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| "Night of the Walking Wet" at DunDraCon |
Here is my "official" dungeon entry to run at DunDraCon #42 over President's Day weekend in 2018. The adventure is 40 years old, from an D&D fan 'zine "The Dungeoneer" back in 1977 that I updated to my particular flavor of modern, D20 rules.
The challenge is trying to find the sweet-spot for player character's level.
I've seen this recommended as written for OD&D (or "reloaded" for AD&D) at 6th-7th level parties, but I have found that the d20 editions (3, 3.5, 5) characters tend to run a little hotter in terms of damage per round. I wanted to set the level at 4th also because folks invariably bring in some PC slightly higher level than requested.
In the end as I was going through the encounters, I thought, "What the heck," gave the PC's a bit of a higher margin at 5th level. The main difference being how often the party has an opportunity to rest up. (Heh, heh, heh...)
This also seems to be the year of the "Walking Wet" as North Texas RPG Association for 2017 published a special "Dungeoneer Revisited" version of the adventure with a new forward by the author, Jennell Jaquays, to raise money to cover some health expenses for one of that convention's co-founders.
By the way, Jennell authored for Judges Guild two of the most iconic third party stand-alone D&D modules, Dark Tower and Caverns of Thracia. Her environments were intriguing to me as they often involved 3-dimensional interactions between encounter areas rather the typical strung-together, isolated flat pancake levels, one on top of the other and of denizens ne'er the twain shall meet.
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| Dark Tower, dungeon side view... |
In Dark Tower, only the tops of the opposed temples presented at the surface. Adventuring was down through one and up through the other. Night of the Walking Wet also utilizes interesting vertical setting.
My long-running 1979-80 paladin, Lord Richard the Saintly, cavorted around in artifacts from Dark Tower's Temple of Mitra: Mitra's Eye (an amulet), Mitra's Favor (ring), Girding of Mitra (belt), and The Heart of Law (magical glowing gem)...
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| Lord Richard the Saintly |
Ok, so if you're at DunDraCon February 16 and 17, 2018 look me up. 😁
I know this is an older post, but stumbling across it old fond memories are brought up.
ReplyDeleteI have a new 5th ed group of mostly power gamers who are unfamiliar with judges guild and I’m thinking of hitting them with either Wet or Dark Tower, updated for 5 ed.
Excellent! I am really partial to Night of the Walking Wet, probably because the scenario is a little more spread out. Basically, Walking Wet is good for mid-level characters, if I remember correctly Dark Tower is higher level, like 7th+, so that should help inform your choice. Dark Tower is a really good power gamer dungeon: deadly scenarios, but cool magic treasure! Oh, one other note, if you are considering perhaps a full-on Wilderland's campaign - Walking Wet is not directly set in the Wilderlands, rather it's kind of this little sub-region detailed in the Dungeoneer Compendium Issues 1-4. Dark Tower also doesn't have an explicit Wilderlands location, but it is easy to drop anywhere in some valley in a high mountain range. In our game it is in the Majestic Mountains about 20 miles southwest of Thunderhold.
ReplyDeleteWould NotWW work with a group of 4 5th and 6th level characters. Smaller group, so it shouldn't be too bad? Using 1e? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteSure thing, 5th-6th is just about right. The party might have to cut and run, or be strategic at times. There is a reprint of the 1e version (really OD&D using supplements I-III Greyhawk, Blackmoor, ELdritch Wizardry, so kind of between straight OD&D and 1e) that has cleaned up maps and text. However, I can't find a PDF for sale and an original hard copy is going for $75(!) at Noble Knight (https://www.nobleknight.com/P/2147937615/Dungeoneer-Revisited-The).
DeleteAt one point I had found a post with reformatted map versions by the person ("Kent"?) who re-drew the maps, but I cannot seem to locate them. It might be worth further search although the original maps are playable, just small print.
Luckily I have those PDFs! :) Thanks for your help, hope all is well and happy holidays.
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