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Expedition To The Barrier Peaks
An Adventure for Character Levels 8-12:
{Variant 1981 Front Cover}
This module was the official DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Tournament scenario at Origins II. The author wishes to express his thanks to Mr. Robert Kuntz who contributed substantial ideas for the various encounters herein. This version has been carefully revised and updated to conform to ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS. Included herein are background information for players, statistics for a party substantially the same as that used for the tournament, DM notes, six level maps with encounter matrices, and numerous full color illustrations of scenes from the adventure in order to enhance the enjoyment of participants. There are also many new and special monsters designed for this scenario, and they appear nowhere else. This module is located upon the Map of the World of Greyhawk (WORLD OF GREYHAWK from TSR).
Background Information:
The Grand Duchy of Geoff has recently been plagued by a rash of unusually weird & terrible monsters of unknown sort. This western area, particularly the mountain fastness which separates the Grand Duchy from the Dry Steppes, has long been renowned for the generation of the most fearsome beasts, & it has been shunned accordingly - save for a handful of hardy souls with exceptional abilities & sufficient wealth to build stout strongholds to ward off the attacks of the predatory creatures infesting the rugged lands thereabout.
{Variant 1981 Front Cover}
This module was the official DUNGEONS & DRAGONS Tournament scenario at Origins II. The author wishes to express his thanks to Mr. Robert Kuntz who contributed substantial ideas for the various encounters herein. This version has been carefully revised and updated to conform to ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS. Included herein are background information for players, statistics for a party substantially the same as that used for the tournament, DM notes, six level maps with encounter matrices, and numerous full color illustrations of scenes from the adventure in order to enhance the enjoyment of participants. There are also many new and special monsters designed for this scenario, and they appear nowhere else. This module is located upon the Map of the World of Greyhawk (WORLD OF GREYHAWK from TSR).
Background Information:
The Grand Duchy of Geoff has recently been plagued by a rash of unusually weird & terrible monsters of unknown sort. This western area, particularly the mountain fastness which separates the Grand Duchy from the Dry Steppes, has long been renowned for the generation of the most fearsome beasts, & it has been shunned accordingly - save for a handful of hardy souls with exceptional abilities & sufficient wealth to build stout strongholds to ward off the attacks of the predatory creatures infesting the rugged lands thereabout.
32 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1980
67 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
July 27, 2012
Expedition is a classic Gary Gygax adventure that satisifes one of those RPG desires when the run-of-the-mill medieval oeuvre loses its excitement: genre cross-over. In this case, what happens when you cross high D&D fantasy with advanced science fiction? Swords vs. lasers, heroes vs. mutations, spells vs. psi? It's an irresistable challenge and Gygax outdid himself in creating an adventure that's detailed enough to play in any milieux--and with a haunting, incomplete backstory that will leave you wanting more--yet generic enough to let the DM and the players create their own experiences.
Physical
The module was one of the better values out of TSR at the time. There are two booklets: the adventure itself and a 36 page illustrated companion booklet that shows drawings of creatures, settings, and objects. There are two "covers" for a total of 6 maps (each detailing a level of the spaceship the party is trapped in).
Gameplay
The module, while heavy on the hack-and-slash, does involve some puzzle solving (mostly a function of having to discover key cards to progress to locked areas). One of the interesting aspects is the odd sense of dramatic irony everyone has playing the module: because of their modern sensibilities, the players will eventually figure out that they're trapped in a colossal space ship, but the characters can't, and shouldn't, be able to use that knowledge in gameplay. It could lead to either immense frustration:
Player: "I use the screwdriver to loosen the screws on the robot's control panel."
DM: "What's a screwdriver? What's a robot? What's is this 'control panel' stuff?"
Player: Sighs "I take the short, metallic wand with the flat tip and..."
Or a lot of fun (especially when the party encounters androids).
Story
One thing missing from the adventure--perhaps necessarily--is story. It's clear enough that some kind of plague ravaged the passengers and crew of the spaceship, but a lack of details, names, and even story "hooks" keep this from being anything more than an outline. In a way, though, it works: the story is so barren that it fits the desolate setting of a crashed space liner filled with nothing but bodies and mutations. It's hard to tell whether a play-through would benefit or suffer from a DM adding more meat to the bones of the story. It may be that too much elaboration would just detract from the unsettling atmosphere.
Artwork
Both the module and the illustrated companion booklet are full of wonderful art by Jeff Dee, David S. LaForce, and the always disturbing Erol Otus. There are several color illustrations in the companion booklet.
One thing I love about the artwork in EtBP is that the module's feel of the "future" is decidely 1960's and '70's. Lasers are are more "ray guns" and the robots look like something out of Lost in Space. There is no gritty, industrial SciFi future or Gothic Warhammer influence; objects are rounded, smooth, gemlike dreams of what a science fiction 500 years from now would look like...as envisioned in the Summer of Love.
While I don't feel the same kind of attachment to Expedition as I do many of the other First Edition modules like Against the Giants and Keep on the Borderlands, it still hits the spot when I want to relive the high times of my early D&D days.
Physical
The module was one of the better values out of TSR at the time. There are two booklets: the adventure itself and a 36 page illustrated companion booklet that shows drawings of creatures, settings, and objects. There are two "covers" for a total of 6 maps (each detailing a level of the spaceship the party is trapped in).
Gameplay
The module, while heavy on the hack-and-slash, does involve some puzzle solving (mostly a function of having to discover key cards to progress to locked areas). One of the interesting aspects is the odd sense of dramatic irony everyone has playing the module: because of their modern sensibilities, the players will eventually figure out that they're trapped in a colossal space ship, but the characters can't, and shouldn't, be able to use that knowledge in gameplay. It could lead to either immense frustration:
Player: "I use the screwdriver to loosen the screws on the robot's control panel."
DM: "What's a screwdriver? What's a robot? What's is this 'control panel' stuff?"
Player: Sighs "I take the short, metallic wand with the flat tip and..."
Or a lot of fun (especially when the party encounters androids).
Story
One thing missing from the adventure--perhaps necessarily--is story. It's clear enough that some kind of plague ravaged the passengers and crew of the spaceship, but a lack of details, names, and even story "hooks" keep this from being anything more than an outline. In a way, though, it works: the story is so barren that it fits the desolate setting of a crashed space liner filled with nothing but bodies and mutations. It's hard to tell whether a play-through would benefit or suffer from a DM adding more meat to the bones of the story. It may be that too much elaboration would just detract from the unsettling atmosphere.
Artwork
Both the module and the illustrated companion booklet are full of wonderful art by Jeff Dee, David S. LaForce, and the always disturbing Erol Otus. There are several color illustrations in the companion booklet.
One thing I love about the artwork in EtBP is that the module's feel of the "future" is decidely 1960's and '70's. Lasers are are more "ray guns" and the robots look like something out of Lost in Space. There is no gritty, industrial SciFi future or Gothic Warhammer influence; objects are rounded, smooth, gemlike dreams of what a science fiction 500 years from now would look like...as envisioned in the Summer of Love.
While I don't feel the same kind of attachment to Expedition as I do many of the other First Edition modules like Against the Giants and Keep on the Borderlands, it still hits the spot when I want to relive the high times of my early D&D days.
July 5, 2013
As a teenager, my guilty pleasure - which I never advertised to anti-RPG friends - was my obsession with Dungeon & Dragons. (Unfortunately, fear of rejection by other peer groups because I might be a “D&D nerd” did exert an influence on me back then.) Even with that apprehension, I couldn’t stop playing D&D and just loving the whole atmosphere of the game: the rule books, the modules, the endless maps, the stories themselves, the friends gathered around a table laughing and arguing about what was happening, and my absolutely favorite thing was taking my turn as Dungeon Master so I could screw around with my buddies by playing god. Honestly, if not for those years playing D&D as a 10-13 year old, I doubt I would have ever picked up my first fantasy book, and this life long love of all things fantasy would not have existed.
All that hyperbole leads me to one of my favorite D&D modules: Expedition to Barrier Peaks. As one reviewer stated, it “is a classic Gary Gygax adventure that satisfies one of those RPG desires when the run-of-the-mill medieval oeuvre loses its excitement: genre cross-over. In this case, what happens when you cross high D&D fantasy with advanced science fiction? Swords vs. lasers, heroes vs. mutations, spells vs. psi? It's an irresistible challenge and Gygax outdid himself in creating an adventure that's detailed enough to play in any milieus--and with a haunting, incomplete back story that will leave you wanting more--yet generic enough to let the DM and the players create their own experiences.” Quoted from Matthew Iden w/o permission but with acknowledgment.
I do not believe I could describe Expedition any better than Mr. Iden did. However, I will add that as a teenager in the early 80s I never saw this one coming when my buddies and I sat down to play this module. We were veterans you know, adapt at beating pretty much any dungeon you threw at us, but we were not expecting a crashed spaceship! It totally surprised us, made us scramble around for solutions to new problems and original monsters. The lack of back story as to the how and why a spaceship was in the mountains just made the whole experience more exciting, leading my buddies and I to argue incessantly about whether either question mattered to our surviving this intrusion into an extraterrestrial environment. In the words of the day, it was just a totally cool and awesome module.
So while I have not played it in decades, every time Expedition to the Barrier Peaks is mentioned I have to give it a big plug, because when I think of D&D this module - among a handful of others - always stands out in my memory.
All that hyperbole leads me to one of my favorite D&D modules: Expedition to Barrier Peaks. As one reviewer stated, it “is a classic Gary Gygax adventure that satisfies one of those RPG desires when the run-of-the-mill medieval oeuvre loses its excitement: genre cross-over. In this case, what happens when you cross high D&D fantasy with advanced science fiction? Swords vs. lasers, heroes vs. mutations, spells vs. psi? It's an irresistible challenge and Gygax outdid himself in creating an adventure that's detailed enough to play in any milieus--and with a haunting, incomplete back story that will leave you wanting more--yet generic enough to let the DM and the players create their own experiences.” Quoted from Matthew Iden w/o permission but with acknowledgment.
I do not believe I could describe Expedition any better than Mr. Iden did. However, I will add that as a teenager in the early 80s I never saw this one coming when my buddies and I sat down to play this module. We were veterans you know, adapt at beating pretty much any dungeon you threw at us, but we were not expecting a crashed spaceship! It totally surprised us, made us scramble around for solutions to new problems and original monsters. The lack of back story as to the how and why a spaceship was in the mountains just made the whole experience more exciting, leading my buddies and I to argue incessantly about whether either question mattered to our surviving this intrusion into an extraterrestrial environment. In the words of the day, it was just a totally cool and awesome module.
So while I have not played it in decades, every time Expedition to the Barrier Peaks is mentioned I have to give it a big plug, because when I think of D&D this module - among a handful of others - always stands out in my memory.
July 12, 2017
A Cross-Genre Adventure
10 July 2017 - Corrigin
I'm currently sitting on a tour bus heading out to Wave Rock, about three hundred kilometres inland from Perth, and since we are passing through endless acres of farmland I thought that I might jot down some thoughts about one of the Dungeons and Dragons modules that I used to (and probably still) own. Actually, we had just passed through the town of Corrigin where the farmers have set up a cemetery for their dogs, though that was just a side thought and really has nothing to do with this particular book, or adventure module.
This adventure stands out in my mind because it differed quite a lot from many of the other modules that had been released at this time. Dungeons and Dragons was predominantly a swords and sorcery game, which meant that it involved warriors and wizards in a medieval setting – there was really no room for modern technology. In fact, with the exception of a couple of articles in the Dragon magazine, there weren't even rules for guns (let alone modern guns, though they did release some games focusing on other genres). However, this module came along and it had the players explore a crashed spaceship full of robots and futuristic energy weapons. I have since discovered that it was a tie in for the new Metamorphosis Alpha game that had recently been released.
It did provide a bit of a break to the standard adventure module, though like a lot of them back in those days they tended to be a little light on the actually story and involved going into dungeons and such, killing monsters, and taking treasures. Mind you, the problem with having such advanced weaponry was that it had the ability to give the players quite a bit of an edge, though in another sense it probably would be similar to giving them all wands of lightning bolts and fireballs. I even remember creating my own treasures based on that assumption, though instead of them being short sticks of the like you see in Harry Potter, they were shaped like guns, and could even be recharged by changing out a section of it.
I can't say that I ever ran this adventure, and it seems as if the creators didn't experiment with this type all that much. There was another series of adventures which worked on a similar concept released a number of years later and even took the players to a futuristic city. However, this is one of the earlier products and no doubt they were still experimenting with what would work.
10 July 2017 - Corrigin
I'm currently sitting on a tour bus heading out to Wave Rock, about three hundred kilometres inland from Perth, and since we are passing through endless acres of farmland I thought that I might jot down some thoughts about one of the Dungeons and Dragons modules that I used to (and probably still) own. Actually, we had just passed through the town of Corrigin where the farmers have set up a cemetery for their dogs, though that was just a side thought and really has nothing to do with this particular book, or adventure module.
This adventure stands out in my mind because it differed quite a lot from many of the other modules that had been released at this time. Dungeons and Dragons was predominantly a swords and sorcery game, which meant that it involved warriors and wizards in a medieval setting – there was really no room for modern technology. In fact, with the exception of a couple of articles in the Dragon magazine, there weren't even rules for guns (let alone modern guns, though they did release some games focusing on other genres). However, this module came along and it had the players explore a crashed spaceship full of robots and futuristic energy weapons. I have since discovered that it was a tie in for the new Metamorphosis Alpha game that had recently been released.
It did provide a bit of a break to the standard adventure module, though like a lot of them back in those days they tended to be a little light on the actually story and involved going into dungeons and such, killing monsters, and taking treasures. Mind you, the problem with having such advanced weaponry was that it had the ability to give the players quite a bit of an edge, though in another sense it probably would be similar to giving them all wands of lightning bolts and fireballs. I even remember creating my own treasures based on that assumption, though instead of them being short sticks of the like you see in Harry Potter, they were shaped like guns, and could even be recharged by changing out a section of it.
I can't say that I ever ran this adventure, and it seems as if the creators didn't experiment with this type all that much. There was another series of adventures which worked on a similar concept released a number of years later and even took the players to a futuristic city. However, this is one of the earlier products and no doubt they were still experimenting with what would work.
May 29, 2013
Erol Otus is the Man.
December 10, 2024
9/25/2016: This module is closely connected with the “Metamorphosis Alpha” science fiction role-playing game that preceded “Gamma World” in TSR’s line of products. It served as a kind of gateway to Metamorphosis Alpha for D&D players, although that game (and Gamma World) never really took off the way the Fantasy Role-Playing Game did. It was originally designed by Gygax as a tournament scenario for playing at gaming cons, and it debuted at Origins II, the major competitor for Gygax’s own Gen Con. As such, it is written with an intended end-point, which forces the characters to get as much as possible and leave before time runs out. It includes maps of each level of the “dungeon,” as well as descriptions of new monsters and items. One interesting and unusual feature is a complete illustration booklet, with pictures of everything the PCs may encounter, that the DM can show them rather than trying to describe every odd-looking beast and object.
The basic premise is that a spaceship from another Universe has crash landed in a remote spot of the gaming world, and it is the “dungeon” that the players must explore. All of the original crew are dead, but various alien beasts were carried on board in a kind of space zoo, and they are now loose. There are also many surviving robots. Finally, various of the usual dungeon-dwelling species have wandered aboard the ship, some of them finding advanced weapons and technology, others being mutated by stray radiation. In all, it is a setting with many possibilities and it was a very popular module in its day. I remember running it myself at least once.
It does have some problems, not the least of which is inherent to most published modules: if your players have read it, they will know too much about it for it to really be fun. There are a lot of powerful weapons (like laser rifles, etc) to be found, and if the players immediately recognize what they are, they will rapidly become too powerful. The artists have done a good job designing technology that a first-time viewer may have a hard time guessing, but if they have advance knowledge, they’ll quickly kit themselves out with power armor and incendiary grenades and become unstoppable. The module suggests a rather complex system of flowcharts (reproduced in 1st edition Gamma World) for medieval characters trying to “guess” at the workings of new technology, but these are frankly boring and tedious, and most players will just say “I push the button. What happens?” rather than plod through them.
The other major criticism I have of the adventure is the lack of set-up for the DM. There are only a few paragraphs describing what the ship is and how it came to be here, and they are preceded by a lot of detail about how the doors, drop tubes, and lighting works with no context given. I didn’t re-read the whole thing before preparing this review, and it’s possible that somewhere in the ship there’s a recording tape or computer that has the whole log of the voyage and crash and gives complete information about the aliens and their culture, but it would be nice if this information was at the forefront, to allow DMs to improvise effectively when unexpected situations arise. The impression I get is that the aliens were humanoid, and possibly essentially humans with advanced technology, but it’s very hard to say from what the module says at the outset.
Nevertheless, this was a great exercise in imagination of the sort that made D&D such a big hit in the first place, and the adventure remains a classic of its kind, despite any flaws.
12/10/24: Not much to add, having re-read it a few times since this was written, except that, yes, the aliens were humans (hence all the human skeletons all over the ship) and no, we never really get their backstory, except that a “plague” struck the ship and apparently caused madness and the death of all of the crew and passengers.. I think what is more relevant is that the ship is frankly too big and too empty, and that DMs will want to “rush” players a bit to get to the cooler areas and more interesting encounters and treasure.
The basic premise is that a spaceship from another Universe has crash landed in a remote spot of the gaming world, and it is the “dungeon” that the players must explore. All of the original crew are dead, but various alien beasts were carried on board in a kind of space zoo, and they are now loose. There are also many surviving robots. Finally, various of the usual dungeon-dwelling species have wandered aboard the ship, some of them finding advanced weapons and technology, others being mutated by stray radiation. In all, it is a setting with many possibilities and it was a very popular module in its day. I remember running it myself at least once.
It does have some problems, not the least of which is inherent to most published modules: if your players have read it, they will know too much about it for it to really be fun. There are a lot of powerful weapons (like laser rifles, etc) to be found, and if the players immediately recognize what they are, they will rapidly become too powerful. The artists have done a good job designing technology that a first-time viewer may have a hard time guessing, but if they have advance knowledge, they’ll quickly kit themselves out with power armor and incendiary grenades and become unstoppable. The module suggests a rather complex system of flowcharts (reproduced in 1st edition Gamma World) for medieval characters trying to “guess” at the workings of new technology, but these are frankly boring and tedious, and most players will just say “I push the button. What happens?” rather than plod through them.
The other major criticism I have of the adventure is the lack of set-up for the DM. There are only a few paragraphs describing what the ship is and how it came to be here, and they are preceded by a lot of detail about how the doors, drop tubes, and lighting works with no context given. I didn’t re-read the whole thing before preparing this review, and it’s possible that somewhere in the ship there’s a recording tape or computer that has the whole log of the voyage and crash and gives complete information about the aliens and their culture, but it would be nice if this information was at the forefront, to allow DMs to improvise effectively when unexpected situations arise. The impression I get is that the aliens were humanoid, and possibly essentially humans with advanced technology, but it’s very hard to say from what the module says at the outset.
Nevertheless, this was a great exercise in imagination of the sort that made D&D such a big hit in the first place, and the adventure remains a classic of its kind, despite any flaws.
12/10/24: Not much to add, having re-read it a few times since this was written, except that, yes, the aliens were humans (hence all the human skeletons all over the ship) and no, we never really get their backstory, except that a “plague” struck the ship and apparently caused madness and the death of all of the crew and passengers.. I think what is more relevant is that the ship is frankly too big and too empty, and that DMs will want to “rush” players a bit to get to the cooler areas and more interesting encounters and treasure.
January 4, 2014
This is a really important module, because it shows how a D&D adventure can be adapted to a different genre. The name of the game is still exploration, but here it is a buried spaceship with mutated occupants and malfunctioning robots. Instead of the normal treasure, there are strange artifacts of technology the party can try to figure out as to how they operate. Lots of great illustrations - maybe even overkill on them :)
August 13, 2016
An absolute classic. Gygax having fun with the genre(s).
July 22, 2017
Mixing space travel with dungeoning was amazing. The vegepygmies were annoying. But laser guns on monsters was something awesome.
May 14, 2019
It's so much harder to find some good scifi/fantasy stuff nowadays. I wish this module had caught up more than it really did.
February 14, 2024
One of the earliest modules for the AD&D game, this developed from a tournament game that was Gary Gygax showing both the versatility of early DnD and the development of other RPG milleu (in this case Metamorphosis Alpha and Gamma World).
Oddly as a tournament module it's remarkably without goals or set scenes (unlike say A1-4) although I can imagine how much fun as a showcase with the suggested 10 to 15 characters it would have been in the day.
The backstory is scanty and the mission vague, but that's compensated for by the setting. A spaceship embedded in the mountains which the pcs descend using a combination of drop chutes, holes, ramps and lift shafts. It's full of hi-tec gear, and robots with a definite 50s era sci-fi vibe. The module comes with a sizeable book of illustrations which is superb.
The encounters are a curious mix of weird, repetitive, and deadly common to early DnD. The repetitive is mainly on level 1 with dozens of vegepygmies, and latterly with robots, which could easily loose it's freshness. The deadly is mainly the save or die moments, or in some cases not even save just die which in those brutal early days might have been cool but would be disaster with modern players!
Yet it is the weird that makes this, with a ton of cool. Some great monsters make their debut here, especially on the best level: the overgrown hydroponic garden. The awesome frogemoth is my favourite.
The lowest level feels a little underwhelming after the ones above, with a mindflayer being a big bad- not mega challenging for a dozen L8-12 characters (perhaps written thinking there'd be under half making it that far?). It also lacks a final goal beyond exploration: if I ever ran this I'd look to insert a McGuffin, or some information to be found (perhaps the plague is rampant outside and needs a cure), or even the ship is self destructing and the only exit, or way of exiting is found on lowest level.
Whatever, this module is a classic up there with Tomb, the Giants, or White Plume and made me forget my dislike of mixing sci-fi and fantasy in DnD
Oddly as a tournament module it's remarkably without goals or set scenes (unlike say A1-4) although I can imagine how much fun as a showcase with the suggested 10 to 15 characters it would have been in the day.
The backstory is scanty and the mission vague, but that's compensated for by the setting. A spaceship embedded in the mountains which the pcs descend using a combination of drop chutes, holes, ramps and lift shafts. It's full of hi-tec gear, and robots with a definite 50s era sci-fi vibe. The module comes with a sizeable book of illustrations which is superb.
The encounters are a curious mix of weird, repetitive, and deadly common to early DnD. The repetitive is mainly on level 1 with dozens of vegepygmies, and latterly with robots, which could easily loose it's freshness. The deadly is mainly the save or die moments, or in some cases not even save just die which in those brutal early days might have been cool but would be disaster with modern players!
Yet it is the weird that makes this, with a ton of cool. Some great monsters make their debut here, especially on the best level: the overgrown hydroponic garden. The awesome frogemoth is my favourite.
The lowest level feels a little underwhelming after the ones above, with a mindflayer being a big bad- not mega challenging for a dozen L8-12 characters (perhaps written thinking there'd be under half making it that far?). It also lacks a final goal beyond exploration: if I ever ran this I'd look to insert a McGuffin, or some information to be found (perhaps the plague is rampant outside and needs a cure), or even the ship is self destructing and the only exit, or way of exiting is found on lowest level.
Whatever, this module is a classic up there with Tomb, the Giants, or White Plume and made me forget my dislike of mixing sci-fi and fantasy in DnD
December 17, 2022
As was the case of many of the modules published in early 1980, this was also an adaptation of a competition module, first played in 1976 at Origins II. This was often the case with these one location modules which were manageable in one or two play sessions.
If none of this is new, the module does innovate in a particular way which would make it an immensely memorable experience up until today. Your party of characters is hired to go investigate some strange monsters and attacks around the Barrier Peaks, so far so business as usual. However, when the party gets there what we get is a science fiction setting of a crashed spaceship into which our party must venture.
This is immensely fun, particularly with a good DM and party who will act as if they are people in a medieval world facing a completely unexplained phenomena rather than 20th-21st century humans who have watched Star Trek. Accompanying the module is an art book with truly fantastic depictions of monsters, rooms and technology which is found during the exploration. The art of Earl Otus is particularly amazing here, more so in the few color plates included in the book. It's not a perfect module, however, there is very little plot and pretty confusing map instructions and an overly complex key card system which can be pretty frustrating. Well, nothing that a good DM with time and patience cannot fix. A classic module with a great concept at the centre of it.
If none of this is new, the module does innovate in a particular way which would make it an immensely memorable experience up until today. Your party of characters is hired to go investigate some strange monsters and attacks around the Barrier Peaks, so far so business as usual. However, when the party gets there what we get is a science fiction setting of a crashed spaceship into which our party must venture.
This is immensely fun, particularly with a good DM and party who will act as if they are people in a medieval world facing a completely unexplained phenomena rather than 20th-21st century humans who have watched Star Trek. Accompanying the module is an art book with truly fantastic depictions of monsters, rooms and technology which is found during the exploration. The art of Earl Otus is particularly amazing here, more so in the few color plates included in the book. It's not a perfect module, however, there is very little plot and pretty confusing map instructions and an overly complex key card system which can be pretty frustrating. Well, nothing that a good DM with time and patience cannot fix. A classic module with a great concept at the centre of it.
June 20, 2024
3.5 rounded down
I like the idea of an adventure set in an abandonned space ship, though there's some of the backstory of said ship that I had trouble understanding, at it seems it's crew was human but it isn't really explain who are those humans and where they came from.
I also felt there seem to lack a conclusion to this "dungeon". It doesn't necessarily needs one, so maybe that's a me issue. Or maybe I wasn't super attentive when I read the hook, but if I remember correctly, the party just "happens" to find the spaceship, they were not sent there by someone or for a specific reason.
I don't intend to run this adventure, so I didn't bother much to try and understand the key system and other space item and transporter that helped go to deeper level. I did enjoy how there's a whole ecosystem inside the ship. I also like the "in-between" level where the party could explore more mechanical spaces and such. I do wish there was a little more stuff on those level though.
Made me want to go check how mindflayer evolved from 1E + gave me a better understanding of vegepygmy, which is neat.
I like the idea of an adventure set in an abandonned space ship, though there's some of the backstory of said ship that I had trouble understanding, at it seems it's crew was human but it isn't really explain who are those humans and where they came from.
I also felt there seem to lack a conclusion to this "dungeon". It doesn't necessarily needs one, so maybe that's a me issue. Or maybe I wasn't super attentive when I read the hook, but if I remember correctly, the party just "happens" to find the spaceship, they were not sent there by someone or for a specific reason.
I don't intend to run this adventure, so I didn't bother much to try and understand the key system and other space item and transporter that helped go to deeper level. I did enjoy how there's a whole ecosystem inside the ship. I also like the "in-between" level where the party could explore more mechanical spaces and such. I do wish there was a little more stuff on those level though.
Made me want to go check how mindflayer evolved from 1E + gave me a better understanding of vegepygmy, which is neat.
December 20, 2018
I broke my foot on the first day of summer break after Grade 7, and my older brother's pal dropped off a bunch of D&D modules, this was one of them.
D&D with lasers and UFOs? Yeah. I never got around to playing it, shortly after getting through some of the other modules in the cache, my group dove headlong into TMNT and other Strangeness and stayed there for nearly the rest of Jr. High, sometimes mixing it up with Ninjas And Superspies-Weasel Thai Kickboxers were OP AF.
Anyways, This module was mostly overland hexcrawling, with a finale more akin to XCOM UFO Defense than slay the wizard, which I wasn't into at the time, but do enjoy now, I guess Gygax wrote it for the 40 somethings rather than the Jr. High kids.
D&D with lasers and UFOs? Yeah. I never got around to playing it, shortly after getting through some of the other modules in the cache, my group dove headlong into TMNT and other Strangeness and stayed there for nearly the rest of Jr. High, sometimes mixing it up with Ninjas And Superspies-Weasel Thai Kickboxers were OP AF.
Anyways, This module was mostly overland hexcrawling, with a finale more akin to XCOM UFO Defense than slay the wizard, which I wasn't into at the time, but do enjoy now, I guess Gygax wrote it for the 40 somethings rather than the Jr. High kids.
April 15, 2010
Sci-fi vs. fantasy. An excellent and strange adventure. I like it! =)
March 17, 2025
One of the greatest, most original and innovative, and just plain fun adventures of all time. A true breakthrough at the time it was released.
April 3, 2013
Another great adventure. Worth playing it!
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