Review & Commentary On Pegasus #10: Revenge of the Ant God From Judge's Guild 1982

 Tonight I'm gonna dive into Pegasus #10: Revenge of the Ant God adventure by Judge's Guild. Now there are reasons for this. Let's dive into the issue & we'll explain this one. 

So a little while back I got a thumb drive from a DM friend whose moving outta Connecticut & happened to mention this to my current group of players. What's on the thumb drive? The dungeon master's original  Judge's Guild collection including adventures & supplements. Now from time to time there have been murmers on this blog of using some Judge's material. But everyone just loves original JG's material & so even with the current Cacophony of  campaigns going on its been. Can you please slot this material into our current games?! Now bare in mind that since '08 and my first blog that the 'forever DM' has been me. With DM Steven currently down its been up me to once again shoulder the fun.


On MeWe I've got Jon HershbergerWilderlands of High Fantasy group. So for the past couple of months I've been lurking there but there's been something very weird that I noticed. 'Revenge of the Ant God' was written by Bob Bledsaw, Bob Jasper, and Mark Holmer in October of '82.  Whole adventure has the feel of a certain classic Horror/Sci fi film film from 1954. The classic Them from '54 is most obviously the inspiration for this adventure & that's not a bad thing at all. 

The PC's come into this Advanced Dungeons & Dragons adventure getting into the deep end of it straight off. The lure & hook of the adventure starts off similar to the film but gains speed quickly & picks up with a wizard messing with forces of nature best left alone. The descriptions here place the giant ants within a very dangerous structure of both nest & government. PC's become involved through the machinations of a mercenary who grew up in the region as a young boy. As I said this is a tight adventure. 

The layout is typical Judge's Guild of this era, and the background is laid out similar to the movie Them with vital clues scattered throughout the adventure. But this adventure is both part investigation & part wilderness crawl. There are a few stand out NPC's in 'Revenge of the Ant God' The cartography is stand out, the and premise is new for its eras well. There's a real sense of forboding & this could become a mini campaign with the adventurers up to their neck in this adventure. 

Others have come before the adventurers & there are lots of mutated ants within the nest & or hive. The impression that I've gotten is that this isn't the only hive within the Wilderlands of High Fantasy. There's far more boiling below the surface with 

 'Revenge of the Ant God'. 

The safety of the adventurers is depending upon their actions may have very large reaching consquences especially if the druidic ruler has others of his ilk gain control over  other giant ant nests! This is in my humble opinion one of the most underrated Judge's Guild adventures. There is in  'Revenge of the Ant God' enough for a small campaign with room to expand the plot beyond the bounds of the material within the original play through of this module. 

And its this replay value that adds to the mysque of the module. The cartography adds to old school claustrophobic feel of the  'Revenge of the Ant God'. And this enhances over all play & ultility of the module. 

The craziness of the  'Revenge of the Ant God' gives the module a very solid Sword & Sorcery meets Creature feature over all feel. This is done outta of love for the genre & not as a slight. Even though this is an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition module. There's a very well done adaption for Castles & Crusades by James Mishler Games that takes a very back door approach. 'The Chronicles of Mhoriedh: Gods, Demi-Gods, and Cults Vol. 1: Chaos Queen of Ants' 2013 could easily adapt 'Revenge of the Ant God' into a Castles & Crusades conversion. And in point of fact I think is the true purpose of the product. 

None the less this does nothing to take anything away from the original classic of  'Revenge of the Ant God'. Could PC's die in this one? By the score & most likely they will. Would I run this one?! You bet you I would & tracked down my pdf copy on the thumb drive. 

In the end 'Revenge of the Ant God' is both a product of its time & a solid entry into the classic annals of the Wilderlands of High Fantasy. Would I run this one? Yes but not for the unexperienced OSR or old school gamer. This is a very nasty module & death is around every corner & ant hill. This is a solid old school entry into the darker recesses of the Judge's Guild catalog. 'Revenge of the Ant God' is a solid adventure entry for Halloween! 

 

Because Troll Lords is getting ready to launch a new Kickstarter soon I figured that 'Revenge of the Ant God' was a perfect crossover adventure to take a look at. 

Review & Commentary Lich Lords Adventure Module By Lynn Sellers of Mayfair Games's Role Aids for Advanced Dungeons and Dragons First Edition & Your Old School Campaigns

"After countless millenia, A DARK POWER AWAKENS.

You have been summoned to appear before your king, who was once a great man, but is now held fast in the icy grip of fear. Trembling, he tells of mighty earthquakes to the north that destroyed villages and unearthed the... FORGOTTEN CITY OF THE LICH LORDS

Enter the catacombs of this buried city and find the way to destroy the evil before it brings the onslaught of eternal night. The fate of the living world is in your hands. Defeat the lords of darkness and great reward is yours. Fail and see a world... CRUSHED BY SKELETAL HANDS.

LICH LORDS is a high level quest for 6 to 8 adventurers of Skill Level 12 to 16. Brave every danger in the quest to rid the world of the most awesome of undead.""

1985 ... Lynn Sellers & Frank Frazetta (cover) ... 32 pages + centerfold cardstock map ... MGI 726 ... ISBN 091277133X"

It takes a certain mind set to run Lynn Sellers Lich Lords, as in this is a rather nasty piece of an old school Mayfair Role Aids adventure. Seems straight forward, the high level party of adventurers is hired by the king to destroy the evil undead lich lords. And that's where everything goes completely South. 

The picture was taken from this Etsy seller whose got the module for 30.00 dollars U.S. 
Lich Lords normally goes for forty five on Ebay.

In actuality the party is hired by the king but finds out that the lich lords despise  one another & the party has to decide how to enemy of my enemy is my friend. The problem is that the lich lords are in a weakened state & you can't fool around. By day fifteen their gonna be at full power & deadlier then ever! The downside to this module is the fact that its not a sandbox but a bit of a rail roadie dungeon setting.
There's a lot to like with Mayfair's Lichlords not only are they nasty high level undead for first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons but these guys will give any party of adventurers embolisms.  The maps & cartography are easy on the eyes & the lost city of the lich lords has some potential for even further adventuring.

Lynn Sellers is in top form here bringing the '85 undead pain to the party of adventurers & bring it hard. This is a module that works on the PC levels being twelve to fourteen for a reason. And that reason is the pure lethality of the undead royals. The problem is that the dungeon aspect is very linear. But there's so much to love here, the setting material is gold, the NPC's are completely nasty. And the adventure premise is pure eight five metal. My suggestion is to take the module adventure elements & completely ditch the dungeon crawl aspect. I'm not the only reviewer who felt this way either The Funky Grognard tumbler had this to say in his review of Lich Lords;  "Get rid of the dungeon crawl altogether.  Tear it up!  Toss it! Set it on fire!  Use it to line the bottom of your stupid parakeet’s cage! Focus on the political infighting amongst the Lich Lords and how the PCs either capitalize on their position as outsiders to take down these douchebag dickholes or become expendable pawns in their power games.  I would also opt to utilize an open world environment for this game, allowing the players to decide as to how they want the adventure to progress."

In fact I go just a bit further with Lich Lords & flesh out the undead city more. Keep the adventure's dungeon but use it for other undead NPC's possibly lesser undead nobles or the like. The Lich Lords is classic & classic for a reason & that reason is the whole cloth adventure, NPC's & actual solid use of the adventure material.

By using Lich Lords with the original Advanced Dungeons & Dragons  first edition Dungeon Master's Guide its possible to back fill in some of the implied adventure back story & other dungeons that's talked about. Between the random dungeon generator & the random infernal monster generators the whole cloth back story of the 'lost city' could be filled in.


Mayfair games Lich Lords isn't by any means perfect but the quality is very ahead of its time for an Eight five product & it remains an old favorite of mine around the table top. 

Blue Eagle Class Armed Transport For Your Old School Space Opera

Blue Eagle Armed Transport Star Ship 

Blue Eagle Class Pirate Transport 

Number Appearing :1-3 

Hull Type : FR (19 structure points, Piloting skill -9%) 

Armor: Reactive (46) 

Reactor: Expanded

Drive Class: A
Maneuvering  thrusters: none

Jump Drive: Yes 

Sensors: military 

Jamming systems: -30% 

Armaments:3 heavy recoilless  cannons in automated units 

Ammo: Enough to level a planet 

Shield generator: no 

Cargo space: 75 tons 

Other: 2 external docking ports, battle bridge 

After the fall of the old Earth Empire these ship's hulls were mass produced & sold for auction to a number of  "private" concerns. These ex military troop transports were heavily modified to the deep reaches of space travel where they prey upon star liners, Outer Rim Territoriality planets, & the like.

 These vessels sometimes make deep space runs for decades at a time & travel in groups of three. They are often used as supply points for other pirate raiders & lend support to these mission.

The motto of the Blue Eagles is too run silent & run deep. Life aboard these craft is cramped, spartan, & very well organized. The crew of these vessels are often mercenary outfits who sign on for a number of Einstein years at a clip. Used for planetary mop up operations & pirate transport life aboard these vessels is tense, exciting, & punched by great bouts of boredom. It is however the life of an adventurer.

The Blue Eagle is a time proven design that is still in production today & has been for over 500 years. The pirate concerns & corporations set a number of these hulls for sale to other interested parties upon the black market. Any number of backwater planets have these  hulls  modified into their own  within their arsenals. They are often not at well equipped or maintained but they have been known to mount several surprises upon these cruisers & so called system ships.

 These vessels have distinguished themselves in a number of conflicts including the Battle of Ya'ma against the Mi-go, The Shan conflicts, & many other military arenas of space