AD&D Review - White Plume Mountain

hello Internet seth skorkowsky and today we're gonna discuss the legendary Dungeons & Dragons had been sure white plume Mountain written by Lawrence Schick the adventure was first published in 1979 since then it's a dory released with expanded art a second edition reprint and sequel return to white blue mountain a 3.5 Edition conversion and most recently was published again as part of 2017 fifth edition collection tales of the yawning portal much like its villain the evil wizard correct us every time that we believe that this module might be dead and just lost to history it just keeps coming back which is awesome I first discovered white blue mountain in a garage sale score in 1992 and have successfully run it twice unfortunately when I decided to start doing this review I realized that my very much beloved copy the one with expanded art was missing I must have loaned it out at some point and it never returned that is your fault gaming books are like tools if you loan one out you should never ever expect to see it again Allendale learn fortunately Wizards of the coast has PDF scans of the original module available for download however the version that they have is the non expanded art version and this copy that they scanned for it was a bit weathered but more on that in a bit white blue mountain is a classic funhouse style sort of adventure that not only includes a lot of difficult combat but also has a lot of puzzles and obstacles that will require player intelligence and problem-solving to overcome I can't recommend it enough the other thing that it has being a 38 year old module is that it is allowed thousands of players across decades and generations to share war stories with each other players can meet one another whether that be online or at a game shop or a convention or wherever despite years of difference between their age they can laugh and swap tales about how they shared memories overcoming this little adventure and that's a very unique sort of thing it's a cool berries that only very old adventures can give much like the haunting scenario from Call of Cthulhu so a huge thank you to Wizards of the coast for keeping this module alive and updated for a new generation of players to experience you keep saying how old these modules are you do realize that you are physically older than any of these adventures right I'm not much older anyway the first addition module is designed for players 5 through 10 well the fifth edition module says that it's for players that are eighth level it's short so you should expect it to take one but most likely will be two sessions just kind of depends on how your players play now for any players that are in the audience if you've never experienced White Blue Mountain I strongly suggest that you tell your dungeon master to check this review out as a possibility for your game however from this moment forward I'm gonna be laying up all the spoilers so you should stop here unless you want to ruin the surprise okay for those of you still with me let's talk about this thing with the exception of art and a few rules that were changed for the conversion The Adventure is almost unchanged since its original publication it's not really enough of a changes that I've seen that's any notable difference so it doesn't matter which version you plan on running first edition had more art a lot more art and anyone that's seen my other reviews knows that I put a lot of value on art myth Edition is a higher-quality full-color art by Claudia poses but not as much as the original hat my recommendation is that no matter which version you run you search the internet and get as much of the art out there as you can art helps you visualize and describe the scene better and makes great player handouts the other thing that disappoints me in the newest addition is that it doesn't include the handout for craft is's poem or riddle the 5e version mentions that there was a history that crap just used and it used to be a handout but it doesn't give it in a nice handout form DMS I suggest that you find these print them up and give them to your players so it was this adventure that gave you your addiction to like a million player hand that every single adventure wasn't it oh definitely it all came from this adventure play your hand boughs that let them hold them in their hand and be able to reference them during the adventure itself really help with player immersion I can't recommend it enough to give your players the riddle as a handout now the fold-out mat for the PDF of the original first edition module sucks it's terribly discolored and two of the room numbers along the scene you can't even read however for those of you that have the first edition PDF version of those of you that have an original printing but lost the fold-out map that was included with it all you have to do is use a little bit of Google foo and it will quickly yield a bunch of newer cleaner and prettier colored maps now enough talk about that let's talk about running this adventure the plot is that three fantastic legendary weapons were stolen from their owners a cryptic note signed by the presumed dead sorcerer Optus challenges the owners to send champions to get them back so it's an elaborate game to the villain who seems to be impervious to death so it's kind of like a Saw movie the module doesn't give any information as to who these collectors are and only that it's a reward recovering these weapons will grant the heroes whatever they desire that is pretty unhelpful so my first suggestion here is that DMS decide who these collectors are and what it is that they can offer for rewards the hammer whelmed is a dwarven weapon and wave is for worshipers of poseidon so I suggest that you make the owners be temples powerful temples with vast influence maybe there were Lords that they can offer would be something like a free Resurrection later on or maybe some sweet custom mithril armor or some favor with the God in addition to all the fame and fortune that they're gonna be getting regardless the same goes for black razor maybe it was the sword of a national hero and the current ruler will offer the PCs land or title or a castle or some sort of royal favour you should make this reward something awesome and something that the PCs really can't get on their own yeah but what if what I want is to own one of those sweet sweet weapons I mean I think I'd look pretty good with a trident well yes dams could let the players keep one or more of the weapons the problem is that those weapons could seriously unbalance the game at the long run they are extremely powerful the weapons should be the MacGuffin or the goal for the players to get and the rewards should be what they receive at the very end for completing their goals so just make sure that the reward is something that is so desirable that the PCs think that it's worth it yeah but what if I just decided to keep that weapon for myself anyway okay that is possible it is a role-playing game after all and players might decide that they're just gonna keep the weapons if they do they're gonna need those weapons because they are now going to be branded as thieves and they're gonna be hunted for the rest of their lives and if you decided that the owners of the weapons included temples powerful temples that serve immortal gods their reach is going to be extremely far and the hunters are gonna be after them for a very long time but yeah hey that's part of the fun of RPGs right another thing to think about is that the module assumes that the PCs are personally selected to be the champions of these owners and okay that's fine if you do it that way but what if the letter correct us was actually sent out far and wide and it was an open invitation for anyone to show up now the PCs can find themselves in a race as dozens of adventuring parties and they're all going out there and they are desperate to get these weapons back to their owners first and collect the reward making it a race can completely change the mood of the game maybe other adventurers might try to ambush them on the road to the mountain or maybe they'll raid the PCs camp all the PCs are inside the mountain completing the quest or maybe they're just gonna sit outside and they're gonna wait for the player characters to recover the weapons and then they're gonna ambush them and steal them the moment they come back outside there's a whole world of possibilities gems could make them meet other groups and side white/blue mountain or maybe just the remains of a groups that weren't didn't survive it it also makes a great opening for any new pcs to join the party if you know one of the old PCs got killed on one of the traps or one of the account ores then they come across some guy that's kind of stumbling along by himself because they're the last survivor of their own party it's a nice way to be able to kind of keep it going if you do have a high fatality rate now either because the owners told them or through research or some friendly NPCs Piero's might find figure out that the feathered mound is going to be white blue mountain and that gives them a little bit of advantage above all the other parties that are going to be searching for these weapons but they know that they have to move quickly because other people are going to figure that out soon enough so the PCs are gonna go racing out there knowing that they've got the edge right now they better complete it before everybody shows up a white for a mountain whether you decide to do that or not is completely up to you but crap tiss wants his game and I think an open cold challenge is more of kratos's style and it can add a whole new aspect that the module seems to neglect once the PCs reach the mountain they'll have all kinds of various puzzles and encounters and I'm not going to go through them all right here is they're all pretty self-explanatory many like the frictionless room don't have any set correct answer the fun becomes from the PCs coming up with all sorts of crazy and kooky ideas trying to solve it for the room with the suspended disk above the boiling mud there is one small issue I want to mention with the timing and that's that in first edition around was equal to one minute while in fifth edition' around is equal to six seconds because the geysers a and B erupt every three to five minutes in both editions I suggest that fifth edition geum's changed that to once every three to five rounds in order to achieve the same risk that it was intended to be in the module that makes the player timing much more critical when they're trying to cross this room crap dis has many servants living inside the mountain and jeans should remember that crap tiss is extremely evil and that none of his servants should be here for their own will maybe give them both there some other marks something really sinister that says that they've gone through the indoctrination center and they're actually all slaves here what that means is that all the servants here are victims they have to serve Him it might also provide some fun moral dilemmas as the PCs role play and they can discover that all these people that they're fighting and killing aren't necessarily evil it's a good hint also as to what the sorcerer has intended for the PCs at the end of the adventure maybe I have one or two of Sir bluto's henchmen we're all fighting in that one room to be going like I'm sorry I'm sorry as they are in the middle of combat and that's a great way for the PCs to realize like oh my god these actually aren't bad people but the PCs are going to be completely unable to break the charm or the spell they either have to capture or kill them but it makes correctness seem much more evil because everyone in this dungeon is just a piece in his game and they're all victims but the other reason that you would like to have this is that the PCs realize that many of those people here aren't necessarily evil is one way when they discover the halfling quiz snuff who is really just an evil polymorphed oni that the PCs might be a little bit more trusting of him when I ran this the PCs were always instantly suspicious of him yeah everything that we have met here so far has tried to kill us so I am NOT gonna be taking my eyes off you for a second you know what second thought guys let's just kill this little squirt now but if you establish that not everyone here is willing and the other heroes were also coming in here periodically trying to find the three legendary weapons maybe quiz snuff is the last of his own adventuring party then you can have a lot of fun having him you join the pcs for a little bit get close to them maybe even help them out through a few of the obstacles and that is when he's gonna strike that's much more effective than have them walk into this room and he'd be all like oh hi I'm a friendly little halfling like oh no now I'm a monster it's a lot more fun to roleplay it and keep that going a little bit longer but you need to have the PCs trust him in order for that to 6th once the PCs have beaten the giant crab and bested the vampire protecting the other two weapons that's when the final showdown occurs crappiest will announce that he has no intention for the PCs to escape and he sins either to or for Ifrit to capture the PCs and bring them to his indoctrination Center to become his next unwilling servants this is also a good point that if the PCs solved the riddle of the five flesh golems and number nine is now a loyal friend of the party kind of like a big lumbering stinky mascot holy crap number nine I love that big Frankenstein brute he traveled with us for like five whole adventures before he finally bought the farm you know literally I mean he's got like a wife and kids now I still get a Christmas card from him like every other year if you as the champ don't want the players to actually keep a flesh golem just around all the time the end is a good time for that flesh golem to turn on the PCs after all the flesh goal of ultimately serfs correctness and even though when they solve the puzzle there's little voice that said that it was going to loyally serve them that could have just easily been a lie and that's the PCs fault for even believing that oh not you too number nine Oh curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal otherwise if you want maybe they can keep number nine I leave that all up to you but it's just some food for thought overall white Blue Mountain is a classic adventure that will challenge your players the fact that it's been around for so long as a testament to how well it's written and how popular it is even without my suggestions I hardly recommend it whichever Edition it is you prefer hey thanks for watching if you enjoyed the video you know the drill like subscribe share check out our other videos until next time gamers you have a great day so uh are we not even gonna mention the fact that black razor is clearly a storm bring a ripoff no ok I guess it don't matter still a pretty cool sword dawg

Channel: Seth Skorkowsky

Views: 102,807

Keywords: D&D, Dungeons and Dragons, 5e, Jack the NPC, Module, First Edition, 1e, Dungeon Master, DM, Game Master, GM, Scenario, Adventure, Tabletop, Table Top, Roleplaying Game, RPG, AD&D, Yawning Portal, Wizards of the Coast, TSR, Tips, Lawrence Schick, retro

Id: Z7L1MeM2pC0

Length: 15min 27sec (927 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 19 2017