Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Module Temple of Elemental Evil/1 (T2a) [Paperback]

Gary Gygax (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Random House Inc (P) (July 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394531647
• ISBN-13: 978-0394531649
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Temple of Elemental Evil: Do your homework., July 25, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Module Temple of Elemental Evil/1 (T2a) (Paperback)

We started "Temple" about 3 years ago. I found it to be the most rewarding campaign i have ever attempted to DM. I created entire personalities for each and every person included in the module as well as a plethora of my own. I have complex relationships, seasonal changes, and multiple plots and goals for players. I developed trade routes, weapons smugglers, betrayors, unknown allies, demonic possession, third competing adventuring party, I rebuilt Nulb from scratch, expanded on the intricate relationships between rival/allied factions within the temple, etc. The list goes on. That's why i say... Do your homework. Take as much time as you need. Some of the party members have decided to stay back from other adventurers and build a life there in Hommlet. The potential for growth, leadership, commerce, and adventuring is high. There is no limits to what you can do with T1-4 so don't waste it. Do other smaller scale adventurers to appease characters as ! they travel to unknown destinations. But when you're prepared, fate will lead them to Hommlet. Make your Elder very dynamic with ties that go back to the great war. Kelno, Falrinth, and others play a very proactive role. Don't have them sit around waiting for characters to storm their base of operations. Iuz and Zuggtomuoy are impatient employers and demand results. Take some of the encounters from "The City of Greyhawk" boxed set, and include them as well. I have local nomadic tribes that see lots of enemy movement at night. Give PC's the opportunity to ally with them. Climax with a full scale comfrontation, then as the armies are repelled (god willing) the PC's storm the Temple to deliver the final blow to the weakened evil minions. When the crushing fatal blows are delivered, the PC's must dash from the Temple as the Nodes collapse and attempt to suck the Temple and it's contents into the void it creates. PC's must escape or be wisked away to who knows wh! ere. My hat is off to Mr Mentzer. Great Module, but the mo! re you read it, the more you realize that Frank wasn't the creator. He was the framer of that area. You create it. Have fun... and do your homework.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing, March 24, 2001

By 

MISTER SJEM "sonofhotpie" (CALIF BAY AREA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Module Temple of Elemental Evil/1 (T2a) (Paperback)

After reading the VILLAGE OF HOMMLET module way back when, I thought the TEMPLE edition would be even better. It wasn't.

VOH had context to the village . . . it breathed as if it were alive . . . there were little motivations on the side going on with the villagers and the dungeon was well thought out for a first level group.

But, TOEE, was VOH plus the big trip to the temple. And, for the most part, I found TEMPLE to just be a room filled with different types of monsters. It was like this: kill monster, look for traps, get booty . . . repeat process.

Wouldn't recommend unless your group is hack and slash only.

3.0 out of 5 stars Sort of a letdown........., February 25, 2002

By 

John T. "underdog7" (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Module Temple of Elemental Evil/1 (T2a) (Paperback)

I would have to agree with the person who found it "disappointing". Village of Hommlet has always been one of my favorite all-time modules. But the Temple module was somewhat of a letdown. First of all, I found they ramped up the difficulty from VOH a little too quickly assuming you run the modules in sequence as was intended. Also, the Temple module seemed to need a lot of fleshing out, as the "Do your homework" reviewer covers quite amply. But that's just it, if I was going to do all the work that he talks about to flesh out the module and make it good, I would just create the adventure from scratch myself and not even bother buying the module.