks are given for all the creatures in the adventure, there are some creatures that I don't know what the source document (ie Monster Mannual...et all.) is and Thus I was un able to get more info on some of the following creatures. Wood Golem (different from the one in the CC.) Blue Musk Creeper. Blue Musk Zombie. Shadow Demon (I remember this from 2ed but have never seen it published in 3ed). Umbrae (an incorporeal undead that can only be hit by the shadow of a weapon, an additional -4 to hit the creature, that attacks with a shadow longsword_?_ that does normal 1d8 +4 damage)

4. The text for an encounter with a Ghoul Lord (new creature) is poorly edited and reads: " A skeletal creature with glowing red eye-sockets, wielding a huge, glowing dagger and wearing a batteres helm. The monster holds aloft a magical rod as it confronts the heros as they open the door."

However, nowhere in the text does it mention what the huge, glowing dagger or the magical rod are. I just droped both items from the encounter.

5. There is a trick/trap that provides the PCs with a key that is fairly important to the adventure. The catch is that the PCs must push a button, solve a riddle get some scrolls and then push the button a second time. Otherwise there are several pick lock and a dispell magic against a 5th level device to complete the adventure.

With these downers, I'd be inclined to give this product a 2, but having played it I found that it is playable as it is with some minor fixes that only take a few moments to make, and both the players and I as the DM had fun with it, and thus I'll give this product a 3.

I'd love to know what source document AEG used for the creatures in this book, or whether they did the conversion from 2ed to 3ed on these creatures themselves.

ASEO out

 

[Messageboard Golem]

I don't see any problem with adventures that are typical. It doesn't look like you do, either.

The WotC adventures didn't do a very good job of being "typical" and I like products that do.