Customer Reviews

The Lost City (Dungeons and Dragons module B4)

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

 

 

Paired with B10, I rate it as my most favorite module in B series. It is not as "BASIC" as other modules in B series, you can further develop it into a Cynidicean Campaign. The Upper tiers of Pyramid are for "BASIC" level, the Lower tiers are waiting for more "EXPERT" adventurers. Then, a underground city map with info is provided here. DM may design many adventures here for different levels of players. It is much much more than you can imagine in a 28 page booklet. Get it now! You will find that it is a treasure.

I have to say that this adventure (for lvls 1-3) is the one most fondly remembered by the groups I have DM'ed. The PCs are lost in the desert and their only hope for survival is a buried pyramid that they stumble across...

Inside they find bizarre human factions, lots of nasty monsters to take on, and creepy, evocative traps to negotiate (not to mention loot). Best of all, if the DM is keen, he can keep the adventure rolling and use the additional material for a mid-level campaign encompassing another 5 dungeon levels, a really nasty 'boss' monster and a large underground city complex (complete with 'Mount Doom' scenario).

My only criticism is that after it's all said and done, the players still end up stuck in the desert. A liberal use of teleport spells in the treasure can solve that.

One of the best modules ever made for Basic D&D (levels 1-3), this one features a huge, fascinating 100-room dungeon that will take you characters to level 7 and beyond! Dying in the desert, your heroes stumble across a trio of mysterious, ancient statues uncovered by a vicious sandstorm. Desperately seeking shelter, they find a portal that leads into a lost sanctuary; exploring further, they find a new, larger level of ruins, and then another, until they realize that they're delving through a buried pyramid from the summit on down! Classic Egyptian "Indiana Jones" dungeon delving leads them to an enormous cavern where the tragic remnants of this glorious civilization await them, lost in their own world of nightmares... a wonderful epic, highest recommendation.

I have long been obsessed with this module since a brief foray into the step pyramid at a 6th-grade slumber party game session back in 1982. I was absorbed by the cover and wondered what mysteries lay inside the pyramid. I liked the desperate opening and the fact that the adventurers are compelled to explore in order to survive. I had taken an eighteen year hiatus from gaming, and after playing in some 3.0 campaigns, thought it was time to try my hand at dungeon mastering again. I wanted to go back to the simplest form of D&D available: Basic D&D. I gathered a group of interested players and I decided to take them through this module. So many reviews online attest to what a favorite Basic D&D module this is for many long-time gamers. I wondered how well the module would hold up in 2006.

The concept is awesome. The desert pyramid, the masked factions, the insane society, the fearsome Zargon. Unfortunately on a room-by-room basis nothing makes much sense. Somehow the factions reside just down the hall from each other. Somehow they all have their own secret passages that connect to the underground city that are not detailed on the map. Somehow live critters keep turning up in rooms that all allegedly have "stuck" doors and haven't been disturbed in ages. Somehow there is a hive of bees in the middle of a step-pyramid in the middle of a desert with no flora. How did the critters get in the rooms? Plenty of rooms have snakes and insects. Since there are no exits I had to keep inserting "little holes" in the rooms to explain the critters' presences. Who knows what they ate. The players kept thinking that nothing made any sense, and their mantra was, "it's Basic, nothing is supposed to make sense." Even so, I really worked on the module to try to keep it somewhat believable. Even after all my work the players would still spot yet more holes in the module I hadn't seen yet.

As old-time gamers will attest, "It was about fun, not internal logic and consistency, you idiot!" Well yes, everyone had fun, and when a showdown with Darius and two of the factions didn't prove dramatic enough an ending, I dragged Zargon up to the fifth tier to take on the players. They all died except for one, who converted to the Cult of Zargon.

As other reviewers have pointed out, the lower unscripted tiers are ridiculous. Blink dogs in the room next to medusae in the room next to Displacer Beasts, all just hanging out in the step-pyramid. Apparently they don't bother the hobgoblins delivering food to Zargon.