Game
06
Basic
Game Adventure B8
Journey to the Rock
(1984)
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by Michael Malone |
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Editor: |
Edward G. Sollers |
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Cover Artist: |
Larry Elmore |
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Interior Artist: |
Doug Watson |
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Graphic Design: |
Ruth Hoyer |
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Maps: |
David S. "Diesel" LaForce |
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The Realm Review:
A journey that the
same players can make several times without crossing the same territory twice.
Hired by a retired mage, the PCs are asked to retrieve the secret of a stone
monolith known as "The Rock." The secret comes in two parts, though,
and only one can be carried home.
Realm Rating: 4.5/5
...Download Game06 at the Magic
Mirror...
Dawn and Foy, Around
the Realm:
Game06 by Ray Dyer (maz137@psu.edu)
B8, Journey to the
Rock
A short game for 1st
level characters. I like short games, I find it hard to keep playing a game
that takes more than a couple of nights to play. This module starts the party
off with a shop. Newly created characters get a little gold but no equipment at
all so this is your ONLY chance to buy things. Choose well! Your party is then
approached by a wizard's messenger who wants you for a dangerous mission to
"the Rock."
Things I liked:
* The item hacks are
interesting, studded leather, quality weapons, etc. Not that you can afford
them but hey!
* no overlands,
everything is handled by dungeons giving you a feeling of being outdoors
* 3 paths to the Rock,
each with their own sets of dangers and adventure. My wife and I had completely
different encounters, very cool!
* The module kept
track of a promise I made and manage to get around. When I went to leave it
told me that my Paladin was not happy about it. So what could I do? I went back
through the wilderness a second time to honor the promise. I may have lost a
piece of jewelry but I got a lot more EPs!
* A couple of hidden
encounters for the more careful traveler
Things I disliked:
* Inconsistent feel
while walking in the wilderness. Jumping and disappearing trees were the most
common problem, caused by Transfers that took you to completely different
places. One minute your walking along a tree line and the next your in the
middle of the dessert without a tree in sight.
* Inside the Rock it
felt extremely empty. Just a wide open space.
By the end of the
module all of my characters had gone to second level so it accomplished its
main goals. We became familiar with Ray's design style and our characters got a
little treasure and experience along the road to greatness!
Overall we liked it
and decided to load up the next adventure. We departed from the prescribed
order of play so my next review will be Game05 - B6, The Veiled Society.
Foy
Other Collected
reviews on Game 06:
Well, after
Paddi's excursion to the Rock, I felt I should review this excellent design. I
have the original P&P module, though I haven't looked through it in a very
long time. So after I had finished the adventure, I went through the book to
see how well Ray has adapted B8.
He did a
fantastic job. I went over the southern route, and thoroughly enjoyed the
journey. The only difficulty was actually getting into the Rock itself. No more
need be said about that.
There were a few
spelling mistakes here and there, but they were rare enough to not be too much
of a problem. The encounters were well balanced; my party had only one
near-death experience. The frame was very appropriate for the season (autumn),
and the use of dungeon modules rather than overlands to simulate the journey
was very well done. I would have thought, however, that with Jenlar Temlin's
map to guide us, it would not have been unreasonable to have AREA map available
for the wilderness parts of the journey.
The ending was
handled slightly differently in this design than in the module; we had to
travel back to the fork in the paths before being summoned to the Arkayz's
home. In the P&P, the teleport occurred right after learning the secret of
the Rock. But this gave us a chance to accumulate some more experience, and all
but one of my characters is ready to train.
Overall, an
excellent adaptation of this classic design, and I'm looking forward to finding
more of Paddi's journals.
Mycroft module
rating: 9.5 out of 10
Glen
Hi Folks,
I continue my
tour of the Realm by heading towards the Westlands...
game06.zip B8,
Journey to the Rock Ray & Maureen Dyer
This is an
excellent little adventure for low level characters. I just recently ran my
husband and son through this p&p. This is a very true to print conversion
of the module and it is fairly easy and quick to complete. I think Ray &
Maureen should be given a large kudos for the undertaking thus far. The story
line is very basic. You are sent by a very powerful mage to investigate an old
legend. I really loved running into the dwarves.
Plot Matter: 9 Artwork: 9 Hacks: 9 Text: 9
Events: 9 Originality: 9 Errors: 9 Difficulty: 5
Total Rating:
90% Mycroft Rating: 9
Susan
Game06 - Journey
to the Rock (rating: 6.5)
In this story,
the party of adventurers agrees to find the 'secret of the rock' for a mage.
The game mostly deals about them getting to this 'rock', rather than what
happens inside the 'rock', which was ok, after all, the name of the game is
'Journey to the rock'.
What I liked
about this design was the combat. Or rather, the lack of it. The premise for a
design like this almost like -screams- the words 'random combats', but there
really wasn't all that much. Of course, if I was a more honest player and
started from first level, then I might not be so forgiving. I had three
characters, only one was created in this game.
The plot device
of 'you must pay us toll to use our very own road' was used a perhaps bit too
often (at least considering the general shortness of the design). And where do
those rockmen need gold? Hmm...
As usual with
'the Realm' games, no big bugs. Only a few spelling errors.
Harri Polsa
Ray,
I just finished
playing Journey to the Rock, and was once again impressed. I always liked this
module because, even though it's really not that long, it gives the players
more than one way to get to where they're going and creates a feeling of more
size, which I think you did quite well in your conversion. I eagerly await each
new Realm adventure. Discovering FRUA and all the great stuff on the internet
has revived my interest in D&D.
Well, just
wanted to let you know what I thought of the latest game. Keep up the good
work!!
"Journey to
the Rock" (game06.zip)
by Ray Dyer
(maz137@psu.edu)
Mycroft Rating:
8.5
There are a
number of things in this adventure that I liked, but it's difficult to put a
finger on exactly what each was. Overall, I'd have to say it was the general
"feel" of the game that most captivated me. The hacks, the sound
effects, the music, the plot, the background, the overall mood of the game, and
the obvious attention to detail all blended together to produce a very
enjoyable adventure.
Ray has managed
to find all of the key things that I look for in a UA design. I prefer
adventures that grant me a solid reason for doing what I'm doing, that don't
force me to wander aimlessly to search for obscure clues or objectives, that
are detailed (and believable) enough that I can immerse myself in the
characters, and that present a challenge without forcing me to spend hours upon
hours trying to build up enough party strength to reach certain parts of the
game.
"Journey to
the Rock" succeeded exceptionally well in all of the above.
The game is not
a hackfest. Very little (if any) of the adventure depends on the party doing
well in combat. It's not technically a text-based adventure either. Instead,
it's a well-balanced mixture of both.
The adventure is
also deceptively short. ;> It might leave you wondering whether you've
missed something.. But I won't count that against the design or consider it a
detractor. To be honest, I'm positive that if I were to play it again and try
out a few of the different paths presented in the game, I'd find something new
each time. That type of "replayability" is often difficult to achieve
in UA. :]
To go along with
the praise, there were some ~very~ minor bugs in the game. There were 4 or 5
scattered (and again, ~very minor~) spelling/grammatical errors and a text
statement or two where a word appeared to be missing. There were also one or
two spots where the same text statement appeared twice, one after the other.
From a playing standpoint, these were so transparent that none came even
remotely close to taking away from the enjoyment of the game.
I won't go into
details about the plot itself. I'll leave that for you to find out.
I will, however,
highly recommend this game! :]
For those who
don't have a lot of time to play, you'll find this adventure is pretty much
right on target. And for those who'd like build up a very low-level party
without going through endless, annoying combats, I think you'll really enjoy
the alternative presented here.
All in all,
very, very well done!!
The game left me
with only one burning question.. What the devil took me so long to play Ray's
outstanding games!? :D
Dan Autery
Hi there!
Yesterday I've downloaded all of you Realm
modules that was on GIGA and started playing introduction and didn't hoped for
much too be honest. But I've got really positively suprised! ;) I've started in
the Westlands with "Journey to the Rock" and it was one of the best
adventures I've ever played. I really loved all the details, like when the
party comes to a clearing the design describe it in a interesting way. Most of
the design wouldn't even bother to "waste" a text event for it. ;)
Only thing I disliked about this design was that the party couldn't just make
camp and rest at any place in wilderness. I mean if you didn't like them to
rest, why not give a high procentage chance of a little, not too hard,
encounter ever hour or so? It would look much more natural than when you just
are not allowed even to try to rest. Otherwise this design was just great! I've
loved it!
Hi,
I just wanted to say that I think your
work is brilliant. I first played Journey to the Rock as I actually played that
module years ago. Everything seemed so accurate as the the actual mod. Great
game I had alot of fun. Now I'm off to B2: Keep on the Borderlands.
I finally got my copy of FRUA Saturday and
I played through "Journey to the Rock" as my first adventure. I must
say, you've done a great job on The Realm and I'm glad I chose to run a
campaign there. There is something nostalgic about the old TSR modules and
keeping a consistent campaign and set of hack rules just sounded like the way
to go. "Assault on Raven's Ruin" is up next, and then I'm headed for
some favorite modules I've actually played/DM'd like "Palace of the Silver
Princess" and "The Lost City". I can't wait!
I was also impressed with UAShell and it's
ease of use. Kudos to the author(s) there as well.
I'm looking forward to more adventuring...
Thanks all!
I finished playing last night the Realm
adventure 06 - The Rock.
I am a great fan of the Realm and believe
that these are the best adaptation of old p&p AD&D modules. The Rock
doesn't let you down. Rich descriptions and a lot of mood creation. I couldn't
find any bugs except for events that made more sense in the begining happened
in the end while I was heading home. But since I took a different path, it made
sense meeting people that was there in the first place. I missed a grand finale
battle. Maybe it is a question of style. My grade (in a 1-10 scale where
anything above 5 is a must play) would be 6.
Thanks
