What a commercial module is, is an elusive thing which has changed over the years.  What makes a great module? I like a module where the designer talks to you, personally. They shouldn’t hide behind anything, I want them front and center; but a good module, is more of a setting than a novel. Stories are fun, but I don’t really find it to be very satisfying. I prefer a module that gives us a place to play, over one that tells us how to do it. My group and I found this out very quickly, and it can be linked to a specific product, Ed Greewood’s mega dungeon 1060 Ruins of Undermountain.

Undermountain was released in March of 1991, it appeared at 17^th place in Dungeon Magazine’s list of The 30 Greatest Modules ofall time. This product is massive, and a very odd one to be released when it was. At this period, TSR was looking to steal all of our games. A few key insiders were providing information to help us avoid being caught up in TSR’s plot-lines, but for the most part, there was a whole lot of meta-gaming going on. TSR wanted you to feel that you weren’t competent to create your own adventures; not because you are stupid, but because creating adventures takes a lot of time and planning which your trusted professionals at TSR will gladly do. It is utter hogwash, and they knew it, but if you repeat the same message long enough, people will believe anything.

Undermountain went against the grain, and I mean WAY against it. TSR had many of its users convinced that the 2^nd Edition was a brand new and exclusive product and everything that came before was child’s play, and was completely incompatible with this new and improved system, and then this comes out, and THIS was straight up OD&D. Ruins of Undermountain was as much stuff from Ed Greenwood’s original gaming sessions as he could fit into a box. Sure, he had to dumb it down some, and replace some of his stuff with explanations for new players (to conform to TSR’s status quo), but it saved us. It was a life-preserver thrown to those of us drowning in an ocean of commercialism. Ed Greenwood was a DIY kind of guy, and he wanted others to be a DIY kind of guy too; he took the concepts placed before him by Gygax and Arneson, and made them his own. That is how you play the game and he knew it. Greenwood is brilliant, and his writing style was infectious when it came to creativity. Just reading his stuff, one feels his excitement for building, and comes away with confidence that they can do this too.

Meanwhile, back at the Ranch, my fellow players and I are delving into the grandest dungeon ever published. If the DM even owned a copy of the Forgotten Realms Campaign Setting Box, we never used it; all we used was Ruins of Undermountain. None of us knew it at the time, but we were playing OD&D; we were getting squished by the DM and laughing about it, not caring that our characters had no chance of survival. This Box Set was just so much fun! This was my first experience with Dungeons & Dragons, and we played it our own way. We started our PCs off at 5^th level, we ignored food and water, we ignored how we were carrying all of this stuff around with us, and we even ignored XP. If you survived an entire gaming session you gained a level, which was rare.

Our DM at the time (my first DM) really didn’t like DMing; he would do it, but eventually he’d just want to play so bad that he’d have somebody else DM. They would have a published module and we’d play that but get incredibly bored of it. We rarely, if ever actually finished those things. Even today we just can’t play published adventures straight through, they lack charm and challenge. Back then, we’d get bored of being micromanaged, and we’d go right back to getting squished in Undermountain as soon as we could.

Ruins of Undermountain is, to this day, the largest mega-dungeon ever published*, and it isn’t even complete. This is just the first 3 levels! We played this box for years and years, and never did explore every nook and cranny that it had to offer. Most of the rooms are left blank, to be filled in by the DM, which is crazy talk for a product of the 90’s! DM’s wanted complete products, right? According to TSR they did, but this boxset is better than everything else in their module library. Ruins of Undermountain allowed the new players of the 90’s to experience freedom and creativity that was practically unheard of for a very long time. Greenwood included a whole bunch of room descriptions, and this is true Greenwood, his gift to inspire the users to create without limitations is evident here.

The map is an issue; I know that when we played it, the DM needed the entire table, just for his maps. I had played it again more recently, but this time the DM used the PDF files, which allowed him to have greater control over the map, and he was able to run this thing taking up the small space that was allotted to him at the table. The PDF is also affordable, the original boxsets are going to run you a pretty penny, so even if you do print off every page of the PDF, it will still be much cheaper than forking over the cash just to say that you own a piece of gaming history.

What Ruins of Undermountain is is a setting within a setting, it takes place inside ofthe city of Waterdeep, which takes place inside of Forgotten Realms, but it is still completely independent of them. You could just as easily set Undermountain in any published setting and because of the nature of this thing, it will fit. You don’t need Forgotten Realms, or the Waterdeep Boxsets to play this game. All you need is an open mind, a bunch of scrap paper, and some players. It doesn’t tell you how to play, it can take anything that you want to throw at it, and I do mean EVERYTHING! If you want to use it for telling a story, it can do that. If you want to play go find the flag, it can do that too. If you want to just hang out and play a mindless dungeon delve just to play, it can definitely do that. Versatility and re-play-ability is what makes a product valuable, and this box set is definitely valuable.

It comes with a lot of stuff. Interesting NPCs that you can use, or ignore, new magic items, spells, and monsters, lots and lots of traps and room descriptions, and the cool thing is that anybody can pick this thing up, read it, and use it. As a player, I played this under two different dungeon Masters and got a completely unique and entertaining experience each time. It does have those really good ideas that can bring strangers together talking about it, but it also helps the DM discover his and his clubs play style, or even gives them a chance to mix things up a bit and do something that you might not normally get to do! You can play this setting as a death trap, a place to start your first game, or the place to take high level adventurers to give them one last game before they are retired. That is versatility!

I give Ruins of Undermountain an A+. It will make you a better DM regardless of your skill level. This is a glimpse behind Ed Greenwood’s screen, giving the reader a chance to study his methods, which are very sound. This product is Dungeons & Dragons, it doesn’t matter what D&D system you are playing, it was reformatted for 2e, but with just a couple of easy tweaks here and there it is core to any edition, and appropriate for any player group. I had talked about returning to the dungeons of yore, and this product allows anybody to try it out. You are the boss! If you just want to use the maps, you can; if you want to make your own maps and use this box for some easy room descriptions, you can use this thing for years, this product truly is a masterpiece! That is why it boggles my mind that TSR allowed it to be released. If you haven’t heard of it, or just assumed that it was 2e module trash, check it out! I think that you’ll really enjoy it.

By 1991 the four Complete Class Handbooks had been completed, and they had made TSR lots of money. It was a great idea! Up to that point, TSR had only been able to target Dungeon Masters, but with this series of books, they were targeting their whole audience. I did find them to be incredibly helpful: there was a large influx of new players entering the market, and they needed direction. One can also say that the Handbooks changed how we think in regards to what the product was, and what it could do.

The Class series offered options; that is all; and it didn’t try to say otherwise! I think that it also showed respect for the DM. Yes, they could substitute for a lazy DM, but they also fit well within a setting, any setting; and it made sure that the players knew that if the DM said that Swashbucklers weren’t available, then they weren’t available.

The Class series also restored what the PHB had taken away . . . not that it mattered. If people wanted to play a barbarian then they are going to play a barbarian. They explained things in detail, so that we all understood our options; and they took novice players, and instantly helped them become more experienced ones.

Next, they wanted to do for the races, what they had done for the classes, which would be great! Right? Well, let’s just look at the first of this series. PHBR6 The Complete Dwarves Handbook was released in November of 1991. It was designed by JimBambra, a contributor to Dragon Magazine, and a designer of modules; however, this book would be his greatest contribution to AD&D.

Chapter 1: The Creation of Dwarves

The Dwarf is one of the great fantasy races, and one that has been with the game since the beginning. Most of us are familiar with the Tolkien dwarfs, but there was a problem with this, as TSR wanted to separate themselves from the Tolkien properties for a variety of reasons; mostly financial, but I think that it  kind of worked in our (the consumer’s) favor since it encouraged us to make our own way. This chapter was a collection of myths, identifying a core AD&D dwarf that could be used for any setting, including home-brewed ones, even if it is just a place holder until we can get around to really working on this fantasy race.

Personally, I feel that there is a lot of text here that really doesn’t do anything.  Sure, it gets you to think, but it can cause some confusion at the table, especially if the DM has developed his own dwarves, or he prefers the Tolkien genus. This seems so innocent, but it does step on the Dungeon Master’s toes, and it really was the first shot across the bow which ended up getting the entire Complete Handbook series banned from some clubs. The DM couldn’t read everything, and just knowing that TSR did this was considered an intrusion. An advanced DM builds worlds through play, not through products. It might seem unfair, but it brought the attention of the DM that they didn’t know what else was in these books, so they were dismissed; which was kind of sad because there is stuff in them that could improve even an advanced user’s game.

CHAPTER 2: The Dwarf Sub-races

The Player’s Handbook entry for Hill Dwarves was a great start, further entries were added to the Monstrous Compendium which allowed the DM to create these sub-races; however, that information was for DM eyes only, so this chapter put the information into the hands of the players, by identifying the different varieties discussed in this book.

CHAPTER 3: Your Life as a Dwarf

This was another chapter that defined the AD&D Dwarf, and could be used if no dwarf races where defined by the DM. Intermediate users could use it to get an idea on how to create their own dwarf cultures, but I think that this chapter is just overly precise and may not be true to the campaign. It implies that all dwarves are the same, and that they have only one culture; which is really limited.

CHAPTER 4: Character Creation

Another functional chapter which expands on ideas in the Player’s Handbook, it even adds a nice alternative for altering the Maximum levels that a dwarf can obtain. Many players complain about this limitation; I am not one of them. Level limits are options, ignore it if you don’t like it, but I do like how this book gives you a nice way to compromise.

CHAPTER 5: Proficiencies

This chapter is a mess, and once again it steps on the reader’s toes. While the Class Handbooks offered new proficiencies, or corrected mistakes made in the books; this chapter hides the new proficiencies in with existing proficiencies that have been redefined to fit the author’s view of dwarfs. Do these entries make sense? Yes, but they add rules where no rules are really needed. I suppose that it helps a player play with an inexperienced DM, but when the DM is advanced, this chapter will be inaccurate.   

CHAPTER 6: Dwarf Kits

This is the longest section of the book, and it details further ways to customize a character. This chapter is passable, but overall the kits are more limiting and short-sighted than anything, but they are options! Honestly, I see most of these kits as being more suited as NPCs, and the ones aimed at players are min/maxed. Once again you have the author making assumptions that probably aren’t true, and trying to make a market where there is no demand. Did we buy these books to get kits? I suppose that a lot ofpeople probably did. I liked them because they offered ideas, but I really don’t think that any of these kits are all that inventive, nor practical for long term play.

CHAPTER 7: Role Playing and Personalities

I always preferred this chapter of the Class books over the Kit sections. This stuff is more practical, and offers more to the game. These ideas are good, because they are ideas. They don’t tell you how to play, they give the readers ideas on how to play which they can use or not use. These concepts also don’t interfere with anything: They aren’t backed up by stats or preconceived notions. These work and are well written.

CHAPTER 8: Mining

This chapter is just weird. Let’s gather up our friends and play a nice game of mining! Who does that?  I suppose that this chapter could be helpful but it is full of random tables of things that I’ve never needed. I do kind of like the idea of this section, it’s just that I don’t think that it was well executed nor all that functional.  It is mind-candy. I wonder if anybody actually played the game like this? Running businesses and figuring out profit is difficult, and I think that there was some false advertising on TSR’s part in regards to what this chapter allows you to do.

CHAPTER 9: Equipment

On a mechanical level, the dwarf has gone through some changes, and one that I feel did him harm was removing his exclusive ability to wield +3 war hammers. This meant that a cleric of a different race couldn’t achieve anything better than a +2. It might be a +5 weapon in dwarven hands, but he’d never know it. It helped offset the dwarf and make him unique. Dwarves are known to be strong fighters, but this really isn’t reflected in the 2e system.  This book does not correct this issue, but it does add a two handed battle axe! That is just as good, right? Not really. It does add some cool ideas though, such as dwarven war machines, however I question if these things were ever play-tested properly.

CHAPTER 10: Strongholds

This chapter is fun for all users. It adds to the Castle Guide and is more for the DM than players; there are perhaps a bit too much attention given to treating it as a random encounter, as there are some strange tables here as well, but there are some really good ones too! This is entertaining stuff, it helps a DM generate a history of the place fairly quickly. I’m not sure of how functional it would be on the fly, but during prep it can help you achieve results which you might not expect. It reminds me of a Gygax Appendix, which I love.

CHAPTER 11: Designing Dwarf Campaigns

This is another of my favorite chapters, it encourages and helps the DM design his own dwarven cultures which are unique to his gaming world. This has always been what makes the game fun for me, and a lot of this can be determined during play, allowing the DM and the player to figure out the dwarf’s world.  It encourages the DM to make the game more about the players and less about outside influences, which provides a deeper and richer experience, even if one isn’t playing a dwarf.

SUMMARY

You can figure out the details of this book on your own, so it isn’t required at all to play the game. I think that it still works on multiple levels; the book targeted the novice user, but it is also something that one can use to strengthen their world regardless of DM skill level. It does send mixed messages, but I suppose that that is the nature of the game.

I think that there is a bit too much fiction in this product; while it is fun to read, at the table, that stuff tends to get in the way. Novice and Intermediate DM’s can drop this into any campaign, and if it is used, it will strengthen your game. Advanced users will enjoy the templates for culture building, as they can be used for more than just dwarves, and they'll get a kick out of the stronghold section which can really come in handy during prep.

I tend to be kind of hard on the race series, but overall the first entry in it is a helpful one. Other reviews complain that it is anugly book, but what do you want? These things were made cheap to sell cheap. I dare say that if they were given a hard cover and treated like a core handbook than they wouldn’t be as popular as they got. Today it isn’t uncommon to see designers over-producing their books, which forces the consumer to pay more, or the consumer passes it up completely because he just can’t afford it.

This book, while it was marketed to players, is really a DM aid: Mind candy. I would consider this to be more of a luxury item; it does handle boring work that a DM probably doesn’t want to do himself, which makes for a great product. As I said, many of the Kits seem to be more practical as NPCs, it doesn’t attempt to be core, but offers suggestions to modify play, and offers lots of options that if used all at the same time would bog the game down, but if picked through judiciously, can add an element to the game that might not be there without it.

I give this book a B-.

As far as value goes, this thing can be had rather cheaply in physical form, from $10-$20. I have seen PDFs of this book which were actually stripped of some of the content; it comes with lots of goodies at the end of the book, such as character sheets and design templates, so if you do buy the PDF make sure that it an official one, scanned from the book itself, vs. reformatted. I would definitely prefer the hard-copy though, as it will more than likely be used during prepping sessions, and it is nice to have everything right there in front of you. Since the book is so cluttered, it can be helpful to mark the pages with paper clips, and highlight the text that you want to use to maximize its usefulness.

9298 RA1 Feast of Goblyns was published in January of 1991. It was designed by Blake Mobley and features some excellent cartography by Karen Fonstad. This module was the first to be published for the Ravenloft Campaign Setting, and came with some goodies that probably should had been in the box set, namely an official Ravenloft Character Sheet that you could photocopy, and the card-stock cover was a Ravenloft DM Screen.

While this module sees good reviews, it also has some curious issues, namely the author, Blake Mobley wasn’t one of TSR’s top designers. Ravenloft designer Bruce Nesmith was a busy guy, but his Ravenloft module (9338 RA3 Touch of Death) wouldn’t be published until November. Feast of Gobyns had a lot of work to be done, and to be designated to Mobley, says something. What this something is, I have no idea. Mobley is best known for “The Complete Bard’s Handbook”

The most glaring issue is Goblyns’ inconsistency, while much of it is Gothic Horror, there is a huge section that is notably not, and this thing was play-tested! It was featured and play-tested at The GEN CON®World Fair in Nov-Dec of 1990, which brings to mind more questions than answers. RA1 was clearly in development at roughly the same time as the BlackBox. According to its own description, Ravenloft was designed for short one-shot adventures, and Feast of Goblyns is huge! This is not a one-shot at all. This giant thing will take you a long time, and right out of the gate, it is impossible to play core to Ravenloft because the weird fantasy section is hack and slash. Blake didn’t have access to all of the setting rules when he wrote it. That much is clear. But what also is clear is TSR’s lack of faith in the Ravenloft product, and then they turn around and feature it at GEN CON? Was this influenced by sales? I don’t think so, The Black Box had only been in stores for a couple of months prior to GEN CON. I suspect that it was stuff like this that was driving the TSR employees absolutely crazy. The inside story of Feast of Goblyns is probably more intriguing than the module itself!

The Module: This thing is a mixed bag. It has amazing work, its influence can still be felt at my game today, and it provides information that is core to the setting and that you can’t get from any other product, and this module is absolutely terrible. I’ve never ran into a product like it.

It does a much better job of explaining how the DM can change his behavior to better run gothic horror games, this has carried over to every game that I play, as the mantra is a simple one: Describe the world as your PC’s see it.  This module was critical to me learning the art of DMing, even if I never ran the thing as written. Like many 2e era modules, this one definitely over-steps its bounds. It is one of those traps that allow players to “experience events” which increases sales but destroys a new DM’s ideas on what the game is about. If you chop it up, and just use sections for your own purposes, this is an excellent module! If you run it, or attempt to run it, it is an utter failure.

One of the greatest things that it gives you, is the map of a huge inn. This thing can be recycled over and over again, even if it is a forced perspective map (which I detest), it maps a large tavern/ inn that one would find in a large city or along the side of a major road.

Another influence that it has had on my game is the STAT Blocks, it has a great template that I still mimic today, it changes the order of the stats found in the MM so that important info is easier to find fast, yet also contains things that may come up during play, but it is kept out of the way. I am sure that this wasn’t the first time that this specific STAT format was used, but it was the first time that I had seen it. I own lots of modules, and in my opinion, the formula presented in Feast of Goblyns is the best, and the one I use to make my own NPC and monster notes so I don’t have to flip through the MM all game.

MONSTERS

What really sets Ravenloft off from the other settings is the encouragement to modify the monsters, Feast added two good ones; it added a Greater Wolfwere, maxing it out so that it is very formidable, but it also took a monster that was a very interesting choice.

Before we play Dungeons and Dragons, the Goblin is a terrifying monster of legend and lore that has survived all the way up to today, which says something. Adults may not believe in goblins, but children do! Once we play D&D we reevaluate our thinking of goblins, to us they are very minor and low level things, all of the horror has been stripped from them and to a jaded D&D club, just the mentioning of them insight groans and complaints. The D&D goblin is the lowliest of the low level monsters, so I find it interesting that that is exactly where (I presume) Blake Mobley started, which I really like. It took the weakest monster in the DM’s arsenal, and it restored it to the terrible goblins of our youth, and made it once again the nightmare that it once was. Because it gets you thinking about this, and it does a good job of it, it silently encourages the DM to look at all of the monsters in the same light. Many of the creatures that we use predate the game itself, the creators of the game gave them stats, and some of these stats were muted down to challenge low level players, they had become only mechanical things. Giving these monsters a deeper look, and to modify their stats to better reflect their legendary attributes, while considering why our ancestors feared these creatures, and then put them into their own environment, forcing your player characters to enter the world of that monster, in all of its terrible glory! That makes a monster NPC really come alive.

Unfortunately Feast of Goblyns didn’t do that. They took higher powered goblins and put them into your typical D&D goblin environment, and made them somebody else’s stoolie, changing nothing.  You’d figure by the title that they would be the centerpiece of the module, but they really aren’t, which is unfortunate. I think that Goblins were a great choice to modify. In many cases we can leave the monster stats alone and improve how we describe them, just because a monster has more hit points and an easier time hitting doesn’t make the creature scarier, it just needs to do what it has to do, and in the case of goblins, their low stats were more of a hindrance and inaccurate to start with.

SUMMARY

Actually rating this thing is tough, on one hand it is amazingly inspiring and contains great material that a DM can use for a very very long time, but as far as its function as a complete game, it falls flat on its face. I believe that much of this module was never intended for this specific product. I think that it was thrown together very quickly using material that had already been completed for other projects that had been canceled. The designer, Blake Mobley was given a pile of fantasy maps and told to make this gothic horror, and he wasn’t given a sufficient deadline to complete the project. The gothic horror stuff is excellent, and stands out. All of the good things give this product a C from me, and that is kind of sad, because it should be higher, yet because of problems, it should also be much lower.

I would recommend this to a new DM, but as a trick. It will give him many suggestions on how to run a game, but it will also prove to the DM that not all modules are even functional as is. It is best to break them apart, dissect them, and know that all modules are full of errors and not worthy of any of the trust that you want to give them. Buy a product, but steal borrow what you want from it for your own games. Feast of Goblyns really helps you develop your critical eye, there is a lot of chaff to be found among the wheat.

For advanced users, this product is awesome, just for the maps alone. Even the fantasy stuff is great if your players found some hole in the wilds and spontaneously choose to go inside. It works! It has lots of potential, and can save you lots of time in building maps that you really don’t want to, and that are interesting and unique. I still use it today! Not for its intended purpose, but I still use it.

Before closing, I do want to make one more quick comment in regards to the DM shield that comes with this product, it is designed for the original Black Box, and can also be used with the Red Box. It can be used while running the updated versions, but not all of the material will be accurate. It is nice if you are just learning the Ravenloft system, and you are a total noob, but it is so limited that I quit using it years ago in favor of the Core AD&D Screen.

I would go cheap on this one. The physical copy ($20-$30) is a nice to have, but since you’ll be ripping it apart anyway, the PDF is just as good. You don’t need the Ravenloft PC Sheets, those are just stupid, as part of the point of running a Ravenloft game is to keep your players in the dark in regards to mechanics, and the PC sheets have some right on them.