Customer Reviews

Dragon Mountain (AD&D 2nd Ed. Fantasy Roleplaying)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

When I pick out a module, my biggest gripe is that the majority of novels aren't well thought out and therefore have plot holes or illogical maneuvers.

In order to get around this, I usually pay attention to the game designer credits to up my chances of getting a good piece. But, that doesn't always work so I like to be able to flip through the item.

DRAGON MOUNTAIN is broken up in to three books with illustrious maps and score cards. The first book lays out the overland adventure and certain parts don't make sense and are probably there to beef the party up.

However, the module makes up for this shortcoming in that the second and third books are put together quite well. This is a perfect example of where you can use very weak monsters, give them terrain and trap advantages with lots of magic and they can easily mess up party members. It can also be humiliating to the PCs if that turns you on as a DM. :D

The leader at the end of the story is tough and intelligent. Creators actually took the time to explain her battle strategies rather than rely on the DM figuring it out.

The fact that this mountain can shift from plane to plane makes it easy to fit in to any campaign. If, for some reason, your PCs are higher level, put a tougher race in place of kobolds and beef up the leaders.

Overall, the idea of weak monsters being able to take on midlevel and high level adventurers is a keen concept. Most DMs toss such creatures out when the PCs get to a certain level. This boxed set rejuvenates a weak race like kobolds. For that reason alone, I rank it five stars as great.

SOHP

This is one of my favorite high-level epics for AD&D, because it teaches your players to fear Kobolds for the rest of their lives. No, I'm not kidding! There's thousands of them - ingenious ones, wizardly ones, invisible ones, and far worse - once the PCs face the enormous dragon, they'll be relieved that it's something that's merely exactly what it seems! Or is it? Included are an unpunched sheet of gaming and monster counters (complete with stands), dozens of player handouts, endless reams of maps and new monsters, and 192 pages of adventure. An adventure your players will never forgive you for...

Dragon Mountain has to be one of the BEST AD&D adventures ever to be made, together with Temple of Elemental Evil, Tomb of Horrors, Castle Greyhawk, and Desert of Desolation! The adventure is divided into three parts, with each making use of its own respective booklet and set of maps. It deals with a whole mountain that used to be the home to clans of dwarves, but has now fallen under the control/command of an ancient, powerful and very evil Red Dragon and his kobold armies. The kobolds are divided into clans, with their own politics, alliances, and rivalries. Their vast network of spies, limitless intrigue, extensive use of traps and poison, and assortment of resident monsters, make up for a formidable adversary indeed, that will surely win you over if a good challenge is what you are looking for! There seems to be no end to adventure whether inside or outside Dragon Mountain.
As a result, I have had endless hours of gaming enjoyment playing on material presented within the pages of this super-adventure!
In short, if you enjoy a good dungeon crawl that also requires a lot of planning beforehand, as well as getting involved in the world of clan politics and their web of intrigue and deceit, try and get your hands on a copy of Dragon Mountain. You'll never see kobolds in the same light ever again! Trust me!

This is less of the epic, boxed set adventure that we are all familiar with, and more of a lengthy dungeon crawl. Yes, there is the preliminary stage where the group wanders around trying to find out how to enter Dragon Mountain, but that is the least essential part of the adventure IMO. The rest is composed of navigating through different clans of kobolds (all offshoots of one original clan) who all serve Infyrana (the dragon of Dragon Mountain) in various capacities, within the mountain (the bulk of the described areas being an old dwarven keep that they first conquered and then converted to suit their purposes). I have used this adventure in both Greyhawk and Eberron. In Greyhawk, it is a smaller part of my larger Passage of Slerotin campaign. In Eberron, i use this in Sarlona as part of my Sarlonan rebels campaign (wherein the group is composed of Sarlona ex-patriots, Adari guerrillas, and dwarven refugees (at least, that is how it played out the only time i had the opportunity to play out that particular campaign)). Anyway, this set isnt really fleshed out, so it isnt really useful for an impromptu session (or set of sessions). For that same reason though, it is easy to convert into any campaign world. I use 3.5 rules, which gives the DM more options regarding the kobolds (e.g..you can make them individually more diverse). I have always included subplots with rebel kobolds, not all of which are evil, and in the Eberron campaign, i made both Hittel and Farkunmal both non-evil and potential allies for the players. I also generally set up a few kobolds that can be recruited as henchmen, followers, and specialty troop hirelings.

So far, my groups have all failed to slay Infyrana in this adventure, and so the dragon becomes a nemesis. In Eberron, she is a member of the Chamber.

Let's see...some other notes. I feel almost all of the NPC's in book one are waaaaayyyyy too powerful as written. I tend to lower their levels to more reasonable levels. For example, what are the odds of a bandit group with all the members being of level 5 or higher? To my mind, the majority will be level one or two, with a few truly exceptional members. However, for some of the encounters, i up them to level 3 (they've seen a lot of action previously).

Anyway, in some regards, the writing of this adventure was kind of lazy and sloppy, but in other regards, it is very well written. Kind of a mixed bag. For purposes of conversion and usefulness though, i give this 3 1/2 stars overall (4 on Amazon though, since it is better than worse).

Enjoy!

This campaign starts in a small town that can be added to any fantasy campaign world. The players are led on a round about trail to find the entrance to a large underground dungeon where they face kobles with a twist and a powerful and inteligent dragon. If the game master plays the parts right it can add up to a very enjoyable game that will last for weeks and months. many colorful maps and player aids are included as well as cardboard figures. Metal ones are available from ralpartha though.

I find it hard to believe that any experienced roleplayer would find this boxed set challenging. It has no new monsters and no surprises. What it has, in spades, is one of the cheapest and weakest monsters in the genre: the kobold: poor cousin of the goblin. Sure, maybe they can cast spells or gang up on you, but face it: They are physically weak. Easy to defeat. Especially against a group of seasoned players. I was highly disappointed. I do not recommend that you buy this product. It is a waste of time and money.

Kobalds, that'll be easy. The dragon here only has like 34 hit points. It's to level to your guy up. I snuck in and got to the dragon right away. Surprisingly easy level up adventure for levels 6 to 14 or 15, 16.