"Castle Amber" is one of those adventures that I ALWAYS ran for my players. I've run it so many damn times over the decades since I purchased the modules that I can close my eyes and see the pages. At this point, I could probably run this adventure blindfolded. There are so many of those old TSR adventures that fall into this category for me. This adventure was always one of my favorites. I ran this thing even through 2nd edition D&D. The story is solid and it's very worth converting to any fantasy game system.
Castle Amber goes very well when converted into a Vurt game as well. (Vurt uses the Cypher System). There, it can be inserted as a rare feather - even better if you make it a Yellow Feather.
Im with you. This was one of my favourites and our group loved the spin the wheel and take a chance aspect of the module. It was fun at that low level taking on the Giant Giant pictured on the Module. I believe I lost at least two characters playing this module. At least one got poisoned at the deadly dinner. Just some really fun encounters. Averoigne (avwroin) was pretty bare bones. Yes Railroady and Deadly. Never heard of Mark of Amber. I'll have to visit that.
The Tomb of Horrors, while it may be a classic, was/is not a fun play in any sense, whereas I found Castle Amber both fun to play and DM. I altered things a bit (some of the encounters and some of the plot) to make it more coherent, but I enjoy doing the extra work, so I don't hold that against the author (Moldvay), whom I regard highly.
@@kevinbrennan-ji1so Tomb was undoubtedly a cow to both play and DM but we played it repeatedly and the party got wiped out at least a dozen times. It became a running joke about “never” getting to the end. Great memories.
I ran this module as a young teen when I first got into D&D. It was weird then. It’s weird now. However, as a man in his 50s now, I can appreciate your insight into its rightful placement into a Ravenloft/Barovia setting. Truly an expansive add to the Curse of Strahd adventure. Thanks for the walk down amnesia lane.
I am so glad you are still posting videos, I watch them while I work. It takes me back when I was a kid and D&D meant so much to me, still does. We are the lucky generation, we didn't have the internet to answer all of our questions, we had to read the books to figure it out and for the artwork, which still ignites my imagination. I am really grateful for D&D and for you!
@@captcorajus Do you ever do paid DMing and also Fantasty Grounds tutorial in the process? Not trying to be an internet weirdo or anything, just want to learn FG and also play in one of your campaigns =) If not no worries, just would be awesome if you were a full time online DM, I would back you up on that consistently and happily.
@@Silversmith70 I don't DM online, or do it as a paid thing at all to be honest. I do run an in person game every Sunday for my two daughters and two long time friends of mine. That's been going on for about ten years now. I have a FG tutorial video to complete. That may be coming out this week as i have almost all of it done. I am also launching a patreon page, and as part of the promotion for that I was planning on running a few adventures for those who support the channel. :). Thanks for the fine words!
Great timing! I'm planning on running this next month. I also was planning to drop it into Ravenloft to tie it into something more familiar to the players.
@@captcorajus Changing the land to Barovia also allows some back story for you-know-who. There is no explanation on who captured him or why which makes for a dull reveal at the end with no explanation of why it all happened. Since Strahd conquered Barovia there had to be a previous leader or ruling party of that land...
This and the original Ravenloft were by far my favorite modules. Nothing was even close. Such great memories of playing this in a very long marathon session. We just couldn't stop lol
Our group went through this module when it first came out. Of all the modules I’ve played, the events of this one are the most seared in my brain, these forty years later. This module was truly teleporting for my young mind.
I played first , then DM'd a number of parties through this module in the early 80's. Ot played wonderfully each time and very differently too, in humorous ways. I sent Tom Moldvay an email many years ago thanking him for his genius - only to find out that he'd died a few years before. Was sad.
First module I ever played through fully back in the Summer of 82, listening to Steve Miller and Dexy's on the radio. This and White Plume Mountain hold special memories. Fun times.
Of the Big 3, CAS is my favorite, which is something to me because Howard's Conan stories are also practically right up there for me. Sometimes they trade spots, depends on whether I want blood and guts, or psychedelic creepiness.
This was one of our favorites back in the day. Probably ran or played this module more than any other. For players hitting Expert levels, I always found this a much more fun and flavorful than "Isle of Dread". This followed up with "Drums of Firetop Mountain" and "Saga of the Shadow Lord" or possibly from "Master of the Desert Nomads" got us through Expert and into Companions modules. Fun stuff. Loving all these original D&D BECMI module reviews. Keep it up.
This is why I love this channel ♥ iv never read this module but hearing it in this review makes me nostalgic for some reason ☺ another great review I'm going to pick this one up for a read and try use elements of it in my game. Thanks ☺
Excellent review. I am looking forward to more reviews, especially anything set in the BECMI rules. On your review of the Rules Cyclopedia I purchased the book and really enjoy this version of D&D over the later versions. While it has its clunk it has a feeling of fantasy that seems more pure, in my opinion, then later sets of rules.
Thanks SO much for this review. I've had Castle Amber since it came out in 1981, but never played or ran it. Your refreshing take on the module has inspired me to give it another look. Your suggestion of incorporating it into a Ravenloft campaign is brilliant!
I did run the game a while back setting up the mansion and Averoigne as Ravenloft realms (Averoigne originating from Gothic Earth with the realm properties of Gothic Earth) adding in encounters with ettercaps, werefolves, and a corpse collector that was working for the BBG necromancer that was making the colossus
This was the first module I ever purchased back in 1982 when I was 12. I didn't know anything about the module when I made the purchase other than what was on the cover and back. It was definitely outside of the box, even for D&D. In the end, it stands the test of time and is one of the all-time greats.
In my current campaign I use a mist mechanic. I use it to transport characters to exotic locals for episodic games. It also allows me to make my game more of a point crawl than a hex crawl. The closed bottle nature of this adventure will work well with my campaign. I think I have a PDF copy but if not I will certainly pick one up.
I FINALLY played through this adventure only a few months back. I was a player for this one and we had a fantastic time. My DM also spiced things up with a few of his own ideas, as many do. ;-)
I played this as a player character back in the early 80's, all I remember is that it was one hell of a puzzle getting out of that place! I'm pretty sure my 13th level fighter got both arms ripped from the sockets, or was that G1, sucks getting old. I still have an original copy of this in a storage bin somewhere. Thank you for the nostalgia.
I remember see this in the 80s, but I judged the book by its cover, assuming it would something about defending a castle from giants and thus just be fighting a series of giants -- so I went for Master of the Desert Nomads instead.
This was a flawed, but great module. Pertaining to your comment about it belonging in Ravenloft, I ran a campaign where I did indeed put it within the Ravenloft realm. I changed the area to medieval southern France, near the Italian border, renaming the city of Barovia to Burgoyne. Traveling by sea, the PCs landed at Marseilles, than first encountered the castle on the western side of the entrapped realm within the fog. They used the castle as a base of operations after traveling first through Burgoyne and were able to use some of the Amber family as allies (the family being old noble rivals of the count) after dealing with the 'problem' members. It totally threw the PCs off when they visited the Castle, as they were all aware of the Ravenloft setting and the fog immediately made them think of it, than the city name and (non-vampiric) castle sort of messed with their minds. It was a younger group which wasn't familiar with Castle Amber. :) By the way, have you by chance read Roger Zelazny's 'Chronicles of Amber' series? I stumbled on it while digging into the background and found it intriguing, albeit a bit strange and long.
Update: Goodman games has made a reprint/5e update and expansion of this classic module for around 40 bucks. Its a hardcover too! I've seen their print in person and it was staggering in thickness. You imagine it's going to be this thin book, but no, its a heavy tome indeed! Just throwing it out there for those interested :) they're doing others too, castle amber is #5 in their series. Although I haven't read through it myself, I plan on picking up all their books :D *excitement builds*
I think nice way to teleport the players is to have them get lost in the mist and the mist fades leaving them at the castle front doors but if they try to go back into the mist is when it's now poisonous.
Hey Capt. always enjoy your old school reviews. I had this adventure, i remember you had to get a magic arrow and shot the giant with this one arrow and it would put him to sleep. Nobody wanted to go after the giant they just wanted the arrow. I know from other YT when you hit 5k subs you made it. Your channel will start to grow on its own now. I knew it would happen you & your channel are just to cool, not to get noticed. Thanks again Captain & have a great day.
I'm wanting to run a bunch of these old modules for my D&D 5e group since many have the CMT conversions. I'm thinking of starting with Reptile God, then going into Amber, and basically running the players through levels 1 to 20 as the same set of characters. Not sure what to do after Amber though. I'm a newer DM but these modules sound really neat. Reptile God into Amber into White Plume Mountain maybe?
CAS was not in Appendix N. He is in the list of books at the back of the Moldvay Basic rulebook, but Gygax didn't include him in his list for some reason.
True story. I have Hordes of Dragonspear Castle, but it basically doesn't do me any good without the Battle System, which I've never played, owned, or known anybody who had.
@@stephenclements6158 Exactly! It's a hard system to learn, but worth knowing. I think because of the complexity of the system not alot of people jumped on it.
I actually preferred Battlesystem over Warhammer, if you can believe that. Unfortunately, it felt a bit... unfinished. But I liked how deadly battles were. Unlike in Warhammer, where 8 humans fighting 8 goblins would kill maybe one per turn.
Even cooler -- a comparison of the AD&D Battle System with the D&D Warmachine from BECMI (with which I am more familiar, but guess they are comparable).
Hi Cap. I was wondering is you would consider doing a review of those 4 books of magic items? I cant remember their titles but they were green,blue,brown and red in color and had e very magic item in D&D in them.I love watching the video's you do,it really takes me back to 1980 when I first started playing D&D at age 12.
You're talking about Encyclopedia Magica. Its a 4 volume set, totaling 1500 pages on every magic item published from OD&D up until that point in time which was for the 2E D&D game. In addition to a full description of the item, it gave xp value, gp value and listed the product inwhich the item was originally featured. I remember going into Waldenbooks and drooling over them, but at $25 a piece I could never justify the expense, though NOW that they are collectors items on ebay, I could just kick myself for not grabbing them. Getting PDFs on DMs guild will run ya 10 bucks a piece.. or google. ahem. As far as a video goes, that's hard to say, but it could be fun, i'll have to check out the trivia and see what interesting things i can dig up on it. Until then, I hope this helps! Cheers!
@@captcorajus Yes, that was another amazing adventure! Alot of material and great story with the battle between the forces of Good/Mitra and Evil/Set. I remember my player acquired the White Soul Gem while my teammate acquired the Black Soul Gem. My DM said it was up to us to battle it out and only one would survive! He left it up to us to fight it out. Our characters where both so powerful by then, it took us over 5 hours of actual game time to declare the winner!
Ever since Conan the Barbarian Set has been one of my favorite evil deities. Its the whole snake thing I guess. Wow, that sounds like an EPIC battle. Very cool! Thanks for sharing!
how come nobody ever talks about the scale of the castle map? at 10ft per square, every single room is stupidly huge - like multiple thousands of square feet - area #12, the kitchen, is 110ft long by 50ft wide! The ridiculous dimensions really annoy me and i can't take it seriously as a product.
Since Ravenloft got mentioned, you might have pointed out that the Temple Amber, and Castle Amber, are different places, and unrelated. People will get confused.
Yaaaas, classic D&D goodness. :) I would like to hear more about the Mystara module, and I felt the Mystara setting for AD&D was overlooked for not being edgey enough and yet too polished for that old school vibe.
On FB I've been in a few conversations with Bruce Heard on his BECMI page, and he was saying that the main reason that they had CDs in the Mystara line was because Lorraine Williams had a family business that produced blank CDs.
HOLY CRAP, REALLY??? That would make so much sense! I don't have anything against the CDs and have the Night of the Vampire, but it seemed odd to have CDs start turning up.
@@stephenclements6158 I have all the CD adventures... Hail the Heroes, Night of the Vampire and Mark of Amber, as well as a Ravenloft adventure. The supplement boxed set adventures were a bit annoying in that they had actors doing the voices for the PCs as well as the NPCs. I really enjoyed running the Hail the Heroes adventure, which only has the voices for the NPCs. The Ravenloft Adventure, that I have, A light in the Belfry, isn't too bad either and my group enjoyed playing it.
@@captcorajus I only played part of Hail the Heroes and never got to run Night of the Vampire, so it's good to hear they're not bad adventures. What's your opinion on the value of having the CDs as part of the adventures? Did it enhance the atmosphere, did it make everybody wait too long for getting the CD in the right place, was the higher production worth it, etc?
@@stephenclements6158 No, i used a portable CD player 'back in the day' and it wasn't that big of a hassle. For a starting DM they're probably more useful. Personally, I would have been happy to just have the NPC text at hand so i could read it myself. I think rather than having the actors voices what might have been more useful was just the music for a particular scene as well as sound effects. Hal the Heroes does have a nice bunch of sound effects.. slicing blades, and trap sounds were cool, as well as some ghostly sounds as well, definitely add to the atmosphere. If you listen to Halav's theme, it might sound somewhat familiar. ;)
I disagree about the Ravenloft commonalities. Anyways, my friends and I are running this module this week coming up! It will be my 3rd or 4th time....I can't wait! I also was early on EBAY and have 2 in their original shrinkwrap! 😁
@@captcorajus Yes...now i do think your right about the families tragic backstory and having to flee to Mysteria (was it?). Anyways...i had the guys roll up characters to play this one LAST time! This....is going to be fun!
You're right, i didn't go into the actual encounters on this one. I showed some maps and talked about the province of averoigne quest.. which IS very much a spoiler. On this particular module, the surprises are so much fun, I didn't want to give too much away.
@@Johnny_NitroYou right!! Hey, right now its summertime and I'm a DJ. I have good excuse. However I literally have been writing scripts.. one on City of Brass, one on the new Cthulhu Kickstarter I just got, and the other on the Castles and Crusades Monster & Treasure kickstarter i just got. lol.. so all three of those dropping this week! ha!
I got this module when it first came out. It was definitely different compared to all the other modules of the day but it was fun. The biggest negative you touched upon in the review is that it's easy for a character to be killed.
A quick check of ebay completed auctions shows that this module can be had for less than $30 so shop around. www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=castle+amber&_sacat=2543&rt=nc&LH_Sold=1&LH_Complete=1
"Castle Amber" is one of those adventures that I ALWAYS ran for my players. I've run it so many damn times over the decades since I purchased the modules that I can close my eyes and see the pages. At this point, I could probably run this adventure blindfolded. There are so many of those old TSR adventures that fall into this category for me. This adventure was always one of my favorites. I ran this thing even through 2nd edition D&D. The story is solid and it's very worth converting to any fantasy game system.
I feel you man! got it in 1985 played it so many times,it so spooky and weird and fun that i think it is my favorite module of all time. :)
Castle Amber goes very well when converted into a Vurt game as well. (Vurt uses the Cypher System). There, it can be inserted as a rare feather - even better if you make it a Yellow Feather.
Im with you. This was one of my favourites and our group loved the spin the wheel and take a chance aspect of the module. It was fun at that low level taking on the Giant Giant pictured on the Module. I believe I lost at least two characters playing this module. At least one got poisoned at the deadly dinner. Just some really fun encounters.
Averoigne (avwroin) was pretty bare bones.
Yes Railroady and Deadly.
Never heard of Mark of Amber. I'll have to visit that.
I'm 55 years old...I've played them all. Equal to the Tomb of Horrors, this module is one of the top 3 classic modules.
Absolutely true!!
The Tomb of Horrors, while it may be a classic, was/is not a fun play in any sense, whereas I found Castle Amber both fun to play and DM. I altered things a bit (some of the encounters and some of the plot) to make it more coherent, but I enjoy doing the extra work, so I don't hold that against the author (Moldvay), whom I regard highly.
@@kevinbrennan-ji1so Tomb was undoubtedly a cow to both play and DM but we played it repeatedly and the party got wiped out at least a dozen times. It became a running joke about “never” getting to the end. Great memories.
@@RtB68 You must have had some very patient adventuring buddies.
@@kevinbrennan-ji1so lol…yeah. We took it room by room and if I remember right they never had to re-do a room. Die, respawn to the next one.
I ran this module as a young teen when I first got into D&D. It was weird then. It’s weird now.
However, as a man in his 50s now, I can appreciate your insight into its rightful placement into a Ravenloft/Barovia setting. Truly an expansive add to the Curse of Strahd adventure.
Thanks for the walk down amnesia lane.
Glad to oblige.
I am so glad you are still posting videos, I watch them while I work. It takes me back when I was a kid and D&D meant so much to me, still does. We are the lucky generation, we didn't have the internet to answer all of our questions, we had to read the books to figure it out and for the artwork, which still ignites my imagination. I am really grateful for D&D and for you!
Thank you so much! I will be posting videos as much as time allows, trust me!!
@@captcorajus Do you ever do paid DMing and also Fantasty Grounds tutorial in the process? Not trying to be an internet weirdo or anything, just want to learn FG and also play in one of your campaigns =) If not no worries, just would be awesome if you were a full time online DM, I would back you up on that consistently and happily.
@@Silversmith70 I don't DM online, or do it as a paid thing at all to be honest. I do run an in person game every Sunday for my two daughters and two long time friends of mine. That's been going on for about ten years now.
I have a FG tutorial video to complete. That may be coming out this week as i have almost all of it done.
I am also launching a patreon page, and as part of the promotion for that I was planning on running a few adventures for those who support the channel. :). Thanks for the fine words!
@@captcorajus I will Patreon you, I would be happy knowing we can give something back, I know these vids take a lot of effort to make.
Great timing! I'm planning on running this next month. I also was planning to drop it into Ravenloft to tie it into something more familiar to the players.
Yeah, it totally works that way!
@@captcorajus Changing the land to Barovia also allows some back story for you-know-who. There is no explanation on who captured him or why which makes for a dull reveal at the end with no explanation of why it all happened. Since Strahd conquered Barovia there had to be a previous leader or ruling party of that land...
@@ThePaintingClinic and Captcorajus Having seen two of my favorite UA-camrs conversing I can now die a happy old man.
@@olschoolgamer1869 Can I have your gaming stuff?
@Doctor Faust's Painting Clinic I am sorry Doctor, my gaming stuff is the only inheritance my daughter will get.
This and the original Ravenloft were by far my favorite modules. Nothing was even close. Such great memories of playing this in a very long marathon session. We just couldn't stop lol
Our group went through this module when it first came out. Of all the modules I’ve played, the events of this one are the most seared in my brain, these forty years later. This module was truly teleporting for my young mind.
Awesome review. I inherited a copy. Will check into it now. Great work.
I played first , then DM'd a number of parties through this module in the early 80's. Ot played wonderfully each time and very differently too, in humorous ways. I sent Tom Moldvay an email many years ago thanking him for his genius - only to find out that he'd died a few years before. Was sad.
nice work as usual Capt. I really liked that you featured all the art in the module. thanks again!
First module I ever played through fully back in the Summer of 82, listening to Steve Miller and Dexy's on the radio. This and White Plume Mountain hold special memories. Fun times.
Of the Big 3, CAS is my favorite, which is something to me because Howard's Conan stories are also practically right up there for me. Sometimes they trade spots, depends on whether I want blood and guts, or psychedelic creepiness.
Good Review! This is an amazing (and under rated) module. Well ahead of its time. Lots of great memories as both player and DM.
This is one of my favourite modules of all time. So many interesting ideas. I agree with your rating 19/20
This was one of the first adventures I did, it was so fun! I remember playing it when I was 13.
Great review! As a purchase/play follow-up the adventure is now available from Goodman Games as part of their Original Adventures Reincarnated series.
This was one of our favorites back in the day. Probably ran or played this module more than any other. For players hitting Expert levels, I always found this a much more fun and flavorful than "Isle of Dread". This followed up with "Drums of Firetop Mountain" and "Saga of the Shadow Lord" or possibly from "Master of the Desert Nomads" got us through Expert and into Companions modules. Fun stuff. Loving all these original D&D BECMI module reviews. Keep it up.
Thank you for the shout out! A great review!
This is why I love this channel ♥ iv never read this module but hearing it in this review makes me nostalgic for some reason ☺ another great review I'm going to pick this one up for a read and try use elements of it in my game. Thanks ☺
Excellent review.
I am looking forward to more reviews, especially anything set in the BECMI rules.
On your review of the Rules Cyclopedia I purchased the book and really enjoy this version of D&D over the later versions. While it has its clunk it has a feeling of fantasy that seems more pure, in my opinion, then later sets of rules.
You can tell the devs of the first Castlevaina games were fans of castle Amber and Ravenloft.
If I remember right this was a great module to run and play, had a lot of fun with it years ago
Thanks SO much for this review. I've had Castle Amber since it came out in 1981, but never played or ran it.
Your refreshing take on the module has inspired me to give it another look. Your suggestion of incorporating it into a Ravenloft campaign is brilliant!
Thank you for the great review Capt!
I did run the game a while back setting up the mansion and Averoigne as Ravenloft realms (Averoigne originating from Gothic Earth with the realm properties of Gothic Earth) adding in encounters with ettercaps, werefolves, and a corpse collector that was working for the BBG necromancer that was making the colossus
Glad you mentioned the influence of Ashton Smith. Have you looked into the Jack Vance on your channel?
YES!!! I loved this adventure when it first came out both as a player and a DM. Classic stuff! I am really glad you did this one. :)
I always love your videos of retro reviews! Definitely fancy trying this module!
I get so excited about the next video you release and this was wonderful.
I remember this one enough to remember it. I know me and my friends had a darned good time doing it.
This was the first module I ever purchased back in 1982 when I was 12. I didn't know anything about the module when I made the purchase other than what was on the cover and back. It was definitely outside of the box, even for D&D. In the end, it stands the test of time and is one of the all-time greats.
Along with Ravenloft, these were my most hated and most loved adventures. Escaping from them gave me the biggest hurrah.
Good review. One of my favorite modules. I have used it for several games and groups
In my current campaign I use a mist mechanic. I use it to transport characters to exotic locals for episodic games. It also allows me to make my game more of a point crawl than a hex crawl. The closed bottle nature of this adventure will work well with my campaign. I think I have a PDF copy but if not I will certainly pick one up.
I FINALLY played through this adventure only a few months back. I was a player for this one and we had a fantastic time. My DM also spiced things up with a few of his own ideas, as many do. ;-)
Absolutely. There are the seeds to many great ideas, but really its the DMs who run it that make it great in our minds when we look back years later.
I played this as a player character back in the early 80's, all I remember is that it was one hell of a puzzle getting out of that place! I'm pretty sure my 13th level fighter got both arms ripped from the sockets, or was that G1, sucks getting old. I still have an original copy of this in a storage bin somewhere. Thank you for the nostalgia.
I remember see this in the 80s, but I judged the book by its cover, assuming it would something about defending a castle from giants and thus just be fighting a series of giants -- so I went for Master of the Desert Nomads instead.
This was a flawed, but great module. Pertaining to your comment about it belonging in Ravenloft, I ran a campaign where I did indeed put it within the Ravenloft realm. I changed the area to medieval southern France, near the Italian border, renaming the city of Barovia to Burgoyne. Traveling by sea, the PCs landed at Marseilles, than first encountered the castle on the western side of the entrapped realm within the fog. They used the castle as a base of operations after traveling first through Burgoyne and were able to use some of the Amber family as allies (the family being old noble rivals of the count) after dealing with the 'problem' members. It totally threw the PCs off when they visited the Castle, as they were all aware of the Ravenloft setting and the fog immediately made them think of it, than the city name and (non-vampiric) castle sort of messed with their minds. It was a younger group which wasn't familiar with Castle Amber. :)
By the way, have you by chance read Roger Zelazny's 'Chronicles of Amber' series? I stumbled on it while digging into the background and found it intriguing, albeit a bit strange and long.
Update: Goodman games has made a reprint/5e update and expansion of this classic module for around 40 bucks. Its a hardcover too! I've seen their print in person and it was staggering in thickness. You imagine it's going to be this thin book, but no, its a heavy tome indeed! Just throwing it out there for those interested :) they're doing others too, castle amber is #5 in their series. Although I haven't read through it myself, I plan on picking up all their books :D *excitement builds*
(squeal of delight!) Finally you've reviewed my favorite module.
Thanks for the kind words! Glad you enjoyed!!
thank you for make this GREAT
Yes, I'd love to hear more about the 2e Mystara releases in general. Do they add to the Gazzetters in a useful way?
Thanks for the videos!
Thanks! I was hoping to find some reviews on Dungeon Magazine's top 30.
Look at my back catalog of videos, I've done quite a few from Dungeon Mag's Top 30! :)
I'm getting to be big fan of your channel. I watch whenever youtube suggests your videos.
Thank you for the kind words!!
I think nice way to teleport the players is to have them get lost in the mist and the mist fades leaving them at the castle front doors but if they try to go back into the mist is when it's now poisonous.
Hey Capt. always enjoy your old school reviews. I had this adventure, i remember you had to get a magic arrow and shot the giant with this one arrow and it would put him to sleep. Nobody wanted to go after the giant they just wanted the arrow. I know from other YT when you hit 5k subs you made it. Your channel will start to grow on its own now. I knew it would happen you & your channel are just to cool, not to get noticed. Thanks again Captain & have a great day.
Thank you so much for the kind words!!
Never considered CA and Ravenloft could exist side by side. I like your mailable approach modules.
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I'm wanting to run a bunch of these old modules for my D&D 5e group since many have the CMT conversions. I'm thinking of starting with Reptile God, then going into Amber, and basically running the players through levels 1 to 20 as the same set of characters. Not sure what to do after Amber though. I'm a newer DM but these modules sound really neat.
Reptile God into Amber into White Plume Mountain maybe?
What did you come up with?
CAS was not in Appendix N. He is in the list of books at the back of the Moldvay Basic rulebook, but Gygax didn't include him in his list for some reason.
No mention of Roger Zelazny and his Chronicles of Amber?
FINALY I RUN THIS ADDVENTURE IN MY CAMPAIN XD I ADORE THIS CHANNEL
Thanks you so much for the kind words!!
Could you please do a review on the old AD&D Battle System. If anybody can do it justice, it would be you!
True story. I have Hordes of Dragonspear Castle, but it basically doesn't do me any good without the Battle System, which I've never played, owned, or known anybody who had.
@@stephenclements6158 Exactly! It's a hard system to learn, but worth knowing. I think because of the complexity of the system not alot of people jumped on it.
I actually preferred Battlesystem over Warhammer, if you can believe that. Unfortunately, it felt a bit... unfinished. But I liked how deadly battles were. Unlike in Warhammer, where 8 humans fighting 8 goblins would kill maybe one per turn.
Even cooler -- a comparison of the AD&D Battle System with the D&D Warmachine from BECMI (with which I am more familiar, but guess they are comparable).
Lol I just unliked this video, purely so I could like it all over again. This is by far my favorite D&D module!!!
This is one of my favorite modules!
please start a campaign on roll20 or discord for the winter . lets play.
burn the tapestries and break my curse still sounds cool !
Another great review, thanks.
Hi Cap. I was wondering is you would consider doing a review of those 4 books of magic items? I cant remember their titles but they were green,blue,brown and red in color and had e very magic item in D&D in them.I love watching the video's you do,it really takes me back to 1980 when I first started playing D&D at age 12.
You're talking about Encyclopedia Magica. Its a 4 volume set, totaling 1500 pages on every magic item published from OD&D up until that point in time which was for the 2E D&D game. In addition to a full description of the item, it gave xp value, gp value and listed the product inwhich the item was originally featured.
I remember going into Waldenbooks and drooling over them, but at $25 a piece I could never justify the expense, though NOW that they are collectors items on ebay, I could just kick myself for not grabbing them.
Getting PDFs on DMs guild will run ya 10 bucks a piece.. or google. ahem. As far as a video goes, that's hard to say, but it could be fun, i'll have to check out the trivia and see what interesting things i can dig up on it. Until then, I hope this helps!
Cheers!
@@captcorajus Thank you sir,I appreciate everything you do.Keep up the great work.
Did you ever play Judges Guild adventures? Would love to see your review of Dark Tower and others.
You know, Dark Tower has been on my 'back burner' of reviews for some time. Might have to dust that one off!!
@@captcorajus Yes, that was another amazing adventure! Alot of material and great story with the battle between the forces of Good/Mitra and Evil/Set. I remember my player acquired the White Soul Gem while my teammate acquired the Black Soul Gem. My DM said it was up to us to battle it out and only one would survive! He left it up to us to fight it out. Our characters where both so powerful by then, it took us over 5 hours of actual game time to declare the winner!
Ever since Conan the Barbarian Set has been one of my favorite evil deities. Its the whole snake thing I guess.
Wow, that sounds like an EPIC battle. Very cool! Thanks for sharing!
Tegel Manor
I have the repirnt of that, not the original, but it looks review worthy for sure.
I'm a simple man. I see a captcorajus video and i hit play.
Made my day! I hope he keeps turning them out.
When I got the email about the video, I was looking forward all day to watching it.
A 19! Wow! Could I use this with AD&D instead of OD&D? Or would it be too complicated? thanks for the videos, awesome like always!
Easily usable with AD&D!
ordered!
I've never played this module but your review makes me want to run it! Audio was a little weird on this one.
Weird? How so?
@@captcorajus seemed to he a faint high pitched whine under your voice over, but it could be because I was using my phone to watch this.
how come nobody ever talks about the scale of the castle map? at 10ft per square, every single room is stupidly huge - like multiple thousands of square feet - area #12, the kitchen, is 110ft long by 50ft wide! The ridiculous dimensions really annoy me and i can't take it seriously as a product.
It is massive! lol
Since Ravenloft got mentioned, you might have pointed out that the Temple Amber, and Castle Amber, are different places, and unrelated. People will get confused.
I think my viewers are smart enough to know the difference between a Temple and a Castle my friend. :)
Yaaaas, classic D&D goodness. :) I would like to hear more about the Mystara module, and I felt the Mystara setting for AD&D was overlooked for not being edgey enough and yet too polished for that old school vibe.
On FB I've been in a few conversations with Bruce Heard on his BECMI page, and he was saying that the main reason that they had CDs in the Mystara line was because Lorraine Williams had a family business that produced blank CDs.
HOLY CRAP, REALLY??? That would make so much sense!
I don't have anything against the CDs and have the Night of the Vampire, but it seemed odd to have CDs start turning up.
@@stephenclements6158 I have all the CD adventures... Hail the Heroes, Night of the Vampire and Mark of Amber, as well as a Ravenloft adventure. The supplement boxed set adventures were a bit annoying in that they had actors doing the voices for the PCs as well as the NPCs. I really enjoyed running the Hail the Heroes adventure, which only has the voices for the NPCs. The Ravenloft Adventure, that I have, A light in the Belfry, isn't too bad either and my group enjoyed playing it.
@@captcorajus I only played part of Hail the Heroes and never got to run Night of the Vampire, so it's good to hear they're not bad adventures.
What's your opinion on the value of having the CDs as part of the adventures? Did it enhance the atmosphere, did it make everybody wait too long for getting the CD in the right place, was the higher production worth it, etc?
@@stephenclements6158 No, i used a portable CD player 'back in the day' and it wasn't that big of a hassle. For a starting DM they're probably more useful. Personally, I would have been happy to just have the NPC text at hand so i could read it myself. I think rather than having the actors voices what might have been more useful was just the music for a particular scene as well as sound effects. Hal the Heroes does have a nice bunch of sound effects.. slicing blades, and trap sounds were cool, as well as some ghostly sounds as well, definitely add to the atmosphere. If you listen to Halav's theme, it might sound somewhat familiar. ;)
One of the ones that I never owned
yay
About how long does it take to run?
Stephen Hayhurst I’d say that at least 4 or 5 game sessions. And really if the DM extends out the Averigone section it could take months!
I disagree about the Ravenloft commonalities. Anyways, my friends and I are running this module this week coming up! It will be my 3rd or 4th time....I can't wait! I also was early on EBAY and have 2 in their original shrinkwrap! 😁
The mists are only one parallel. There's also the tragic family back story, and gothic feel to the setting that also recalls Ravenloft.
@@captcorajus Yes...now i do think your right about the families tragic backstory and having to flee to Mysteria (was it?). Anyways...i had the guys roll up characters to play this one LAST time! This....is going to be fun!
@@guyfrattallone6029 Awesome. Please report back with results!!
@@captcorajus oh no!! First night and 4 characters died....beware the mushroom soup!! Well...im sure some dark god might give them a second chance!
Okay, it's been driving me nuts. What is the source of the intro music (the midi music, not the music at 0:20)?
Its called "Blue Break" Its one of those UA-cam license free songs for content creators. :)
@@captcorajus Haha, no not that one. The one at 0:00. :)
Hmm... lol.. that's a 'remix'
@@captcorajus ...of what? I swear I've heard it before.
You could really reflavor this as the Obzedat if you are running ravnica setting
I think I heard or read that Averoigne is pronounced, "Av-er-wee-nuh".
Its French. I did my best. lol
Ave-er-wan-yer There's even a pronunciation guide in the back of the module. I pronounce Les Hiboux as Lazy Boo.
Love the history and the format, but you didn’t talk about what actually lies in the mod... A spoiler warning with no spoils...
You're right, i didn't go into the actual encounters on this one. I showed some maps and talked about the province of averoigne quest.. which IS very much a spoiler. On this particular module, the surprises are so much fun, I didn't want to give too much away.
One hint: That giant on the cover is one of the highest Hit Point monsters of all time!
Yup! lol.. Shhhh.
@@rroberts4135 Wow. It's been 30 years and I never thought to put those two together. I dismissed the giant on the back as generic art.
Kick the circle and i'll do whatever you command. 😀
The Maker of Gargoyles
and The Colossus of Ylourgne
are two of my favourites
Well, I loved this module...but my players had little enthusiasm for it for reasons I never understood. Weirdos.
Weekly basis? Bwahahah!!! yeah right Cap. Maybe monthly.
I agree. I'd love to be able to make more videos, but finding the time ain't easy. :)
@@captcorajus just keepin you honest Cap! 😅
@@Johnny_NitroYou right!! Hey, right now its summertime and I'm a DJ. I have good excuse. However I literally have been writing scripts.. one on City of Brass, one on the new Cthulhu Kickstarter I just got, and the other on the Castles and Crusades Monster & Treasure kickstarter i just got. lol.. so all three of those dropping this week! ha!
@@captcorajus that's great news. Even though I don't like waiting, I still love the videos.
1:00 ... The tree-wielding undead titan on the cover comes from this story by Clark Ashton Smith:
ua-cam.com/video/Mo24v7s9_WU/v-deo.html
I got this module when it first came out. It was definitely different compared to all the other modules of the day but it was fun. The biggest negative you touched upon in the review is that it's easy for a character to be killed.
A quick check of ebay completed auctions shows that this module can be had for less than $30 so shop around. www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=castle+amber&_sacat=2543&rt=nc&LH_Sold=1&LH_Complete=1