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Voros

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Just posted about this here but then I realized it is worthy of its own thread.

Goodman Games is republishing Jennell Jaquays' classic dungeon adventurr Dark Tower for Dungeon Crawl Claasics and 5e D&D.

Great to see that the Judges Guild classics will not be left OOP for modernday players and GMs.


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Herein you will find high-quality scans of the original first edition adventure module, plus commentary by tabletop role playing gaming legends and luminaries.
 
There's a non-licensed thing floating around, but it's nothing that any competent GM couldn't manage in about 6 minutes. I really would love to see it done properly though.
 
There's a non-licensed thing floating around, but it's nothing that any competent GM couldn't manage in about 6 minutes. I really would love to see it done properly though.


That's a case where I'd really not be satisfied with an unlicensed etsy, as what I'd really be looking for is a consolidation and encyclopedic-like resource on the setting and various charactrs/creatures/groups. The Dark Tower is the lynchpin of a huge universe that touches on elements in almost all of King's books, and frankly it's difficult to keep track of
 
That's a case where I'd really not be satisfied with an unlicensed etsy, as what I'd really be looking fr is a consolidation and encyclopedic-like resource on the setting.
It's very limited. There's some interesting stuff about basing it on the Ka-Tet, but not much more than a evening's thinking. I'm very much with you on this.
 
@ Voros Voros Thanks for posting, this is exactly the kind of gaming news that interests me.

I happen to be a big fan of King's Dark Tower as well. I consider the setting up there with the likes of Tolkien and Marvel in the "IPs deserving AAA RPG treatment" category.
 
King's Dark Tower gives me the fucking agina as a game designer. I've thought more about that project that maybe any other project ever, and I have no idea how I'd manage it. No clue.
 
Goodman has just announced that The Dark Tower will be released as part of their Original Adventures Reincarnated line, to be funded via a presumably-imminent Kickstarter.
 
Hmmm. I don't know what I think about this. This isn't an adventure I've ever heard of before. Therefore no nostalgia motivation to purchase. I suppose it's good that the Reincarnations are branching out from TSR classics, but I can't say this particular thing interests me.
 
Intriguing.
But I wonder why there'sa kickstarter for this one but not the previous installments?
 
Intriguing.
But I wonder why there'sa kickstarter for this one but not the previous installments?

All the others were TSR Classics and therefore WotC licensed. It may be that the terms of the license did not allow Kickstarters.

I'd also say that this one is significantly less certain than the previous Reincarnations. All the others were extremely well known modules with lots of fans through the years. I mean, maybe I'm just ignorant, but how many others have even heard of the adventure they're using as the source for this installment?

But mostly they can just do the product without the risk by doing all the pre-orders this way.
 
A number of years ago, Dragon magazine published a list of the top 30 D&D modules of all time. I think that 29 of them were TSR-WotC and one was Dark Tower. For those not familiar with old Judges Guild stuff, they printed a lot of campaign materials and two mega-dungeons. Caverns of Thracia was one. Dark Tower was the other. Dark Tower was famous enough back in the day that a spoof "Duck Tower" was produced as a RuneQuest module.
 
Jennell Jaquays wrote three of the very best scenarios of all time, all published in 1979 by Judges Guild - Dark Tower (May 79), Caverns of Thracia (August 79), along with the as-good-but-not-as-famous The Book of Treasure Maps (October 79). The first two have appeared regularly on people's all time favourite lists of scenarios. They are a few years later than the earlier bunch of famous Judges Guild modules (City State of the Invincible Overlord, Wilderlands and Tegel Manor) which are significant historically but of an earlier simpler style (while still fun). These three of Jaquay are far more developed, and stand up well as great adventures in their own right today without any need for nostalgia.

(You can read about all the 1970s scenarios in my 70s timeline here - A Complete Timeline of 1970s D&D Scenarios)
 
Hmmm. I don't know what I think about this. This isn't an adventure I've ever heard of before. Therefore no nostalgia motivation to purchase. I suppose it's good that the Reincarnations are branching out from TSR classics, but I can't say this particular thing interests me.

Jaquays is a great adventure/dungeon designer and this is considered one of her best. I have the original in pdf but the layout makes it difficult to grok.
 
Hmmm. I don't know what I think about this. This isn't an adventure I've ever heard of before. Therefore no nostalgia motivation to purchase. I suppose it's good that the Reincarnations are branching out from TSR classics, but I can't say this particular thing interests me.
You’re missing out as it’s a stone cold classic as good as (or better than) the very best of what TSR produced. Jaquays is a legend to the point her dungeon design style has become a verb, and this module (alongside Caverns of Thracia) is the reason why.
 
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