Dwellers of the Forbidden City

Last updated

Dwellers of the Forbidden City
Dwellers of the Forbidden City.jpeg
The cover of Dwellers of the Forbidden City, with art by Erol Otus. The artwork depicts a battle between bullywugs (left) and player characters.
CodeI1
TSR product code9046
Rules requiredAdvanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st edition
Character levels4-7
Campaign setting Greyhawk
Authors David Cook
First published1981
Pages28 [1]
ISBN 0-935696-33-4
Linked modules
I1, I2, I3, I4, I5, I6, I7, I8, I9, I10, I11, I12, I13, I14

Dwellers of the Forbidden City is an adventure module, or pre-packaged adventure booklet, ready for use by Dungeon Masters in the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy role-playing game. The adventure was first used as a module for tournament play at the 1980 Origins Game Fair, and was later published by TSR in 1981 for use with the first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules. The module was written by game designer David "Zeb" Cook, who partly ascribes his hiring by TSR to his work on this module. In the adventure, the characters are hired to recover a stolen object from a hidden oriental-style city ruled by a snake-worshipping cult of yuan-ti and their mongrelmen and tasloi servants. [2]

Contents

The module was ranked as the 13th greatest Dungeons & Dragons adventure of all time by Dungeon magazine for the 30th anniversary of the Dungeons & Dragons game in 2004.

Plot summary

The adventure begins when the player characters hear reports of bandits waylaying and attacking caravans in a jungle region. Most of the ambushed merchants and guards have been killed, but the few who have returned alive tell fantastic stories about deformed plants and deadly beasts in the jungle. The stolen goods taken from the caravans provide an impetus for the characters to enter the jungles in search of this lost treasure.

After a long and perilous journey, the player characters encounter some friendly native people and are invited to stay in their village. The characters learn from the village's chief about the dangers of creatures called the yuan-ti and their servants, the tasloi, and that these creatures recently kidnapped the chief's son, taking him into the jungle. The chief and village shaman tell the player characters about a "forbidden city" in the jungle which they believe houses the ghosts of the enemies they have killed, and they supply the characters with guides to show the party the way to this forbidden city.

The adventuring environment in this module allows for both action and intrigue. The player characters can recruit allies from the various power groups and factions within the city, namely the bugbears, mongrelmen, and bullywugs, or else help pit these factions against each other for their own benefit.

Publication history

The adventure was designed by David Cook (pictured in 2016). David "Zeb" Cook - Lucca Comics & Games 2016.jpg
The adventure was designed by David Cook (pictured in 2016).

Dwellers of the Forbidden City was first used in Dungeons & Dragons tournament play at the Origins Game Fair in 1980. [2] [3] [4] The module was published in 1981 by TSR for the first edition of the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules, and consisted of a 32-page booklet with an outer folder. [2] The module was written by David "Zeb" Cook, with cover art by Erol Otus and interior art by James Holloway, Jim Roslof, Harry Quinn, and Stephen D. Sullivan.

Dwellers of the Forbidden City is the first of the mostly unrelated and unconnected Intermediate series (I-series) of modules designed for characters at between 4th and 8th levels. The module was originally intended to bear the code S4, [5] but the code was reassigned to Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth before Dwellers was published. As published, the adventure bears the code I1. It was one of the first adventures written by Cook, and he attributed TSR hiring him after he submitted an early version of the module. [2] Cook would become the lead designer for the second edition of the AD&D rules, which debuted in 1989, and years later, he became the lead designer on the City of Villains MMORPG.

The adventure was instrumental in introducing the yuan-ti as a new species of antagonists. [3] Much like the drow from the Queen of the Spiders Series, the yuan-ti have been featured in a number of 1st, 2nd and 3rd Edition books for the D&D game, and are one of the few species that Wizards of the Coast did not keep open for the Open Game License. [6] The yuan-ti have also been expanded from their introduction in this module to other game worlds, in particular the Forgotten Realms campaign setting. [7] [8] Other new monsters introduced to the game through this module include the aboleth, mongrelman, tasloi, and yellow musk creeper. [9]

The module was set in the World of Greyhawk campaign setting, and was later used to add detail to the continent of Hepmonaland in Greyhawk supplements. [10] In the Greyhawk accessory The Scarlet Brotherhood , by Sean K. Reynolds, the Forbidden City was named Xuxulieto, and the mountains wherein it lies are called the Xaro Mountains.

Reception

While Different Worlds described it as "a good buy", [11] RPGnet gave it a slightly more favorable rating of nearly 6.8 ("Good"). [12] Latter day D&D writer James Wyatt described it as the first "Super adventure", and lamented that with another hundred pages of fleshing out, it could have been as memorable as the landmark Temple of Elemental Evil . [9]

Gerry Klug reviewed The Dwellers of the Forbidden City in Ares Magazine #12 and commented that "TSR has set a standard in the FRP-ing community which the rest try to keep up with. If Dwellers of the Forbidden City is any indication of what is coming, they may not live up to their own standards. E. Gary Gygax, where are you? " [13]

Jim Bambra of White Dwarf reviewed the adventure in the magazine's "Open Box" feature and gave it an overall rating of 5 out of 10, commenting that while presentation of the module was quite good (8/10), it seemed to be "hastily thrown together". [14] Bambra gave the adventure playability and enjoyment ratings of 5/10, and skill and complexity ratings of 6/10. He felt the adventure was "very mundane" and "lacks any real cohesion". Bambra noted that parts of the adventure were created for tournament play. The tournament section deals with getting into the city, and he felt the rest of the module seemed to be tacked on to that. He did like the mini-campaign included in the adventure, and the ideas included on how to expand on it. However, he felt that any Dungeon Master who used Dwellers of the Forbidden City would have to expend so much effort to make it more than "just a series of encounters," that they were better off "starting from scratch". [14] Bambra concluded that this adventure was "just not worth considering" with all the other better quality modules available from TSR. [14]

Dwellers of the Forbidden City was ranked the 13th greatest Dungeons & Dragons adventure of all time by Dungeon magazine for the 30th anniversary of the Dungeons & Dragons game in 2004. Judge Eric L. Boyd described it as a "classic adventure" in which Cook created a "lost city jungle in the great tradition of Edgar Rice Burroughs". The players "battle their way into the city through a labyrinth of traps and monsters or find their own way into the sprawling, jungle-cloaked ruins... Cook provides a host of backgrounds to motivate exploration of the city, but the map itself is motivation enough." Judge Wolfgang Baur, editor of Dungeon magazine, described the adventures thus: "This adventure may be best remembered for its monstersit was from Forbidden City that D&D gained the Aboleth, the mongrel-man, the tasloi, and the yuan-ti. The aboleth that guarded one of the entrances to the city was worshipped by the local mongrelmen as a god." [15]

Commenting on Dwellers of the Forbidden City in Black Gate , James Maliszewski said "It's a module that really can be used to good effect in multiple ways, a lesson I took to heart in my own adventures, even if I often failed to succeed as well as Cook did here." [16]

See also

Related Research Articles

Greyhawk, also known as the World of Greyhawk, is a fictional world designed as a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game. Although not the first campaign world developed for Dungeons & Dragons—Dave Arneson's Blackmoor campaign predated it by about a year—the world of Greyhawk closely identified with early development of the game beginning in 1972, and after being published it remained associated with Dungeons & Dragons publications until 2008. The world itself started as a simple dungeon under a castle designed by Gary Gygax for the amusement of his children and friends, but it was rapidly expanded to include not only a complex multi-layered dungeon environment, but also the nearby city of Greyhawk, and eventually an entire world. In addition to the campaign world, which was published in several editions over twenty years, Greyhawk was also used as the setting for many adventures published in support of the game, as well as for RPGA's massively shared Living Greyhawk campaign from 2000 to 2008.

The Underdark is a fictional setting which has appeared in Dungeons & Dragons role-playing campaigns and Dungeons & Dragons-based fiction books, including the Legend of Drizzt series by R. A. Salvatore. It is described as a vast subterranean network of interconnected caverns and tunnels, stretching beneath entire continents and forming an underworld for surface settings. Polygon called it "one of D&D's most well-known realms".

<i>Dungeonland</i> Dungeons & Dragons adventure module

Dungeonland (EX1) is a 1983 adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) roleplaying game, written by Gary Gygax for use with the First Edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) rules. It is an adaptation of Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, with the various characters from the book translated into AD&D terms.

<i>Oriental Adventures</i> 1985 fantasy role-playing game

Oriental Adventures is the title shared by two hardback rulebooks published for different versions of the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy roleplaying game. Each version of Oriental Adventures provides rules for adapting its respective version of D&D for use in campaign settings based on the Far East, rather than the medieval European setting assumed by most D&D books. Both versions of Oriental Adventures include example campaign settings.

<i>Greyhawk Adventures</i> 1988 sourcebook by Jim Ward

Greyhawk Adventures is an accessory for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) World of Greyhawk campaign setting.

<i>Scourge of the Slave Lords</i> Dungeons & Dragons adventure module

Scourge of the Slave Lords (A1–4) is an adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, published by TSR, Inc. in 1986. It combines the contents of four earlier modules, all set in the World of Greyhawk campaign setting and intended for use with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition rules.

<i>Against the Giants</i> Role-playing game adventure by Gary Gygax

Against the Giants is an adventure module written by Gary Gygax and published by TSR in 1981 for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. It combines the G series of modules previously published in 1978: Steading of the Hill Giant Chief, Glacial Rift of the Frost Giant Jarl, and Hall of the Fire Giant King. All three were produced for use with the 1st edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules. In 1999, to recognize the 25th anniversary of TSR, the company released an updated version, Against the Giants: The Liberation of Geoff. Later in 1999, Wizards of the Coast published a novelization of Against the Giants by Ru Emerson.

Dwarf (<i>Dungeons & Dragons</i>) Fictional playable humanoid race

A dwarf, in the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy roleplaying game, is a humanoid race, one of the primary races available for player characters. The idea for the D&D dwarf comes from the dwarves of European mythologies and J. R. R. Tolkien's novel The Lord of the Rings (1954–1955), and has been used in D&D and its predecessor Chainmail since the early 1970s. Variations from the standard dwarf archetype of a short and stout demihuman are commonly called subraces, of which there are more than a dozen across many different rule sets and campaign settings.

The flexibility of the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) game rules means that Dungeon Masters (DM) are free to create their own fantasy campaign settings. For those who wanted a pre-packaged setting in which to play, TSR, Wizards of the Coast (WotC), and other publishers have created many settings in which D&D games can be based; of these, the Forgotten Realms, an epic fantasy world, has been one of the most successful and critically acclaimed settings. Many campaign settings include standard sword and sorcery environments, while others borrow Asian, Central American, swashbuckling, horror and even space-travel themes.

<i>The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan</i> Dungeons & Dragons adventure module

The Hidden Shrine of Tamoachan is an adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy role-playing game, set in the World of Greyhawk campaign setting for use with the 1st edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules. It is the first in the C-series of modules, a set of unrelated adventures originally designed for competitive play, with the C representing the first letter in the word competition. It is the first D&D adventure to use boxed, "read aloud" text.

In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy roleplaying game, Tharizdun is the god of Eternal Darkness, Decay, Entropy, Malign Knowledge, Insanity, and Cold. He originated in the World of Greyhawk campaign setting but has since also appeared in other settings.

<i>White Plume Mountain</i> Role-playing game adventure

White Plume Mountain is an adventure module for the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, written by Lawrence Schick and published by TSR in 1979. The 16-page adventure bears the code "S2". The adventure is a dungeon crawl where the players' characters are hired to retrieve three "notorious" magical weapons, each possessing its own intelligence. The adventure contains art by Erol Otus, and a cover by Jeff Dee. A sequel, Return to White Plume Mountain, was published in 1999, and an updated version conforming to v3.5 rules was released online in 2005. The original was again updated for the 5th edition in 2017 as the fourth part of Tales from the Yawning Portal.

<i>The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun</i> Dungeons & Dragons adventure module

The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun is an adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) role-playing game, for use in the World of Greyhawk campaign setting. The module was published by TSR, Inc. in 1982 for the first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules.

<i>Isle of the Ape</i> Dungeons & Dragons adventure module

Isle of the Ape is an adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game World of Greyhawk campaign setting, in which the events occur in a magical demiplane of the same name created by the mad archmage Zagyg Yragerne.

Giant (<i>Dungeons & Dragons</i>) Large humanoid creature in "Dungeons & Dragons"

In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, giants are a collection of very large humanoid creatures based on giants of legend, or in third edition, a "creature type".

<i>The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth</i> Role-playing game adventure

The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth is an adventure module for the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. It was written by Gary Gygax and published by TSR in 1982 for the first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) rules. The 64-page adventure bears the code "S4" and is set in the Greyhawk campaign setting. It is divided into two parts, a 32-page adventure, and a 32-page booklet of monsters and magic items. The plot involves the player characters investigating rumors of lost treasure. After traversing a wilderness and two levels of dungeons, the players face Drelnza, the vampiric daughter of long-deceased archmage Iggwilv.

Vampire (<i>Dungeons & Dragons</i>) Fictional monster from Dungeons & Dragons

In the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game, a vampire is an undead creature. A humanoid or monstrous humanoid creature can become a vampire, and looks as it did in life, with pale skin, haunting red eyes, and a feral cast to its features. A new vampire is created when another vampire drains the life out of a living creature. Its depiction is related to those in the 1930s and 1940s Hollywood Dracula and monster movies. In writing vampires into the game, as with other creatures arising in folklore, the authors had to consider what elements arising in more recent popular culture should be incorporated into their description and characteristics.

<i>The Isle of Dread</i> Dungeons & Dragons adventure

The Isle of Dread is an adventure for the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game. The adventure, module code X1, was originally published in 1981. Written by David "Zeb" Cook and Tom Moldvay, it is among the most widely circulated of all Dungeons & Dragons adventures due to its inclusion as part of the D&D Expert Set. In the adventure, the player characters arrive on the Isle of Dread seeking a lost treasure, and there encounter new nonhuman races.

Tritons are a fictional species in the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game.

<i>Desert of Desolation</i> Dungeons & Dragons adventure module

Desert of Desolation is a compilation adventure module published by TSR for the Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) fantasy roleplaying game. It combines three previously published individual modules: Pharaoh, Oasis of the White Palm, and Lost Tomb of Martek. The modules were made for use with the first edition Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D) rules. Pharaoh was created by Tracy and Laura Hickman soon after the couple married in 1977, and published by TSR in 1982. Oasis of the White Palm was a collaboration between Tracy Hickman and Philip Meyers, and Hickman wrote the Lost Tomb of Martek on his own; both were printed in 1983.

References

  1. "Dwellers of the Forbidden City". Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Archive. TSR Archive. Archived from the original on July 23, 2011. Retrieved April 24, 2011.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Schick, Lawrence (1991). Heroic Worlds: A History and Guide to Role-Playing Games. Buffalo, New York: Prometheus Books. p. 101. ISBN   0-87975-653-5.
  3. 1 2 Decker, Jesse; Noonan, David. "Monsters with Traction, Part 2". Wizards of the Coast. Archived from the original on January 27, 2006. Retrieved 2007-12-18.
  4. "Intermediate Series (I1 - I14)". Acaeum D&D Index. Retrieved 2007-12-21.
  5. "D&D Clones". White Dwarf . 24. April–May 1981.
  6. "Frequently Asked Questions". D20srd.org. Retrieved 2007-02-23.
  7. Wyatt, James; Heinsoo, Rob (2001). Monstrous Compendium: Monsters of Faerûn . Wizards of the Coast. ISBN   0-7869-1832-2.
  8. Greenwood, Ed; Boyd, Eric L.; Drader, Darrin (2004). Serpent Kingdoms . Wizards of the Coast. ISBN   0-7869-3277-5.
  9. 1 2 Wyatt, James (2008). Dungeon Masters Guide (4th ed.). Wizards of the Coast. p. 138.
  10. Holian, Gary; Mona, Erik; Reynolds, Sean K; Weining, Frederick (2000). Living Greyhawk Gazetteer . Wizards of the Coast. ISBN   0-7869-1743-1.
  11. "Dwellers of the Forbidden City". Different Worlds . 16: 39–40. November 1981.
  12. "I1: Dwellers of the Forbidden City". RPGnet . Retrieved 2007-12-21.
  13. Klug, Gerry (January 1982). "RP Gaming". Ares Magazine (12). Simulations Publications, Inc.: 31–32.
  14. 1 2 3 Bambra, Jim (April 1983). "Open Box - Dwellers of the Forbidden City Review". White Dwarf . 40.
  15. Mona, Erik; Jacobs, James; Dungeon Design Panel (November 2004). "The 30 Greatest D&D Adventures of All Time". Dungeon . 116. Paizo Publishing.
  16. "Four Modules – Black Gate". 13 May 2014.