Queen of the Spiders

 

Queen of the Spiders is still considered one of the greatest Dungeons & Dragon adventures ever printed.  It's also one that I have never owned and I have decided to rectify that.  I checked Noble Knight Games, they have no copies availible.  Next up was Amazon, they have copies running from $100 all the way up to $2936 (really?!).  I've been burned several times on Amazon with old modules, missing maps or in really bad condition so I'm a bit wary to purchase this piece from them.

What I need from you oh faithful readers is your feedback, I really cannot see paying $100.00 for an adventure, no matter how good it is.  Is there anyone out there that is aware of an alternate source (I already own a .pdf copy but would really like a hard copy) where I can pick up my own dead tree version?  Is anyone aware of some little out of the way online store that might have a copy that will not cost me an arm and a leg?

This might be a long shot but I figured its one worth taking.  I will be wrapping up my Temple of Elemental Evil campaign soon and was thinking of running all the way through Queen.  Anyway, thanks in advance!

Against the Slave Lords - A Review

I received the second AD&D adventure compilation in the mail this last week and am once again very pleased with my purchase!  For those of you who do not know, Wizards of the Coast is in the process of releasing all kinds of old D&D products, core and adventure books from multiple editions.  Its nice to be able to pick up in print a nice shiney new version of the old adventures that I either lost or never purchased. Against the Slave Lords is the newest adventure compilation, it contains previously published adventures A1-A4 as well as a brand spanking new introduction adventure A0 Danger at Darkshelf Quarry.

This offering is very similar to the last adventure book, Dungeons of Dread.  It is a hardcover book with a very nice cover that features some slight embossing.  There are 162 pages of adventure and maps printed on a nice glossy paper and at the end of the book are twelve pages of black and white fan art.  Its a great looking book that does not suffer from the poor image quality of the first release.  My biggest gripe with both books is that there is no separate map booklet, all of the maps are printed at the end of each adventure, so you will need to make copies or you will find yourself flipping back a forth a lot.  I have heard that Wizards of the Coast will be releasing .pdf's of all of the maps but I was unable to find them.  Maybe my internet-fu is not as good as I believed (or maybe they are lazy and have not released them yet).  If anyone locates them please link them in the comments!

The adventures included are as follows: A0 Danger at Darkshelf Quarry, A1 Slave Pits of the Undercity, A2 Secret of the Slavers Stockade, A3 Assault on the Aerie of the Slave Lords and A4 In the Dungeons of the Slave Lords.  There are introductions to each by Skip Williams, David "Zeb" Cook, Harold Johnson, Allen Hammock and Lawrence Schick.  The art is fantastic throughout with nice crisp reproductions, though I found the new art in A0 to be mediocre and not as "old school" as the rest of the book.

The Slave Lord series is consistently rated as one of the great AD&D adventures of all time.  This is a great new package with a brand new introductory adventure and it is not one that should be missed.  Buy this book if you do not already own this series, it is Drunk Umber Hulk approved!

Dungeons of Dread - Review

Om nom nom nom.

I received my shiny new copy of Dungeons of Dread in the mail yesterday and had a chance to do a cursory flip through the book last night before I went to bed.  I must say I am pretty happy with what I have seen so far, its a really nice compilation of four S-Series AD&D adventures.  For those of you who do not know, Wizards of the Coast is in the process of re-releasing older versions of D&D, they have already released the AD&D Players Handbook, Dungeon Masters Guide, Monster Manual and Unearthed Arcana, all under the moniker of 1st Edition Premium.  They are also going to be releasing the second edition books this way as well.  

I'm happy that the version of D&D that I cut my teeth on is now available for purchase.  I will not be buying these core books as I still have my old dusty and moldy copies.  Hopefully it will give some of the younger generation a chance to experience the origins of D&D.  The books that I am most looking forward to are the adventure modules, I do not own many of the original adventures, so Dungeons of Dread and forthcoming Against the Slave Lords module have me pretty excited!

A-Series, flashy new cover!

Anyway back to my new DoD book.  The cover is fantastic, I love the art and it has a nice texture with a little embossing.  Inside the pages are printed on a nice smooth paper.  There is a forward by Lawrence Schick, a table of contents and then the adventures begin!  The book includes S1: Tomb of Horrors, S2: White Plume Mountain, S3: Expedition to Barrier peaks and S4: The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth.  All maps are unfortunately included in the main book, there is no separate map-book, which will lead to lots of flipping back and forth.  There may be downloadable maps on Wizards of the Coast site but I have not had a chance to snoop around.  I also have a complaint with the first image in the book, it looks terrible, very fuzzy and out of focus, almost like someone did not know how to run a scanner.  Other than that one piece all of the art looks great, there are some really wonderful black and white images.  

Its a pretty hefty book, four adventures clocking in at 192 pages total.  The reproductions are supposed to be exact, there have been no modifications to the original adventures.  If you do not own these four adventures this is a great buy, I am very pleased with how this has been put together.  I am looking forward to more of the AD&D adventure modules in the future, hopefully we will see a reprint of The Temple of Elemental Evil, one of my all time favorites.

My Favorite Artists - Stephen Fabian

I am a long time fan of today's feature artist, Stephen Fabian.  I was first introduced to his work in the Manual of the Planes, as I'm sure many of you were.  His pieces for the Fire and Earth Planes were personal favorites. He's also created much of the art in the Ravenloft line, with his gothic pieces beautifully illustrating the dark, somber setting.  

Kickstart my Heart

Hey again everyone, 

I just wanted to plug two additional Kickstarter projects.  The first is Jeff Dee's Melnibonean art recreation project from Deities and Demigods.  Jeff is redrawing all of the art work that was trashed by TSR back in the day.  There are 64 hours left on the project and it's a few hundred dollars short of it's goal, so if you have a few spare dollars head on over HERE and get involved!

The second project I wanted to plug is the very exciting OGRE Designers Edition!  I'm sure many of you are familiar with OGRE, it was a very simple, very fun pocket board game that came out in the the late 1970's.  Steve Jackson has decided to do a huge new super sized edition and its blowing away the funding goals, over $100,000 in two days!  As much of an OGRE fan as I am, the real reason I want to plug this is that Jackson stated he is going to look at bringing Car Wars back from the dead if this OGRE project goes well.  Car Wars is my favorite board game of all time, it holds a very special place in my heart.  So if you like OGRE and have any love for Car Wars, head on over and pledge your hard earned money HERE.

My Favorite Artists - Jeff Dee

Today I have a very special guest for our favorite artist post.  None other than the great Jeff Dee!  Many of you will know Jeff from his early work with TSR, some of his work includes the Norse and Egyptian gods in the Deities and Demigods handbook as well as the cover of the Isle of Dread (one of my favorites)!  Jeff is a busy many with many ongoing projects but he was kind enough to answer a few questions for us.  Take it away Jeff!

• First of all, thanks for taking some time out of your day to speak with us here at The Drunk Umber Hulk, please introduce yourself and give us a brief bio: 

I'm Jeff Dee; I was an artist at TSR Hobbies in the early AD&D days. Since then, I've done art for several different game publishers, a little comic book work, and artwork on a number of computer games - most notably Richard Garriot's Ultima series from Origin Systems. I'm also a game designer; I co-created the Villains and Vigilantes tabletop superhero RPG with Jack Herman in 1979, and I've published several other games through my own small company 'UNIgames' (http://www.prismnet.com/unigames/) since then. I've also done computer game design work; I was the lead designer of The Sims Castaway Stories in 2009.

Premium 1st Edition Books

Wizards of the Coast will be releasing new versions of the original 1st edition core rule books some time in the future. When I first heard the announcement I was very pleased that 1E AD&D would be available to a whole new audience. I like the cover art that they designed, they are a nice nod to the original covers with an updated look, I think they look sharp. The books are going to cost $34.95 for the Players Handbook and Monster Manual and $44.95 for the Dungeon Masters Guide. I was initially going to pick up a set but at those prices I cannot justify spending close to a hundred dollars on books I already own, especially if they are not going to be updated in any way.


Hopefully with their release a whole new generation of players will be able to enjoy the version of the game that I started with so many years ago. Personally I am going to stick with my favorite new retro clone, Labyrinth Lord. The days of spending my hard earned money at Wizards of the Coast are a thing of the past.