Hey all, I just wanted to say that the latest addition to Savage Tide was an excellent read. Reminded me of classic D&D goodness such as 'Dwellers of the Forbidden City' and 'Descent into the Depths of the Earth'. I really enjoyed how the theme of burrowing further and further underground, a D&D staple, was joined with the new notions of craziness from the Far Realm and the Elder Evils.
So far, the Savage Tide has been full of settings and encounters which are both vivid and cinematic. Great job all around, I couldn't be happier about my subscription.
On a side-note, I would love to see, whether in the magazine or on-line, the work-ups Wayne Reynolds was commissioned to do for all the Dungeon iconics. He's an amazing artist and I'm eager to get a hold of anything he's done!
Hey all, I just wanted to say that the latest addition to Savage Tide was an excellent read. Reminded me of classic D&D goodness such as 'Dwellers of the Forbidden City' and 'Descent into the Depths of the Earth'. I really enjoyed how the theme of burrowing further and further underground, a D&D staple, was joined with the new notions of craziness from the Far Realm and the Elder Evils.
So far, the Savage Tide has been full of settings and encounters which are both vivid and cinematic. Great job all around, I couldn't be happier about my subscription.
On a side-note, I would love to see, whether in the magazine or on-line, the work-ups Wayne Reynolds was commissioned to do for all the Dungeon iconics. He's an amazing artist and I'm eager to get a hold of anything he's done!
Agreed on all points.
What I like in Savage Tide is that all adventures have a different feeling, it's not repetitive, not some simple dungeon crawl. Lot of variety too. That's really great. Certainly the best adventures I read since a while.And as for Wayne Reynolds, I want an art book with all his artwork ! This guy a genius.
(and I want one of Sam Wood too !)
Yeah, each scenario in STAP is better than the last (and I really liked TINH), and this one is no exception. Golismorga is exceptionally creepy. Well done!
One thing DMs should be aware of, when they run this, is that directions on maps and in the text seem to be reversed -- e.g. a passage is described as "west", but it's located east on the map. (This happened in area 1 in Kraken's Cove in Bullywug Gambit, too.) Nothing significant, but you might want to have a pen handy when you read through the scenario to correct the few you run across.
Agreed - this is by far my favorite adventure in the path! Golismorga is awesome. The art is great. I love the 3D view of the isle. And the monsters... The praise just goes on and on.
Forget the abyss, I wish we could stay down here.
I agree that the path is speeding along nicely, but I have one concern:
There were a bunch of areas for which there were no maps in this issue. Was this due to space? I'd like to have maps of all the encounter areas under the Isle of Dread.. Perhaps in the web suppliment/enhancement?
One thing DMs should be aware of, when they run this, is that directions on maps and in the text seem to be reversed -- e.g. a passage is described as "west", but it's located east on the map.
I noticed something amiss when I was reading thru and referencing the maps too. It makes you think that you're getting something wrong if this is indeed a map issue.
I noticed something amiss when I was reading thru and referencing the maps too. It makes you think that you're getting something wrong if this is indeed a map issue.
One thing DMs should be aware of, when they run this, is that directions on maps and in the text seem to be reversed -- e.g. a passage is described as "west", but it's located east on the map.
In the two cases I remember, I think I chose to believe the map rather than the text. (Something to do with comparing north on the tactical map with the overall structure of the Isle of Dread underdark, which goes roughly north-is-up to south-is-down.)
Creative Director
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More of an issue of price. There's a LOT of maps in "The Lightless Depths" and we pretty much had to pick and choose what areas to pay for maps. A couple of the choices may have ended up being the wrong ones (we probably didn't need a map of Area C, for example), but the areas that don't have maps should be easy to make up since they're basically just single caverns. You can even use cave maps from other issues.
As for the compass rose thing, let that be a lesson to all of our writers: if at all possible, you should ALWAYS have your compass rose pointing up to North. When we get maps back from our cartographers, they generally assume that north = top. In some cases we can get that fixed, and in others we can fix the text, but when you have a lot of maps in an adventure that have directions pointing all over the place, changing from map to map, it's guarenteed some'll slip through.
Alternately, if I finish my magic time-stop hourglass, we'll be able to get a couple more editorial passes in on the adventures which'll also help... ;-)
Alternately, if I finish my magic time-stop hourglass, we'll be able to get a couple more editorial passes in on the adventures which'll also help... ;-)
(On which note -- this is intended entirely constructively! -- I saw more mistakes that slipped through editing in this scenario than the other ones in the STAP. Nothing major, just a bit of grammar, a couple typos, and the north/south thing. You might want to make a mental note to give this one an extra going-over when Wizards approves the big ol' STAP hardcover.)
(Oh, wait -- was this issue put together during the Great Snowstorms and Power Outages of '06-'07?)
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