Are you sure they meant 2007?
These are the people that didn't know what the 'digital initiative' would look like nearly a year after they told Paizo the license wouldn't be renewed :/
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Snagged chapter 1 of the Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth at 6:30 pm eastern on 10/12. I'm going through it now. My hats off to Ari so far on his twisted take on an old classic. The decision to add taint seems a good one--it turns a what could have been a retread into something dangerous and different. Chapter 1 though stops at the entrance to the Lost Caverns, we'll have to wait until 10/19 to see what the update of them looks like.
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Long ago, Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth gave me some insight into how to make wilderness travel more interesting. Random, small encounters (not simply wandering monsters) made sense in the scheme of things, and you could place them as you see fit.
I was a little disappointed that the encounter setup for Chapter 1 is pretty much a linear trail with a smaller number of encounters compared to S4 (albeit no side trails to move the PC's off the way to the Horn, so the amount they actually encounter will probably be the same in comparison), but, we'll see what the later Chapters hold. Still, in S4 I liked being able to pick the encounters I felt would be more interesting and put them where I want them.
Sometimes I have to remind myself that raising levels in 1e and 2e usually came from finding a lot of treasure. In 3e, putting in the same number of encounters would level them up too much (and probably take forever).
Just finished reading the 1st part of the Lost Caverns. Seems like it'll be pretty good, though I prefer a little more flexibility in the plot. The background info was entertaining, and I like the addition of taint as an added hazard. Especially since Wisdom is a low stat in our parties when the PC isn't a cleric . . .
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Sometimes I have to remind myself that raising levels in 1e and 2e usually came from finding a lot of treasure. In 3e, putting in the same number of encounters would level them up too much (and probably take forever).
Useful house rule: Don't give xp/kill. Give xp/chapter( or act or whatever)
Module expects 4 level 1 characters to kill 13.33 cr1 critters before going to part 2? No problem. When the group is ready for part 2, everyone gets 900-1100 xp. No mess, no fuss. As far as the players need to know, you are adding the xp as they kill anyway.
edit: oops. Thread hijack. Nothing to see, move along.
I liked the whole "wandering the mountains looking for the caverns" part in the original. It's a shame they didn't pay more attention to that. Indeed, I like the Taint, and the whole "mysterious weather/occurrences" part. That could explain the reason why once found it doesn't stay found: Some sort of hard to map wierdness...
We'll see how the rest looks.
I have scanned it, only read the introduction in detail.
I admit I am a grumpy old timer.
I liked the old search for hidden caverns idea better than the 'hey there's some evil at the end of this trail concept' I think the idea of tainted areas and taint genarally is interesting
Is "Tsjocanth is a half fiend son of Frazz urblu" old or something invented for this module? I gotta say I dont remember it or like it- it seems like a copy of Iuz'z background thus unimaginative. Plus what is wrong with the idea that there actually was an ancient GOOD wizard in the dim distant past (they did exist didn't they?)who guarded an extra planar evil nexus and whose knowledge and the evil nexus was later found and exploited by a Iggwilv. To mine that was a much better story start.
I guess this is partially because I have my own Tsjocanth history that doesnt rely on any 'it was all a trick'--perhaps I should post on a greyhawk forum.