by William W. Connors |
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Editor: |
C. Terry Phillips |
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Cover Art: |
Doug Chaffee |
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Interior Art: |
Arnie Swekel |
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Cartography: |
Steve Beck |
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Typography: |
Gaye O’Keefe |
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Production: |
Paul Hanchette |
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Realm Rating: 3.5/5
Designed by Ray
Dyer (flopsyville@earthlink.net)
Reviewed by
Susan McKinney (smckin@LTnet.ltls.org)
Rating: 9
Some evil force is
rallying the humanoids against the Way Inn and Daggerford.
You are asked to command the army repelling the invasion. Nice group
icons for the battles. Find the source of the invasion and destroy it.
Review: Game16: FRQ2,
Hordes of Dragonspear, by Ray & Maureen.
I've been a devotee of
Ray's Realm designs for several years now, having discovered them just after
his completion and uploading of the Eastlands
campaign, and have run three parties – on four different computers! - through the Eastlands, Westlands, and Southlands. However, I've never had a party experienced
enough to tackle the
Northlands – until
now.
"Dragonspear" is the first adventure set in the
"Final Diamond" campaign, the last chapter of the Realms saga – and
what an adventure it is. I was a player when my group ran the
original P&P version of this mod, and have fond memories of it – my
first experience of Battlesystem rules. I wondered
how Ray would produce the huge battles involved without slowing the game to a
crawl, but by clever use of 4x4 "unit" icons, simulating whole groups
of monsters and soldiers, this was pulled off admirably. I'll break down the
good bits:-
Music: wonderful
choices here, from the martial theme (really gets the blood pumping!), to the
mediaeval pieces – familiar to me, as I'm an early music buff; I particularly
liked "the Three Ravens" – which set the period very well. Music sets
the scene in any game, and these do so admirably.
Icons: the
above-mentioned "units" are, as noted, clever and attractive – the
artwork used within them is very good, and they work well, giving the
appearance of a "cast of thousands". Even the fact that they are
difficult to move around (being 2x2 in size) is appropriate, since an army
can't move about as easily as an individual party, and simulates army units
excellently. The demon-icons are well detailed, and really rather scary. I
nearly missed the "enemy hero" icons in battle – too busy chucking
fireballs to look – but they were effective, too (incidentally, Ray, does enemy
morale drop once the "hero" is slain? If not – and if it were possible
to do – this would be a good impetus to fight through the crowd to reach
them!). The only possible "bum" note for me was the goofy grins on
the faces of the Fomorian Giants – but then, no-one ever
said the Fomor were smart, and the Giants themselves were physically imposing.
Daggerford: considering the limited period of time one spends in
this city, it's remarkably detailed – and true to the original map (yes, I have
the original mod – I made a point of acquiring all of the mods
the Realm is based on, in case I miss something – but I only cheated once, see
below). There are interesting interactions wherever you go, and enough time is
given to explore thoroughly before you are whisked off to the next bit. All
cities should be this evocative.
(While I'm on the
subject of set pieces, the following also stand out for me:- the river journey;
the labyrinth; and the battles themselves. There, that's vague enough…;-))
Battles: Not many, but
whoa! They're good. Two main ones, broken into two or three "waves" –
which was both a good way not to overwhelm the party, and to encourage the
player not to blow all his area-effect spells on the first fight he comes
across!
Nitpicking: two things
only, both of which are more to do with the source material – or with me - than
the module.
1. The mod is fairly linear – good use
of "tours" and pointers so one doesn't get bogged down, but it does
feel like one is shepherded through the piece. However, this stays true to the original
(and I can't see any other way to do it!).
2. The Labyrinth. This is absolutely
faithful to the original – I know, I looked (shame on me). As Ray says in the
.txt file, this one item can double playing time, as it's a complex maze, but unfortunately
the walls and floors were just a little too "grey" for me to see
where I was going at times. The monsters encountered therein were varied and
interesting, with excellent icons used, but the maze itself was frustrating for
me, and would have been impossible if I hadn't used the pen-and-paper map to
tell me where I was. If I might make a suggestion; could there be a copy of the
map (in a separate help file) included with the mod? Players still have to
track their route, but at least they won't get hopelessly lost, like my idiot
party did.
Conclusion: Another
superb Realm adventure. I really felt like I'd achieved something once I beat
the bad guys; and I swear I could actually hear the cheers from my army. Anyone
thinking of doing massive-scale battles would do well to play through this mod
to see how they're done. Bravo, Realm-meister!