06
Basic Game Adventure B8
Journey to the Rock
(1984)
|
by Michael Malone |
|
|
|
|
Editor: |
Edward G. Sollers |
|
|
|
Cover Artist: |
Larry Elmore |
|
|
|
Interior Artist: |
Doug Watson |
|
|
|
Graphic Design: |
Ruth Hoyer |
|
|
|
Maps: |
David S. "Diesel" LaForce |
|
|
|
|
|
|
A journey
that the same players can make several times without crossing the same
territory twice. Hired by a retired mage, the PCs are asked to retrieve the
secret of a stone monolith known as "The Rock." The secret comes in
two parts, though, and only one can be carried home.
Realm Rating: 4.5/5
Dawn and
Foy, Around the Realm:
Game06 by
Ray Dyer (maz137@psu.edu)
B8,
Journey to the Rock
A short
game for 1st level characters. I like short games, I find it hard to keep
playing a game that takes more than a couple of nights to play. This module
starts the party off with a shop. Newly created characters get a little gold
but no equipment at all so this is your ONLY chance to buy things. Choose well!
Your party is then approached by a wizard's messenger who wants you for a
dangerous mission to "the Rock."
Things I
liked:
* The item
hacks are interesting, studded leather, quality weapons, etc. Not that you can
afford them but hey!
* no
overlands, everything is handled by dungeons giving you a feeling of being
outdoors
* 3 paths
to the Rock, each with their own sets of dangers and adventure. My wife and I
had completely different encounters, very cool!
* The
module kept track of a promise I made and manage to get around. When I went to leave
it told me that my Paladin was not happy about it. So what could I do? I went
back through the wilderness a second time to honor the promise. I may have lost
a piece of jewelry but I got a lot more EPs!
* A couple
of hidden encounters for the more careful traveler
Things I
disliked:
*
Inconsistent feel while walking in the wilderness. Jumping and disappearing
trees were the most common problem, caused by Transfers that took you to
completely different places. One minute your walking along a tree line and the
next your in the middle of the dessert without a tree in sight.
* Inside
the Rock it felt extremely empty. Just a wide open space.
By the end
of the module all of my characters had gone to second level so it accomplished
its main goals. We became familiar with Ray's design style and our characters
got a little treasure and experience along the road to greatness!
Overall we
liked it and decided to load up the next adventure. We departed from the
prescribed order of play so my next review will be Game05 - B6, The Veiled
Society.
Foy
:
Well,
after Paddi's excursion to the Rock, I felt I should review this excellent
design. I have the original P&P module, though I haven't looked through it in
a very long time. So after I had finished the adventure, I went through the
book to see how well Ray has adapted B8.
He
did a fantastic job. I went over the southern route, and thoroughly enjoyed the
journey. The only difficulty was actually getting into the Rock itself. No more
need be said about that.
There
were a few spelling mistakes here and there, but they were rare enough to not
be too much of a problem. The encounters were well balanced; my party had only
one near-death experience. The frame was very appropriate for the season
(autumn), and the use of dungeon modules rather than overlands to simulate the
journey was very well done. I would have thought, however, that with Jenlar
Temlin's map to guide us, it would not have been unreasonable to have AREA map
available for the wilderness parts of the journey.
The
ending was handled slightly differently in this design than in the module; we
had to travel back to the fork in the paths before being summoned to the
Arkayz's home. In the P&P, the teleport occurred right after learning the
secret of the Rock. But this gave us a chance to accumulate some more
experience, and all but one of my characters is ready to train.
Overall,
an excellent adaptation of this classic design, and I'm looking forward to finding
more of Paddi's journals.
Mycroft
module rating: 9.5 out of 10
Glen
Hi
Folks,
I
continue my tour of the Realm by heading towards the Westlands...
game06.zip
B8, Journey to the Rock Ray & Maureen Dyer
This
is an excellent little adventure for low level characters. I just recently ran
my husband and son through this p&p. This is a very true to print
conversion of the module and it is fairly easy and quick to complete. I think
Ray & Maureen should be given a large kudos for the undertaking thus far.
The story line is very basic. You are sent by a very powerful mage to
investigate an old legend. I really loved running into the dwarves.
Plot Matter: 9 Artwork: 9 Hacks: 9 Text: 9
Events: 9 Originality: 9 Errors: 9 Difficulty:
5
Total
Rating: 90% Mycroft Rating: 9
Susan
Game06
- Journey to the Rock (rating: 6.5)
In
this story, the party of adventurers agrees to find the 'secret of the rock'
for a mage. The game mostly deals about them getting to this 'rock', rather
than what happens inside the 'rock', which was ok, after all, the name of the
game is 'Journey to the rock'.
What
I liked about this design was the combat. Or rather, the lack of it. The
premise for a design like this almost like -screams- the words 'random
combats', but there really wasn't all that much. Of course, if I was a more
honest player and started from first level, then I might not be so forgiving. I
had three characters, only one was created in this game.
The
plot device of 'you must pay us toll to use our very own road' was used a
perhaps bit too often (at least considering the general shortness of the
design). And where do those rockmen need gold? Hmm...
As
usual with 'the Realm' games, no big bugs. Only a few spelling errors.
Harri
Polsa
Ray,
I
just finished playing Journey to the Rock, and was once again impressed. I
always liked this module because, even though it's really not that long, it
gives the players more than one way to get to where they're going and creates a
feeling of more size, which I think you did quite well in your conversion. I
eagerly await each new Realm adventure. Discovering FRUA and all the great
stuff on the internet has revived my interest in D&D.
Well,
just wanted to let you know what I thought of the latest game. Keep up the good
work!!
"Journey
to the Rock" (game06.zip)
by
Ray Dyer (maz137@psu.edu)
Mycroft
Rating: 8.5
There
are a number of things in this adventure that I liked, but it's difficult to
put a finger on exactly what each was. Overall, I'd have to say it was the
general "feel" of the game that most captivated me. The hacks, the
sound effects, the music, the plot, the background, the overall mood of the
game, and the obvious attention to detail all blended together to produce a
very enjoyable adventure.
Ray
has managed to find all of the key things that I look for in a UA design. I
prefer adventures that grant me a solid reason for doing what I'm doing, that
don't force me to wander aimlessly to search for obscure clues or objectives,
that are detailed (and believable) enough that I can immerse myself in the
characters, and that present a challenge without forcing me to spend hours upon
hours trying to build up enough party strength to reach certain parts of the
game.
"Journey
to the Rock" succeeded exceptionally well in all of the above.
The
game is not a hackfest. Very little (if any) of the adventure depends on the
party doing well in combat. It's not technically a text-based adventure either.
Instead, it's a well-balanced mixture of both.
The
adventure is also deceptively short. ;> It might leave you wondering whether
you've missed something.. But I won't count that against the design or consider
it a detractor. To be honest, I'm positive that if I were to play it again and
try out a few of the different paths presented in the game, I'd find something
new each time. That type of "replayability" is often difficult to
achieve in UA. :]
To
go along with the praise, there were some ~very~ minor bugs in the game. There
were 4 or 5 scattered (and again, ~very minor~) spelling/grammatical errors and
a text statement or two where a word appeared to be missing. There were also
one or two spots where the same text statement appeared twice, one after the
other. From a playing standpoint, these were so transparent that none came even
remotely close to taking away from the enjoyment of the game.
I
won't go into details about the plot itself. I'll leave that for you to find
out.
I
will, however, highly recommend this game! :]
For those
who don't have a lot of time to play, you'll find this adventure is pretty much
right on target. And for those who'd like build up a very low-level party
without going through endless, annoying combats, I think you'll really enjoy
the alternative presented here.
All
in all, very, very well done!!
The
game left me with only one burning question.. What the devil took me so long to
play Ray's outstanding games!? :D
Dan
Autery
Hi there!
Yesterday I've downloaded all
of you Realm modules that was on GIGA and started playing introduction and
didn't hoped for much too be honest. But I've got really positively suprised!
;) I've started in the Westlands with "Journey to the Rock" and it
was one of the best adventures I've ever played. I really loved all the details,
like when the party comes to a clearing the design describe it in a interesting
way. Most of the design wouldn't even bother to "waste" a text event
for it. ;) Only thing I disliked about this design was that the party couldn't
just make camp and rest at any place in wilderness. I mean if you didn't like
them to rest, why not give a high procentage chance of a little, not too hard,
encounter ever hour or so? It would look much more natural than when you just
are not allowed even to try to rest. Otherwise this design was just great! I've
loved it!
Hi,
I just wanted to say that I
think your work is brilliant. I first played Journey to the Rock as I actually
played that module years ago. Everything seemed so accurate as the the actual
mod. Great game I had alot of fun. Now I'm off to B2: Keep on the Borderlands.
I finally got my copy of FRUA
Saturday and I played through "Journey to the Rock" as my first
adventure. I must say, you've done a great job on The Realm and I'm glad I
chose to run a campaign there. There is something nostalgic about the old TSR
modules and keeping a consistent campaign and set of hack rules just sounded
like the way to go. "Assault on Raven's Ruin" is up next, and then
I'm headed for some favorite modules I've actually played/DM'd like
"Palace of the Silver Princess" and "The Lost City". I
can't wait!
I was also impressed with
UAShell and it's ease of use. Kudos to the author(s) there as well.
I'm looking forward to more
adventuring... Thanks all!
I finished playing last night
the Realm adventure 06 - The Rock.
I am a great fan of the Realm
and believe that these are the best adaptation of old p&p AD&D modules.
The Rock doesn't let you down. Rich descriptions and a lot of mood creation. I
couldn't find any bugs except for events that made more sense in the begining
happened in the end while I was heading home. But since I took a different
path, it made sense meeting people that was there in the first place. I missed
a grand finale battle. Maybe it is a question of style. My grade (in a 1-10
scale where anything above 5 is a must play) would be 6.
Thanks
