Game
03
Basic
Game Adventure B3
Palace of the Silver Princess
(1981)
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by Tom Moldvay and Jean Wells |
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Development: |
Allen Hammack, Harold Johnson, Tom Moldvay, Brian Pitzer, Jean Wells |
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Editing: |
Allen Hammack, Harold Johnson, Jon Pickens, Deborah Ritchie |
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Art: |
Jim Holloway, Dave S. LaForce, Harry Quinn, Jim Roslof, Laura Roslof, Stephen D. Sullivan, Bill Willingham |
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Playtesting: |
Ken Reek, Jo LaForce, Dave LaForce, Judy Elvin, Skip Williams, Dave Conant, Shirley Egnoski, Ernie Gygax, John and Mary Eklund, Michael Luznicky, Blane Fuller, Jan Kratochvil, Mark Teloh, John Beckman, Bob Burgess, John Main, Gregory G.H. Rihn, Doug Jones, Bryan Wendorf, Tina Pacey, Rocky Bartlett, and Helen Cook |
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The Realm Review:
A classic that set the
genre for dungeon crawls. Enter the castle, fight the denizens who have
corrupted the Silver Princess' home, and find the means to shatter the power of
the Red Curse. A plethora of rarely seen--and even one unique--monsters come before
the PCs, while creative traps and a twisting maze confound the senses. One of
the first and best of its kind.
Realm Rating: 5/5
...Download Game03 at the Magic
Mirror...
Dawn and Foy, Around
the Realm:
Game03 by Ray Dyer
Palace of the Silver
Princess
A classic D&D
module which I happen to own and love. I couldn't wait to get started on it and
for the most part I was not disappointed.
The game starts off as
your characters have a dream about a magical race of Protectors from the world
of Faerie. They need your help to save the land of Haven with it's beautiful
princess trapped inside her own silver castle by a mysterious red glow.
This design was very
faithful to the original. I finally had to break out my copy of the module just
so I could find my way out of the maze that is the first level. The whole
module happens outside the Realms, on an alternate prime material plane. It plays
very well, no problems, no real troubles or bugs.
Things I liked:
* hey! it was my
favorite D&D module, what else needs to be said?
* you couldn't rest
just anywhere, which was realistic, but he did insert a few strategically
placed rest areas.
* The frame & font
set, a Star Trek font if I'm not mistaken. I don't know how appropriate it was
but it was still cool.
* The many-armed maw
monster on the upper floor was well done. I want that combat icon!
* The artwork from the
original module. Most were B&W in the P&P module but colored in the
game. I've probably been seeing that all along but this was the first one I
played that I actually owned. The art might not have been the best quality UA
pictures but it was very nice to have appropriate artwork that matched the
story.
Things I disliked:
* The beginning. I
know it was just like the module with a step-by-step introduction for the DM
but it really wasn't necessary for a UA game. The real problem was that there
were several places where you could be killed. If that happens the only real
way out is to reboot, reload, and play through that looonnng intro again. It
should have stopped as soon as the party entered the gatehouse to the castle.
* There were several
instant death spots. Step into it or make the wrong decision and DIE!
<putting on my best Andy Rooney> Don't you just hate that? :-)
* Repeating text. Ray!
Use the "Once Only" button occasionally! It doesn't hurt to have a
long description marked as "Once" and a shorter (no RETURN required)
reminder notice if that event doesn't trigger. The "ghostly shadows"
room got REAL irritating!
* <boy I hate to
complain about this one!> Too much treasure. The Princess gives you 18000
gold at the end of the module, no way 6 characters can pick up that much gold.
So what's the point? A mix of gold, gems & jewelry would have been better.
We liked this module,
two thumbs up. We got a lots of EPs but at our current levels they didn't
really lift us much. Everyone in my party is now at least 4th level and most
are 5th. We kept on with Ray's suggested order of play and tackled Game04 - B4,
The Lost City next.
Foy
Other Collected reviews on Game 03:
Game03 - The
Palace of the Silver Princess (rating: 5)
Ungh... the
music in the intro is curious, in my opinion. It sounds like some theme music
from some action TV series set in more modern days rather than fantasy world.
The game itself
could be described as 'dungeon crawl' with occasional combat here and there.
The amount of combat was quite satisfactory to me, though sometimes I found
myself wondering 'why does everyone want to attack me?' The plot for this
dungeon crawl is fairly ordinary 'dungeon crawl plot', ie. something evil is
abound, and you must stop it. Still, the plot was somewhat likable, avoiding
some of the most often seen ideas. But still, it didn't bring anything new into
the genre (though considering it's a conversion of a 'classic' p&p game, it
might have been there to 'define' the genre).
No big bugs,
just some events which happened a bit too often (read: not 'do only once'
events, though should have been) and some spelling bugs. No need to rely on the
editor in this game at all, which is always a very good thing.
Harri Polsa
Ray,
I finished
"Palace of the Silver Princess" the other day and thought I'd pass along
a few (rather disorganized) thoughts...Well, overall I enjoyed this one, though
not as much as, say, "Horror on the Hill" or
"Tamoachan."I'm not sure I saw all of the design, since my party just
sort of stumbled on the throne room after wandering around the palace for a
while, and the next thing I knew the game was ending. That was my big gripe
about this design, that the party really isn't given much guidance beyond the
Protector saying, "You must stop the Evil Bad Guy and save Haven!" I
found myself just wandering around looking for stuff to do, eventually found
the silver harp and some dragon statues, and managed to destroy the eye. Much
of the time I wasn't really sure where I was or what was going on. Of course,
some of this may result from my refusal to ever draw a map of where I am...
Beyond the lack
of guidance, however, I liked the rest of the game. One thing I've noticed you
doing in all the Realm games is trying to include some of the role-playing
aspects of the pen-and-paper game that are sohard to do in UA. It's hard to do
much more than try and catch the feel of a pen-and-paper game, since there is
no real flesh-and-blood DM to make judgement calls and improvise in a UA
design, but I think in most of the Realm games you've managed to at least make
me feel at times like I might really be playing through a module with other
people. I've tried playing some other attempts at conversions of paper modules
and they do not always succed at catching the feel of a real gaming session.
Nol Drek's designs are usually pretty good at that, but I haven't really found
anyone else who could do that.
Well, that's
about all for the moment. Keep up the good work! I'm looking forward to the
"Lost City," which was always one of my favorite of the B-series
modules for some reason.
Game03.zip B3,
Palace of the Silver Princess Ray & Maureen Dyer
This was a
really FUN adventure. I must say, Ray & Maureen really bring a design
alive. It is a relatively short adventure to play. I found it very intriguing. The
very beautiful and very popular Princess that rules the valley has had
something dire happen to her, her castle and all within. You are asked to enter
and find out what has happened and if possible, fix the problem. This is a
conversion of a P&P design and very true in the conversion. The flavor text
is everything. There were no noticeable bugs or flaws in the design.
Plot Matter: 9 Artwork: 9 Hacks: 9 Text: 10
Events: 9 Originality: 9 Errors: 9 Difficulty: 5
Total Rating: 92% Mycroft Rating: 9
