Review & Commentary On 'Thieves of Fortress Badaraskor' D20 By Necromancer Games Using The Castles & Crusades rpg System

The robed bureaucrat looks up from the table and gazes on all of you before proceeding. "Ah, I see you decided to accept this mission. In your search for the bandit leader Cragen you need to be aware of a few things." Pointing to a mountain on the map, he says, "Here is a particularly nasty little cult worshipping some dead god." He pauses, then continues, "Angall is the god’s name, I believe. Also be aware that we have reports that there is a raiding party of amazons. I believe their leader is looking for her mother who disappeared in the area twenty years ago."

The bureaucrat rolls up the map and hands it to you, then turns to open an old book. "I don’t know if this is of any relevance, but it appears that there are ancient accounts of a Great Wyrm from the days of the First Men." Slamming the book shut he looks at all of you. “I would be careful in poking around in any caves or dungeons. You have your mission. Find Cragen and the reward is yours. That is all."

Do your heroes dare to enter Fortress Badabaskor? Deadly brigands, vicious cultists, and the dusty treasures of the Dragon Kings await those with muscle, wit, and luck. Defeat these challenges to uncover the dark secret of Badabaskor - a secret that will challenge even the most experienced of adventurers…


" An adventure in the wilderness stronghold of a band of brigands that includes the background and statistics of an evil local deity, plus history, maps, and keyed room descriptions of a five-level dungeon carved out of the side of a mountain. The first three levels are fairly easy and suitable for breaking in new and inexperienced players; but the lower two are far tougher, and include a cavern that has a series of four dragon dens, indicative of the difficulty of the lower levels."

Stacking in at about sixty six pages the D20 version Judges Guild's 'Thieves of Fortress Badaraskor' came out in '07 & was produced by Goodman Games. Finding  this tonight on the thumb drive of infinite depth was interesting. 'Thieves of Fortress Badaraskor' isn't a particularly valuable adition to the collection because the real print version of it sells for aound 17.00 dollars US. What this adventure does is to reenforce the fact that the Wilderlands of High Fantasy is point blank Sword & Sorcery pulpy adventure. 

Straight up outta of the gate there is no way that I would run this without using the Castles & Crusades rpg. Yes the dungeon is only five levels but this is a mean dungeon of extreme nastiness & the second thing is that this is a dungeon with an attitude towards the player's PC's. Party's are going to need to extremely lucky & very clever in certain aspects of their play in this dungeon. 

There's something that feels a bit off in the D20 'Thieves of Fortress Badaraskor', but I can't quite put my finger on it. All of the adventure elements are there. But this feels more D20 then some of the other Necromancer products. That doesn't make it any less useful in any way. 

The overaching feel of 'Thieves of Fortress Badaraskor'  is one of dire circumstances & desert environs. This is an intermediate module but C&C players are going to have to bring their 'a' games in 'Thieves of Fortress Badaraskor'. The lethality of  the original is there. But certain aspects are more fleshed out then in the original adventure. 

Using 'Thieves of Fortress Badaraskor' with a crossover for Greyhawk means that there has to be several cross over points. This includes adding in certain Greyhawk elements such as possibly additional Greyhawk desert forces, an in with Greyhawk's thieves guilds, & a possible connection or two for Greyhawk relics or artifacts. This can easily be done with several key points in 'Thieves of Fortress Badaraskor' . 

'Thieves of Fortress Badaraskor' is definitely a product of its time & offers quite a bit of charm & wit for the Castles & Crusades dungeon master. Is it worth your time?! Perhaps if your really into running the D20 versions of the Wilderlands of High Fantasy. This is something that I'll be tackling in the near future. 

'Thieves of Fortress Badaraskor'  remains a product of the Necromancer Games period of '07. This is a good module if you want to run in the D20 Wilderlands but this is a lethal module. This is a product of its time, with regards to using it with some of the Castles & Crusades resources. There are several options on the table, first of all the desert regions make perfect trade locations with the thieves & bandits having such trade routes as targets. On the whole the Castles & Crusades Monsters & Treasure book is a must. 

The DM has to make sure that the players have a full retinue of classic PC types for 'Thieves of Fortress Badaraskor'. And highly recommend back up PC's for the players journeying into the dungeons of 'Thieves of Fortress Badaraskor'. 

Retro Review & Commentary On Shield Maidens of Sea Rune By Judge's Guild For AD&D First Edition & Your Old School Campaigns

 

"Warrior Women plot to regain their home lost to the barbarous Skandiks, fearsome sea reavers all.  Torn between their Gods of the North and the Druidic worship of nature, the Skandiks grow weak.  Beware the cruel and evil Anti-Paladin who stalks this area looking for blood; he may be the death of you yet!  Can you thread the perilous path to fame and riches in this saga of unforgettable Adventure?"

My love of science fantasy old school adventures such as Judge's Guild products is very well known in certain local circles of the table top hobby.

I went looking for a decent review of Shield Maidens of Sea Rune for some research into integrating some of the older JG's products into my Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea campaign. I did find a decent review of the adventure on Amazon by Kevin Kiersky aka Vine Voice from 2011 which he gives it high praise;"
"Shield Maidens of Sea Rune" is an older "Wilderness Book" by Judges Guild -- and it's a most excellent example of Old-School inspired gaming -- due to the rich aspects built into this super-module that are very creative and allow easily for further creativty of gaming guides and players. My overall impression is of very good balance of this whole "Wilderness Book" -- including concise and precise technical presentation to match the creative artistry. So it's a super-module due to the variety of local world angles and aspects as well as possible factions and factors -- allowing for long ongoing gaming.


This super-module is cleverly set to work well with Calandia [City-State of the Invincible Overlord and Wilderlands] as closely or loosely as needed or wanted. It's also easy to work with various versions of gaming -- even if fairly directly set for AD&D-like gamimg. There is even a distinct sci-fi aspect implied by both the general history and local history. Semi-Celtic and semi-Nordic cultural aspects are presented -- but, as usual, neither over-done nor under-done -- like the good gaming gender balance -- even via the lurid-and-lush cover art -- afterall she's got a reclining male lion behind her +++"

The review really hits some of the highlights & high notes of Shield Maidens of Sea Rune but after reading through Tegel Manor & dovetailing it into Hyperborea. There are several things that I've really noticed about Shield Maidens. The semi Nordic & Celtic aspects of this module thread their way very cleverly through other Judge's Guild products. James Mishler has started a new blog speaking about JG's Wilderlands of Fantasy & it just so happens to speak about the religions of the Wilderlands. This happens to meet up with the worship of Thor straight into the back end of both Tegel Manor & part of the central plot of the Shield Maiden's adventure. The maps of Shield Maidens of Sea Rune are beautiful and lovely old school relics of a bygone age as well. Described as

 

'The third book in the "Wilderness Series" with 22 wilderness hexes for Campaign Map 1 are detailed in this book along with description and maps of the major points of interest.'

Everything is laid out in a set of stereo instructions sort of way making Shield Maidens of Sea Run a D&D DYI tool kit as much as an adventure. The factions, tribes, NPC's, locations all fit into the old school weirdness of the Higherlands but can easily be adapted for your own campaigns. Well get to AS&SH in a moment.

So why is Shield Maidens of Sea Rune a perfect fit for Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea or another similar retroclone? Well,first of all many of the Judge's Guild modules were set up for Advance Dungeons & Dragons First Edition.
Even though the setting of Sea Maidens is the Wilderlands its a self enclosed module setting so that it can easily be dropped into an existing campaign. Now given the proto Norse & Celtic roots of the module it fits in with far future setting of AS&SH where the old gods have passed away but there are pockets of worship here and perhaps there. This has echoes of Jack Kirby's passing of his classic Marvel Norse material run & the pick up of the classic Fourth World work for DC.

This also ties in with the Clark's Law of magic items & technologies in AS&SH which also has its own roots in modules like Shield Maidens of Sea Rune. This epic battle warfare rattle plot line weaves its way through out Sea Maidens even in the mini dungeons. Give me more of this sort of Dungeons & Dragons action instead of the usual watered down tripe I've seen over the years. Far more Sword & Sorcery & less later TSR era Dragonlance cookie cutter material. I have a real love of this module, no its not perfect by a long chalk but it has all of the right parts & pieces for a DM to customize it to their own old school campaigns.

Ten Ways To Use Shield Maidens of Sea Rune For Your Old School Campaigns 

1. Because of the science fantasy elements of Shield Maidens this module could be adapted for a post apocalyptic retroclone or old school gaming system such as Mutant Future or Gamma World. Its easily adapted to Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. 
2. The Amazonian aspects make this also a great module to pull from as a source book and to fill in gaps. 
3. The factions of Shield Maidens can be expanded upon and used as powerblocks within a home campaign easily. 
4. This adventure fits into the Judge's Guild product line of adventures making for a unified City State old school campaign play ground for AD&D 1st edition games 
5. Others have used this module to introduce a shield maiden class into their own games & given the info in this module its an easy thing to create. 
6. There's this over all epic operatic or comic book feel that makes this such a relic of a bygone era that it fits in with the third tier OSR products on the market. 
7. This module also fits into the line of the Hargrave school of Arduin products because of its power begets power feel. 
8. The proto Celtic & Norse flavor isn't as over the top as in other adventures from this time. There's plenty of room for customization. 
9. None of the artifacts or relics will unbalance a campaign they cool super science one offs but could tie in with Expedition to the Barrier Peaks style of campaign. 
10. Its a damn fun module that doesn't get half of the love at the table and needs to get more of a workout then it does!