A Review of DDA4: The Dymrak Dread. A BECMI Dungeons and Dragons review #16
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- Опубліковано 27 вер 2024
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The supposed sequal to DDA3, this one did not live up to its original promises. This adventure is a simple Goblin den with a little bit of undead, though the Wight might give your party a run for its money.
I seem to have had the opposite experience with this one - I've run it many times and it's always been a rousing success. As you say, it's a mini-scenario that's easily dropped into any existing campaign, rather than a full fledged dungeon crawl which to me is a feature, not a bug as I like having a myriad of options available for players in a campaign.
I agree with your notes about some of the writing, the presentation could have been tightened up, but that's DM facing - the players will never see that. The issues can be smoothed out fairly easily before play. My one gripe, really, is that the map isn't also presented in the module proper, you only get the fold-out map - which can be a problem if you lose it. (Thankfully I still have my originals)
In one session we played about 15 years ago, the goblin shaman got ALL but one of the players with the sleep spell, and she had to face it one-on-one - the stakes being the survival of the whole party. Everyone was on the edge of their seats with every die roll. Glorious stuff. Some modules legitimately play far better than they read.
We may have mis-voiced (?) It.
It's not a BAD adventure. It's a good drop in for a goblins den anywhere. But as a printed adventure book it doesn't meet the expectations we had.
If it was a dungeon magazine adventure or a giveaway (like jade hare) it's fine, pushing towards better then average. But as a printed full on adventure module It's lacking.
Most of its negatives where based on that, along with its expectation of being the sequel to DDA3 (which is quite a bit better)
I like the sound of this module, e.g. the water trap and the spider webs. I also like many of your ideas for adjusting the adventure.
As for characters not having magic nor silver weapons, if they didn’t buy solder daggers nor silver arrows, then this adventure is an appropriate place for them to learn the hard way.
When I started my first D&D adventure as a thief in 1987, I certainly bought some silver arrows and a silver dagger (to kill werewolves). I was 11 years old. If an 11 year old knows to do that, then I’m sure most players can do the same.
Keep up the great videos! Any plans of reviewing the Creature Crucible books?
If we could ever figure how to do a review of those. If it did happen it would probably just consist of us talking about what each creature in it does and what makes it different then usual character creation
Good review 👍 Thank you for continuing to look at these lesser known products.
It seems TSR intended this module to be compatible with the reissued Basic set from the early 90s. Essentially they turned D&D into a boardgame (perhaps to compete with Heroquest which was contemporary). So all the Thunder Rift stuff plus this and the three boxed sets (Dragons, Goblins, Undead) were designed with poster maps big enough to put card minis on. The maps were good quality as well (the ones I have feel almost like vinyl, or at least laminated in some way). In return the adventures were very basic (no pun intended). Fine for children to learn from, but it's a shame with this that the promised sequel to DDA3 never happened as planned.
I got the Dragon boxed set which seems to have had the same executive meddling as Dymrak Dread. Those adventures are all set in a bizarre location. It's clearly Western Karameikos geographically, but they've changed all the names around. No idea why. I'm not sure they are even in Thunder Rift! Those adventures are very similar to this one.
Incidentally, a Wokan is a monster magic user, whilst the Shaman is a cleric. Wokani were originally Wicca in the Master set but they changed it for the Rules Cyclopaedia. I believe it was seen as potentially offensive.
Looking forward to your next review.
A fantasy locale as mysterious, dark and immense as The Dymrak Forest needed many more epic B/X adventures written for it! Although 1985's "B10-Night's Dark Terror" did a good job. Are there any more adventure modules out there that are set in The Dymrak that anyone can recommend? 🤔
We haven't found any. The cover of this module and B10 itself led us to making this review..... maybe we'll find something in a dungeon magazine
Yeah, it doesn't seem like it is a full module. It sounds handy for one of several "quests" that the PCs could hear about in the starting town, or as a drop in adventure when the DM isn't as prepared as he would like.
That link from Eye of Traldar is fascinating isnt it? I wish there was more info on it, the prisoners could well have had something to do with it. I quite liked this adventure, it had a simple but solid enough set up, the elements were all pretty decent fantasy tropes with that little dollop of mystery that Karameikos adventures did well - the tomb from the ancients. These elements had my GM brain working out and fleshing elements out. The map was horrible and not included in the pdf, so you have to find it online. Still like your review, even though I enjoyed the module.
The Dymrak forest is also mentioned in B10…… but that’s it. There’s just so much more that this could have been
@@TheLostAdventurer Yeah I get that, I still like it as it makes me ask lots of questions about where I want to take things in it next but I take your point. I do wonder what Carl Sergent would have done with the sequel though. I wonder if there was going to be a link to the Iron Ring or something linking the Jewel to the tomb...
@@gommechops from what we have found, the original module was supposed to be about having to deal with goblins in the forest swamps who were using a magically enchanted war machine
@@TheLostAdventurer Ok that's not what I expected at all but it does sound like it could be something to do with the Hutaakan (cant remember the spelling) ruins scattered about, which could be interesting. So it may well have been something to do with the tomb or something like the tomb..
yep, this one was seriously weak
Fair assessment as always. I've played it twice. This adventure feels entirely limited by the 2 page map. (Your video and graphics pointing out locations on the map seemed to have more effort put into it than this module) 😂
We appreciate the appreciation of our efforts! Though comparing it to the effort put into this module is a bit of a low bar 😀.
The most underwhelming part is this was a printed adventure module. There's more effort in some of the adventures found in Dungeon magazine then in this.
The basic scenario and encounters are decent enough for the start of a campaign, but it's going to be up to the DM to come up with a better story for this. Like a lot of earlier stuff, it's woefully incomplete. It just takes some work on the DM's part to add decent flavor to the adventure. It has the beginnings of the classic small town rescue mission.
On the bright side, with all the encounters, and the 1,000 gold reward, the characters should gain XP, reutation, and better gear in no time.
If the wight doesn't get them all in the end.
All your reviews are good because they are straight to the point with a good rating system. Also even if its not a great module its good to know.
Thanks Ben. We personally don't like it when people bear around the bush about an adventure so we don't. Make sure to stick around for more!