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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Toadkiller Dawg says: Goblins, why'd it have to be goblins?,
By A Customer
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Axe of the Dwarvish Lords (AD&D Tomes Series) (Paperback)
With the Rod of Seven Parts box set already under his belt, Skip Williams has apparently been put in charge of scenario design for AD&D artifacts. Axe of the Dwarvish Lords, unfortunately, doesn't fare as well as its predecessor. There are some minor glitches; the story stumbles a bit right out of the gate with a mystery that high-level PCs are likely to unravel rather easily with some judicious spell use rather than the days of tough role-playing anticipated by the text. The maps of the goblin lair are pretty, but each of the 14 intricate and often large lair maps are keyed from area #1 and up rather than keying the lair as a whole sequentially, something that is sure to cause confusion during play (it did during reading).But there are far more serious problems with this product. Like the Rod, AODL is written for a high-level party worthy of recovering a powerful artifact, but, unlike the Rod adventure where the party faced the more the capable and dreaded spyder-fiends, Williams chose the rather weak goblin as the primary PC adversary. Even a horde of goblins isn't going to stand up to a party of 13-15th level PCs and Williams recognizes this, so how do you handle this shortfall? Easy. You cheat. Basically, the goblins in this adventure are supplied several special combat rules, many of which directly run counter to AD&D standards. For example, goblins are allowed more attackers per man-sized opponent than permitted by the DMG and are given several mass-combat options for attack and defense that probably aren't available to the PCs. This is as patently unfair as having the players confront an armor-wearing wizard who is allowed to cast two or more spells per round. But that's not all. These goblins are also backed by a high-level wizard who apparently has nothing better to do than enchant items. How so? Well, this unlikely tribe of goblins also happens to be supplied with, this is not an exaggeration, HUNDREDS of potions, rings that cast spells like anti-magic shell, haste and stoneskin and, worst of all, destructive goblin grenades that explode for 4d10 damage in a 15'r. Better yet, every item is a one-shot, usuable only by the goblins, so the DM doesn't have to worry about the PCs getting ahold of this magical bonanza. In my opinion, presenting the players with this kind of a stacked deck is an example of exceedingly poor design that is likely to get the poor DM pelted with dice by his (rightfully) incensed players. If it takes special combat rules and oodles of magic before the enemy can challenge the PCs, then the writer should have selected an opponent mightier than a goblin (ogres or verbeeg perhaps) or else written the adventure for lower level parties. The product does have its good points. The old dwarven citadel occupied by the goblins is terrifically drawn and described with clear notes on the responses of the inhabitants and even what steps they will take if the PCs return on a later foray. The various goblin tribes have interesting differences and capabilities, the important NPCs are skillfully drawn and there is plenty of interesting dwarven mythology to accompany the descriptions of the Axe and several other dwarven artifacts. The dwarven tomb area is sure to be a source of fiendish glee for DMs who enjoy complicated, effective and deadly traps. There most certainly is the base for a wonderful adventure here, but the last strike against AODL is its cost. While it wouldn't be too hard to eliminate the plethora of goblin magic and still have a decent campaign capable of challenging 7-10th level PCs, I personally wouldn't want to have to make such major revisions after having plunked down what amounts to boxed set cash without even getting the box and the extra goodies like DM aids, handouts and large scale maps that come with it. If the price isn't a concern to you, AODL probably deserves three stars, but if I'm going to spend this much money, I'd rather someone else did the writing so I can do the playing.
25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Goblins, Goblins, & (Sigh...) more Goblins,
By Jarrod H. Jennings (Salt Lake City, Utah, USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Axe of the Dwarvish Lords (AD&D Tomes Series) (Paperback)
I found the concept terrific, the story to be somewhat intriguing, (searching for a lost artifact is almost always going to pique my interests), but the execution lacking. The Goblin tactics are clear cheats. That's all. I found most players to be angry, rather than surprised, that the goblins were allowed to develop basically new combat rules that the party likely would never have been allowed to develop for themselves, as well as having tons of magic items given to the little morons by a mage who would've faired far better by giving them to a tougher monster like an Orc army and some Ogres, or just keeping them for himself (which he never does). If your group has no objection to the new combat tactics, go for it...THEY'RE NASTY!The biggest drawback is that the party spends way too many hours in dungeon crawls that are basically the same. After a while I had to simply change the adventure and merge it in with a Ruins of Myth Drannor and Hellgate Keep adventure to make it interesting for my group. I had two players fall asleep during the repetitive dungeon crawl portion of game. There are numerous traps throughout these dungeons that are undetectable by the players, and they get tedious after a while as well. On the bright side, the source material and the production quality itself is first rate. I loved the maps. They are beautifully detailed and the source material on the axe as well as other rules heretofore undeveloped, (like what the combat effects are for losing limbs to a sword of sharpness-type of attack), are immensely valuable to any DM. All and all I thought it was a good product if you don't mind doing a little tweaking to take out some of the repetitiveness of the dungeon crawl, as well as changing some of the combat scenarios so that the PC's are challenged by the goblins without feeling ripped off by these tactics rules, which, to put it mildly, are unusual to say the least. For example, take out a weird Goblin tactics maneuver and instead put another creature in that is tougher than a goblin that may have a similar tactical attack form that simulates the attack the goblins would've done. Use a bucket full of oil and a fire drake instead of those silly goblin bombs. Instead of rings the give one-shot stoneskins to goblins, have the goblins attack from a hard-covered location on higher ground and set it up so they have 90% cover, thus reducing their armor class by 9, and possibly taking some of the damage away from area affect spells like fireball. You could also simply increase the number of goblins and have them attack from a vantage point which gives them a good chance for surprise and allows the little guys a chance to use the overbearing/ overrun tactics. Better yet, simply replace 1/2 of the goblins with Ogres and a few Ogre Magi. In short, it's flawed, yet fixable enough to play and have a great time. I think it's a worthy addition to any AD&D player's collection. I ALSO WANT TO SAY THAT ON THE WHOLE, I LOVE THE TOMES SERIES CAMPEIGN MODULES AND HOPE THE CREW AT TSR KEEPS IT UP!
1 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Dungeon crawl,
By A Customer
This review is from: Axe of the Dwarvish Lords (AD&D Tomes Series) (Paperback)
I just got this last week, so I haven't been able to DM it yet, but from reading it I can see that this is a fun adventure. It just lacks an indefinable "oomph" that would make it 5 stars. Good interior art, surprisingly blah cover art, by Sczudlo, who normally is awesome. Interesting characters and a big dungeon equals loads of fun.
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